Not The BBC News: 31 October 2014

There are reports of unprecedented openness to the Christian gospel in the Middle East. "It's happening everywhere, but mostly around the refugees" said the Middle East coordinator for All Nations college, where many missionaries are trained. "Previously [missionaries] shared with someone for seven or eight years before they came to know Jesus. Now it happens in two or three months and they bring others with them. People are coming into the kingdom practically without us—we get to be the midwives."

A Jewish school in northwest London has been downgraded by Ofsted inspectors after they found “major gaps in students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development” according to the controversial new standards. However, the inspectors themselves are under fire for asking students “inappropriate” questions including asking if they understood how babies were made; how many gay people they knew; and telling one nine year old, “a woman might choose to live with another woman and a man might choose to live with another man, it’s up to them.” One eleven year old also said, “They asked us if we had friends from other religions, and they asked the question many times until we answered what they wanted us to say.”

A gay man who became a Christian Bible professor has called on Christian parents not to reject their children if they come out as gay. "Parents, love your LGBT or same-sex attracted children and point them to a life of costly discipleship following Jesus," he said. "The Gospel can best be communicated or can only be communicated while in relationship." He shared his own story of being rejected by his parents when he ‘came out’, until they became Christians. An unverified statistic from Twitter suggested that 40% of homeless youths in America say they are gay and have been kicked out of their homes. 

It has emerged that a UK mother has been granted the legal right to end the life of her severely disabled 12 year old daughter. The girl was blind and unable to talk, walk, eat or drink, except through a tube. After an operation that made her scream in pain, the mother petitioned the court to allow her daughter to die. The petition was supported by the father and by Great Ormond Street Hospital. It is the first time that the law has allowed “mercy killing” for a child who was breathing, not on life support and not suffering from a terminal illness.

Meanwhile, Brittany Maynard, the Oregon woman with terminal cancer who previously announced that she planned to commit assisted suicide this coming weekend, has recorded a video in which she says she may not do so after all. Instead, she plans to continue to campaign for assisted suicide to be legalised in all US states. 

In sport, Jeremy Lin, a star basketball player for the LA Lakers and outspoken Christian, has used social media to ask people to pray for him. "I'm not humble," he wrote. "Pride is the greatest sin I struggle with. But as I get older, I realise I'm more sinful and need God more than I ever imagined." He says he has had numerous requests from people who wanted to pray for him, and asked what they should pray for.

And finally, a dentist in Wisconsin has been credited with devising a Halloween Candy Buy-Back program in 2005 that has now been taken up by 2500 dentists across the nation. A few days after Halloween, many children still have considerable quantities of uneaten sweets. Dentists buy the sweets from the children at $1 per pound, and donate them to Operation Gratitude which adds them to care packages that are shipped to U.S. soldiers overseas. Last year, one California dentist collected over 3,500 lb (1,600 kg) of sweets, and in December last year, Operation Gratitude shipped its one millionth sweet-enhanced package.

Not The BBC News: 30 October 2014

Two British bishops – one Catholic, one Anglican -- have condemned the UK government’s decision not to support search and rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean as ‘unChristian’. The Home Office claims that the search and rescue missions have actually led to more deaths by encouraging people traffickers, but the Anglican bishop, speaking in the House of Lords, said, “I don’t think any of us believe that people are putting their families at risk thinking ‘Oh well, it does not matter if we are likely to drown because we might be saved.’ That would be incredible.” The Catholic bishop referred to words spoken by the Pope on the tiny island of Lampedusa which is the first port of call for many migrants, saying, “He warned us against becoming insensitive to the cries of other people.”

An influential journalist has questioned why two issues, of the sort that are often reported in Not The BBC News, have been raised at all. One issue is an article in ‘Slate’ that expresses worry over the fact that so many doctors treating Ebola in Africa are missionaries, on the grounds that the author does not trust missionaries to separate their religious beliefs from their medical practices; the other is about a US Christian college that is threatened with having its accreditation removed (effectively shutting it down) because its behaviour policy forbids homosexual behaviour on campus. The journalist’s conclusion is that: “Contemporary liberals increasingly think and talk like a class of self-satisfied commissars enforcing a comprehensive, uniformly secular vision of the human good. The idea that someone, somewhere might devote her life to an alternative vision of the good — one that clashes in some respects with liberalism's moral creed — is increasingly intolerable.” He argues that this “is a betrayal of what's best in the liberal tradition,” and accused liberals of an “irrational animus” towards religion – which are the same words that the Supreme Court uses as a test to decide if laws against homosexual behaviour are unconstitutional.

Tributes are being paid to evangelist Rev. Johnny Lee Clary, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from Louisiana, who has died of a heart attack at the age of 55. Clary said he felt compelled to give his life to the Lord after reading the story of the Prodigal Son. After his conversion, he dedicated himself to racial harmony, and he became the first ever white elder in the predominantly black Church Of God In Christ denomination.

The mayor of Houston has announced that the city’s subpoenas against five Christian pastors are to be withdrawn, although she reiterated her support for the city’s equal rights ordinance. The announcement was made ahead of national events planned for Sunday showing support for the pastors.

As the release of the film “Moses” starring Christian Bale approaches, Bale has described Moses as mentally unbalanced. "I think the man was likely schizophrenic and was one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life," said Bale. "He's a very troubled and tumultuous man who fought greatly against God, against his calling." However, a Christian Hollywood scriptwriter replied in his blog, “Bible heroes are NOT perfect sinless creatures. Moses did have a troubled and tumultuous faith, but … I can only hope that Bale’s comments are more reflective of his ignorant bigotry than of the actual movie.”

