One of the more controversial policies introduced by the previous Coalition government in the UK, and continued by the current Conservative government, concerns the new system for rating whether people will get disability benefit, or are deemed fit for work. It recently emerged that, over a three year period, more than 2000 British people deemed fit for work died less than six weeks after their assessment. Some had even appealed unsuccessfully against the decision.
Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn has proposed introducing women-only carriages on British trains, if he wins a position of authority in the next Government. Such a policy already exists in India. Fellow candidate Yvette Cooper has strongly criticised Corbyn’s suggestion, saying that women should not have to “hide themselves away.”
Two South Sudanese pastors who were arrested in December after going to preach in a church in (largely Muslim) Sudan have been released. They faced charges of espionage and waging war against the State, but were released after an international outcry. They were prevented from boarding an aeroplane under the orders of the Sudan’s security services, but somehow managed to leave the country by another route, and are now back in their country’s capital, Juba.
An Egyptian Christian who was arrested for handing out Bibles in a Cairo shopping mall has had his detention extended, and faces charges of “inciting sectarian strife”, “harming national unity” and “insulting religion”. A journalist said, “They use pre-trial detention as a punishment. There is no reason for his detention.”
In Pakistan, a young woman who converted from Islam to Christianity was threatened with death by her family. She and her young Christian husband fled to a town 37 miles away, but were found, abducted, beaten up and shot; her husband was killed and she was severely injured, with two bullets in her abdomen. After the incident, Muslim mobs chanting anti-Christian slogans surrounded the hospital where she was being treated and the police station, and have also threatened her attorney unless she drops the case.
In Auburn, Alabama, the Freedom from Religion Foundation is demanding the resignation of the University chaplain, Chette Williams, because he has initiated a revival in the university’s gridiron team; more than 50 players have been baptised in the past 15 years. Neither Williams not the university have responded to the demands.
A new Christian film has been hailed by reviewers for being “actually quite good.” The film “Captive” is a crime drama, based on a true story of a violent escaped prisoner (played by David Oyelowo, whom played Martin Luther King in “Selma”) who takes a drug addict hostage in her own home. It has been praised for examining the complexities of the feelings of the two main protagonists as well as for covering the Christian content in a natural and unforced way.
In technology news, further details have emerged from the data from the Ashley Madison affair-seeking website that was leaked by hackers. A staff member has claimed she was asked to create so many fake profiles of female members of the website that she suffered from repetitive strain injury, and analysis of active accounts (i.e. those who ever checked their e-mail inbox, suggesting they were actually interested in an affair) shows a massive preponderance of men active on the site over women; there were around 20 million active profiles for men, but fewer than 1,500 for women. Other evidence suggested that around 12,000 women had visited the site in the past, but had paid to have their data deleted; their data had not been removed from the database.
And finally, a formerly homeless man in Johannesburg has found a (literally) novel way to make money: he sells used books to passing motorists, but only after he’s read them first. Philani Dladla gives his customers a book review, and sells them at prices ranging from one dollar for books he dislikes to six dollars for his favourites. He credits motivational books with breaking his drug habit, and uses the money to buy food for other homeless people. He has also started a “Pavement Bookworm Book Readers Club” in a local park where children can come and read books until their parents get home from work.
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