There have been new developments in the legal case against
Ashers, the Northern Irish bakery that was convicted under equalities law for
refusing to bake a cake saying ‘Support Gay Marriage’. Firstly, the Supreme Court
has agreed to hear their appeal; equalities cases do not usually progress
further than the Court of Appeal but this case has been considered an
exception. Secondly, Ashers have once again refused an order to bake a cake;
this time the requested message was “Gay Marriage Rocks”. And thirdly, in a
parallel case in the USA, a Christian printer in Kentucky has been found not
guilty of discrimination for refusing to print leaflets for a lesbian event
because the judge found no evidence that he had discriminated against customers
because of their sexual orientation, but rather against the message he was
being asked to print.
Russia and China have continued to crack down in
Christianity. Russia’s Supreme Court is considering whether to declare the Jehovah’s
Witnesses an “extremist” organisation; Jehovah’s Witnesses may be outside the
mainstream of Christian belief, but the allegations against them of destroying
families, fostering hatred and threatening lives appear to be malicious and
false. And Chinese police continue to raid house churches and arrest the
members on charges of “worshipping in churches that are not legally registered”;
two churches in Shenzhen, Guangdong in the south of China were targeted recently.
There have been several more attempts to restrict Christians’
rights to free speech. Gwinnett College in Georgia banned a Christian preacher
because even though he was in a ‘free speech zone’, his presentation of the
Gospel amounted to ‘fighting words’ because it had a ‘tendency to incite hostility’.
Vimeo, the video sharing website, has banned all videos in which people testify
that they believe in healing from homosexuality through prayer, even if it happened to them. A Christian nurse from Dartford in the UK has
been sacked for sharing her faith with patients; some patients apparently felt
Sarah Kuteh talked too much about religion and prayer, but she has gone to a
tribunal to argue that her sacking was disproportionate. And in a related case, a social worker in
Kent who advised a couple against having their baby baptised because it might
hinder her chances of being adopted has been criticised by a family judge, who
placed the baby in the care of a relative.
However, there have been two cases where free speech rights
were upheld; in Florida, a student who was suspended for challenging a Muslim
lecturer’s claim that Jesus Christ was not crucified has been reinstated; and
in the UK an African who was expelled from his social work course at Sheffield
University, after being deemed “unfit to practice” because he made a posting
criticising homosexuality on his private Facebook page, has successfully sued the university in the
High Court after having his suit rejected in a lower court.
There have also been various legal moves for and against
abortion rights. Most notable are the state of Alabama, whose Senate passed a
bill that would give unborn babies a right to life if the responsibility for
regulating abortions is ever passed to US states; and the election manifesto
for the UK Labour party, which promises to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland,
the only part of the UK where it is currently against the law.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry wrote a letter to the
British government asking them to apologise for their role in the Balfour
Declaration which created the state of Israel. The response from the UK Foreign
Office was, “The
Balfour Declaration is an historic statement for which HMG does not intend to
apologise … We are proud of our role in creating the State of Israel.”
Archaeologists
in Israel’s Timna Valley, in an area filled with old copper mines, made a
discovery that helps validate parts of the Bible – donkey dung. The dung was carbon-dated
to the 10th century BC, around that time when Israel’s wealth was at
its height under King Solomon. Seeds and pollen within the dung showed that the
animals’ feed was imported from more than 100 miles away, near the
Mediterranean coast, implying a strong economy and safe trade routes.
The
decline of the Church of England has apparently stopped; the number of people
who describe themselves as Anglican have risen slightly from 16.3% in 2009 to
17.1% in 2015. Theology professor Stephen Bullivant said, “When Richard Dawkins’
book ‘The God Delusion’ was published, a lot of people who didn’t really believe
in God stopped ticking ‘Anglican’ on the social surveys and started ticking ‘atheist’
instead.” He suggested that numbers have stopped falling because the church is
now left with “a groundswell of genuine believers.”
In
technology news, a Swedish company has started implanting microchips in all its
employees. The implant acts as a key to open locked doors, a code to
operate the printers, or even a credit card to buy foods and smoothies from the
snack bar.
Also
in technology, Microsoft have revealed that they built a prototype watch which
calmed a woman’s tremors from Parkinson’s disease. It vibrates in a way designed
to disrupt feedback between brain and hand, this reducing tremors in the hands.
The wearer of the prototype, a 32 year old graphic designer, says she has
regained her ability to write legibly and to draw straight lines.
And
finally, a two year old girl from Essex who has Down’s syndrome has been chosen
as one of the faces of the latest advertising campaign by the Matalan clothing
chain. A spokesman for Matalan said, "It was a joy to work with Lily. She was a
wonderful model and we're thrilled to hear that Lily and her parents have
enjoyed seeing her photos in our stores."
