Not The BBC News: 30 July 2014

Canon Andrew White of St. George’s Baghdad described the situation for Christians in Baghdad. “ISIS are not in control of Baghdad but they are certainly there. They just go around and shoot the odd person dead. The only answer is that we stay together and keep loving each other and loving God.” Canon White lives under permanent curfew when in Baghdad (church members bring him food); he says that 1,276 people from his church community have died so far.

A Christian Swedish midwife has been denied three jobs because she refuses to perform abortions. A preliminary court case has been filed. Swedish law has no conscience clause permitting health care staff to refuse to perform abortions, but the case argues that there should be one, because the Council of Europe have supported the right to a conscience clause regarding abortion, and the European Court of Human Rights have supported religious-based conscience clauses as falling within the Human Rights Convention.

Meriam Ibrahim and her family have arrived in the USA. They plan to settle in Manchester, New Hampshire, where there is a significant South Sudanese community. While in Italy, she met Pope Francis, who thanked her for maintaining her faith. Meriam said, “I never believed I would fulfil my lifelong dream — to meet the Pope. I have always wanted and only wanted my faith. The love of my husband is a gift from God.”

Another church in northern Nigeria has been attacked, this time by a suicide bomber. Five people in the congregation were killed; Boko Haram are strongly suspected. Authorities say they have arrested five suspects.

Today is the first ever World Day against Trafficking in Persons. International Justice Mission, a Christian anti-trafficking organisation, says that it has rescued 2,108 people in the past year from trafficking, bonded employment that is effectively slavery, or other oppression.

In sports news, the Commonwealth Games have completed their first week. Amid many great sporting achievements, there are stories of a Scottish 13 year old who won a bronze medal in a ‘Paralympic’ swimming event; a self-confessed former “20 cigarettes a day couch potato” who led the marathon for six miles and eventually finished tenth; and a confused TV presenter who announced, “There are two English swimmers in this event – one from Scotland, one from Wales.”

In technology news, the first church-based phone app in the former Soviet Union has been released,  with the active support of Orthodox priests from the Holy Trinity cathedral in Kiev. The app allows users to type in prayers (and get answers from priests), and also to check service times.

And finally, the Salvation Army were famous for taking the tunes of drinking songs and music hall songs and using them for hymns. Guinness has done the opposite in its latest US commercial, which shows a bar tender placing a glass of Guinness in front of an empty chair every afternoon, in the hope that the soldier who normally sits there will return from active duty to enjoy it. The background music to the advert is the hymn “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms,” which has caused some Christians to object; however, the title might refer to the prayers that the bar staff send up for the solider, or even to the name of the pub.

Not The BBC News: 24 July 2014

Meriam Ibrahim has finally left Sudan; she has flown to Rome with her husband and children. She was accompanied by Italy’s vice-minister for foreign affairs, and was met at the airport by the Italian Prime Minister.

An opinion poll about the Northern Irish bakers who refused to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage message found considerable public support for the bakery. 60% agreed that it was ‘disproportionately heavy-handed’ to take court action against them (14% disagreed); 21% thought that declining to supply goods and services designed to promote gay marriage should be punishable in court, while 56% disagreed; and 55% thought the law should protect people from compulsion to produce goods or services that violate their conscience (22% disagreed). Also, 45% (versus 25% against) thought that Christian businesses in the UK were being singled out for attack by gay activists. Perhaps most worrying for the Government is that 54% thought David Cameron was wrong when he told Parliament that gay marriage ‘would not cause discrimination against those who believe it wrong;’ only 19% backed the Prime Minister.

The public battle over abortion in the USA has led Planned Parenthood to open new abortion clinics secretly, usually by forming a brand new anonymously-named company to buy and manage the property until the clinic is ready to open. One such clinic has been discovered by pro-lifers in Dallas, Texas, and immediately a daily prayer vigil was set up outside the property. On the first day of the vigil, the owners turned the lawn sprinklers on the protesters; in the Texas summer, however, this was more a blessing than a curse.

A local newspaper in Illinois fired its editor after he used his personal blog to criticise a website selling the “Queen James Bible”, a version of the Bible rewritten to be gay-friendly. An appeal under employment law has been filed.

Also in the USA, pro-abortion campaigners in Massachusetts have responded to the a Supreme Court decision against one of their laws by pushing through an even worse law. The old law prevented pro-life campaigners from speaking to people within 35 feet of an abortion clinic; the Supreme Court struck it down as “overly restrictive on free speech.” The new law introduces a 25-foot buffer zone, with penalties of a $50,000 fine or three years in jail. A pro-life spokesman said, “The legislation disrespects the Supreme Court and law-abiding citizens. But other states who have suspended their buffer zones will probably pass similar laws, so at least Massachusetts will have company in its foolishness.”

A $50 million film of “David and Goliath” has finished principal photography in North Africa and is expected to be released in early 2015. The producers wanted real actors rather than CGI characters, so they cast Canada’s tallest man as Goliath. However, the 7ft 8in former basketball player and wrestler is still 16 inches shorter than the Bible’s description of Goliath. The actor playing David is an unknown 22 year old from London who stands 5ft 8ins.

