Not The BBC News: 30 Jun 2014

A young Christian in Egypt has reportedly been sentenced to 6 years in prison for ‘blasphemy’ – because he ‘liked’ a Christian page on Facebook. The verdict comes despite the recent election of a president who campaigned for religious freedom for all. The 29 year old man was found guilty of “defaming a divinely revealed religion” and “inciting sectarian violence,” even though he removed his ‘like’ from the Facebook page once he realised that it offended some Muslims. The page in question, called Knights of the Cross, offers Arabic converts to Christianity an anonymous location for mutual encouragement and discussing the Bible.

 A woman stopped at an anti-abortion protest outside a clinic in Brighton and told her story. She had had an abortion at that clinic five years ago, and although she was twelve weeks pregnant, they had told her that her foetus was “just a blob, you won’t be able to see it, no bigger than a speck of dust.” She realised they had lied when she later had a baby and saw the twelve-week scan. She said that if the anti-abortion pictures had been present five years ago, she would never have gone ahead with the abortion. 

Cardiff University’s student union attempted to pass a motion that student-affiliated societies may not take part in “anti-choice protests or rallies.” A majority voted in favour of the motion but it failed on a technicality, and is likely to be re-introduced. Another motion that the union should take a fully pro-choice stance on abortion was defeated, following opposition from Christian, Islamic, pro-life and some pro-choice students.

In the USA, a lawsuit by a pro-traditional-marriage group over the leaking of their confidential donor list has finally been settled – with the US Internal Revenue Service admitting guilt. The sensitivity of donor lists in the USA was highlighted a couple of months ago when the CEO of Mozilla, Brandon Eich, was fired (or forced to resign) because he once made a donation to a political campaign opposing gay marriage.

In Finland, same-sex marriage has been rejected by a Government committee for the second time in less than two years. After the first rejection, a petition was started and it gained enough signatures to force the subject to be discussed again. It is expected that the whole Parliament will discuss the issue in the autumn.

In sport, a piece of selfless sportsmanship from December has recently been circulated. Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Basque cross-country runner, was lying second in a race when he saw the Kenyan leader mistakenly pull up 10 metres short of the finish line. Instead of speeding past for the win, Anaya guided the leader with gestures to finish the race. He said afterwards, “Unfortunately very little has been said of the gesture. It would be nice to explain to children that sport is not only violent kicks, posh statements, and fingers in the eyes of the enemy.”

In technology news, the vicar at the 11^th century Christchurch Priory in Dorset is perhaps the first to announce his resignation using Twitter. His tweets (subsequently deleted) stated that he was leaving because of “a breakdown of trust between the churchwardens and myself;” the later official announcement of his resignation offered a more anodyne “we appreciate this has been a difficult time for him.”

And finally, an American student in Germany put a new meaning on the phrase “born again” when he climbed inside a giant stone sculpture representing a vagina but got stuck and had to be removed by firefighters. The 32-ton sculpture outside the microbiology department at Tűbingen University is supposed to represent “the gateway into the world.”

Not The BBC News: 29 Jun 2014

The US Supreme Court has struck down a Massachusetts law that banned protests within 35 yards of abortion clinics. A pro-life spokeswoman called the law “a brazen affront to the First Amendment" [i.e. to free speech]; the local branch of Planned Parenthood said the Court had shown “a shocking disregard for the safety of patients and staff.”

Also in the US, the Supreme Court has struck down the Defence Of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The main implications are that married gay couples will receive the same benefits as heterosexual married couples (including immigration rights if one ‘spouse’ is non-American). The Court was fiercely divided over the issue, and the final decision was 5-4. President Obama personally telephoned the woman who had originally brought the case (because she was denied inheritance rights when her gay partner died) to congratulate her. The Court also declined to add any ruling to California’s see-sawing law on gay marriage, which means that gay marriage is now legal in California, and likely to remain so.

