Tag Archives: Country: United Kingdom

The Christian Institute: A Muslim campaigner has lent her backing to a “pioneering” Bill which aims to tackle the problems caused by Sharia councils operating in England and Wales.

News from The Associated Press: An extremist cleric described as one of Europe’s leading al-Qaida operatives should not be deported to face terrorism charges in Jordan because of the risk evidence obtained through torture would be used against him, Europe’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

The Independent: Lord Wallace of Tankerness QC restated the UK Government’s view that the “Scottish Parliament has no power to deliver a referendum on independence”.

Guardian.co.uk: Last year the Church of England published a legal opinion that makes it quite clear that it believes it is legal to discriminate against John, not because he is gay, since he is also celibate, but because he is not in the least bit ashamed of being gay. That is what sticks in the craw of the conservative evangelicals who oppose him.

Christian Institute: An increasing number of women expecting multiple births are aborting one or more of their unborn babies.

Telegraph: Britain has lost three out of four cases taken to the European Court of Human Rights, new figures have shown.

The Christian Institute: A Christian radio station which was banned from airing an advert on Christian marginalisation has been given permission to go to court and challenge the decision.

The Christian Institute: A contentious plan which would allow terminally ill people to undergo an assisted suicide is not without risk, its own chief architect has admitted.

Mail Online: A group of Muslim men handed a leaflet out to the public that called for homosexuals to be ‘punished’ and given the death sentence, a court has heard.

The Guardian: Alex Salmond has revealed he plans to stage his independence referendum in the autumn of 2014 after he resisted UK government demands to set an early date for the historic poll.

MercatorNet: It is not the time — or the place — for the Conservative Party to legislate for same-sex marriage

News from The Associated Press: Britain’s government says it will give Scotland the power to hold a binding vote that would give it independence from Britain, turning back centuries of history.

The Christian Institute: Figures in the report show 22.1 per cent of all abortions in the UK in 2008 were carried out on under 20-year-olds – nearly twice the EU average of 12.0 per cent.

The Christian Institute: More British children are being raised by single parents because the tax and benefit system “encourages transient shack-ups”.

Peter Oborne at the Telegraph: The figures seem to bear this out. Church attendance — which stood at around 50 per cent in the middle of the 19th century – had declined to around 12 per cent in 1979, or 5.4 million. By 1998 it had almost halved to 7.5 per cent and when the most recent census was conducted in 2005, it was discovered that only 6.3 per cent of the population, some 3.2 million, were regular churchgoers.

Daily Mail Online: A report sponsored by the former Euthanasia Society was never going to come to any other conclusion: it recommends that assisted dying should be legalised.

free faith: For many Christians the answer is “no”. Homosexual relationships are not the same as heterosexual ones; traditional families are not the same as chaotic ones; mothers who sacrifice all for their children are not the same as mothers who don’t. This value judgement does not validate hostility towards those involved in such relationships — but it does draw a line between what Christians find acceptable and what they do not.

ChurchofEngland.org: The commission undertook a quest to find effective safeguards that could be put in place to avoid abuse of any new law legitimising assisted suicide. Unsurprisingly, given the commission’s composition, it has claimed to have found such safeguards. Unlike the commissioners, we are unconvinced that the commission has been successful in its quest.

Christian Concern: Lord Falconer’s ‘Commission on Assisted Dying’ released their proposals today (5 Jan) and recommended that doctors should be allowed to assist terminally ill patients to kill themselves, as long as the patients had less than a year to live, and provided they meet certain criteria.

Ian McLean at VirtueOnline: The UK government has promised to launch a consultation on ‘how to make civil marriage available to same-sex couples’ in England and Wales. Note: HOW, not WHETHER. This reflects the astonishing social change in the last two decades in the UK and other liberal democracies.

The Washington Post: The British government’s latest Citizenship Survey reports that in the five years leading up to 2010, the percentage of declared Christians in the region dropped by 7 percent, although they nonetheless held solid at 70 percent.

Martin Parsons at Conservative Home Blog: As the Christian church remembers the visit of the magi, now is also a good time to reflect on the suffering of Christians in the region where Christianity originally emerged. The Middle East is unfortunately full of tyrants prepared to imprison, torture and even massacre anyone they think just might threaten their power . . . [country by country list tracks Sharia spread]

The Tory Diary: Islamic persecution of Christians is a massive global issue. It has grown with instability across the Middle East. The Middle East Forum’s record of violence and intolerance in November alone includes . . .

