37%

One statistic jumped out at me from this survey.

The 37%.

Not that many Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians think abortion is wrong.

37%

I know, as I have been told by a friend- it's very complicated.

However, when something catches your eye you see it everywhere.

Cranmer reported yesterday about Nadine Dorries MP in Parliament.

She said this about the Church:

"The problem is the churches have withdrawn. Where I grew up the priest was king. We were scared of priests – the same with the vicars. The Church played a very important role. The Church set boundaries. So did schools, doctors, district nurses. But the Church withdrew, the state became anonymous and society went into freefall. One of the things about the Big Society is to try to put those boundaries back.

But the Church has to step up to the plate. Although they get involved in charitable works they tend to be on the state-funded fringes and I’m not talking about that type of role. I’m talking about a micro level. I’m talking about priests working with communities and admitting to a level of authority they used to.

Charity has been eroded, it’s just become another arm of the state. The Catholic Church has had a huge beating and it has to recover from that. Maybe the Big Society and the opportunities it presents to the Catholic Church may be part of the healing process for the Church."

We are silent and fall short on so many things.

I know, I get shouted at and sworn at about how the Church fails.

We do.

I admit that.

But this should not be one of those things.

“The Church of England was the worst and the only person in the Catholic Church who made any comment was Cardinal O’Brien. Everybody was silent because the churches were weak and cowardly in their position.

“I was even told by one envoy from the Church (of England) that Psalm 139 was ‘just poetry’. Weeks later they timidly came out and squeaked their words of support, which were no use to me at this point. The churches have really angered me during this debate.”

We need a voice.

We need to be better informed.

I need to be better informed.

I need to make time to listen to this.

Raise your hand.

The silence is palpable.

There are few voices and mine is not currently one of them.

She is right that the Church needs a prophetic voice.

Think about these things.

Talk to friends

Listen to stories

Send this post to your Pastor

Pray

Write to your MP

Write to Nadine Dorries

Do something.

As Cranmer concludes:

"We have become a ‘stiff-necked’ people who will not listen to God's words. We have forsaken God to serve other gods even to the extent that we would sacrifice our own children, spilling 'the blood of the innocent’.

Mannaseh's grandson Josiah tried to bring about reformation among the Israelites. After renewing the Covenant between God and His people, Josiah ‘desecrated Topheth which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech’ (2Kgs 23:10).

The State may need another Churchill.

The Church may need another Luther.

Parliament may need another Wilberforce.

But the unborn cry out for a Josiah."

They have them the other side of the water.

But we must find ours.