In another 5,000-word essay, the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, demands "a thorough and wholesale review" of discrimination in the Church of England. And by discrimination he means prejudiced attitudes expressed towards people because of their 'identity'. And by identity he means those characteristics which are fundamentally 'given' (he specifies eye colour, hair colour, skin colour, etc), which is fair (and biblical) enough. He adds gender and sexuality, noting that transgender is now a 'given' identity, and "increasingly these days, sexuality is seen as a 'given', in the sense that it is a 'natural orientation', and not a lifestyle choice".
In the News
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April 5th, 2017
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April 5th, 2017
An Indian man was arrested for harassment and cheating after divorcing his second wife via postcard.
Mohammed Haneef sent the card just a week after their wedding. It said "talaq" (divorce) three times, enough to enact divorce for an Indian Muslim.
His wife complained to Hyderabad police who found the marriage invalid as she had not declared an earlier divorce.
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April 5th, 2017
Sadly, we will never get to find out what motivates someone in northern England in 2017 to want to get up on a cross and be mock-crucified in the runup to Easter. And to spend £750 for the opportunity. For about a week, you could buy the crucifixion experience on a crowdfunding website, a wheeze to help raise money for putting on a large-scale Passion play in Manchester this weekend.
It would have been an opportunity to empathise, says Alex Stewart-Clark, a member of the committee that organises the annual performance, "[with] what it was like to be on the cross, a humiliating public execution method". But all the other members disagreed, deciding it was sacrilegious, and the offer was taken down. "The committee are more spiritually aware. They saw the grey area."
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April 5th, 2017
To remain the world's largest religious group, Christians are going to have to heed Genesis and be fruitful and multiply—not just in the mission field, but also in the bedroom.
Christian births will be outpaced by Muslim births within 20 years, according to new projections released today by the Pew Research Center. Between 2030 and 2035, Christian mothers are expected to welcome fewer babies (224 million) than Muslims (225 million) for the first time in history.
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April 5th, 2017
A political debate has erupted in Sweden over the way so-called 'free' schools operate after one institution run by a conservative Islamic foundation was found to be separating boys and girls for bus travel.
Swedish investigative journalism show Kalla Fakta (Hard Facts) found that children at at the Al-Azhar free school in the Stockholm suburb of Vällingby were being divided by gender at the beginning and end of the school day by staff before boarding buses.
The school had previously attracted criticism for dividing children up for gym classes.
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April 5th, 2017
Four British imams met Pope Francis at the Vatican today in efforts to build relations.
The Imams visited with Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has been coordinating interreligious discussions with the leaders for the past few years.
According to the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Christians and Muslims are increasingly cooperating on social action initiatives like the reception of Syrian refugees, food banks and care for the homeless.
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April 5th, 2017
UK church leaders are accusing the government of 'deliberately ignoring' the country's poorest and most vulnerable children in changes to benefits for families.
The Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church have come together to condemn the move which will be rolled out on Thursday under the Conservative's flagship Universal Credit programme.
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April 5th, 2017
The secret to the success of every society has been a constant concern for philosophers, political scientists, secular and religious leaders and sociologist of all times. Their answer to this perennial question has been based on the authors' background, experience or expertise. In proffering an answer, Etzkowitz and Leydesdoff formulated the principle of the Triple Helix. Triple Helix suggests that the interaction between the government, industry and the university, if effective, is a framework for success. On the other hand G.K Chesterton, in his book The Superstition of Divorce, provided the Triangle of truisms. Triangle of truisms stresses the importance of the natural family, the father, mother and child to the success of every society. According to Chesterton, this triangle of truism cannot be destroyed but would only destroy the civilization that disregards it.
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April 5th, 2017
A proposal in Wales which would make it harder for parents to hit their children has inspired strenuous opposition from religious groups. First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones announced in 2016 that his Government would put forward legislation to remove the criminal defense of 'reasonable chastisement' for parents charged with common assault of a child. The Welsh Government is planning to put the measure to a vote in the National Assembly later this year.
The defence of reasonable chastisement has been widely criticised by international bodies for providing a significant loophole to child protection laws. Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights noted in 2008 that the defence was based on the view that children were property, and equated it with previous legal allowances for husbands to beat their wives. The UN reported in 2002 that the UK's retention for the defence was in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and encouraged UK to do as many other democracies had done and fully criminalise child abuse.
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April 5th, 2017
German ministers have approved plans to fine social media firms up to 50m euros ($53.3m; £42.7m) if they fail to remove hate speech and fake news quickly.
The proposed law would give the companies 24 hours to block obviously criminal content after it had been reported, and seven days for other offensive material.
However, a plan to state explicitly that penalties could be imposed after a single infraction has been dropped.