Not The BBC News: Christmas 2014

This Christmas edition of Not The BBC News contains news that isn't true, but I wish it was.

In one state of India, the recently elected Hindu government has been trialling a novel version of the US “three strikes” law for those who harass or commit violence against other religions. After one offence (unless the offence is very serious), perpetrators receive a warning; after the third offence, they are taken to court with a recommendation that they receive the maximum sentence for that offence. But the innovation comes after the second offence; their victims are asked to decide what penalty their oppressors should receive, ranging from nothing to the full recommended sentence for that offence. Statistics show that Christian groups have shown remarkable forbearance. The most common request from Christians is for a community service sentence to be imposed instead of a jail sentence. But more unusual requests include requesting that the perpetrator be fined the maximum allowed by law, and then raising the money to pay the fine from the church community; freeing a perpetrator from all punishment and also giving him a large gift of money and possessions; and, in one case where an orphaned Hindu youth killed a Christian youth, the parents adopted the Hindu youth into their family. A spokesman for the local Christian community said, “We thank God for this opportunity to demonstrate the love that Christ has shown us to others.”

David Cameron has announced that the UK Government will be promoting a “conscience clause” as an amendment to the Equality Act. The clause will be similar to the one recently proposed in Northern Ireland, requiring ‘reasonable accommodation’ of religious or other beliefs. The proposal is being seen by critics as an olive branch to opponents of gay marriage before the General Election; while gay marriage legislation is not affected, the Equality Act has frequently been used against those who expressed their opposition to gay marriage, or even against those who have failed to demonstrate active support to gay marriage. Critics say that this will undermine equality, but supporters say that an Equality Act which lists ‘protected’ groups as more equal than others doesn’t support equality anyway, and quote Milton Friedman saying, “A society that puts equality above freedom gets neither.”

Also in Parliament, a Private Member’s Bill to lessen the severity of restrictions on welfare benefits has been passed with support from Labour, Liberal Democrat, and even some rebel Tory MPs. Under the new Bill, anyone whose benefits are sanctioned (i.e. withdrawn because they have failed to meet certain conditions) must be given a month’s notice that their benefits are to be withdrawn, rather than having it happen immediately. A Tory MP who supported the Bill said, “This Government is trying to modify the benefits system to help people be ready for employment. Any respectable employer gives employees at least a month’s notice with pay rather than firing them immediately.” The Bill also introduces an appeal system against benefit sanctions, and modifies the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2013 (which withdrew legal aid from most welfare benefit cases) to offer legal aid to a new online form-based appeal system. A spokesman for the Citizen’s Advice Bureau said, “We welcome this new system. The form is designed to be completed by paralegal staff in law firms, which will not only make sure that the appeals submitted are realistic and reasonably well drafted, but will also provide some employment, albeit low-paid, for the high number of law students who graduate every year only to find there are insufficient jobs available in the field.”

Following the success of the Ig Nobel prizes for daft research and the Darwin Awards for people who have accidentally killed themselves in creative ways, a group of UK bloggers have instituted the Pullover prize for bad journalism. The prizes celebrate all that is bad in truth, logic, and taste in journalism; winners get a sweater with arrows pointing in four directions, labelled “Truth”, “Logic”, “Taste”, and “Us”. The two big … umm … winners this year were the Daily Mail and the Independent. The Mail’s awards included the Bad Taste Photo Caption award for “ISIS chief executioner winning hearts with his rugged looks”. The Independent’s collection included the Foreign Political Bias award for an article at the height of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, just after the BBC had reported Palestinian accusations of Israeli violence but, unusually, had also reported Israeli accusations of Palestinians faking atrocities; the article called for a “return to balanced reporting by the BBC.” A spokesman for the bloggers said, “We had thought of making the prize a knitted hat rather than a pullover, but none of us could agree how big the hat should be to fit some of these journalists’ heads.”

A Christian IT programmer in the UK has created a program that automatically lobbies MPs for religious freedom. Users simply provide the email address of their MP and their own name and address; the program then creates email messages to MPs asking them to act on issues affecting religion in public life. The program uses various different phrases to make sure that MPs do not get several similarly worded emails. When asked how the program selects issues to lobby on, the programmer said, “All it does is monitors the website of the National Secular Society. If their website posts an issue that they are lobbying on, the program copies it, and changes the language around to lobby for the opposite outcome.”

And finally, a physicist has claimed that new theories of quantum physics contradict the widely accepted theory that Santa Claus could not possibly exist, because the speed he’d have to travel at and the huge weight of presents would cause him and his sleigh to burn up in the atmosphere in a fraction of a second. Quantum theory asserts that no-one can know both how fast a quantum object is travelling and also where it is, but claims that until the uncertainty is resolved, it could be travelling at immeasurable speeds. The physicist reasoned that, as long as Santa knows how fast he has to go, he can achieve whatever speed he likes as long as he doesn’t know exactly where he is. However, if the reindeer know where they are but not how fast they are going, then the sleigh can achieve quantum speeds to get around the world in the required time, and still land in the right places. However, this theory still doesn’t account for the 4,000 tonnes of mince pie or the 4 million litres of milk or whisky that Santa apparently consumes during his trip.

