Islamic State fighters have abducted a large number of people, many of whom are Christian, from the Syrian town of al-Qaryatain, which they have recently captured. Many Christians had fled there after their own towns were captured.
The Pope has announced that divorced Catholics who re-marry are not to be excommunicated from the church. He said, “The Church knows well that these situations contradict the Christian Sacrament” but also insisted that excommunication was wrong. He said, “How can we recommend these parents do everything to educate their children in the Christian life, giving example of a committed and practiced faith, if we distance them from community life?”
The UK TV programme “Songs of Praise” has filmed an episode inside the makeshift church in the Calais migrant camp, and plans to broadcast it on Sunday August 16. The priest and congregation are mostly Ethiopian or Eritrean. However, the priest has withdrawn permission for him to appear in the episode, as have the congregation, for fear that the episode will be seen by the governments they have fled from and lead to repercussions for their families.
Another Pentecostal snake handler has died after receiving a venomous snake bite. Snake-handling is practised amongst a small group of churches, most of which are in the Appalachian mountains in the USA, who believe that the they should regularly demonstrate the truth of the verse at the end of Mark’s gospel that says, “they shall pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it shall not hurt them.” The Kentucky coal miner who was bitten by a rattlesnake refused treatment and died four hours later. Reports say that he had other health conditions too, and that he is the second person to die of a snake-bite in the congregation this year.
A Christian street preacher has appeared in court in Northern Ireland for making strongly anti-Islamic comments in a public sermon. But an atheist blogger has written, “He did not ‘incite hatred or encourage violence against any Muslim’, he expressed his view about Islam … Freedom of speech isn’t only for polite persons of mild disposition airing their views within Government-policed parameters.”
A young man who is a worship leader and singer at the Hillsong church in New York City has announced that he is gay, and he plans to marry his boyfriend. The announcement was made some months ago, but Hillsong only responded publicly after the announcement went viral on social media. Senior pastor Brian Houston wrote that gays are welcome to attend, worship and "participate as a congregation member" at Hillsong churches. However, Houston added that gay worshippers cannot "take an active leadership role", and that he believed the young man in question had not been involved in worship leading since his announcement.
The new host of flagship US TV programme the Late Show, comedian Stephen Colbert, is an active Christian who teaches (adult) Sunday School in his church. Colbert says “If Jesus doesn’t have a sense of humour, I’m in huge trouble”, but refuses to participate in comedy that he considers blasphemous. He decided to become a comedian because, “humour is an antidote to fear and a sign of joy.”
In sport, England have defeated Australia to win back the Ashes trophy. The series has swung spectacularly, with Australia scoring record high Test batting scores in the second test (they won by over 400 runs) and record low scores in the fourth (their first innings score was 60). One wag wrote a spoof advertisement after the fourth test for “Australian Cricket Bats. Hardly Used!”
In technology news, a pair of US computer hackers have discovered how to reduce the effectiveness of a Wifi-enabled rifle. The gun uses software to improve aiming, and also uses Wifi to allow the view seen through the targeting scope to be streamed to a nearby phone. The hackers found they were able to cause the gun to miss its target by providing fake data about wind conditions or the weight of the bullet; disable the computer; and turn off or permanently change settings on the scope. They emphasised, however, that they cannot hack the act of pulling the trigger.
And finally, a 20 year old man in Texas who appeared in court on a charge of punching his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend was given an unusual choice of sentence by the judge: either marry your girlfriend within 30 days and copy out some Bible verses, or serve 15 days in jail. His 19 year old girlfriend, who was in court when the order was announced, said she “went very red” but agreed to marry. The man was also ordered to undergo counselling.
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