(SPUC and SPUC Scotland are separate organisations.)
Now, back in the day, the branch of SPUC I joined did two things I particularly remember. We shoogled collecting tins, mostly outside football grounds, and one quiet lady prepared letter-writing materials on matters of the day. She investigated the question, identified and described the players, mustered and summarised facts and arguments, and sent all this out to a list of people who used this to write letters to the relevant MPs and the like. Funds went mostly to SPUC Scotland in Glasgow. They produced useful leaflets which we stuck through doors before elections or important votes. They also trained people to give one-off presentations in schools, and provided them with materials for the presentations. None of this was earthshaking, but it was all concrete, and worked on an “enabling” model that assumed there were other people who wanted to do something about promoting a culture of life even if most of their time was taken up with family and work.
I always assumed this was rather the point of SPUC. A few people given over to doing the legwork that most people don’t have the time, or perhaps the facilities or ability, to do. The charities index and the handy voting records index produced by London SPUC seemed to be along exactly the same lines, and there was the great and hugely useful 2002 book A Way of Life (a revised edition of a book produced when there was a particularly concerted effort to get more abortion into Northern Ireland). Stuff people could actually use. The Love your unborn neighbour book produced by SPUC Evangelicals was something I was happy to pass on to a girl from my college CU.
Now I get news digests in which the first item advertises a talk by a Catholic apologist, and most of the rest are about sex education and assorted legislation to do with men who like to engage in sexual activity with other men. And the “SPUC Director” blog varies this with insider comment on Catholic affairs.
The many bizarre ways in which the place of sexual activity in human life is conceived (sorry) are in large part the cause of the acceptance of abortion. And ultimately without the Gospel no moral discourse can understand human reality. But while most people who work for or support SPUC will hold these positions, is attempting to promote them the work for which SPUC was founded?
September 12, 2011 at 1:11 pm
As a Catholic I read the SPUC output daily, and tweet it, as I find it useful.
Ideally, SPUC should be working to change the minds and hearts of abortion supporters and those who don’t know or care as well. I doubt very much that this is possible through rational argument. People are not rational.
A few years ago there was outcry when an anti abortion organisation sent pictures of aborted babies through the post, They were considered too shocking.
As suggested elsewhere, shock, horror, and disgust are probably the most effective weapons in our fight.
September 12, 2011 at 1:55 pm
“The many bizarre ways in which the place of sexual activity in human life is conceived (sorry) are in large part the cause of the acceptance of abortion…. But while most people who work for or support SPUC will hold these positions, is attempting to promote them the work for which SPUC was founded?”
Not sure I get you here but are you suggesting that it isn’t really the job of SPUC to try to promote/discourage certain types of sexual behaviour? One type of behaviour involves using artificial contraception. Is that the kind of thing you are referring to? If so, you may be interested to read the views of someone totally unconnected with SPUC. He’s an American (not even British) Protestant (not even a Catholic) who sees the connection between contraception and abortion:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/protestant-life-chain-founder-begs-pastors-to-denounce-contraception?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LifesitenewscomLatestHeadlines+%28LifeSiteNews.com+Latest+Headlines%29
As for the connection between so-called sex education (as promoted in schools up an down the country) and abortion I would have thought that the connection was too obvious to need spelling out.
September 12, 2011 at 1:59 pm
This is also relevant:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/holy-smoke-check-out-the-disparity-in-abortion-rate-between-cohabiting-and
September 12, 2011 at 2:38 pm
I appreciate that the remit of SPUC extends to cover all non-penal attempts to remove legal protection from human life. I also appreciate that contraception is often abortifacient and fosters a mentality which promotes abortion as does sex-education. Nevertheless, I do think that it it is important to consistently relate opposition to contraception and sex-education to SPUC’s primary remit. Comment on the (admittedly lamentable) failures and apparent betrayals of the Pro-Life cause by the leadership of the bishops’ conference can strengthen the impression that SPUC is a confessional organisation. The immorality of artificial contraception is demonstrable to natural reason but so it is the obligation upon states to discover and embrace the true religion. SPUC has to be careful to stay on topic. I think there is plenty of room for a confessional Catholic Pro-Life organsation working along side SPUC but it is not clear anything would be gained by SPUC declaring itself a confessional entity and, if the SPUC leadership agree, they should be careful not to give the impression that they already are.
September 12, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Whilst not wanting to comment on SPUC’s remit regarding contraception and sex education, it is important to note that these are two major weapons in the pro-abortion lobby’s agenda.
To legalise and normalise abortion, widespread contraceptive use is required to drive up the unintended pregnancy rate.
Sex education is vital, as separating children from their parents on the issue is sex/sexuality allows the pro-abortion message to be spread (ie if you’re in trouble and need advice, come to BPAS, Marie Stopes, Brook etc etc)
But getting back to what SPUC actually does…they speak extensively throughout the country in schools and in public meetings, spreading an authentic pro-life message to a society that is largely only aware of one point of view.
They Campaign to protect human life from the moment of conception until natural death. This is done through lobbying but also the courts as and when required (eg see the recent case about Nothern Ireland’s dept of health trying to introduce abortion guidelines via the backdoor). SPUC work at the UN, monitoring and lobbying for the right to life. SPUC are heavily involved in campaigning against assisted suicide/euthanasia (most recently with Care Not Killing against the End of Life Assistance Bill in Scotland).
SPUC organise a higely successful youth conference every year, where young people from all over the world come for a weekend to hear expert speakers on a whole variety of life issues.
They do all of the above and more. The UK is right in the centre of the culture of death, there is no question of this. The on;y question is how much worse would it be if it wasn’t for SPUC and other pro-life groups trying their best to stem the flow of death.
September 12, 2011 at 3:36 pm
So all the stuff I listed, plus the lobbying bit (I never did meet their chief UN man, but I did meet his daughter). The youth conference was/is a SPUC Scotland initiative. SPUC Scotland could probably do with a bit more money to employ one or two more people, but (to me) they seem to have always been concrete and focused.
They don’t harp on about the Catholic bishops in their newsletter or on their website. They wouldn’t have sent me an email advertising Michael Voris’s talk in London.
I suppose a better title would have been “What is SPUC supposed to be doing?” Their remit is rather the (probabyl obscure) point of the post, and the title is misleading.
Does the Catholicisation of the most public face of SPUC (which, because of the name, affects SPUC Scotland as well) serve its work? As Aelianus said, there is work for a confessional Catholic organisation, but is that what SPUC wants to be?
September 14, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Gonnae no dae that?= best tag ever
September 6, 2012 at 12:13 pm
SPUC’s constitution allows for ‘Divisions’ to accomodates specific groupings within SPUC. It has both an Evangelical Division, and a Muslim Division, but has not allowed the formation of a Catholic Division up to this point. It should do precisely that, don’t you think?