They have thrown everything at Kate Forbes. She has been subjected to a secular inquisition marked by triviality and partiality. Journalism is a trade neither teeming with religious believers nor one well-equipped for Biblical exegesis, and it shows.
‘Gotcha’ interrogation has focused on scriptural provisions offensive to progressive attitudes pervasive among journalists (e.g. on homosexuality and fornication) and not other teachings with as much potential bearing on policymaking, such as the iniquities of the rich and powerful or the superior virtue of the poor and meek.
Contemporary norms against judging a professional woman by her husband’s views or actions have been suspended to weaponise the attendance of Alasdair MacLennan, Forbes’s spouse, at a Conservative Party event. One newspaper splashed her photograph with the headline ‘Love not Kate’ and editorialised that she was ‘not fit’ to lead the SNP because of her faith-based views.
A gay Labour MSP accused her of having ‘devalued my marriage’ while the head of the SNP’s LGBTQ+ wing filed a formal complaint against
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