Free Church Professor in favour of remarriage of Prince Charles
NEVER did we think that we would see the day when a Professor of Systematic Theology in the Free Church of Scotland would recommend the re-marriage of an adulterer. We refer to a reported statement by Professor Donald MacLeod to the effect that he is in favour of Prince Charles, who by his own admission committed adultery while he was married to Princess Diana, marrying divorcee Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman with whom he is commonly reported to have been having an affair. Professor MacLeod stated, “They are both legally free to marry in terms of British divorce law… and it is in my view quite wrong to condemn them to lifelong celibacy.”
The Professor ought to be well aware of the fact that British divorce law is seriously flawed in not being according to the law of God in certain respects. He should be pointing out that according to the Scriptures the remarriage of the Prince would be wrong, but he would have us believe rather that “Charles, like Princess Margaret before him, is a victim of a very dubious interpretation of New Testament teaching.”
While we are in no doubt that the Scriptures teach that the innocent party in divorce may remarry, we are equally sure that a divorced person who has committed adultery during the time of his or her marriage is not permitted to remarry, and that such a marriage is adulterous. ☐
A rose-tinted view of IRA terrorism
THE IRA rocket attack on a fortified police post outside the High Court building in Belfast at the beginning of the year is yet another calculated and cynical attempt to provoke retaliation, end the ceasefire, and pressurise the Government into making political concessions.
At the same time a new film, Some Mother’s Son, being premiered in London, is presenting a picture of the IRA that is powerful and most welcome propaganda for this evil and murderous organisation. The film, says a report, “is that hybrid of fact and fiction known as ‘faction’, and succeeds in sanitising IRA violence, glorifying the terrorists, presenting Protestants as ignorant brutes and the British as cruel oppressors.
While the cinema, and fiction and ‘faction’ films, are not on the agenda of the true Christian, he is concerned that thousands of film-goers will swallow the lying propaganda of Some Mother’s Son, and other pro-IRA films such as the Hollywood version of Michael Collin’s life.
We believe, however, that truth will prevail over deceitful propaganda with regard to Ulster – and for this we are to pray constantly. God, the judge of all the earth, will yet bring to light the hidden works of darkness. ☐
Europe, Britain and the Sabbath
THE British Government’s determination to eliminate the Christian Sabbath was seen in a marked manner in its opposition to the European Union decision that Sabbath be set aside as a rest day throughout Europe. Britain appealed against the decision and gained a concession from the European Court of Justice, which stated that the prescribed weekly rest day need not necessarily be Sabbath.
This would mean that shop workers, who have limited protection under the 1994 Sunday Trading Act, would be deprived of even that protection, and other workers robbed of the divinely given right to rest on the Christian Sabbath. But people of other faiths would continue to have the right, under the Race Relations Act, to refuse to work on their “holy day”.
A British Member of the European Parliament, David Hallam campaigned hard for the reversing of this oppressive decision, and presented a resolution to the European Parliament. The outcome is that the Parliament withdrew the special concession to Britain and called on all member states to acknowledge “the special character of Sunday as a day of rest throughout Europe.” The Court also expects Britain and other member states to take into account “the particular views of those who have objections to Sunday work”.
While we cannot for a moment approve of our being ruled from Brussels, we acknowledge that God could use the rulers of other nations to maintain His holy day in our country, just as He made use of King Cyrus of Persia for the benefit of the nation of Israel. We have much reason to be thankful to the Lord for intervening in His providence. □
Second case of assisted suicide in Northern Territory, Australia
IN July 1996 the Northern Territory Parliament passed the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, which permitted medically assisted suicide under certain conditions. Only after several weeks did a candidate for assisted suicide emerge, who was able to meet the Act’s restrictive criteria. He was Bob Dent.
Now, as a result of the assisted suicide, on January 2, of a second person, Mrs. Janet Mills, it appears that the procedures to be complied with for a legal suicide are simpler than previously thought. No sooner was the Northern Territory’s law put into operation than the fears of many were confirmed: that we are on the slippery slope to wider euthanasia.
The eyes of the world have been on Northern Territory in being the first state in the world to attempt to codify and regulate a method of euthanasia. Now, as early as the death of only the second victim, we find that the law is easier to use than originally believed. Dr. Philip Nitschke, the doctor who supported the legislation and devised a computer programme for the self-administration of lethal drugs, originally believed that the Act required that the second medical signature needed for an assisted suicide should be that of a specialist. But when Mrs. Mills sought to avail herself of the Northern Territory legislation, neither she nor Dr. Nitschke could find a specialist willing to co-operate. After much publicity and controversy surrounding the case, the Northern Territory’s Attorney General pronounced that the second signature did not have to be that of a specialist. It could be that of any Northern Territory doctor.
The President of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Dr. Wake, said that the Attorney General’s clarification of the signature issue would facilitate the process and potentially lead to an “open door” to euthanasia. It has been stated in The Australian that, “There is now a momentum that is basically unstoppable. It’s only a matter of time; when one State moves to introduce euthanasia, so will another”. Many of those who wish to save costs in palliative care, or alleviate the distress caused to those watching a relative slowly dying, welcome the legislation. It opens up the way for pressure to be applied to the terminally ill to make use of the facility for suicide.
On the other hand, this second medically assisted suicide, and the increased momentum for euthanasia, are likely to generate support for the Federal Government private member’s Bill to invalidate the Northern Territory law.
Scripture shows us that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15). Suicide is self-murder. Only God has the prerogative to give life and to take it away. Job said of the death of his family, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” Job 1:21. E. A. R.
Family breakdown, not poverty, the major cause of crime
POLITICIANS and campaigners who say hooliganism, drug abuse and other crime are caused mainly by poverty, have swallowed a lie, says Newcastle University social scientist and ‘old Labour’ figure, Norman Dennis, in his new book, The Invention of Permanent Poverty. The major cause, he says, is the breakdown of the family and morality. Arguments that old-fashioned morality and family values oppressed the working class were first championed in the Sixties, he said. This helped to remove social constraints on sexual conduct and led to the crumbling of the culture of life-long monogamy. While poverty lessened between 1961 and 1979, there was a rise from six per cent to 33 percent in the number of unmarried fathers, and a rapid rise in recorded crime, riot, political extremism and drug abuse.
We are not surprised. As a Church we have said repeatedly that it is not so much poverty that is the cause of crime, as our departure from the Biblical morality which largely prevailed in previous generations. We cannot hope for any significant and sustained improvement until we go back to the Bible. ☐