In sport, the Commonwealth Games have begun in Glasgow. The first gold medal went to England’s Jodie Stimpson in the woman’s triathlon, which introduced us all to the English national anthem – the hymn “Jerusalem.” The hymn commemorates a legend of Joseph of Arimathea bringing Jesus with him on a tin trading trip to Cornwall, though perhaps its main qualification to be the English national anthem is that it has the word “England” in the first verse.

And finally, two Australian hockey players at the Commonwealth Games have perhaps outdone Ellen deGeneres’ famous “selfie” with their own effort, which was “photo bombed” by Her Majesty The Queen (picture attached).

Not The BBC News: 23 July 2014

Churches in Zhejiang province in China are still being demolished, or are having their crosses removed; around 360 churches have now been partially or completely demolished. There are rumours of a competition amongst local government officials to demolish the most churches, to improve their political standing. At a church in Wenzhou city, up to 1000 Christians have been forming a human barricade around the church every night for the past month; at 3am on Monday morning, around 400 police officers attacked the protesters with iron batons, and four Christians were hospitalised with severe injuries. The church is still intact.

President Obama recently gave a speech in which he mocked climate change deniers and spoke favourably of his science ‘czar’, John Holdren. Unfortunately for Obama, Holdren (who is director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy) co-authored a Malthusian book in 1977 which proposed that a world government should control all resources and “determine the optimum population for each region.” To support such population management, the book argued that “laws requiring compulsory abortion could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became severe.” In another 1970s book, the same authors proposed pressuring the US government to halt the growth of the American population, and also to ‘de-develop’ the USA. Holdren has made no recent comment about population control, but when asked if he still supported ‘de-development’ in a 2010 interview, Holdren said he did. He claimed that it referred to “stopping activities that destroy the environment and promoting activities that improved environmental quality”. He said that he hoped that market forces would accomplish this, but in fact regulation is being used; the Environmental Protection Agency has just introduced strict limits on CO2 emissions from electrical plants. In short, while some of Holdren’s environmental goals may be worthy, the reasoning that lies behind them seems even more eccentric and much more disturbing than climate change denial.

In Mosul, Iraq, Islamic forces have started marking Christian homes and businesses with the Arabic letter ‘N’ for ‘Nazarene’ (see picture), in the same way that the Nazis marked Jews during World War II. A number of Christians have changed their Facebook photo to the same letter, to show solidarity with Christians in Iraq.

A Conservative member of the House of Lords, who is also a member of the British Humanist Association, has described belief in God as a “virus.” He added that Anglicanism was a “mild and attenuated form of the virus and may even act as a vaccine against more virulent infections.” He was commenting on the “Trojan Horse” Islamic attempted takeover of Birmingham schools; his proposed solution was to take religious practice out of schools altogether, to protect children against exposure to religion.

A government-funded Canadian report entitled “Exposing Crisis Pregnancy Centers in British Columbia,” which has been used by international abortion conferences, universities and lobbying groups, has been roundly criticised by CPC workers and has been rebutted with a 50-page document entitled “A Respectful Rebuttal to a Disrespectful Report.” The rebuttal, which has been verified for medical content by several doctors and counsellors, accuses the original report of falsely making eight “serious allegations” and twelve “silly allegations.” The former include crisis pregnancy centres “lying about being religiously affiliated” and “enticing women in by pretending they will help them with an abortion”; the latter include CPC staff being trained to terrify vulnerable women or deliberately falsifying pregnancy test results. When the original report was first released, two crisis pregnancy clinics in Vancouver sued the author for defamation; the suit failed, not because the report was judged to be accurate, but because the court decided that the report only referred to the clinics indirectly.

In sport news, the Commonwealth Games begin tonight in Glasgow. There have been some reports of an unidentified flying object in the Glasgow sky shortly before the games’ opening ceremony, which will be attended by the Queen, but it turned out to be the sun.

And finally, summertime occasionally produces stories of pets or even children who are rescued by passing adults after being left locked in hot cars. However, last week in Knoxville, Tennessee, the roles were reversed. A 68 year old man who had had two strokes in the past six months was waiting for his wife to return from a church event when the car doors automatically locked. He was too weak to open the car door but managed to attract the attention of  a passing 3 year old. The boy couldn’t open the door so he ran to the event, found the pastor, and kept saying “locked, locked, locked” and “hot, hot” and pulling the pastor’s hand until the pastor came to see what was the matter. The pensioner recovered after being taken into an air conditioned room and being given water; the toddler’s summary of events was, “I saved life.”