Victoria Wasteney, a 37 year old Christian NHS occupational therapist has been suspended for her job for 9 months for “bullying” because she prayed with a Muslim colleague and gave her a Christian book. The Muslim woman had showed an interest in talking about God from the beginning of her relationship with Victoria (who was her manager), and was interested in anti-human trafficking work at Victoria’s church. Victoria invited the woman to church events on several occasions; gave her a book to read when she had to take time off work for hospital treatment; and prayed with the Muslim woman (by agreement) in her office on one occasion when the woman came to her in tears. Andrea Minichello Williams of the Christian Legal Centre said, “The NHS is increasingly dominated by a suffocating liberal agenda that chooses to bend over backwards to accommodate certain beliefs but punishes the Christian.”

The Spanish law that restricts most abortions may be weakened to allow abortion of deformed foetuses. The avenue used in the proposed Bill is to say that such pregnancies threaten the life of the mother rather than to refer to deformities; similar dissimulation/partial truth has been used in other countries, especially concerning alleged threats to the mother’s mental health, to permit abortion for a wide range of reasons.

In sport, a Norwegian online bookmaker is counting its losses after offering odds of 175-1 that Luis Suarez would bite somebody during the World Cup. 167 people took out the bet.

In technology news, a group of researchers have revealed that they manipulated people’s Facebook feeds for a week for an experiment. Some people were shown significantly more negative postings than usual, and some were shown more positive postings than usual, and then their own posts were monitored for any emotional changes. The monitoring was done automatically (so no posts were visible to the researchers), but those involved were neither told nor asked for extra consent beyond Facebook’s terms and conditions. (The experiment showed that people’s posts did change, in the direction of the posts they were reading).

In cinema news, a comedy film has been released in which two celebrity journalists are invited to meet Kim Jong-Un and the CIA tries to turn the hapless pair into assassins to kill him. The film has triggered strong protests from the North Korean government, who call it “an act of war.” However, given that a recent statement from the North Korean government referred to President Obama as a “wicked black monkey,” the protest is highly unlikely to produce any action from the US government.

And finally, a burglar in Minnesota was caught because he used his victim’s computer to check his own Facebook news feed, including a profile picture, and forgot to log out. He was spotted on the street by the victim a few hours after the burglary was discovered; when police arrested him they found he was wearing a watch he had stolen.

Not The BBC News: 24 June 2014

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman who was sentenced to flogging and hanging for apostasy after she married a Christian man, has apparently been freed from prison (along with her son and newborn baby girl) after both sentences were rescinded on appeal. Despite being re-arrested with her husband at Khartoum airport when they attempted to board a plane to the USA, she and her family are expected to leave Sudan shortly; her lawyer said the court had placed no travel restrictions on her, and suggested the new arrest may be due to government infighting.

There has finally been some good news for Peter and Hazelmary Bull, the Christian bed and breakfast proprietors who were fined (and vilified) for their “married couples only” policy. Baroness Hale, who was one of the Law Lords who rejected the Bull’s appeal against the fine, took the unusual step of not making the Bulls pay the costs of the legal case, and then called for the Government to introduce a “conscience clause” that required employers to provide “reasonable accommodation for the manifestation of religious beliefs.” The Bulls, who had been planning to sell their guesthouse (Chymorvah House in Marazion, Cornwall), have received enough support to keep it going; Hazelmary Bull commented, “Why can’t two lifestyles live together?”

The Vancouver School Board has mandated new pronouns for teachers to use to describe children who believe they are transsexual if the children request it. Teachers have been told to use the pronouns “xe, xem” and “xyr.” When a parent’s meeting was told of the change, one parent replied, “Six year olds aren’t qualified to understand all the intricacies of identity issues; some of them can’t even use the toilet yet.”

A 21 year old Christian basketball player who was expected to be the top pick in the imminent NBA draft has been diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, which affects the heart, eyes, bones and joints, and has been forced to withdraw from professional basketball.  Isaiah Austin said, “I have been blessed enough to play basketball at the highest level despite the odds stacked against me. I would say to anyone, do not take the privilege of playing sports for granted. And God is still great.”

Following the case of a woman who opened her shopping bag from Saks Fifth Avenue to find a plea for help from a (wrongly) imprisoned African who was making the bags in a Chinese jail, a UK woman found the dress she bought from Primark had the words “Forced To Work Exhausting Hours” hand-stitched onto the label. She contacted Primark who asked for the item to be returned so that they could determine “whether there are issues that need to be looked into.” Primark were one of the brands supplied by a Bangladeshi factory that collapsed last year, killing over 1000 people; Primark has pledged several million pounds in compensation to relatives.

