Boko Haram has released around 200 hostages in north-eastern Nigeria. No reason was given; the most likely explanation is that after they have mounted several major campaigns and captured whole towns recently, they have more hostages than they can cope with.
In the neighbouring country of Niger, which is a former French colony and is 98% Muslim, there has been anti-Christian rioting in response to the cartoons published by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. A police station was attacked, nearly every church in the capital city of Niamey has been burned or looted, and schools, orphanages and homes of Christians have been attacked. Five people have died in the violence since Friday and 170 are reported injured. However, Christians have continued to meet to worship in homes; at one prayer meeting just after the attacks, so many people wanted to share stories of God’s faithfulness during the attacks – even while stones were still being thrown on the roof -- that some were asked to wait until Sunday. Prayers are requested as some Christian homes have been marked to facilitate further attacks.
There has been continuing persecution of Egyptian Christians. In the past week, a Christian man was shot dead, possibly because he refused to drop charges against local Islamic militants for the murder of four Christians including his cousin, by relatives of one of the accused; and 20 Egyptian Christian men working in Sirte, Libya to escape persecution and discrimination in their own country have been kidnapped by Libyan militants who have affiliated themselves with Islamic State. A Libyan Christian family in Sirte were also attacked in their flat on Dec 23rd; both parents were killed, and the oldest daughter was abducted and found dead on Christmas Day.
Following the legalisation of gay marriage in several European countries without taking a national referendum on the issue, a pro-family group in Slovakia has gathered enough signatures to force the President to hold a referendum. Slovakia, which is 62% Roman Catholic, already defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but the referendum aims to enshrine the definition in the country’s constitution. The referendum will take place on February 7.
Following the ongoing controversy over OFSTED trying to judge schools according to how they teach newly defined “British Values”, and claiming that Christian schools do so inadequately because of their Christian ethos, there are major concerns that the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill (currently before Parliament) will have a similar effect in universities. The Bill will require universities and other bodies to “take seriously their responsibility to exclude those promoting extremist views that support or are conducive to terrorism”, where extremism is defined as “being opposed to fundamental British Values” and the values to be promoted include “respect for others, with particular regard to those characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010”. It is therefore possible that traditional Christian views – particularly on gay marriage -- could be labelled as “extremist” under this Bill. The Bill’s guidance on how universities should implement this requirement is vague, but it is possible that Christian Unions and other student societies could be required to submit names of speakers and their presentations weeks in advance for vetting.
A documentary has been released at the Sundance Film Festival that accuses the Scientology church/cult of major physical and emotional abuse. Based on the testimony of eight former members, including the former second-highest-ranking member of the organisation, it alleges that some members were subjected to hard labour and others were tortured in a prison known as “the hole”; a pregnant woman was forced to do arduous labour and then had her baby daughter taken from her (she and her daughter later escaped); the cult’s leader has physically abused several members; and those who left the organisation have been harassed and their families forced to cut off contact with them. The film also alleges that the church leader insisted that Tom Cruise should split from Nicole Kidman because Kidman’s father is a psychologist, which is anathema to the leader; and suggests that Cruise is so close to the leader that he must be aware of the abuses.
In legal news, a misspelling by a single letter has cost Companies House, the Government registrar of companies, ₤9 million. A company called Taylor & Son Ltd had gone bust, but Companies House mistakenly recorded that Taylor & Sons Ltd, a long-established and successful Welsh engineering firm, had liquidated. By the time the mistake was corrected, Companies House had sold the false information to credit reference agencies, and Taylor & Sons lost all its 3000 suppliers and its credit facilities within three weeks, causing it to collapse into administration. After a four year legal battle, the High Court has found Companies House liable for damages which are estimated at ₤8.8 million, plus costs.
And finally, a Christian labourer at a coal mine is West Virginia refused to participate in a new “clocking in” scheme that used biometric hand-scanning, because he believed the technology was connected to the Mark of the Beast, and so he had religious objections to it. The company that sold the scanner wrote to him and pointed out that the Mark of the Beast described in Revelation only appeared on people’s right hands and foreheads, and suggested that anyone who feared the Mark should use the scanner with their left hand. However, he still refused, and claims he was therefore forced to retire. This week, a jury awarded him $150,000 in compensation, although it’s not clear whether they thought his objections were valid, or merely decided the coal mining company was inconsistent because it allowed two workers with missing fingers to be clocked in by a different method. The company is expected to appeal.
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