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

  • Life News: Hackers release shocking Planned Parenthood videos: "We can't stop" selling baby parts
    October 23rd, 2015
    Hackers have posted online today new footage of shocking Planned Parenthood that the Center for Medical Progress has not had a chance to release to the public but that have been provided to a Congressional committee investigating Planned Parenthood. Someone on the committee — either a member or Congress or Congressional staff likely — released the videos to a web site called GotNews run by Charles Johnson.
     
    Johnson posted the videos today and was immediately hit with a cease and desist letter form the law firm representing the National Abortion Federal, which has been fighting in court in an attempt to stop CMP from releasing additional expose’ videos. On his web site, Johnson says a hacker then made the unreleased video footage publicly available.
  • Guardian: Texas officials raid Planned Parenthood amid funding battle
    October 23rd, 2015
    Texas investigators arrived without warning at Planned Parenthood facilities on Thursday and demanded documents, three days after the state told the healthcare provider it planned to terminate its Medicaid contracts.
     
    Ken Lambrecht, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, told a news conference in Austin that the appearance of state officials at offices in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston was “a politically motivated … fishing expedition” for information including unnecessary details such as the home addresses of employees and their salaries.
     
    The organisation said it was given 24 hours to turn over thousands of pages by the Texas Office of Inspector General, a division of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. It issued a letter to Planned Parenthood on Monday telling the group that it is being defunded for alleged violations on the basis that “Planned Parenthood and its affiliates are no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal and ethical manner”.
  • Times (£): Eminent bishop was paedophile, admits Church
    October 23rd, 2015
    One of the Church of England’s most respected clerics, whose memory is celebrate with an annual feast day, was a child abuser, it was revealed yesterday.
     
    George Bell, a former bishop of Chichester who died in 1958, was an internationally renowned cleric, one of the first Christian leaders to condemn Nazism in the 1930s and an advocate of Christian unity.
     
    Now, almost 60 years later, the Church says that there is evidence that Bell, whose feast day is on October 3, committed “serious sexual offences” against a young child in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His alleged victim, who remains anonymous and is now over 70, has received compensation and an apology from the Church.
  • ITV: Education Minister says Religious Education overhaul 'could protect young people from radicalisation'
    October 22nd, 2015
    The fight against the radicalisation of Welsh teenagers is being brought into the school curriculum.
     
    Wales' Education Minister has told ITV News that he wants reforms to religious education to help protect young people from extremists.
     
    It is part of plans to overhaul what our children learn, due to be in our classrooms by 2021.

    Changes to the teaching of what we currently call Religious Education, or Religious Studies, could come under reforms to the school curriculum, which the Welsh Government is pushing ahead with.
     
    The Education Minister told ITV News today that he believes effective teaching of a subject he has titled 'Religion, Philosophy and Ethics' could equip young people here with a level of knowledge and understanding which means they would not be vulnerable to extremists.
  • Christian Today: Why a Christian peer is trying to ban advertising for prostitutes
    October 22nd, 2015
    The violence involved in prostitution is "horrific", a peer who is trying to ban advertising for prostitution told Christian Today.
     
    Lord McColl of Dulwich's bill to make it illegal to advertise prostitution services will be debated in the House of Lords tomorrow. The bill is an attempt to clarify the current law. At the moment it is illegal to run a brothel or solicit sex but it is legal to advertise prostitution in newspapers or magazines.
     
    "I don't think people realise how much violence is involved in prostitution," Lord McColl told Christian Today this afternoon.
     
    "People just deny that violence is going on. When you say millions of men are smashing up millions of women, either physically or psychologically, they just won't believe you. I know it's going on because people have been telling me about it for years.
     
    "People are not just using fists to beat up women either. They are beating up women with iron bars."
  • Huffington Post: Tommy Robinson speaking events cancelled at Edinburgh and Durham Universities after Pegida speech
    October 22nd, 2015
    Tommy Robinson is claiming the "death of free speech" after two universities withdrew invitations for him to speak.
     
    Just days after the former leader of the English Defence League spoke to his biggest audience yet at a Pegida anniversary event in Germany, both Edinburgh and Durham universities rescinded invitations for him to address students.
     
