The value of a human life

Published letter in the Berwickshire News (July 2025)

In the light of the recent political vote on abortion, please allow me to point out to your readers that animal cruelty, according to the ‘Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024’ (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2024/4/pdfs/asp_20240004_en.pdf ), may result in a hefty fine or even imprisonment.

The unborn child has been not afforded the same legal status since 1967. And yet, there is me still naively thinking as a Christian that Jesus is still right all along (see Matthew 10:31).

Those involved in abortion have not necessarily committed the unforgivable sin, but I am not so sure about politicians who have no hesitation when it comes to discriminating against the most vulnerable in our society, the unborn, the disabled, the poor, and the elderly. The cheapening of human life will cost all of us dearly.

'Lousy' and 'thick'

Watching Justin Welby has done wonders for my blood-pressure. On the positive side, he seems rather affable, a smooth operator, in touch with the world’s thinking (though always cautiously a step behind), just kind of nice.

Notwithstanding Justin Welby’s ingenuous self-designation as a "conservative believer in biblical truth" (c. 31:28), he is all over the place, which means ‘neither here nor there’, but then Anglicanism is a broad church, though less so – and thankfully – in Africa.

His misplaced egological humility (my apologies to Uriah Heep; at least Charles Dickens cannot sue me!) on the clear teaching of biblical sexuality may be forgiven since on his own admission, he is a ‘lousy theologian’ (c. 1.17), and I really do not wish to contradict him at all. He is also, on his own admission, just 'thick' (c. 36:34). I always used to think that ’thick’ people do not know they are ‘thick’! I just don’t get it, I guess! 

But Welby is not 'thick'! He is fully versed in what Jesus Himself teaches about human sexuality (c. 34:53), i.e. ‘Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve’, but audaciously goes on to contradict what is clearly taught in Scripture. He is ashamed, fearful and untruthful, speaking with a forked tongue. His conscience certainly is not bound to the Word of God, but to the spirit of the age.