The issue of immigration has become prominent in British politics with the rise of UKIP and in American politics with Barack Obama’s plan to offer an amnesty to around 5 million illegal immigrants. There has been a corresponding rise in tensions and obstacles facing immigrants; for example in the UK, the supermarket Lidl recently banned Polish workers from speaking Polish even during their work breaks, and threatened them with dismissal when they broke that rule. Christians in the USA are deeply divided over whether to accept illegal immigrants; as for the UK, a report on the subject from the Jubilee Centre looked at how the Old Testament laws applied to legal immigrants. The report concluded that all immigrants to ancient Israel were to be welcomed and given hospitality, but only those who chose to assimilate with Hebrew society were given equal protection under the Law.
Stories are emerging from Ukraine of Protestant Christians being harassed, tortured or killed by the pro-Russian rebel fighters. Refugees tell of beatings; churches being taken over or forced to close; business being burned; and of arrested Christians being “shot while trying to escape.” A top evangelical leader from Sloviansk, in the eastern Donetsk district, said, “I never thought that in the 21st century in a free country like Ukraine such persecution could happen.” Many believe the persecution is linked to pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ofsted inspectors have withdrawn criticism of a Roman Catholic secondary school relating to the new “spiritual and moral development” standards. The inspectors’ preliminary report on St Benedict’s school in Bury St Edmunds said the “younger children showed less awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation” and proposed to downgrade the school from “good” to “requires improvement,” but there was no mention of the criticism in the final report. Meanwhile, a group of MPs have written to the Education Secretary urging her to withdraw the new standards.
The pastor of a Mennonite church in Ben Cat, Vietnam, has issued an emergency appeal for help after his church was attacked by knife-wielding thugs, while the police stood by watching and filming the event. Nine Christians were arrested and charged with not having their identification documents – which had been confiscated by police during previous raids and not returned. The church, which is unregistered and has criticised the government’s human rights record, has been attacked regularly since June; a nearby registered Mennonite church that has made no such criticisms has been left alone.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has been praised for taking on payday lenders not primarily by public criticism but by encouraging churches to become involved with credit unions. However, he has also made some potentially controversial comments about refugees from the crises in the Middle East; he has said that the UK has a “duty of hospitality and welcome” but that the UK government should not offer the refugees asylum, but rather organise “safe havens” in their own territories. Otherwise, he fears, the Middle East will be “drained” of its long-standing Christian populations.
The Equalities Commission of Northern Ireland has made its annual financial report to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Politicians took the opportunity to criticise the Commission for its legal action against a Christian bakery in the province; one told the Chief Commissioner that they were “essentially bullying” a small business and that they “must acknowledge that they are out of step with public opinion.” The Commissioner replied that, although the Commission listens to what the public says, they are not required to take the public’s views into account.
A MSP who tried to reduce the role of churches in local authority education boards has dropped his proposed Bill due to lack of public support. He proposed to remove the current legal requirement to have three religious representatives on each Scottish education board, and also to prevent them from voting, but a public consultation found that only 17% of people supported his idea.
In sport, Sheffield United have bowed to public pressure and retracted their offer to former player Ched Evans to train with them after finishing his prison sentence for rape. A statement said: “We ask supporters to remember the responsibility that we have not only to be a fine and proud club, but to the communities in which Sheffield United is active.”
In technology news, Norway has started issuing new passports to its citizens. Each page is embossed with an image of Norway – and if the page is placed under and infra-red scanner, the Northern Lights appear on the picture.
And finally, a bus driver in Egypt was required to provide a sample of his urine for a drug test. When the results came back, he was informed that he had attempted to cheat the testers by supplying his wife’s urine (which he knew) and that she was two months pregnant (which he was unaware of). He is believed to be no longer working as a bus driver.
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