You have to wonder whether they've ever come across that remark by the Man Himself, to the effect that he came for sinners, not the righteous. It's more interesting, I'd say, for someone who's been associated with violence – as he sees it, violence in the cause of justice – to consider what the Sermon on the Mount is about than for someone who's never had to wrestle with questions of repentance and forgiveness. My own sympathies during the Troubles were with those who wanted a united Ireland, but I'd feel exactly the same if it were one of the Loyalist paramilitaries, measuring up his own actions against his Christianity and reflecting that Barabbas, freed by Pontius Pilate, was "someone else's freedom fighter".