|
| Christian news worldwide |
 Home |
 Archives |
 Subscriptions |
 Adverts |
 Find a church |
 About us |
 Contact us |
 Site Map |
 PrintableVersion Freedom wins throughWhat can we say but praise God!! It was by his glory and grace that months of prayer and petition were answered! The government’s version of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill was defeated, despite the government’s majority of 67 MPs and the immense pressure exerted by the government to get people to vote for the Bill. It is only the second time in nine years that Labour has lost a vote in the Commons. It was a vote which even the opposition MPs said could not be won. It is a vote which Christians knew, faithfully trusting in God’s sovereignty, could always be won. It was on Tuesday January 31, at 7.45 pm, that the House of Commons voted against the government’s version of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. There were two votes held: in the first vote, the question was whether the racial hatred laws would be changed, and the government was defeated by ten votes. On the issue of the religious hatred laws, the government was defeated by just one vote. Tony Blair voted in the first vote, but left before the second. That means it was the failure of the Prime Minister to vote which in human terms meant victory for those opposing the government’s Religious Hatred Bill. Taken by surpriseThe BBC news website described it as a ‘surprise defeat’, the London Metro and The Daily Mail described it as a ‘shock defeat’, and in the Guardian, Labour minister Mr. Hain ‘admitted the government had been taken by surprise by the defeat’. The upshot of the vote was that the Religious Hatred Bill was passed, but it was the House of Lords’ version of the Bill, not the government’s, that will become law. The Lords’ version was a dramatic improvement of the protection of the uninhibited freedom for Christians to preach the gospel. The Bill which will now become law will only allow someone to be prosecuted if: It is now hard to envisage a case where a Christian, preaching from the Word of God in good faith and from good motives, would fall foul of this legislation. The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship has opposed the idea of the Religious Hatred Bill in any form. However, it is their view, as lawyers, that the Bill that has been passed has so many safeguards and protections built in that it will represent almost no threat to Christians preaching the Word of God. It would still be better if the law was removed from the statute books, but the victory in the Commons was real, and allays almost all the fears which have been talked about over the past months. EN is aware of possible approaches to see if removing the Bill from the statute books might become official Tory party policy. A wide range of Christian organisations, including the Christian Institute, as well as secular groups, worked hard to protect religious liberty. The Barnabas Fund said of the victory: ‘This should mean that it is possible to discuss and critique other religions, to preach the uniqueness of Christ, and to draw attention to the persecution of Christians in Muslim contexts’. Rebel MPsThe list of Labour MPs who resisted the enormous pressure put on them by the government, and voted against their own party’s version of the Bill, can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk politics/4668266.stm. It would be great if, after all the campaigning letters criticising the government’s approach and asking for MPs’ support, as many people as possible could write to or email these MPs to thank them for their crucial votes. It would be great to thank them for voting based on principle and on the need to protect freedom of expression. Equally, the BBC webpage above contains a list of all the MPs who voted to oppose the government’s version of the Bill, so Christians might like to check how their local MP voted and write to thank them if they opposed the government’s version. It seems likely that every single Liberal Democrat and Conservative MP voted against the government’s version. Those two parties went to great lengths to ensure the MPs were there to oppose the government and, whatever motivated them to do that, we should thank them because (again in human terms), if they had not been so staunch, the government would have won. Additionally, it was absolutely crucial to the victory that the SNP and (I believe) Plaid Cymru decided to vote against the Bill. Andrea Minichiello Williams,
|
|
