(Photo: Andrew Parsons/Parsons Media)
Amidst intense political pressure, Kate Forbes, the former Deputy First Minister of Scotland, stood firm on her Christian beliefs during the 2023 SNP leadership race. Despite the personal and professional costs, Forbes feels victorious for not compromising her convictions.
During the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London, Forbes shared insights on the challenges she faced while competing for leadership. Encouraged by her father’s advice that “it’s never worth the compromise,” Forbes chose integrity over political gain, ultimately losing to Humza Yousaf.
Forbes, who is part of the Free Church of Scotland, remains satisfied with her decision to prioritize faith over ambition. “The end result felt like a victory because during that period I thought: I have not given in when I could have,” she stated. “Therefore, I did lose the contest but I absolutely won the public support … and that feels good.”
Highlighting the need for “courage,” Forbes urged individuals to anchor their conscience in timeless truths such as freedom, liberty, and human dignity, which she believes are essential for societal flourishing.
Forbes posed a critical question: “The question for us is not whether conflict will come,” she remarked. “The question is whether men and women will rise up like they did of old, standing firm on conviction, shaped by confidence, with the courage to defend truth or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you.”
She stressed the significance of this courage in political arenas, particularly in Parliament, where she perceives Christian viewpoints as increasingly marginalized.
Forbes recalled a time when British politics allowed for diverse consciences. “There was a day in British politics when the Right and the Left made space for conscience. [That is] no longer,” she observed. She cited the UK Parliament’s assisted suicide debate as an example of how Christian perspectives are often dismissed as biased or irrelevant.
“One prominent campaigner railed against undeclared personal religious beliefs … in the debate and dismissed arguments from those who were guided by faith,” she noted, pointing out the inconsistency in accepting other ideologies without scrutiny.
“Their moral framework, their basis of decision-making, is accepted without question, as though anybody who is free of the burden of an inner conscience grounded in historical truths is unbiased and unprejudiced. Those who hold to those truths – those truths that have birthed such great freedoms and liberties across the ages – are excluded by default.”
Forbes further warned of the consequences of abandoning Judeo-Christian foundations in the West. She argued that societies are at risk of becoming more authoritarian and oppressive without these guiding principles. “It can be hard to understand that when you live in a society that is still largely shaped by biblical concepts and norms, but consider many of the authoritarian, regressive, oppressive regimes of death around the world – that’s the alternative, because our freedoms are not inevitable or guaranteed,” she cautioned.
“There is an umbilical cord between them and the Bible. Separate that, and I invite you to consider the alternative.”
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
