Abortion and All

I spent a good deal of time in the car yesterday visiting some students on placement.  I was a little horrified to hear the Cardinal Archbishop suggesting that he preferred Michael Howard's abortion policy to Tony Blair's.  The Archbishop of Cardiff came on then and made it even worse - our voting should be guided by decision about morality - and abortion was the key one.  Get a life!!!!  I agree that abortion and the death of so many unborn children is a massive injustice which must break God's hearts.  Abortion is wrong.  But so is the blanket denial of AIDS and the rejection of the use of contraception.  So is the acquired wealth and privilege of Jesus' church....let him who lives in a b$%£%" big glass house stop chucking rocks!!!

What worries me most about these comments is that allied with the Christian Voice movement, we could be seeing the development of a Christian Right alliance here in the UK based on some pretty extreme views of justice and morality.  I agree that Christians have to press for justice for those without rights and that our voting must seek to bring those who fight for justice into power.  But different Christians have different views on justice and so will vote for different parties.  Isn't that obvious?  To suggest that all Catholics should vote Conservative because of one mini-comment from Howard on abortion is just senseless!  As senseless as us all voting for Labour because Gordon and Tony are Christians...As senseless as us trying to create a new political force to represent the Christian vote.  I just worry about our leanings towards the States...please let us not go there!!!

Pete

Comments

[John]

I think (from what I heard on the radio) that the bishops are being misrepresented slightly (and importantly). They were saying that abortion is a moral issue, and that politics is a moral arena. They even said explicitly that abortion was *not* the issue that should control how someone voted (not even for a Roman Catholic) but that it should be one of the factors that voters took into account when choosing how to vote.

Not totally unreasonable!

pax et bonum

[Baggas]

I totally agree with you on these points. It always disappoints me when Christian leaders seem to be interested in just one or two issues, to the detriment of all others. Yes, abortion is a tragedy, but what about poverty and disease and other injustices? Deciding one's vote based on abortion alone is just plain stupid.

[bobbie]

oh but see how much press they get for following in the footsteps of (my... sigh) american counterparts? they can become giants and leaders very quickly by only playing 2 notes... do all you can to stop it before it sinks it's teeth in over there - it's ugly christianity and doesn't look a thing like jesus.