Bishop’s Christmas ‘truce’ offers us not hope, but fear

John Keenan should remember that the idea of sacrifice lies at the heart of Christianity, writes Martyn Mclaughlin

There is a reason why so few epidemiologists are seen wearing clip-on dog collars, but if you were in any doubt as to why, John Keenan, the Bishop of Paisley, provided a timely reminder at the weekend.

With the most impor tant date in the Christian calendar fast approaching, an event which could well dovetail with an everincreasing spike in positive Covid-19 cases as winter beckons, he offered up a suggestion of how to secure a “semblance of normalit y” on Christmas Day.

Outlining a plan so fiendishly cunning yet implausible that it would make a cer tain Private Baldrick proud, he proposed a 24-hour lifting of the restrictions on social gatherings and celebrations across S cotland, so that loved ones – denied the solace of another’s company for so long – might be able to gather for one special day.

The Blackadder theme prevailed as Bishop Keenan fleshed out his idea, describing the temporar y hiatus in restrictions as “a break in the war of Covid,” comparable to the pause to fighting on the Western Front in 1914, when British and German troops laid down their guns and met in no man’s land to celebrate Christmas.

It is hard to know where to begin in terms of ar ticulating the absurdit y of this argument. The fact that one of S cotland’s most senior faith leaders should rely on war time evocations? The ethical pitfalls of using simplistic language to compare a virulent disease to a conflict? The inabilit y to understand the meaning of a coronavirus ‘circuit breaker’? The blithe assumption that putting the entire population at increased risk is a price wor th playing simply so we can pull a few crackers and complain about the unremitting awfulness of Mrs Brown’s B oys? There’s plent y to choose from. Take your pick.

Perhaps, though, all of the above are trumped by the fact that the evidential basis for stating that Sars- COV-2 might obser ve the occasional truce is, well, nonexistent. Bishop Keenan may well be a man of faith, but it requires only a rudimentar y understanding of the science to grasp this.

As Dr Nicola Steedman, S cotland’s deput y chief medical officer, has pointed out: “The difficult y with this par ticular amnest y is that our opponent, if you like, hasn’t agreed to it. This is not something that Covid-19 has signed up to.”

Even if Bishop Keenan’s failing was to choose a clumsy analog y, rather than wilfully deny science and critical thinking, that is bad enough.

Whichever way you cut it, he has jeopardised the public health message. That is an insult to his flock, and to ever y family in S cotland which has endured the gravest of losses and been forced to make unimaginable sacrifices these past eight months.

It is inconceivable that he should be incapable of understanding this, though perhaps he could consult those parish priests who have borne witness to the suffering, who have consoled relatives forced to stay at home while their loved ones have been buried; or families who have seen weddings and christenings cancelled; or the parents of newborns denied the embrace of their aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

These are seminal moments in our lives, and for thousands of S cots, Covid-19 has exacerbated