The case of the Christian bakery in Northern Ireland which is being pursued by the Equality Commission took an unexpected and potentially explosive political turn this week, when Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein effectively admitted that his party has been using equality law as a political weapon, by deliberately targeting its enemies with complaints about them breaking equality law. Adams was speaking to a Republican audience about “bigotry” amongst Unionists, and said, “The point is to break these b______ds – break them with equality. Might as well use equality -- who can be afraid of equality? That’s the Trojan horse of the entire Republican strategy.” His words were recorded and distributed by a journalist who was present. Sinn Fein have since scrambled to cover their tracks – one Sinn Fein politician tried to re-define “Trojan horse”, while Adams himself issued an apology for using bad language, which led some major news outlets to focus their coverage of the incident on that apology. However, Adams’ words call into question the genuineness of Sinn Fein’s whole pro-equality policy, as well as many of the complaints made to the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland. And given that one of the three Equality Commissioners who decided to pursue legal action against the bakery was a Sinn Fein member, the Commission’s legal action against the bakery appears especially suspect.
Kenya has placed an indefinite ban on registration for all new religious organisations, and will make all existing religious organisations file details of their registration status and financial returns. The move follows news coverage of alleged illegal activity by pastors promising miracles. The Government says the move is designed to protect its citizens.
Canon Andrew White, the “Vicar of Baghdad”, has been ordered to return home by the Archbishop of Canterbury after ISIS placed a ₤36 million bounty on his head. He says he has no fear of ISIS himself but that he agreed to leave because of the danger to the people around him. He fears greatly for the people he has left behind, and also worries that people in the UK “are not waking up and listening to the reality of what is going on.”
Rob Bell, former pastor of one of the Mars Hill megachurches and bestselling author, will front a self-help TV show on the Oprah Winfrey Network in the USA, starting next month. A trailer describes Bell as a “rock star speaker” and his show as “unconventional”, “revealing” and “inspiring.” Some Christians are uncertain whether to welcome the new show, both because of the “pastor as rock star” concept, and also because of some of Bell’s beliefs – he accepts gay marriage, and has questioned whether a literal, eternal Hell exists.
A mass march in Madrid was held to protest against the Spanish Government’s decision not to tighten restrictions on abortion. The right wing Government had promised to undo changes to abortion legislation made by the previous left wing administration, but decided not to proceed after being told that passing such laws would be “suicidal in election year.” The Government is trying to make amends by preventing 16 and 17 year olds from having abortions without parental consent.
In sports news, Lewis Hamilton won the Formula 1 driver's World Championship for the second time. He needed only to finish second to is team-mate Nico Rosberg in the final race, but after qualifying second, Hamilton overtook Rosberg from the grid, and then led throughout the race except for pit stops. Rosberg suffered problems with his car and did well to finish at all, coming home 13th.
In technology news, an executive at a UK corporation recently got a virus on his computer, despite having the latest anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed. When the corporation’s IT staff failed to find any way that the computer could have been infected, they asked the executive if he had made any changes in his lifestyle; he said “Yes, I stopped smoking two weeks ago and switched to e-cigarettes.” It turned out that his Chinese e-cigarette had malware hard-coded into its charger.
And finally, a schoolboy in Salford was suspended from school because he was too successful at selling sweets and fizzy drinks to his classmates. 15 year old Tommie Rose, who is a big fan of Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice, built up a lucrative business buying sweets in bulk and selling them at a mark-up. He had made ₤14,000 in three years – which he intended to put towards his university fees – but the school said that his activities contravened their healthy eating policy. However, Tommie decided not to waste the 15 minutes of fame that his suspension brought him, and auctioned an autographed bottle of Lucozade on Ebay. The winning bid was just over ₤1 million (plus ₤3.20 postage); there are now several Lucozade bottles being sold on Ebay, autographed by students looking to pay university fees.
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