Notes and Comments

Ulster’s betrayal

IT is appalling that two members of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, have been made members of Northern Ireland’s new power-sharing executive. Many people besides columnist Tom Utley of The Daily Telegraph felt their stomachs churning when they learned that Martin McGuinness was appointed as Minister for Education. Utley describes him as "an unrepentant sometime terrorist". He is a former commander of Londonderry IRA, and is said to have been the "Chief of Staff" of the IRA. As such he stands guilty of the deaths of many innocent people murdered in Londonderry and elsewhere.

His lack of repentance is clearly demonstrated by his boastful bragging about his time on the run as an IRA fugitive. When visiting his former school in Londonderry he recalled to reporters his hiding out at an IRA safe house across the border in the Republic of Ireland.

The appointment of such a man to high office in Ulster says loud and clear to terrorists worldwide that terrorism is the path to power – that the bomb and the bullet are the justifiable means of achieving political objectives. It is shameful that our Government has capitulated to Sinn Fein/IRA pressure, and with fair words has persuaded many of the war-weary inhabitants of that trouble-torn province that they had no alternative but to embrace the so-called peace process.

Once again in that part of the United Kingdom we see that "judgement is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter" (Isa. 59:15).

The fifth anniversary of the National Lottery

Many people predicted that if a national lottery were established in Britain, gambling would become endemic in the nation. Alas, the prediction has been fulfilled. "The fifth anniversary of the National Lottery is no cause for celebration," says one commentator. "For one thing, it has turned us into a nation of gamblers."

Apart from the millions of the adult population who squander many millions of pounds on the Lottery, it emerges from some studies that more than a quarter of a million children are addicted to it. It is shocking that so many young people are engaged in such a pernicious practice.

The excuse that money is being raised by the Lottery for good causes can never negate the fact that it is wrong. In any case, the good causes being supported are, in many instances, at best frivolous and at worst immoral. Meanwhile, charitable donations have dropped by a third. As the same article rightly says, the Lottery "has left Britain a sadder and meaner place".

The contentment that is hoped for by winning the Lottery is very elusive. A recent survey found that "only half the big winners were happier after their windfall, while examples abound of broken marriages and alcoholism." From the love of wealth springs all manner of evil, including dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Money will never bring satisfaction and peace to the human soul, for "he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver" (Eccl. 5:10).

Government plans to repeal Section 28 in England and Wales

IT is alarming that the Government intends to repeal, in England and Wales, Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which bans local authorities from promoting homosexuality in schools and elsewhere. Although some find fault with the wording of it, Section 28 has had the effect intended by Mrs Thatcher and her government – the halting of attempts in schools to promote homosexuality as a valid lifestyle and to persuade pupils that sodomy was the exact moral equivalent of a husband and wife relationship. When the principal purpose of Section 28 is to protect children from corruption, it would be the height of evil to repeal it.

It is gratifying that the shadow cabinet has decided to support Section 28, and to resist its repeal. At times, the leader of the opposition, William Hague, has spoken in such a manner as to make one wonder where he stood on this important issue, but he has certainly done right in expelling one of his front bench spokesmen, Shaun Woodward, for refusing to back his party’s decision to oppose the Government’s plan to repeal Section 28.

It is our duty, here in Scotland, not only to protest to our MSPs against the proposal of the Scottish Parliament to repeal Section 28 (see below: "Promotion of Teaching of Homosexuality in Schools") but also to contact our Westminster MPs requesting that they support the retention of Section 28.

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