Deacon Nick Donnelly of
Protect the Pope
offers some advice on who Catholics can vote for in the upcoming
general election in a recent article which has been banned by a local
paper because of its "political content". Deacon Nick explains:
The editor of the Barrow Evening Mail has banned my article on the
General Election from their weekly Christian Comment section. He gave
the following reason:
'It is highly politicised and as we are now in purdah (the period
running up to an election during which newspapers must be extremely
careful of what political content they publish), it is not appropriate
for publication I'm afraid.'
Here's my banned article:
Every General Election I am faced with a dilemma as a Christian – which
candidate and political party can I vote for in good conscience?
As a Christian I no longer trust the Labour party because of their
actions against the Church when last in government. It was Tony Blair
who destroyed the network of Catholic adoption agencies in this country
by forcing them to place children with gay couples. As a consequence the
Church had to cut her links with adoption agencies that ordinary
Christians had built up over a hundred years.
How can I vote for a candidate who won’t protect babies from being
aborted because they’re girls? Recently, the vast majority of Labour
MPs, including Barrow’s John Woodcock, voted down legislation that would
have ensured that babies are protected from sex-selection abortion.
I also can’t vote for the Liberal Democrats or Green party because they
hold more extreme positions than Labour that are impossible for me to
reconcile with my Christian Faith.
How can Christians trust David Cameron after his legalisation of same
sex marriage which did not feature in either the 2010 manifesto or in
the Coalition Agreement with the Liberal Democrats? And now Christian
schools are being put into special measures by Ofsted for not adequately
teaching LGBT rights and issues.
When it comes to the Conservative party I’m profoundly reluctant to vote
for their candidate Simon Fell considering his party’s record on life
issues and same-sex marriage. It was Margaret Thatcher’s government that
legalised experimentation on embryonic human beings conceived through
IVF. This original Tory legislation has led to the creation in the
laboratory of animal-human hybrids and recent legalisation allowing the
destruction of embryonic human beings as to be used as spare parts for
siblings.
Some Christians tell me that they’re going to vote of UKIP as a protest
vote but even that option is not open to me because of their policy of
cutting the UK’s foreign aid budget by two-thirds. It would be gravely
immoral to cut aid to some of the poorest and most vulnerable families
and children in the world who depend on the UK for food, medicine and
education.
I consider voting at a General Election to be a solemn and binding duty
on every citizen because countless men and women have given their lives
to protect our freedom as a democracy. But what do Christians do when
all the political parties advocate a whole variety of policies that we
consider immoral? I’m sure I’m not the only one to conclude that no
political party at this General Election represents our moral world view
as a Christians.
History tells us that new political movements emerge when groups of
people find themselves politically marginalised or disenfranchised. Have
we come to the point when Christians feel strongly enough to challenge
the secular ruling establishment in this country?
Deacon Nick Donnelly, Our Lady of Furness, Duke St, Barrow.
