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 4th.
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.”
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