Kirk distances itself from minister who heckled Corbyn
The Church of Scotland has distanced itself from a minister who heckled Jeremy Corbyn outside a campaign event in Glasgow yesterday after questions were raised about comments the churchman had previously made on social media.
The Rev Richard Cameron shouted at the UK Labour leader as he stopped to face the media outside Scotstoun community centre in the west of the city yesterday morning.
Mr Corbyn had stopped to tell reporters about a scarf he was wearing, which had been given to him by representatives of the Who Cares Scotland charity.
But he was he was interrupted by the Rev Cameron, who is based at the nearby Scotstoun Parish Church. The minister shouted: “I thought you’d be wearing your Islamic jihad scarf.”
He added: “Who’s going to be the first terrorist invited to the House of Commons when you’re prime minister?”
After footage of the encounter attracted attention online, Labour pointed to a series of controversial past tweets from Rev Cameron, who posted that “homosexual behaviour is a sin” and “allowing children to change their gender is wicked”.
In September he tweeted:
“Christ has the power to help and change anyone. Obviously many gays hate this because [they] want to carry on in their perversion.”
He also shared a series of controversial views on Islam, describing terrorism as “a problem Islam needs to deal with”, a full face veil as “oppressive and un-british” and the prophet Muhammad as “a violent man”.
Green MSP Ross Greer, a member of the Church of Scotland, tweeted: “Bigoted nonsense directed at Corbyn today doesn’t represent the @churchscotland. The bigoted tweets surfacing certainly don’t. Do I wish the Kirk were robust in rejecting fringe figures like this guy? Yes. We must do so much better to say this isn’t who we are and isn’t acceptable.”
A Church of Scotland spokeswoman said: “There has been significant concern raised today about the comments made by Rev Richard Cameron and his social media use.
“At this stage all we can say is that there is a formal complaints process and that any complaints we receive in relation to this matter will be taken seriously and addressed.
“We do deplore any comments which are Islamophobic or homophobic.
“The Church of Scotland works closely with our Islamic neighbours and the General Assembly has taken a strong position and said formally that we decry homophobia in any form.”
Rev Cameron had also said to Mr Corbyn: “Do you think that the man who is going to be prime minister of this country should be a terrorist sympathiser, Mr Corbyn?”
The Labour leader did not react to Rev Cameron and was ushered into the community centre by Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard.
Rev Cameron then accused Mr Corbyn of “running away”.
The Kirk also rebuked Rev Cameron for the way he approached the situation, saying: “While we may occasionally robustly challenge policy issues with which we disagree, we always intend to do that in a way that is polite.”