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In the News

  • Christian Today: In Europe, some Christian churches are removing altars and even crosses to 'accommodate' Muslim refugees' needs
    November 1st, 2015
    Some Christians in Europe are making major adjustments in their places of worship—including the removal of altars and even crucifixes — to "accommodate the needs of refugees from conflict areas in the Middle East."
     
    In Oberhausen city in Germany, a Protestant church went to the extent of removing important fixtures such as altars and pulpits to make the Muslim migrants feel more comfortable.
     
    Pastor Joachim Deterding, who oversees the church, explained that he just wants the 50 refugees who found temporary shelter in the area to have a more liveable space, and for them to feel they are welcomed in the community.
     
    "Before the refugees can move in, the seats have to be taken away. Also the altar, the pulpit and font are movable," Deterding said, as quoted by The Sunday Express.
  • Mail: Christian minister disciplined by prison authorities for quoting Bible verses deemed to be homophobic
    November 1st, 2015
    A Christian minister has been disciplined by prison authorities for quoting verses from the Bible that were deemed to be homophobic.
     
    Rev Barry Trayhorn was acting as a volunteer chaplain at an institution for sex offenders when he recited the passage from the New Testament during a service.
     
    The verses from Corinthians include homosexuality in a long list of sins, along with adultery, theft and drunkeness.
     
    Mr Trayhorn said he wanted to explain to the congregation of inmates - many of whom have committed horrific sex abuse crimes - the Christian message that God will forgive those who repent.
     
    However, following the service he was given a final warning after his bosses ruled that he had breached equality laws because the verses criticised homosexuality.
  • BioEdge: Belgian euthanasia doctor faces criminal charges
    October 31st, 2015
    A doctor in Belgium could be charged with murder after euthanizing an 85-year-old woman suffering from depression. Marc Van Hoey, one of the leading euthanasia practitioners in Belgium, is facing criminal prosecution after supplying a liquid barbiturate to elderly woman Simona De Moor.
     
    Belgium’s Federal Commission of Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia has reviewed over 8000 reported cases of euthanasia, yet this is the first time since legalisation in 2002 that it has referred a case to a public prosecutor.
     
    On June 22 Van Hoey was filmed by an Australian documentary crew administering the barbiturate to De Moor, who died just five minutes later. Van Hoey said in the documentary that he was assisting De Moor as she was suffering from “reactive depression”.

    De Moor’s daughter had recently passed away, and she had subsequently spiralled into depression. After a few months of prescribing anti-depressants, Van Hoey deemed it acceptable to agree to De Moor’s request for euthanasia. 
  • BBC: Behind the scenes of Sharia justice in the Midlands
    October 31st, 2015
    The use of Sharia, or Islamic religious law, is growing in Britain with thousands of Muslims choosing to settle disputes this way each year.
     
    Sharia councils have no legal powers and only deal with civil matters.
     
    But there are misconceptions, and many people have concerns that Sharia discriminates against women.
  • Christian Today: Nearly half of English people do not realise Jesus was a real person
    October 31st, 2015
    Four in 10 people in England do not realise Jesus was a real person who actually lived, according to new research.
     
    Two-thirds of practising Christians said they had talked about Jesus to a non-Christian in the past month and more than seven in 10 said they felt comfortable talking about Jesus to a non-Christian. The words most often used to describe Jesus were "spiritual", "loving" and "peaceful". 
     
    Christians from the millennial cohort, aged between 18 and 34, talked about Jesus most often. 
     
    Nearly six in 10 of the English population identify as Christian but fewer than one in ten are practising, in terms of praying and reading the Bible regularly and going to church at least once a month.
     
    The survey of more than 2,500 adults surveyed by Comres and the Barna group found the West Midlands had fewest practising Christians and the south-east had most.
  • Telegraph: 'She got pregnant, I was left childless. Sharing my eggs was a huge mistake'
    October 31st, 2015
    The seconds tick silently by as Emma Aguado considers my question. It’s one that thousands of women are asked every day, ‘Do you have any children?’
     
    ‘The woman who received my eggs two years ago had a baby,’ the 34-year-old from Sussex replies carefully, ‘but I don’t have a child of my own.’ Another silence. ‘The day I learnt that, I felt as though I’d given away my only chance of motherhood. It’s been an ongoing process of grief ever since.’ As anyone who’s struggled with fertility issues knows, there’s no fairness in the journey to start a family. For some, a single month is all it takes; for others, it’s years of heartbreak and thousands of pounds before they succeed. For many facing infertility, there’s no happy ever after at all.
     