In technology news, the YouVersion Bible app recently reached a target that few other apps ever reach – it has 100 million users, including a number of pastors who invite their congregations to follow Sunday morning’s Bible reading using the app. The free app uses a number of techniques to keep readers engaged -- it offers Bible reading plans; it makes it easy to share verses to Facebook or Twitter; it reminds readers of how many consecutive days they have opened their Bible reading plan; and it sends reminders and messages of encouragement to registered users. At least one user felt that God himself was talking through the app, after the app sent him a text message immediately after he walked into a strip club – he left just as quickly.

And finally, two football clubs who were participating in the Indonesian league’s first division play-offs have been disqualified from the competition, after scoring a total of five own goals in the last five minutes. With the score at 0-0 after 85 minutes, a PSS Sleman defender, with no opposition player nearby, made a sharp back pass to his goalkeeper which the keeper made little effort to intercept. A minute later, the same thing happened – only for PSIS Semarang to do the same thing a further three times, leaving Sleman as 3-2 winners. The winners were due to face Borneo FC in the semi-finals, who have strong associations with the local mafia.

Not The BBC News: 29 October 2014

The Pope has stated that a belief in evolution is not inconsistent with the notion of creation (and therefore, by extension, with Christianity), although he does envisage God having a major role in starting the process. He said, “God [did not] do everything with a magic wand … he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so that they would reach their fulfilment … Evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.” A recent survey in the USA found three types of belief about evolution amongst Christians: the belief that humans had existed in their present form since the beginning of time; belief in evolution guided by a supreme being (which seems to accord with the Pope’s words); and belief in evolution due to natural processes. Catholics were roughly evenly split between all three beliefs; more than half of evangelical and black Protestants supported the first belief, with a corresponding drop in the third; and non-evangelical Protestants  believed more strongly in evolution than people with no church affiliation did.

In Indonesia, it is becoming increasingly hard to find Christian churches; over 200 have been destroyed in the past seven years, according to official figures, and it is nearly impossible to rebuild them. The reason for the latter is that the Government has devolved power for making religious decisions to religious groups, and Muslims control the key voting bloc. So there is now a law that any new construction of a religious building requires the permission of the local leader, and a petition signed by 60 Muslims, before it can proceed.

The legal case against an Idaho wedding chapel for refusing to perform gay marriages may be withdrawn.  The city authorities brought the case on the basis that the city’s discrimination rules (recently amended to include same-sex marriages) only exempted non-profit institutions, and the wedding chapel is a for-profit venture. However, the city attorney now says that he has looked at its rules again, and the basis for exemption is not profit-making, but whether the organisation is a religious corporation.

The Oregon bakers who were found guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay marriage were fined $150,000. Now a gay Christian has started a campaign to raise money to help them pay the fine. He said, “The family say the fines will bankrupt them, I’ll send whatever money we raise to them along with a message of love and peace. I don’t want them to suffer.”

The case of the Christian school in Reading that has been told by Ofsted inspectors to include other religions in its teaching and worship has reached the Houses of Parliament, with an MP questioning the Education Secretary about whether the new standards are truly upholding “British values.” The response was effectively a dismissal of the MP’s concerns: “That is clearly a  matter for Ofsted … I think we would all agree that the fundamental British values of respect, democracy and tolerance are shared by all schools and by people of all faiths.”

In technology news, a Japanese man has become the first in the world to be jailed for manufacturing a working gun with a  3D printer. The man made five guns out of plastic and a few screws, and successfully fired blanks from two of them. He also published his designs on the Internet, apparently in protest against Japan’s strict gun laws.

And finally, a website that aims to look at the lighter side of Christianity has started a competition to find Advent calendars that are as far away from the message of Christmas as possible. So far it has tracked down a heavy metal Advent calendar (Santa Claus is shown giving a devil’s horns salute; the caption is “Be Bad for Badness’ sake); a Barbie Fashion Accessory Advent calendar; and an Ann Summers Advent calendar featuring a nude male model, with strategically placed windows. When one of the website’s authors was interviewed on BBC radio and was asked if such calendars detracted from the true meaning of Christmas, he said that kitsch had always been a feature of the strange marriage between Christmas and the Yuletide midwinter festival; but he did bemoan the shortage of charity Advent calendars or calendars with fairly traded chocolate. The final question from the interviewer was “Still, sales of ten million calendars a year aren’t to be scoffed at?”; the reply was “No, but they will be scoffed.”

Not The BBC News: 25 October 2014

Hollywood’s best-known Christian couple, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, have started a campaign to raise $25 million to provide food, shelter and other aid to Iraqi and Syrian refugees displaced by ISIS. Many of the refugees are Christians; the aid will be available to any refugee, but much of it will be channelled through the Orthodox and other ancient church organisations in the region. The initiative has strong support from the (Muslim) King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has publicly said that Christians are integral to a Middle Eastern identity. The United Nations estimates that 800,000 people are currently in need of shelter, and 2.8 million need food.

Chinese provincial governments have continued to tear down crosses from church buildings, and sometimes to damage and demolish churches, over the last six months. The reason given is usually that they were ”illegally constructed” – though the forcible demolitions are usually carried out at night, which is itself illegal according to the state-run TV service. In one coastal county in Zhejiang province, with a population of about 850,000 people, only one church still retains its cross – and the authorities have decided that that cross, too, needs to be removed. Over a hundred believers are currently guarding that church building.