Not The BBC News: 21 July 2014

In Poland, a doctor’s refusal to perform an abortion on a woman pregnant with a deformed child has raised major issues. Abortion rights are very restricted in Poland, but it is permitted (up to 24 weeks’ gestation, or later at the doctor’s discretion) if the baby is too deformed or disabled to survive. Polish law (like UK law) also has a conscience clause that permits doctors not to perform abortions. In this case, a mother whose foetus was deformed was rejected for an abortion by two doctors for reasons of conscience, and referred to the director of the gynaecology department at a Warsaw hospital. He examined a scan performed by another hospital which suggested to him that the deformity that could be cured by surgery, and since the woman was past 24 weeks, he refused the abortion. However, he also refused to refer her to another doctor, and he put the reasons for his decision in writing.  The baby was born with what proved to be terminal abnormalities, and the doctor in charge of delivery gave a gruesome description of the baby’s face to Polish media. The immediate fallout was that the director was strongly criticised in the media, and his hospital was given a punitive fine for his “misuse” of the conscience clause. However, the case is raising disturbing issues about further bias: the director has apparently been fired from his head of department post following an inspection of his hospital by the city authorities; and at least one candidate for a director-level job in gynaecology at another hospital was asked if he had signed an open letter on “faith/conscience” that opposed abortion [that 3000 Polish doctors had signed] – he replied that he had and he did not get the job.

Further reports from Mosul in Iraq show a tomb, which is reputedly the grave of the prophet Jonah, being destroyed with a sledgehammer. However, reports that an 1800 year old Armenian church has been burned are thankfully false; pictures which apparently show the church burning are actually of burning vehicles next to the church. All Christians in the city are reported to have fled.

The Christian bakers from Northern Ireland who are being pursued by the Equalities Commission have given an interview to a major UK newspaper. Key points to emerge from it include their strong Christian foundation (the bakery is named after Asher in the Bible, whose ‘delicacies would be rich’); their generally non-discriminatory stance (they are proud that they serve both Catholics and Protestants); their unhappiness that the Commission “found them guilty without giving them the chance to put our side across” and that the Commission “talks about discrimination on the grounds of disability, race and sexuality but never against people’s Christian beliefs”; and their need for financial support for the legal case. The newspaper article also mentions a similar case last year in Northern Ireland where a Christian printer refused to supply a quote to print a gay magazine; the Equalities Commission eventually dropped their threat of legal action against the printer.

A Catholic cardinal in Peru has complained about international pro-abortion and pro-homosexual organisations that try to reduce foreign investment in Peru until Peru changes its laws to agree with them; he called such actions “blackmail.” He also criticises the Peruvian media for focussing the public’s attention on inconsequential subjects rather than engaging in in-depth debate of the serious issues facing the nation; he compared it to the 1990s when Peruvian media failed to highlight human rights and other issues under the country’s supposedly reforming president Alberto Fujimori. “I recognise the stench,” he said.

In technology news, a language school in Brazil has found an innovative way to help its students of English: they created a Skype-based computer application that enables the students to talk to people in retirement homes in the USA, thus providing both parties with a welcome opportunity for conversation. The application records a video of the conversation so that language school teachers can assess it.

And finally, a legal decision has been made in Florida that not only echoes the plot of a John Grisham book, but exceeds it. A widow sued the makers of Camel cigarettes for the death of her husband through lung cancer at the age of 36; due to previous court decisions in the state, she did not need to prove negligence by the company, only that her husband was addicted to cigarettes and that smoking caused his death. The jury awarded her and her stepson nearly $17 million in damages and fined the company a massive 23 BILLION dollars in punitive damages. An appeal is anticipated. 

Not The BBC News: 20 July 2014

In Mosul, Iraq, the new Islamic State have announced that all Christians must either convert to Islam; pay a special tax; or face death ”as a last resort,” according to Arabic news agency Al Jazeera. Before the take-over, there were about 3000 Christians in Mosul.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for Advancement of Colored People have asked a federal appeals court to repeal an Arizona law banning sex-selective and race-selective abortions, on the grounds that the law is itself racist. The somewhat twisted logic behind this is that the law is allegedly based on racial stereotypes, and therefore implies that some racial groups might be less desirable than others. The plaintiffs also argue that race-selective and sex-selective abortions are rare in Arizona; however, a recent undercover investigation found two clinics prepared to record sex-selective abortions under a different heading, and it is widely accepted that abortion is more common amongst some ethnic groups than others. Finally, the plaintiffs allege that when the Bill was being passed, the Bill’s sponsor made statements that offended minority groups.

The push for accommodating transgender children in Canadian schools led to an interesting balancing act between law and belief in a Catholic school in Vancouver. The parents of one such child filed a human rights complaint against the school; the school has responded with a policy which, at first glance, grants the student everything s/he wished for. However, on closer examination, the policy is only applicable to students suffering “gender dysphoria,” a recognised mental disorder which leads to significant stress in school or social situations. The policy is designed to reduce such stress but clearly states that a high percentage of children are expected to “return to their biological gender by adulthood” and also that “gender is given by God; humans are not free to change their sexual identity.” The case has also highlighted another attempted change to the English language by Canadian LBGT activists; the parents’ lawyer, barbara findlay, insists that her name is spelled without capital letters.

Meriam Ibrahim and her family are still in the US Embassy in Khartoum. One of the obstacles to her leaving has been removed: her father had launched legal proceedings which, if successful, would have legally changed her religion to that of her father, thus invalidating her Christian marriage. Those proceedings have now been dropped.

A recent attempt to force EU states to introduce gay marriage through the European Court of Human rights has failed. The case from a Finnish man claimed that the human rights of “respect for private and family life” and “right to marry” should be interpreted as requiring governments to give same-sex couples the right to marry. However, the ECHR rejected both these arguments; it pointed out that the Article expressing the right to marry “expressly provides for regulation of marriage by national law” and quoted precedents that state that the Article “enshrines the traditional concept of marriage as being between a man and a woman.”