In technology news, Labour’s shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna reported a survey that said 20% of people in the UK are unable to send emails and/or fill in a form on the Internet, and (perhaps unwisely) in the next sentence suggested that people who feel disconnected from the global economy tend to vote for UKIP. Some newspapers linked these two statements to generate a headline that Umunna didn’t think UKIP supporters capable of sending emails.  Umunna has since  been bombarded with emails from UKIP supporters demonstrating that this isn’t true; one respondent noted that UKIP’s Facebook page has more ‘likes’ than Labour’s Facebook page.

And finally, a church in Joplin, Missouri, USA has been criticised after they decided to make their Father’s Day service more attractive by having a  raffle – with two semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifles as the prize. The pastor said, “If we get people in the door we can preach the Gospel; if it gets people to follow Jesus, I’ll give away 1000 guns.” One critic wrote “WWJD? Not this;” a church member responded with a (presumably unintentional) double entendre: “Come to our church next Sunday and we will welcome you with open arms.” 

Not The BBC News: 20 June 2014

The Canadian authorities have issued a new birth certificate to a 12 year old girl who identifies as a boy, even though she has not yet had transgender surgery. The certificate was presented during a (gay) Pride festival in Edmonton. Meanwhile, Vancouver School Board trustees have passed a motion [no pun intended] to introduce gender-neutral toilets in schools, so that a child will not have to give away their gender by choosing an appropriate toilet.

The lead singer of the American Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying has admitted that at least half of the band (including himself) switched from Christianity to atheism, but continued to pretend to be Christian in order to sell more records. The revelations came after he was convicted of hiring a hitman to attempt to murder his estranged wife.  The singer says he lost his faith while studying religious studies online, because he started thinking the opposing arguments were stronger, and then atheism became a convenient belief when he started to cheat on his wife. He added that he thought that only one in ten of the “Christian” bands he toured with were actually Christians.

A pastor in Texas has been cleared on appeal of interfering with public duties after crossing a police line. The pastor was one of a number of Christians who were handing out tracts near a gay rights march when police appeared and instructed them not to approach the march – although Christians who supported gay rights were allowed to pass. The pastor crossed the police line and was arrested. The appeal judge said that the police line “prohibited all members of the church from exercising their right of free speech simply because their association with a church … it is far too broad a limitation.”

John MacArthur, a pastor in California has instructed parents of children who come out as gay, but still profess to be Christian, to go through the procedure for a “brother who sins” outlined in Matthew 18. The ultimate sanction of this procedure is “to have nothing more to do with them” and, in the pastor’s words, “to turn them over to Satan.” MacArthur’s theological views can be summarised as very traditional Calvinist, which has led him to be strongly critical of various other Christian movements in the past, including the charismatic movement, seeker friendly churches, and the “free grace” movement.

Thousands of people marched through Washington DC on Thursday to demonstrate support for marriage being between one man and one woman. One of those attending was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, despite being criticised by his city’s mayor for attending an “anti-gay” event. The Archbishop responded in an open letter that the march was pro-marriage, not anti-anything. In a speech at the march, the Archbishop predicted that the current increase in support for gay marriage would be reversed when “people figure out that a child comes from a father and a mother.”

The Polish Prime Minister has said that doctors must carry out abortions even if it goes against their consciences after a Catholic doctor refused to do so. Poland allows abortion where the mother’s life is at risk; the baby is seriously disabled; or the baby was conceived through rape or incest.

In sport, England’s football team won their latest World Cup match 2-1. However, England’s men’s football team didn’t do quite so well.

And finally, a new book called “How To Pick Up A Stripper And Other Acts Of Kindness” turns out to be a description of Strip Church Ministry, a “servant evangelism” outreach in Nashville, Tennessee. The authors, a pastor and his wife, explain how they visit strip clubs with food and gifts to show Jesus’ love to the women there, and urge other Christians to get out of their comfort zones. 