Not The BBC News: 22 December 2014

The latest diplomatic row with North Korea, centred around a film made by Sony Pictures, appears to be successfully obscuring a human rights tragedy unfolding in the country. The North Korean government is apparently restructuring its prison camp system, and subjecting prisoners to arbitrary relocations and executions in order to do so; a South Korean newspaper reports that prisoners are being moved one at a time, during the night, to avoid detection by satellites. An international human rights watchdog says that North Korea is “clearly implementing” a “policy of genocide to eliminate the camps”, especially Camp 15, the atrocities in which formed much of the evidence presented to a recent UN Commission of Inquiry report.

In Argentina, a court case filed by an animal rights organisation has succeeded in obtaining a judgment that an animal deserves limited human rights. The case concerned a shy orang-utan who the campaigners say is stressed and depressed, and want to be transferred from a zoo in Buenos Aires to a sanctuary in Brazil. They argued that the ape “has sufficient cognitive functions that it should not be treated as an object.” The court agreed that the ape deserved the rights of a “non-human person.” But the zoo’s head of biology said that the orang-utan’s perceived shyness was a normal part of orang-utan behaviour, and that the campaigners did not understand ape biology and were therefore mistaken in ascribing human emotions to it.

A city in the Philippines, on the popular tourist island of Bohol, declares its support for the Bible by requiring every motorbike-taxi in its island province to have a Scripture verse painted on the back. The official verse painter said, “Years ago people used to paint obscene messages and images on their tricycles, but now when you read the Word of God you can’t help but feel alive.” The law was passed 22 years ago, and city officials say that it has resulted in lower crime rates, stronger families, and a relatively peaceful city. Only 3000 such taxis are allowed and their verses are assigned by the city along with their taxi licences, so it is unlikely that any taxi will carry the verse 2 Kings 9:20, which reads “His driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi – he drives like a madman.”

The Yazidi community from Iraq which was threatened with near-extinction by Islamic State forces, has been speaking of the trauma it suffered. Perhaps the most shocking part of their story is not merely that many women and girls were taken and used as sex slaves, but the extent to which that practice was officially organised; Islamic State even produced a pamphlet with the title “Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves.” Women who have escaped or been ransomed talk of being sold into slavery – girls with blue eyes cost more – and if they were beaten or injured, they were simply re-sold once they had recovered. An estimated 3500 women and girls are still missing.

Four Egyptians Christians who had travelled to Libya for employment were kidnapped at the border when returning home in August; the kidnappers allowed the bus driver and his three Muslim passengers to continue. There has been no news of them since. The group that kidnapped them, Ansar al-Sharia, was declared a terrorist group by the United Nations in November.

In Indonesia, Muslim leaders are supporting the new Christian governor of the capital city and slamming Muslim hardliners for attempting to stir up unrest against him. One Islamic leader said, “The majority of Jakartans and Indonesians are accepting of the values of democracy. The Islamic Defenders Front … is only spreading hatred amongst religious followers and races.” The comment about ‘race’ is because the new governor is of Chinese extraction.

A topless Femen activist who deliberately desecrated a Parisian church last Christmas has been found guilty of “sexual exhibitionism” and given only a suspended one month prison sentence. She stood in front of the church altar (along with a posse of journalists and photographers) shouting “Christmas is cancelled” and holding two pieces of liver which she later described as “symbols of the aborted infant Jesus”, saying she “left the bloody holy fetus at the foot of the altar.” The act was condemned by the Mayor of Paris but not by any Government minister, which may explain why she did not face a more serious charge relating to anti-religious activities.

The leader of a Belfast pro-life group, which has been holding a vigil outside a Marie Stopes abortion clinic in the city for five years, was yesterday fined and given a restraining order. The head of the clinic claimed that she had been harassed by the pro-lifer’s comments, including “May God forgive you”, and “witchy laughter”.

There are some people who say that it’s best to die doing what you love, but congregants at Shiloh Baptist Church in Chicago were still shocked and devastated when their 60 year old pastor suffered a heart attack in the pulpit. He was singing Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” at the time. The three churches that he pastored decided to celebrate his life with a memorial concert.

