The DUP and Moral Issues
After agreeing to prop up Theresa May’s Conservative Government, the Democratic Unionist Party’s moral stance has come under heavy criticism. Many at Westminster, including the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, appear to be harassing the party leader, Arlene Foster, over abortion, same-sex “marriage” and LGBT “rights”. Such conduct displays the British Government’s resolve to push its secular agenda throughout the UK, even when it relies on the DUP’s support in parliament.
However, Mrs Foster has made it clear that she will do “everything in her power” to maintain the Province’s position on these vital moral issues. Recently she met up with the Northern Ireland anti-abortion group, Precious Life, and confirmed that the DUP was indeed coming under increasing
pressure to change Northern Ireland’s law on terminations. This followed on from a Westminster decision to grant NHS funding to Northern Irish women so that they can have abortions free of charge in England and Wales. In addition, Labour MP Stella Creasy – who is firmly in the pro-abortion camp – is calling for funding to cover the women’s travel costs to Great Britain. She came to Belfast to speak to the Family Planning Association on abortion rights – further seeking to “whip up” support for her cause amidst much controversy and protest. In 2016 Stormont rejected moves to weaken the current abortion law in Ulster, and a consultation on the question found clear support for maintaining the present legal position.
It is heartening to hear from Precious Life that Arlene Foster fully supports its work. A spokeswoman told The Times, “I can assure you that Mrs Foster was unequivocal in her pro-life conviction and assured us that the DUP will use their power to keep abortion and the 1967 Abortion Act out of pro-life Northern Ireland”. Its report adds that “the DUP leader congratulated Precious Life on its youth campaign group, which has travelled around Northern Ireland this summer promoting the retention of its laws on abortion, which are at odds with legislation in the rest of the UK”. Its message was clear: “With [pro-abortion] groups conspiring in a concerted and direct campaign to change our pro-life laws, our aim as a youth project of leading NI campaign group Precious Life was to remind our politicians that, without the right to life, all other rights are meaningless”. How true!
The DUP leader is also resisting pressure to introduce same-sex “marriage” into the Province. Arlene Foster has said publicly that the DUP believes “marriage is between a man and a woman” and “it remains my position very firmly”. She expressed frustration and sadness at being branded homophobic by supporters of same-sex “marriage”, adding, “If you stand up for marriage and if you stand up for the definition of marriage as we believe in it, then in some way that makes you homophobic and a hater of gays”. She adds, “Nothing could be further from the truth as far as I personally am concerned, and it really does hurt me when people call me a homophobe just because I stand up for the definition of marriage which I believe in, and I think this debate has become very toxic”.
Recently at a so-called gay pride event in Belfast, calling for the introduction of same-sex “marriage”, the UK Government approved the flying of the LGBT “rainbow” flag at an official building. When it was reported that Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein led a “gay rights” march, one commentator tellingly remarked, “I can’t help but remember the ‘right’ his terrorist organisation denied 1800 ‘innocents’ directly and 3634 human beings in total: the most precious right of all: life.”
So when the DUP is feeling pressure on these moral issues both from inside and outside Northern Ireland, it is good to see Arlene Foster nailing her colours firmly to the mast and not yielding to the demands of a morally-lax British Government. It is hopeful too that when the British Government, in God’s providence, is so dependent on the DUP for its support in Parliament that a degree of restraint will be exercised on moral issues. Of course it would be far more hopeful if we saw an outpouring of God’s Spirit, not only on Northern Ireland, but on the whole of the UK and beyond. Perhaps the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland has “come to the kingdom for such a time as this”.
KHM
Today’s Godless Climate
A recent survey by the National Centre for Social Research suggests that more than half of people in Britain do not identify themselves as religious. Out of nearly 3000 people questioned, 53% described themselves as having “no religion”. Of those aged 75 and over, 75% held themselves to be religious whereas among 18 to 25 year olds the figure dropped to 29%. Only 15% of the population now claim to be Anglicans, whereas in a previous survey in 2000 the figure was 30%. Roman Catholic adherence has remained stable for the past 30 years at 10% of the population, but the proportion belonging to non-Christian religions is currently 5%.
These statistics do not come as a surprise. The godless climate of our society, the gross moral evils which abound and the prevalence of false religion within the visible Church and beyond, are bound to lead to a lessening of religious consciousness and observance. The Anglican bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, commented that being non-religious is not the same thing as “considered atheism”. He argues that if the Church could only find ways “to show and tell those who say they have ‘no religion’ that faith – faith in the God who loves them still – can make that life-transforming difference for them and for the world”. The bishop does not seem to consider that only the Holy Spirit can bring sinners to repent and believe the gospel and that false religion, as well as atheism, leads multitudes of blind souls to eternity “without God and without hope in the world”. Indeed, the most solemn consideration suggested by this survey is that the Lord is leaving the people of Britain to walk on in darkness. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mt 6:23).
AWM
The Absurdity of the Transgender Movement
The transgender movement continues its surprising progress in Britain, the latest news being that the store John Lewis no longer divides its children’s section into “boys” and “girls”. Although increasingly fashionable, the idea
that people can choose their sex is as absurd as that they could choose the colour of their skin. Our sex is not only a physical aspect of our bodies but an unalterable part of our genetic make-up. One can no more be “a woman trapped in a man’s body” than one can be “a black man trapped in a white man’s body” or “a genius trapped in the body of a simpleton”. A tiny handful of people may be of indeterminate sex, but the overwhelmingly majority are not; and the differences and interactions between men and women are an integral and God-given part of human life. “Male and female created He them” (Gen 5:2). The implications of trying to eradicate “gender” from human life are so colossal that one doubts that the proponents of transgenderism have thought their aims through in any detail.
In promoting this evil, our leaders are being left by God to declare their folly to the whole world, and to all future generations. “Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool” (Ecc 10:3). DWBS
The God of Judgement
The people of God are often impatient for judgement. In Revelation, the martyrs are seen crying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (6:10). The Lord, on the other hand is patient. He is “longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Nevertheless, He does judge, though His judgements may be long delayed.
We may not live to see the judgements on the present generation of ungodly leaders in Britain, but there is a former generation passing into eternity whose works are finally catching up with them. The generation that endorsed Lady Chatterley’s Lover and subsequent obscene publications, that abolished the death penalty for murder, and that legalised abortion and homosexuality, is being gradually summoned into the presence of God. Many have died already but others are still alive. They have lived to see the resulting flood of obscenity, the most flagrant terrorists and murderers escaping their deserts, the millions of abortions, and the ordination and marriage of homosexuals.
Perhaps some of them have realised the error of what they did, while others have brazenly hardened their consciences. Along with their other sins, they will be confronted in eternity with this: that they chose to support these evils, not in the debauched society of the present day but in the relatively sober and church-going society of 50 or 60 years ago, with all the light that was still shining at that stage. They sowed the wind, and they will now reap the whirlwind, if eternity finds them without Christ (Hos 8:7). DWBS