Will you vote for good or evil?
Filed on 28 May 2010 in Food For Thought category. 
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Will you vote for good or evil?
In a previous article The Ethical Crisis in our Parliaments* I concluded “if indeed it is hopeless to change the minds of existing MPs then we must throw them out – like we did in WA in the last state election. The preferences of the CDP in WA were instrumental in the election of 5 new MPs favourable to a culture of life”.
Clearly this means we have to know who to vote for. My challenge then to all people – Christians in particular – is will you vote for good or for evil?
Now I know some of you will be bristling already. How dare you label our potential voting evil. Who do you think you are putting our needed decisions into those categories. Anyway, you must not mix politics with religion.
OK, you can stop reading at this point but I hope you will reason this through with me. We really have to look at which party or individual policies and standards are more honouring to God and which are outright opposed. I am well aware this is a contentious subject.
As it happens people in Victoria will have a relatively easy choice in their state election due this coming November. You will recall that two years ago Victoria passed the most liberal abortion laws in Australia permitting abortion through to 24 weeks for any reason without any approval except finding someone to do it and over 24 weeks it only requires the approval of two doctors for any reason that those doctors may approve. No counselling is required, nor is there any “cooling-off” period. There is no restriction as to method of abortion including the horrific partial birth abortion, nor are there any guidelines re abortion for foetal abnormality. Abortion for minor correctable abnormalities such as cleft lip have crept in under the radar in Victoria and now has legal sanction.
How did things get this bad?
Because the people of Victoria either did not vote for good candidates or there weren’t enough of them to vote for. Did they not have the foresight to realise that Christians need to stand up in our society for that which is right and that may include standing for election? Or was it because the issues were muddied and they could not separate good from evil?
But there’s more. In that abortion legislation for the first time in Western civilisation since Hitler’s Germany is the provision that doctors are forced – even when such is against their deeply held convictions and conscience – to participate in the process of referral for abortion when asked by a patient.
Now it is one thing to pass a law that permits evil but it is something more to pass a law that compels evil.
Do you see that there are two levels of evil here? One is to permit killing of the unborn child but the other, more sinister and greater, evil is to compel medical participation in this process. Medicine, justly, has the highest level of ethics in the world. It must. And yet, here we have a government that is – quite unnecessarily in fact because there is no restriction on a pregnant mother going straight to abortion providers that advertise widely – punitively forcing doctors to act against their conscience and participate in this process.
For the coming election in Victoria candidates will be asked whether they will support a move to repeal this part of the Victorian abortion law (see http://www.repealsection8.net.au/) and voters will need to decide very clearly whether they regard this matter – the compelling of evil – something that they should support or vote against. Each person has a clear choice. Each person must make a decision for good or evil. It will be very clear cut. The warning is clear – if doctors can be compelled to participate in the process for abortion through to term for any reason then they can be compelled to participate in other processes against their conscience e.g. euthanasia.
This is not just an issue for Victoria but an issue for each state and the nation. Indeed it is a world-issue.
The Westminster Declaration 2010 reads (also see The Manhattan Declaration)
We will seek to ensure that religious liberty and freedom of conscience are unequivocally protected against interference by the state and other threats… We call upon all those in UK positions of leadership, responsibility and influence to pledge to respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold these beliefs and to act according to Christian conscience.
Christian institutions in Victoria are also under threat with the recently introduced changes in equal opportunity laws. In Western Australia another euthanasia bill has just been introduced into the Upper House. It is unlikely to have been voted on by the time of this printing but when it is we need to remember how they vote.
How do we make these decisions for the federal election? The most helpful aid is the Christian Values Checklist put together by several organisations including the Australian Christian Lobby. You can Google this or go to http://www.christianvalues.org.au/check_list.html or http://www.christianvalues.org.au/CheckList_Federal_Elections_07_FINAL_WEB.pdf for old lists. Watch as we come up to election time for a new list.
Also check http://webcast.australiavotes.org/ for a web-feed on June 21 from Old Parliament House in Canberra with Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott answering questions from church leaders.
Please remember when voting for a minor party candidate to put that person or party [1] on your voting slip and your major party of choice [2]. Your vote goes on at full value should your minor candidate not win and becomes very significant in who then gets elected. Major parties know this and will sometimes change policy or select candidates that represent similar values.
We will soon be facing a federal election. Please consider these things and be sure to cast your vote for good and not evil. If you still cannot be sure just put CDP [1] for everything!
*The Ethical Crisis in our Parliaments http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/
Lachlan Dunjey
