Catholic Cabinet Ministers may be revolting

Two Catholic Cabinet Ministers in Gordon Brown's UK Government are calling for a free vote in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Currently the order that has gone out to the MPs is, vote for the bill or else. However, this bill seriously undermines the value of human life - something all Catholics ought to oppose at every turn.

In this bill in particular, the MPs opposition to the bill stems from mainly two issues - one to do with the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos and the second to do with allowing children to be born by IVF without a father's involvement.

The Observer article also lists a number of other MPs who have serious concerns with the bill - and explicitly states that they are Catholics.

Ah, well, those Catholics ...

But what I really wanted to say is, will the concerned Catholic MPs find their inner backbone and refuse to back a bill their conscience and their faith tells them is wrong? Wouldn't that be wonderful, politicians that stand up for what they believe and know to be right?

So, what would happen to them if they voted against the bill? The article mentions "disciplinary action". I wonder what "disciplinary action" that could be? Secretary taken away for a month? Loss of the big limo? No cheese and crackers for afternoon tea? Or worse yet, a pay-cut?

Oh, the agony! At least they are not alive during the English Queen Elizabeth I's reign or even Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus's. They won't get hung, drawn and quartered if they vote against the bill. Or beheaded or thrown to the lions or even tortured. Not even a little bit. Well, maybe the loss of cheese and crackers might be thought of to be a little torturous.

Early Christian Martyrs

I'm currently reading a fascinating book called: We look for a Kingdom: The everyday lives of the early Christians. What is clear from this book (which focuses on the years AD 100 - 313), is that even thought difficult to be Christian, people still wanted to do so. Christians of those times had to expect that their faith and society would come into conflict. They had to be ready to choose their faith over what was expected by society, even if society just wanted them to light a little incense to the gods. Just a waft and you won't be tortured and killed. It was a belief that pointed to something greater than this world and for that reason, Christianity spread. Here's a little excerpt from the book on this:

The martyrs played a powerful role in the conversion of many. Saint Basil the Great wrote in hindsight, "the blood of the martyrs, watering the Churches, nourished many more champions of true religion." The martyrs proved there must be more to Christianity than the average person was hearing about. Justin Martyr, who, as his name implies, was himself a martyr, wrote, "For I myself, too, when I was delighting in the doctrines of Plato, and heard the Christians slandered, and saw them fearless of death, and of all other things which are counted fearful, perceived that it was impossible that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure." The knowledge that the Christians were serious people who were being wickedly oppressed by the government caused many people, who were already having grave doubts about the direction their culture was taking, to explore Christianity further.

So will they compromise?

I wonder what the MPs will do if they are told they will not have a free vote, that they should just do their jobs and vote as the government tells them to vote and to leave their faith at the door. I wonder if they will think, oh well, I tried. At least I'll still be in parliament or in the Cabinet to do some good in the future. If they do think that, then they will be wrong. Those people that think they must compromise now for possible good in the future have sold out. Maybe to oppose this bill is the whole reason they are there, maybe their whole life has lead up to this moment, this point in time and that will the absolute best good they could ever do. Not only in blocking the bill, but in setting an example, showing people that doing good outweighs compromise, overrules tampering with life itself. Maybe like the martyrs of the past, where they don't even need to spill blood, they will prove by their actions that there is something more to Christianity, authentic Christianity, that what the average person has seen for a long time.


Related Link: Pro-life MPs seek free embryo vote ~ The Observer, UK