Unfortunately, a perception is being fuelled that while Christian Churches are quite happy to fulfil their pastoral requirements when it comes to events marking the traditional Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day each November, but when it comes to making a very public stand for security force veterans who are facing potential legal action, those same churches appear to be unusually quiet.
If the March for Jesus movement can mobilise thousands of people in Belfast on a Saturday, surely the Christian Churches can mobilise their flocks to publicly appear outside courts in support of veterans facing allegations.
Perhaps the various Christian denominations and places of worship need to take a long, hard look beyond the memorial plaques in their churches and ask the question - how many veterans are in their congregations and fellowships, and do they not also deserve pastoral support in a crisis?
Our Troubles veterans must not be allowed to become either the forgotten community, or indeed, the scapegoat community in the legacy debate.
There is a growing perception, especially among the pro-Union community, that Troubles veterans are being ‘thrown under the bus’ politically simply to placate the pan nationalist front.
This perception fuels the notion that the establishment would rather ‘hang out to dry’ politically our Troubles veterans from the security forces rather than go after suspected terrorists who committed some of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century on this geographical island.
Put bluntly, the Christian Churches need to set aside their theological differences on how to get to heaven, women wearing hats to Sunday worship, or what type of musical instruments should be used in praise, and form a united front to put pressure on the British and Irish governments to leave the Troubles veterans alone, and start publicly naming the terrorist suspects - dead or alive - for unsolved atrocities during the conflict.
For example, look at the number of serving and former security forces personnel who were murdered by the republican terror gangs. Given the degree to which the British intelligence community infiltrated the republican gangs, surely there must be a file of suspects somewhere who were known to have participated in terrorist attacks.
Republicans seem very quick to demand inquiries into attacks by the loyalist gangs, or incidents involving the security forces, even when republican terrorists have been caught red-handed in the act of terror and been shot dead by special forces.
Recently, there was a commemoration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tullyvallen Orange Hall massacre on 1st September 1975 when IRA gunmen attacked a meeting of the Tullyvallen lodge near the border with the Irish republic. Five Orangemen died as a result of that attack.
In November 1977, a 22-year-old man was convicted in connection with the Tullyvallen killings. The court heard he had driven the killers to and from the scene. The same man was convicted in connection with the killing of two UDR members. He received seven life sentences and was also jailed for being a member of the IRA and having guns and explosives.
The Tullyvallen massacre is especially poignant for me as it happened on my 16th birthday. In later years, I accompanied my dad, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, a senior Orangeman, when he conducted the annual memorial service for the victims of that episode of ethnic cleansing.
It was very surreal for me personally to sit at the lodge table in the hall and see the bullet marks on the table, knowing that Orange brethren had been wounded or killed whilst sitting there.
So here’s the challenge to all the Christian Churches. Let’s hear a united voice demanding that the British and Irish governments publicly identify the names of the gunmen and those in the command structures of the IRA who sanctioned that attack on Tullyvallen.
There has been much written about the border campaign during the Troubles to ethnically cleanse localities of the pro-Union community by the IRA and INLA. The prominent book, Lost Lives, bears testament to many who died during those years of slaughter.
Many more folk still bear the mental and physical scars of either being wounded or losing loved ones and friends during that border county genocide.
Let’s hear a letter from the leaderships of at least the main Christian Churches on this island calling for the intelligence files on these atrocities to be made public being read out from pulpits across the counties. Families of the victims demand answers; they need to know who is suspected of murdering, maiming, wounding or attacking their loved ones.
Maybe the Churches see this as a pointless exercise as the British and Irish governments will not allow their respective intelligence communities to release such information for fear of revealing just who was working for the security forces, and more importantly, which murders or attacks could have been prevented.
Again put bluntly, how many people needlessly died or were allowed to be killed to protect the identity of alleged spies, agents and informers within the ranks of terror gangs?
But at least the churches need to try; at least the churches need to put down a marker publicly that they care, especially about the Troubles veterans.
Is the silence from churches concerning Troubles veterans because many modern day places of worship have become too ‘woke’ and just want the quiet life, or because they are scared of a vicious backlash on social media?
In the Biblical New Testament, Christ talks about the parable of the Good Samaritan who took action to help the wounded man who had been attacked.
So here’s the challenge for every Christian place of worship on the island of Ireland. Are you going to be like the Good Samaritan and help the Troubles veterans, or be like the religious people in the parable who passed by on the other side and conveniently ignore the pleas of those veterans in need?
Publicly supporting the Troubles veterans is one way the Christian Churches can show they have real meaning in today’s increasingly secular society.
 |
| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
I agree John let's have a proper truth commision and an end to prosecutions. Let the people see all the ugly manipulations, reveal all the agents, and all the underhand deals.
ReplyDelete