28/08/2026
Dear Mr Swinney,
As First Minister, you bear a heavy moral burden. The decisions and policies of your government have far-reaching consequences. You are ultimately responsible. I expect you are continually aware of this responsibility.
In the light of this, I bring a challenge, inviting you to reflect on two matters. This challenge flows from the historic teachings of the Christian faith, which I believe reflect the goodness of God, the ultimate source of moral authority.
You personally introduced s*x, s*xuality and gender education resources, recommended for use in all of Scotland’s schools (RSHP.scot). These lessons have taught cohorts of children to reject God’s truth.
More specifically, your lessons endorse premarital s*x, celebrate homos*xuality and affirm the philosophy of transgenderism - each of these stands in direct contradiction to Biblical morality. You are teaching children to sin, corrupting young minds.
Living in defiance of God’s standards leads to negative life outcomes. You are responsible for the moral, spiritual, emotional, relational, psychological and physical harms caused to children and families by your actions.
Under your tenure as First Minister, I estimate that around 43,000 innocent human lives have been ended by the action of your Government through abortion. Your Government could stop it, but instead allows it to continue. You bear responsibility for each of these deaths.
You may not have had literal blood on your hands or administered any fatal agent from your own palm, but those who do are enacting your policy. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, the gravest evils are not usually committed in dark alleys, but are conceived in respectable, comfortable offices - or parliaments - where they can be set in motion on a scale beyond the individual criminal.
Every one of these lives taken was precious in God’s sight. This monumental evil invites the judgement of God on Scotland and on those involved in its commission.
This letter was prompted by a fear that your interactions with Christians may have inured you to these truths and blunted their impact. I fear that Christians who agree with my two points above fail to say so to you, preferring to enjoy a pleasant encounter over a canapé and a photo opportunity rather than create an awkward moment.
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps there have been serious words of moral challenge spoken behind the scenes at the National Prayer Breakfast and other Christian events where you have been an honoured guest. Perhaps a priest at the Catholic church that I understand you to attend has quietly explained the tension between your policies and God’s truth.
Perhaps Christians with whom you have worked closely have laid out their concerns and tried to help you understand just how wrong your actions have been. Perhaps. But perhaps they have not.
Therefore, it is possible that you have never been directly challenged about the glaring contradictions between your professed faith and your policies that flagrantly violate Christian teaching. Christians around you may have unwittingly acted to salve your conscience, seeming to grant tacit approval to your actions.
Maybe you have come to see such deferential and amenable Christians as the ideal variety, and those willing to say what they believe out loud as extremists.
I am not expecting a reply and certainly do not wish to receive one comprising standard lines defending the rejection of Christian s*xual morality and the killing of the unborn. While I would be happy to enter into further discussion, your primary response should be directed to God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is merciful and gracious, inviting us all to turn from our sin in repentance, towards his eternal embrace.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Lucas
