The Evangelical Alliance have produced a letter signed by some of the key lobbying groups such as Christian Concern etc and invited church leaders to add their names.
I won’t be signing the letter and I thought it might be helpful to explain why, especially given that I’ve been trying to get people’s attention in this issue for some time.
First, I don’t think that such mass signatory letters are that effective. They are likely to be written off as the work of interest groups. It’s too easy to add your name, in fact, much is made of that as a reason to sign. The point is that if I can just add my name, have I thought about and owned the issue.
Furthermore with a private members’ bill, MPs are listening to their own constituents and do something generic and national is of less interest. I can’t help thinking that the EA would do better to simply keep a register if hie many Christians had written to their MPs.
Secondly, unfortunately, I don’t think this letter cuts it. It is okay in what it does say but it fails to say the thing that really matters. Yes, there are huge issues in terms of safe guarding, yes, there are the slippery slope concerns of where next.
However, the letter gives the impression that concerns are pragmatic and that so with enough work on safe guards, it will be okay.
All of those points have been made in individual letters, in newspaper articles and by MPs opposing the bill.
The EA has here missed a crucial and vital need and opportunity. If we are going to speak to together as Christians, then we need to be specifically and very clear about why, from God’s perspective euthanasia is always wrong. Then we need to offer a better Gospel answer to the reasons given for euthanasia.
Faithroots 