Marches comment was an intolerant call for tolerance

David McConaghie's article in this column on August 12th was a most audacious example of the intolerant suing for tolerance. In the short space allotted him to comment on this year's marching season, he attacks, in turn, at least eight different groups and individuals: Roman Catholic clergy; ECONI (Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland); Lord Molyneaux, the general leadership of the Orange Order; Robert Saulters; the Sinn Fein representative in Ballycastle; residents committees; "militant nationalist groupings" (later described as,"concerned residents' groups with their republican watchdogs"); and the Ulster Unionist Party.

He is unstinting in his praise for only one group - his own group, the Independent Loyal Orange Institution.

Mr McConaghie accused Roman Catholic clergy of hypocrisy in that they "urge Protestants to behave in a Christian way, to `turn the other cheek', while those same individuals steadfastly refuse to do so". Yet this is exactly what the priests of Drumcree did on the morning of the Orange parade down the Garvaghy Road.

Because of security measures, the Catholic people were unable to get to their place of worship, so Mass was celebrated in a car-park. In his sermon, the parish priest urged the people not to retaliate but to behave as befits Christians. At the time for the exchange of the handshake of peace, the three priests taking part in the service, including Father Eamon Stack, secretary of the Drumcree resident's committee, went to the nearby members of the security forces and shook hands with them.

Mr McConaghie attacked the integrity of ECONI, describing it as a "so-called" evangelical group. This derogatory remark was followed by the blatantly untrue and wholly unjustified statement that ECONI has been guilty of "instructing Protestants that their faith . . . is unimportant in its details and should be the subject of negotiations".

ECONI have been undeviating in their exposition of the Gospel principles as providing the norm for Christians' conduct in public and private life. They have consistently encouraged evangelical Protestant Christians to think-through their social and political responsibilities in today's society in Northern Ireland in the light of biblical teaching.

Through workshops and seminars, through action packs and publications such as For God and His Glory Alone and A Future with Hope, they have made a considerable contribution to the process of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. And this they have done precisely by making intelligible and accessible to ordinary Christians what it means in practice to be truly evangelical in our divided society. To accuse them of not being evangelical, or of being in any way anti-Protestant, requires an excelling degree of intolerance.

Mr McConaghie castigated Robert Saulters, Grand Master of the Orange Order, for failing to give leadership and called for his resignation. Yet Mr Saulters has acted decisively and courageously, for example in his response to the picketing of the Catholic church in Harryville. He did not stop at merely condemning the picket, but took 11 senior officials of the order with him to Harryville to stand with that beleaguered Catholic community last January. I had the privilege of greeting Mr Saulters at Harryville. He had to endure being called a Lundy and a traitor by some of the loyalist picketers. I am not aware of any official word of condemnation of this picketing emanating from the Independent Loyal Orange Institution. Indeed, one of its members was very much to the fore on the picket line.

In relation to the residents' committees, Mr McConaghie states that these committees "must now be identified for what they are, cohorts of Sinn Fein, who are offended . . . by the presence of Protestants, of `planters', on this island". Mr McConaghie might be interested to learn, for example, that not one of the Dunloy residents' committee is a member of Sinn Fein. They have openly stated that they have nothing whatever to do with Sinn Fein. None of them has ever been in prison or has a criminal record of any kind. He may well be reassured to hear that they have expressly stated that they value the presence of the Presbyterian community in their area, fully acknowledge their equal right to live there, and the right of the local Orange Lodge to return to march in an unprovocative way in their own village.

As for the 12-member residents' committee in Drumcree, only one is a member of Sinn Fein. Speaking on behalf of the committee, the chairman condemned unreservedly the murders of the two RUC men in Lurgan recently. in. This is not to say that the residents' committees have all the right on their side. But in the current situation, where feelings are running high, surely the role of a minister of the Gospel, such as Mr McConaghie, is to acquaint himself impartially with the facts and "speak the truth in love" so as to defuse rather than exacerbate the situation.

I was glad, however, to see Mr McConaghie acknowledging that the Catholic people of Ballycastle, who stood to watch the Twelfth parade, were "to be commended for their tolerance in doing so". He made a point of underlining that the Independent Loyal Orange Institution, joined by Orangemen from far and wide, paraded their full route through "a town boasting something like 80 per cent nationalist/ Roman Catholic population . . . without entering into any negotiations of any kind . . ." This he calls "the Ballycastle model", and urges nationalists across the province to fall in line with it. How tolerant can you get? What happened in Ballycastle, as described by Mr McConaghie, surely highlights the commendably tolerant spirit of that Catholic community rather than that "there is nothing intrinsically offensive about Orangeism". For "an institution . . . which has as its primary aim the defence and promotion of our Biblical Protestant faith" to march in strength, without consultation, through a town whose predominantly Catholic citizenry they look down on as being nonChristian, hardly bears out the claim in the title to Mr McConaghie's article, that "we can share heritage with tolerance".

We now have a second ceasefire and political talks are about to begin. This is a moment of grace for Ireland, when all true Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, have another breathing space in which to obey the scriptural injunction to humble ourselves, seek God's face, turn from our wicked ways and pray for God to forgive our sin and heal our land. Following the example of the churches in South Africa, could not we too commit ourselves to an all-out, 24-hour nationwide prayer initiative, praying specifically for our leaders in church and State?

Could we stretch the bounds of our tolerance to join in prayer for the removal of sectarian attitudes from all our hearts, for a just political solution in Northern Ireland and for a mighty turning to God and revival of genuine Christianity in Ireland, north and south? What a symbol of hope we could then become of true tolerance in the genuine sharing of our mutual heritage in Christ.

Eugene Boyle is secretary of the Evangelical Catholic Initiative in Northern Ireland.