Not The BBC News: Christmas 2014

This Christmas edition of Not The BBC News contains news that isn't true, but I wish it was.

In one state of India, the recently elected Hindu government has been trialling a novel version of the US “three strikes” law for those who harass or commit violence against other religions. After one offence (unless the offence is very serious), perpetrators receive a warning; after the third offence, they are taken to court with a recommendation that they receive the maximum sentence for that offence. But the innovation comes after the second offence; their victims are asked to decide what penalty their oppressors should receive, ranging from nothing to the full recommended sentence for that offence. Statistics show that Christian groups have shown remarkable forbearance. The most common request from Christians is for a community service sentence to be imposed instead of a jail sentence. But more unusual requests include requesting that the perpetrator be fined the maximum allowed by law, and then raising the money to pay the fine from the church community; freeing a perpetrator from all punishment and also giving him a large gift of money and possessions; and, in one case where an orphaned Hindu youth killed a Christian youth, the parents adopted the Hindu youth into their family. A spokesman for the local Christian community said, “We thank God for this opportunity to demonstrate the love that Christ has shown us to others.”

David Cameron has announced that the UK Government will be promoting a “conscience clause” as an amendment to the Equality Act. The clause will be similar to the one recently proposed in Northern Ireland, requiring ‘reasonable accommodation’ of religious or other beliefs. The proposal is being seen by critics as an olive branch to opponents of gay marriage before the General Election; while gay marriage legislation is not affected, the Equality Act has frequently been used against those who expressed their opposition to gay marriage, or even against those who have failed to demonstrate active support to gay marriage. Critics say that this will undermine equality, but supporters say that an Equality Act which lists ‘protected’ groups as more equal than others doesn’t support equality anyway, and quote Milton Friedman saying, “A society that puts equality above freedom gets neither.”

Also in Parliament, a Private Member’s Bill to lessen the severity of restrictions on welfare benefits has been passed with support from Labour, Liberal Democrat, and even some rebel Tory MPs. Under the new Bill, anyone whose benefits are sanctioned (i.e. withdrawn because they have failed to meet certain conditions) must be given a month’s notice that their benefits are to be withdrawn, rather than having it happen immediately. A Tory MP who supported the Bill said, “This Government is trying to modify the benefits system to help people be ready for employment. Any respectable employer gives employees at least a month’s notice with pay rather than firing them immediately.” The Bill also introduces an appeal system against benefit sanctions, and modifies the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2013 (which withdrew legal aid from most welfare benefit cases) to offer legal aid to a new online form-based appeal system. A spokesman for the Citizen’s Advice Bureau said, “We welcome this new system. The form is designed to be completed by paralegal staff in law firms, which will not only make sure that the appeals submitted are realistic and reasonably well drafted, but will also provide some employment, albeit low-paid, for the high number of law students who graduate every year only to find there are insufficient jobs available in the field.”

Following the success of the Ig Nobel prizes for daft research and the Darwin Awards for people who have accidentally killed themselves in creative ways, a group of UK bloggers have instituted the Pullover prize for bad journalism. The prizes celebrate all that is bad in truth, logic, and taste in journalism; winners get a sweater with arrows pointing in four directions, labelled “Truth”, “Logic”, “Taste”, and “Us”. The two big … umm … winners this year were the Daily Mail and the Independent. The Mail’s awards included the Bad Taste Photo Caption award for “ISIS chief executioner winning hearts with his rugged looks”. The Independent’s collection included the Foreign Political Bias award for an article at the height of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, just after the BBC had reported Palestinian accusations of Israeli violence but, unusually, had also reported Israeli accusations of Palestinians faking atrocities; the article called for a “return to balanced reporting by the BBC.” A spokesman for the bloggers said, “We had thought of making the prize a knitted hat rather than a pullover, but none of us could agree how big the hat should be to fit some of these journalists’ heads.”

A Christian IT programmer in the UK has created a program that automatically lobbies MPs for religious freedom. Users simply provide the email address of their MP and their own name and address; the program then creates email messages to MPs asking them to act on issues affecting religion in public life. The program uses various different phrases to make sure that MPs do not get several similarly worded emails. When asked how the program selects issues to lobby on, the programmer said, “All it does is monitors the website of the National Secular Society. If their website posts an issue that they are lobbying on, the program copies it, and changes the language around to lobby for the opposite outcome.”

And finally, a physicist has claimed that new theories of quantum physics contradict the widely accepted theory that Santa Claus could not possibly exist, because the speed he’d have to travel at and the huge weight of presents would cause him and his sleigh to burn up in the atmosphere in a fraction of a second. Quantum theory asserts that no-one can know both how fast a quantum object is travelling and also where it is, but claims that until the uncertainty is resolved, it could be travelling at immeasurable speeds. The physicist reasoned that, as long as Santa knows how fast he has to go, he can achieve whatever speed he likes as long as he doesn’t know exactly where he is. However, if the reindeer know where they are but not how fast they are going, then the sleigh can achieve quantum speeds to get around the world in the required time, and still land in the right places. However, this theory still doesn’t account for the 4,000 tonnes of mince pie or the 4 million litres of milk or whisky that Santa apparently consumes during his trip.

Not The BBC News: 22 December 2014

The latest diplomatic row with North Korea, centred around a film made by Sony Pictures, appears to be successfully obscuring a human rights tragedy unfolding in the country. The North Korean government is apparently restructuring its prison camp system, and subjecting prisoners to arbitrary relocations and executions in order to do so; a South Korean newspaper reports that prisoners are being moved one at a time, during the night, to avoid detection by satellites. An international human rights watchdog says that North Korea is “clearly implementing” a “policy of genocide to eliminate the camps”, especially Camp 15, the atrocities in which formed much of the evidence presented to a recent UN Commission of Inquiry report.

In Argentina, a court case filed by an animal rights organisation has succeeded in obtaining a judgment that an animal deserves limited human rights. The case concerned a shy orang-utan who the campaigners say is stressed and depressed, and want to be transferred from a zoo in Buenos Aires to a sanctuary in Brazil. They argued that the ape “has sufficient cognitive functions that it should not be treated as an object.” The court agreed that the ape deserved the rights of a “non-human person.” But the zoo’s head of biology said that the orang-utan’s perceived shyness was a normal part of orang-utan behaviour, and that the campaigners did not understand ape biology and were therefore mistaken in ascribing human emotions to it.

A city in the Philippines, on the popular tourist island of Bohol, declares its support for the Bible by requiring every motorbike-taxi in its island province to have a Scripture verse painted on the back. The official verse painter said, “Years ago people used to paint obscene messages and images on their tricycles, but now when you read the Word of God you can’t help but feel alive.” The law was passed 22 years ago, and city officials say that it has resulted in lower crime rates, stronger families, and a relatively peaceful city. Only 3000 such taxis are allowed and their verses are assigned by the city along with their taxi licences, so it is unlikely that any taxi will carry the verse 2 Kings 9:20, which reads “His driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi – he drives like a madman.”

The Yazidi community from Iraq which was threatened with near-extinction by Islamic State forces, has been speaking of the trauma it suffered. Perhaps the most shocking part of their story is not merely that many women and girls were taken and used as sex slaves, but the extent to which that practice was officially organised; Islamic State even produced a pamphlet with the title “Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves.” Women who have escaped or been ransomed talk of being sold into slavery – girls with blue eyes cost more – and if they were beaten or injured, they were simply re-sold once they had recovered. An estimated 3500 women and girls are still missing.

Four Egyptians Christians who had travelled to Libya for employment were kidnapped at the border when returning home in August; the kidnappers allowed the bus driver and his three Muslim passengers to continue. There has been no news of them since. The group that kidnapped them, Ansar al-Sharia, was declared a terrorist group by the United Nations in November.

In Indonesia, Muslim leaders are supporting the new Christian governor of the capital city and slamming Muslim hardliners for attempting to stir up unrest against him. One Islamic leader said, “The majority of Jakartans and Indonesians are accepting of the values of democracy. The Islamic Defenders Front … is only spreading hatred amongst religious followers and races.” The comment about ‘race’ is because the new governor is of Chinese extraction.

