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.
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