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In the News

  • Christian Today: David Daleiden rejects deal that would've led to dropping of charges against him in Planned Parenthood case
    February 7th, 2016
    Pro-life activist David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) rejected a plea bargain deal on the charges slapped on him for creating a fake licence and posing as a buyer of human tissue during his undercover investigation of abortion service provider Planned Parenthood.
     
    Daleiden and his employee Sandra Merritt, who printed the fake licence, were indicted by a Texas grand jury last month instead of Planned Parenthood, the defendant in the case.
     
    His lawyers announced at a press conference that Daleiden refused a plea bargain that would have given him probation, which means the charges against him would be dropped if he keeps clean for a certain period of time, according to Raw Story.
     
    Daleiden said until Texas authorities prosecute Planned Parenthood for the illegal sale of baby parts, the nefarious trade would continue in the state.
  • Mail: Majority of prison imams are 'teaching anti-western' values that promote gender segregation, study claims
    February 7th, 2016
    Around 70% of Muslim prison chaplains teach a hardline fundamentalist interpretation of Islam which challenges British values and encourages radical thinking.
     
    The findings are expected to be revealed in a new study by former Home Office official Ian Acheson, which is scheduled to be published next month.

    Muslim prisoners represent just 10.8% of the total prison population in the UK, with 12,622 people in jail identifying as a Muslim, according to the Ministry of Justice.

    The Acheson study was commissioned by justice secretary Michael Gove. It examined 200 Muslim chaplains and found that 140 of the imams working in prisons, had previously studied Deobandi Islam, according to the Sunday Times.
     
    Deobandi Islam first came to prominence in India in reaction to the measures imposed by its colonial British rulers. It takes its name from a madrassa in the Indian town of Deoband, located around 100 mile from the city of Delhi.
     
    Its core elements claim to focus on purifying Islam through the banning of music and promotes gender segregation in an attempt to follow closely a literal interpretation of the Koran.
  • Life Site News: Bill banning sex-selection abortion approved by Washington State Senate panel
    February 5th, 2016
    A bill banning sex-selective abortions narrowly passed a state Senate panel 4-3 on Wednesday night.
     
    According to The Spokesman-Review, Senate Law and Justice Committee chairman Mike Padden said the bill was part of lawmakers' "obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us." The bill, which is now being considered for a vote on the floor of the Senate, would enact penalties against abortion doctors who conduct sex-selective abortions.
     
    Democrats say such abortions are not done in their state, and that the bill targets Asians and Pacific Islanders. The doctor-patient relationship could also be violated if doctors are legally required to ask whether sex was a reason for an abortion, according to Democratic state Senator Jamie Pederson.
  • Guardian: Prevent strategy 'sowing mistrust and fear in Muslim communities'
    February 3rd, 2016
    The UK’s terror watchdog has called for an independent review of the government’s flagship anti-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, over concerns that it is sowing mistrust and fear in the Muslim community.
     
    The programme, particularly its duty on schools to spot and report signs of radicalisation in pupils, has become a “significant source of grievance” among British Muslims, encouraging “mistrust to spread and to fester”, said David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism laws.
     
    In his written submission to the home affairs select committee inquiry into the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, he also raised concern that elements of Prevent were “ineffective or being applied in an insensitive or discriminatory manner”.
     
    “It seems to me that Prevent could benefit from independent review,” wrote Anderson, who has no authority to conduct such a review.
     
    He continued: “It is perverse that Prevent has become a more significant source of grievance in affected communities than the police and ministerial powers that are exercised ... The lack of transparency in the operation of Prevent encourages rumour and mistrust to spread and to fester.”
  • Independent: 'Three-parent babies' - IVF technique should not yet be used to create girls, report says
    February 3rd, 2016
    A controversial IVF technique that produces embryos with genes from three people should not be used to create baby girls until more is known about the safety implications, a report by a high-level group of American academics has concluded.
     
