What happened to democracy?

It was in the Andrew Marr Show, on BBC television, that Mr Nick Clegg made the statement that Liberal Democrat MPs will be forced to vote in favour of allowing homosexual/lesbian marriage when (sic!) the legislation is considered by Parliament.  From the leader of a political Party that has the word "Democrat" in its name, that is hardly a democratic approach!  Indeed, it smacks of the sort of dictatorial attitude found in "single-party" nations, such as North Korea!

I have written to Mr Clegg - and sent similar correspondence to a number of his senior Party members - as follows:

Dear Mr Clegg,

Having heard your statement, made on the Andrew Marr Show, that Liberal Democrat MPs will be forced to vote in favour of allowing homosexual/lesbian marriage when the legislation is considered by the U.K. Parliament, I write to ask you to reconsider this position.

It is surely the case that, on an issue as emotive as this, and where there is indeed a matter of conscience, there will be some LibDem members who are not in favour of this attempt to redefine the universally-accepted concept of marriage as being the voluntary union of a man and a woman (or, in some cultures, more than one woman – but always male and female), for life, and to the exclusion of all others.  Your public statement would suggest that  there is in fact, no place for the supporters of traditional marriage within the Liberal Democrat Party.  This, one must assume, extends beyond the walls of the Palace of Westminster to the "ordinary" supporter around the country.

Even from a purely pragmatic perspective, I would respectfully suggest that this is a mistake.  The recent local council elections indicated that your Party has already lost a great deal of its support throughout the country.  I would suggest that taking such a hard stand on an issue as emotive as that of the "redefinition" of marriage would decimate even the rump that remains!   I certainly know LibDem supporters who are staunchly in favour of the retention of marriage as it has been for millennia!  I am not a Party member ( I am not a member of any political Party), but I have supported LibDem candidates in the past, especially at local level.  This is something that I would never be able to do again!

You also stated that this issue is not one of conscience because the Government would not be forcing clergy to marry homosexual/lesbian pairs.  You seem to have forgotten that such assurances are not worth the breath used to utter them!  Apart from the fact that every Government has gone back on pre-election, and Manifesto, promises, you have absolutely no control over the decisions of some future Government!  When "civil partnerships" were, so recently, introduced it was made clear that there would be no attempt to introduce homosexual/lesbian "marriage.  We already see how firm a comittment that has turned out to be!

In the light of the points that I have (I trust respectfully) made, I would urge you to reconsider both your, and the Party's, position.

Anyone resident in the UK, who wishes to follow my example, may feel free to use any of the points that I have made - although, preferably, in their own words!

Making new.

For the past couple of days, I have (like many others!) taken advantage of the good weather conditions to attend to some much-needed maintenance on the house and garden.  One of the bigger jobs has been re-laying some of the monoblocks in the driveway.

It's not a particularly difficult job to do, although it can be quite back-breaking!  The blocks have to be lifted - not too bad after the first one has been prised out; then the ground underneath has to be cleaned up.  Following this, I had to lay some fresh whin-dust - before carefully setting the blocks back in place; tapping them (reasonably!) level; and brushing kiln-dried sand into all of the spaces in order to ensure that they don't move.

I still have some work to do on the drive on Monday (D.V.), but it is already looking much better.

As I worked, today, I thought to myself that the Lord has to do the same sort of thing with me.  Although I was saved a long time ago (just before my 15th birthday anniversary!), the work of sanctification (being made more like Jesus) is a continuing one.  As a former friend was wont to say, "I'm a work in progress"!  So often the Lord has to lift things away in order to reveal the poor state of what is underneath.  Then He has to clean me up again; level me off - and that may entail a wee "tap" or two!; and brush God the Holy Spirit into all of the cracks in order that I may be constant and true (at least until the next time He has to work on me - sadly, a more regular occurrence than my dealings with my drive-way!).

Next week, I also plan to attend to some of the exterior paintwork.  A coat of paint, as one might say, can cover a multitude of sins!  How thankful I am that, while "... the blood of Jesus ... cleanses [me] from all sin ..." (I John 1:7), He also wants to do a deep work within so that He may "... present [me] before the presence of His glory, with rejoicing ..." (Jude 24).

Have you opened yourself to His working in, and on, your life?  Have you?!

Communication is free!

