Sir, – Fionola Meredith’s caveat that her article (“Religious right peddles myths to control women”, Opinion, August 23rd) is not an attack on Christian faith in its entirety is to be welcomed, as is her recognition that the article could mistakenly be read as an “evil, smouldering broadside against God”.
Thus, having dispatched with undiscriminating stroke “staid” Catholicism, “intensely emotional” evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals who have no ground in doctrine, Northern politicians of the DUP religious stripe, anti-scientific Creationists, and anyone whose Christian perspective attributes greater value to the unborn child than is common in more liberal circles – we are intrigued to know what is left (no pun intended).
I presume that the remaining part of Christianity that is not under attack is that which has to do with the teachings of Jesus – not misjudging and misrepresenting one’s enemies, finding out the facts before we throw a stone, checking our own hearts first for sinful attitudes?
Evangelicalism in Ireland and Britain has a history of many centuries that has little to do with the American right or its politics, and has acted, in its mainstream, against social injustices in the abolition of slavery; in support of the establishment of a trades union movement and the inclusion of women in church leadership; and is substantially coherent with and actively involved in the modern academic and practical sciences. It is a diverse movement which includes those who have supported the civil rights of those with whom they may otherwise disagree (note the largely overlooked support for the civil partnership bill by Evangelical Alliance Ireland).
Many evangelicals in Ireland are not “young earth creationists”, and their reading of the full spectrum of literary forms in the Bible cannot be reduced to the sniffing charge of “literalism”. There is, as usual, a third and commendable way between the extreme poles of intolerant right and left represented in this article, and that third and increasingly attractive way is, I suggest, not as uncommon in Irish evangelicalism and Pentecostalism as the author suggests. – Yours, etc,