The seemingly daily onslaught on the Christian churches and their beliefs, whether sneering that the Presbyterian churches in Scotland are rooted in 17th-century ideology, trying to exclude religious observances from state schools or to drive church representatives off education authorities from a tiny group of secular activists, prompts some observations.

If these determined secularists have their wish, in an independent Scotland, state schools (be they non-denominational or Roman Catholic) may become integrated and their curricula secularised and redded of religious "indoctrination" (the secularists' word).

Then, if the new Scotland follows the modern secular model of France, children whose parents wish them to follow a curriculum that allows a measure of religious observance, will have to be enabled to attend private schools (90% of which are Catholic schools in the French system), where the salaries of the teachers are paid by the French state.

This may be a future model for an independent Scotland if Christian education is forced out of state schools. I grudgingly suggest this model be actively considered in any new Scottish constitution if the militant secular lobby achieves its goal of driving religion out of Scotland's state education.

Similarly, in Scotland, we are told Kirk care homes are very short of funding as a result of local authority cuts. Church-based social work has long been important for Scots. In a secular Scotland of the future, perhaps we can follow the example of the modern secular German state which levies a tax to support either the main Lutheran church or Catholic church in social and care activities. That funding route might be necessary in a secular Scots society, which a loud and articulate but sparse minority seems to be dedicated to bringing about.

The majority of Scots simply want the church-state balance to be left as it stands. We should make this very clear to our elected representatives at council and parliamentary level.

Gus Logan,

2 York Road,

North Berwick.

On the same day as this week's terrorist attack in Lodon, the Government announced 15 new faith schools in England; six for Muslims. There are plans for an Islamic school and one for the Free Presbyterian Church in Glasgow.

This cash-strapped Government will struggle to regulate what goes on in them.

In just one week in May, I witnessed two US religious extremists invited to speak to Catholics. One was Pam Stenzel, an abstinence-only advocate who told 200 children from the Paisley diocese that "condoms are not safe" and anyone who had sex out of marriage "would pay". The other was Michael Voris who told a crowd of 150 Catholic activists in Motherwell: "We need to explain why contraception and same-sex marriage is evil", adding: "there is no-one in Heaven; except for Catholics."

It is time we stopped encouraging examples of religious extremism.

Garry Otton,

Secretary,

Secular Scotland,

58a Broughton Street,

Edinburgh.