Canada’s Slippery Slope
Dr Tom Koch, of the University of British Columbia, has refuted a claim that Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) legislation does not inevitably lead “down a slope to an undesirable destination”. From March 2021 legislation has permitted those without a terminal illness, including the disabled, to be assisted to take their own lives. From March 2023, people will be allowed to access medical assistance to die, solely on the grounds of mental illness. Dr Koch said that the slippery slope is clearly evident in the removal of safeguards which is resulting “in an expanding class of eligible persons and an ever-increasing number of medically induced deaths”. He went on to say that MAID was seen as “the only alternative to suffering” for those without access to palliative care, and that pressure to ensure that such care is provided has been removed by this legislation.
The Professor of Ethics at the University of Alberta, Heidi Janz, said the recent changes to the law were “irresponsible and extremely unethical”. Professor Janz is disabled and, referring to her childhood and to her acquaintances with disabilities, she said, “We all knew that some of us would live longer than others. But we also knew that all of us would live with the best quality of life possible. What keeps me up at night is knowing that this is not the message the current generation of kids with disabilities is getting. Instead, they’re hearing about parents requesting MAID for their disabled kids.” Dr Leonie Herx, Associate Professor of Palliative Medicine at Queen’s University, Ontario, said, “As a physician, my job is to restore hope and promote healing. It’s not to suggest death as the answer to suffering and to facilitate ending someone’s life.”
In the Canadian Parliament, opponents of the Bill expressed alarm at the prospect of those with a mental illness being killed by their doctor. Michael Barrett MP said that, rather than giving vulnerable people “adequate care”, the Government was striving to “offer them death”. Mr Barrett continued: “We need to help people get better and to give them hope, not do everything we can to make death the easiest path for them”. In countries where euthanasia and assisted-dying legislation has been enacted, it can be seen that the reassurances about safeguards, which are, no doubt, well-intentioned, often become eroded until the result can indeed be described as a slippery slope. It is like sin in the natural heart: once the conscience has been quietened, the next sin follows along as night follows day. Those who advocate breaking the Sixth Commandment in this way and those who support their endeavours see no wrong in it. But God has said, “Thou shalt not kill”. How wicked it is to disregard willfully such a command from the One who created man in His own image and likeness! FRD
The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872
The year 2022 marks a significant anniversary as it is now a century and a half since the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872. This has proved to be one of the most influential and far-reaching pieces of legislation passed in the last two centuries. Secular historians have often remarked on its influence on society, as it marked the beginning of a compulsory state-provided national system of education. Its influence on the decline of the Gaelic language has also often been noted. But little attention has been paid to the effect it has had on the nation’s religious condition over the intervening years.
The Act placed control of schools under local boards, which eventually gave way to local education authorities. Many hundreds of schools which were supervised by the Presbyterian Churches were taken out of Church control. The undoubted effect over the years has been that Scottish education has become progressively more secularised. This has been evidenced in many ways, not least in the curtailing of Protestant worship and Bible teaching in the school curriculum. While Roman Catholic schools have been granted state recognition and funding since 1918, the former Presbyterian ethos has withered away in the non-denominational schools.
This short note does not suggest that the Education Act was the sole cause of spiritual declension in Scotland since the late nineteenth century. The influence of theological liberalism, evolutionary theory and scientific materialism, along with the blindness and rebellion of fallen human nature, were fundamental in that decline, along with other significant influences. The 1872 legislation therefore must be seen in its context as part of the wider trend which moved away from recognition of the Bible as supreme and authoritative in every sphere of life, even though the Act’s initial framers may well not have intended this. And it is quite certain that the Churches had no intention of allowing the legislation to become an instrument of secularisation when they handed their schools over to the new boards. With the benefit of hindsight, however, we can see that the consequences of their lack of foresight have been profound. In the years since 1872, Scotland has gone from being a professedly-Christian country to its current secularised condition. Though developments in education are not the only cause, we venture to think that they have given a tremendously powerful impetus to the spiritual decline of our nation.
Education in non-denominational schools today is highly secular and Christianity is only afforded a marginal place in the curriculum. In so many ways, Christian principles are ignored or condemned in our schools and ignorance of the Word of God is well-nigh universal. While we are not here making recommendations as to what arrangements for educational provision are preferable, we must hold that an education system which is not based on Christian principles is something which neither Christian parents nor the Christian Church ought ever to regard as acceptable. The years since the 1872 Act was passed amply demonstrate that secular education is fearfully dangerous to the spiritual welfare of children and of the nation. It should be the prayerful and practical endeavour of the Church today to seek to recover the vision of our Reformers in their zeal for the Christian education of our nation’s youth. AWM
Constrained to Read the Word of God Before Millions
One of the remarkable providences of the events surrounding the Queen’s funeral was the public reading of the Bible by various important figures. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, read Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 at a Thanksgiving service in St Giles; Baroness Scotland, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, read parts of 1 Corinthians 15 at the funeral in Westminster Abbey; while the Prime Minister, Elizabeth Truss, read John 14:1-9. The public reading of the Word of God is an important part of God’s worship and should be performed by the minister conducting the service rather than being devolved upon others (and certainly not upon women); nevertheless it was striking that these prominent people were constrained to give public utterance to the Divine truths before thousands and even millions of witnesses. Nicola Sturgeon said (in the version that she was reading from): “God has done this so that all should stand in awe before Him”; Baroness Scotland that Christ “must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet”; and Elizabeth Truss that Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life”. How easily God can constrain reluctant mouths to declare His truth. Truly – willingly or unwillingly – “every tongue [shall] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). DWBS
Cursing Tablet on Mount Ebal
Some archaeologists have made the news with the reported discovery of a small lead tablet on Mount Ebal, which they date to 1400-1200 BC. The tablet is folded in half with writing on the inside, but it has been read using advanced scanning techniques and is said to include a shortened form of the Divine Name (YHW) and multiple references to cursing (Mt Ebal was the mountain of cursing, Deut 27). There is still considerable doubt over the tablet – it was found by sifting through soil dumps from previous archaeological excavations, so it was not found in a “datable stratified context” (a layer of soil whose date could be determined); and so far no images of the inscription have been released. One expert on epigraphy, the interpretation of ancient inscriptions, said, “I would predict that almost all of the readings [of the inscription] posited in the press conference will be vigorously contested”. The alarm of the many unbelieving archaeologists is evident. Their life’s work – for example, the work of those who argue that the Israelites were just a small Canaanitish tribe who came to prominence about the eighth century BC and invented an earlier glorious history of David, Joshua, Moses and the Exodus – is endangered by this tiny tablet. DWBS