The Christian Institute: A High Court family judge has spoken out against Britain’s liberal divorce culture, encouraging couples to “mend it – don’t end it”. Sir Paul Coleridge . . .

Religion Clause Blog: Supermarkets have become ‘ashamed’ of selling Christmas cards with religious themes, Christian leaders said yesterday. They claimed a creeping ‘multicultural indoctrination’ had led to an aversion to Christianity, and that shops were worried about stocking cards that might offend other faiths.

UK – The Independent: A Muslim man who had a baby with an unmarried woman has been told that his daughter must remain with an adopted family because there is too great a risk that his love child could become the victim of a so-called “honour killing”.

The Christian Institute: In his speech to the think-tank Demos on Monday Mr Clegg said: “We shouldn’t take a particular version of the family institution, such as the 1950s model of suit-wearing, bread-winning dad and aproned, homemaking mother – and try and preserve it in aspic.

News from The Associated Press: British judges Wednesday gave the government four weeks to obtain the release of a Pakistani man held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan – a ruling that could make for prickly discussions between Britain and the U.S.

Guardian.co.uk: Appointment of Lord Reed and Lord Justice Carnwath dispels hopes that number of female justices on bench would increase

The Christian Institute: Christians are “evil” if they resist the redefinition of marriage to allow for same-sex marriage, the Head of Research and Development at Tesco.com has said.

BBC News: In a speech in Oxford on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, the prime minister called for a revival of traditional Christian values to counter Britain’s “moral collapse”.

How Appealing links to the ruling and several reports.

Guardian.co.uk: General Medical Council says law is clear but additional guidance is needed to deal with any complaints against doctors

We are facing religious cleansing in parts of the Middle East and may be entering what might be thought of as an Arab winter for Christians, Jews and other minority groups alike on a scale that we have not hitherto seen.”

The Christian Institute: A new poll has found that two thirds of Britons think parents or guardians should be the main people responsible for teaching children about sex.

Roger Graef at BBC News – Panorama – Should everyone be allowed to have children?: The care system is letting down a growing number of British children whose birth parents cannot or will not support them and who have little chance of successful adoption, argues the distinguished documentary film-maker, Roger Graef.

News from The Associated Press: Britain’s unemployment hit its highest level for 17 years Wednesday, with women and young people bearing the brunt of the deepening jobs crisis in the wake of the government’s austerity measures and the economy’s general weakness.

Telegraph Blogs: Last Friday, according to publicity material (above) and its Facebook page, the mosque was due to host that conspicuous moderate, Sheikh Saad al-Beraik, who has reportedly stated: “Muslim brothers in Palestine, do not have any mercy neither compassion on the Jews, their blood, their money, their flesh. Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don’t you enslave their women? Why don’t you wage jihad? Why don’t you pillage them?”

Mail Online: Human rights laws are being interpreted in a way that is ‘thoroughly bonkers’ – according to Britain’s own human rights chief.

Mirror.co.uk: But the Government has said it will not stop the controversial payments until 2013, when it will officially no longer accept group marriages for welfare handouts.

The Government, in 40 pages of legal arguments, said the UK was “entitled to conclude” that “other than in limited prescribed circumstances, religious belief does not justify discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation”.

NYTimes.com: senior European official said on Tuesday that Britain’s demands for measures to protect its financial services industry at last week’s summit meeting were impossible to meet and directly responsible for the collapse of e a Europe-wide agreement meant to help save the euro.

Christian Concern: The government has announced plans to introduce lessons on “transgender equality” in primary and secondary schools across the country.

The Christian Institute: Churches are not adequately protected by new regulations that allow civil partnerships to be registered on religious premises, Parliamentarians say.

The Christian Institute: A proposal that would allow future heirs to the throne to marry Roman Catholics raises questions about the monarch’s position as the head of the Church of England, MPs have said.

Telegraph: Up to 8,000 victims are forced in to marriage every year as ministers yesterday unveiled plans to criminalise the “appalling” practice.

Telegraph: Parents of children who have been struck down with the sleeping syndrome narcolepsy claim that it could have been triggered by the swine flu vaccine.

Reuters: It was billed as a summit to save the euro. It may be remembered as the day Europe lost patience with Britain, as most of the continent threw its lot in with EU founding members France and Germany and committed to binding their economies ever more tightly.

Christian Concern: Dr Peter Saunders, Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship said, ‘This new Review by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC) shows that abortion does not improve mental health outcomes for women with unplanned pregnancies, despite 98% of the 200,000 abortions being carried out in this country each year on mental health grounds.’