Not The BBC News: 18 June 2014

As the Scottish Parliament debates a bill that would legalise assisted suicide, a group of children’s charities have stepped in to say that the Bill’s lower age limit of 16 should be removed, therefore allowing assisted suicide for children as well as adults, on the grounds that children have painful terminal illnesses too. A pro-life group said such a change was “unthinkable.” The Bill has already been described as “unclear and confusing” by the Faculty of Advocates.

A mega-church in Texas has told its members that if they give tithes to the church and God and has not responded with blessing inside three months, they are entitled to claim all their tithes back. Fellowship Church, which has several video-linked church buildings in Dallas and elsewhere, requires anyone who wants their tithes back to send in a response card after at least 90 days have elapsed.

A healing evangelist has courted controversy by apparently refusing healing prayer to a disabled man, admittedly in difficult circumstances. A healing service in Oklahoma led by Todd Bentley was interrupted by a man with cerebral palsy, who was on stage apparently awaiting healing prayer, who publicly called Bentley a “fraud” and a “worker of iniquity.” Bentley tried to minister healing to the man (who runs an eponymous local ministry) even though the man continued to argue and tried to hit Bentley with his crutch, but eventually Bentley said “I’m not giving you my healing anointing because I have nothing to give you.”

The leaders of the three biggest political parties in the UK were invited to the annual National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, which was addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Ed Milliband attended and so did David Cameron, the first Prime Minister to do so since Margaret Thatcher. Cameron also wrote a foreword to the programme for the event, saying that Christianity could inspire politicians to “get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.”

The Chinese government is continuing its campaign to remove highly visible crosses from churches, including those belonging to the official Three Self movement. A church in Wenzhou successfully blocked a pre-dawn attempt to remove their cross last week but the authorities returned between 3am and 6am on Tuesday and used a crane to remove the 10ft cross. It is reported that another 15 churches have been told to remove their cross voluntarily or face demolition, and that 360 churches have been demolished in China this year.

The UK Ministry of Justice has written to The Christian Institute confirming that the new Bill criminalising emotional mistreatment of children will not make it an offence for Christian parents to teach their children Biblical principles. Instead it will target “cruelty likely to cause physical or psychological suffering or injury,” thus modernising the wording of the existing law but not widening its scope.

In sport, Germany’s Martin Kaymer won the U.S. Open golf by a huge eight-shot margin. The Open has been held at the Pinehurst course twice before, and the lowest score achieved in those tournaments was 66; Kaymer scored 65 in both his first two rounds, and 67 in his last.

And finally, the Uruguay football team are suffering from a caramel shortage. The team brought 39kg of dulce de leche with them to Brazil, but it was seized at the border for not having the right sanitary paperwork. It’s not clear if the 39kg was being carried by one individual or was intended for the whole team. Some fans are blaming the lack of Uruguay’s favourite snack for the team’s shock defeat to Costa Rica.

Not The BBC News: 16 June 2014

A Toronto woman who served nearly two years in jail awaiting trial for entering an abortion clinic and attempting to speak to women there has finally been freed. Mary Wagner was given a five month sentence for mischief and four one-month sentences for breaching probation orders, but was immediately freed because she had served more than twice that time in jail already. However, it’s not clear how long she will remain free, because she was kept in jail for refusing to agree to bail conditions that she should keep away from abortion clinics – and her release from jail was accompanied by a probation order that she should keep away from abortion clinics. She said she intended to “continue to reach out to mothers and children who are in danger,” and that her legal team will appeal the verdict against her.

Another medical study has highlighted health benefits of fasting. This time it was a 24-hour water-only fast which was found to reduce levels of (bad) cholesterol in fat cells, which is thought to be especially important for pre-diabetics.

Poland’s first ever stadium-based evangelistic event, the Festival of Hope led by Billy Graham’s son Franklin, led to thousands of people making decisions for Christ in Warsaw.

Three Israeli teenagers (one of whom is also an American citizen) have been kidnapped by a previously unknown terrorist group on Thursday, apparently while hitch-hiking. The statement from the group, which claimed to be affiliated to the Syrian/Iraqi ISIS group currently ravaging northern Iraq, said the kidnapping was in retaliation for the killing of three of its members last year. A major man-hunt has been launched by the Israeli army.