An American who was imprisoned in North Korea for missionary activities has been released and is returning to the USA. Jeffrey Fowle was arrested nearly 6 months ago for leaving a bilingual Korean-English Bible, with his name and contact details inside, in a nightclub. US negotiators are working to secure the release of two more Americans who are being held for similar reasons.

The Christian school which has been threatened with downgrading by Ofsted inspectors for not meeting new standards requiring schools to “actively promote religious harmony” has written to the Education Secretary asking for the standards to be changed. The school, which has been named as Trinity Christian School in Reading, said that it had last been inspected in November 2013 when its “spiritual, social, moral and cultural development” was rated “excellent” by the inspectors; so why were the same procedures no longer even “satisfactory”? The school also complained that the recent inspection focussed almost entirely in the new standards;  “at no point were any questions asked about other aspects of the curriculum or about the quality of teaching assessed through lesson observations.”

The reported ceasefire and prisoner release with Boko Haram in Nigeria is beginning to look like wishful thinking/spin doctoring in the part of the Nigerian government. No news or promises of the release of any prisoners have been issued by Boko Haram.

A member of a pro-life group is to bring a  private prosecution against two doctors who agreed to perform sex-selective abortions during an undercover investigation. One doctor was filmed saying, “I don’t ask questions; if you want a termination, you get a termination.” The other said, “It’s like female infanticide, isn’t it?” The Crown Prosecution Service decided last year that there was enough evidence to charge the two doctors, but that it would not be in the public interest to do so, a decision that was widely criticised. The private prosecution will charge the two doctors with breaching the Offences Against The Person Act 1861 and the Abortion Act 1967.

In technology news, Google have announced a new email app called Inbox. New features allow emails to be ‘snoozed’ until a more convenient time; automated sorting of emails into ‘bundles’ (e.g. travel itineraries, promotional emails); displaying only selected highlights of emails until clicked on; and adding useful links (e.g. a restaurant reservation email will have a link to a map added). It’s currently available by invitation only, but anyone can request an invitation (by email, of course).

And finally, a woman in Deltona, Florida called police to say that her boyfriend was drunk, nude, and acting abusive. However, when police arrived to arrest him, they discovered that was also 500lb (227kg/36st) in weight. He put on some clothes but then decided to resist arrest  by simply sitting on the ground and challenging police to move him. They managed to drag him to the patrol car but found he would not fit inside it; a police transport van was eventually called to take him away.

Not The BBC News: 23 October 2014

In Puerto Rico, which is a Commonwealth of the USA and therefore uses much of American law, a judge has rejected an legal attempt to declare a ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. The decision is making waves throughout the USA because of his reasoning. The first of his two arguments was that a 1972 case in Minnesota had rejected the idea of a constitutional right to same sex marriage, and that under the system of legal precedents, that decision can only be overturned by the Supreme Court. His second argument was that redefining marriage without strict limits opens the floodgates to all kinds of ‘marriages’; he said, “Are laws barring polygamy or, say, the marriage of fathers and daughters now of doubtful validity? … Those seeking sweeping change must articulate the principles that they claim will limit this newly fashioned right.”

Northern Ireland is to become the first place in the UK to make all payments for sex illegal. The measure is included in the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill which has just passed its key vote after Sinn Fein decided to add its support. This approach to justice, which targets consumers of prostitution rather than sex workers, has previously been used in Sweden.

The Scottish government has been given a petition that proposes to legalise adultery. Adultery is currently illegal in the sense that it is a legally valid reason for divorce, although it is little used these days. The petition aims to remove the definition from law completely because it can only legally occur between a man and a woman, and is therefore seen as discriminating against gay couples.

Six months ago, 50 year old Steve Hill, the evangelist best known for triggering the long-running revival at Brownsville, Florida died of skin cancer. Now his adopted son Ryan has passed away at the age of 27; the cause of death is not yet known. Ryan was born in Argentina, seven weeks premature, and was adopted by Steve Hill and his wife who felt a baby deserved to have loving parents even if he only had a few days to live. But he recovered, moved back to the USA with them, and grew to become a media specialist; he did a lot of filming of his father’s ministry and for his father’s ministry website.

Sister Cristina, the singing nun who won the Italian version of “The Voice,” has released her first single following the competition – and it’s a cover of Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.” She said that the lyrics can be “a description of love’s ability to renew a person and rescue them from their past,” and she described herself as “a religious sister … who wants to tell everyone the joy of having found Jesus through the gifts He gave me.” She added, “I would like everyone to discover how much He loves us and how creative He is with each of us.”

Yet another Christian film this year is “God the Father” – I have mentioned it previously, but it will open shortly (October 31 in the USA). It’s a true life story about a former Mafia boss (he was one step below Godfather) who became a Christian while in solitary confinement in jail, and now preaches and tells the behind-the-scenes story of a life of crime. The film is a mixture of actual news footage, acting, music, dance and animation.

Also in film news, it has been reported that Shia LaBoeuf became a Christian while playing a Bible-believing solider in the recently released film, “Fury”. LaBoeuf’s actual words were, “I found God during Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a f___ing bulls__t way – in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on the page, but … it’s a full-blown exchange of heart, a surrender of control.” He commented that talking with Brad Pitt, who grew up in a conservative Christian home but rejected Christianity, and with the Christian director of ‘Fury’, helped crystallise his thinking. Hollywood insiders are waiting to see if there is noticeable change in the previously badly-behaved actor.

In technology news, a paralysed Polish man has been able to walk and even drive again after cells from his nose, which are similar to stem cells, were transplanted to his spine. He is believed to be the first person in the world to recover from complete severing of the spinal nerves.