    The so-called “three-parent” embryo technology should initially be confined to male embryos only because of the risk of creating “genetically modified” girls that will pass on defective DNA to subsequent generations, according to the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS).
     
    The recommendation, in a new report published, contradicts the official position of Britain’s fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), and the Department of Health which have supported the use of the technique of mitochondrial transfer in the birth of both boys and girls.
  • Belfast Telegraph: Ashers appeal against 'gay cake' ruling dramatically adjourned after intervention by Attorney General Larkin
    February 3rd, 2016

    John Larkin QC's lawyer raised legal issues with the court regarding discrimination and equality legislation.

    The Attorney General has made a last-minute request to make representation in the case about any potential conflict between the region's equality legislation and European human rights laws.

     
    After a short hearing Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan agreed to adjourn the appeal until May 9 where it will sit for four days.
     
    He told the court it was "most unfortunate this issue has only arisen two days before hearing".
  • Christian Today: Human DNA more complex than earlier thought, thus confounding evolutionists, U.K. scientists reveal
    February 3rd, 2016
    Advocates of evolution seem to be finding more and more reasons to doubt their claim that human beings came from apes.
     
    A team of scientists from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom recently found out that the DNA, which stores human beings' biological information, and the way it is affected by modifications, is more complex than the scientific community earlier thought.
     
    In the results of their study published on the journal "Nature Structural and Molecular Biology," the researchers said the human genome or complete set of DNA is much more complicated than previously imagined by scientists.

    This is due to the fact that a different kind of DNA modification, called "epigenetic modification," was previously overlooked by scientists. Epigenetics studies how genes of organisms are switched on and off.
     
    "We found it surprising that so little attention has been given to direct epigenetic modifications," the scientists wrote in their paper entitled "Identification of methylated deoxyadenosines in vertebrates reveals diversity in DNA modifications."
  • BBC: Councils to get Sunday trading powers
    February 2nd, 2016
    Ministers are to press ahead with plans to allow councils in England and Wales to relax Sunday trading laws.
     
    Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the move would allow local authorities to "help struggling High Streets".
     
    He told MPs the policy, previously reported to be facing strong opposition in the Commons, would be added to the government's Enterprise Bill.
     
    Unions said ministers were "behaving disgracefully by trying to change Sunday trading by the back door".
  • Christian Today: UK sees sudden surge in churchgoing after years of decline
    February 1st, 2016
    As many as six in 10 British adults visited a church, chapel or religious meeting house in the last 12 months, according to a new survey. The survey results counter the more usual narrative of perpetual decline that has dominated surveys in recent years. 
     
    Although too soon to give certainty, the survey is one of the first to give affirmation that the more confident, outward-looking evangelistic strategies of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and Pope Francis in Rome could be yielding tangible results.
     
    Adults in the North East of Engand were the most likely to visit a church or chapel, with 64 per cent saying they had done so. Those in Wales were the least likely, but even there nearly half, 45 per cent, had done so.
     
    While overall in Britain the number who went to church or chapel was 57 per cent, well over half, just one in five of these said they went for a non-religious activity such as a playgroup, cultural event, meeting or lunch club. The 57 per cent is an increase of nine per cent on the year before. 
  • Telegraph: It's like a science fiction nightmare, say Christian bakers in gay marriage cake case
    February 1st, 2016
    The Christian bakers taken to court for refusing to make a cake promoting gay marriage say their experience is like living in a dystopian “science fiction” world where the state orders people to say things they do not believe.
     
    Daniel McArthur, general manager of Ashers Baking Co, and his wife Amy insisted they would “do it all again” despite being pursued through the courts by a government equalities body and fined for discrimination.
     
    The family firm, based on Newtonabbey, near Belfast, found itself at the centre of an international storm in summer 2014 after cancelling an order for a cake featuring the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie with the slogan “support gay marriage”.
     
    Gareth Lee, a member of the group Queerspace, had ordered the cake for a special event to mark international day against homophobia.