In sport, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy won golf’s British Open tournament at the age of 25, becoming the third youngest man ever to win three of the four major golf tournaments. One of the two who beat him to it, Tiger Woods, also played but finished six over par – 23 shots behind McIlroy, and five shots behind 64 year old Tom Watson.

And finally, a postwoman in Somerset had a slight problem with a parcel she was due to deliver – it was full of bees which escaped inside her van. A bee-keeper was called to collect the 2000 bees and to deliver them to the intended recipient. Parcelforce confirmed that it is legal to post bees (and leeches, maggots and earthworms), but they are supposed to be enclosed in packs “constructed so as to prevent injury.”

Not The BBC News: 19 July 2014

Two reports on the alleged plot to Islamise schools in the Birmingham area have been published or leaked to the press this week. The report by a former police chief, commissioned by the Education Secretary, is extremely hard-hitting; it speaks of a “sustained and coordinated agenda to impose upon children in a number of Birmingham schools the segregationist attitudes and practices of a hardline and politicised strain of Sunni Islam.” Children were apparently taught that “all Christians are liars” and that wives who refused to have sex would be “punished by angels,” and some schools displayed posters warning children that if they didn’t pray they would “go to Hell.” It also accuses Birmingham City Council of ignoring evidence of extremism for years, repeatedly failing to support bullied head teachers and putting the need to soothe community tensions ahead of all else. The Council has rejected some of this criticism based on the report that it commissioned, which was also published this week; but even that report found there had been “a determined effort to change [a handful of] schools, often by unacceptable practices, in order to influence educational and religious provision for the students served,” although it concluded that there was “no evidence of a conspiracy to promote an anti-British agenda [or] violent extremism.” The council’s leader also said, “We have previously shied away from tackling this problem out of a misguided fear of being accused of racism.”

A Portuguese mother who had an alcoholic husband has recently written an autobiography telling how she tried to abort her (now adult) son. The doctor she approached refused to cooperate, so she tried various folk “remedies” including drinking warm beer and running till she dropped. However, she was unsuccessful, and so Cristiano Ronaldo was born.

The House of Lords’ debate on the Assisted Dying Bill has produced some strong criticism of assisted suicide, with a disabled peer likening it to a “runaway train.” The Bill was sent to the Committee stage for further consideration without a vote, but is unlikely to be allocated any time in the House of Commons before next year’s General Election.

President Obama is to use his executive powers to pass a Bill that bars federal organisations and contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The action is seen as controversial because the Bill that was passed by the Democrat-dominated US Senate (but has yet to pass the House of Representatives) included an exemption for organisations that are already exempt from provisions on religious discrimination; Obama’s executive order does not include this exemption. Some see the removal of this exemption as payback for the recent Supreme Court decision that granted many religious organisations exemption to parts of “Obamacare.”

Even more Christian-themed films have been announced, although these films are in development and will not be shown until next year. “Tolkien & Lewis” is a British independent film about the friendship between JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis; while “Michael,” starring James Franco, will explore the issue of ex-gays by telling the true story of Michael Glatze, a gay man who renounced his gay lifestyle and became a Christian pastor.

In sport, a newspaper has published its list of the 11 worst players at the World Cup. The list includes four Spaniards and two Brazilians, but no Englishmen. It does, however, include five current Premier League players: Benoit Assou-Ekoto, Wilson Palacios, Antonio Valencia, Paulinho, and Diego Costa.

And finally, there is controversy in China over new women-only parking places in a shopping mall in Dalian. The objection is not to the idea of women-only parking places (which have previously been used in other countries) nor to the pink road markings used to indicate the spaces; it is to the fact that the parking spaces are 30cm wider than other parking spaces on the grounds that “women have a few issues with parking.” Some have complained the parking spaces are an insult to women; some men have complained that “it’s always the women who enjoy privileges.” However, a female user of the basement car park simply said, “It’s very convenient. Other parking spaces are too narrow.”

Not The BBC News: 18 July 2014

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK has been criticised for refusing to award diplomas in sexual and reproductive health to pro-life doctors. The Abortion Act 1967 includes a conscience clause that allows doctors to opt out of performing abortions; however, there is no equivalent clause allowing opt-outs from methods of contraception that destroy embryos. According to guidelines issued in April, the RCOG is barring doctors who refuse to insert contraceptive coils or dispense morning-after pills from graduating, from membership of the professional body, and from specialty training.

An argument has broken out (again) over admissions criteria to a faith-based school. The school is the Catholic London Oratory school, one of the most oversubscribed schools in the country. While the school is allowed to use faith-based criteria for admissions, the British Humanist Association complained to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator that the criteria were over-complicated and discriminatory. The Adjudicator has agreed; for example, it has criticised the “church attendance by pupil” criterion for not specifying exactly how much church attendance is required, and has also criticised “Catholic commitment of parents” criteria for discriminating against single parents. The school said in a statement, “The Adjudicator’s office has made four rulings against this school in the past six years, the most recent of which was again challenged successfully.”