    According to Robinson, who implored a 40,000-strong crowd in Dresden on Monday to rise-up against migrants and not let "Germany be dragged back to chaos and destruction", his speech just over a week earlier at a Pegida launch in Holland was the reason his Durham invitation was cancelled.
  • Irish Times: Same-sex marriage legislation passes all stages in Oireachtas
    October 22nd, 2015
    Legislation paving the way for same-sex marriage has passed all stages in the Oireachtas and now goes to President Michael D Higgins for signing.
     
    The final stages of the Marriage Bill 2015, giving effect to the Yes vote in last May’s referendum, was passed by the Seanad on Thursday afternoon to applause from Senators and those who watched the debate from the public gallery.
     
    Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald the first same-sex marriages will take place by mid-November. She said this was a marker of a new Ireland.
  • Christianity Today: 66 missionaries must leave UK after Operation Mobilization loses license
    October 22nd, 2015
    One of the world’s largest missions agencies will lose 66 staff members from its British office after United Kingdom Visas and Immigration (UKVI) officials stripped away its license to sponsor visas.
     
    Following an inspection by the UKVI office earlier this year, Operation Mobilization (OM) can no longer bring in missionaries from outside the European Union to staff its UK office. Non-European employees and volunteers currently sponsored by OM must leave the UK within the next two months.
     
    “We have seen the expectations and requirements on visa sponsors increase dramatically in recent years, and unfortunately, along with many similar organizations, we have been unable to keep up with those requirements quickly enough in a way that immediately satisfies the UKVI,” Gary Sloan, OM’s UK director, told CT in a statement.
     
    “OM UK respects this as a final decision,” he said, “and our focus will continue to realign our protocols and internal procedures to ensure they are in full compliance with current legislation when we look to reapply for our licence in 12 months time.”
     
    OM’s current immigration difficulties parallel those of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), which faced having more than 300 missionaries and their families booted from Britain last year.
  • Birmingham Mail: 'Christmas cancelled' at Trojan Horse school, tribunal told
    October 22nd, 2015
    The former assistant headteacher of a Birmingham school at the heart of the so-called Trojan Horse scandal described how Christmas was “cancelled” as the school became more “Islamised”.
     
    Hilary Thompson, previously assistant head at Nansen Primary in Alum Rock, said celebrations from non-Islamic faiths were “squeezed out” – just two months after the failing school was taken over by Park View Educational Trust in October 2012.
     
    Mrs Thompson’s claims as she was today giving evidence at a National College for Teaching & Leadership (NCTL) hearing, where five senior teachers from the Trust face allegations of professional misconduct.
     
    The Trust also runs Park View and Golden Hillock – schools also plunged into special measures in April last year during investigations into an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to take control of governing bodies.
     
    Mrs Thompson said a move to regular Friday Islamic prayers were also impacting on pupil achievement – with teachers and children alike missing half an hour of class to attend prayers.
  • Guardian: Peter Tatchell campaign for LGBT Muslims receives mixed reaction
    October 22nd, 2015
    The launch of a campaign aimed at generating support for LGBT Muslims and promoting dialogue about homosexuality has received mixed reactions from the Muslim community.
     
    The new Support LGBT Muslims campaign, established by the Peter Tatchell Foundation, attracted both criticism and support at the launch on Wednesday. “Some LGBT Muslims have complained that they’ve received harassment from their fellow Muslims,” said Tatchell, a prominent LBGT rights campaigner. “We want to challenge that by pointing out that both gay and Muslim people suffer prejudice and hate crimes – therefore we should be working together.”
     
    The campaigners drew disapproval from some pedestrians at the launch in Whitechapel, east London, which has a large Bangladeshi community. One middle-aged man asked if the campaigners would approve if he walked naked down the street.

    “Muslims believe in the prophets and we follow their teachings,” said Mariam Miah, a local woman. “Nowhere in those teachings does it say that it’s acceptable to be gay or lesbian. I accept those are feelings they have but it’s not something I want to promote.”

    But a 25-year-old man, who gave his name as Ali, said: “If people are gay, let them be gay. If they want to marry, let them marry.”