A topless Femen activist who deliberately desecrated a Parisian church last Christmas has been found guilty of “sexual exhibitionism” and given only a suspended one month prison sentence. She stood in front of the church altar (along with a posse of journalists and photographers) shouting “Christmas is cancelled” and holding two pieces of liver which she later described as “symbols of the aborted infant Jesus”, saying she “left the bloody holy fetus at the foot of the altar.” The act was condemned by the Mayor of Paris but not by any Government minister, which may explain why she did not face a more serious charge relating to anti-religious activities.

The leader of a Belfast pro-life group, which has been holding a vigil outside a Marie Stopes abortion clinic in the city for five years, was yesterday fined and given a restraining order. The head of the clinic claimed that she had been harassed by the pro-lifer’s comments, including “May God forgive you”, and “witchy laughter”.

There are some people who say that it’s best to die doing what you love, but congregants at Shiloh Baptist Church in Chicago were still shocked and devastated when their 60 year old pastor suffered a heart attack in the pulpit. He was singing Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” at the time. The three churches that he pastored decided to celebrate his life with a memorial concert.

A poll to find the greatest Christian rock guitarist of all time by Classic Christian Rock Zone has given the award to Phil Keaggy. The award was based on a survey that got more than 24,000 responses, along with judgments from journalists and other figures in the Christian rock music scene (though these received less weighting than the public vote). Keaggy has won the GMA Dove [US Christian music] Award for the Instrumental Album of the Year no less than seven times. Others in the top five were Rex Carroll of Whitecross; Tonny Palacios of Guardian; Kerry Livgren, formerly of Kansas; and Chris Impelliteri of the eponymous fast-metal band. U2’s The Edge came in 10th place; Stu G of Delirious came 58th; and the only woman (and oldest entrant, having peaked in popularity in the 1930s and 40s) in the list, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, came in 92nd.

In technology news, a 3D printer has been used for the first time to ‘email’ a spanner from Earth to space. Instructions for how to make a ratchet wrench (socket wrench) were emailed to an astronaut on the International Space Station, and a wrench was “printed”. The wrench will not be used; instead it will be brought back to Earth for tests.

And finally, a newly retired 61 year old Seattle man decided to make a difference when he realised that most of the city’s office blocks threw away toilet paper that had less than a quarter of a roll left at the end of the day. He asked janitors to collect the stubs instead of discarding them, and then he collected them and drove them to a local food bank, where they proved very popular. He has just retired as the Toilet Paper Man at the age of 76 after a bout of pneumonia, by which stage he was collecting from nearly a quarter of downtown Seattle, and delivering three truckloads of toilet rolls per fortnight. The food banks have promised to keep the service going with other drivers.

Not The BBC News: 19 December 2014

The UK Supreme Court has overturned a decision of the Scottish Court of Session regarding the conscience clause in the Abortion Act 1967. Two Roman Catholic midwives had argued that they should not have to supervise other nursing staff performing abortions, because the Abortion Act allows anyone not to “participate in” abortions for reasons of conscience. The Scottish appeal court had ruled in the midwives’ favour, but the Supreme Court ruled against them. The decision turned on the fact that the midwives’ duties did not require them to be present in the operating theatre and on the meaning of the word ‘participate’, which Baroness Hale said to her meant “hands-on involvement.” A spokesman from the National Secular Society welcomed the decision, saying that “had the case gone the other way it might have opened the door to the broadening of conscience clauses in many areas of life” which he claimed would be detrimental to those who don’t share religious views. But a Christian blogger who sometimes writes on legal issues said, “You only need a dictionary to realise that this case was wrongly decided. If Parliament had meant to restrict the conscience clause to hands-on involvement, it could have used the word ‘perform’, or ‘assist in performing’; if it intended a wide interpretation, what other word could it have used apart from ‘participate’?” And he added, “Imagine that a gun instructor has contracted to teach someone target shooting, and the trainee announces that he wishes to continue his training by shooting live humans, in a country where this is legal. If the instructor refused to supervise the trainee and assist him to kill people efficiently and effectively, would British law condemn his refusal just because he did not need to be present when the shots were fired? Because that is exactly the situation these midwives are being put in.”

The divorce rate in the UK reached 50% of all marriages in the 1980s and was predicted to keep rising. However, it has fallen in the past two decades to around 40% of marriages. The study that discovered this suggested three possible reasons, all connected with changing attitudes in society: first, the big change in the roles of married women between the early 1960s and 1980s caused a spike in divorces as couples who married the right person for the old roles discovered they were with the wrong person for the newer roles; secondly, the increased acceptability of living together before marriage allowed some ill-fated relationships to break up without ever getting to the altar; and thirdly, the increased acceptability of having children outside marriage reduced the number of shotgun weddings, which were never the most stable of relationships.

In a (perhaps inevitable) development of the “Christian bakers and gay marriage cakes” stories on both sides of the Atlantic, a US man has approached thirteen gay bakers asking them to bake a cake that said, “Gay Marriage Is Wrong”. All thirteen refused to do so; some accused him of being hateful merely for making the request. One baker even explained why the Christian bakers were wrong not to bake a pro-gay marriage cake because “you can’t pick and choose your customers” before declining to bake an anti-gay marriage cake just moments later.

A survey at Brent Cross shopping centre asked 5-12 year old children how much they knew about the Christmas story, using multiple choice questions. 20% of those asked thought that Jesus was a striker for Chelsea football club; 25% thought that Christmas Day was Santa’s birthday; 25% thought that the three wise men found Jesus’ birthplace using Google Maps; 10% thought Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was present in the stable when Jesus was born; and 15% thought that the gifts that the wise men brought were a wand, wings and a tiara. The most popular wrong answers concerned the location of Jesus’ birth; 30% thought he was born in a church and 35% argued he was born at the South Pole. Shopping centre staff have promised to try to increase children’s knowledge of the Nativity story, so that they enjoy the Christmas period more.

A new reality TV series in the USA called “Eight Minutes” will follow members of a California church who work with police to try to help prostitutes and escorts, some of whom are victims of human trafficking, leave their life of vice. Volunteers from the Orange County church, whose pastor is a former vice cop, go undercover to talk to the prostitutes; each intervention is limited to eight minutes for safety. The series will look at the dangers, precautions and training undergone by the church volunteers, some of whom are ex-prostitutes. It will also follow some of those who leave prostitution as they try to re-integrate into society.

In film news, Sony has come in for further criticism after deciding not to release the film “The Interview” following threats from North Korea, whose leader is mocked in the film. The criticisms centre around Sony’s moral cowardice, but since the North Koreans had threatened violent attacks on cinemas showing the film, Sony would probably have come in for equal criticism if it had distributed the film. The critics also ignore how modern technology can avoid this type of terrorist threat; the film will now presumably go straight to DVD or to Netflix, and will effectively become one of the most heavily advertised films ever in those formats.

In technology news, a church in Hackney has teamed up with some university researchers to explore “digital empathy”. It uses tablets and digital projectors to create a digital advent window; a “wi-fi candle”, where you type in your prayer into a tablet, and not only does the prayer and an image of the candle display on the tablet but the prayer is also beamed onto a stone circle on the church floor; and even a “holy water font” where you can type your worries into another tablet, then see them displayed in the red-coloured holy water, and if you touch the water the words will apparently be flushed away. The priest said “Half our congregation are under 45 and we hope they’ll appreciate this”; the researchers said they chose a church because it’s a place where people often share their deep feelings.

And finally, a New Zealand man who went suddenly blind when home-brewed vodka reacted with his diabetes medication had his sight saved after being treated with Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. When he went to hospital he was rushed to the operating theatre, and the doctors suspected formaldehyde poisoning from methanol in the vodka. The standard cure for methanol is ethanol (pure alcohol), but the hospital didn’t have enough medical ethanol, so the Johnnie Walker was purchased and dripped gradually into his stomach. He woke up after five days with his sight fully restored.