The US government has just concluded a large-scale “National Health Interview” with 33,000 adults, covering topics such as medical care, vaccinations and tobacco use. There were also questions on sexuality; 1.6% identified as homosexual, 0.7% as bisexual. This is slightly higher than the most recent similar surveys in the UK from 2012, in which 1.1% of 545,000 people said they were homosexual and 0.4% of 220,000 people said they were bisexual.

The recent decision by the US Supreme Court to allow some corporations to opt out of part of “Obamacare” for reasons of conscience has greatly annoyed many Democrats. A bill was introduced in the US Senate to amend the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act in a way that would have effectively reversed the Supreme Court’s decision. The bill was defeated after extensive Republican filibustering but is likely to be reintroduced later this year. A Republican senator said, “This is really stupid politics … Congress has never passed a law that would restrict rather than expand religious freedoms under the First Amendment.”

Another (partly) Christian film that is coming out this year is “Unbroken”, directed by Angelina Jolie, which tells the true story of the life of Louis Zamperini. Zamperini started life being bullied for being an Italian-speaking child of immigrants in California; became an Olympic track athlete in 1936 and (allegedly) climbed a flag pole and stole Hitler’s personal flag;  joined the US Air Force in World War II; was shot down over the Pacific and survived 47 days in a life raft; was captured by the Japanese and tormented by prison guards; and then became a Christian after the war and set out to visit his POW guards to let them know he had forgiven them and to preach the gospel. The film is due to be released in both the US and the UK in Christmas week.

In technology news, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland was sworn in last month with his hand on a Kindle (that had a copy of the Bible on it), because no paper Bible was immediately available. It has raised questions over whether digital Bibles are as ‘holy’ as paper Bibles.

And finally, a UK court has decided that a restaurant waiter was telling the truth when he claims that he dreamed a set of winning lottery numbers and pestered his boss to buy a ticket. He is now entitled to half of the million-pound win. His case was helped by the less ethereal vision of CCTV, which recorded the two of them filling in the ticket together.

Not The BBC News: 15 July 2014

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has written a newspaper article in which he supports assisted suicide. A Christian surgeon and blogger has replied, “What I find astounding … is that there is no discernible Christian worldview underlying what [Carey] says. Nothing of the fact that God made us; nothing of ‘Thou shalt not kill’; little insight into the depths of human depravity or the need for strong laws to deter exploitation of vulnerable people; nothing of hope beyond death, or the need to make peace with God and others before death; nothing of courage and perseverance in the face of suffering. Carey has instead produced a piece … that could have been written by a  member of the National Secular Society or the British Humanist Association.” The full blog is available at http://pjsaunders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/why-lord-carey-is-so-desperately-wrong.html.

Bishop Desmond Tutu has also spoken out in favour of assisted dying; it seems his views have been heavily influenced by the artificial means used to prolong the life of his friend Nelson Mandela. His two main arguments are that the old have a duty to die to make way for the young (which seems to conflict with the Biblical concept of God awarding long life to those he blesses) and that a life that is heavily sustained by medical intervention or technology support is a life not worth living (which contradicts much pro-disability campaigning). Disabled groups will be holding a protest rally outside Parliament on Friday when the Bill is debated.

The ISIS takeover of northern Iraq is badly affecting the historic Christian community there, with kidnappings and murders of Christians in both Syria and Iraq increasing in frequency. An Christian orphanage in Mosul which was run by two Sisters was evacuated a week ago, but when the sisters heard that Mosul was relatively safe for Christians, they and three of the older children returned to Mosul for supplies. That was a week ago, and they have not been heard from since. Canon Andrew White, the vicar of St. George’s Baghdad, said, “We’ve had our problems in the past but nothing like this. This is a major threat to the future of Christianity here.”

The General Synod of the Church of England has voted to allow women to become bishops in the Anglican church (they are already permitted to be bishops in the Episcopal church in the USA, and in some other regions). Some might have thought the Archbishop of Canterbury’s threat to dissolve and re-constitute the Synod if they voted ‘No’ was harsh, but in the end the vote was about 5-1 in favour. The new rules have the advantage that they are far less controversial in the worldwide Episcopal community than issues such as homosexuality and gay priests; even in Africa, which is seen as the home of the most traditional Christians, there are only two countries whose Episcopal churches do not allow women to be priests.

President Obama has invited a pastor, who is a former member of the Southern Baptist Convention, to a lunch at the White House. This isn’t an attempt by Obama to build bridges with the Christian community, however – the pastor has recently stated that he is pro-homosexuality, and has been invited to the LGBT Pride lunch that Obama has hosted at the White House every year that he has been there.

In sport, the World Cup produced thrills, goals, heroes, villains, sublime skills, ridiculous misses … but the story had a familiar ending: the Germans won 1-0.

And finally, residents of a housing estate in Dudley, West Midlands have come up with a creative solution to two community problems – the struggle to afford nappies at retail prices, and a 90 year old homeless man. With the help of a community organiser, the homeless man has returned to his (previously unfit for habitation) home, from where he co-ordinates bulk buying of nappies, and various food supplies too. Residents pay up front; he rings around to find the best deal; supplies are delivered to his house; and residents bring him meals and look after his house when they collect their purchases. 

