Abortion and the Humanists
The figures, published by the Scottish Home and Health Department in May, of the abortions carried out in Scotland during 1970 were the highest since the Abortion Act was introduced, 5,110 for the whole country, 74 of these in private nursing homes. This is an alarming increase of 1,200 over the previous year. The Registrar General reported that for the whole of Britain 1,791 girls under 16 now need abortions, and it is calculated that the overall figure for the whole country has now reached the total of 80,000 abortions annually. What a terrible indictment of the Permissive Society!
The sinister part taken by the humanists in this sordid destruction of human life has been revealed in an article which appeared in the Daily Express in June from the pen of Lady Lothian. A society, known as the Abortion Law Reform Association, had campaigned for years to get the Abortion Act, which was sponsored by Mr David Steel, M.P., placed on the statute book. This movement was led by two women, Mrs Madeleine Simms and Mrs Vera Houghton of the British Humanist Association, and was supported by Dr Martin Cole of Birmingham, the author of the now notorious Education Film, “Growing Up,” Dr Malcolm Potts of the Planned Parentage Federation, and Mr Alistair Service, now on the executive of the Conservation Society. They were able to enlist the aid of such influential Members of Parliament as Roy Jenkins, then Home Secretary, Richard Crossman, then Social Services Minister, and John Silkin; Douglas Houghton, Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, is the husband of Mrs Vera Houghton. Appeals on such themes as “the worn out mother,” “the miserable illegitimate child” were used to overcome public distaste. Today, abortion is a flourishing trade, for some abortionists are earning as much as £1,000 per day. The humanists, elated by success, mean to extend their activities. “The latest news from the ‘humanist lobby’ is that Mr David Steel and Mrs Vera Houghton lead A.L.R.A. ‘Birth Control Campaign’ for 1971.” The humanists form a small but powerful and well organised group in Parliament and their avowed purpose is, not only the abolition of the Bible from the schools and the destruction of the Christian Faith, but the complete change of the British way of life. C.
Britain’s Peril
In the small West Highland hamlet of Lochcarron the congregation were waiting one Sabbath morning in the summer of 1815 for the appearance of their minister, the renowned Mr Lachlan MacKenzie. At last, when his coming was delayed beyond the hour of service, the elder, John Kennedy, father of the eminent Dr J. Kennedy, Dingwall, went to the manse nearby to find out the cause of the delay, and found his minister still in his bedroom, wrestling in prayer at a throne of grace. Little was said on the way to the church, but on entering the pulpit Mr Lachlan uttered the solemn and prophetic words: “People of Lochcarron, if you have ever prayed in your lives, pray this day, for the British army is engaged in deadly conflict with the forces of Napoleon on the field of Waterloo. Britain will defeat her enemies on this occasion, and in future wars though hard pressed she will never be defeated by her enemies. If our nation is ever brought down, it will be as the result of her own internal corruptions, her Sabbath desecration, which destroyed Israel of old, and her spiritual backsliding.” As is well known, Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815, which was a Sabbath. Since then our nation has survived terrible and costly wars which have greatly impoverished and weakened our people, but the Lord has mercifully preserved us. In our own life time we have seen our people come through devastation and great loss and suffering in the last two World Wars in the Lord’s merciful providence. Today, however, the very conditions foreseen by the saintly minister of Lochcarron can be discerned throughout the country. Sabbath desecration has reached frightening levels, and recently a Church of England bishop spoke of a “tidal wave” of pornography flooding the land. The Lord has done great things for us and will He permit a nation that has enjoyed such signal marks of His favour in the past to become a desolation and a prey of wild beasts? We fear that only sincere and widespread repentance throughout every rank of our people will avert the threatened judgments with which, we are convinced, the Most High is preparing to visit our people, and there are no signs of any such change at present in the country. This is a time for importunate and unceasing prayer that the Lord, who has on so many notable occasions delivered us from the power of our enemies, would yet save us from our own folly and from the internal corruptions which have brought destruction upon so many nations in the past. C.
The Hasson Trial
The trial of a Church of Scotland minister has just ended after a sensational 12 days of extraordinary revelations of public and secret activities, more becoming an international agent of espionage than a professed minister of Christ, with the sentence of 3 years’ imprisonment for embezzlement and fraud. Rev. Alan Hasson or Hassan was educated for the Church of Scotland ministry, and after a brilliant career at college, including a Scholarship to America and the degree of Master of Systematic Theology, became minister of Bonhill South and Alexandria North Churches, Glasgow where he served for 11 years till forced in 1961 to flee the country for Canada on a charge of embezzling Orange Order funds. He was arrested about 6 months ago at Heathrow on his way through London for Canada and brought to trial in Glasgow. The love of intrigue and obsession for personal publicity led to the downfall of this somewhat strange and eccentric character. He was born near Cardiff in 1926. His father was an Egyptian seaman but the marriage was soon broken up and he moved to a foster home near Inverness. His parentage and broken home may account for the erratic course his after life was to take. Before he was 21 he saw military service with the army in the Far East and rose to the rank of captain. After his training for the ministry, he joined the Orange Order and by 1958 rose to the position of Grand Master. Rev. Hasson loved the limelight, and there was nothing he enjoyed more than taking his place at the head of an Orange parade, and, seated upon a horse and dressed in the full regalia of the Orange Order, leading the procession through the streets of Glasgow. It is said that he gave the impression of regarding himself on such occasions as another King William of Orange, leading the country in a great Protestant revival and described himself at his trial as “the equivalent of a Protestant Pope.” Soon he was engaged in raising funds for the Orange Order, and unknown to his congregation had organised a centre for conducting football pool betting, which handled in one week as much as £900. The Glasgow C.I.D. fraud squad began to investigate the affairs of the Orange Order under his management, and Rev. Hasson hurriedly took his departure for Canada. Here he became minister of a Church in Norwood, Winnipeg, but proved a centre of strife and disunity and had the door of the church padlocked against him. It is of interest that he attempted to pass himself off to one of our Canadian congregations as a Free Presbyterian minister, but his claims were so transparently false that no attention was given to them. At his trial he spoke of being an Arab spy, and perhaps his Egyptian extraction may have given him a flair for Far East intrigue, and of buying guns and equipment for guerrilla warfare against the Israeli, but his statements were regarded as being highly exaggerated. During his trial he discharged his counsel and conducted his own defence. When sentence was passed, however, he admitted that he had received a fair and unprejudiced trial and virtually admitted his guilt, but showed no regret for the injury done to the Church he belonged to or to the cause of religion. His words were: “Well, I am still a minister, but I’m not practising. In fact, I couldn’t care less.” When a professed minister of religion is condemned on criminal charges of embezzlement and fraud—and the sums involved in this trial amounted to no less than £10,300—it is not only the Church that suffers but the cause of the Redeemer. It is strange that such a bizarre character as Rev. Hasson could have found his way into the Christian ministry and have conducted himself in such a reckless, worldly fashion without attracting the discipline of the Church, even though it may be admitted that the Church of Scotland today is far gone in backsliding. C.