The pastor in Kazakhstan who was arrested for allegedly
putting hallucinogenic substances in his congregation’s communion wine has been
subjected to more Soviet-style tactics: he was transferred to a psychiatric
hospital for a while, and now the authorities refuse to say where he is, and
deny having arrested him. An online “letter writing” campaign is being organised
for his release.
The Christian owners of a bed and breakfast in Cornwall who
refused to let a gay couple stay there, and were fined as a result, are putting
the B&B up for sale. Their case is still going through the appeal process,
because their (well-advertised) policy was to accept married couples only
rather than being specifically anti-gay; but they have suffered vandalism,
having their website hacked, having a dead rabbit nailed to their fence, and
removal of their business from the Tourist Board website -- and more dangerously,
wheel nuts have been removed from their car and they have received death
threats. Also, their business has been reduced to such an extent that they
claim they cannot afford mortgage repayments on the house or to heat the house
properly in winter.
A 29 year old British man has committed suicide after being
outed as a suspected paedophile by an online entrapment group. The group
masquerades as young girls on social networking sites, and then reports
suspected child groomers or paedophiles to the police. The group’s comment on
hearing of the suicide was, “We feel sorry for his family.”
The UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre has
reported that UK children are being disproportionately targeted for by
paedophiles who blackmail them into performing sex acts on webcam. A recent police operation found 322 victims
worldwide of whom 96 were in the UK; CEOP say this is because paedophiles see
Britain as a “free and liberal” society. The usual method is for a paedophile
to pretend to be another youngster online, coax their victim into either
sending an embarrassing photo of themself or stripping for a webcam, and then
threatening to send the image to family or friends unless they perform more
serious sex acts on camera.
In the USA, there are many local court battles over the
Government’s mandate that employers should provide their employees with health
cover that includes abortifacents and contraceptives. Many employers have objected
to this requirement on religious grounds. In 34 cases so far, 29 have either
been decided in the employer’s favour, or the employer has been granted a preliminary injunction against implementing
the mandate whilst the case is considered. The issue is now likely to be
decided by the Supreme Court.
In football, Swansea City’s first ever European match
produced a 3-0 win away to Spanish side Valencia. The Daily Telegraph reported
that “Valencia have only lost at home to English opponents on three previous
occasions”, forgetting that Swansea City are not English opponents. And in
tennis, Andy Murray is to undergo back surgery which will probably keep him out
for the rest of the season.
And finally, a sport-related gay rights campaign has been
criticised both by football clubs and by gay rights groups. Football players
were sent rainbow-coloured bootlaces and asked to wear them this weekend in
support of gay rights. However, football clubs are upset that they were not consulted
about the plan (which is sponsored by a bookmaker) , with some refusing their
players permission to wear the laces as a result; and one gay rights group have
complained about innuendo in the campaign’s slogan, “Right Behind Gay Rights”.
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