Reluctant Heroes

The papers yesterday carried the news that nurses in Glasgow are now challenging the Scottish Health Board in the courts.

The nurses had earlier approached the health board seeking confirmation that they would not be forced to supervise or oversee staff who were nursing women undergoing abortions. The Health Board responded by claiming that their conscientious objections did not give them the right to refuse such so called duties.

The nurses are committed Christians and hold that all human life is sacred from the moment of conception and that abortion is an offence against human life and indeed against God. The nurses are underlining that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion are now challenging the Health Board in the courts.

At one point Christian Faith was the firm bedrock on which law was built. At one point the Christian Churches enjoyed a place of influence at the centre of culture. Increasingly Western culture is shedding its inconvenient convictions and adopting more pragmatic, utilitarian, market driven values. Increasingly Christians are finding they are out of step with the world around them.

The nurses are fighting for a very important freedom, the freedom of conscience. They are upholding the belief that life is sacred… it is not ours to terminate… These nurses are demonstrating tremendous courage.. They are in the public eye.. they are taking a stand. There has always been a tradition of reluctant heroes, people like Martin Luther King and William Wilberforce who have been moved by faith and conscience to take a public stand, to go against the flow of the surrounding culture.

It is a difficult thing, it is probably easier to face conflict in a military warzone than to be out of step with culture.. to work in a hostile environment.. to be in the public eye… to endure the attentions of the media. We can be grateful for the nurses who are prepared albeit reluctantly to take a stand.

Category: Life Blog