Catholic Culture: A committee of Parliament has questioned plans by the British government to amend the law that bars Catholics from the line of succession to the crown.

Telegraph: The number of couples divorcing has risen for the first time in almost a decade, with some experts suggesting that the recent recession could be to blame.

News from The Associated Press: Among women with unwanted pregnancies, those who had abortions were no more likely to suffer from problems including anxiety or depression than women who gave birth, the analysis by the U.K.’s National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health found.

TheStar.com: British scientists have made the first human embryonic stem cells of a high enough grade to use in patients and deposited them in a public stem-cell bank for development in human trials by drug companies and researchers by 2014.

BBC News: Malawi will review a series of controversial laws, including a ban on homosexual acts, Justice Minister Ephraim Chiume has said.

The Christian Institute: The comments, from Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, come as Bideford Town Council in Devon is being sued by a secularist campaign group over prayers it says at the start of council meetings.

News from The Associated Press: Women will be allowed to serve on submarines for the first time in Britain’s history, the country’s defense secretary announced Thursday, after research showed there were no health reasons to support the ban.

allAfrica.com: : The Centre for African Human Rights Peace and Development Organization has demanded an immediate retraction as well as apology from the British Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr. Andrew Lloyd over what they called his reported unguarded and weighty comments against the National Assembly over the passage of a bill on same-sex marriage in Nigeria.

The Christian Institute: Children as young as twelve should be taught how to gamble “safely”, according to controversial proposals which have been welcomed by the Labour Party.

Daily Mail: Nearly 3,000 so-called honour attacks were recorded by police in Britain last year, new research has revealed.

The Christian Institute: Abortions in England cost the NHS £118 million last year, according to new Government estimates – a figure much higher than previously thought.

Washington Post: A bill originally designed to outlaw gay marriage in Nigeria likely has consequences far beyond its initial scope — criminalizing gay groups and organizations could jeopardize millions of dollars of Western aid geared toward stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa’s most populous nation.

Zenit: The popularity of cohabitation as an alternative or a preliminary step to marriage continues to grow. Data published this week by the British Office for National Statistics for England and Wales confirms the trend.

Education News: The importance of marriage is to be taught to every pupil at the Government’s flagship free schools and academies. The schools will be made to sign up to strict new rules introduced by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, setting out what pupils must learn about sex and relationships.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): “We’ve got to find the ways of speaking to people about the positive values of marriage as it’s always been understood, while not getting boxed off by somehow being accused of being homophobic,” Archbishop Nichols told CNA on Dec. 1 in Rome.

The Christian Institute: The Speaker of the House of Commons has been criticised for squandering over £20,000 of taxpayers’ money on his new coat of arms, which features a prominent ‘equality’ rainbow.

LifeSiteNews.com: According to The Tablet, the Archbishop of Westminster, England, has publicly expressed support for homosexual civil unions, a move that appears to put him at odds with a clear Vatican decree against supporting such unions confirmed by Pope John Paul II and then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) in 2003.

This is Gloucestershire: Prayers have been banned from full council meetings at Shire Hall – causing fury from Gloucester’s Sheriff.

The saying of tradition prayers before local council meetings is being challenged in the High Court today. The National Secular Society is arguing that the religious ritual is ‘archaic’ and ‘inappropriate’ and a breach of human rights.

Express.co.uk: A PARALYSED man has taken his case to allow a doctor to “lawfully” end his life to the High Court.

Schools in England are set to receive a copy of the King James Bible from the Government as it marks 400 years of the translation.

The Christian Institute: A 17th century Oxford University college has flown the homosexual rainbow flag over one of its buildings, reportedly becoming the first Oxford college to do so.

Religion Clause: The London Telegraph and London Mail yesterday both reported on a lawsuit brought by a saleswoman– a Lebanese born Christian– who worked at Britain’s Heathrow Airport World Duty Free shop. She was fired after Muslim co-workers filed a complaint against her.

Daily Mail: Joe Pressil, 36, says he was unaware his girlfriend had taken his sperm to a fertility clinic and is now suing. She had twins, he has to pay child support and he claims no one from the clinic ever contacted him

Cambrian News: He told Cambrian News that he was informed by volunteers at the branch on Market Street that the shop refuses to sell the Bible due to the religiously neutral status of the organisation.

Telegraph: A growing number of British couples are divorcing in their 60s, official figures show.