Venting my frustration on Westminster2010

[curiousmind]

The trouble with being the type of student who signs petitions and attends protests, is that your friends generally are too.

One of my (Creationist) friends has signed a petition (The Westminster 2010 declaration of Christian Conscience) http://www.westminster2010.org.uk, the aims of which (as written here: http://www.westminster2010.org.uk/declaration/) include:

We pledge to work to protect the life of every human being from conception to its natural end and we refuse to comply with any directive that compels us to participate in or facilitate abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or any other act that involves intentionally taking innocent human life.

(Italics added by me).

and

We pledge to support marriage, the lifelong covenantal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife. We believe it is divinely ordained, the only context for sexual intercourse, and the most important unit for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all. We call on government to honour, promote and protect marriage and we refuse to submit to any edict forcing us to equate any other form of sexual partnership with marriage. We commit ourselves to continue affirming what we believe as Christians about sexual morality, marriage, and the family.

It finishes with:

We call upon all those in UK positions of leadership, responsibility and influence to pledge to respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold these beliefs and to act according to Christian conscience.

So they want to protect their right to hold these beliefs. That's fine. They can believe what they like, but for some reason this scares me more than it should... Maybe because I'm not used to seeing opinions such as these being held this side of the pond.
Least of all by one of my friends.
I'll talk to her about it if it comes up in conversation, but after her upbringing, she's not going to change her mind. I'm not going to comment this on Facebook, or seek out an argument over this one, because she's a lovely person, and frankly this makes me feel sick. Furthermore, I am already known for being one the most (politely, I hope) argumentative people I know.



So, I guess I'm just venting my frustration.
What do you guys think?

 

[MRaverz]

She can petition all she likes, no ones going to listen to her crazy rants.

 

[curiousmind]

Naah, she doesn't rant, she just quietly signs petitions and surprises me : /

 

[nemesiss]

So, I guess I'm just venting my frustration.
What do you guys think?

i don't think you will hear much complaints here, since most who post here are very willing to lending and ears and a shoulder to rest on.
if you read between the lines (which probably takes things out context, accourding to them), you can make arguments about them contradicting themselves.
examples:

Human life
We pledge to work to protect the life of every human being from conception to its natural end and we refuse to comply with any directive that compels us to participate in or facilitate abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or any other act that involves intentionally taking innocent human life.

in other words, they are willing to commit murder on the people who do stem-cell research, work at abortion-clinic, and assist in end-of-life-treatments.
a very famous example George Tiller, who was murdered by fundamentalist because he performed abortions.... who they nicknamed "Tiller the baby killer".

Marriage
We pledge to support marriage

So they (also) support gay-marraige?

the lifelong covenantal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife. We call on government to honour, promote and protect marriage and we refuse to submit to any edict forcing us to equate any other form of sexual partnership with marriage. We commit ourselves to continue affirming what we believe as Christians about sexual morality, marriage, and the family.

guess not.

Conscience
We will seek to ensure that religious liberty and freedom of conscience are unequivocally protected against interference by the state and other threats, not only to individuals but also to institutions including families, charities, schools and religious communities.

So they support religious freedom?

We will not be intimidated by any cultural or political power into silence or acquiescence and we will reject measures that seek to over-rule our Christian consciences or to restrict our freedoms to express Christian beliefs, or to worship and obey God.

in other words; if your not worshipping our god, in the same way we do... then your not allowed to practice your religion.
so.... no religious freedom.


another sidenote;
i would recommend to further investigate the people they list as supporters.
somehow i doubt that its a bunch of saints were dealing with.

 

[Andiferous]

I don't quite understand the point of the petition. Other than a kind of rally for recruitment... perhaps.

We call upon all those in UK positions of leadership, responsibility and influence to pledge to respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold these beliefs and to act according to Christian conscience.

Do the powers at large actively force Christians to have abortions and engage in same sex marriages against their own beliefs?

This is how it is worded, but I'm sure that in actuality they want permission to uphold their own beliefs about what other people should be doing. Are they asking the government to be lenient against Christian vigilantes in light of their beliefs? Or maybe they're asking for legal changes.

What is the point of a vague petition?