Not The BBC News: 11 July 2014

Tensions between (largely Protestant) Unionists and (largely Catholic) Republicans in Belfast are rising again as the traditional parade season arrives. There have been claims that a statue of Mary, recently stolen from a memorial, was burned on a Unionist-organised bonfire. However, it has been confirmed that a photo on a parody social media site that allegedly shows the statue being thrown onto the bonfire is actually of a person climbing on the (unlit) bonfire. Also, a Republican Facebook page has published the name and car registration number (with a photo of the car) of a Protestant who is accused of stealing and burning the statue; Facebook have refused multiple requests to remove it. Unionist councillors have called for the stolen statue to be returned.

The military action by the Israeli army against Palestinians continues, with the usual accusations being levelled by both sides: Palestinians accuse Israelis of heavy-handed tactics and unjustified violence against civilians; Israelis accuse Palestinians of provocation and of faking evidence of atrocities, and claim their own good deeds are under-reported. The only certainty is that (mostly Palestinian) people continue to be injured or killed. Unusually, the BBC has given significant space to some Israeli accusations as well as Palestinian ones, prompting a columnist for the Independent newspaper to call for what he describes as “a return to balanced reporting” by the BBC.

The issue of the Christian bakery which is being taken to task by the Equalities Commission for refusing to bake a cake that said “Support Gay Marriage” was raised as the first question at Prime Minister’s Question Time this week; a Northern Irish MP asked the Prime Minister if he supported Baroness Hale’s proposal for a “conscience clause” in English law. David Cameron’s reply was that he had not heard of the case, and to talk about the importance of equality in general. Given that PMQs are submitted ahead of time (though follow-up questions aren’t), there is speculation that Cameron’s claim that he hadn’t heard of the case indicates he is trying to avoid involvement.

The Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Enda Kenny, is supporting a Bill that would allow abortion up to birth if the mother was suicidal. He claims that this will not effectively mean ‘abortion on demand’; however, he also claimed that he would not support any abortion legislation when he was elected in 2011. The main argument of the Bill’s opponents is that medical evidence shows that abortion is not an effective treatment for suicidal feelings.

The Church of England has finally divested itself of its investment in the payday lender Wonga. The Archbishop of Canterbury has accused payday lenders of exploiting the poor. Wonga has also been ordered to pay ₤2.6 million in compensation after sending letters from fake solicitors’ firms to customers several years ago.

In this “year of the Christian film,” a recently released “abortion comedy” film has flopped spectacularly. Following the success of “Knocked Up,” a romantic comedy in which a woman decides to keep her unplanned baby and “Juno,” an independent rom-com in which an unplanned baby is adopted, “Obvious Child” is a rom-com in which the woman has an abortion. However, “Obvious Child” has made less than $2 million box office dollars in four weeks; “Juno” had taken $26 million by the same stage, and pro-life film “October Baby” about $5 million.

In sport, Brazil crashed out of the World Cup in dramatic style as they lost 7-1 to Germany in the semi-final. Brazil’s captain, the devoutly Christian defender David Luiz, was guilty of trying too hard to inspire his team and consequently being out of his defensive position for some of the goals; he talked to God at the end of the game before he talked to anyone else, publicly praying on the pitch. The best thing about Germany’s seventh goal was that it avoided UK newspaper headlines reading “The Joy of Sechs,” although some journalists did slip the phrase into their reports.

Also in sport, the government of Singapore is suffering embarrassment because it has made and repeatedly shown an anti-gambling commercial in which a young boy is upset because his father put his life savings on Germany to win the World Cup.

And finally, the idea of policemen patrolling in bicycles has been taken into the 21^st century by a policeman in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA, who patrols on a skateboard – with extra-wide wheels and red and blue LED lights.

Not The BBC News: Birthday Edition

It’s exactly a year since I wrote the first bulletin of Not The BBC News, in response to a friend who returned from holiday and asked if anything had happened. Since then I have published 108 bulletins – an average of slightly over two per week. The longest gap between bulletins was nine days; twice I have had so much material that I have published on three successive days. My thanks to all those who have corrected me or debated with me -- you help to keep me honest; and especially to those who ‘like’ the bulletins -- you encourage me to believe it’s worthwhile.

This bulletin contains some of my favourite stories from the past year. 

News Stories

A mission team who entered a very remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010 received a pleasant surprise. They thought the people they were visiting might perhaps have heard of Jesus. In fact, they found a church in each of the eight villages they visited; a 1000-seat stone ‘cathedral’ in one village; and several ‘Gospel choirs’ who write their own songs and have regular sing-offs. It turned out the region had been visited by (and had its first education in reading and writing from) an American missionary for one month each year from 1912-1929; he returned home and died believing his preaching had made no impact.

A photograph being circulated on the Internet shows that, during recent violence in Egypt, one Christian church was protected from attack by a human chain of peace-loving Muslims.

