Another One Killed & Silenced

The Right Honourable Ann Widdecombe passed into eternity four or five days ago- violently and unlawfully. She, who had campaigned for greater sanctions against criminals, died at the very hands of one. I rather liked her and recall meeting her at a political event, to which she was guest of honour and I the chairman. A leading social conservative, she served as a minister in John Major’s Conservative government in the mid-nineties. Religiously, she departed from Anglicanism because of its poor record of standing for truth:

“For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of England's compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesn't care if something is unpopular.”

You may have guessed that she left Canterbury for Rome, sadly. She had something of an evangelical youth, however, counselling at Billy Graham crusades. I hope she recalled the plain hope of Jesus Christ as she lay there, and not papal doctrines. I do not know her killer's motive; any number of possibilites come to mind, though Devon and Cornwall Constabulary's Assistant Chief Constable was keen to stress the intial suspect's whiteness (who has since been since released).

Social conservatism and common sense values do not fit us for heaven. Only the shed blood of a righteous Substitute can do that. Until then, her own blood cries out to God from the ground, for it was shed in defiance of natural law and divine precept. I pray that the Police find their man and bring him to justice. I also hope that he repents and pleads to the great God of heaven for the very mercy he denied his frail, elderly victim. 

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Revelation 6:10

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