And finally, a farmer in Merstham, Surrey noticed his sheep munching on something that had been tossed over the fence. He went to investigate in case they were black plastic bags but instead found the sheep chewing on ₤4,000 of herbal cannabis. “They weren’t quite on their backs with their legs in the air, but they probably had the munchies,” said the farmer. “I haven’t noticed any other side-effects, but I’ll tell you about the meat next week.” Police want to catch the “irresponsible” crooks who dumped the plants, but unfortunately the sheep have eaten much of the evidence.

Not The BBC News: 20 October 2014

Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give comprehensive legal rights to Nature. Based on an indigenous Andean worldview of Mother Earth as a living being, the law will legally bind the government to prioritise the wellbeing of its citizens and the natural world by promoting sustainability and controlling industry. In fact it will give the natural world equal status to human beings.

A Christian school in the Home Counties has been told by Ofsted inspectors that its rating is to be downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘adequate’ because it has not made enough efforts to actively promote harmony between different faiths – for instance it has not invited an imam to lead morning worship and some lessons. Furthermore, the downgrade would lead to a further inspection which could theoretically result in the school being closed. New regulations, introduced over the summer holidays when schools were less likely to be able to object, require such active promotion; the new regulations were introduced in response to the “Trojan horse” scandal of Muslim-run schools in Birmingham, but were immediately criticised for going too far. A spokesman for the Christian Institute said, “The wording of the regulations inevitably results in these kinds of outcomes. While we obviously support attempts to address the problem of radicalisation, the current regulations fail to do this.”

The subpoenas issued on pastors in Houston, Texas by the city authorities, requiring them to submit sermons on particular topics to the mayor’s office as part of an ongoing legal dispute, has produced an unusual response. Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has called for pastors from all over the USA to send sermons, and Christians everywhere to send Bibles, to the mayor’s office in Houston. “Obviously she could use  a few,” he said. The Twitter hashtag for the latest on this situation is #HoustonWeHaveAProblem.

Canon Andrew White, the “Vicar of Baghdad”, spoke about the situation in Iraq at a church in the USA. “We are a million times worse off than under Saddam,” he said. “The terrible thing is for Americans to realise that all their intervention, everything they tried to do, has been totally wasted.” He criticised President Obama for pulling out all the troops in 2011, rather than  leaving behind a force of 10,000 as the Iraqi government requested.

Despite recent legal advice to the contrary, magistrates and even pastors in the USA are being told they are required to solemnise gay marriages. In North Carolins, several magistrates have resigned in protest; and in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, two pastors who run a  wedding chapel have been told by the city authorities that they will be fined and jailed if they refuse to do so.

One of the daughters of the leaders of Hamas has been given emergency medical treatment in an Israeli hospital, following complications when she was treated at an overstretched hospital in Gaza. An Israeli doctor said, “The request of a Palestinian physician is normally enough to guarantee the admission from Gaza of patients deemed urgent cases.”

Another Christian film being made this year for release next year is “Do You Believe?” It’s a human interest story following the intersecting stories of several characters. Stars include Cybil Shepherd, Sean Astin and Lee Majors.

In technology news, Toshiba have unveiled a robot that can speak – in sign language. Intended as a companion for the elderly, the humanoid robot is currently only capable of simple phrases and greetings, but is expected to develop a more complex vocabulary soon. It is also yet to be equipped with speech recognition capabilities.

And finally, in 1979, an Indian teenager whose island had been eroded until it was bare of vegetation decided that he would plant trees on the island to prevent the local snakes from dying. 35 years later, he has planted a 3,000 acre jungle (about 4.5 square miles) which supports wildlife including elephants. A short documentary about him can be seen at http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/forest-man-of-india-film/. 

Not The BBC News: 18 October 2014

It has been reported that a ceasefire has been agreed between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram; among other conditions, the remaining 219 schoolgirls who were kidnapped six months ago are to be released. The agreement follows high level talks between the governments of Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad about how to deal with Boko Haram.

Mosab Hasan Yousef, the son of the leader of Hamas who worked as an agent for Israeli intelligence, was interviewed on Channel 4 news about his life.  The questioning was fairly pointed: the opening question was “Are you a traitor?” and the second was “You say a lot in your book about Hamas brutality but little about Israeli brutality. Why not?” His answers explained that he was recruited into Israeli intelligence while he was in jail; he agreed to it because he intended to become a double agent working ultimately for Hamas, but what he saw in jail, including Hamas killing its own people, made him change his mind. He commented that Israel is not merely a Jewish state, but includes Christians and people of other religious groups and none, just like any modern state; and he concluded by saying the only solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the Biblical mandate to “love your enemies.”

The story that I previously reported about a  Canadian woman who applied for a job with a  Norwegian wilderness tourist company, and received a reply that strongly discriminated against her Christian beliefs, appears to be largely a hoax. She did indeed receive the reply as described, but the ‘Norwegian’ company has apparently made exaggerated claims and improper suggestions to others who have contacted it; the photos on its website seem to be copied from elsewhere; and of all the people whose names are associated with the company, the only one whose identity can be verified is the registrant of the website, who lives in Whistler, British Columbia.

The founder of XXXChurch in the USA, which ministers particularly to people in the porn industry, has been interviewed by ABC news alongside a porn star who he has become friends with over the years. The two disagree about the value and effect of porn, and have done so publicly in various debates; however, the porn star has begun directing girls who want to leave the industry to XXXChurch, and when he was recently rushed to hospital for emergency heart surgery, he called the pastor and asked him to pray. The porn star now says, “I think I’m a product of successful prayers. I had experiences that definitely made me believe in God … there’s no other explanation.”

