Skip to content

Archive site notice

You are viewing an archived copy of Christian Concern's website. Some features are disabled and pages may not display properly.

To view our current site, please visit christianconcern.com

In the News

  • Times (£) Liberals are unmoved by slaughter of Christians by Melanie Phillips
    December 20th, 2016

    The carnage in Syria is horrifying. The suffering of its people is grim. Buses sent to rescue the sick and wounded from two pro-Assad villages were torched. As a result, people remained trapped in eastern Aleppo before finally starting to leave yesterday.

    It’s a desperate humanitarian crisis. In addition to the half-million killed in Syria, millions have fled and more are internally displaced. By common consent, President Assad is a monster responsible for the slaughter and misery of his people.

    Read more. 

  • Washington Times: At least 12 dead, 48 injured in terror attack on Berlin Christmas market
    December 20th, 2016

    Bloody scenes of carnage and mayhem once again played out on the streets of Western Europe, this time targeting holiday revelers attending one of Germany’s renowned Christmas markets in the heart of Berlin.

    Evoking images from the deadly Bastille Day attack earlier this year in Nice, France, a stolen Scania trailer truck barreled through the Breitscheidplatz city square in the German capital, mowing down dozens of civilians attending the popular holiday market in an attack U.S. and German officials both characterized as an act of terrorism.

    German authorities took the suspected driver into custody shortly after the rampage came to an end near the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Church in central Berlin, but not before, according to Berlin police, the driver had killed at least 12 people and injured 48 others.

    Read more. 

  • Telegraph: British Christians held back by 'cultural' embarrassment about talking about faith - African-born bishop
    December 19th, 2016

    British Christians need help to overcome a "cultural" embarrassment about speaking to others about their faith, the Church of England's first ever Nigerian-born bishop has said.

    Dr Karowei Dorgu, a former GP now ministering as a London vicar, has been named by Downing Street as the new Bishop of Woolwich in south London.

    He is the first African-born cleric to join the ranks of the Church of England episcopate for 20 years since Dr John Sentamu, now the Archbishop of York, as Bishop of Stepney. 

    Read more.

  • BBC: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
    December 19th, 2016

    Pregnancy reduces grey matter in specific parts of a woman's brain, helping her bond with her baby and prepare for the demands of motherhood.

    Scans of 25 first-time mums showed these structural brain changes lasted for at least two years after giving birth.

    European researchers said the scale of brain changes during pregnancy were akin to those seen during adolescence.

    Read more. 

  • Christian Today: Church Of England To Debate Suggestions On Sexuality
    December 19th, 2016

    There will be no immediate major changes to Church teaching over gay relationships, it has been hinted.

    A timetable published on Monday for the Church's next general synod in February reveals bishops will make a report on sexuality but there will be no major legislative changes

    Read more. 

  • BBC: HB2 law: North Carolina to repeal 'bathroom bill'
    December 19th, 2016

    North Carolina lawmakers will repeal a controversial HB2 law which limits protections offered to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

    Democratic Governor-elect Roy Cooper announced the repeal after Charlotte City Council voted to strike down a local law that prompted HB2.

    The law requires transgender people to use toilets that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.

    The ruling led to boycotts by sports teams, businesses, and entertainers.

    Read more. 

  • The Atlantic: The American Leader of the Islamic State
    December 19th, 2016

    At dawn on a warm September morning in 2013, a minivan pulled up to a shattered villa in the town of Azaz, Syria. A long-bearded 29-year-old white man emerged from the building, along with his pregnant British wife and their three children, ages 8, 4, and almost 2. They had been in Syria for only about a month this time. The kids were sick and malnourished. The border they’d crossed from Turkey into Syria was minutes away, but the passage back was no longer safe. They clambered into the minivan, sitting on sheepskins draped on the floor—there were no seats—and the driver took them two hours east through a ravaged landscape, eventually stopping at a place where the family might slip into Turkey undetected. 

    Read more. 

  • Prospect: Christianity is in peril in the Middle East by Rachel Halliburton
    December 19th, 2016

    The bombing of a chapel adjacent to Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral on 11th December, which killed at least 25 people, marks the latest in a series of violent episodes that threatens the existence of Christianity in the Middle East. The prospect of the extinction of the church in the region where it originated should be one of the dominant stories of our times, yet somehow it is overlooked amid the other tragedies that have followed the Arab Spring. Among the corpses of Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Yazidis, Druze, and Kurds, the bodies of Christians are, for some, just another statistic in the catastrophic breakdown of society.

    Read more. 

  • Desiring God: Should Evangelicals Evolve on Homosexuality?
    December 19th, 2016

    It was a beautiful day in Minneapolis. The sky was blanketed with grey clouds while weak rays of a sallow sun beamed through its cracks and crevices. I sat at the coffee shop waiting for Rosaria Butterfield. Her schedule was packed that day, but once she arrived you would have thought this was her first appointment.

    I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd read with great interest about her life, both in articles and her published work. She had been a postmodern professor at Syracuse University and a lesbian and gay activist. But God saved her, and in recent years she's become a great resource for the church as a thinker, speaker, and writer, helping the church more effectively engage the LGBT community.

    I was a bit intimidated, but soon after she entered the room, I knew I could relax. I could tell right away I was in for a treat.

    Read more. 

  • Christian Today: Are Education Inspectors Unfairly Targeting Christian Schools?
    December 19th, 2016

    A group of Christian schools that use Bible-based education methods are claiming they have been targeted unfairly by inspectors.

    The independent schools are appealing against Ofsted and seeking advice from the Christian Legal Centre about whether there is potential for a judicial review on the grounds that the government's schools inspectorate has exceeded its powers.

    The nine schools that belong to the Christian Education Europe network were criticised earlier this year for failing to promote British values adequately and told they are inadequate or require improvement. Two of the schools have now closed.

    Read more.