Not The BBC News: 13 December 2014

A US pastor faces a possible jail sentence for “crimes against humanity” because he strongly opposed homosexual rights. This case is exceptional for two reasons. Firstly, Pastor Scott Lively’s activism took place overseas – in Uganda – where a local gay activist group claim the pastor’s speeches and sermons advised Ugandan leaders not to follow the liberal West’s teaching on homosexuality, and that by saying this he incited murder and persecution of homosexuals in that country. The complaints were picked up by a US group which sued Lively in the US under the controversial Alien Tort Act. Secondly, Lively asked a judge to throw the case out on the grounds that he did nothing to break either US or Ugandan law; but the judge not only refused to do so, but showed marked partiality by blaming Lively’s speeches for everything from isolated incidents of police brutality against homosexuals in Uganda to the introduction of a controversial anti-homosexual bill in the Ugandan Parliament (which failed to pass). A recent appeal by Lively against that decision was also denied as the appeal judges apparently decided the issues involved were important to the future of the Alien Tort Act.

India elected a Hindu government 100 days ago, and since there have been 600 recorded instances of anti-Christian harassment or violence in the country. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, Hindu radicals have declared that they intend to make the state a Christian-free zone. In one village about 22 miles from the state capital, a church was forcibly converted into a Hindu temple and three Christian families were forced to re-convert to Hinduism (though they were instructed to say they had re-converted voluntarily, in order to avoid breaking India’s laws on religious freedom). Another pastor had to call the police when 300 Hindu radicals surrounded his church (and church members) planning to build an altar inside to “re-convert” it; the mob only dispersed when the police threatened to shoot, and church attendance has now dropped significantly. There are also reports of government schemes and subsidies being denied to Christians. Ominously, the leader of one Hindu activist group has promised to use December 25 as a day for re-converting Christians to Hinduism.

I don’t usually report on Christian leaders or prominent figures who “fall into sin”, because there seems little for my readers to gain from reading a litany of their crimes. But I will make an exception in the case of an ex-Christian radio host, camp counsellor and missions volunteer in Michigan who was sentenced to 40 years in jail for sexual abuse of a boy and child pornography – because the judge was the father of internationally renowned Christian speaker Rob Bell. “I’m having a lot of trouble trying to reconcile the two people in the orange jumpsuit before me,” said Judge Robert Holmes Bell. “There’s the Christian man with a reputation as a value-driven individual. But there is something else going in that is troubling … filthy … obscene. I don’t get where you went off.” Bell asked the convicted man to write to him at least once per year. “Don’t whitewash me,” he said, “I want to know what books you’re reading and what you’re doing to help people. [Now that your former respectable life has slipped away], peel back layers of your own heart and your own soul.”

The saga of the anti-abortion posters in Blackfriars continues. The Independent newspaper, which seems to be acting as a mouthpiece for the abortion organisations, printed a call for a “buffer zone” around the clinic where anti-abortion protesters could not “harass” anyone – in other words, to make anti-abortion protests illegal in a localised area. Such buffer zones have been introduced by some left-wing state legislatures in the USA. Ann Furedi, the chairwoman of abortion providers BPAS, was interviewed about the situation in two or three forums, but lost her cool in one of them, and alleged that the protesters were “harassing” people (such allegations explain why the protesters video record most encounters) and are also “handing out leaflets to children” (which is false). And on one day, pro-choice protesters turned up and blocked the view of one of the biggest images of abortion with their own banner, and there was an attempt to destroy one of the pro-lifers’ signs.

A Christian army chaplain in the USA was disciplined for speaking about his Christian faith during suicide prevention training, despite the fact that Army regulations actually encourage chaplains to discuss spiritual matters during such training. The disciplinary letter alleged that the chaplain had breached Equal Opportunity policy by focusing on a particular religion. The colonel who issued the letter has since acknowledged that the chaplain did not in fact break Equal Opportunity policy, but has so far refused to cancel the letter.

A pro-choice activist has objected in the online left-wing magazine Slate to a recent technique to reverse chemical abortions. She questions both the usefulness and safety of a progesterone pill which can be taken by a woman who embarks on a chemical abortion and then regrets it. Chemical abortions require taking two pills a couple of days apart, and if progesterone is taken after taking the first pill, it is likely to reverse the abortion. The procedure has only been available for two years but current data indicates that the reversal is safe for the mother – which is unsurprising given that progesterone is a naturally occurring hormone. The complaint about its usefulness is based on the hypothesis that the first pill in a chemical abortion has little real effect -- this contradicts other pro-choice literature and so is of doubtful validity.

A US atheist group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, started legal action alleging discrimination against a diner in North Carolina which offered a 15% discount to anyone who said grace before their meal. The lawsuit was recently mocked by “The Daily Show”, which takes a satirical look at current affairs. The show interviewed the president of the FFRF and put it to him that atheists could easily claim the discount by pretending to pray. “That would make the person a hypocrite atheist,” the president replied. “What’s going to happen to a hypocrite atheist?” asked the interviewer, “you’re going to go to not Hell?” The discount has now been withdrawn due to the lawsuit.

The first critics’ reviews of Ridley Scott’s new film “Exodus: Gods and Kings” starring Christian Bale are now out, and they are unfavourable. The film had already been criticised for making the lead characters white and the bad guys black; it has now been criticised for not being remotely faithful to Scripture; for failing to target any other (non-religious) audience group successfully; and for trying to induce a sense of seriousness by filming everything on a grand scale. Only the battle scenes are praised. A reviewer from the (online) Christian Post said, “I desperately wanted to be kind to the film, but I wouldn’t pay to see it.”

And finally, a woman from Sierra Leone was called as a witness in a criminal case in London – and she was in the dock for an hour before the court realised she wasn’t speaking English. She was regularly asked to repeat herself slowly, but eventually the clerk of the court, who was also from Sierra Leone, informed that judge that she was speaking a native creole language that mixes some English words with local words. The clerk was hurriedly sworn in as an interpreter, and a new clerk was found – only for the witness to answer “I can’t remember” to most of the questions she was asked.

Not The BBC News: 12 December 2014

The Northern Ireland Assembly has passed an anti-human trafficking bill that is effectively the strongest anti-slavery legislation passed in the UK in 200 years. The law introduces independent guardians for trafficked children; a statutory support service for victims; and a stay of prosecution on victims for all but the most serious of crimes committed while they were being exploited. The same Bill criminalises the purchase of sex; only Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Canada currently do this. In Sweden the legal change, coupled with support services for ex-prostitutes similar to the ones mandated by the Northern Irish law, has been very effective at reducing prostitution (and human trafficking for prostitution).

Also in Northern Ireland, the Assembly is holding a consultation on whether to weaken the Province’s current total ban on abortion in cases of sexual crime or fatal foetal abnormality. However, a Government-funded quango has decided that a consultation isn’t enough, and has launched legal action to try to force the Assembly to legalise abortion on human rights grounds. And the Assembly’s private member’s Bill to amend equality legislation with a conscience clause has been attacked by Sinn Fein, which claims the clause will “undermine equality” – even though Sinn Fein’s own commitment to equality has been severely undermined by recent revelations of how it has deliberately used equality law as a weapon against its enemies.

The World Health Organisation has announced that deaths from malaria have halved in the 21st century compared with the years beforehand. This is apparently due to preventative measures (whereas 3% of those affected had access to mosquito nets in 2004, 50% do now); increased diagnostic testing; and better access to medicines.

A former sex worker who became a Catholic priest in Quebec entered politics in 2006. He proved to be a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-euthanasia candidate, and publicly attacked Catholic leaders who supported traditional doctrine on those subjects. He was told to choose between being a priest or a politician in 2008; he chose to return to the priesthood, but was removed as a catechist (official teacher of doctrine) in 2010. He blamed this latter demotion on a pro-life website, saying they had described him as “pro-abortion” when he was in fact “pro-choice,” and sued them for half a million dollars. Sadly this story has no winners; four years after the suit was launched, the priest died of lung cancer, and the website is now fundraising to meet their legal bill of $260,000.

A heterosexual couple from London have announced they are to pursue legal action against the Government to allow them to enter a civil partnership. Their argument for not getting married is that marriage has “sexist trappings.” While both Christian groups and the majority of the public opposed heterosexual civil partnerships, the Government is on shaky ground because of equality law; its main reasons for disallowing such partnerships is not the principle but the huge cost, with the cost in public sector pension rights alone being estimated at ₤3-₤4 billion.