Forcing someone into marriage is now a criminal offence in England and Wales (or elsewhere if a British national is involved), with a maximum prison sentence of seven years. The NSPCC has said that it has received increasing numbers of calls from under-16s in forced marriages; the youngest callers were 12.

In technology news, the first ball of the World Cup was kicked by a paraplegic wearing a mind-controlled exoskeleton. 29 year old Juliano Pinto was able to move the exoskeleton’s legs, and thus to walk and kick a ball, just by thinking about it. The neurotransmitters were developed by a team led by a Brazilian professor at a US university.

In sports news, England’s opening game of the World Cup led to them becoming the second-best team in the tournament to date for accuracy of passing. Unfortunately their opponents, Italy, were first and won the match 2-1.

And finally, a Tory MP issued the following tweet last year, which was re-circulated for its anniversary: “Strongly support the loss of benefits unless claimants lean English” [sic].  He hurriedly deleted it but not before it had been copied and re-tweeted.

Not The BBC News: 13 Jun 2014

Fasting is good for your immune system, according to a recent study published by the University of Southern California. A 2-4 day fast apparently depletes white blood cells as well as stores of glucose and fat, and then triggers stem cells to produce new white blood cells, therefore regenerating the body’s immune system. Prolonged fasting also reduces an enzyme linked to aging and a hormone which increases the risk of cancer. It is argued that the renewed immune system is especially beneficial for those whose immune systems are damaged, such as those who have undergone chemotherapy. Some doctors are sceptical, however; they point out that eating is also a good thing for chemotherapy patients.

600,000 people marched for Jesus through Rio de Janeiro, in a  sign of the growing numbers of evangelicals in Brazil.

A Parliamentary review of abortion statistics in the UK shows another part of the Abortion Act that is being routinely ignored – the requirement for doctors to complete a form to state why an abortion has been carried out. The review compared genetic diagnoses of Down’s syndrome (which are then tracked through to abortion) against the number of reported abortions for Down’s syndrome in 2012, and found that 50% of such abortions were not reported. An MP has said, “Worryingly, the Department [of Health] appears to have made no attempt to see that the law is properly enforced.” The review was part of a wider study into the law on aborting disabled foetuses, which is currently legal right up to birth in the UK; 2% of the reported abortions of babies with Down’s syndrome occurred after the 24^th week of pregnancy, but a further 21% of cases did not record the gestation.

The formerly atheist criminology professor in North Carolina who was denied promotion after becoming a Christian has been awarded promotion, retrospective pay and $710,000 in lawyers’ fees by an appeal court.

OFSTED have reported on the 21 schools in Birmingham who were being investigated for overly Islamic teaching and culture. Three of the schools were praised, but five were placed into “special measures” which could mean replacing the whole leadership team. There was evidence that teachers had hastily arranged non-Islamic teaching and assemblies when they were told that OFSTED were coming, which has led to calls for OFSTED to inspect schools without notice.

Another Christian film coming out this year is “Unstoppable”, which tries to answer the question “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” The film’s reviews are poor, both of its content and of its hand-held camera filming style, but the film is proving controversial for a different reason; Facebook has apparently banned links to it on the grounds that such links are “abusive” and “unsafe”.

In sport, a large Christian outreach known as “Fair Play Brazil” has been organised to accompany the World Cup. Hundreds of volunteers will talk to football fans about faith and distribute four million Scripture booklets and 20,000 Gospels in Portuguese and eight other languages.

In technology news, there have been reports that a computer has finally passed an entirely unscripted Turing Test. The test, devised by Alan Turing to find an artificially intelligent computer, was that a computer program must hold a five minute conversation and convince at least 30% of those “talking” to it that it was human. However, fellow researchers have heaped scorn on the announcement, pointing out that the program used scripts rather than general knowledge; pretended to be a 13 year old Ukrainian boy, thus providing a convenient excuse for mistakes in English or meaningless answers; and was announced by a professor whose self-promotion is so notorious that there is a website devoted to monitoring it.

