I have to admit to being naturally drawn to stories about the Ulster Unionist Party making a public arse of itself. But the (Rev) Brian Crowe story is almost too much.
I first met Dr/Rev Brian Crowe in the very earliest days of the “negotiations” between the UUP and the Conservative Party. In those days he was Head of Policy for the UUP. He claimed to be a policy wonk and talked a lot about the CDU in Germany. We didn’t hit it off. I don’t think he liked me.
But it was some time later that we “met” online. I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook – I rarely update my status. However, any time I visited it appeared that Brian Crowe was there. He reminded me of an Aunt of mine (dead now) who used to spend a lot of her time in Woodsides department store in Lisburn for no obvious reason.
But on one occasion (Dr/Rev) Brian and I got into an exchange. He took exception to the fact that I’d once shared a platform with Professor Richard Dawkins and he felt the need to put me right on my atheism. The trail, I can’t find, but I believe his argument was that Atheists were hypocrites – we were little different to religious fundamentalists.
I pointed out, of course, that Atheists didn’t tell people how to live their lives or to lay down strict moral standards – it was all about reciprosity and ensuring we adhered to a common, decent humanity. But he took issue with this and argued that morality was why we needed Christianity. Christian morality, according to Dr Brian, was what made modern democracies.
I don’t claim to be the most moral person on the world but hopefully I have picked up a wee bit of morality without too much exposure to religion, or scriptures or moral hectoring – my upbringing helped. Perhaps Dr Brian was less lucky. But every time a hypocrite falls I do get some guilty pleasure. Wrong I know. But enjoyable all the same.
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