President Obama quoted the Bible in support of his immigration reforms in this week. Unfortunately, he combined an accurate quote (“take the log out of your own eye”) with a common English proverb (“don’t throw stones in glass houses”). He has previously correctly quoted Bible verses about “welcoming the stranger among us” when discussing the subject of immigration.

At the State Capitol building in Florida, visitors can see a nativity scene, Christmas trees, a Hannukah menorah – and a model of an angel falling into a lake of fire put up by a Satanist group. The group was banned from creating a display last year on the grounds that it would be “grossly offensive” but threatened to sue if they were banned again this year. The Capitol also features presentations from the secular Freedom From Religion foundation and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In technology news, watches powered by human kinetic energy have been available for some time, but an industrial designer from Jerusalem has gone one step further by creating jewellery that obtains power from the body’s autonomic processes. One uses sharp gold connectors to harvest energy from the electrical signals sent along the spinal cord; another includes a tiny hydro-turbine to collect energy from flowing blood; and the last derives energy from blinking. The jewellery is intended as a proof of concept – and a philosophical talking point -- rather than for sale, and some doubt whether it can generate enough power to do anything useful. However, there is a current [no pun intended] research project from two American and one Chinese universities to develop a pacemaker that obtains its power from the human heartbeat, thus avoiding the need to change the battery every 6-10 years.

And finally, an academic study in New Zealand has researched a question which has baffled many people: why are the magazines in doctor’s waiting rooms always out of date and boring? The researchers placed a selection of magazines in 87 waiting rooms and planned to monitor the situation for two months. However, the study was terminated after 31 days when it became clear that theft by patients was the problem. “Gossipy magazines are much more likely to disappear than non-gossipy ones,” the lead author said. The practices lost an average of 41 magazines in the month; if this is multiplied by the average cost of a magazine and the number of NHS surgeries in the UK, the total value comes to more than ₤12 million.

Not The BBC News: 11 December 2014

A survey by the Social Integration Commission of people’s friendship networks in modern Britain has found that there are only two venues where people are likely to mix with folk from different social classes and age groups: churches and sporting venues. Churches were better at mixing people of different classes, and sporting events at mixing ages. Churches also scored comparatively highly on mixing people with different ethnic backgrounds, unlike sporting events. The research is being seen by some as evidence that official education and policy on “multiculturalism” is having little practical effect.

A high-profile Egyptian journalist who was imprisoned after seeking to change his religion on his official ID card from “Muslim” to “Christian” has gone on hunger strike to protest against abuse by prison guards. Egyptian law forbids official changes of religion, but the journalist challenged the law. Shortly after he started reporting on Muslim attacks on the Coptic Christian community in the country, he was arrested on a charge of “sectarian strife”; his lawyer says the charges against him are “trumped up and unproven” and has accused the judge who appears unwilling to set a date for an appeal hearing of being “prejudiced.”

There have been numerous instances in recent years of church groups or political groups travelling to other countries to apologise for the behaviour of their forbears towards that country. Such actions are sometimes criticised because the apologisers have little or no connection with those who committed the atrocities, through ancestry or through being a current government decision maker; because most of the apologisers seem to be from the countries who formed the Allies in the World Wars; and because some people think that it is better to forget the past than to dwell on bygone events. However, recently an apology and message of peace was given by the great-great-grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II (who declared World War 1) at a carol concert held at Crystal Palace’s football ground. Prince Philip Kiril, a Lutheran minister, asked forgiveness for his ancestor’s actions. Crystal Palace were especially badly affected by the war; they lost a number of their players in what became known as the “football battalion”, and the war also caused them to move away from their original ground close to the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, never to return.

A “nonhuman rights group” brought a legal case in New York arguing that a chimpanzee with “similar characteristics to humans” deserved basic rights, including being freed from captivity by its owner. The appeal court disagreed, saying that chimpanzees do not deserve rights because they “cannot bear any legal duties.” The group plans to continue to appeal.

Three American filmmakers have raised $2.1 million through crowdfunding to make a film about Kermit Gosnell, who was imprisoned last year for a series of abuses of practice at his Philadelphia abortion clinic, including murdering babies who were accidentally born alive. The proposed subtitles for the film are “America’s Biggest Serial Killer” and “The Doctor Is Sin”. The same crowdfunding approach was used for a film called “FrackNation”, which was a rebuttal to an anti-fracking film, and which was made successfully and is now available on Netflix. However, the Gosnell fundraiser had to be run through crowdfunding site Indiegogo rather than the usual Kickstarter site because Kickstarter made too many demands for the language of the advertisement to be toned down or changed.

In sport, Craig Gordon, the goalkeeper for Celtic, set an unusual record last week. One of Celtic’s players was injured, but in defiance of convention the opposition continued to play and to press for a goal. When the ball finally reached Gordon, he threw it away in frustration at the other team’s behaviour – and threw it over the stand and out of the ground.

And finally, there may have been a lot of bad press about the rich, capitalists and Russians this year, but it’s possible to be all three and still to show compassion. James Watson, joint holder of the Nobel Prize for Physics for discovery of the DNA helix, was forced to auction his Nobel Prize medal in order to raise money, after a series of controversial comments caused his academic career to stumble. The medal was bought for $4.1 million by Alisha Usmanov, the owner of Arsenal FC – who then promptly gave the medal back to Watson. “I honour him because of the work he did on trying to cure cancer,” said Usmanov, “which my father died of.”

Not The BBC News: 10 December 2014

The political fall-out over the actions of the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland, and the recent revelations that Sinn Fein is targeting its ‘enemies’ with complaints about them breaking equality law, has led to the Northern Ireland Assembly starting a consultation over a possible ‘conscience’ clause for businesses in the Province. The Bill would amend equality law to allow for ‘reasonable accommodation’ of religious and other beliefs in a limited set of circumstances. The Bill is similar in principle to the “Hobby Lobby” conscience legislation passed in the USA by the Supreme Court last year.

A judge in the UK has ruled that, for the purposes of criminal law, foetuses are not persons until they are born. The case related to damage suffered in the womb due to alcohol poisoning, and was brought under the Offences Against The Person Act 1861. The same judge had previously found someone guilty of manslaughter of a new-born baby due to injuries the baby suffered while in the womb, because the baby died after birth, and UK law allows pre-existing injuries that cause death to be included in prosecutions. It isn’t clear how the view that foetuses are not persons until they are born matches up to the principles underlying the Abortion Act 1967, which deem a foetus worthy of human rights once it is sufficiently developed to survive outside the womb.

A South African pastor and his teenage children, who were working for an education organisation in Afghanistan, have been killed after the Taliban launched a three hour attack on the compound believing that it was a secret missionary base. Meanwhile, a missionary couple in the Philippines who woke up one night to discover a masked gunman in their bedroom have told of their survival. The gunman had taken the local pastor hostage and had shot him in the foot, but when the couple began to pray loudly, the gunman became highly uncomfortable. The pastor ended up having a hand to hand struggle with the gunman and eventually disarmed him, but not before several bullets were fire, one of which hit the missionary man in the arm. However, neither of the two bullet wounds is considered serious.

When discussing family planning and abortion, one of the “elephant in the room” subjects – often significant but rarely discussed – is the (usually unspoken) pressure on women to delay or avoid motherhood for the sake of their career. Now two big Silicon Valley companies – Facebook and Apple—have decided to support women who want to delay motherhood by paying for them to have their eggs extracted and frozen for later use. A spokeswoman for women’s rights has welcomed the “freedom from the biological clock” that egg freezing provides. Most Christian and pro-life groups have yet to comment, although there has been some disquiet about the idea that companies can ‘engineer’ something that should be a personal choice.

It has been reported that when Angelina Jolie was making the film “Unbroken”, about the life of Olympic athlete, POW and Christian speaker Louis Zamperini, there came a moment when she needed sunlight to complete a particular scene, and a storm was in progress. Jolie said “OK, let’s do what Louis would do,” and dropped to her knees and prayed for a miracle in front of cast and crew. The sun came out, along with a rainbow; when she finished filming and said ‘Cut’, it began to rain again. Jolie became very close friends with Zamperini, who died in July this year at the age of 97; the story above comes from Zamperini’s daughter.

