Britain and Christian Values

 

The case concerning a community nurse, Caroline Petrie, who was suspended for offering to pray for one of her patients is bad enough, but it is only the tip of the iceberg, as far as this country of ours is concerned. She is one of thousands of Christian workers and those of other faiths for whom prayer is a normal daily part of their lives.  It is no surprise, of course, that The National Secular Society backed the suspension of Mrs Petrie. The group, which represents the interests of atheists, agnostics and other non-religious groups, said it was inappropriate for health workers to 'evangelise'. 

 

Britain, as a nation, has lost its sense of Christian values, morals, and ethics over the past few decades. We only have to look at the increase in abortions, murders, and other violent and drug/drink related crimes to realise that we have fallen a long way from the standards of a century ago.

 

People are elected to our Parliament, often ones with limited intellect, but who have the ability to deliver glib speeches when appealing to the electorate for votes. The public’s apathy at General Elections is partly to blame for allowing some of those unsuitable individuals into the Commons.  In the Lords last week, we were reminded again of how low Britain has sunk, with the Sunday Times newspaper revealing that four peers from the governing Labour Party, including two former ministers, had agreed to help undercover reporters posing as business lobbyists to obtain amendments for between £24,000 and £120,000 a year. One of them was even recorded, claiming that it was okay to do such deals in certain circumstances.

 

Only a couple of days after those revelations, I watched a senior citizen on TV, explaining that she could only afford to boil her kettle once a day, and that she used candles at night instead of electricity. She, and thousands like her, receive less per week than our MPs claim in expenses for one day. In fact, I wonder how many of those MPs, of all parties, are content with owning or renting just the one house. Not too many, I suspect. Maybe our leaders should heed the words in Proverbs Ch. 22 v 2 – "The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all.”

 

I have deliberately used the name “Britain” above without the “Great”, as we have lost the right to use that as a descriptive adjective nowadays.