Britain’s Top Law Officer Quits Church Rather Than Repent

Britain’s top law officer said today he has quit a fundamentalist Protestant church that demanded he repent for attending a Roman Catholic funeral Mass it regards as an abomination against God.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Chancellor in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government, resigned from the Free Presbyterian Church in Scotland a day after its supreme court refused to lift his six-month suspension as an elder.

Critics had questioned whether the head of the country’s judiciary should seek spiritual counsel in a church described by The Times of London as “the closest British religion has to offer to the (Iranian) ayatollahs.”

Leaders of the 6,000-member congregation known as the “Wee Frees” said Mackay could return to the fold only after repenting and vowing never to attend a Catholic service again.

“I have no intention of giving any such undertaking as that for which the synod has asked,” Mackay said in a statement. “Accordingly, I am from now on no longer a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.”

Mackay drew church wrath for showing his last respects for two old friends. He said his attendance was without sin as he did not accept the doctrine of a Requiem Mass.