In technology news, Sony has been the most recent victim of a computer hack where passwords for its services, and personal phone numbers for some celebrities, were stolen. However, this incident differs from other recent hacking incidents for two reasons. Firstly, there is a rumour that the hack was perpetrated by the security services of North Korea in revenge for a recent film that mocked the country. And secondly, it transpires that, despite Sony being targeted before, they stored customers’ passwords in an unencrypted file called “password” -- a degree of negligence that may leave them open to legal claims.

And finally. a newspaper survey of Christmas cards sent by UK councils found that only one council in the whole of the UK – Banbridge in Northern Ireland -- is sending a card that mentions the birth of Christ. Of 182 councils who responded to the survey, 28% are not sending cards at all due to Government cutbacks; 56% are sending cards that mention Christmas; and 16% are sending cards with no mention of Christmas. It is hoped that the designs on the cards will improve on last year’s (unofficial) worst council Christmas card, from Corby council, which showed a snow-covered road with the council offices on one side and some bus shelters on the other. However, at least none of them have suffered the embarrassment of Clinton Cards who marketed and then hurriedly withdrew a card with “10 reasons why Santa must live on a council estate”; the reasons included “He has a serial record for breaking and entering”; “he only works once a year”; and “he gets lots of letters from people saying he owes them things.”

Not The BBC News: 5 December 2014

The anti-abortion protests outside the new abortion clinic in Blackfriars have taken on an increasingly high profile, with both the Guardian and the Independent covering the issue. The newspapers covered different incidents, but in neither case did they talk to the protesters directly. The Guardian published the views of Ann Furedi, the head of abortion providers BPAS, ahead of a planned debate between herself and the protesters, but gave no space to the protesters’ views. The Independent covered a conversation between a pregnant woman and a pro-life protester which, in their view, showed clearly why the protesters were wrong. The Independent claimed they left an answerphone message asking the protesters to comment, but the message gave no named contact and the telephone number provided went to the Independent’s IT department.

A Christian couple in Washington State have had their newborn twins and toddler taken away by social services after one of the babies developed eczema. The couple are somewhat unusual in that they trust God so completely that they seem to want no State involvement in their family at all: they married ‘in the sight of God’ but not legally; they refused all ante-natal scans so did not know they were having twins until the moment of birth; and they refused to take the children to hospital for check-ups after the home birth. The parents badly want their children to be returned to them.

An unmarried heterosexual couple in the UK have started legal proceedings to force the Government to introduce civil partnerships for opposite-sex couples. The Government has previously rejected this idea in the grounds of cost – the cost in pension rights alone is estimated at ₤3-₤4 billion. It also proved unpopular with the public in the Government’s consultation on the issue.

A church in a suburb of New Delhi was burned down this week, and Christians are lobbying for a police investigation. There are reports that remains gathered from the 13 year old building smell of fuel, but police have so far made no comment. Delhi’s Archbishop has asked the Indian government to order an investigation.

The Catholic Church in Northern Ireland has “regretfully” ended its association with a church-founded adoption service, after a judge ruled that they had to accept applications from unmarried and same-sex couples. The Democratic Unionist Party has said that this case shows the need for legislation to include a conscience clause for religious groups.

A church in Houston, Texas has been heavily criticised for refusing to bury a former parishioner, on the grounds that she had not paid her tithe to the church for several years, and so her membership had lapsed. Olivia Blair joined the church 50 years ago, but fell ill 10 years ago; spent the last 2 years in nursing homes and hospitals; and was in a coma for her last few months. When the pastor was contacted by a Christian watchdog group, he apparently said “If the family cared so much, why didn’t they at least send a dollar a week to maintain her membership?” He also refused to conduct the funeral even if the watchdog group paid for it.

In sport, some new statistical records have been set recently. Lionel Messi broke the record for the most goals ever in the UEFA Champions League, with his 74th. Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City created a new record for the most goal attempts in a single Premier League match – 51 – but perhaps the fact that fewer than 10% of them were scored (QPR won 3-2) explains why both teams are near the bottom of the league table. And in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers set an unwanted record when losing 16-3 to the Seattle Seahawks; the player who caught the most passes from the 49ers’ quarterback was on the other team (cornerback Richard Sherman, who caught two interceptions). The 49ers owner apologised to fans after the game.

In technology news, a sign of the rapid growth of technology comes from YouTube and its view counter. In the year 2000, many computers had to be reprogrammed because they were using two digits to represent the year instead of four. When YouTube designed its system, it decided to use a 32 bit number to count the number of times a video was viewed, as it couldn’t imagine that any video would ever be viewed more than 2,147 million times. But recently the original “Gangnam Style” video by Psy passed that total, and has now reached 2,155 million views. YouTube had to reprogram their system to use a 64-bit number for the counter, with a new limit of roughly 9 quintillion.

And finally, the Guardian has reported on an ingenious anti-human trafficking initiative in operation in London – the police take a nun with them. The Congregation of Adoratrices, set up in 1856 to minister amongst prostitutes, supplies nuns to go with the police on brothel raids. Because trafficked women have often been taught to distrust the police, the nuns are more easily able to extract information about their captors within the “golden hour” which might lead to their arrest. The nuns also organise safe house accommodation for the women; treat them with tender loving care; and are sometimes able to use their church contacts to resettle the women in their home countries.

Not The BBC News: 30 November 2014

The UK’s Chief Scientist has completed and published a report on fracking for the Government. It has been reported by some newspapers that the report raises major concerns about fracking by comparing it to  “other innovation trajectories that later proved to be problematic”, such as asbestos, dioxins, thalidomide or tobacco, and that the report also argues that the UK could make up any shortfall in energy from fracking from renewable energy. In fact, these comments are not contained in the main report, but in one chapter of a supplementary publication in which a number of experts were invited to contribute personal views. The main report does, however, suggest that the indirect risks of adopting new technologies such as fracking need to be considered, along with the risks of failing to act.

The fire chief of the city of Atlanta has been suspended from duty without pay for one month by the mayor – because he wrote a chapter in a book that said same sex marriage was wrong and called it a “perversion”. He has also been ordered to undergo sensitivity training and banned from distributing copies of the book.

Following the US Supreme Court victory for private companies who do not wish to include abortifacents in the “Obamacare” health care cover that they must offer their employees, an entire U.S. State has now followed suit. A pro-life couple in Connecticut discovered that every “Obamacare” health policy available in the State included a compulsory extra payment that could only be used to fund abortion – and furthermore, that healthcare providers were banned from providing information about this payment, so many people were unaware of it. The couple sued the State, and State authorities now say that new health plans that do not include this payment will be made available.

The Chief Constable of Southwark has been answering questions about the anti-abortion protest outside the GP surgery/abortion clinic in Blackfriars. He said that after consultation with police, the protesters had re-located some of their banners, but otherwise they were not breaking any laws.

In sport, the world of cricket has been shocked by the death of 25 year old Australian Test batsman Phil Holmes, who was struck on the head by a ‘bouncer’ cricket ball, and died in hospital two days later. There has been much discussion over whether cricket helmets should be redesigned to protect batsman better, but it turned out that Holmes was struck high up on his neck (and suffered a burst artery) in an area where it is very difficult for any helmet to provide protection. A doctor described it as a ‘freak’ injury, which has only been recorded once before in the whole history of cricket. Former England and Yorkshire cricketer Geoffrey Boycott suggested that helmets are actually part of the problem; “they make batsmen feel invincible,” he said, “so they attempt pull and hook shots almost every time a short ball is bowled.” Holmes was playing a ‘pull’ shot when he was struck.

