The Movement for Reform Judaism

I have been intrigued by the recent debate in the country over whether the political parties should give their Members of Parliament a free vote over the bill looking at hybrid animal/human embryos for stem cell research. Primarily the Catholic Church has been urging that parliamentarians should have the right to vote according their conscience. My first concern is that surely all of their votes should be on that basis. I have never been able to understand how the people we elect to represent us can be anything other than loyal to their conscience.  I could not respect anyone who voted in the way that the whips had told him or her, if that was against their conscience.

The second aspect of interest is the increasingly assertive way in which faith groups are involving themselves in political matters.  I don’t know if it’s because in recent times our Prime Ministers have been people of faith, but there is no doubt that faith groups are wielding a lot more influence than in the past. Indeed, there is actually now a Faith Unit in a Government Department and meetings between Government leaders and those of faith groups take place frequently.

There has always been a recognition of Freedom of Worship and the right of Religious Groups to lobby Parliament on specifically religious issues such as Sunday trading, religious methods of animal killing for food and burial laws. However, the issues on which the faith groups are now taking a real interest at the national level has grown enormously. Much of this, as with the stem cell research, has come about because of medical and technological developments in the field of bio-ethics, such as organ donations, euthanasia, and abortion, but other issues like poverty, homelessness, education and the environment have also brought attention from the faith groups.

The Make Poverty History campaign, which Mr. Brown, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, supported, was largely run by Christian and Jewish Groups in this country and overseas. The proposal to take 25% of other faith groups into single Faith Schools was withdrawn because of the faith lobby. Similarly, although this time unsuccessful, there was faith group opposition to the new laws on adoption by Gays and Lesbians.

It should be pointed out that the different faith groups do not always agree on issues, indeed there are often different views coming from the traditional and progressive wings within the same faith group. Alliances are made and broken depending on the issue.  Nevertheless, it is important that the faith groups are finding their voices and are taking their place in debating the major issues of our time.   

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