A poll to find the greatest Christian rock guitarist of all time by Classic Christian Rock Zone has given the award to Phil Keaggy. The award was based on a survey that got more than 24,000 responses, along with judgments from journalists and other figures in the Christian rock music scene (though these received less weighting than the public vote). Keaggy has won the GMA Dove [US Christian music] Award for the Instrumental Album of the Year no less than seven times. Others in the top five were Rex Carroll of Whitecross; Tonny Palacios of Guardian; Kerry Livgren, formerly of Kansas; and Chris Impelliteri of the eponymous fast-metal band. U2’s The Edge came in 10th place; Stu G of Delirious came 58th; and the only woman (and oldest entrant, having peaked in popularity in the 1930s and 40s) in the list, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, came in 92nd.

In technology news, a 3D printer has been used for the first time to ‘email’ a spanner from Earth to space. Instructions for how to make a ratchet wrench (socket wrench) were emailed to an astronaut on the International Space Station, and a wrench was “printed”. The wrench will not be used; instead it will be brought back to Earth for tests.

And finally, a newly retired 61 year old Seattle man decided to make a difference when he realised that most of the city’s office blocks threw away toilet paper that had less than a quarter of a roll left at the end of the day. He asked janitors to collect the stubs instead of discarding them, and then he collected them and drove them to a local food bank, where they proved very popular. He has just retired as the Toilet Paper Man at the age of 76 after a bout of pneumonia, by which stage he was collecting from nearly a quarter of downtown Seattle, and delivering three truckloads of toilet rolls per fortnight. The food banks have promised to keep the service going with other drivers.

Not The BBC News: 19 December 2014

The UK Supreme Court has overturned a decision of the Scottish Court of Session regarding the conscience clause in the Abortion Act 1967. Two Roman Catholic midwives had argued that they should not have to supervise other nursing staff performing abortions, because the Abortion Act allows anyone not to “participate in” abortions for reasons of conscience. The Scottish appeal court had ruled in the midwives’ favour, but the Supreme Court ruled against them. The decision turned on the fact that the midwives’ duties did not require them to be present in the operating theatre and on the meaning of the word ‘participate’, which Baroness Hale said to her meant “hands-on involvement.” A spokesman from the National Secular Society welcomed the decision, saying that “had the case gone the other way it might have opened the door to the broadening of conscience clauses in many areas of life” which he claimed would be detrimental to those who don’t share religious views. But a Christian blogger who sometimes writes on legal issues said, “You only need a dictionary to realise that this case was wrongly decided. If Parliament had meant to restrict the conscience clause to hands-on involvement, it could have used the word ‘perform’, or ‘assist in performing’; if it intended a wide interpretation, what other word could it have used apart from ‘participate’?” And he added, “Imagine that a gun instructor has contracted to teach someone target shooting, and the trainee announces that he wishes to continue his training by shooting live humans, in a country where this is legal. If the instructor refused to supervise the trainee and assist him to kill people efficiently and effectively, would British law condemn his refusal just because he did not need to be present when the shots were fired? Because that is exactly the situation these midwives are being put in.”

The divorce rate in the UK reached 50% of all marriages in the 1980s and was predicted to keep rising. However, it has fallen in the past two decades to around 40% of marriages. The study that discovered this suggested three possible reasons, all connected with changing attitudes in society: first, the big change in the roles of married women between the early 1960s and 1980s caused a spike in divorces as couples who married the right person for the old roles discovered they were with the wrong person for the newer roles; secondly, the increased acceptability of living together before marriage allowed some ill-fated relationships to break up without ever getting to the altar; and thirdly, the increased acceptability of having children outside marriage reduced the number of shotgun weddings, which were never the most stable of relationships.

In a (perhaps inevitable) development of the “Christian bakers and gay marriage cakes” stories on both sides of the Atlantic, a US man has approached thirteen gay bakers asking them to bake a cake that said, “Gay Marriage Is Wrong”. All thirteen refused to do so; some accused him of being hateful merely for making the request. One baker even explained why the Christian bakers were wrong not to bake a pro-gay marriage cake because “you can’t pick and choose your customers” before declining to bake an anti-gay marriage cake just moments later.

A survey at Brent Cross shopping centre asked 5-12 year old children how much they knew about the Christmas story, using multiple choice questions. 20% of those asked thought that Jesus was a striker for Chelsea football club; 25% thought that Christmas Day was Santa’s birthday; 25% thought that the three wise men found Jesus’ birthplace using Google Maps; 10% thought Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was present in the stable when Jesus was born; and 15% thought that the gifts that the wise men brought were a wand, wings and a tiara. The most popular wrong answers concerned the location of Jesus’ birth; 30% thought he was born in a church and 35% argued he was born at the South Pole. Shopping centre staff have promised to try to increase children’s knowledge of the Nativity story, so that they enjoy the Christmas period more.