The idea of providing a food bank for poor people has been taken one step further in a village near Barnsley where a “social supermarket” has opened. The shop, which is open only to people on benefits who live in the area, sells food rejected by other supermarkets (for reasons such as incorrect labelling) at discounts of up to 70% on prices elsewhere. A spokesperson said, “Manufacturers don’t want to throw this food away, but until now they’ve had no way of shifting really large quantities of rejected food.”

A journalist who was present at a pro-life march in Melbourne, Australia which was attacked by pro-choice demonstrators wrote: “I saw those Socialist Alliance protesters and feminists for hours shout down, blockade, hit, abuse and destroy the property of citizens, priests included, trying to peacefully express a different point of view – that killing babies in the womb is wrong [… ] In this demonstration I saw socialists and feminists betray almost every principle they profess to hold […] they call themselves progressives, but they are instead barbarians, so sure of their goodness that they feel licensed to do evil.”

The terrorist group Boko Haram has been responsible for the murder of numerous Christians in Nigeria, one of the most recent being an attack on a church that killed 22. However, World Mission reports that recently, two Boko Haram members became Christians. One convert said, 'If I could have died for a cause that I didn't even know my fate, now that I'm a Believer and follower of Jesus, I am willing to die for this truth no matter what.'"

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 US TV show is to feature an episode in which a father, a megachurch pastor who doesn’t believe in climate change, is verbally pitted against his daughter, an activist trying to shut down the local coal-fired plant. She wants to convince her father to make global warming the topic of his next sermon. What makes this show unusual is that it’s not fiction but a documentary; the father is Rick Joyner of Morningstar Ministries in North Carolina. His daughter Anna argues that “climate disruption is not a political issue; it’s a moral issue, it’s a justice issue, it’s a spiritual issue.” The series is called “Years of Living Dangerously.”

Sport

In the US Open golf, Jonas Blixt of Sweden created an unusual record when his tee shot ended up in a male fan’s back pocket; after taking a free drop, Blixt birdied the hole.

Technology

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.

Two academic publishers have withdrawn more than 120 published conference papers after a scientist revealed that they were computer-generated nonsense.  One such paper claimed to “disprove that spreadsheets can be made knowledge-based, empathic, and compact.” The majority of the fake papers had been published by the New York-based IEEE; the Dutch publisher Springer was also caught out.

And Finally

A 9 year old boy who was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia, escaped by singing the same gospel song over and over again until the kidnapper threw him out of the car. Willie Myrick said as he sang “Every Praise” during the three hour drive, the kidnapper kept cursing him and telling him to shut up before finally opening the car door and ejecting him. The author of the song heard the story and flew from New York City to meet Willie; they hugged and then sang the song together to a crowded church.

A US man who is studying to become a Lutheran pastor and plays in a church worship band has an unusual “day job”; he plays bass guitar in (and is a founder member of) the heavy metal band Megadeth.  David Ellefson said of his first time in a worship band, in 1996, “I realised everybody can play pretty good! They’ve got real day jobs, so they have great gear. And people aren’t throwing Budweisers at you and heckling you.” Since 1996, Ellefson has sobered up, and eventually bought the church’s building; it now hosts MEGA Life, a contemporary church service aimed at recovering addicts.

Sister Cristina, 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.

A Cold War nuclear bunker in Lithuania has been turned into “Europe’s strangest theme park”. Visitors are welcomed by Soviet anthems on a creaking radio, flickering striplights, and a huge guard in a green uniform with a large Alsatian dog. The guard yells at them in Russian, “Welcome to the Soviet Union. Here you are nobody.” They are then given “coffee” which has no coffee in it;  forced to listen to a brutal set of rules and to watch the hoisting of the red flag; and are then given damp overcoats before being interrogated (in Russian) for three hours in freezing cold rooms, shown socialist propaganda, and pressured to sign false confessions. “Someone always faints,” said the park’s director, “it’s very easy to break people’s will.” The park’s goal is to help people understand what the Soviet Union was really like.

A café in Nice introduced a politeness-based pricing system. It advertises “un café” for €7; “un café s’il vous plait” for €4.25; and “Bonjour, un café s’il vous plait” for just €1.40. The proprietor said, “It started as a joke; the regulars started calling me ‘your greatness’. But now people in the café are far more relaxed, and smiling.”

An embarrassing error by Swansea council, made five years ago, has recently “gone viral” on the Internet. The council wanted to put up a road sign in both English and Welsh. They e-mailed a Welsh speaker to ask for the translation, and then ordered the e-mailed reply to be added to the sign. The sign that was erected read (in English) “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only” , but the Welsh said: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated”

Not The BBC News: 7 July 2014

Sixty-three of the Nigerian women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April have escaped and returned to their families. There are also reports of increased fighting between Boko Haram and the Nigerian army.

In echoes of a recent legal case in the USA, a Christian bakery in Northern Ireland is facing legal action after it refused to bake a cake for a gay marriage campaign. Although gay marriage is still illegal in Northern Ireland, the Equality Commission has written to the bakery telling them that they have breached equality laws.  A spokesman for the Christian Institute said, “Imagine the uproar if the Equality Commission told an environmentally conscious baker to produce a cake saying, ‘Support Fracking’? Or a feminist baker to make a cake saying, ‘Sharia for UK’?