Two well-known Christian figures are about to tour the UK to speak about God’s heart for poverty and justice. Graham Kendrick is a singer/songwriter and Tony Campolo is a preacher with a “social gospel” emphasis. The tour starts in Norwich this Wednesday (22^nd October); other dates that are close to various groups of my friends include Winchester on the 23^rd; Stafford on the 26^th; Rawtenstall on the 29^th; Harrogate on the 30^th; Arbroath on the 31^st; Coleraine on November 2^nd; and Guildford on the 6^th.

Yet another Biblical film is to be released this year. This time it’s ‘Moses’, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Christian Bale. It is to be released in December, and a trailer is now available online. The initial screenshots look similar to those from the film “Noah,” and Bale says that the film will focus on the “complex character of a troubled and tumultuous man.”

In sport, Sheffield United find themselves in a controversy over whether to re-employ their former striker, Ched Evans. Evans has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for rape. Some say that he has done his time and should be allowed to re-integrate into society; others say that footballers are high-profile role models and to take him back would send the wrong message. The debate has become so heated that, when TV’s Judy Finnegan suggested Evans might be treated more leniently because the rape was non-violent, some Twitter users threatened to rape Finnegan’s 27 year old daughter.

Also in football, one of Norway’s substitutes for their European Championship match against Bulgaria was attacking midfielder Martin Odegaard, the youngest player ever to play in a European Championship match. Odegaard, whom plays for StrØmsgodset IF, will not be 16 until mid-December.

Also in the European Championship, there was a good news story from the end of the match between Poland and Scotland in Warsaw. As is normal at major matches, the home fans were given time to leave the stadium first, and then the away fans were shepherded out en masse. But after this match, many Polish fans waited to applaud the Scottish fans out of the stadium, to thank them for the excellent atmosphere that they created during the match. The game finished 2-2.

And finally, when a woman from Columbus, Ohio drove a friend to pick up a prescription, but was accused of pulling a gun on her friend and robbing her, police issued a ‘wanted’ description using a mugshot from a previous arrest. The suspect phoned police to complain that the mugshot was unflattering and demanded it be taken down, so police invited her to visit them to discuss the issue. She actually showed up at a police station and was promptly arrested; she did, however, get her wish to have a new mugshot taken. 

Not The BBC News: 17 October 2014

In Houston, Texas, city authorities have made an almost unprecedented demand (accompanied by subpoenas) that a group of city pastors should send any sermons about homosexuality, gender identity, or the city’s lesbian mayor to the city authorities for vetting. This situation somehow escalated from a disagreement over (and petitions against) a new city law that allows members of opposite sexes to use each other’s toilets. A spokesperson for the legal representatives of the pastors suggested that the city is not making a serious attempt to censor religious expression; rather, it is punishing those who oppose the city’s decisions by attempting to drown them in burdensome legal administration.

A church pastor from north-east Nigeria who was kidnapped by Boko Haram 10 months ago has escaped. He was held in a former game reserve and was tied up for much of the time. But when heavy rains flooded the camp in the first week of October, the captors fled, and the pastor managed to free himself and walked through the forest for several days before meeting Nigerian soldiers. His church members had been earnestly praying and were overjoyed to see him again.

I reported recently how a Christian baker in Northern Ireland has been pursued by the Equalities Commission for refusing to bake a cake supporting gay marriage, which mirrored a similar case in the USA. Now a case has arisen in the USA that mirrors a previous case from Northern Ireland: a T-shirt printer from Kentucky who refused to print T-shirts supporting a gay pride event has been told by a human rights officer that it discriminated against gays by doing so. The case against the Irish (leaflet) printer was dropped; the Kentucky case is likely to be appealed, if the full human rights commission agrees with their officer’s decision.

Asia Bibi, the Pakistani woman who has been on death row in a Pakistani prison for five years awaiting a much-delayed appeal (mostly because of death threats to the lawyers involved, one of which was carried out) has finally had her appeal heard –and rejected. Her lawyer will now petition the Supreme Court to hear the case. Bibi, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy against Islam after drinking from the same water bowl as some Muslim women from her village. After the result of the appeal was announced, one of the imams who brought the original complaint said “We will soon distribute sweets to our Muslim brothers for today’s verdict. It is a victory for Islam.”

The campaign against an abortion clinic at a GP’s surgery in London’s Blackfriars district has continued after the opening of the clinic. Now the British Pregnancy Advice Service (BPAS), who opened the clinic a month ago, have called for American-style buffer zones to prevent protesters displaying graphic images of aborted babies outside the clinic’s entrance. BPAS also say that the street is “flooded” with protesters and that they have serious concerns that they may have to close down.

Another of this year’s Christian films is “Old Fashioned” (subtitled “Chivalry Makes A Comeback”) in which a former frat boy and a free-spirited woman attempt an “old-fashioned” courtship in contemporary America.  It comes from the same studio who made “God’s Not Dead.” It is scheduled to be released for Valentine’s Day next year, in competition with “Fifty Shades of Grey.”  A UK cinema release is unlikely because it lacks well known stars.

In technology news, it has been discovered that fake social media accounts, designed for the purpose of entrapping and exploiting men, are more likely to describe themselves as “female bisexuals” than any other gender/sexual orientation. 58% of all such accounts were found to use this description.