A new reality TV series in the USA called “Eight Minutes” will follow members of a California church who work with police to try to help prostitutes and escorts, some of whom are victims of human trafficking, leave their life of vice. Volunteers from the Orange County church, whose pastor is a former vice cop, go undercover to talk to the prostitutes; each intervention is limited to eight minutes for safety. The series will look at the dangers, precautions and training undergone by the church volunteers, some of whom are ex-prostitutes. It will also follow some of those who leave prostitution as they try to re-integrate into society.

In film news, Sony has come in for further criticism after deciding not to release the film “The Interview” following threats from North Korea, whose leader is mocked in the film. The criticisms centre around Sony’s moral cowardice, but since the North Koreans had threatened violent attacks on cinemas showing the film, Sony would probably have come in for equal criticism if it had distributed the film. The critics also ignore how modern technology can avoid this type of terrorist threat; the film will now presumably go straight to DVD or to Netflix, and will effectively become one of the most heavily advertised films ever in those formats.

In technology news, a church in Hackney has teamed up with some university researchers to explore “digital empathy”. It uses tablets and digital projectors to create a digital advent window; a “wi-fi candle”, where you type in your prayer into a tablet, and not only does the prayer and an image of the candle display on the tablet but the prayer is also beamed onto a stone circle on the church floor; and even a “holy water font” where you can type your worries into another tablet, then see them displayed in the red-coloured holy water, and if you touch the water the words will apparently be flushed away. The priest said “Half our congregation are under 45 and we hope they’ll appreciate this”; the researchers said they chose a church because it’s a place where people often share their deep feelings.

And finally, a New Zealand man who went suddenly blind when home-brewed vodka reacted with his diabetes medication had his sight saved after being treated with Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. When he went to hospital he was rushed to the operating theatre, and the doctors suspected formaldehyde poisoning from methanol in the vodka. The standard cure for methanol is ethanol (pure alcohol), but the hospital didn’t have enough medical ethanol, so the Johnnie Walker was purchased and dripped gradually into his stomach. He woke up after five days with his sight fully restored.

Not The BBC News: 13 December 2014

A US pastor faces a possible jail sentence for “crimes against humanity” because he strongly opposed homosexual rights. This case is exceptional for two reasons. Firstly, Pastor Scott Lively’s activism took place overseas – in Uganda – where a local gay activist group claim the pastor’s speeches and sermons advised Ugandan leaders not to follow the liberal West’s teaching on homosexuality, and that by saying this he incited murder and persecution of homosexuals in that country. The complaints were picked up by a US group which sued Lively in the US under the controversial Alien Tort Act. Secondly, Lively asked a judge to throw the case out on the grounds that he did nothing to break either US or Ugandan law; but the judge not only refused to do so, but showed marked partiality by blaming Lively’s speeches for everything from isolated incidents of police brutality against homosexuals in Uganda to the introduction of a controversial anti-homosexual bill in the Ugandan Parliament (which failed to pass). A recent appeal by Lively against that decision was also denied as the appeal judges apparently decided the issues involved were important to the future of the Alien Tort Act.

India elected a Hindu government 100 days ago, and since there have been 600 recorded instances of anti-Christian harassment or violence in the country. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, Hindu radicals have declared that they intend to make the state a Christian-free zone. In one village about 22 miles from the state capital, a church was forcibly converted into a Hindu temple and three Christian families were forced to re-convert to Hinduism (though they were instructed to say they had re-converted voluntarily, in order to avoid breaking India’s laws on religious freedom). Another pastor had to call the police when 300 Hindu radicals surrounded his church (and church members) planning to build an altar inside to “re-convert” it; the mob only dispersed when the police threatened to shoot, and church attendance has now dropped significantly. There are also reports of government schemes and subsidies being denied to Christians. Ominously, the leader of one Hindu activist group has promised to use December 25 as a day for re-converting Christians to Hinduism.

I don’t usually report on Christian leaders or prominent figures who “fall into sin”, because there seems little for my readers to gain from reading a litany of their crimes. But I will make an exception in the case of an ex-Christian radio host, camp counsellor and missions volunteer in Michigan who was sentenced to 40 years in jail for sexual abuse of a boy and child pornography – because the judge was the father of internationally renowned Christian speaker Rob Bell. “I’m having a lot of trouble trying to reconcile the two people in the orange jumpsuit before me,” said Judge Robert Holmes Bell. “There’s the Christian man with a reputation as a value-driven individual. But there is something else going in that is troubling … filthy … obscene. I don’t get where you went off.” Bell asked the convicted man to write to him at least once per year. “Don’t whitewash me,” he said, “I want to know what books you’re reading and what you’re doing to help people. [Now that your former respectable life has slipped away], peel back layers of your own heart and your own soul.”

