Not The BBC News: 19 September 2015

In Tyler, Texas, a local Muslim man walked into a Baptist church last Sunday, armed and wearing camouflage gear, and started ranting about "how his god had authorized him to take lives" and that it was okay for him to kill "infidels." The pastor, who is a former parole officer, got between the man and the door, asked him to calm down and offered him a prayer and cool drink. When the man was eventually captured, he left a note thanking the church for their kindness.

Meanwhile, in Germany, hundreds of Muslim refugees are turning to Christ. The Evangelical Trinity Church in Berlin has swelled from 150 to 600 members in just two years, and many are Muslims fleeing Iran and Afghanistan. Some commentators have taken a cynical view that converting to Christianity reduces the chances that the refugees will be deported, but the pastor said that only about 10 per cent of those he baptises do not return to the church afterwards.

A UK Appeal Court judge has ruled that a child molester who abused two Asian girls was rightly given a longer sentence than if his victims had been white because Asian sex crime victims suffer more. The original judge said that the victims’ Asian ethnicity had been factored in as an "aggravating feature" when passing sentence, because of the “particular shame they suffer in their communities, and because the girls' future prospects for arranged marriages might be damaged.” The appeal court agreed. However, a spokesman for the NSPCC said, “British justice should operate on a level playing field and children need to be protected irrespective of cultural differences.”

Following last week’s article comparing (and contrasting) Jeremy Corbyn with the Pope, a US conservative evangelical pastor is now comparing Bernie Sanders, the old-left challenger to Hillary Clinton whose popularity is rapidly growing, with John the Baptist. This followed a speech that Sanders gave at traditionally Republican/Christian Liberty University in which he focussed on the need for society to help the poor, immigrants, and those in prison. The pastor wrote: “I follow the teachings of Christ: to care for ‘the least of these.’ And I believe that just as John the Baptist once cried out in the desert for justice, […] Bernie Sanders now stands in front of us, wild-haired and hoarse-voiced, and he now declares justice for the poor.”

The UK Government’s Psychoactive Substances Bill is designed to end the sale of so-called “legal highs” which are hard to control under existing legislation. However, a recent study showed that frankincense commonly used in some religious services “activates channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression,” and there are fears that church incense may inadvertently be banned by this Bill, partly because it is hard to define exactly what the phrase “psychoactive substance” refers to.

A church in Elberton, Georgia, USA has banned one of its members from attending services – despite the fact that she is 103 years old. Genora Biggs (and other members of the congregation) have been in dispute with the minister for the past six years because he has attempted to introduce a more “charismatic” style of worship. Biggs said, “A couple of years ago, he invited some of his denomination members to come and they came. And during the service they start falling out on the floor, rolling on the floor, and we don't do that." She added, "He is a Holy Sanctified [Pentecostal] minister and he is trying to turn my church into that, but I told him that we are Baptists and that's what we ought to stay." Despite the ban, she said, "Of course I am [going back]. That's my church where I have been all my life. I joined there when I was 11 years old and I can't leave it now. I intend to die right there from that church." She also said she felt disrespected by the pastor, whom she taught when he was a child in first grade.

On the Isle of Man, a petition has been started that calls on the island’s Lord Bishop and his Archdeacon to step down, following accusations of bullying. However, it has recently emerged that some of the 200 names on the petition may have been added fraudulently. The pastor of a charismatic fellowship on the island has said that such petitions are not the way to settle church disputes.

The country of Mozambique has declared itself free of land mines following 20 years of work, spearheaded by a charity made famous by Princess Diana. The Halo Trust has cleared 171,000 mines from 1,100 minefields in the country, and has finally cleared the last known landmine, according to the country’s foreign affairs minister.

In a recent biography of UK Prime Minister David Cameron, it is claimed that Cameron referred to opponents of gay marriage as “Neanderthals” before the 2010 General Election. However, he eventually he accepted advice to omit a commitment to gay marriage from his General Election manifesto.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, an LGBT group decided to protest outside a church which is attended by Michael Brown, a well-known commentator who is conservative on issues on marriage and sexuality. However, on learning of the group’s plans, the church sent them messages of welcome and invitations to dinner. When about 10 protesters showed up on Sunday morning, the church offered them water and snacks and invited them in; they left after a few minutes, explaining that the church was too nice and loving to deserve such a protest.

At an elementary school in Toronto, parents have mounted a 30-day protest against the government’s sex education policies. Parents in the predominantly Muslim community are keeping children out of school and instead teaching them in the local park. About half the children in the school are taking part.

