Christians should not vote for the ‘regressive’ Scottish Green Party unless they amend their controversial proposals to legalise abortion on demand in Scotland, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland has said.
Earlier this week the Greens launched their manifesto for the Holyrood election, which stated that they “will push for abortion to be removed from the criminal justice system”.
But in a stark rebuke, Rev David Robertson said it demonstrated that the Greens “cared more about plants than people” adding
“I do not see how any Christian can in good conscience vote for a party which is insisting on such extremist anti-human life measures”.
According to the last census, 54 per cent of the population of Scotland stated their religion as Christian.
The Moderator said: “Sadly it seems as though the Greens are more concerned about plants than they are about people.
“Whilst there are individual Green policies than many of us would agree with, I do not see how any Christian can in good conscience vote for a party which is insisting on such extremist anti-human life measures.”
“I call upon all those who profess the name of Christ to remember his words ‘whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me’.
“If the Greens insist on the absolutist right to kill the child in the womb then we cannot vote for them.
“We call upon them to change their policy and allow their MSPs freedom of conscience on this most important moral issue.”
Rev David Robertson continued: “When we suggested that there were those who would seek to change Scotland’s abortion law to make abortion even easier, we were ridiculed and told that there were no such plans. Now we find that our fears were justified.
“In a break with the practice that abortion is a matter of individual conscience, the Greens have now decided that all their MSPs will support what they call ‘reproductive rights’ and the removal of abortion from the criminal justice system.
“This would result in a major overhaul of the 1967 Abortion Act and would in effect mean abortion on demand.”
The Dundee-based minister added: “The Greens want better information to be available for women in all areas of Scotland. We agree with this latter request, although we suspect that the Greens would not agree that women should be given the information that abortion is the taking of a human life in the womb.
“Science and society has indeed moved on. We are now more aware than ever of the human life that is within the womb.
“For the Greens to suggest that we should facilitate the taking of human life, whether within or outwith the womb, is a chilling development in Scottish politics and suggests not a ‘progressive’ society, but a regression to the practices of the pre-Christian Greco/Roman/Pagan society, where unwanted babies were ‘exposed’ to die.”
Reproductive rights aren’t a step backwards but a leap forward. Why aren’t women allowed to choose what to do with their bodies? It’s fine for men to have control but not the women.
Gary – noone is arguing that men should have control and not women. It is not just the question of the womans body – as I am sure you recognise. There is another body involved as well (actually another two – at least!). Thats basic science and basic humanity – which you seem to be ignoring.
A leap forward? Abortion tells women they aren’t strong enough to do what only a woman is built for. That they cannot possibly be a success in society if they don’t kill their offspring. That equality is about women being able to walk away from responsibility just like a man can – not bringing up standards for men, just lowering them for women. That isn’t equality, that’s insanity.
The only thing we are being trusted with is that we won’t see the wood for the trees. Choose what to do with our bodies? These people are terrified we use our heads and realise what they are really saying.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thank you for speaking out again, David. Right now you are the voice Scotland needs to hear, saying the things Scotland is determined not to know. I thank God that he has put you in a position where you can be heard!
When the “information” Greens piously advocate for pregnant women includes a true and accurate account of what abortion actually does and is, it may be time to respect their policies.
This is from the Greens health equality briefing dated March 2015:
“Children’s experiences from conception and in the first weeks and years of their life are a major determinant of future health.”
No kidding!
Is there any party that we can vote for?
If I went through each available party listed on my postal vote I could list policies or practise’s that are wrong. Is one wrong policy more wrong than another. If I vote for a party that then enables something like the above worse than if I vote for a party that uses its power to enable wars with no just cause or the party that allows (legal) corruption while the poor suffer. The perhaps have different levels of being wrong from a local human perspective – but wrong is wrong.
So do we not vote or vote for the least worst & try to change them – neither are good options.
We have two options and rightly or wrongly I see first option as a vote to try to enable major change and the second to say who I like. Currently I’m thinking of leaving it blank (which seems wrong). Not looking for you to say which party are the best, but highlighting how impossible the choice is right now for me (and I’m guessing others as well).