The saga of the anti-abortion posters in Blackfriars continues. The Independent newspaper, which seems to be acting as a mouthpiece for the abortion organisations, printed a call for a “buffer zone” around the clinic where anti-abortion protesters could not “harass” anyone – in other words, to make anti-abortion protests illegal in a localised area. Such buffer zones have been introduced by some left-wing state legislatures in the USA. Ann Furedi, the chairwoman of abortion providers BPAS, was interviewed about the situation in two or three forums, but lost her cool in one of them, and alleged that the protesters were “harassing” people (such allegations explain why the protesters video record most encounters) and are also “handing out leaflets to children” (which is false). And on one day, pro-choice protesters turned up and blocked the view of one of the biggest images of abortion with their own banner, and there was an attempt to destroy one of the pro-lifers’ signs.

A Christian army chaplain in the USA was disciplined for speaking about his Christian faith during suicide prevention training, despite the fact that Army regulations actually encourage chaplains to discuss spiritual matters during such training. The disciplinary letter alleged that the chaplain had breached Equal Opportunity policy by focusing on a particular religion. The colonel who issued the letter has since acknowledged that the chaplain did not in fact break Equal Opportunity policy, but has so far refused to cancel the letter.

A pro-choice activist has objected in the online left-wing magazine Slate to a recent technique to reverse chemical abortions. She questions both the usefulness and safety of a progesterone pill which can be taken by a woman who embarks on a chemical abortion and then regrets it. Chemical abortions require taking two pills a couple of days apart, and if progesterone is taken after taking the first pill, it is likely to reverse the abortion. The procedure has only been available for two years but current data indicates that the reversal is safe for the mother – which is unsurprising given that progesterone is a naturally occurring hormone. The complaint about its usefulness is based on the hypothesis that the first pill in a chemical abortion has little real effect -- this contradicts other pro-choice literature and so is of doubtful validity.

A US atheist group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, started legal action alleging discrimination against a diner in North Carolina which offered a 15% discount to anyone who said grace before their meal. The lawsuit was recently mocked by “The Daily Show”, which takes a satirical look at current affairs. The show interviewed the president of the FFRF and put it to him that atheists could easily claim the discount by pretending to pray. “That would make the person a hypocrite atheist,” the president replied. “What’s going to happen to a hypocrite atheist?” asked the interviewer, “you’re going to go to not Hell?” The discount has now been withdrawn due to the lawsuit.

The first critics’ reviews of Ridley Scott’s new film “Exodus: Gods and Kings” starring Christian Bale are now out, and they are unfavourable. The film had already been criticised for making the lead characters white and the bad guys black; it has now been criticised for not being remotely faithful to Scripture; for failing to target any other (non-religious) audience group successfully; and for trying to induce a sense of seriousness by filming everything on a grand scale. Only the battle scenes are praised. A reviewer from the (online) Christian Post said, “I desperately wanted to be kind to the film, but I wouldn’t pay to see it.”

And finally, a woman from Sierra Leone was called as a witness in a criminal case in London – and she was in the dock for an hour before the court realised she wasn’t speaking English. She was regularly asked to repeat herself slowly, but eventually the clerk of the court, who was also from Sierra Leone, informed that judge that she was speaking a native creole language that mixes some English words with local words. The clerk was hurriedly sworn in as an interpreter, and a new clerk was found – only for the witness to answer “I can’t remember” to most of the questions she was asked.

Not The BBC News: 12 December 2014

The Northern Ireland Assembly has passed an anti-human trafficking bill that is effectively the strongest anti-slavery legislation passed in the UK in 200 years. The law introduces independent guardians for trafficked children; a statutory support service for victims; and a stay of prosecution on victims for all but the most serious of crimes committed while they were being exploited. The same Bill criminalises the purchase of sex; only Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Canada currently do this. In Sweden the legal change, coupled with support services for ex-prostitutes similar to the ones mandated by the Northern Irish law, has been very effective at reducing prostitution (and human trafficking for prostitution).

Also in Northern Ireland, the Assembly is holding a consultation on whether to weaken the Province’s current total ban on abortion in cases of sexual crime or fatal foetal abnormality. However, a Government-funded quango has decided that a consultation isn’t enough, and has launched legal action to try to force the Assembly to legalise abortion on human rights grounds. And the Assembly’s private member’s Bill to amend equality legislation with a conscience clause has been attacked by Sinn Fein, which claims the clause will “undermine equality” – even though Sinn Fein’s own commitment to equality has been severely undermined by recent revelations of how it has deliberately used equality law as a weapon against its enemies.

The World Health Organisation has announced that deaths from malaria have halved in the 21st century compared with the years beforehand. This is apparently due to preventative measures (whereas 3% of those affected had access to mosquito nets in 2004, 50% do now); increased diagnostic testing; and better access to medicines.