According to an item in today's newspapers, the film star Brad Pitt - or, at least, the Canadian film distribution company, Alliance - is charging journalists at the Cannes Film Festival £2,000 for a twenty-minute interview about his latest film!  The same price is being asked for interviews with Kristen Stewart, about her latest film.  Interviews with other "stars" may be arranged for a bargain £1,200 - and I must confess that I would far rather pay that sum for twenty minutes with the delightful Nicole Kidman, than 66% more for the same time with Mr Pitt!  Of course, I am a man!!  By the way, if anyone wishes to interview me (!!), I'll be happy with a voluntary donation!

So why would anyone wish to pay for the privilege of providing these "stars" with the very publicity that they seem to crave, and without which most of their effort would go unrewarded?  I suppose that it's partly to do with the "celebrity culture" in which we, in the so-called 'developed' world live.  Yet I've just been viewing some photographs, posted on Facebook by a former pupil who is currently involved in voluntary work in Malawi - bringing contraceptive and other health advice to people who probably don't even know where Cannes is - and may never have heard of Brad Pitt!  I reckon that she is much more worthy of £2,000 for an interview about the work that she is doing!

Of course, as a disciple of Jesus, I speak with Him every day.  Now that's speaking with a Celebrity!  In spite of what some may think, and claim, He is much better known that even Brad Pitt (or Nicole Kidman!).  It was the late John Lennon, of The Beatles, who (in?)famously said, in 1966, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."  However, while even the name of John Lennon is barely known to those who are currently under 40 years of age, Jesus marches on!

My daily conversation with the Lord has another great benefit.  He doesn't charge me £2,000 (or even £1,200!).  In fact, the heart of the Christian Gospel, or Good News, is that He has already paid the price.  Before He came to this earth, there was a great veil, or curtain, separating the Most Holy Place in the Jewish Tabernacle and, later, Temple from the Holy Place.  This was the barrier that came between sinful mankind, and the Holy God.  But when Jesus, on the cross, gave that mighty shout "Tetelesthai" (Finished), that curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom.  It was as if Father God had reached down from the eternal heaven, and ripped it apart.  And the result?  The way was now clear for you, and for me, to enter His presence; "... to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, ..." (Heb 10:19-20; RSV).

A third benefit is that my conversation is not confined to any one subject.  I can bring everything, however important or trivial, to Him.  He is interested in every moment, and every matter, in my life.  He has a perfect plan for me, and longs to share it with me.  And He is always available to me.  He hears my every word.  He knows my every thought. 

The great privilege of speaking with the Creator, and Redeemed, of mankind is totally free.  "Eat your heart out, Brad!"

Why was Jesus crucified?

Sometimes, my mind wanders all over the place!  Sometimes, it even arrives at a worthy destination!  This afternoon, while working-out on the cross-trainer (was there some sort of psychological word-association?!), I found myself thinking of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, on the cross at Calvary.  The question that arose in my mind was simple: Why did He have to die such a horrible, bloody, death?  Why was He not knocked unconscious, and then suffocated?  Why did He not drown?  Why was He not starved to death?  Why did He not just die in His sleep?  Why did he have to shed blood?

The answer, I knew, is found in the Letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus: "... under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Heb 9:22; RSV).

It was so from the very beginning.  When our first human parents sinned, they tried to cover their sin by their own efforts.  "... they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." (Gen 3:7; RSV).  This wouldn't do.  So, we read, a little later on in the narrative that "... YHWH Elohim made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them." (Gen 3:21; RSV).  Father God made a covering of skin - and that required, not only the death of an animal, but a bloody death - as anyone who has skinned an animal will know.  "... without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins."

For years; for decades; for centuries; for millennia; this was the pattern.  In the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple, the Jewish priests would offer blood-sacrifices for the sins of the people.  Once each year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest went into the innermost sanctuary - the Holy of Holies - taking blood from the sacrifice and sprinkling it on the Mercy Seat that formed the lid for the Ark of the Covenant, "... for himself and for the errors of the people." (Heb 9:7; RSV).  "... without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins."

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." (Heb 9:11-12; RSV).

The hymnwriter put it like this: "Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain, could give the guilty conscience paece, or wash away the stain.  But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away; a sacrifice of nobler Name, and richer blood than they." (Isaac Watts).