    On paper, egg sharing – which is only done in the private system – seems like a great way to rebalance the scales. A woman with healthy eggs but without the necessary funds – one IVF cycle can cost £5,000 or more – gets a free (or almost free) roll of the IVF dice. A couple without eggs get the chance they so desperately want. Surely it’s a win-win situation. Except, of course, it isn’t that simple. Because, as women like Emma have found, there can be success for the egg recipient but empty arms for the egg sharer.
  • Guardian: End of China's one-child policy comes tragically late for many
    October 30th, 2015
    Liu Guofa lost his only child five years ago. The boy was only 17 when he died, but by then it was too late for his parents to try for another baby. Liu, now 46 and unemployed, is bracing himself for a lonely and impoverished old age, without the support and love his son was expected by society and tradition to provide.
     
    Liu is one of millions of people whose lives were scarred by the Chinese government’s one-child policy. They include “orphaned” parents, who feel abandoned by the state after losing their only offspring, and “illegal” children, born into a life of legal limbo.
     
    For many of them, the abrupt end to the 35-year-long policy announced by Beijing on Thursday came too late to stir up anything more than bitter memories. “It is too late for us now,” said Liu, who lives in central Henan province. “We can’t have another child. I feel helpless.”
     
    China has always allowed bereaved parents to have a second baby, but many lost their son or daughter at an age when that was no longer possible. Liu and his wife had decided years before their bereavement that having a second baby was too risky in their home area, where family planning officials applied the policy ruthlessly.
     
    “The enforcement was merciless,” he said. “When we were young, we didn’t dare to have a second child. We would have been fired from our jobs and our houses would have been torn down if we had dared to violate the one-child policy.”
  • Guardian: Manchester chief constable airs fears of 'thought police' over counter-extremism
    October 29th, 2015
    The new chief constable of Greater Manchester police has warned that forces risk being seen as the “thought police” if they do not tread carefully under the government’s new counter-extremism strategy.
     
    Ian Hopkins, who replaced the retiring Sir Peter Fahy this week, said there would be a threat to free speech if police enforced too aggressively measures that include banning orders on non-violent extremists.
     
    He said: “It’s not just about counter-extremism, it’s also about protests. We are in a very difficult position. We tread a very thin line in terms of making sure people can air views, there can be proper debate, that people can protest peacefully.
     
    “For me that’s the real challenge, just making sure that police maintain that line and don’t become the thought police because that’s dangerous.”
  • Telegraph: Man wins 'silent homophobia' case
    October 29th, 2015
    A gay man has won the first ever compensation award for discrimination based entirely on homophobic gestures.
     
    The man sued locksmith Peter Edwards under the Equality Act and won what is believed to be the first ever case of discrimination during which not a single word was spoken.
     
    Southend County Court heard how he had been subjected to months of taunts and "vile and vulgar homophobic gestures" by shop assistant Edwards.

    The unnamed man, from Southend on Sea, Essex, told the BBC: "It would range from low-level sarcastic winks and kisses at me to mocking and abuse.
     
    "I was his joke, his bit of fun, his source of amusement. I was distressed by it and angry – it made me anxious...."
  • ADF International: First euthanasia case in 13 years referred to prosecutor
    October 29th, 2015
    The Federal Control and Evaluation Committee, assigned by law to carry out after-the-event reviews into cases of euthanasia has acted for the first time in its 13 year history. In a unanimous decision of its 16 members, the Committee has referred the euthanasia of a healthy 85-year old to the public prosecutor who must now decide whether to bring criminal charges. The doctor in question, Dr Marc Van Hoey, is chairman of one of Belgium’s main euthanasia advocacy groups and conducts regular speaking engagements on the subject.
     
    Robert Clarke, Legal Counsel for ADF International commented, “Prior to this case, there has been over 8,000 reported cases over a long period and not a single one had been referred on as suspicious, was an embarrassment to the Committee. The fact that such a referral has been made now, after 13 years, is to be cautiously welcomed. It is welcomed as a recognition that the law is broken, that vulnerable people are not being safeguarded and that doctors can and have exceeded what is permitted even in Belgium.”
     
    The case referred raised some searching questions after being featured in an Australian documentary broadcast by SBS entitled “Allow me to Die” in September this year. The show follows Simona de Moor as she attends a number of consultations and bids goodbye to friends, some of whom appear confused by what she is doing. She decides not to get into contact with a daughter with whom she hasn’t spoken for some time, a fact which echoes another case filed by ADF International at the European Court of Human Rights and currently pending with the public prosecutor.