Notes and Comments

FIGURES for births and abortions in England and Wales in 1996 have recently been released. They show that live births increased by 1000 to 649,000. In the same period, so-called legal abortions increased by 14,000 to 168,00, that is, 13 abortions for every 1,000 women. What a damning indictment of our society! While 649,000 unborn babies were carried through to the birth, another 168,000 unborn babies were denied being born by being killed in the womb. Apart from those abortions which are justified to save the life of the mother - only a most minute proportion of the total - every abortion contravenes the Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." For how long shall we, as a nation, close our eyes to the horrendous fact that every "social" abortion is absolutely wrong because it is the unwarranted and forbidden killing of a human life, as well as a most cruel process. Great indeed is our national guilt before God!

Dangers to young people from the homosexual lobby

THE United Nations agency Unaids has reported that 30 million people in the world are infected with Aids, a third more than was estimated earlier. Despite this shocking figure, and the fact that Aids in the Western world is due primarily to sodomy, the activists of the homosexual lobby are forcefully pursuing their next main objective to have the age of consent lowered to 16.

A recent example of promoting this sinful way of life was seen in the activities of the Government-funded National Youth Agency. Not only did it "provide lessons in homosexuality at a homework club for 14-year-olds at a gay centre in Manchester", says the press, but also distributed a Save the Children booklet, Spotlight on Sex and Society, which promotes homosexual activities. Save the Children launched an inquiry and withdrew all the 14,000 booklets.

Judging from past patterns, these activists will not stop when they gain their next main objective. As Scripture says, "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." One way to corrupt and destroy society is to have such people involved with young people and children.

Increasing drunkenness and its dangers

A RECENT survey of the Health Education Authority has shown that in England a million men and 200,000 women admit to getting drunk at least once a week. The aim of the authority is to warn people of the potential dangers of binge drinking such as memory loss, alcohol poisoning, sickness, crime and violence.

It is a matter of the greatest concern that children in the 12 to 15 age group are drinking twice as much alcohol as did the same age group in 1990, according to figures published by the Minister for Public Health. The sale of alcopops, the range of sweetened alcoholic drinks which were cynically aimed at under 18s, has been a major contributory factor.

Nevertheless, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association has called for a reduction in the legal age limit for public drinking. The Association says there is a "need to get kids off the streets". But where to? "Get them accustomed to pub culture," is the Association's answer. It adds, "The only way to control alcohol is through public houses." Of course, the control which the drink trade chiefly wants is to open its taps wider and increase its sales. Increased opportunities for drinking alcohol, including the evil of opening public houses on the Christian Sabbath, have undoubtedly led to an increase in drunkenness.

What does Scripture say about the drunkard? Drunkenness leads to poverty (Prov. 23:21), contentions (Prov. 23:29), uncleanness (Prov. 23:33), injustice (Prov. 31:4,5), being useless for duty (Isa. 28:7), despising God and His doings (Isa. 5:12), and many other evils. Worst of all: the drunkard shall be shut out from heaven (Gal. 5:21), and lost forever.

The Archbishop, multi-faith society, and the coronation service

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in a recent interview with the magazine, Third Way, stated that he does not agree with inter-faith worship, that we are not a multi-faith society because "other faiths comprise less than 10% of the population", that he told an audience of Hindus in Leicester that he believes "that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour," and that the next coronation service must be exclusively Christian even although Prince Charles wishes to be "defender of faiths" rather than the specifically Christian "Defender of the Faith".

This statement indicates a welcome change of direction in pronouncements by the Church of England. Whether it is such a straw in the wind or is what someone has called "the whimper of a dying establishment", remains to be seen. Considering the Church's serious decline we are not optimistic.

Sinn Fein / IRA and the British Government

HOW shameful that the Prime Minister should have had a meeting with Gerry Adams and his fellow apologists for murder, and that he should shake hands that are stained by the blood of almost 1,800 victims of republican terrorism. The fact of their meeting, to which they blitzed their way by bomb and bullet, shows that terrorism pays. It is incredible that such a meeting should take place with a man who described the Brighton IRA bombing, when five Conservative Party members were killed, as "a blow for democracy", and who is behind the IRA's resumption of weapons-testing, recruiting and training of terrorists.

When a government welcomes its enemies and sidelines its loyal citizens, we must say with Isaiah, "Judgement is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter."

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