The satirical TV show “South Park” has broadcast an episode which criticises those so-called liberals who want to silence those who oppose their views on LGBT issues. The show focussed on the Bruce Jenner/Caitlyn Jenner transgender debate, with a new school head teacher, PC Principal, first giving detention to a student who says that Caitlyn Jenner is not a hero, and then violently attacking the student’s father for referring to Jenner as “he.” The principal and his politically correct associates continue to be violent towards those they disagree with until eventually the student gives in and describes Jenner as “a hero and brave.”

In sports news, England began the Rugby World Cup with an unconvincing win against Fiji. England must beat at least one of Wales or Australia to progress from the group stages to the knockout stages.

And finally, a man has been convicted of attempted bank robbery, and branded one of the dumbest criminals ever, after he entered a bank branch in Rainham, Kent, held a knife to the neck of the cashier, and demanded that she give him 500 pounds … by bank transfer to his own bank account. 61 year old Paul Neaverson claimed afterwards that he needed the money to book a flight to Corfu, where he had an interview for a job as a golf coach.

Not The BBC News: 16 September 2015

Kim Davis, the US marriage clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue licences for gay weddings, has returned to work. She has indicated that she will still refuse to issue such licences, but if her deputies choose to issue the licences, she will not use her authority to stop them doing so. Meanwhile, UK Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith has said that, “Nobody should feel they have to choose between their faith and their job … and, certainly, nobody should be harassed, bullied, or intimidated at work because of their religion.” He made the comments at the launch event for a guide to help employers understand their beliefs and the needs of Jewish staff; and he added that the guide could make “all the difference” if companies made “straightforward adjustments” to accommodate religious beliefs.

Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian Christian and billionaire, has announced he is hoping to buy an island to help resolve the massive refugee crisis hitting Europe. “I cannot just sit like that and just do nothing, you know, and pretend it's not my problem,” he told CNN. He has sent letters to the prime ministers of Greece and Turkey asking them to sell him an island so he can house and employ 100,000 to 200,000 refugees. "This war is not going to end in weeks or in months. It may be years even," he said. "So what do we do with these people meanwhile?” If his plan materializes, Sawiris said he will name the island after two year old Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian refugee who recently drowned in the Aegean Sea.

A (leaked) draft of the UK Government’s new counter-extremism legislation contains a proposal that all faiths will have to “maintain a national register of faith leaders” and that the Government will set a “minimum level of training and checks”. A spokesman for the Christian Institute said, “This would mean that Christian leaders invited to speak to a university Christian Union would be required to go on a Government approved training scheme before being allowed to speak to students … This is a truly sinister proposal more in keeping with China or North Korea than a democracy built on the freedoms of Magna Carta.”

The magazine Christianity Today has published an article comparing newly-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with the Pope. Ruth Gledhill wites, “Corbyn and the Pope share social thinking; both are bringing trouble [through] their uncompromising refusal to succumb to the lures of hypocrisy; and both are massively popular with their membership.” But she distinguishes them on their attitude to secular authority: “[The Pope is] prepared to render unto Caesar as well as unto God. This accommodation between the Bible fundamentals and the world makes it possible for the Pope to do serious business with President Barack Obama, the UN, Fidel Castro, and his own Catholic hierarchy. Corbyn, on the other hand, is not prepared to compromise his own secular faith to sing the National Anthem.”

Actress Angelina Jolie, speaking to a British parliamentary committee, has accused ISIS of using rape and sexual violence “in a way we’ve never seen before”. She said, “They have made rape a policy … as a way of destroying communities and families and attacking, destroying and dehumanising,” and she has called for stronger legal intervention. In fact, ISIS are not the first military group in recent years to make rape a policy, but they are one of the most open about it (with a “price list” available for girls as sex slaves), and are also unusual in trying to reconcile this policy with Islam (they claim that any captured woman has her marriage immediately annulled, and that Islam’s restrictions on adultery do not apply to infidel women).

In film news, a trailer has been released for a major Christian-themed film coming in January. “Risen” stars Joseph Fiennes as a senior Roman military commander at the time of Jesus’ death, who is sent on a manhunt to find Jesus’ body.

In TV news, a semi-retired Anglican minister, who appeared in several well-known TV shows, has died in Ireland when his car was swept away by a flash flood. Roger Grainger, 81, had appeared in ‘Emmerdale' as a vicar, 'Heartbeat' as George Walker and Dan Rowles, and had a regular role in 'Last of the Summer Wine' as Man With Dog.

