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In the News

  • Guardian: Senior UN official warns against UK plans to scrap Human Rights Act
    October 12th, 2015
    The UN’s most senior human rights official has condemned the UK government’s proposal to scrap the Human Rights Act.
     
    In an unusual intervention for a UN official, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the Conservative party’s threat to leave the European court of human rights (ECHR) was “profoundly regrettable”.
     
    The Jordanian prince became the UN’s high commissioner for human rights last summer. He was speaking at a meeting of the the United Nations Association UK .
     
    The British bill of rights, promised in the Conservative election manifesto, will “break the formal link between British courts and the European court of human rights”. Judgments from Strasbourg will, in effect, become advisory and the UK’s supreme court will become supreme.
  • Life News: 251 babies saved from abortion so far in latest 40 Days for Life prayer campaign
    October 12th, 2015
    Inspiring reports from local 40 Days for Life leaders keep coming in! So far, during this current 40 Days for Life campaign, there have been … 251 babies saved from abortion – that we know of! We trust God and pray that there are many others.
     
    Prayer volunteers often wonder if there are women who see people peacefully praying outside the abortion center … women who change their minds about abortion and just keep driving – without ever telling anyone. 
     
    In many instances, the Lord is indeed the only one who knows. So keep going to the vigil … and keep praying!
  • BBC: First 'in womb' stem cell trial to begin
    October 12th, 2015
    The first clinical trial injecting foetal stem cells into babies still in the womb has been announced.
     
    It is hoped the cells, which are able to transform into a range of tissues, will lessen symptoms of incurable brittle bone disease.
     
    The trial, starting in January, will be led by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and in the UK by Great Ormond Street Hospital.
     
    The stem cells will come from terminated pregnancies.
  • Times (£): Terrorists can track police by their phones
    October 12th, 2015
    Police at Britain’s biggest force have been warned to disable their location when using online phone applications in case the information is exploited by terrorists.
     
    Officers at Scotland Yard have been told to shut down Bluetooth and tracking on their mobile devices, as some online applications reveal their location.
  • Independent: Mother Teresa orphanages in India stop adoptions after liberal reforms
    October 11th, 2015
    Thirty orphanages run by a group founded by Mother Teresa have decided to close their adoption services in India rather than comply with a new government system that will make it easier for single and divorced people to adopt.
     
    In recent months, the government of Narendra Modi has overhauled India’s complex adoption bureaucracy to reduce the long, frustrating waiting period faced by prospective parents and boost the country’s woefully low adoption rates. 
     
    Estimates of the number of orphans in India vary from 16 million to 30 million, a figure cited by several non-governmental organisations, but only about 2,500 orphans were adopted last year – down from 5,700 four years ago, according to the ministry of women and child development.

    “We have already shut our adoption services because we believe our children may not receive real love,” said Sister Amala at Nirmala Shishu Bhawan, a Delhi orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity. She added: “We do not wish to give children to single parents or divorced people. It is not a religious rule but a human rule. Children need both parents, male and female.”
  • BBC: 'Witchcraft' abuse cases on the rise
    October 11th, 2015
    Child abuse linked to exorcism and witchcraft accusations is on the rise, figures obtained by the BBC suggest.
     
    The Metropolitan Police said there had been 60 crimes linked to faith in London so far this year. It saw reports double from 23 in 2013 to 46 in 2014.
     
    Half of UK police forces do not record such cases and many local authorities are also unable to provide figures.
     
    The NSPCC said authorities "need to ensure they are able to spot the signs of this particular brand of abuse".
     
    London is unique in having a police team, Project Violet, dedicated to this type of abuse.
     
    Its figures relate to crime reports where officers have flagged a case as involving abuse linked to faith or belief. Many of the cases involve children.
  • Huffington Post: On International Day of the Girl Child, let's oppose the sexism that causes gender-based abortion
    October 11th, 2015

    As a recent Department of Health publication showed, even in the UK daughters can often be seen as less valuable, or even a failure, just because of their gender. As one case study in the publication reported, one 25 year old mother aborted her baby girl, because 'for various complex cultural reasons both self imposed and community imposed, she thought by giving birth to a boy she would be accepted into the family', but not if she had given birth to a girl. At 29 she aborted twin girls for the same reason. Another case study tells of a man pressurised into divorcing his wife when she gave birth to their third daughter. In another, a mother of two sons decided to abort the girl she was expecting, because as 'the eldest of six girls...she recalls each time her mother went to the hospital of how disappointed everyone was when each time it was a girl. This is experience traumatised and consumed her so much that the thought of giving birth to a girl meant disappointment, betrayal and lowered status within the family and community.' These stories reveal a hidden problem in our own society; and not one particular to certain communities: 'family balancing' is becoming an increasingly common phrase.

  • WND: Judge gives atheist groups oversight over Christians - 6th Circuit orders case reconsidered in trial court
    October 10th, 2015
    An appeals court ruled a district court judge must reconsider his order allowing two progressive groups, described by critics as atheist, to have oversight over the operations of a Christian foster care agency in Kentucky.
     
    The original ruling from Judge Charles R. Simpson III came in a years-long case brought by a couple of taxpayers who objected to the contracting of Sunrise Children’s Services to care for children in the custody of the state.
     
    The case, filed in 2000, was in the courts in various forms over the years until recently, when Simpson approved an agreement reached between the plaintiffs and the state.
     
    In the deal, Kentucky agreed to change some provisions of its standard contract for caring for children, such as telling the child if a foster home has a religious affiliation and requiring that children be given an opportunity to go to the church of their choice.
  • eNCA: Dutch Reformed Church to recognise gay marriage
    October 10th, 2015
    A landmark vote means same sex relationships will now be recognised by the Dutch Reformed Church.
     
    It's also voted in favour of ordaining gay ministers and scrapping a so-called celibacy clause.
     
    With a 64 percent majority, the church voted in favour of acknowledging same sex unions and allowing gay ministers to be ordained without the need for them to be celibate.
  • Life News: California seniors group seeks to overturn new assisted suicide law on 2016 ballot
    October 9th, 2015
    A California group called Seniors Against Suicide, who opposed the California assisted suicide bill that was signed into law by Governor Brown on October 5, filed papers with the California Attorney General’s office to put the issue of assisted suicide on the State ballot in 2016, as reported by the Associated Press.
     
    According to the LA Times, a letter from clinical psychologist, Dr Mark Hoffman stated:
     
    “Illness is never a reason for ending a life,”
     
    He said that he is:
     
    “working with other opponents of medically killing depressed and ill patients.”
     
    According to California law, opponents of legislation have 90 days (January 3, 2016) to collect 365,880 signatures to place the issue on the 2016 ballot.