I have a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog about the Blessed are the Peacemakers event at the 4 Corners Festival, ‘On behalf of churches, let me say sorry for the times we said to victims, “you must forgive.”’ – Rev Karen Sutheraman at the 4 Corners Festival.
‘Christian’ Churches, whether institutional or non-institutional, which fail to seek to resolve their denominational differences and antagonisms cannot be identified as ‘Christian’, by any definition of the term, by any objective observer. They perpetuate the religious differences which underlay the sectarian and political differences that bedevil Northern Ireland, and indeed the whole of the UK whose foundation is built on a sectarian form of ‘Christianity’.
Without radical reform they are kidding themselves that they have any part to play in peace-building.
Peace here requires imposition by civil law that outlaws all forms of sectarianism whether institutional or personal. That cannot come about while governance here is by mandatory coalition of two mutually opposed sectarian parties or by one dominant sectarian party, both options perpetuating division. A peaceful non-sectarian rebellion against the present system would appear necessary, or the imposition of a benevolent dictatorship.