Christian doctors and medical professionals recently
travelled to Bulgaria for a conference on “Medicine, Science and Spirituality.”
The focus of the conference was on documented stories of divine healing, and on
other medical professionals having the opportunity to question each ‘miracle.’
Healing stories came from as far apart as the Faroes and the Philippines.
At least 15 churches have been demolished in Zhejiang
province, China, in the last two weeks. Some were officially registered
churches, some were not. Some had not even been fully built. Also, some
Christians from Sanjiang where the first demolition took place are facing
criminal charges.
Once again, a complaint against someone exercising free
speech in the UK has led to them being visited by police and asked to desist
from speaking out. In this case, however, the speaker was not a street preacher,
but a blogger who tweeted a fake election poster suggesting that UKIP’s
manifesto contains extreme policies. The Guardian chose to report this case,
and to criticise the apparent threat to free speech. The paper quoted the
blogger saying, “The police told me there was no charge to answer and it really
wasn’t a police matter, but they asked me to ‘take it down’. I had to explain
that I couldn’t because it had been retweeted”; the leader of the Green Party
saying, “This police action is both disturbing and surprising … Free speech is
a precious right that we must defend”; and a police spokesman saying, “A
gentleman has an absolute total right to free speech.” The chief constable of
the police force has now called for a review into the incident.
An Iranian Muslim has revealed a conversion experience
similar to that of the Apostle Paul. The man was respected because he and his
wife had both made the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, so when his daughter and then
his wife became Christians he was furious. He quoted the Koran to them; forbade
them to attend church, beat them, and threatened to inform the secret police
about them. But when they fled abroad, he became desperate for answers from
religion or Allah. Eventually he had a dream in which a man on a donkey
approached, hugged him and promised to clean him of his sins; then another man
approached and explained that the man on the donkey was Jesus Christ. After
having the dream twice more, he attended the very church he had forbidden to
his family to learn more; risked his life for Jesus in ministry work within
Iran; and eventually rejoined his family abroad.
Council officials in Essex have apologised after sending a
letter to all churches in the county telling them they ‘must’ register to
perform same-sex weddings with “immediate effect”, despite legal protections
for clergy who do not wish to perform same sex marriages. The word ‘immediate’
was underlined and in bold characters. The council insist the letter was simply
drafted badly, but a spokesman for the Coalition for Marriage said, “This just
the kind of thing we feared would happen.”
Another Christian film has been announced. The company who
made “God’s Not Dead” has made a documentary entitled “God the Father,” about a
Mafia under-boss who became a Christian in prison, renounced the Mafia oath,
and now travels the country telling his story and running a youth counselling
programme. The documentary will first be seen at the Cannes film festival and
will be released in the autumn. Meanwhile, a South African documentary about
forgiveness has been released; “Beyond Forgiving” tells the story of a black
atheist man and a white Christian woman and the sufferings they endured, one at
the hands of the other. The pair are touring the UK this month; they will be in
Belfast,
Bradford, Durham, Liverpool, London and Oxford between 18 and 30 May.
The London event is at the Royal Geographical Society headquarters on 27 May,
which will include a screening of the documentary, and will be chaired by Terry
Waite.
In technology, the battle over the “right to be forgotten”
on the Internet has swung in favour of privacy advocates; the EU has ruled that
Google and other search providers must, if requested, remove links to personal
information about an individual. However, there is no requirement that the
information itself is removed from the Internet.
And finally, an anarchist conference had to be abandoned
after the meeting descended into … anarchy. A panel session at the 5th
annual Law and Disorder conference in Portland was abandoned before it began when
audience members repeatedly chanted the phrase “We will not be silent in the
face of your violence.” The protest was against a particular member of the
panel, but the reason for the protest was unclear.
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