On January 8, the first female (liberal) First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, imposed a lockdown in Scotland to address the Wuhan Flu (CV19). Citizens were under a stay-at-home rule with shops and hotels closed down. These new lockdown rules also made it a criminal offence to hold church services in Scotland.
Under those lockdown rules, churches are only allowed to open for funerals, or marriage ceremonies. Only five people are allowed to attend weddings, while up to 30 may attend a funeral. The lockdown was accompanied by criminal sanctions against anyone who violated it. Believers who met for worship in accordance with their religion, could be fined up to £10,000—the usual leftist approach of picking at a scab until it is healed.
A legal challenge to the church ban was brought by ministers from the Free Church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland and other independent churches in Scotland.
In a statement, the church leaders said Sturgeon's rules were the first attempt to close Scottish churches since the 'persecution of the Presbyterian church, instituted by the Stuart kings, in the 17th century.'
The case was heard by Judge Lord Braid of the Edinburgh Court. On March 24, Judge Braid ruled that Nicola Sturgeon's criminalisation of worship was unconstitutional, disproportionate and infringed on human rights.
Judge Braind told Edinburgh's Court of Session that 'it was impossible to measure the effect of those restrictions on those who hold religious beliefs.' 'It goes beyond mere loss of companionship and an inability to attend a lunch club,' he told the court. That the regulations against churches were backed by criminal sanctions was also a consideration in his ruling.
The judge concluded that article nine of the European Convention on Human Rights - freedom of thought and religion - had been breached.
Lord Braid said: 'I have concluded the regulations do constitute a disproportionate interference with the article nine right of the petitioners and others.' Wednesday's ruling is the first successful legal case brought against lockdown rules in Britain.
William Philip, senior minister at the Tron Church in Glasgow, was one of those behind the legal challenge and he welcomed the ruling. He said:
'However well-intentioned, criminalising corporate worship has been both damaging and dangerous for Scotland, and must never happen again.'
Numerous ministers in Scotland were also overjoyed at the ruling, saying that the spiritual needs of society are just as important as physical and material needs, decrying the “disproportionate, unnecessary and now illegal blanket ban on public worship.”
How is Nicola Sturgeon responding to the ruling? Continuing the practice of picking at a scab until it is healed, she grudgingly allowed that places of worship will be able to meet with no more than fifty people—IF there is space for physical distancing.
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“Guard your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).