And finally, a couple in their mid-30s from Hyde near Manchester, who hurriedly arranged a wedding when they discovered the groom had terminal cancer, were overwhelmed to be given a dream wedding through the kindness of strangers. A local charity called Gift Of A Wedding agreed to advertise their wedding on its Facebook page, and gifts that were provided included a magician, candy cart, cupcakes, the venue dressing, a DJ, a florist, chocolate, favours, photography, invitations, videography, a wedding dress, a seating plan & name cards, hair/make up and nails, wedding cake, a professional singer, a string quartet, a ring cushion, a toastmaster, a photo-booth and a wedding car. The bride said, “My friends and family couldn't get over a charity like this even existing”; the founder of the charity said, “It always reconfirms that I did the right thing setting up the charity when merely promising to send an application form [to be considered by the charity] sparks such happiness.”

Not The BBC News: 12 September 2015

The UK Parliament has rejected a Bill to legalise euthanasia by a majority of three to one. Impassioned arguments were presented on both sides of the debate. However, one of the weaknesses in the proposal was that it suggested that doctors should not be allowed to assist someone to die unless two doctors and a High Court judge agreed – but similar restrictions placed on abortion by the 1967 Abortion Act have proved largely ineffective in practice.

A judge in Milton Keynes has ordered that a disabled boy be removed from the care of his disabled mother because her own disability “renders it impossible for to meet his developing needs”, and the cost of providing local authority support for the boy would be too high. The judge said the boy needed a “permanent substitute family”, but rejected accusations that he was indulging in social engineering.

A county clerk in Kentucky refused to issue licences for gay marriages, despite the Supreme Court deciding that gay marriage should be legal throughout the USA. She was taken to court where a judge ordered her to issue the licences; when she still refused, he jailed her, before releasing her after a few days. The issue has provoked emotive comments from her supporters, who have suggested that licences for gay marriages issued by her deputies in her absence might be ruled invalid (which is unlikely), and that a lesbian judge in Texas who refused to perform heterosexual marriages for 4 years should also have been disciplined (she probably should). However, the most pertinent comments to the overall issue came from a gay rights group, who called for the clerk to be freed from jail because they didn’t want her to become a martyr to the cause of conscientious objection to gay marriage.

A pastor in Northern Ireland who said in a sermon, “Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell”, and then made the sermon available online, is being prosecuted under the 2003 Communications Act. A large number of people are supporting him, including an atheist journalist who said, “Freedom of speech isn’t only for polite persons of mild disposition airing their views within Government-policed parameters”.

Further news has emerged of the underground Christian revival in the Middle East. The number of Christians is now believed to be in the millions in Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan; about 220,000 in Iran; and around 100,000 in Iraq, Algeria, Kazakhstan, and even Saudi Arabia. Many of these people have become believers in the past 15 years, and many are converts from Islam.

In Missouri, a high school’s policy of respecting transgender students was severely tested when 150 students walked out of classes in protest against a transgender student who wanted to use the girls’ changing room for PE classes. The 17 year old student was born male and has had no operations to change his gender; he simply wears a wig and a dress, and now claims to be transgender. having previously identified as homosexual. The school board said that the student could use the girls’ changing rooms, based on advice from legal counsel, but three members of the school board have since resigned.

In film news, the best attended film over the long Labor Day weekend in the USA was a low budget Christian film. “War Room” describes how a couple’s failing marriage is rescued by regular prayer. It was shown in only 1500 cinemas but still outsold new releases like “Transporter Refueled” and blockbusters a few weeks old such as “Mission Impossible”.  It was strongly criticised by film critics but even more strongly praised in audience reviews. 

In technology news, it has been revealed that members of Islamic State, who were allegedly plotting to attack the Queen, had hacked into the email accounts of Government ministers from where they could have found out the Queen’s schedule. The hacks happened several months ago but were not publicised while the investigation into the plot was under way.

Also in technology news, Google has invented a new miniature sensor that uses radar technology to capture the motions of fingers at 10,000 frames per second. This means it should be possible to interact with a device without ever actually touching it. The biggest potential of the sensor is for devices that are too small to use easily by touch, such as smart watches.

And finally, a Dutch student discovered archive documents in 2013 which showed that the city of Amsterdam charged 240 Jews, who had survived concentration camps, for rent arrears for their properties when they returned to Amsterdam after the war. The charges applied even if the houses had been occupied by Germans, or by collaborators, or had been destroyed by bombing. The city of Amsterdam has now offered to issue refunds to any relatives of these Jews who ask for reimbursement; the average sum is around 1800 euros.