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In the News

  • Christian Today: Rowan Williams challenges politicians: Overseas aid is 'choice between Little Britain and Global Britain'
    April 21st, 2017

    Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has made a passionate appeal for the preservation of Britain's foreign aid budget after Prime Minister Theresa May hinted on Wednesday she might cut it.

    Asked at Prime Minister's Questions by Conservative MP Richard Benyon whether she would commit to retaining the commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on foreign aid, she declined to do so.

    Among those who responded was Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who said: 'We are hopeful that the commitment to 0.7 per cent – and things like neglected diseases – stays strong.'

    Read more.

  • Belfast Telegraph: DUP faces split threat if party agrees to gay marriage demand by Sinn Fein
    April 21st, 2017

    While the DUP appears to be willing to negotiate on the Irish language, same-sex marriage is a 'red line' issue that will not be accepted by many members, Mr Wells said.

    "Peter will not marry Paul in Northern Ireland," he vowed.

    Mr Wells also said that the DUP will kill off Sinn Fein's proposal for a civil forum because a similar forum in the Republic led to a successful referendum on same-sex marriage.

    Read more.

  • Australian Christian Lobby: Why selecting children based on sex is unethical
    April 21st, 2017

    The Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed news that safeguards to guard against sex selection for assisted reproductive procedures will remain in place.

    However, ACL spokesperson for women, Wendy Francis, questioned the bizarre logic behind the decision to uphold current safeguards, warning that it appeared to be tainted by 'Safe Schools' type fluid gender theory.

    The Guidelines, released yesterday by the National Health and Medical Research Council, stated its opposition to sex-selection was based on the possibility that sex-selection "may validate or reinforce gender stereotyping and discriminatory attitudes, and create pressure on the person born to conform to parental expectations regarding gender".

    Read more.

  • BBC: First prison unit for extremists to open this summer
    April 21st, 2017

    Three purpose-built blocks are to open within high-security jails to hold the most dangerous extremist prisoners away from other inmates.

    The Ministry of Justice said the blocks will have their own facilities and be able to hold up to 28 people in total.

    The first unit will open this summer at Frankland Prison, County Durham, with two more to follow at other jails.

    Read more.

  • TIME: Police in Nigeria Have Charged 53 Men For Celebrating a 'Gay Wedding'
    April 21st, 2017

    A group of 53 people have been charged in Nigeria after they were arrested last week from what police say was a party celebrating an unofficial gay wedding.

    The group pleaded not guilty to charges relating to conspiracy, unlawfully assembly and membership in an unlawful society, the BBC reports.

    Homosexuality has been illegal in Nigeria since 2014, and homosexual acts could result in a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.

    Read more.

  • Mail: Abortion limit called to be reduced from 24 weeks says ONS
    April 21st, 2017

    The number of babies who survive premature birth at 23 weeks has increased to a record one in three, official figures revealed yesterday.

    The success treating babies who would until recently have been considered unlikely to live led to demands for a reduction in the limits set by abortion laws.

    The increased survival rates suggest the law – which can permit abortion at up to 24 weeks – allows routine termination of hundreds of foetuses capable of a viable life.

    Read more.

  • Telegraph: The French terror attacks carried out by Islamist extremists who were known to police
    April 21st, 2017

    The Champs Elysee attacker, like the majority of France's terrorists, was believed to be "known to police".

    The man has not been officially identified.

    But, if it is confirmed that he was familiar to authorities, it will raise yet more questions about how able Europe's police forces are to cope with the large number of potential attackers.

    Read more.

  • Sputnik: Russia's Supreme Court Deems Jehovah Witnesses Extremist, Bans Organization
    April 20th, 2017

    On Thursday, Russia's Supreme Court has ruled the activities of the main center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to be extremist, banning its work and seizing the property.

    "The Supreme Court has ruled to sustain the claim of Russia's Ministry of Justice and deem the 'Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia' organization extremist, eliminate it and ban its activity in Russia," the judge Yuri Ivanenko ruled.

    Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Justice applied for an order to shut down the organization's national headquarters near St. Petersburg.

    Read more.

  • Archbishop Cranmer: Despair at the Church of England's General Election prayer
    April 20th, 2017

    Who writes these things? Honestly, since when was it a sin to despair? Don't the brokenhearted, poor and homeless despair? What about the starving and dying? Or the persecuted or suffering? What about those in a state of unbearable grief or mourning? Didn't the 'perfect and upright' Job despair?

    Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
    Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
    Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it (Job 3:3ff).

    Wishing you'd never been born and cursing the day you were sounds a bit like despair, doesn't it? And what about Jesus?

    Read more.

  • Spiked: A victory for abortion rights in Australia
    April 20th, 2017

    In Australia's Northern Territory (NT), a bill to amend the Northern Territory Medical Services Act, in order to decriminalise abortion, has passed in parliament. Voted through by 20 votes to four, this new bill brings in dramatic, positive changes for women in the NT seeking abortion services.

    Women will no longer have to visit hospitals – sometimes hundreds of miles from home – to access abortion services. Instead, they can now attend specialist, local clinics. The bill also legalises the use of abortion drugs such as RU486 for up to nine weeks into pregnancy, offering women the non-surgical option to terminate a pregnancy in its infancy. As well as this, the bill officially changes the criminal code, meaning abortion is no longer regulated by the criminal law in the NT.

    This hasn't come easy. The bill is the result of months of difficult campaigning. In May 2016, a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) tried to get the amendments debated in parliament as a matter of priority, but this was voted down, stalling the next discussion by a number of months. The proposed changes also received strong opposition in the lead up to the vote, with another MLA describing abortion as a 'fashion'.

    Read more.