(this post has also appeared on the Evangelicals Now website)

Have you noticed how people like to find fancy names to make ordinary things seem more special? For example, I have seen a window cleaner described as a Transparent Wall Maintenance Engineer, and did you know that the role of Education Centre Nourishment Consultant refers to what I once knew as a dinner lady!

That may all be relatively harmless and somewhat pretentious but, but when it comes to talking about sin, it’s positively dangerous and deceptive. The world speaks of ‘an affair‘ or ‘extra curricular activity‘, but God calls it adultery. People talk about ‘adult content‘ or ‘adult humour‘, but God calls it  sin, and filth. The world call its ‘pre-marital sex‘, but God calls it  fornication. What we lightly refer to as ‘over indulgence‘, God labels gluttony and being ‘economical with the truth‘ or ‘alternative facts‘ is actually, in God’s eyes, lying. So-called ‘women’s health care‘ is actually abortion and the murder of an unborn child, made in the image of God. I was once told by a man in London where I pastored a church many years ago that “I don’t have any sin in my life, but I will admit to some character defects and flaws in my make-up”.

All of this has come to mind in recent days with the legislation now being brought to Westminster to legalise euthanasia. To make it sound more acceptable, it is being referred to a ‘assisted dying‘, whereas it is, of course, assisted suicide. Now, the MP bringing this Bill to Parliament has said that this is “not about ending life but shortening death“. Talk about playing with words!

Dressing something up in more acceptable language doesn’t change the reality of the matter and, when it comes to this iniquitous euthanasia legislation we need to be relentlessly exposing it for what it actually is and involves – taking the responsibility for ending a person’s life out of God’s hands where it solely belongs.