In technology news, the US Supreme Court has been asked to make a judgment about the law on cyberstalking and cyber-harassment. The case involves a man who was dumped by his wife,  and turned to social media as an outlet for his feelings. However, he was aware of the law against making direct threats against someone on social media, and so he contented himself with indirect criticisms and threats, such as “It’s illegal for me to say that I want to kill my wife. Not saying I’d do it, just that it’s illegal to say it” and “Hell hath no fury like a crazy man in a kindergarten class.” Both sides in the court case against him acknowledge that his postings have created fear in his wife and others; however, the defence allege that he did not intend to create fear but that the posting were simply “a form of therapy, an imitation of rap lyrics, and exercising free speech.” The Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether the law on cyber-harassment should require intent. The court must walk a fine line in this case, as illustrated by two cases:  a woman who moved house nine times in 18 months and changed her job four times in an attempt to escape an ex-partner; and a college professor who was suspended from his job after posting a picture of his 7 year old wearing a T-shirt captioned with a violent-sounding quotation from TV show “Game Of Thrones”, which the college interpreted as a threat of a school shooting.

And finally, a 430-mile team endurance race in Ecuador had an unexpected ending for a team from Sweden. With two stages left to go – a 20-mile mud-and-jungle run, and a 36-mile kayak – the team stopped for a meal, and one of them threw a meatball to a stray dog (breed unknown, but possibly part-golden retriever). When they left, the dog followed them through their 20 mile slog, and when they tried to leave the dog behind for the final stretch it started swimming after them, so they hauled it aboard one of their kayaks. The team and dog (now named Arthur) crossed the finish line together, and the team then set up a social media appeal to pay for the dog to return to Sweden with them.  Arthur is now in  quarantine in Sweden, receiving regular visits, and the team have set up the Arthur Foundation to help other stray dogs.

Not The BBC News: 26 November 2014

The case of the Christian bakery in Northern Ireland which is being pursued by the Equality Commission took an unexpected and potentially explosive political turn this week, when Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein effectively admitted that his party has been using equality law as a political weapon, by deliberately targeting its enemies with complaints about them breaking equality law. Adams was speaking to a Republican audience about “bigotry” amongst Unionists, and said, “The point is to break these b______ds – break them with equality. Might as well use equality -- who can be afraid of equality? That’s the Trojan horse of the entire Republican strategy.” His words were recorded and distributed by a journalist who was present. Sinn Fein have since scrambled to cover their tracks – one Sinn Fein politician tried to re-define “Trojan horse”, while Adams himself issued an apology for using bad language, which led some major news outlets to focus their coverage of the incident on that apology. However, Adams’ words call into question the genuineness of Sinn Fein’s whole pro-equality policy, as well as many of the complaints made to the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland. And given that one of the three Equality Commissioners who decided to pursue legal action against the bakery was a Sinn Fein member, the Commission’s legal action against the bakery appears especially suspect.

Kenya has placed an indefinite ban on registration for all new religious organisations, and will make all existing religious organisations file details of their registration status and financial returns. The move follows news coverage of alleged illegal activity by pastors promising miracles. The Government says the move is designed to protect its citizens.

Canon Andrew White, the “Vicar of Baghdad”, has been ordered to return home by the Archbishop of Canterbury after ISIS placed a ₤36 million bounty on his head. He says he has no fear of ISIS himself but that he agreed to leave because of the danger to the people around him. He fears greatly for the people he has left behind, and also worries that people in the UK “are not waking up and listening to the reality of what is going on.”

Rob Bell, former pastor of one of the Mars Hill megachurches and bestselling author, will front a self-help TV show on the Oprah Winfrey Network in the USA, starting next month. A trailer describes Bell as a “rock star speaker” and his show as “unconventional”, “revealing” and “inspiring.” Some Christians are uncertain whether to welcome the new show, both because of the “pastor as rock star” concept, and also because of some of Bell’s beliefs – he accepts gay marriage, and has questioned whether a literal, eternal Hell exists.

A mass march in Madrid was held to protest against the Spanish Government’s decision not to tighten restrictions on abortion. The right wing Government had promised to undo changes to abortion legislation made by the previous left wing administration, but decided not to proceed after being told that passing such laws would be “suicidal in election year.” The Government is trying to make amends by preventing 16 and 17 year olds from having abortions without parental consent.

In sports news, Lewis Hamilton won the Formula 1 driver's World Championship for the second time. He needed only to finish second to is team-mate Nico Rosberg in the final race, but after qualifying second, Hamilton overtook Rosberg from the grid, and then led throughout the race except for pit stops. Rosberg suffered problems with his car and did well to finish at all, coming home 13th.

In technology news, an executive at a UK corporation recently got a virus on his computer, despite having the latest anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed. When the corporation’s IT staff failed to find any way that the computer could have been infected, they asked the executive if he had made any changes in his lifestyle; he said “Yes, I stopped smoking two weeks ago and switched to e-cigarettes.” It turned out that his Chinese e-cigarette had malware hard-coded into its charger.

And finally, a schoolboy in Salford was suspended from school because he was too successful at selling sweets and fizzy drinks to his classmates. 15 year old Tommie Rose, who is a big fan of Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice, built up a lucrative business buying sweets in bulk and selling them at a mark-up. He had made ₤14,000 in three years – which he intended to put towards his university fees – but the school said that his activities contravened their healthy eating policy. However, Tommie decided not to waste the 15 minutes of fame that his suspension brought him, and auctioned an autographed bottle of Lucozade on Ebay. The winning bid was just over ₤1 million (plus ₤3.20 postage); there are now several Lucozade bottles being sold on Ebay, autographed by students looking to pay university fees.

Not The BBC News: 24 November 2014

A recent survey looked at the oft-repeated adage that religion is the major cause of war on Earth, to see if it was true. They discovered that it was false: specifically, they found that countries with the greatest religious freedom tended to be the most peaceful; that countries that are highly religious are statistically slightly more peaceful because religion can provide a basis for inclusion and social cohesion; and that the factors most associated with wars were corruption, political terror, gender & economic inequality (but not overall wealth or poverty), and political instability. The report further commented that, of 35 armed conflicts in 2013, only 5 were motivated by religion alone; and of the 15 armed conflicts motivated in part by Islamist groups in 2013, 10 were intra-group conflicts in countries where Muslims are the majority.

The Vatican has published a document that decrees that Greek Catholic churches may make their own decisions about whether their priests may marry. This concludes a conflict that has been running for over 100 years, particularly in the USA where Greek Catholics (also known as Byzantine Catholics, who are widespread in many East European, Middle Eastern and North African countries) can be found alongside their Roman Catholic counterparts. It also removes a significant barrier to dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

A Pentecostal church in Udumalpet, Tamil Nadu, India, has been violently attacked by Hindu radicals who destroyed vehicles in the car park, then broke in, desecrated the altar, burned Bibles and broke musical instruments. The pastor and four other Christians are in a serious condition in hospital; some radicals even followed them to the hospital and attacked them again there. There has been a big increase in attacks on Christians and other religious minorities since May, when a right-wing Hindu government was elected.

The National Cathedral in Washington D.C. hosted an invitation-only Islamic prayer service, which was interrupted by a lone woman who loudly proclaimed the name of Jesus. She said afterwards, “Let’s play fair. If there can be an Islamic prayer service in a cathedral, let’s have a Bible study in a mosque.”

A synagogue in New York has come up with a new way to get people through the doors to discuss Jewish law: it has set up a mock trial of Abraham on charges of attempted murder and endangering his son Isaac. New York governor Eliot Spitzer will lead the prosecution; renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz will appear for the defence; and U.S. District judge Alison Nathan will preside. The synagogue’s new director said, “If I put an ad asking people to come study Bible on Sunday morning, not many people would come. But [this event allows them] to come and study Torah – in a creative way that makes religion relevant to their lives.” The synagogue has sold more than 1000 tickets for the event at $36 each.

A new multimedia Museum of the Bible is under construction in Washington D.C. The motivation for the museum – and many of the items in its collection – come from Steve Green, an Oklahoma businessman who is president of Hobby Lobby (which recently won a controversial freedom-of-conscience case in the Supreme Court). The items, which include stained glass windows, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the hand-written lyrics to “Battle Hymn Of The Republic” are designed to tell one of three stories: how the Bible was translated and transmitted through the ages; the Bible’s impact on culture; or to tell the narrative of the Bible itself in an ‘immersive’ way (e.g. by making one exhibition room a copy of Abraham’s tent). The museum is scheduled to open in autumn 2017.

