Sermon on the Mound

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Not to be confused with Sermon on the Mount.


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The Sermon on the Mound is the name given by the Scottish press to an address made by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on 21 May 1988. The name is a play on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and on the artificial hill in Edinburgh called The Mound on which the Church's Assembly Hall stands.

In the address, Thatcher offered a theological justification for her ideas on capitalism and the market economy. She claimed "Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform" and she quoted St Paul by saying "If a man will not work he shall not eat". 'Choice' played a significant part in Thatcherite reforms and Thatcher claimed choice was also Christian by stating that Christ chose to lay down his life and that all individuals have the God-given right to choose between good and evil. Thatcher also justified her belief in individual salvation by quoting from the hymn I Vow to Thee, My Country (which was not in the Church of Scotland's hymnary of the time):

[It]...speak[s] of "another country I heard of long ago" whose King can't be seen and whose armies can't be counted, but "soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase". Not group by group, or party by party, or even church by church—but soul by soul—and each one counts.

Thatcher's words did not reflect a consensus among Christians. One clergyman present described the speech as 'a disgraceful travesty of the gospel'. When she finished speaking, the Moderator, James Whyte, formally presented her with church reports on housing and poverty, which was interpreted in the press as a polite rebuke.

The Margaret Thatcher Foundation, which reproduces the full text of the speech on its website and characterises the nickname "Sermon on the Mound" as distasteful, rates it as having key importance as a statement of Thatcher's views on religion, morality, family, social security, welfare, taxation, education, race, immigration, nationality, and civil liberties.