Prospect of Lesser Punishment for Murderers
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, recently aired the prospect of bringing to an end mandatory life imprisonment for every murderer in England and Wales. He did not publicly support the call for a system of first and second degree murder (which would allow for discretionary rather than mandatory life sentences, albeit life sentences are usually less than life), but said the idea was “interesting”. He also hinted that such a move would end the campaign against any mandatory life sentence. At about the same time, the Homicide Review Advisory Group said that “a so-called mercy killing attracts the same mandatory life penalty as serial killings” and that a system of first and second degree murder would allow certain offenders, such as mercy killers, to be charged with the lesser degree of murder and enable courts to impose a discretionary sentence.
Lord Judge also said that it was important that the law keep in step with public opinion. It is, of course, the principles of divine justice which must be the foundation of just legislation, not public opinion. In any case, public opinion, according to the shadow Justice Secretary, still holds “that if you take someone’s life you should face a life sentence”. However, a report of the Homicide Review Advisory Group claims that “with appropriate education” the public could develop “in the general direction long-favoured by legal experts and the judiciary” – to make life imprisonment the maximum sentence rather than mandatory.
The public really needs to be educated in what the supreme Lawgiver has laid down for our national good. It was a most retrograde step when the death penalty for murder was replaced by the mandatory life sentence in 1965. Not only did it contravene God’s abiding law: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man” (Gen 9:6), but also resulted in an increase in the incidence of murder and crimes of violence.
It is passing strange that there should seem to be more compassion for the perpetrator than for the victim – but such is the inverted sense of morality which has infected our nation for decades. As Rev James MacLeod said in the Synod in 1958, “To show mercy to the murderer, without regard to God’s law and justice, is not really mercy but a travesty of law and justice”. NMR
More Calls for Assisted Suicide Legislation
When Geraldine McClelland, London, who, sadly, was suffering from terminal cancer, finally decided to take her own life in a Swiss suicide clinic, she asked the UK pro-euthanasia organisation, Dignity in Dying, to publicise her decision. In a letter released by the organisation after her death in December, she stated that she was angry because of the cowardice of our politicians in not legalising assisted suicide, thus preventing her from taking her life in her own country and with her family around her.
The fact is, as another press article says, that “Parliament has stood up bravely to fierce lobbying from activists intent on introducing euthanasia to our legislature. It has been debated four times in recent years and on the two occasions it has come to a vote it has been defeated. That’s not cowardice. It’s democracy”. Also, the standard of palliative care in this country is second to none and she could have had both the specialised care she needed so much and the company of her loved ones to the end.
Her case is being used by euthanasia campaigners to further their agenda, but if our country opts for euthanasia it will descend into worse barbarism. In Holland, for instance, not only have assisted suicides almost doubled since euthanasia was legalised in 2002, but the Dutch Minister of Health, Edith Schippers, recently stated that people who want to end their lives can be referred by their doctors to special mobile euthanasia teams if necessary. She would prefer, she added, if people are helped to die by their own doctors, but that, “if the patient thinks it desirable, the doctor can refer him or her to a mobile team or clinic”.
Modern society has lost sight of the fact that self-murder, whether or not it has the help of others, is a most heinous sin in God’s eyes. Some who have taken their own lives have insisted on their right to do so, but they could not be more wrong. It is the prerogative only of our Creator to determine when we shall leave this world. To die well (the literal meaning of the term euthanasia) is not to have the imaginary dignity of murdering oneself, but to have the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ. “Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him” (Is 3:10). NMR
Health and Safety
A Sheriff conducting a fatal accident inquiry blamed the senior officers of the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service for their failure to attempt the rescue of a woman who had fallen down a mineshaft near her home. The woman was left for six hours partly submerged in water. She was eventually brought to the surface, apparently without difficulty, but subsequently died because of the long exposure. Numerous firemen had volunteered to go down to
rescue her but were not allowed to do so by their superiors “for health and safety reasons”.
The present mania for health and safety regulations is a perversion of God’s commandment: “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13). The Shorter Catechism expands this commandment as requiring “all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life, and the lives of others”. Aside from prohibiting murder, such a commandment is very necessary because of the human tendency towards recklessness and callousness.
Many non-Christian cultures have shown a great disregard for human life, and not a few employees in Britain have been injured or killed through the carelessness and greed of their employers. The “health and safety” mania, however, under the influence of Satan, has taken matters to the opposite extreme and recently there have been numerous examples of foolish, even absurd, decisions taken in the name of health and safety. In the present case, it appears from the Sheriff’s description of the circumstances that the firemen had a clear call in providence to attempt the woman’s rescue, and what they should have done was to have committed the matter to God through Jesus Christ and lowered one of their number down the mineshaft. Instead their superiors consulted health and safety regulations which were quite inappropriate to the situation, and did nothing.
Human regulations have two great defects: they are frequently unwise and they are frequently applied to situations not envisaged by those who composed them. God’s laws have neither of these defects. “I have seen an end of all perfection: but Thy commandment is exceeding broad” (Ps 119:96). DWBS
Ninth Presbyterian Denomination for Scotland?
Rev Peter Dickson, formerly minister of High Hilton, Aberdeen, has resigned from the Church of Scotland over the issue of ordaining openly-homosexual men and women to the ministry. Mr Dickson has taken most of his congregation with him, and the first service of the new congregation, known as Trinity Church, was held on Sabbath, December 4. It was attended, we are told, by over 170 people. Initially it was hoped that the new congregation would meet in schools until a building could be purchased, and agreement had been obtained from two headteachers for holding morning and evening services, but the Aberdeen Council refused to ratify these arrangements. A prominent homosexual on the Council may have been a factor in this decision.
The intention is that Trinity Church should join the International Presbyterian Church, a denomination which has four English-speaking and six Korean-speaking congregations in England. If this goes ahead, there will be at least nine Presbyterian denominations in Scotland. Of these, we think that the
Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is the one whose present constitution dates back the longest (1893). The position of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is that of the Disruption Free Church of 1843 and it is a matter of regret that so few Presbyterians since 1893 have adhered to this position and have been willing to join the Free Presbyterian Church. DWBS