Will money and sex derail peace in Northern Ireland?

If there is one prayer that should be raised in every church in these islands on Sunday it is for the politics and people of Northern Ireland.

There are some who can barely conceal their delight that two leading evangelical Christians have become immersed in an increasingly seedy sex and money scandal. I now know enough about both politics and religion to understand the wisdom of Jesus's encouragement for the person without sin to cast the first stone.

No one should rejoice in the discomfort and painfully embarrassing revelations about Peter and Iris Robinson. I met Peter ten years ago and I know how much he has moved to ensure the peace process will work.

Nor should anyone take delight in the revelations that emerged just before Christmas about the family of Gerry Adams At least one other person, apart from me, sees the awful symmetry of these two affairs.

In many other circumstances a political sex scandal actually means very little except to those intimately involved. Very few indiscretions actually come to light and make it onto the front pages. When they do, there's usually a political motive. Little tit-bits are picked up, evidence stored and then released when it suits someone.

That is why I question how both these sets of allegations have emerged now. Someone out there wants to destroy the Northern Ireland Assembly, destroy power sharing and return to the days of violence.

What today is tabloid titillation may be tomorrow's return to the days of violence. Pray for Northern Ireland this Sunday. We are on a knife edge.