The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution that re-affirms the natural family as “the natural and fundamental unit of society.” Some countries that offer gay marriage, or offer couples in civil partnerships equal rights to married couples have rejected the definition, claiming  that the resolution “tries to impose a single model of family.”

One of the largest banks in the USA has been criticised for a question in its annual employee survey.  JP Morgan Chase asked employees whether they were members of the LGBT community, but the next question asked if the employee was “an ally of the LGBT community.” The head of the International Community on Religious Freedom said “The message to all employees is clear: you are expected to fall in line with the approved and required thinking.” The president of the National Organisation for Marriage described the question as “the tactics of intimidation.”

There are concerns of the physical and psychological health of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman who has been in solitary confinement for three and a half years awaiting an appeal against a death sentence for blasphemy, because any lawyer or judge who takes on her case gets death threats. There is, however, a glimmer of hope for Christianity in Pakistan, with Pakistan’s highest court ruling that a national council to protect minority rights should be formed.

Following the resignation of the CEO of Mozilla Inc. after he donated $1,000 to a pro-traditional-marriage group, a research group has been looking at donors to pro-abortion causes. It found that Warren Buffett, believed to be the world’s fourth richest man, has donated $1.23 billion to abortion groups over eleven years. A spokesman said, “That’s enough to pay for 2.7 million abortions – equivalent to the entire population of Chicago.”

In sports news, Britain’s “amazing week” of sport has been one of mixed success. Andy Murray exited Wimbledon in the quarter finals with hardly any fight, and Mark Cavendish crashed on the first stage of the Tour de France (in Yorkshire) and is out of the race after dislocating his collarbone. However, Lewis Hamilton managed to win the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after his team-mate and main rival, Nico Rosberg, retired with a gearbox problem.

In technology news, Google has put into practice a promise to ban sexually explicit advertising from it AdWords advertising network. The ban includes “adult entertainment” and “services that may be interpreted as providing sexual acts in exchange for compensation.” A spokesman for Google said, “We don’t allow this content regardless of whether it meets applicable legal restrictions.”

And finally, two US television producers recently fought a courtroom  battle over who should own the trademark to the name of a proposed television show.  The person who made the later attempt to register the trademark accused the other of failing to make use of the trademark. The later registrant won the case on a technicality, much to the chagrin of the other who felt her evidence had not been heard properly, and so is now legally free to make a television show entitled, “What Would Jesus Do?”

Not The BBC News: 3 July 2014

The US Supreme Court has decided a recent test case in favour of a religious viewpoint. The HHS mandate (part of “Obamacare”) introduced by the current government requires employers who provide employee health care (i.e. most US employers) to pay for specified health treatments, or to pay $100 per employee per day in fines. Many Christian-run organisations (including at least one convent) had objected to the fact that the list of specified treatments included contraceptives and abortion drugs. When the Government proved largely deaf to protests, there was a flurry of litigation; in the end, a test case went through the legal process and ended up at the Supreme Court, which decided that there should be a conscience-based exception to parts of the HHS mandate. The decision also has potential implications for businesses who are reluctant to serve or support gay marriages, since it establishes the principle that US companies (with five or fewer owners, and who do not provide a personal service) can be considered in law to have a conscience.

Meriam Ibrahim is now in the US embassy in Khartoum, having been released following her detention at the airport. She told reporters about the humiliation and difficulties of being forced to give birth with her legs shackled together. She is also concerned that her newborn daughter appears to be physically disabled, and wondered whether that may be due to the circumstances of birth.

The Sudanese authorities have followed China’s lead and started demolishing churches. A church in north Khartoum was demolished this week while a neighbouring mosque remains untouched.

The three Jewish teenage boys (two Israelis and one with dual Israeli-American citizenship) who were kidnapped by Palestinian militants while hitchhiking have been found dead. They were apparently killed soon after being kidnapped. The Israeli Prime Minister has promised revenge; this has coincided with an upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence (and at least one death), with some sources blaming the desire for revenge, and others blaming terrorist groups for firing rockets at Israelis.

A documentary about Sam Childers, the “Machine Gun Preacher” has been released and is available through iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/machine-gun-preacher-documentary/id892907696.

In sports news, the Times reported Andy Murray’s easy win in the last 16 of Wimbledon by saying “the Briton has yet to drop a set,” but when he lost in the quarter finals it said “The Scot made  a strong start.” It’s not clear why Murray’s nationality changes when he loses.

In technology news, a recent DNA study of 57 hair samples supposedly taken from yetis, Bigfoots, or similar creatures found that the vast majority were from common animals – cats, dogs, brown bears or even humans. However, two samples (both from the Himalayas) caused some surprise because the only DNA match that could be found was with a  fossilised polar bear from approximately 40 000 years ago. Scientists have suggested that the “yeti” may in fact be a cross-breed between a polar bear and a brown bear.

And finally, a cyclist in Cologne, Germany was fined €25 for having an unroadworthy bicycle because it only had one handbrake. However, the cyclist appealed on the grounds that he only had one arm, and had modified the bicycle to have a back pedal brake for the rear wheel – facts that the cyclist tried to point out to the officer when the fine was being issued. The police have apologised and refunded his fine.