I have now reached the stage where I vote for the candidate, not the party. In Scotland there is very little difference between the leadership of the main parties or their policies – meet the new boss, same as the old boss. So I find out candidates views and vote for the one that gets closest to mine!
So would you vote for the Green Party if their candidate’s view was closest to yours out of all the alternatives?
Only if the candidate was prepared to go against his party’s policy on abortion
It’s complicated – especially considering each list can have 12 people on it and then even if they do have there own views, are they allowed to air them and more importantly vote on them?
‘They kill their unborn children, but they’ll die to save the whales’. This phrase crystallised in my mind years ago, yet still well describes the dichotomy of many pro-(human)death activists.
The Lib Dems also have a manifesto commitment on abortion. They want to keep the current law. However, abortion is meant to be a conscience issue. How can they make a manifesto commitment not to change the law when they don’t know who will be elected and what their views on the subject will be. Does this mean that Lib Dem MSPs will not have freedom of conscience on this matter?
Timely as ever David. Its very convenient to talk of a Woman’s rights, but ignore the fact that rights are given so that within a civilised society everyone should be given equal chance to flourish, except it would seem if you’re alive but unborn! Typically we get more upset about the in humane transport of animals (their fluffy) than a human life, and when a society can tolerate an unborn baby being aborted, so that a woman (in most cases) can carry on free from the consequences of her consensual choices, and responsibility can it truly be civilised let alone compassionate?
I agree with your assessment of this Green policy. But, you have mentioned before that you are a SNP supporter. So, you lack disernment as nationalism is sin, there is no ‘nice’ nationalism. It should, and usually is, obvious to beleivers that abortion is wrong, but Christians totally lack discernment when it comes to politics. I mention that because if we lack discernment, our assessment of everything is probably off. It may help your argument here, but the Greens don’t care more about plants than people (other than in this instance). Generally, it is people first and there is very little radical about their policies. Ultimatly caring about plants creates a better place for humans, but often the Greens are happy to support the continued destruction of the natural world so long as a cycle lane is thrown in!
So, here is a church saying ‘don’t vote for this party’ becuase it is an issue they feel strongly on. Instead they suggest we vote for another unsavory party. Politics is in the state it is because there is no good form of politics. It is about various groups getting together to look after their own interests. I have very little interest in who gets in. My only guide in the forthcoming election is voting for any party that avoids the greater evil of extremist nationalism – UKIP and SNP. They may appear nice but they are about blaming others while their pride filled egos say how great ‘we’ are. Christians should be speaking in favour of working for the good of all, and cooperation, while realising there is no perfect way to run a broken world. By the way, I have no problem with Christians standing for election, even for unsavory parties, just so long as they don’t actually beleive in them! Much as Christians have done in evil regimes all over the world, we can secretly work for good in evil systems, while never supporting them.
Where in the bible does it say that nationalism is sin? Given that it is God who defines sin it would be helpful to know. Does this include British nationalism, American nationalism, European nationalism?
Firstly, I would like to thank David for his clear and unequivocal pronouncement on this matter. It would be pleasing if all leading Church people could do the same.
To Gary, I would ask when did you last see a woman with a penis? How can a male baby be part of a women’s body? If I swallowed a spoon the spoon would not be part of my body. A baby is inside a woman’s body but it is not part of it.
To delpkeno I would agree that there is now a big problem for Christians. The party leaders’ rally organised by the LBGT lobby shows how they are basically all on the same subservient path when it comes to those issues. However, I would argue that there is no more important issue than the defence of innocent life.
On the subject of voting for individual Green candidates can I remind everybody what happened to the Green Councillor in Brighton who voted according to her conscience? She was summarily dismissed from her party.
http://www.christianconcern.com/press-release/press-release-christian-ousted-from-green-party-group-of-councillors
The Green Party is to individual conscience as oil is to water. The Green Party is authoritarian through and through, from its demand that all of its elected representatives vote the party line on abortion to its desire to make us all depend totally on the wind and the sun for our energy. But all parties are moving in this authoritarian direction. Witness what happened to the Conservative candidate in Ayrshire for expressing certain views on homosexuality.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2010/04/tory-candidate-for-north-ayrshire-and-arran-suspended-for-criticising-homosexuality.html