Hypocrisy or Worse?
Following the resignation of Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care – resulting from the circulation of CCTV images of him kissing his aide, Gina Coladangelo – the media was outraged at his hypocrisy. News outlets and social media expatiated at length and with horror on the fact that the minister, who throughout the Covid-19 pandemic had repeatedly insisted that people must stick to social distancing, had now been pictured breaking his own requirements in a romantic embrace with his aide.
Of course this was wrong, and indeed was hypocrisy, but his failing was far worse than that. Not a squeak was heard from the media about Mr
2Gaussens is referring to Roman Catholic “saints”.
3L Gaussens, The Divine Inspiration of Scripture, Christian Focus Publications edn, 2007, pp 106-7. The period of 1200 years referred to by Gaussens was dated from the mid-nineteenth century and so nearly two more centuries can be added to it since then.
Hancock’s dreadful moral failure in betraying his wife and family. He is a married man with three children, while Gina Coladangelo is also married with three children. Matt Hancock’s friends explained that his and Gina Coladangelo’s behaviour was a “love match”, as if this made it acceptable to destroy two marriages and damage the lives of six children.
What an indictment of our age that, while hypocrisy in public office is regarded as appalling moral failure, yet if a man betrays a wife and family to live in an adulterous relationship, it is regarded as non-censurable, commonplace and not worthy of comment! Society today claims that being “non-judgemental” is a virtue when it suits; it is actually exceedingly judgemental when anyone dares to disagree with its moral norms.
The Seventh Commandment requires of us moral perfection in thought, word and deed. We are, of course, fallen creatures who need to be kept, and to be constantly on our guard against the snares of Satan and our own deceitful, wicked hearts.
We believe that the Covid-19 virus is a chastisement on the nations of the world on account of their sin, but here is another example of the moral malaise into which our nation, once so favoured with the gospel, has fallen. “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lam 5:21). FRD
Birthrate in Scotland
National Records of Scotland (NRS) have reported that 46 809 births were registered in Scotland in 2020. This is the lowest number since records began in 1855 and is 3054 less than the previous year, which was itself a record low. The Scottish birthrate has been falling since the early 1960s, when there were over 100 000 births per year. The rate dropped to 51 270 in 2002, then there was a relative high of 60 041 in 2008, but it has dropped steadily since. There were also 13 815 abortions in Scotland in 2020, a slight increase on the previous year. Of Scottish pregnancies which do not end in miscarriage, over a fifth now end in abortion. Furthermore, of the children that are born in Scotland, a sizable proportion are non-British in ethnic origin.
The Scottish nation has cast off the Lord, and the Lord is now diminishing the nation. It is sad to watch, but the heirs of those who were blessed at Reformation, Covenanting and Disruption times are now largely an irreligious, unclean and murderous group of bullies and cowards, prepared even to debase themselves by pretending that they do not know the difference between men and women.
The curse of Israel has come upon us: “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His
commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. . . . The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. . . . And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it” (Deut 28:15,28,62-63). DWBS