Not The BBC News: 10 May 2015

In the UK’s general election, the Conservatives have unexpectedly won a majority of seats, and will therefore form the next Parliament without needing any coalition partners. The primary concern for many Christians is that the current austerity policies are likely to continue, even though many think that the policies are already hitting the poor and needy too severely; there are stories of people being made homeless as a result of the “bedroom tax”; people with severe disabilities being denied the newly restricted disability benefits; and home care visits to the elderly being limited to an infeasibly short 15 minutes per day.

The Government’s wider agenda is also causing some concern. There have been several protests in the past year by staff and parents at Christian schools against the new OFSTED inspection rules instituted under Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, which seemed to discriminate against schools that didn’t teach children about same-sex marriage. And Morgan was accused of ‘railroading’ the closure of a Christian ‘free school’, giving them just two weeks’ notice of closure. But Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that Morgan will retain her post in his new Cabinet, which is effectively a seal of approval on her previous performance.

There is also a manifesto promise to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, for which the final authority will be the UK Supreme Court, not the European Court of Justice. However, since the controversial education rules were based on a set of so-called “British Values”, there are concerns that the new Bill of Rights might overly reflect these “British values.”

The controversy over two of the OFSTED inspections has also re-surfaced following a Freedom of Information request that revealed that the head of OFSTED ‘misled’ Parliament over the issue. The chief of OFSTED told MPs that parents’ complaints about “intrusive” questioning of children about same-sex relationships had been “thoroughly investigated”, but the FOI request revealed that not a single pupil, parent or staff member who had complained was interviewed about the issue. The Christian Institute called for the issue to be “revisited urgently” after the election.

In Nigeria, further details have emerged about the rescue of several hundred women from Boko Haram by Nigerian soldiers. The Boko Haram fighters not only murdered a group of women just before the rescue was completed, but also forced the women to shoot at the Nigerian soldiers; seven soldiers and twelve women were killed in these exchanges.
Boko Haram have also carried out an attack on a business college in north-west Nigeria, using a gunman and a suicide bomber. Six students were seriously injured by gunfire; dozens more injured themselves by jumping from windows to escape. The suicide bomber blew himself up in the car park.

In Vietnam, where religious practice is strictly controlled, the government has apparently loosened policy by promising a new Ministry for Religion, and inviting churches to take part. But a bishop of the indigenous church expressed concern that no developed country seemed to need a national committee to manage religious practice.

In Texas, a competition was set up, as a deliberate response to the Charlie Hebdo bombings in Paris, for cartoonists to draw the prophet Mohammed. Two gunmen, apparently from a Muslim group, attacked the event but were shot dead; one security officer was also slightly injured.
Meanwhile, in Niger where many Christian churches were burned by Muslims protesting at the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, Christian aid agencies are helping pastors and believers rebuild their churches and homes.

The legal decision about Asher’s bakery in Northern Ireland, originally scheduled for 7 May, has been put back to 19 May.

In technology news, a Birmingham University student has been jailed for hacking into staff computers and upgrading his exam results. He installed keylogging software to steal staff passwords, and then increased his mark on five final exams, including changing one from 57% to 73%. His offences carried a maximum sentence of two years; he was jailed for four months.

And finally, the requirement in America for registered sex offenders to live a certain distance away from all children has led to a Christian ministry setting up of a village for sex offenders in Florida. Called the City of Refuge, the 61 concrete bungalows were originally used by migrant workers. The offenders, whose offences range from statutory offences with under-age boyfriends or girlfriends to serious offences involving younger children, are vetted by the ministry before being accepted; they support each other through problems and some attend church or even join the choir.