He shed His blood, that I (and you!) might be saved; that there might be no further need for animal sacrifice.  As He hung on the cross, and just before He died, He uttered one word: "Tetelesthai" ("Finished"; John 19:30).  But this wasn't the weak whimper of someone who has realised that he has been vanquished; that all of his struggling has been of no avail.  This was the mighty, triumphant, shout of One Who knew that He had completed the work for which He had taken on human flesh.

Mrs Alexander got it right in another of the old (and, often, more theologically accurate!) songs: "He died that we might be forgiven; He died to make us good.  That we might go, at last to heaven, saved by His precious blood."

Paul wrote: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us." (Eph 1:7-8; RSV); while Peter reminds us: "... you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." (I Peter 1:18-20; RSV); and John assures us that "... the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (I John 1:7; RSV).

"Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow!  No other fount I know - nothing but the blood of Jesus." (R.Lowry).

At my first (physical) birth, when I was delivered from my mother's womb, I was covered with blood that would have been, almost immediately, washed off.   When I was born again, it was the blood - the shed blood of Jesus - that cleansed me, and made me whole!

Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!  Have you been washed in the blood?  Have you?!

More to come?!

The news that the blind Chinese legal activist, Chen Guangcheng, and his immediate family have been allowed to emigrate to the U.S.of A., is very encouraging.  Unfortunately, he is but one in a large number of those who, within the People's Republic of China, are incarcerated, or held under "house arrest", for holding and airing views that are deemed to be contary to the position held by the authorities.  "Freedom of speech" appears to be an alien concept within the most populated nation in the world!

As I read of Chen Guangcheng's escape, I thought of so many others whose plight is known to me - and even more of whom I am totally unaware!  I thought of human rights lawyer, and disciple of Jesus, Gao Zhisheng, a 45-year-old attorney who has defended activists and religious minorities, and who is an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.  He was given a suspended sentence of three years in prison on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" in December 2006, with five years of probation.   After the sentence, Mr Gao was placed under house arrest. His wife and two children sought asylum in the United States in early 2009 and are now living in California. Chinese authorities revealed in December 2011 that he was being held in a Xinjiang (western China) prison, after he "seriously violated probation rules".   Earlier this year, Mr Gao's older brother, Gao Zhiyi, told journalists that he had met his brother, but it was "not convenient" for him to elaborate further. 

Christian political dissident Liu Xianbin recently received a ten year prison sentence, after having been tried for treason in The People’s Court of Suining in China’s south-central province of Sichuan.  He had been arrested almost a year ago on charges of “inciting subversion” against “state power”, after he had posted a series of internet articles demanding political reform.

Dr Fan Yafeng, head of the Chinese Christian Human Rights' Lawyers Association, has been under house arrest since October 12th, 2010. He was taken in for questioning on December 9 and was tortured repeatedly over several days, according to China Aid.  Dr Fan, his wife, and their young son - who were also arrested and interrogated - remain under house arrest to this day, with Domestic Security Protection agents standing guard round-the-clock at the door of their apartment.

The Uyghur house church leader Alimujiang, in Xinjiang, has now served four years in prison. In February 2011, his appeal was rejected and his original 15-year sentence was upheld.  The vice-president of the Chinese House Church Alliance, Shi Enhao, was sentenced in July 2011 to two years of re-education through labour. Many well-known Christian human rights lawyers were persecuted: Jiang Tianyong and Li Fangping in Beijing, and Guangzhou’s Tang Jingling, were both abducted and tortured by the government. 

Some well-known Christian lawyers and political dissidents have also been punished: Chen Wei from Sichuan province, and Chen Xi from Guizhou province, were sentenced to 9- and 10-year prison terms, respectively; Zhu Yufu from Zhejiang province is still in jail awaiting the result of his trial nearly a year after his arrest. Beijing’s Ni Yulan, and her husband, Dong Jiqin, are in jail awaiting trial and sentencing. A well-known Christian in the film and visual arts, Jiang Yaxi, is also in prison awaiting trial. 

It would be good to think that Chen Guangchen's new-found liberty is the beginning of a move by the Chinese authorities to permit citizens of the Republic to hold, and express, their opinions in a reasonable manner.  Sadly, there is actually little to suggest that this one instance is anything more than a temporary sop to USA-Chinese relationships.  Perhaps Hillary Clinton will take these other cases on board, as well!

(most of the information in this post has been gleaned from China Aid: http://www.chinaaid.org/  )