On Cannibalism

“Because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind - therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.” - Jeremiah 19.4-6

I saw possibly the worst report on the Channel 4 news I have ever seen, about scientists finally being able to clone primate embryos in order to obtain embryonic stem cells (cells which are able to give rise to the other cell types in the body). The praises of the gods Science and Technology having been sung in the one-sided report, the presenter interviewed a professor of neuroscience from King’s College London. He prophesied that within his working lifetime, progress would be made to making human clones in order to obtain embryonic stem cells, which may help provide a cure for people with motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease and cystic fibrosis, as well as providing insight into the processes underlying these diseases. He brushed off the possibility that this was controversial with the ‘argument’ that cloned embryos only consist of a few cells and don’t yet look human, so he didn’t feel that any harm was being done to human life. Quite how this qualitatively differs from saying, for example, that it’s all right to kill black people for food because they look different to us, I’m not sure. Part of me does think sometimes that I’m being trained to be an acolyte in the temple of Baal. I do also wonder whether verses such as the above might not furnish suitable homiletic material for topical expositions on the subject of embryo research or abortion, proclaiming God’s judgment on those who sacrifice their children to the gods of Medical Progress or Maternal Choice (and of course thus pointing us to the salvation that can be found in Christ alone).

Forty Years and Seven Million Deaths

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.” – Jeremiah 29.7

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act (1967), so I believe. There was a Pro-Life stall on Cornmarket St. so I went along to stand with them for an hour. The Blackfriars were out in force in their splendid habits. I was standing next to a Romanist tutor from St. Benet’s Hall and he said that he presumed evangelicals were fairly conservative in their view on abortion. I replied rather sheepishly, “Yes.” Sheepishly, because I was the only evangelical there. I confess that I haven’t been committed in a particularly practical way to the Pro-Life society at University, and I’m sure I could have been a more faithful steward of the medical knowledge I have received in educating, so this is a criticism levelled at evangelicalism generally in which I include myself. There is reluctance in getting involved with things like this, perhaps because there is a feeling of inevitability about the whole thing. What can the small voice of protest possibly achieve? This is perhaps symptomatic of the current evangelical tendency to retreat from the public life of the country as a whole and to withdraw into a huddle in which we focus on our own concerns of church and mission. What a far cry from the evangelicalism of men like Wilberforce whose consistent pressure in Parliament for the abolition of slavery saw success two hundred years ago! Our citizenship is in heaven. We belong to the New Jerusalem which will one day come down out of heaven from God. We are strangers and exiles in this land which is not our home. But we are to seek the welfare of this place in which we now live. There must be evangelical involvement in the political, economic and social structures of this country. That will include taking a public stand for things like abortion legislation, which has seen the murder of at least seven million unborn children in the last four decades. True welfare is to be found living under God’s good and perfect law. And far from being a distraction from the work of edifying God’s people and of evangelism, it is in the welfare of our land of exile that we as God’s people find our welfare – and that God is glorified.

Also, click HERE for a piece by Charles Moore in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, which is well worth a read.

BMA Petition on Abortion

Students at St. Ebbe’s were encouraged this term to play a more active part in speaking out against infanticide. Here is an opportunity to do so:

http://www.bmapetition.org.uk/

Insanity

In a lecture yesterday, I learned that we are no longer allowed to call diabetics ‘diabetics’. They are now ‘people with diabetes’. So we have to say the same thing using more words. Right. Does this strike anyone else as utter madness?