Madam, - I enjoy the accurate and comprehensive rugby coverage offered by The Irish Times. However, Johnny Watterson's report on Sunday's Ulster victory over Leicester deserves comment ("Ulster answer call to prey on Sabbath", Sport, January 13th).
It is certainly true that over 12,000 people revelled in a brilliant victory, in spite of protests from Rev Ian Paisley and a handful of Free Presbyterians outside the ground. But this is not to say that Sunday rugby is to become a regular feature of life at Ravenhill. The debate is more nuanced than that, not least for protesting Christian believers outside the ground, or indeed for those Ulster players, fans and officials who would otherwise have been at family worship.
Had this been a rugby match organised in South Africa, Samoa or one of the other Pacific island rugby nations, not only would Christians have been at the game in larger numbers, but many players would have begun or ended the match with prayer. England's winger Jason Robinson is a classic example of a committed Christian who plays on the "Sabbath". The great All Black legend Michael Jones is an example of a player who would not, albeit in the pre-professional era.
Space precludes a deeper discussion on the various Biblical positions on the subject. Suffice to say, as Rev Paisley must know, much focus is on the Apostle Paul and his attitude to the relevance of Old Testament law-keeping: do we still need to keep a Sabbath?
Christians in Ulster may be divided on that question, influenced, perhaps by culture as much as anything. But it would be fair to state that Evangelical scholars such as Don Carson and Tom Schreiner in the US would offer ample argument that Christians are free from Old Testament regulations. We celebrate our faith every day, as did the New Testament church (Acts 2, v 46).
The issue is not whether a non-church (and therefore non-believing) organisation such as the ERC or Sky Sports should make commitments to suit the theological position of some local Christians. It is rather, to ask if, at 1 p.m. on a Sunday, the organisers are being "good neighbours" to the many local churches meeting around that time.
- Yours, etc.,
MARTIN McNEELY, Bloomfield, Belfast 4.