Last night I – along with a pile of other St Silasites – saw American Christian speaker, writer and pastor Rob Bell as part of his “Calling All Peacemakers” tour. A cogent topic given the intended car bomb at Glasgow Airport yesterday, which finally brings the so-called war on terror directly to Scotland.

Rob Bell’s talk was brilliant – as much for his fantastic presentational and speaking skills (one hour twenty minutes of engaging, humourous narrative that felt half as long) as for his message (finding a subvertive third way between simply confronting or ignoring the violence around us). Biblically sound, informative, thought-provoking, practical, and immensely witty. I’ll definitely be sussing out his books.

As for the attack on Glasgow Airport, which was mercifully not as “successful” as it could have been, it’s terribly sad. The failed bombs in London were, perhaps, a message to our new Prime Minister to say “it’s not just Tony we hate”, and because he’s a Scot, we’ve now maybe been given a message that we in Scotland are viewed as culpable in this war too now.

Thanks, Gordon.