The Question of Surrogacy
“Surrogate, a person or thing taking the place of another. Surrogate mother, a woman who bears a child on behalf of another woman.” (Oxford Dictionary).
Surrogacy featured in the national press last month over the case of a British woman who agreed to bear a child for a Dutch couple for £12,000 “expenses” (plus money for clothing, travel and insurance). This particular episode ended in disappointment, deceit, tears, accusation and counter accusation, with money featuring to an unhealthy degree. It appears, however, that though payment for surrogate babies was banned 12 years ago, an agency set up to facilitate surrogacy has been operating for 9 years. This agency has 375 couples on its books, and some 40 babies are born each year as a result of introductions arranged by it. Business is booming and profitable.
Consider this practice from the following points of view:
Legally: The “expenses” appear to make a mockery of the present law, while the question arises: If it is illegal for the surrogate mother to profit from surrogacy, is it right that others who arrange introductions should profit from the transaction? Is it right that there should be trading in babies like goods on a supermarket shelf?
Socially: Is it wise to play around with the family unit in this way? Of course not; the family (the father, mother and their children) is the building block of a nation. Also, we do not know the long term effects on the child born by surrogacy or the surrogate mother who gives up the child. It would be strange if such an unnatural arrangement would not bring difficulties in its train.
Morally: While we have every sympathy with childless couples (and adoption is a perfectly valid option), no one has an absolute right to have a child. It is God who gives life and it is He who takes it away (Job 1:21). God has also made plain that children, who are His heritage (Psalm 127:3) are to be conceived, born and brought up in the setting of the family.
It is our wisdom, in every context, to bow to God’s will in His providence and to follow His declared will in His Word. J. R. T.
Scotland for Christ ’97 – APC minister in charge of ecumenical gathering
AN ecumenical event in Inverness has been organised by the local minister of the Associated Presbyterian Churches, the Rev Malcolm MacInnes. The event is called Scotland for Christ ’97, and Mr MacInnes, who is its chairman, has described it as a Gospel Rally.
In the April 1997 newsletter of Scotland for Christ, Mr MacInnes writes: “The event . . . is designed to encourage Christians to come together for an afternoon of praise and fellowship, to provide a unique opportunity to bring along friends who may not be ‘church people’, and to be a focal point for a wider community to realise that there is an active Christian community in the nation.”
The two-hour event will be held in the Caledonian football stadium on Saturday afternoon, 5 July. The advert features “Derick Bingham, Bill Gilvear, Ian White and The Male Voice Gospel Choir”. Derick Bingham contributes an article to the newsletter, in which he informs us in laudatory tones that quite recently he was listening to four evenings of sermons in Charlotte, North Carolina, from the Arminian preacher, Billy Graham.
A report in a local newspaper says that “the success of the live TV link to a Billy Graham rally some years ago gives Mr MacInnes cause for optimism, not only for this year’s event, but for the future.” Mr MacInnes also takes encouragement from the ecumenical open-air meetings which have been held in the summer for the past few years at Ferintosh Burn, on the Black Isle. Another report says that “Ian White, possibly one of the best known composers and Gospel singers in Scotland, will sing some of his now famous music.”
In 1983, the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland passed this motion: “The Synod, conscious of the danger to the distinctive witness of the Free Presbyterian Church from interdenominational evangelistic campaigns, call on the ministers, elders, deacons, members and people of the Church to dissociate themselves from such campaigns and adhere to the testimony for truth handed down to them, and patiently wait on the Lord for the revival of His own Cause in our land through a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the nation. The Synod, at the same time would counsel the people of God in the Church to endeavour humbly, by a life and conversation becoming the Gospel of Christ, to witness to the reality of their faith in the Redeemer.”
The need for such a statement is now only too obvious. The ability of the APC to join with those who support Arminian doctrine is becoming more and more apparent, and their readiness to overlook aberrant doctrinal teaching is alarming. This doctrinal indifference does not sit well with the scripture: “Buy the truth and sell it not.” (Proverbs 23:23). D. M. B.
An attempt in Lewis to sell drink on the Sabbath
UNDER the headline, “Island fight for Sunday drinking,” a newspaper forecasts “that the wind of change is set to blow away forever the booze-free Sabbath in the Western Isles,” because three publicans in Stornoway have applied for licences to sell drink on Sabbath. The usual arguments are brought forward: the provision of licensed facilities on the Sabbath is essential to boost tourism; there is a strong local demand; and, only the Church is against it.
How wrong to say that only the Church is against it. The Law of God is against it. God’s command is, “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy…” (Exodus 20:8). Whatever popular support Sabbath-breakers may have, they are judged by God’s law; and they, with all men, will be called to account by God, whose law they are flouting. It is to be hoped that the Western Isles licensing board will resist this attempt to encroach on the Lord’s Day. D. J. McD.
The Times Preacher of the Year Awards
A short-list of thirty sermons has been chosen for The Times Preacher of the Year Award, and five of these will go forward to a final in a festival of preaching in Durham Cathedral on November 12th.
“Nearly 75,000 sermons are preached each week,” says The Times, “but declining church attendance means that they are irrelevant to most people.” In the same article, Dr Michael Quicke, Principal of the Spurgeon Theological College, London, is quoted as saying that 89 per cent of the population (in England) no longer attend church. How far we have drifted spiritually when only 11 per cent of the population any longer attend a place of worship.
Another commentator says that “preaching can be damaging to a congregation”. Whatever he meant, it is true that many preachers are doing untold damage by preaching “another gospel”.
Also quoted are critics who see preaching to be in such a crisis that they question the act of preaching itself. There is something radically wrong with the professing Church when it has lost sight of the scriptural principle that, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe”. A Church which uses unscriptural “modern” and “alternative” forms of worship, cannot expect to have God’s blessing, or to be of benefit to perishing and needy souls. D. J. McD.
Release of depraved film
THE godly person is not a cinema-goer, far less a viewer of pornographic films, but he is concerned about the effects of films upon public morality.
It is with the utmost disgust that many right-thinking people have learned that the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has decided that the film Crash, a loathsome and debasing production, can now go on general release to the public. Various film critics have condemned the pornographic film as “vile” and “beyond depravity”.
The psycho-babble of Dr. Paul Britton, whose commendation of the film was accepted by the BBFC, will never disguise the fact that vile material corrupts, or, as the Bible says, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” □
Sheriff comments on insolence and impudence among young people
IN a recent Scottish court case, in which it was alleged that a certain group of young people were unpleasant, ill-mannered, impudent, and used swear words, the Sheriff commented, “Young people are not taught manners at home or at school, and people over the age of thirty must make allowances for this.”
A spokesman for the Campaign for Courtesy added, “They [young people who use abusive language and behave insolently] take their example from the extremely vulgar sort of pop groups that one sees all over the place. Schools do their best but they are fighting a losing battle, and many parents are in despair.”
These comments condemn those parents who, although concerned about their children, are not bringing them up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”. Those teenagers who are not taught the basic requirement of the Fifth Commandment, to obey and respect their parents and other superiors, soon throw off the restraints of the other Commandments. One trembles to think what kind of parents they will make. May the God of all grace visit the rising generation with an outpouring of His Holy Spirit. D. J. McD.