A former sex worker who became a Catholic priest in Quebec entered politics in 2006. He proved to be a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-euthanasia candidate, and publicly attacked Catholic leaders who supported traditional doctrine on those subjects. He was told to choose between being a priest or a politician in 2008; he chose to return to the priesthood, but was removed as a catechist (official teacher of doctrine) in 2010. He blamed this latter demotion on a pro-life website, saying they had described him as “pro-abortion” when he was in fact “pro-choice,” and sued them for half a million dollars. Sadly this story has no winners; four years after the suit was launched, the priest died of lung cancer, and the website is now fundraising to meet their legal bill of $260,000.

A heterosexual couple from London have announced they are to pursue legal action against the Government to allow them to enter a civil partnership. Their argument for not getting married is that marriage has “sexist trappings.” While both Christian groups and the majority of the public opposed heterosexual civil partnerships, the Government is on shaky ground because of equality law; its main reasons for disallowing such partnerships is not the principle but the huge cost, with the cost in public sector pension rights alone being estimated at ₤3-₤4 billion.

President Obama quoted the Bible in support of his immigration reforms in this week. Unfortunately, he combined an accurate quote (“take the log out of your own eye”) with a common English proverb (“don’t throw stones in glass houses”). He has previously correctly quoted Bible verses about “welcoming the stranger among us” when discussing the subject of immigration.

At the State Capitol building in Florida, visitors can see a nativity scene, Christmas trees, a Hannukah menorah – and a model of an angel falling into a lake of fire put up by a Satanist group. The group was banned from creating a display last year on the grounds that it would be “grossly offensive” but threatened to sue if they were banned again this year. The Capitol also features presentations from the secular Freedom From Religion foundation and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In technology news, watches powered by human kinetic energy have been available for some time, but an industrial designer from Jerusalem has gone one step further by creating jewellery that obtains power from the body’s autonomic processes. One uses sharp gold connectors to harvest energy from the electrical signals sent along the spinal cord; another includes a tiny hydro-turbine to collect energy from flowing blood; and the last derives energy from blinking. The jewellery is intended as a proof of concept – and a philosophical talking point -- rather than for sale, and some doubt whether it can generate enough power to do anything useful. However, there is a current [no pun intended] research project from two American and one Chinese universities to develop a pacemaker that obtains its power from the human heartbeat, thus avoiding the need to change the battery every 6-10 years.

And finally, an academic study in New Zealand has researched a question which has baffled many people: why are the magazines in doctor’s waiting rooms always out of date and boring? The researchers placed a selection of magazines in 87 waiting rooms and planned to monitor the situation for two months. However, the study was terminated after 31 days when it became clear that theft by patients was the problem. “Gossipy magazines are much more likely to disappear than non-gossipy ones,” the lead author said. The practices lost an average of 41 magazines in the month; if this is multiplied by the average cost of a magazine and the number of NHS surgeries in the UK, the total value comes to more than ₤12 million.

Not The BBC News: 11 December 2014

A survey by the Social Integration Commission of people’s friendship networks in modern Britain has found that there are only two venues where people are likely to mix with folk from different social classes and age groups: churches and sporting venues. Churches were better at mixing people of different classes, and sporting events at mixing ages. Churches also scored comparatively highly on mixing people with different ethnic backgrounds, unlike sporting events. The research is being seen by some as evidence that official education and policy on “multiculturalism” is having little practical effect.

A high-profile Egyptian journalist who was imprisoned after seeking to change his religion on his official ID card from “Muslim” to “Christian” has gone on hunger strike to protest against abuse by prison guards. Egyptian law forbids official changes of religion, but the journalist challenged the law. Shortly after he started reporting on Muslim attacks on the Coptic Christian community in the country, he was arrested on a charge of “sectarian strife”; his lawyer says the charges against him are “trumped up and unproven” and has accused the judge who appears unwilling to set a date for an appeal hearing of being “prejudiced.”

There have been numerous instances in recent years of church groups or political groups travelling to other countries to apologise for the behaviour of their forbears towards that country. Such actions are sometimes criticised because the apologisers have little or no connection with those who committed the atrocities, through ancestry or through being a current government decision maker; because most of the apologisers seem to be from the countries who formed the Allies in the World Wars; and because some people think that it is better to forget the past than to dwell on bygone events. However, recently an apology and message of peace was given by the great-great-grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II (who declared World War 1) at a carol concert held at Crystal Palace’s football ground. Prince Philip Kiril, a Lutheran minister, asked forgiveness for his ancestor’s actions. Crystal Palace were especially badly affected by the war; they lost a number of their players in what became known as the “football battalion”, and the war also caused them to move away from their original ground close to the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, never to return.

A “nonhuman rights group” brought a legal case in New York arguing that a chimpanzee with “similar characteristics to humans” deserved basic rights, including being freed from captivity by its owner. The appeal court disagreed, saying that chimpanzees do not deserve rights because they “cannot bear any legal duties.” The group plans to continue to appeal.

