Beware of hypocrisy

Sir, – I see the Reverend David Robertson (Courier letters, July 31) continues his obsession with practising prejudice against minority groups in Scotland on the basis of their sexuality.

With the Catholic church continually embarrassed by the global scandal of child sex abuse by its clergy and the cover-up by its cardinals, including in Scotland, Reverend Robertson’s latest tirade comes in the week after the national “established” Protestant Church of England was humiliated at the inquiry into child sex abuse.

No fewer than five archbishops, including a current and former Archbishop of Canterbury, are the subject of ongoing police investigations into the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Anglican church, and it is apparent that high-ranking Christians in the judiciary, public schools, Parliament and police have constantly sided with the church hierarchy rather than the victims.

The Reverend Robertson, however, remains silent on this moral bankruptcy in Christian leadership and instead picks on people trying to make a positive difference to the lives of others struggling in the face of his Christian prejudices.

If the Reverend is keen to help Dundee’s poor, his and other churches could start by paying their full share of tax.

It was reported that the Reverend’s Solas initiative in Dundee secured a rate rebate from the council for its work in training missionaries, for example, while the Churches of Scotland and England between them serve Mammon first and foremost.

The latter has assets in excess of £20 billion including an investment fund alone of £8 billion yet still seeks taxpayer handouts, while the former in 2016 was shown to have around 4,000 ecclesiastical buildings and 12,500 acres of glebe land – originally for the use of ministers – which has a capitalised value of around £515.8 million.

When the churches are quick to condemn the likes of Starbucks and Amazon for not paying their full share of tax, the maxim “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” springs to mind. Alistair McBay. National Secular Society,

5 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh.