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

  • LifeNews: Most People, Including 70% of Women, Want More Restrictions on Abortion
    May 31st, 2017

    Abortion campaigners have launched a new campaign encouraging parliamentary candidates to sign a pledge committing to support the decriminalisation of abortion – despite an authoritative new poll showing that the public are overwhelmingly opposed to such a move.

    Abortion provider the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) and UK Friends of Planned Parenthood (UKFPP) yesterday launched the "My pledge, her choice" campaign. It calls on candidates standing for election on June 8 to sign a pledge committing to "1. Protect clinic access and funding for all UK women, 2. Oppose parliamentary attacks on abortion rights and 3. Support further moves to decriminalise abortion, in line with the Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2017".

    Read more.

  • Education Business: Majority want faith schools to keep the religious selection cap, poll finds
    May 31st, 2017

    An opinion poll conducted by the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, has found that eighty per cent of those surveyed – including two-thirds of Catholics, are opposed to removing the current cap, which limits schools from not selecting more than half of their pupils on religious grounds.

    Last September, the government said that new faith schools would no longer have to offer 50 per cent of their places to those of other religions or none.

    But 80 per cent of the 2,000 people asked as part of the research have said they prefer to keep the cap in place.

    Read more.

  • Spectator: France has woken up to the danger of Islamism. Has Britain?
    May 31st, 2017

    If there's one country that knows how Britain feels in the wake of last week's suicide bombing in Manchester, it's France. Similar horror has been visited on the French several times in the past five years with nearly 250 slaughtered at the hands of Islamic extremists, so the French are all too familiar with the grief, the rage and the shock still being felt across the Channel.

    But not Britain's incomprehension. At first, maybe, when Mohammed Merah shot dead three Jewish schoolchildren in a Toulouse playground five years ago, but since the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were slaughtered in January 2015 the French have understood what is going on.

    The Islamists are waging an ideological war on the West, one that has little to do with foreign policy, colonial legacies or social deprivation, or any other excuse routinely trotted out. They kill because of an ideology that seeks no compromise in its quest for a caliphate in Europe.

    Read more.

  • Christian Today: Should faith schools be forced to accept those of different religion? Most people think so
    May 31st, 2017

    Eighty per cent of Anglicans and two-thirds of Catholics support a cap on school places offered on the basis of religion, a new survey has revealed.

    Four-fifths of voters overall oppose plans to remove the restriction, announced by the Conservatives, that means new faith schools would no longer have to offer half of places to those of a different religion or none.

    The Catholic Church has refused to open new schools while the cap is in place, saying being forced to turn away Catholic pupils was against church law.

    Read more.

  • Theresa May tells Jesus House church: be role models in your faith
    May 31st, 2017

    Theresa May urged Christians to talk openly about their faith as she visited Jesus House – one of the largest black-majority Pentecostal churches in the UK – on Sunday.

    The Prime Minister was interviewed by Pastor Agu Irukwu in front of thousands at the north London megachurch and was asked about black and ethnic representation in parliament, Christian persecution and marriage.

    Addressing concerns about a clampdown on Christians being able to voice their beliefs, May told the congregation: 'One of the things I think we can all do in terms of faith is to give very clear signs of our faith and be prepared to talk about it so that people can see that that freedom exists and also so there will be roles models for people to look to and to follow.'

    Read more.

  • Times (£): Poll firm predicts shock losses for Theresa May's Tories at general election
    May 31st, 2017

    The Conservative Party could be in line to lose 20 seats and Labour gain nearly 30 in next week's general election, according to new modelling by one of the country's leading pollsters.

    YouGov's first constituency-by- constituency estimate of the election result predicts that the Tories would fall short of an overall majority by 16 seats, leading to a hung parliament.

    The central projection of the model, which allows for a wide margin of error, would be a catastrophic outcome for Theresa May, who called the election when polls pointed to a landslide result. Her support appears to have plunged after the poor reception of the party manifesto, including plans to make more elderly voters pay for home care.

    Read more.

  • Telegraph: 'Trojan Horse' case against five Birmingham teachers thrown out by tribunal
    May 30th, 2017

    Teachers at the centre of the "Trojan Horse" scandal have been cleared after errors by lawyers hired by the Government, a tribunal heard today.

    The case was thrown out by the independent panel after it said lawyers from a firm representing the Department for Education had failed to disclose evidence.

    Five former senior teachers at Birmingham-based Park View Educational Trust had been brought before the National College for Teaching and Leadership's disciplinary panel over allegations of a plot to "Islamify" local schools.

    Read more.

  • The Good Book: "Intensely sad yet strangely beautiful": Vaughan Roberts on assisted dying, dignity and dependence
    May 30th, 2017

    The subject of assisted dying seems to be in the news most weeks. Vaughan Roberts' new book, Assisted Suicide, helps readers to think through these complex issues from a Christian perspective. Here he speaks about the crucial need for a book on this topic.

    Vaughan, dying is a topic that most of us don't want to think about! But why is it important for Christians to understand the issues around assisted dying?

    We all need to think these things through personally, because each of us has no idea when death and dying will come very close to us. When we—or someone in our family—are facing dementia, or a radical loss of capacity, how will we respond? We need have thought these things through before they become very real and emotional issues. On top of that, our media often presents very strong and emotional arguments in favour of giving people "the right to die", and it's vital that we are able to speak truth into a very confused debate.

    Read more.

  • The Wee Flea: Who Can I Vote For? – The Agony of Democracy in 21st Century Britain
    May 30th, 2017

    I'm sitting here with my postal vote – still undecided about who to vote for. In fact much to my surprise I find myself agreeing with 'Brenda' whose horror at yet another election campaign resonated with so many.

    Like many I laughed and thought 'we understand, but don't be silly but that's the price of democracy'. But this campaign leaves me as a Christian and a human being just feeling profoundly depressed – its been so dumbed down, nasty and shallow. Later on I'm going to write a more 'balanced' article on the issues, parties and personalities involved, but this is just a personal way of trying to work through the issues – before I tick that box.

    Read more.

  • Christian Today: Muslim Peer Baroness Warsi says she hopes Islamic face veil will disappear from Britain in next 20 years
    May 30th, 2017

    Sayeeda Warsi, the British Muslim politician and former chair of the Conservative party, has said she hopes that the Islamic face veil will disappear from the UK within 20 years.

    Baroness Warsi, 46 and a Tory peer, said that she did not want the niqab to be banned by 'diktat' but said she wanted 'British Muslims to lead the charge'.

    The Conservative peer has previously defended the wearing of the full face veil but said yesterday at the Hay literary festival that she did not 'know what its purpose is in terms of British Islam', The Times reports.

    Read more.