Three American filmmakers have raised $2.1 million through crowdfunding to make a film about Kermit Gosnell, who was imprisoned last year for a series of abuses of practice at his Philadelphia abortion clinic, including murdering babies who were accidentally born alive. The proposed subtitles for the film are “America’s Biggest Serial Killer” and “The Doctor Is Sin”. The same crowdfunding approach was used for a film called “FrackNation”, which was a rebuttal to an anti-fracking film, and which was made successfully and is now available on Netflix. However, the Gosnell fundraiser had to be run through crowdfunding site Indiegogo rather than the usual Kickstarter site because Kickstarter made too many demands for the language of the advertisement to be toned down or changed.

In sport, Craig Gordon, the goalkeeper for Celtic, set an unusual record last week. One of Celtic’s players was injured, but in defiance of convention the opposition continued to play and to press for a goal. When the ball finally reached Gordon, he threw it away in frustration at the other team’s behaviour – and threw it over the stand and out of the ground.

And finally, there may have been a lot of bad press about the rich, capitalists and Russians this year, but it’s possible to be all three and still to show compassion. James Watson, joint holder of the Nobel Prize for Physics for discovery of the DNA helix, was forced to auction his Nobel Prize medal in order to raise money, after a series of controversial comments caused his academic career to stumble. The medal was bought for $4.1 million by Alisha Usmanov, the owner of Arsenal FC – who then promptly gave the medal back to Watson. “I honour him because of the work he did on trying to cure cancer,” said Usmanov, “which my father died of.”

Not The BBC News: 10 December 2014

The political fall-out over the actions of the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland, and the recent revelations that Sinn Fein is targeting its ‘enemies’ with complaints about them breaking equality law, has led to the Northern Ireland Assembly starting a consultation over a possible ‘conscience’ clause for businesses in the Province. The Bill would amend equality law to allow for ‘reasonable accommodation’ of religious and other beliefs in a limited set of circumstances. The Bill is similar in principle to the “Hobby Lobby” conscience legislation passed in the USA by the Supreme Court last year.

A judge in the UK has ruled that, for the purposes of criminal law, foetuses are not persons until they are born. The case related to damage suffered in the womb due to alcohol poisoning, and was brought under the Offences Against The Person Act 1861. The same judge had previously found someone guilty of manslaughter of a new-born baby due to injuries the baby suffered while in the womb, because the baby died after birth, and UK law allows pre-existing injuries that cause death to be included in prosecutions. It isn’t clear how the view that foetuses are not persons until they are born matches up to the principles underlying the Abortion Act 1967, which deem a foetus worthy of human rights once it is sufficiently developed to survive outside the womb.

A South African pastor and his teenage children, who were working for an education organisation in Afghanistan, have been killed after the Taliban launched a three hour attack on the compound believing that it was a secret missionary base. Meanwhile, a missionary couple in the Philippines who woke up one night to discover a masked gunman in their bedroom have told of their survival. The gunman had taken the local pastor hostage and had shot him in the foot, but when the couple began to pray loudly, the gunman became highly uncomfortable. The pastor ended up having a hand to hand struggle with the gunman and eventually disarmed him, but not before several bullets were fire, one of which hit the missionary man in the arm. However, neither of the two bullet wounds is considered serious.

When discussing family planning and abortion, one of the “elephant in the room” subjects – often significant but rarely discussed – is the (usually unspoken) pressure on women to delay or avoid motherhood for the sake of their career. Now two big Silicon Valley companies – Facebook and Apple—have decided to support women who want to delay motherhood by paying for them to have their eggs extracted and frozen for later use. A spokeswoman for women’s rights has welcomed the “freedom from the biological clock” that egg freezing provides. Most Christian and pro-life groups have yet to comment, although there has been some disquiet about the idea that companies can ‘engineer’ something that should be a personal choice.

It has been reported that when Angelina Jolie was making the film “Unbroken”, about the life of Olympic athlete, POW and Christian speaker Louis Zamperini, there came a moment when she needed sunlight to complete a particular scene, and a storm was in progress. Jolie said “OK, let’s do what Louis would do,” and dropped to her knees and prayed for a miracle in front of cast and crew. The sun came out, along with a rainbow; when she finished filming and said ‘Cut’, it began to rain again. Jolie became very close friends with Zamperini, who died in July this year at the age of 97; the story above comes from Zamperini’s daughter.

In technology news, Sony has been the most recent victim of a computer hack where passwords for its services, and personal phone numbers for some celebrities, were stolen. However, this incident differs from other recent hacking incidents for two reasons. Firstly, there is a rumour that the hack was perpetrated by the security services of North Korea in revenge for a recent film that mocked the country. And secondly, it transpires that, despite Sony being targeted before, they stored customers’ passwords in an unencrypted file called “password” -- a degree of negligence that may leave them open to legal claims.

