Sprinting clear of the disaster area

 Gavin Robinson and Mervyn Gibson were asked the same question on separate occasions in recent days, and both produced the same brisk answer . The question was “Have you been in contact with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson since he was charged?”  Both immediately said “No”. And that was that.

So much for any  concern, let alone loyalty, both men might have felt for Sir Jeffrey a week earlier. I suspect both men were intent on making sure no one saw them as being in any way connected with a man charged with sex crimes. To say they put as much distance as humanly possible between him and them would be no more than the truth.

Just like Jeffrey, both these men are Christians, as far as I know. One of them, Mervyn Gibson, is a clergyman. How odd that both would act so differently from the way we’re told the god-man who founded their religion acted when alive. At every turn, Jesus is shown as moving towards the sinner, offering forgiveness, bringing healing, opening up a new and better life for the outcast.

“But what about the victims?” you cry, horrified. Indeed, what about them. They have suffered horrors, if their words are to be believed. They too are in urgent need of comfort and support. But I haven’t heard anyone in the unionist parties expressing compassion for them, let alone announcing plans to give them practical support.

What this looks like is a case of the erstwhile leader of unionism being cast out, left alone to address the shambles that his life has become. Why? Because maybe if his erstwhile colleagues and followers stood anywhere near him, voiced the slightest concern for him, they might be seen as somehow attempting to validate the crimes of which he is accused.

In these cases, it’s ‘sauve qui peut’ – man the lifeboats and every man and woman for him/herself. 

See these Christians, how they love one another.