And finally, a newt surveyor from the Isle of Skye has been asked to give a presentation and poster at the Amphibian and Reptile Symposium in Edinburgh on his work in monitoring a colony of palmate newts that, almost uniquely, live and breed in rock pools next to a sea loch. Newts normally prefer peaceable freshwater environments. The surveyor, who has been working on a voluntary basis for three years, will set a new record as the symposium’s youngest ever presenter because he is twelve years old. He recently practised his talk at school and said, “There were lots of questions from my friends and I’m really grateful to my teacher for allowing me a dry run.”

Not The BBC News: 16 October 2014

A Canadian woman claims to have been denied a job with a Norwegian wilderness tourism company because she was a Christian. The emailed reply to her job application included the following phrases: “we are not a Christian organization, and most of us actually see Christianity as having destroyed our culture, tradition and way of life”; “unlike [the Christian university you attended], we embrace diversity and the right of people to sleep with or marry whoever they want;” and it described God as “the very reason for the most horrendous abuses and human rights violations in the history of the human race”. The company claim that she was rejected solely because of her qualifications and experience, but a member of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association said, “You have obligations as an employer to act in a non-discriminatory manner. We don’t usually see discrimination cases that are quite this stark.

”

In Malaysia, the leader of a Muslim supremacist group said that “burning the Bible was merely a defence of Islam.” The Malay government has decided not to raise criminal charges against him for his words after deciding that his statement only applied to a few specific bibles with the word ‘Allah’ in them. Christian groups have protested strongly and called for the resignation of the Government’s justice minister.

A prominent scientist has spoken out against teaching evolution as an understood fact, because he and other scientists admit they don’t understand it. “Micro-evolution, I understand,” he said, “we do it all the time in my chemistry lab. But macro-evolution – when you have speciation changes, when you have organs changing, when you have to have concerted lines of evolution, all happening in the same place and time – not just one line – concerted lines, all at the same place, all in the same environment … this is very hard to fathom.”

The argument over conscience-based exemptions from Obamacare, specifically its requirement for employers to pay for employees’ contraception and abortion treatment, continues. The latest instalment is that seven churches in California, which have been told to provide abortion coverage by the state of California, have appealed to the federal government.

Also in the USA, marriage registrars have been given legal advice that they are not required to carry out gay marriages if they object to doing so, as long as they can appoint a suitable deputy to do it. This contrasts with the situation in England and Wales.

Susan Boyle, the singer who shot to fame through the TV show Britain’s Got Talent, spoke about her faith in an interview with a Christian blogger. “My faith is incredibly important to me on every level,” she said. “It gets me through those moments of self-doubt and also allows me to understand that this gift of my career, later in life, is from a higher power.”

In sport, football’s European Championship qualifiers have produced some surprise results. France have qualified as tournament hosts, but none of the other Western European powerhouses (Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Italy) top their qualifying groups; and former champions Greece lie second from bottom of their group, just one point ahead of the Faroe Islands.  The beneficiaries include all the British Isles teams; England, Wales and Northern Ireland top their groups, and Eire and Scotland lie second and third in (the same) group.

And finally, a British man who lost his parrot in Southern California was reunited with it four years later – only to find that it no longer speaks English, but only Spanish. The vet who returned the parrot to him has been searching for her own lost African grey parrot for nine months, and so far has facilitated five reunions of missing (microchipped) parrots with other owners.

Not The BBC News: 13 October 2014

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear a collection of legal challenges to the principle of gay marriage, instead allowing individual states to decide. This is likely to increase dissatisfaction with gay marriage in states where voters have rejected it but the bans have been overturned by the courts for being unconstitutional (Alaska is the latest state where this has happened). A Supreme Court decision might have settled the issue of the constitutionality of both banning gay marriage and of permitting it.

A retrospective blog on the Egyptian revolution has concluded that “religious illiteracy” was a primary cause of the British media ignoring the mass burning of Coptic churches in August 2013.  The blog writer said: “As usual the media had been siding with the political opposition, in true British fashion, assuming them to be the under-dog in a game of two sides. They had ignored the complicating third and fourth factors: the persecuted [Christian] Copts, and browbeaten [Muslim] Sufis, either ignorant of their existence or embarrassed about siding with Christians or more esoteric religion.” The church burnings were perpetrated by the “political opposition,” a fact eventually highlighted in a Spectator cover piece based on reports from an (agnostic) American foreign correspondent.

Nick Clegg has stated his opposition to legislation permitting assisted suicide, although he acknowledges that he is in the minority in his party on this issue. He has a Dutch mother, and he said before becoming Deputy Prime Minister that he was aware that the Netherlands has a permissive culture in which people go beyond the law on assisted suicide. The Liberal Democrat conference has also voted in favour of removing the requirement for schools to hold a daily act of Christian worship, but rejected a motion to ban faith-based selection in state schools after an intervention by Business Secretary Vince Cable.

The Muslim community in Bolton has raised ₤30,000 for the widow of Alan Henning, the aid worker who was executed by Islamic State in Iraq. The mosque had already held a prayer vigil for Henning the previous month. Henning was not even from Bolton, but from nearby Eccles.

The consultation on abortion being run by the Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice is not being supported by the province’s new Health Minister, who is staunchly pro-life. “I am not one of those people who leaves their personal views at the doors of the Assembly,” said the minister.

Boko Haram has released twenty seven hostages who had been captured, and held, in north Cameroon.  They included ten Chinese construction workers and the wife of Cameroon’s vice-president. Although Boko Haram’s stated goal is to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, they often cross the border into Cameroon.

In sport, the biggest surprise of the week came in football’s European Championship qualifiers when Poland beat Germany 2-0. Poland had 3 shots on target in the whole game; Germany had eight in the first half alone.  Two teams from the group, which also includes Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, will qualify for the finals.