In technology news, a computer anti-virus company has uncovered an “extremely sophisticated” spyware program that appears to have been used for data theft and other covert surveillance for at least the past six years. “Regin” is so sophisticated that experts believe it must have been written by a national intelligence service, much like the “Stuxnet” virus which crippled many nuclear reprocessing machines in Iran some years ago, and which was widely believed to have been written by Israeli intelligence. Countries targeted/affected by Regin include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mexico, India, Austria, Belgium and Ireland. No country has yet been reported to be the likely author of the software, but since Regin uses internal codewords that are written in English and use cricketing terminology, the UK and Australia are suspected.

Also in technology news, a five year old boy who was born in Pakistan but has lived most of his life in Coventry set a new world record recently, by becoming the youngest person ever to pass the Microsoft Certified Professional exam. Ayan Quresh’s father, an IT technician, starting giving him old computers to play with at the age of three, and Ayan proved to have such a good memory that his father started teaching him more and more about computers. Ayan has now built his own computer network at home.

And finally, actress Brooke Shields has written an autobiography which reveals that her mother was pressurised to abort her daughter. Conceived out of wedlock, Brooke’s grandfather decided it would hurt his son’s social standing to have such a baby, and so gave an envelope to Brooke’s mother with enough money for an abortion. However, Brooke’s mother defiantly spent it on a coffee table -- which became a favourite standing aid for her baby daughter. Brooke Shields herself has said, “Too many people use abortion as a form of birth control. And that’s very wrong. I could never, ever, have an abortion.”

Not The BBC News: 20 November 2014

The issue of immigration has become prominent in British politics with the rise of UKIP and in American politics with Barack Obama’s plan to offer an amnesty to around 5 million illegal immigrants. There has been a corresponding rise in tensions and obstacles facing immigrants; for example in the UK, the supermarket Lidl recently banned Polish workers from speaking Polish even during their work breaks, and threatened them with dismissal when they broke that rule. Christians in the USA are deeply divided over whether to accept illegal immigrants; as for the UK, a report on the subject from the Jubilee Centre looked at how the Old Testament laws applied to legal immigrants. The report concluded that all immigrants to ancient Israel were to be welcomed and given hospitality, but only those who chose to assimilate with Hebrew society were given equal protection under the Law.

Stories are emerging from Ukraine of Protestant Christians being harassed, tortured or killed by the pro-Russian rebel fighters. Refugees tell of beatings; churches being taken over or forced to close; business being burned; and of arrested Christians being “shot while trying to escape.” A top evangelical leader from Sloviansk, in the eastern Donetsk district, said, “I never thought that in the 21st century in a free country like Ukraine such persecution could happen.” Many believe the persecution is linked to pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ofsted inspectors have withdrawn criticism of a Roman Catholic secondary school relating to the new “spiritual and moral development” standards. The inspectors’ preliminary report on St Benedict’s school in Bury St Edmunds said the “younger children showed less awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation” and proposed to downgrade the school from “good” to “requires improvement,”  but there was no mention of the criticism in the final report. Meanwhile, a group of MPs have written to the Education Secretary urging her to withdraw the new standards.

The pastor of a Mennonite church in Ben Cat, Vietnam, has issued an emergency appeal for help after his church was attacked by knife-wielding thugs, while the police stood by watching and filming the event. Nine Christians were arrested and charged with not having their identification documents – which had been confiscated by police during previous raids and not returned. The church, which is unregistered and has criticised the government’s human rights record, has been attacked regularly since June; a nearby registered Mennonite church that has made no such criticisms has been left alone.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has been praised for taking on payday lenders not primarily by public criticism but by encouraging churches to become involved with credit unions. However, he has also made some potentially controversial comments about refugees from the crises in the Middle East; he has said that the UK has a “duty of hospitality and welcome” but that the UK government should not offer the refugees asylum, but rather organise “safe havens” in their own territories. Otherwise, he fears, the Middle East will be “drained” of its long-standing Christian populations.

The Equalities Commission of Northern Ireland has made its annual financial report to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Politicians took the opportunity to criticise the Commission for its legal action against a Christian bakery in the province; one told the Chief Commissioner that they were “essentially bullying” a small business and that they “must acknowledge that they are out of step with public opinion.” The Commissioner replied that, although the Commission listens to what the public says, they are not required to take the public’s views into account.

A MSP who tried to reduce the role of churches in local authority education boards has dropped his proposed Bill due to lack of public support. He proposed to remove the current legal requirement to have three religious representatives on each Scottish education board, and also to prevent them from voting, but a public consultation found that only 17% of people supported his idea.

In sport, Sheffield United have bowed to public pressure and retracted their offer to former player Ched Evans to train with them after finishing his prison sentence for rape. A statement said: “We ask supporters to remember the responsibility that we have not only to be a fine and proud club, but to the communities in which Sheffield United is active.”

In technology news, Norway has started issuing new passports to its citizens. Each page is embossed with an image of Norway – and if the page is placed under and infra-red scanner, the Northern Lights appear on the picture.

And finally, a bus driver in Egypt was required to provide a sample of his urine for a drug test. When the results came back, he was informed that he had attempted to cheat the testers by supplying his wife’s urine (which he knew) and that she was two months pregnant (which he was unaware of). He is believed to be no longer working as a bus driver.

Not The BBC News: 19 November 2014

The outgoing president of Uruguay, who chose to maintain his humble lifestyle while in office, has refused a $1 million offer for his Volkswagen Beetle as he prepares for the end of his term. Jose Mujica is a former left-wing urban guerrilla who was imprisoned in the 1970s. He was elected on a centre-left platform, and has made significant changes in Uruguay, by attracting investment; introducing many wind farms (taking advantage of the slump in European demand due to the recession); and legalising abortion and marijuana, despite personally disapproving of both. “Look, no-one likes abortion, but women need it,” he said. His reasons for legalising marijuana are more cogent:  “Drug trafficking is much worse than consumption of marijuana: look at Mexico, Honduras or Guatemala. … And the problem is that state build giant systems to fight it, and [all state employees] start thinking their task is the centre of the world. Instead of repression, I need doctors to deal with this filth!” He plans to continue to live in the three-room house that he has shared with his wife throughout his term of office, and to help her in her trade as a chrysanthemum seller.

The protests in Blackfriars against co-locating an abortion clinic with a GP’s surgery have reached Parliament. A petition against the clinic has attracted 1500 signatures – but a petition against the displays of aborted babies mounted by protesters outside the clinic has attracted twice that number of signatures, despite the protesters placing a banner further down the street warning of “graphic abortion images ahead”. Now Labour MP Diane Abbott has raised an Early Day Motion in Parliament to prevent the protesters from showing such pictures in public. Such Motions have almost no chance of becoming law; they are used to allow MPs to express support for a cause by signing the motion, or even for humorous purposes. Abbott’s motion has only been signed by one other MP to date, the maverick Tory MP Peter Bottomley.

The international news coverage of the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem has been criticised by Israeli sources. Some of the criticisms are of the media’s slowness to confirm that this was a terrorist attack, which perhaps reflects justifiable media caution; but other criticisms include the BBC refusing to show the dead body of one of the rabbis who was killed (an Israeli interviewee held up a photo of it and was asked to take it down) despite being prepared to show photos of dead Palestinians on other occasions; the Guardian deliberately excising the fact that the attackers were Palestinian from its initial reports; and CNN describing the event as an “attack on a Jerusalem mosque.” CNN have subsequently apologised.

The New York Times has discovered that the rules of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) permit IRS undercover agents to pose as “an attorney, physician, clergyman or member of the news media.” The IRS is already facing a Congressional investigation for apparent past bias against right wing and Christian organisations, and the possibility that “when American citizens share their concerns with the clergy, they will actually be talking to an IRS agent” has raised a whole new controversy.

Another “Christian” film that was made for TV in 1994 has been made freely available over the Internet this year. “Time Of Violence” tells the story of the sufferings of Bulgarian Christians under the (Muslim) Ottoman empire, and has good reviews on the Internet Movie Database. It is available at http://shoebat.com/2014/11/13/movie-every-christian-must-watch-understand-christians-lived-islam-2/.

