Sounding Off

It's been a while since I last blogged - things got busy for a bit and then I went off for a break. So I hope you haven't given up looking at the blog from time to time.

Actually I'm using the blog to paste up a letter I just wrote to The Times. Their correspondent decided to sound off against Christian magistrates, doctors, foster parents and adoption agencies who opt out of cases where their ethical beliefs would be compromised. Her proposal was that Christians should simply be banned from holding any such posts. I hope you agree with me that the exclusion of christianity from public life in this way would be an extremely worrying development.

Anyway, here's my letter. I doubt The Times will print it but at least someone can read it now. Please let me know what you think.

"Sir,

Should we decide ethical issues by majority, as your correspondent Carol Sarler opines in Monday's Thunderer Article? Hitler famously won a majority while Jesus Christ was rejected by the people of his day. I know whose ethics I prefer!

The tendency of the article was to support the elimination of Christians from public office because of their stance on family issues, sexuality and abortion. This is deplorable. Christian ethical vision underlies many of the most significant social developments in our culture: Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade, Shaftesbury and the Factory Acts, Gladstone and the Reform Acts, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Third World Relief, Drop the Debt... Christian passion and conviction has constantly renewed our society and has improved the lives of millions of people, often in the teeth of bitter opposition from the majority. We should not allow this the main stream of our moral heritage to be extirpated from civic life without serious prior reflection.

The Reverend Colin Gibson
Walsall"