And finally, a South African man who started dating an American missionary, because he was impressed by how she cared for children, arranged a special surprise for her when he flew to Kansas City to visit her. As the plane emptied, every single passenger agreed to hand his girlfriend a flower; he was the last one off the plane, and he proposed to her. When she said Yes, United Airlines  played a song he had written for her over the P.A.

Not The BBC News: 10 October 2014

A primary school in Sussex has introduced unisex toilets in its new building. According to a letter from the head teacher, this was partly done to make any transgender children more comfortable when choosing a loo. However, parents have complained that the new toilets’ main effect has been to make many children feel uncomfortable about using them. 130 parents have signed a petition asking for the toilets to be re-segregated.

Bart Campolo, the (middle aged) son of well known preacher Tony Campolo, has recently rejected his Christian faith and now claims to be  a secular humanist. Some commentators have blamed it on his father’s emphasis on a ‘social’ gospel rather than an ‘evangelical’ approach. However, a more thoughtful article in Christianity Today commented on Bart’s decision to live as a Christian in the inner city for many years, and on his own stated reasons for giving up on Christianity (that he cannot believe in a God who allows so much suffering and evil); the conclusion is that Bart saw so much sin, sadness and injustice among marginalised and broken people that it eventually broke him too.

A homeless ex-military veteran in Las Vegas, who stood on street corners and aimed to make people smile even if they gave him no money, was approached by a man who took the veteran’s sign, wrote dollar signs on it, and started tearing it into pieces. The bemused veteran asked if he could keep the magic marker to make another sign, but was very pleased to have his sign returned to him, intact, with a considerable quantity of cash attached. The magician who set up the stunt organised a GoFundMe page for the veteran, which has now raised enough money to get the veteran temporary accommodation. A video of the stunt can be seen here: http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/10/09/viral-video-magician-does-amazing-trick-homeless-veteran-las-vegas

The Northern Irish Department of Justice has begun a public consultation on making abortion legal if the foetus has a lethal abnormality or where the baby was conceived by rape. Neither of these is currently a legal ground for abortion in Northern Ireland. A Christian group has responded by publishing stories told by people who were conceived through rape, including one whose mother was given the choice of aborting the baby or leaving home.

Stories of church leaders who have fallen into sin – usually adultery – are all too frequent. But at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, their pastor of 23 years stood in the pulpit and told them that he had used drugs; he had misused church funds; he had been HIV-positive since 2003; he had had full-blown AIDS since 2008; and he had slept with a number of church members. He was removed as pastor of the church in October 5^th, and is likely to face criminal charges, including failure to disclose his health condition to sexual partners.

In sport, the football season is less than two months old, and Watford FC have just appointed their fourth manager of the season. The first manager resigned at the end of August after rumours of unrest amongst the players (ironically, his last match was  a win against Huddersfield, who were already on their second manager of the season); the second manager resigned after a few weeks due to being admitted to hospital with chest pains; the third was a caretaker manager, promoted from another coaching position within the club; and the fourth was hired just eight days later.  Watford are currently third in their division.

The last in my series of Facebook tips is a way to save interesting posts to read later. It currently only works for shared links and place/entertainment pages, and only on a computer browser. If you see a shared link you want to save, click on the down arrow in the top right of the post and select ‘Save’; for place/entertainment pages, ‘Save’ is next to ‘Like’. To find it later, look at the top left of your news feed; where it says ‘News’, ‘Messages’ and ‘Events’, you’ll find a link that says, ‘Saved.’

And finally, this year’s Ig Nobel prizes for improbable research have been awarded. The prizes were first awarded in 1991 and were originally intended as a satirical parody on the Nobel prizes, recognisng research that “cannot or should not be reproduced.” This tradition is echoed by this year’s Ig Nobel prize for Economics, awarded to the Italian Government’s statistics unit for  “fulfilling the European Union mandate for each country to increase the official size of its national economy by including revenues from prostitution, illegal drug sales, and smuggling.” However, the prize has become increasingly respectable to the extent that many academic prize winners now turn up to collect their prizes. Other winners this year were (for Art) “measuring the relative pain people suffer while looking at an ugly painting, rather than a pretty painting, while being shot [in the hand] by a powerful laser beam”; (Medicine) “treating uncontrollable nosebleeds using the method of nasal-packing-with-strips-of-cured-pork”; and (Neuroscience) “trying to understand what happens in the brains of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.” 

Not The BBC News: 3 October 2014

New educational standards introduced last month in England and Wales require  academies, free schools and independent schools to “actively promote” the rights defined in the Equality Act 2010. In a commissioned legal opinion, a senior barrister has said that this opens the door for schools to be sued over what they teach by “disgruntled pupils, parents and campaigners.” The standards were introduced in response to the “Trojan Horse” scandal at Islamic schools in Birmingham; the Christian Institute had previously protested to the Government that these standards were a disproportionate response. No-one has yet commented on the standard of English or the split infinitive in the standards themselves.

Meanwhile, calls for compulsory sex education for children in Scotland, including homosexuality and transsexualism, from a lobby group called Sexpression:UK have been strongly criticised by a MSP and by a Free Church minister. The latter said ‘It is an absolute breach of human rights … it is a Trojan horse which will be used to indoctrinate out children into [a] particular sexual ethics and philosophy.”

