Categories: uncategorized
Date: 30 November 2006 20:07:43
I've noticed in the coverage surrounding the UCCF dispute and this Baptist Times story that one name keeps turning up, that is The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship .
I have to say that it appears that they have a Public Policy Unit which states its aim as being to "promote Christian values by: defending the freedom to preach the Gospel, upholding the sanctity of human life, raising awareness of the need to protect people from addiction, and promoting Biblical teaching on marriage and the family: in all things to be a voice for Christian values and to encourage support for the weak and vulnerable."
Now I have to say that this is, to a point and with qualification, in principle a fine aim, which I think is to be supported. However, on the other hand it appears that this are a group who are fanning the fire of conservative evangelical Christian paranoia at the moment & are actually making things worse rather than better, because they are amongst the groups responsible for pushing others into supporting more extreme positions and actions than they perhaps otherwise would (on both sides).
From what we are seeing at the moment I would argue that this group are more influential and actually more dangerous than Christian Voice, because they are encouraging mainstream evangelicals into supporting their campaigns (something Christian Voice largely managed not to do because of their obvious extremism).
All we can hope for is that groups such as Ekklesia who have produced this paper aimed at promoting the idea of reaching a compromise solution are heard and able to help the different groups involved achieved some level of reconciliation.