In technology news, a group of artists from London and Zurich are populating their latest art exhibition by shopping on the “darknet” i.e. on the illegal equivalent of Ebay. They programmed a  computer to buy one random item per week with a budget of $100 in Bitcoins. The exhibition will display both the items and the packaging in which they were sent. So far they have acquired a set of fire brigade master keys; ecstasy tablets which were shipped in a DVD case; fake Chesterfield cigarettes from Ukraine; fake trainers; a baseball cap with a hidden camera; and a copy of the “Lord of the Rings” novels, which cost less than a pound. Their last art project involved posting a camera to Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, and programming the camera to take pictures of its journey through the postal system.

And finally, a male Australian TV presenter decided to make a statement about sexist attitudes – by wearing the same suit every day for a year. Karl Stefanovic, a presenter on the breakfast show on Channel Nine, said he began the experiment when he wore the same suit two days in a row and no-one noticed. “I get judged on my interviews and on my appalling sense of humour – basically on how I do my job. Whereas women are often judged on what they’re wearing or how their hair is.” He conceded that the suit was now “a bit stinky” and that he planned to get it dry cleaned.

Not The BBC News: 15 November 2014

A Texas oil magnate has died at the age of 88. Nelson Hunt was a lifelong Christian, and used some of his vast wealth to fund Christian projects. He funded the making of the “Jesus” film, and described it as his best ever investment: “it cost $22 million to make and over 200 million people have accepted Jesus after seeing it, so it cost me 11 cents a soul.” His other passions included horse breeding and racing; he founded the Breeder’s Cup specifically to provide a way for older horses to continue making money from racing.

Chinese authorities are not only demolishing church buildings but also arresting pastors, with the official Three Self state church being increasingly targeted. Zhang Shaojie, pastor of a church in Nanle County, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” and “committing fraud.” He appealed but his sentence was upheld – at a hearing that his lawyers were not told about. Now his daughter has been arrested and, according to a frantic text message, is being held at a hotel, possibly to prevent her from attending the Asia Pacific Economic Summit where Barack Obama will be present.

The spread of Ebola in Nigeria was stopped and the country is now Ebola-free, with churches playing a major role in the prevention campaign. The virus entered the country when an infected Liberian man arrived by air into the capital Lagos, and spread to 19 people, seven of whom died. But the Government swiftly ran a public education campaign about how to stop the spread of Ebola, using materials provided by Christian charity Tearfund and with church pastors helping to spread the message.

A new online resource for sex education in  the UK has been widely criticised because it says sex between 13 year olds is “healthy”. The “traffic light” resource also gives a green light to “interest in erotica/pornography” and “sexually explicit conversations with peers.” The charity that produced the resource also offer a sexually explicit book whose author argues (on their website): “Adult shame stops frank lessons.”

A man whose love for art drove him to rebel against his businessman father and became a soldier and then a (dreadlocked and heavily tattooed) tattoo artist has rediscovered his childhood Catholic faith and found a way to use his love of art – as a monk. He has been made curator of the Oregon abbey’s art collection. “People have been bequeathing items to the abbey since the 19^th century,” he said. “Much of it is unmarked, and it’s like a garden; if you don’t weed it, you get some crazy plants.” He collaborates with art museums and has taken a course in iconography. He has shaved his hair, but still has his tattoos.

In sport, the international football federation FIFA have completed an internal investigation into allegations of bias and bribery when the next two World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar. A summary of the report was released – it cleared Russia and Qatar of wrongdoing, but accused the failed English bid of attempted bribery. However, the summary was immediately criticised by the author of the full report, who said it contained “misleading and erroneous statements of fact”, and appealed for the full report to be released. FIFA’s credibility has now sunk so low that one newspaper ran a spoof article suggesting that the next World Cup will be held in Hell, as FIFA don’t think that very hot temperatures and a poor human rights record are a good reason to avoid it.

Also in sport, last night’s European Championship qualifiers saw Scotland beat the Republic of Ireland 1-0 – both teams are in joint second place in their group, alongside Germany and behind Poland. Northern Ireland suffered their first defeat of the campaign, 2-0 away to group-topping Romania. And Greece lost 1-0 at home to the Faroe Islands; the last time the Faroes beat a “Western” European team in a qualifying match was 2002 when they beat Luxembourg.

And finally, many people complain about the price of petrol, but in Iran an age-old solution to the problem is being used – donkey transport. The government of Iran cut petrol subsidies causing price rises of up to 75%, and a rapid increase in donkey traffic has since been seen, especially in the mountainous north west of the country, but also in some cities. This is considered good news for the donkeys who would often die in the wild during the winter after being released to avoid the costs of winter feeding.  

Not The BBC News: 14 November 2014

More details are emerging about the death of Dr Myles Munroe of Bahamian Faith Ministries in a plane crash. The crash has been attributed to bad weather, but his daughter Charisa was not on the plane and is alive and well. Tributes have been paid from around the world; Dr Munroe was a regular visitor to Israel, and the youngest recipient of the Order of the British Empire in 1998. He was on his way to an international conference for Christian leaders from his ministry, at which he planned to speak about a dream that he had had; the dream showed an athlete in a coffin with the baton still in his grasp, and spoke of the need to pass on the baton of leadership before it became too late to do so.

A so-called “lost gospel” has been discovered that allegedly states that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two sons. It turns out that the document actually tells the story of Old Testament patriarch Joseph and his marriage to an Egyptian princess; the document can only be applied to Jesus if it is assumed that the whole document is written in code (Joseph represents Jesus, and so on). Furthermore the document, which was written around 590 AD, has been in the British Museum since 1847. One Christian commentator summarised the situation: “It wasn’t lost and it isn’t a gospel.”

The Court of Session in Scotland ruled in 2012 that two Catholic labour ward co-ordinators are entitled to claim conscientious objection to “the full range” of abortion services, including delegating, supervising or supporting anyone else to perform abortions; this week, the UK Supreme Court began to review the case, and judgment is expected next year. The chief executive of abortion providers BPAS said it would be “grossly unjust” if an interpretation of the conscience clause should allow a small number of individuals to disrupt abortion clinics and prevent them from “helping women.”

A proposed UK law to criminalise anyone who seriously harmed a child’s “physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development” has been dropped from the forthcoming Serious Crime Bill. This has been hailed as a victory by Christian organisations who had campaigned against the measure, because its wording was considered so broad that it could be used against parents who brought their children up to believe a particular religion.

Three Northern Irish MPs have launched a petition against the Equalities Commission’s decision to bring charges against a Christian bakery. Northern Ireland’s First Minister has called the decision “bonkers.”

In sport, the argument of the future of ex-Sheffield United footballer and convicted rapist Ched Evans has intensified after the club  allowed him to train at their ground. Some sources have argued that he should not been convicted of rape at all, or at least of a hypothetical ‘lesser rape’ offence, since the woman involved apparently consented while drunk; however athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, who has one of the stands at United’s ground named after her, has asked for her name to be removed if he is re-signed.

In technology news, a Frenchman has designed the fastest bicycle in the world – by putting a hydrogen peroxide powered jet engine on the back of it. The bicycle can do 0-60mph in 1.1 seconds (more than  twice as fast as a Formula One car) and has a top speed of 207mph.

Also in technology, a company called Husk Power has found an innovative way to supply electricity to the poorest parts of India – by burning rice husks. Set up by four Indians in the USA, the company’s machines burn 50kg of husks per hour to supply 32 kW of power. They sell the power in the extremely poor state of Bihar – customer pay $1.75 per month to power one 30 watt lightbulb and to charge mobile phones for 6 hours per day. The company has also saved money by stripping out automated parts of their machine (e.g. waste extraction) in favour of hand cranking; getting their fee collectors to double as door to door salesmen; and selling the burned rice husks to incense stick manufacturers.

And finally, a Canadian teenager had her school locker broken into by bullies; one of them found her Ipad and used it to post a status on her Facebook account encouraging her to die. The girl’s response was to write out positive notes about all 800 students in the school, and to stick them on their lockers. Although the school’s response was to criticise the girl for littering (because some of the notes fell off), a number of the students say they have kept the notes, and the idea has gone viral around the world – one stationers in Airdrie, Scotland even offered to give away Post-It notes in advance of World Positive Post-It day on October 9^th.