And finally, residents of Melbourne, Australia woke up on Friday with Jesus floating above their heads. To coincide with the start of the World Cup, a betting company had commissioned a 46-metre hot air balloon in the shape of Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, but wearing an Australian national football shirt. The hashtag printed on the shirt was #KeepTheFaith.

Not The BBC News: 6 Jun 2014

The Colorado baker who was told that refusing to make a custom wedding cake for a gay couple was discriminatory has decided to stop making wedding cakes altogether. He is not the first to withdraw a service rather than be forced by law to provide it against his conscience; a bed and breakfast in Wales that used to have a “married couples only” policy has now removed all its double beds.

One of the bills proposed in the Queen’s Speech is a Modern Slavery Bill, which includes provisions for those forced into prostitution through human trafficking to be protected from prosecution. It will also include stiffer punishments for traffickers.

The investigation into schools in Birmingham to determine if they are following an Islamist agenda, and if undue influence has been brought to bear on head teachers who opposed that agenda, has triggered a high level Government argument. The Department for Education claimed that the Home Office had not done enough to remove suspected terrorists from the country; the Home Office replied that Education were warned in writing of what was happening at some Birmingham schools in 2010 but took no action. Meanwhile, OFSTED has announced that at least one of the schools “has not done enough to protect children from the influence of extremist views.”

The Christian woman who faces a death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan is facing further delays to her appeals process, and not just because of the death threats to almost any lawyer who defends a blasphemy  case. Apparently the High Court in Lahore has been told that, because the case is so high-profile, they must not schedule any hearings about it.  Her current lawyers are working to find a way around the restrictions.

Boko Haran have killed another 200 villagers in Nigeria. They did it by arriving in uniforms and trucks that mimicked those of the Nigerian army.

A minister who leads a 2500 capacity church near Belfast described Islam as “satanic” and “a doctrine spawned in Hell” to his congregation. He has publicly apologised following a police investigation. He says he never intended to express hatred towards any individual Muslims.

In technology news, lawyers tracking hidden assets in divorce cases  are often being granted permission to look at Facebook, Twitter and other social media without the knowledge of the person who posted the material. Steven Philippson, a lawyer who specialises in technology, said, “Cases where we are retaining and retrieving assets have improved substantially.”

And finally, Sister Cristna, the singing nun, has won the Italian edition of reality TV show “The Voice.” She says she believes her songs (including “Living on a Prayer””, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” and “What  A Feeling”) express “the beauty of God”, and gave thanks to “the man upstairs.” She says she was inspired to go on the show by the Pope’s call for Catholics to get out on the streets and be closer to common folk and their everyday lives.

Not The BBC News: 3 June 2014

In a highly unusual move for a Muslim country, Turkey has asked a Christian organisation to prepare a curriculum for teaching Christianity in public schools. Until now, all pupils had to take religious education classes in Islam, but with Turkey planning to join the European Union, the ministry for education has decided to create an alternative religion curriculum.

A Christian cake maker in Colorado who declined to make a wedding cake for a gay marriage has been told by the state’s Civil Rights Commission that he unlawfully discriminated against the gay couple, and that he must submit quarterly reports for two years documenting how he has changed company policy and how he has trained employees to end discrimination. An appeal is likely on the grounds that (a) the case is not about a retailer refusing to serve a gay couple (the cake maker invited the couple to purchase any of his off-the-shelf products) but about an artist refusing to use his artistic gifts and (b) that gay marriage was not, and is not, legal in Colorado.

Growing religious tensions in Indonesia have led to attacks on both Catholics and Protestants in the Sleman area this week. The attackers were Muslims, a fact made obvious during the second attack when they dispersed at noon when the Muslim call to prayer was heard. Fortunately there were no injuries; but worryingly the police were present during the second attack but declined to intervene.

A woman in Texas who had been confined to a wheelchair for the past four years received healing prayer a month ago, got up from her wheelchair, and has been walking ever since. She was wheelchair-bound due to complications from diabetes and chemotherapy for breast cancer that triggered severe psoriatic arthritis. The pastor who prayed for her is Vietnamese; he served a total of 10 years in jail in Vietnam for his faith, after deciding not to leave as one of the “boat people” because God spoke to him and compared him to Jonah. She believes she was healed by the Holy Spirit rather than the Force from Star Wars, even though her healing took place on May 4^th.

