Christian Politician?

On Monday, August 22, the leader of the New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, died of cancer at the age of 61. He had battled prostate cancer about a year ago, and then had surgery on a broken bone in his hip just before the May 2, 2011 election campaign. Shortly after the election, he announced he had another form of cancer and would be taking the summer off to deal with it.

Jack had been the party leader since 2003, and through hard work and a natural charisma, built up the NDP party to its highest levels ever. The NDP is considered to be the third party in Canadian politics and, although they have been elected to provincial leadership from time to time in various provinces, they have never gained the status of official opposition on the national level – until this election. In quite a surprising development, Jack Layton was a huge success in Quebec. He is an English speaker originally from Quebec, but the success this time was directly attributable to his personality.

As a person, I found him to be a warm and caring man, highly intelligent (he has a PhD), and definitely has personality. He had succeeded at municipal politics before vying for national leadership.

However, the party is my least favourite and I would never vote for them. All party members must sign a document of agreement that states women have the right to choose to have an abortion. I could never support such a party, no matter how many of their other policies appealed to me.

Although I had never really wanted to know or thought about it, in reports about Jack Layton after his death, it was stated he had been a man of faith. Apparently, he had been a member of the United Church of Canada (UCC) when he was young. There was some discussion among some of my Christian Facebook friends about this. Some thought this was good for our country, and some thought it didn’t really make any difference.

Here are my thoughts. The hubby was a member of the UCC until at one General Council in the late 80s, they passed a resolution stating women had the right to choose to end a pregnancy. That was the last straw for the hubby, and he went through instruction classes to become a Lutheran. As for Jack, it was not reported if he was still a member of the UCC or if he was, how active he was in his faith community. Even if he had been an active member, since the UCC believes the same thing as the NDP about abortion, there would be no conflict.

I truly don’t understand how any Christian who believes that the Lord of Life is their personal Saviour can ever agree with abortion, or euthanasia, for that matter. I know there are people who do, but to me, those two ideas are in deep conflict. And it is truly sad to me that any Christian denomination can have such offensive resolutions in their doctrine.

I’m not saying the other two political parties are any better with the abortion issue. But at least, to my understanding, members have the freedom to opt out of those sections of their party platform, if they decide they cannot agree with them.

From the National Convention of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Canada in Ottawa in 2009, I learned there are quite a few Christian members of parliament and there is a prayer group that meets several times a week to begin their day talking to God. Although I found that to be surprising, I also find it to be comforting. There are Christian politicians in Canada. I just don’t happen to think Jack Layton was one of them.

Until next time, love life…