Life, death, and persuasion!

It’s a fifth Sunday so, normally, I would be promoting one of the books that I have written. However, with the UK General Election now just days away, I feel it incumbent upon me to comment thereon! I am dealing with only those political parties who have candidates in the new Motherwell, Wishaw, and Carluke Constituency – but others may wish to check out their own list of candidates, with most of the parties represented in the MWCC being also represented in other parts of the UK. With a total of nine candidates, I do not have the time to deal with those who, in all likelihood, will have very little support! That, I confess, is a subjective decision on my part!

What I do not have any intention of doing is telling others how they should vote. That is a matter for the individual conscience and, for those of us who claim to be disciples of Jesus, a matter of prayer for the promised guidance of God the Holy Spirit. However, I would urge that each of us who is entitled to do so, exercise our right to vote – a right that was gained for us by the hard work and persistence of generations now long gone! I realise that there are some (perhaps many!) who are unable, in all conscience, to support any of the current political parties. I understand! To any such I would make but one plea – Use your vote! It may be that you will just draw a big X over all of the names; you may wish to write “None of these!” across the ballot paper or, at the bottom: “None of the above”. Such actions will ensure that no candidate benefits from your having voted – and, more importantly, it will show as a “spoiled vote” and, if there were enough of those, the various political parties might even reconsider their selection criteria!

So what is this post all about? Well, what I want to do is to look at what each of the political parties has to say, in their manifestos, with regard to matters that are more of a moral nature than a social or financial nature. I refer, of course, to matters that are, quite literally, matters of life and death, and to one other that has a distinctly Christian aspect.

I did undertake the responsibility of actually reading through the manifestos of the main parties, and I will also refer to personal replies to a couple of e-mails that I sent to each of my own Constituency Candidates for whom an e-mail address was provided. This, I hope, will remove any concern that I am simply about to “bang my own drum”! I already know the party for whose candidate I shall vote.

Okay – first issue. Life. I refer to both abortion and to assisted dying/suicide. I found little information in any of the manifestos. However, both my Lib Dem and SNP candidates have, in e-mails to me, made clear that there support for both of these issues is in accordance with Party policy. In the case of the SNP response, it was clearly a pre-produced response, as Marion Fellows states “… the SNP … is committed to working with Gillian Mackay to support her member’s bill …” – a Bill that was passed a couple of weeks ago! Only John Mason (SNP) in the whole of the assembly had the courage to oppose it. Ms Fellows appears to follow the Party line with regard to assisted dying, but would not vote on it as this is a devolved matter. Previous correspondence with her indicates that she also follows the Party line with regard to abortion. The other response was from Gordon Miller who, at the time, was named as the LibDem candidate. He only responded to the “End-of-life Protection Pledge”. He claims a “Christian faith”, and that he has prayed much about such issues. However, his e-mail is, to me, less than clear. He states that “… my position on assisted suicide or euthanasia is rooted in my commitment to ensuring that any policy we support truly respects the most vulnerable and respects the dignity of all individuals.” His Party manifesto states that it seeks to “Give Parliament time to fully debate and vote on legislation on assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults with strict safeguards, subject to a free vote.” It makes no mention of the easily verifiable point that even the strictest of safeguards can quickly be watered down – if not disposed of altogether! However, I would also note that the final list of candidates names Hayley Bennie as the Lib Dem candidate. I have no idea as to why this apparent change was made – but there have been other instances reported of candidates being dropped because of their professed Christian faith!

The Conservative manifesto states that they “… will maintain the position that assisted dying is a matter of conscience, and will respect the will of Parliament. Debates on assisted dying should never distract from the importance of delivering high-quality palliative care services, and we will continue to support children’s and adults’ hospices.” It has no specific mention of abortion, but does state that “We will expand our international campaign on girls’ education, women’s rights, and reproductive rights.” Previous statements show that ”reproductive rights” include abortion. The party has a track record of providing funding for programmes that promote abortion overseas.

The Green Party manifesto states that “Elected Greens will support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying for people suffering from terminal disease who wish to avoid prolonged unnecessary suffering if this is their clear and settled will. Proper safeguards would be put in place.” There is no mention of abortion, but their single MP (standing down this time) consistently voted in favour of abortion.

The Labour Party, in their manifesto, make no reference to assisted dying/suicide. However, its leader has stated that “I’m personally in favour of changing the law … I think we need to make time (for a parliamentary debate). We will make the commitment … I will give you that commitment right now.” [conversation with Esther Rantzen]. The manifesto makes no mention of abortion, but does state that it “believes all women must have access to the full range of reproductive services, irrespective of where they live”.  Of course, as with other parties, it makes no reference to the health of the unborn child! It should also be noted that the attempts to legalise abortion right up to full-term (effectively decriminalising the procedure) has been headed by Stella Creasy and Dame Diana Johnson – two Labour MPs!

Reform, UK make no reference to these issues in their manifesto.

Secondly, transgender issues, and puberty blockers. These issues do not appear to have been included in the manifestos. However, both the Conservative, and the Labour parties have indicated their intentions if elected to government on Thursday. Labour has said, through the shadow woman and equalities secretary, that the party would “modernise” the system, making it more simple to obtain a “gender recognition certificate”. The Conservatives, on the other hand, has pledged to introduce new legislation that would change the definition of “sex” (i.e. gender!) to mean “biological sex,”, or “sex at birth”.

Both parties have committed to implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review – a landmark report on gender identity services for children and young people, published in April. It is, I understand, a complex, and far-reaching, review, with the author, Dr Hilary Cass, making several recommendations. NHS England has acted to implement policies that strongly discourage social gender transitioning before one has reached 18 years of age. Puberty blockers are also being withdrawn from medical practice.

Thirdly, so-called “conversion therapy”. This term applies to a practice that seeks to change, or suppress, someone’s sexual orientation, or gender identity. The problem, from a Christian perspective, is that it does not differentiate between certain coercive activities, and the pastoral counselling provided by many Christian clergy, and others. I recall, at Spring Harvest many years ago, counselling a young man who wished to deal with recognised homosexual tendencies. I shared with him from God’s Word, and I prayed with him (whilst holding his hands!). There are those, especially within the “LGBTQ+” community who would have me charged, convicted, and imprisoned/fined, for having acted in such a way.

As far as I can make out, none of the parties (apart from, probably, the Scottish Christian Party and the Scottish Family Party, neither of whom are standing in the MWCC) is supportive of Biblical counselling in these matters. However, Baroness Falkner (who chairs the EHRC) has, in a letter to Kemi Badenoch, has stated that “… any ban is fully effective in protecting people with the protected characteristics of sexual orientation and gender reassignment from harm, while avoiding any unintended consequences.” (my emphasis).

A brief word on marriage. None of the traditional parties appear to make any significant mention of this God-created relationship, although the Conservatives do oppose "child marriage" whilst expressing pride in their introduction of so-called "same sex marriage". However, Reform UK do propose a 25% transferable marriage allowance that would move a little closer to the French (and perhaps other!) system of "household income" for tax purposes. A number of the smaller parties do support marriage in one form or another.

Okay – a considerably longer post than normal but, if it has helped even one UK voter to decide what to do at the polling booth on Thursday, then it will have been worthwhile. Just remember – use your vote. It is your privilege, and your duty, to do so.