And finally. a newspaper survey of Christmas cards sent by UK councils found that only one council in the whole of the UK – Banbridge in Northern Ireland -- is sending a card that mentions the birth of Christ. Of 182 councils who responded to the survey, 28% are not sending cards at all due to Government cutbacks; 56% are sending cards that mention Christmas; and 16% are sending cards with no mention of Christmas. It is hoped that the designs on the cards will improve on last year’s (unofficial) worst council Christmas card, from Corby council, which showed a snow-covered road with the council offices on one side and some bus shelters on the other. However, at least none of them have suffered the embarrassment of Clinton Cards who marketed and then hurriedly withdrew a card with “10 reasons why Santa must live on a council estate”; the reasons included “He has a serial record for breaking and entering”; “he only works once a year”; and “he gets lots of letters from people saying he owes them things.”

Not The BBC News: 5 December 2014

The anti-abortion protests outside the new abortion clinic in Blackfriars have taken on an increasingly high profile, with both the Guardian and the Independent covering the issue. The newspapers covered different incidents, but in neither case did they talk to the protesters directly. The Guardian published the views of Ann Furedi, the head of abortion providers BPAS, ahead of a planned debate between herself and the protesters, but gave no space to the protesters’ views. The Independent covered a conversation between a pregnant woman and a pro-life protester which, in their view, showed clearly why the protesters were wrong. The Independent claimed they left an answerphone message asking the protesters to comment, but the message gave no named contact and the telephone number provided went to the Independent’s IT department.

A Christian couple in Washington State have had their newborn twins and toddler taken away by social services after one of the babies developed eczema. The couple are somewhat unusual in that they trust God so completely that they seem to want no State involvement in their family at all: they married ‘in the sight of God’ but not legally; they refused all ante-natal scans so did not know they were having twins until the moment of birth; and they refused to take the children to hospital for check-ups after the home birth. The parents badly want their children to be returned to them.

An unmarried heterosexual couple in the UK have started legal proceedings to force the Government to introduce civil partnerships for opposite-sex couples. The Government has previously rejected this idea in the grounds of cost – the cost in pension rights alone is estimated at ₤3-₤4 billion. It also proved unpopular with the public in the Government’s consultation on the issue.

A church in a suburb of New Delhi was burned down this week, and Christians are lobbying for a police investigation. There are reports that remains gathered from the 13 year old building smell of fuel, but police have so far made no comment. Delhi’s Archbishop has asked the Indian government to order an investigation.

The Catholic Church in Northern Ireland has “regretfully” ended its association with a church-founded adoption service, after a judge ruled that they had to accept applications from unmarried and same-sex couples. The Democratic Unionist Party has said that this case shows the need for legislation to include a conscience clause for religious groups.

A church in Houston, Texas has been heavily criticised for refusing to bury a former parishioner, on the grounds that she had not paid her tithe to the church for several years, and so her membership had lapsed. Olivia Blair joined the church 50 years ago, but fell ill 10 years ago; spent the last 2 years in nursing homes and hospitals; and was in a coma for her last few months. When the pastor was contacted by a Christian watchdog group, he apparently said “If the family cared so much, why didn’t they at least send a dollar a week to maintain her membership?” He also refused to conduct the funeral even if the watchdog group paid for it.

In sport, some new statistical records have been set recently. Lionel Messi broke the record for the most goals ever in the UEFA Champions League, with his 74th. Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City created a new record for the most goal attempts in a single Premier League match – 51 – but perhaps the fact that fewer than 10% of them were scored (QPR won 3-2) explains why both teams are near the bottom of the league table. And in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers set an unwanted record when losing 16-3 to the Seattle Seahawks; the player who caught the most passes from the 49ers’ quarterback was on the other team (cornerback Richard Sherman, who caught two interceptions). The 49ers owner apologised to fans after the game.

In technology news, a sign of the rapid growth of technology comes from YouTube and its view counter. In the year 2000, many computers had to be reprogrammed because they were using two digits to represent the year instead of four. When YouTube designed its system, it decided to use a 32 bit number to count the number of times a video was viewed, as it couldn’t imagine that any video would ever be viewed more than 2,147 million times. But recently the original “Gangnam Style” video by Psy passed that total, and has now reached 2,155 million views. YouTube had to reprogram their system to use a 64-bit number for the counter, with a new limit of roughly 9 quintillion.

And finally, the Guardian has reported on an ingenious anti-human trafficking initiative in operation in London – the police take a nun with them. The Congregation of Adoratrices, set up in 1856 to minister amongst prostitutes, supplies nuns to go with the police on brothel raids. Because trafficked women have often been taught to distrust the police, the nuns are more easily able to extract information about their captors within the “golden hour” which might lead to their arrest. The nuns also organise safe house accommodation for the women; treat them with tender loving care; and are sometimes able to use their church contacts to resettle the women in their home countries.