The US abortion provider Planned Parenthood has an “advocacy board” of pro-abortion clergy, who recently released a “pastoral letter” arguing that the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion, and therefore it is a morally permissible option. A pro-life pastor replied that the Bible clearly says “Thou shalt not murder,” and also pointed out the usual problem with arguments from silence: saying that abortion might be OK because the Bible doesn’t mention it makes no more sense than saying drunk driving is OK because the Bible doesn’t mention it.

In technology news, Myspace, which was once considered a serious rival to Facebook, has been accused of “blackmailing” users into returning to the site by e-mailing them their old embarrassing photographs, along with a link to the photos on Myspace. Some users are unhappy because they deleted their Myspace account and had selected an option which, they were promised, would prevent any deleted content from “further distribution on Myspace services.”

And finally, a Catholic man in Jackson County, Mississippi, paid $10 for a rusty old air conditioner (pictured below) – because he saw a perfect picture of Jesus in the rust. “Some people see it, some people don’t,” he said. “Think about that.”

Not The BBC News: 1 June 2014

A recent report claims that the country with the fastest growing evangelical Christian population is Iran. The number of Christians in Iran has grown from about 500 at the time of the Islamic revolution in 1981 to at least 1 million today – some reports say up to 5 million – out of a population of 76 million. Most of the conversions have happened in the last decade as Iranians have gained access to satellite TV; possessing satellite dishes is illegal, but up to 80% of Iranians have access to them, because they form their only connection with the world outside Iran. An expatriate Iranian who runs a ministry that broadcasts over satellite says that over the past 12 years, 27,000 people have telephoned the ministry to ask for prayer to receive Christ or to indicate that they have done so through the broadcasts. There have also been thousands of Iranians who report seeing Jesus in dreams or visions.

Following strong condemnation of the recent “honour killing” in Pakistan, a Pakistani council of Muslim scholars has issued a fatwa condemning honour killings as “terrorism or viciousness – which has nothing to do with Islam.” Fatwas are considered morally binding on Muslims, though they have no legal force. A similar fatwa was issued in Canada in 2012. There were an estimated 900 honour killings in Pakistan last year.

The north London con woman who pretended to be a ‘shaman’ who could help infertile women give birth, but then persuaded one woman who fell pregnant to get an abortion because the baby was ‘evil’, has been given a 10 year jail sentence for fraud – the maximum possible sentence. She will serve sentences for 23 offences concurrently, having made an estimated ₤1 million.

Reports from Syria that 80 people were killed by the rebels in the largely Christian border village of Kessab turned out to be false. The reports that it had fallen to the rebels and that people were fleeing were true, though those who fled appeared to be more worried about the expected counter-attack than about anti-Christian atrocities. The elderly residents who stayed behind were well treated; one rebel soldier who removed a cross from a church was disciplined by his commander.

A new UK law that criminalises “emotional neglect” of children is reported to be planned for the Queen’s Speech this week, which implies it is expected to become law in the next year. Christians and others are worried that the new law’s definition of emotional neglect might be too wide-ranging; for example, a professor writing in the Independent cited the NSPCC’s current definition of emotional neglect as including “making fun of” what a child says. There are concerns that an overly broad definition might encompass educating a child in the parents’ religion.

The Christian film “Heaven Is For Real” has been released in the UK. It is currently only showing at four cinemas in the London area.

Sister Cristina, the singing nun who shocked the judges/mentors on the Italian edition of the TV show “The Voice,” has reached the final of that competition.

In sport, Britain’s top tennis player Andy Murray has shown no signs that his fans can stop biting their fingernails this season. In the third round of the French Open tournament, he twice surrendered a 3-0 lead to lose a set, and eventually won the final set 12-10.  

And finally, the Russian town of Novosibirsk is to mark the 215^th birthday of the poet Alexander Pushkin by offering free metro rides for the day to anyone who can recite any of his poetry. Local experts and students will be on duty at Metro stations to check people’s knowledge.