In Texas, a law requiring abortion clinics to upgrade facilities or close down has been enacted by the Appeal Court after a judge delayed it. There are now only eight abortion clinics open in the whole of Texas. Meanwhile, a petition has been started against a plan to co-locate an abortion clinic in London with a GP’s surgery. The petition states, “A doctor’s surgery should be a place to help people get better, not to kill human life.”

A new reality show on US TV has been given permission to film inside three convents as it follows five young women who are deciding whether to become nuns. The Sisterhood will show its first episode on November 25^th.

The couple who owned the Christian bakery in Oregon that was fined for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding have been forced to close their bakery after gay activists pressurised every wedding vendor who they did business with. The husband described these actions as “economic terrorism.” They are also facing further legal action after a complaint was filed with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries that they had violated the civil rights of the lesbian couple, which could cost them $150,000 in damages.

The film Left Behind’s opening night has left it … behind. A popular website that combines scores from different reviewers gave it a score of 4 out of 100 (for comparison, “Space Chimps II: Zartog Strikes Back” got 11 out of 100). Its theological accuracy is also doubtful even for Christians who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture; the film posits that “several million people worldwide” have been raptured, which is a very low percentage of the more than 2 billion Christians in the world today. Meanwhile, “The Song” which I reviewed recently opened in the USA with a respectable average of $1,672 per cinema (16^th best overall for the weekend) and another low-budget Christian film has just been released; ”Believe Me” is a comedy/drama about a student who needs to raise funds for his tuition fees and so decides to set up a fake charity and fleece the church crowd (but unsurprisingly, things don’t go entirely as planned).

The third in my series of Facebook tips concerns ‘likes’. Facebook’s terms of service allow your photo to be used for advertising by any group you have ‘liked’ or by any shop or restaurant you have ‘checked in’ at. Unfortunately, the only way to stop this is to ‘unlike’ groups, companies or retail establishments (who might advertise on Facebook)  one by one; click to the down arrow next to the globe, then Activity Log, then ‘Likes’ on the left hand side.

And finally, Kim Jong-un, the dictatorial leader of North Korea, recently missed a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly for the first time since 2011, leading to speculation of a coup on social media. However, a South Korean newspaper has given an alternate explanation: he is recovering from surgery after fracturing both ankles. The newspaper further reported that the ankle fractures were largely due to the dictator’s obesity; he is known to be very fond of imported Emmenthal cheese, and to have gained weight rapidly recently.

Not The BBC News: 2 October 2014

Wonga, the pay day lender infamous for its high interest rates, has agreed to write off ₤220million worth of debts, following discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority. The Government regulator insisted that Wonga changed its lending practices, and Wonga has agreed to cancel the debts of those who would not have received loans under the new criteria. It has also offered interest-free loans to anyone with a current loan who pays it back within 30 days of taking it out.

Another major raid has taken place on a sex trafficking gang, this time in Long Beach, California. After an 8 month investigation, a raid saw 22 girls aged 12-17 released and 91 people arrested. Many of the girls had been in foster care. A police spokesman said gangs were getting into sex trafficking because it was more profitable than drugs as a woman could be sold multiple times. Of those arrested, roughly half were booked for human trafficking, pimping, or crimes relating to online trafficking; the rest were arrested for soliciting for prostitution or assisting a prostitute.

The religious and humanitarian crisis in Iraq, which has been replaced in the headlines recently by military news, is still critical. Canon Andrew White in Baghdad said at one point that ISIS were “at the gates” of Baghdad and that the Iraqi Christian community had shrunk by 80%. The air strikes apparently helped the Iraqi army push ISIS back northwards; however, White reports that “every single” Christian from the north of Iraq now wants to leave the country. Meanwhile, Iraqi TV has started a campaign to prevent people from joining ISIS by mocking them directly in a parody TV programme.

Martha Collison, former contestant in the Great British Bake Off, is to judge a baking competition at Life Church (Central Baptist Church), Southampton on 10 October. The event will also be used to promote the church’s forthcoming Alpha course.

The owner of a banqueting hall in Pennsylvania who was sued for refusing a same-sex wedding has won his case. However, the case was somewhat different to recent cases in both the USA and the UK concerning Christian bakeries refusing to make cakes to support gay marriage; while the bakeries were taken to court by state agencies, the banqueting hall was sued by a (heterosexual) bride-to-be who had booked the hall for her wedding reception but wanted to pull out, and to get back her non-refundable deposit (and three times the amount in damages!), when she learned of the earlier refusal of a lesbian wedding. The judge told the bride-to-be that she had no case.

The latest Christian film to be released in the USA is a remake of the book “Left Behind;” this version stars Nicholas Cage. The story covers the story of the Rapture, following the most dramatic interpretation of the Bible’s predictions of the end of the world (specifically “we who are alive shall be caught up … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” – 1 Thessalonians 4.17). Oddly, the film-makers have prioritised foreign releases of the film in Russia and the Ukraine, but no UK release date is currently known.

Second in my series of Facebook tips is a way to stop Facebook targeting adverts at you … some people may like their adverts targeted to them, but not everyone does. A key tool Facebook uses is to keep track of everything (sic!) that you have searched for on Facebook. To clear your search history, click on the downward arrowhead just to the right of the globe in the task bar; then click “Activity Log”; then go to the left of the screen, and under “Photos, Likes, Comments” click ‘More’; then click ‘Search’ at the bottom of the list. To clear your search history, click on ‘Clear Searches’ at the top of this page.

And finally, people attending the International Highline Meeting in the Italian Alps were offered unusual accommodation – hammocks slung from a rope stretched between two mountains. The festival attracts tightrope and slackrope walkers from around the world.