Holy Innocents

The massacre continues..... Here is the evidence:

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)

SPUC was formed in 1967 to oppose the Abortion Act and is a grassroots-lobbying organisation. The latest abortion figures for 2007 - 205,600 - show an increase of 2.5% on 2006.

SPUC represents a voice for the unborn. The society promotes awareness of the humanity of the unborn child to encourage more widespread recognition of the obligation to defend those with no means to defend themselves.

SPUC campaigns against abortion, embryo experimentation, the creation of human/animal hybrids, cloning, the abortifacient Morning After Pill, in vitro fertilisation and euthanasia.

SPUC works through branches and activists around the country helping people and politicians understand the value of human life, which begins at conception and ends with natural death. Branch members may distribute information locally on pro-life issues through door to door leaflet distribution; or leaflet distribution in town centres; information meetings and letter writing campaigns to Members of Parliament and local newspapers.

SPUC gives presentations and distributes literature in schools, colleges, universities and churches, and sends speakers to meetings and debates to put the pro-life case.

SPUC publishes the Pro-life Times, a regular newspaper with the latest information and background articles on pro-life matters to help inform the general public and which is sent free to members, schools, libraries, churches and MPs.

SPUC helps form pro-life policy by lobbying at both the UK and EU Parliaments, and has NGO status at the United Nations where it is the main organiser of pro-life lobbying. It organises and attends international conferences to highlight issues and threats to the pro-life position. It sponsors delegates from developing countries.

SPUC defends the right to life of disabled babies, both born and unborn. Through it's 'No Less Human' division SPUC provides a platform for disabled people to promote and uphold their dignity and worth and to campaign against eugenic killing in the womb.

SPUC has a section to help nurses, called 'Nurses Opposed to Euthanasia.' The principal aims are to protect patients from practices aimed at killing them and support the nurses and relatives of those patients who are under threat of euthanasia. Tel: 020 7341 9086.

SPUC 'Patients First Network' (PFN) helps let doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers know how you expect to be treated in hospital if you are mentally incapacitated. PFN fights against euthanasia. Tel: 0800 1691719.

SPUC 'Silent No More' (SNM) aims to educate the public that abortion is harmful to those who choose it - emotionally, physically and spiritually - and has lasting consequences. The campaign raises awareness by holding SNM events in public places nationwide, where women and men who regret their abortions, share their personal abortion experiences. SNM seeks to reach out to those hurting after their abortion by offering counselling to help the trauma felt by those who have suffered abortions.

SPUC 'British Victims of Abortion' (BVA) offers counselling and supports Silent No More and Nurses opposed to Euthanasia. Tel: 0845 603 8501.

SPUC can only operate though the work and help of motivated men and women. If you would like to join and help be a voice for the unborn, or old and vulnerable, then please contact either the Hon. Development Officer or Regional Chairman for information about your nearest branch or for information on how you can help support specific campaigns.

SPUC website: www.spuc.org.uk

Massacre of the Innocents

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, nicknamed ‘Peasant Bruegel’ was probably the most significant and exciting painter in the Northern Europe during the middle part of the sixteenth century. His nickname “Peasant Bruegel” indicates to his subjects: peasant life, proverbs and genre scenes, the New Testament topics set among common folks of contemporary Flanders.

Matthew 2:16-18: "When Herod saw how the astologers [three Wise Men] had tricked him [by not reporting back to him the child's location] he fell into a passion, and gave orders for the massacre of all children in Bethlehem and its neighborhood, of the age of two years and younger, which was the time he had been given by the astrologers [for the birth of the child who was to become king of the Jews.] So the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: 'A voice was heard in Rama, wailing and loudly lamenting; it was Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing all consolation, because they were no more.'"

Vividly and gruesomely depicted:Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Massacre of the Innocents. 1565-7. Oil on panel. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

The contemporary equivalent of this New Testament incident is the slaughter of the innocents conceived in the wombs of their mothers by the process of abortion. The liberal political intelligentsia that so reviles the idea of the execution of vicious murderers after a fair trial nevertheless favour so actively the killing of innocent children without trial by abortion. In the UK a 100 teenage girls a week are going in for what are called "repeat" abortions. They have conceived under the age of consent but few are prosecuted for the illegal crime of sexual intercourse with them. Abortion is now taken to be an acceptable form of contraception. The truth is that it is nearer to infanticide. The full figures are enormous.

One Christian organisation which campaigns tirelessly to oppose this situation and provide positive alternatives in the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (www.spuc.org.uk).

Aims of the Society
To affirm, defend and promote the existence and value of human life from the moment of conception, and to defend and protect human life generally.
To reassert the principle laid down in the United Nations 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child that the child "needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth."
To defend, assist and promote the life and welfare of mothers during pregnancy and of their children from the time of conception up to, during and after birth.
To examine existing or proposed laws, legislation or regulations relating to abortion and to support or oppose such as appropriate.

In this work they deserve the prayers of the church and the support of all Christians.