MP’s votes on abortion, gay rights, and divorce put on the internet: Conscience voting
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;>The Christian Institute is today making available the voting records of MPs on eleven moral issues on the “World – Wide Web”.</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>The Institute’s Web Site <strong>http://www.christian.org.uk </strong>now includes MPs’ free votes on abortion, gay rights, divorce and Christian teaching in schools.</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>Speaking today, Simon Calvert, Public Affairs Officer at the Christian Institute said:</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>”Individuals must decide for themselves who they will vote for. It is a difficult decision which may take in many issues. But there are many sincere Christian people who could not in all conscience vote for a candidate who supported the liberalisation of abortion and divorce laws or who wanted to see the promotion of homosexuality in schools.</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman; font-size:”>The Christian Institute is simply making available in a convenient form information already in the public domain. We are doing this without commenting on individual candidates. We hope our internet site will encourage people to ask questions of all the candidates, not just those who are sitting MPs and therefore have a public voting record.</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>There are many other very important moral issues which will influence people’s decisions. They include support for gambling, Sunday trading and political support for repressive regimes, including the arming of dictators.</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>We believe the issues we have chosen are amongst the most important. Publications freely available on our Web Site give a reasoned and well researched case for the Christian position we adopt.</span>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>It is a serious mistake for any Christian organisation to align itself with a political party. In the USA there has been a tendency for Christians to align themselves with the Republican Party, whilst in Britain Bishops have preached support for Labour. Neither of these approaches is right.”</span>
<strong><span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>Note for Editors</span></strong>
<span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>The Web Site address is:</span>
<strong><span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>http://www.christian.org.uk</span></strong><span style=”font-family: Times New Roman;”>The Christian Institute is a Christian policy think tank which researches into social and ethical issues from a Christian perspective. It unashamedly holds to the historic creeds of the Christian Church.</span>