Sgian Dubh and the Church

[ThistleDown]

Well said, and I couldn't agree more. Asking (or telling) one not to wear a sgian dubh to church, or caving in when asked, smacks of the sort of politically correct nannyism that, in my opinion, generally weakens and dilutes our western society.

The fundamental question is not about the safety or security of the congregation, but rather whether you, or I, can be trusted with a knife barely adequate to peel an apple.

A story to tell. In July the Standing Council of Chiefs met in Edinburgh at the invitation of the Scottish Parliament. The meeting was within the chambers usually set aside for those we elect and who must, surely, be just a tad more likely to need a secure environment than the congregation in a suburban church.

We were asked by Parliament's Presiding Officer to leave at home anything that might be thought to be a "weapon". A strange request, but a number of overseas guests had been invited and I suppose it was thought that one or two might appear with dirks, or swords, or battleaxes or something.

As you can imagine, the magnetometers played havoc with belt plates, shoe buckles, one-, two- and three-feathered badges, kilt pins and, of course, sgian dughs. Well, all passed through as acceptable. No kilt pin or bonnet badge or sgian dubh was thought to be a weapon.

Now that's the parliament in Scotland, of course, and this thread is about a church in America; but isn't the basic issue here about fear? Not respect for the wishes of the congregation or some legitimate threat to its safety, but the need for a group of people to be so fearful of its personal security that it must tell one of its number what to wear or not to wear to a service of worship. When no threat has been made. How very sad.

Oh, yes, on the way in there was a prominent family head just in front of me who had to empty his pockets, but the Swiss Army knife he had was accepted, too.