Scottish Broadcaster Wary of Edinburgh's Bible-Ban Plan
by Jim Brown
September 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Christian radio broadcaster in Scotland says Edinburgh University is displaying extreme intolerance for Christianity by planning to ban Bibles from its student residence halls.A university spokesman tells the Times of London the ban is a response to student association protests that the Bibles are a means of discrimination against non-Christians -- and an effort to treat all religious faiths on campus equally. Edinburgh University has had a long-standing practice of placing a Gideons Bible in the room of all new students. Last year, the school banned prayer from graduation ceremonies.
Ian Dunlop is chairman of Scotland's first full-time Christian radio station, Revival FM. He says by its actions, Edinburgh University is discriminating against the Christian faith.
See earlier article on Revival FM
Dunlop says he believes that to ban Bibles because they perhaps in some way might discriminate against students of other faiths "flies in the face of everything that we stand for here in the U.K. as a nation standing for freedom and tolerance."
The Christian broadcaster compares the university's policy to religious intolerance on display four centuries ago.
"I think that's going back, if you don't mind me saying so, to the days of the Pilgrim fathers," notes Dunlop, "when the founders of your great country found themselves being persecuted and having to leave for the New World because of the lack of tolerance of faith in the U.K. at that time."
Scotland's University of Stirling recently dumped its plan to remove 6,000 Bibles from campus after protests from Christian students.
Jim Brown, a regular contributors to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
