Ye see me ah'm entirely suspicious o religions an ah make nae distinctions, ah mean religions in the literal an mair informal senses, established churches, faiths, maist isms an belief systems... ah say that haein been christened masel, brought up 'in the church', read the Big Bible oan ma granda's knee, the yin wi the great pictures, even voluntarily kept it up in ma teens, flirted wi re-birth, but ah wis essentially brought up as an atheist, Church o Scotland if ye like.. even though ah got mair instruction at school oan the Resurrection than ah ever got oan the Enlightenment, ah knew that at the heart o Protestantism wis a core a Scottish atheism, an it aw sprung fae the Heart o Edinburgh... no the Heart o Midlothian, naw no there, that's another story, but fae somewhere between St Giles' no-quite-a-Cathedral tae John Knox's no-really-a-House, probably, by ma way o thinkin, ah wis aye aware o a winkin eye in the Kirk, a respectful scepticism, an acknowledgement that tho we were singin songs tae a higher power, we aw knew that the real higher power lay up the Bridges, in George Square, that scientific an rational studies were the real way tae the Big Answers tae the Big Questions, but the kirk had its function an aw, it ran oor schools an hospitals, it kept oor hatches matches an dispatches records, it gied them that wanted somewhere tae go oan a Sunday, an in the days afore telly an aw the rest that meant somethin, really... naw it did, really, it wis murder polis borin oan a Sunday...
But these days no sae much, these days the kirks cannae compete, an there's no sae many folk need somewhere tae go oan a Sunday... or else they're no able... mainly that in fact... Naw, these days the auld religions are dyin, an with them the auld truths o wumman wis made fer man an this is the real body an blood o Christ, laudin the pure an castin down the heretics, aw the ritual o ceremonies o namin, o remembrancin, aw the... aye ah'm gaunnae say it, aw the men in frocks pontificatin oan whit should go oan in public places, whit should go oan in folks' private lifes, whit should go oan in folks' heids, whit passes fer acceptable discourse, an whit thinkin wis right-thinkin an whit wis wrong...
Ah'm no standin here an watchin new religions takin the place o auld religions an no sayin anythin. Gender ideology tae me displays aw the signs o a religion, in fact, wi aw the TWAW tenets an 'wrong body' spiritual talk it's auld religion wi barely a slap o lippie oan, it's a poor effort an like a lot o folk ah've dismissed it this past few years as nae mair than that, other folks' lives, no ma concern... but as this past year has worn dreadfully oan we've come tae see the extent o the spread o this religion intae whit ah'm reliably an regularly informed is oor only viable route tae Scottish independence, an THAT maitters tae me. That's why ah look at a party ah've stepped in an oot o fer 40 years an always felt wis 'mine' an ah dinnae like whit ah see, an that's why ah'll keep sayin whit ah see... ah'm entirely suspicious.
