The Bishop's Message for January

Dear friends: 

I hope you had a joyful and blessed Christmas. 

As I write this Christmastide is still very much with us, and the season takes in some commemorations that tend to be neglected during the period of 'worship fatigue' that follows the Feast of the Nativity. I am thinking of St Stephen, St John and the Holy Innocents - all important days but not enthusiastically celebrated.  This year, however, Holy Innocents Day fell on a Sunday, so it was more widely observed than usual. How many people, I wonder, pondered the implications of the massacre of the innocents and its relevance to us today? 

Herod ordered the killing of boys under two years old because it seemed a simple and effective way of eliminating a threat to his power.  Hitler had the same idea.  Believing that Jews were enemies of the state he had them rounded up and gassed, along with other nuisances like gypsies and the mentally ill. Stalin did likewise, and probably on an even greater scale. In more recent times dictators in African states have eliminated imagined threats by widespread massacres. 

This is  killing for the sake of convenience, and it is going on today  – not only in remote regions of the world but in the USA and Europe. I don't know what the figures are for the USA, but in Britain we kill about 200,000 unborn babies each year. In fact, since abortion became legal in 1967 we have exceeded the Nazi productivity record, with well over six million killings, which is more than the number of Jews who died on Hitler's orders. Only a tiny minority of those abortions were for urgent medical reasons; the vast majority were carried out simply because a baby was inconvenient and unwanted. 

And it won't stop there.  Those who see death as the simple solution to an awkward problem are now turning their attention to the other end of the age range, and are engaged in an increasingly determined campaign to legalize euthanasia. Ironically the most fervent supporters of abortion and euthanasia are the 'liberals' who never tire of proclaiming their compassion for the needy and their desire for 'social justice'. We are assured, therefore, that their motives are truly compassionate, and that only those with intolerable illnesses will take advantage of any new law permitting assisted suicide. 

But we have heard that argument before. When legal abortion was first proposed we were assured that it would only take place in exceptional cases where a birth would mean severe medical, mental or social distress. Now any woman can have her child killed on demand. 

So it will be with euthanasia. Once the law makes it possible for someone to request assisted death the numbers will begin to swell. Elderly people who need expensive special care (or who are tiresomely withholding their children's inheritance) will get the whisper in the ear: 'Granny, you don't really want to be a burden to us, do you? All you have to do is sign this paper....'   Granny, of course, will sign, because nobody wants to be a burden. 

So the culture of killing will become ever more acceptable. Who will be next on the list? Well, what about all those severely disabled people who lead such miserable and pointless lives....? 

I am sorry to start the year on such a somber note, but we really do need to take a clear view and make a stand here if we are to avoid the ghosts of Hitler and Stalin reappearing in our 'civilized' societies. Let's make a special effort this year to support those who campaign against the deliberate killing of human beings by the people in white coats. It's  more commonly known as murder. 

+Lawrence