The Evangelical Alliance has published a recent report that sets out the “vital role” of Christianity in Scotland.
What sort of nation? How Christianity contributes to the longer term of Scotland is being launched today within the Scottish Parliament, 10 years after the EA’s landmark report What Kind of Nation? Manifesto for a Future Scotland was published within the lead-up to the Scottish referendum on independence in 2014.
The report identifies quite a lot of key areas where Christians have a vital role to play. These include education, the economy, poverty, and drug-related deaths – Scotland has the very best rates in Europe.
However, the report sees depopulation because the “biggest public policy problem in Scotland” and says that the problem is “not given the eye it’s due”.
“The problem is particularly acute in parts of the Highlands and Islands, but across the entire of Scotland birth rates have declined for years,” it reads.
“This signifies that in future we may have a disproportionately smaller working age population in comparison with children and retired adults, which creates huge socio-economic problems.”
While the EA welcomes the Scottish Government’s depopulation motion plan as a step in the appropriate direction, it says “we want to do rather more to make it as easy as possible to have and lift a family in Scotland”.
The Scottish government has committed to giving local authorities in underpopulated areas funding to support initiatives aimed toward attracting or keeping more young people. Â
The EA recommends that the federal government also increase childcare provision and do more to welcome migrants from abroad, and support families that foster or adopt children.
Official figures out this week show that although Scotland’s population experienced faster growth within the 12 months as much as mid-2023 than at any time for the reason that Forties, this was largely as a consequence of migration into the country.
Esther Roughsedge, head of demographic statistics at National Records of Scotland (NRS) said: “Almost two-thirds of individuals moving to Scotland got here from outside the UK. We also saw a fall within the number of individuals leaving Scotland.
“Without migration into Scotland, the population would have fallen.”
She added: “Deaths outnumbered births by the very best amount on record. There were 19,100 more deaths than births.”
Elsewhere in its report, the EA expressed concerns about how religion is taught in schools and the Scottish government’s draft guidance on relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP), which goals to “embed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusive education across the curriculum”.
“There must be improvements made to the availability of how religion, faith or belief is taught in schools, which might contribute to a greater understanding of the role of religion in public life,” the EA’s report says.
“We have engaged on the Scottish Government’s plans to vary relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education and can proceed to strive for the curriculum on this area to be taught, discussed and shared in respectful and age-appropriate ways.”
