I host a podcast called Matters of Life and Death. Each episode I sit down with my dad, the doctor and writer John Wyatt, to discuss the ethics of emerging issues in science, technology, society and the church, and to think about how Christians can respond thoughtfully and faithfully to our fast-changing world. It’s part of the Premier network and you can listen to the most recent episodes below.
Do the ends justify the means? The dubious campaign by unelected lawmakers to destroy the assisted dying bill – Matters of Life and Death
Last year, the democratically-elected MPs of Britain’s House of Commons passed by a margin of 23 votes a bill to introduce assisted suicide for the first time. Before it can come into force, the bill has to also be approved by the UK’s unelected upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords. Here it has started to founder, as opposition grows and the parliamentary procedure is gummed up by a thousand separate amendments. For those of us who think assisted dying will be a disaster, is this kind of political dirty war the right way to go to stop a bad bill becoming law? Or should we admit defeat and allow a bill approved in a free vote by the representatives of the people to pass, rather than tear up democracy in the process? What could be lost as collateral damage in the increasingly ugly battle over assisted suicide? And what are the Christian roots of the tradition of giving our lawmakers the freedom to vote their consciences on ethical issues like this, anyway?
Our last podcast after the assisted dying bill was first approved by the House of Commons: https://www.johnwyatt.com/the-assisted-suicide-bill-has-been-passed-by-parliament-what-comes-next/
John’s briefing on the legislation, circulated to all MPs ahead of the original vote: https://www.johnwyatt.com/leadbeaterbill/
• You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
• Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
• If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
• Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
• For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
I previously had a second show on the Premier network, called Premier Christian Newscast. It was a weekly podcast unpacking and explaining one big story from the Christian world, going behind the immediate headlines to try to understand why things are happening in the church and beyond. You can listen to episodes below.
Sexuality, persecution, abortion and mission: Has Christian journalism got it right? – Premier Christian Newscast
Sadly, today’s episode will be the last episode of the Premier Christian Newscast. To wrap the show up, we looked back over the last two years at what stories and topics have come up the most. What has been making waves in church news? What issues are we unable to move on from? And what might this tell us about what is going to be hitting the headlines in the years to come? Has the Christian media got too distracted by culture war political nonsense, and missed the more important stories right under our nose? How do we faithfully go about trying to decide what to cover and what to ignore?
We’ll be joined by Sam Hailes and Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine to look back at what the Newscast feed tells us about the state of the church, and to consider what stories we expect to be keeping us busy throughout the rest of 2024 and into the future.
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