The final report of a UK Independent Review into persecuted Christians has been published.
Commissioned by the British Foreign Office, it has recommended that the UK government should be prepared to impose sanctions against countries that persecute Christians.
The Government should also adopt a definition of anti-Christian discrimination and persecution, similar to those applied to Islamophobia and antisemitism, the report says. British diplomats and other Foreign Office staff, both in the UK and abroad, should have mandatory training in religious literacy in order to equip them to understand the scale and significance of the issue.
The report, by Philip Mounstephen, the Anglican bishop of Truro, was commissioned by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to examine the extent and nature of Christian persecution and assess the UK government’s response.
Hunt said he would enact all of the recommendations if he became prime minister and said he agreed with the report’s conclusion that Christians were the most persecuted religious group in the world.
Hunt said the UK must take a firmer stance on the persecution of Christians around the world. “The sense of misguided political correctness that has stopped us standing up for Christians overseas must end,” he said. “At home we all benefit from living in a tolerant, diverse society and we should not be afraid of promoting those values abroad. It is a sad fact that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in modern times. I am determined to show that we are on their side.”
An estimated one-third of the world’s population suffers from religious persecution in some form, with 80% of them being Christians, it is claimed.
A committee of inquiry has been set up by University College London to probe some of Britain’s scientific pioneers, including Marie Stopes, a big early backer of abortion, for their links with eugenics. The University is even considering if buildings, lecture theatres and libraries named after them should be re-titled.
All of the researchers being investigated were committed eugenicists who believed there were superior races of humans who should be allowed to breed more freely than those from inferior races.
A draft report of the review of Relationships and sexuality education has been published.
The report follows an extensive consultation of parents, teachers and pupils by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
The report calls for ‘modernising’ sex education in areas like consent and LGBT issues.
It says that while some issues will take time, there are others for which ”students cannot wait” and “schools need support now”.
The NCCA is now inviting people to comment on the draft report via an online survey on their website, or by emailing a written submission to RSEreview@ncca.ie. Feedback can be offered until Oct 25th 2019.
There is a rising phenomenon of young successful women in the US who want to become Catholic nuns.
In a piece in the left-wing Huffington Post, ‘Behold the Millennial Nuns’, writer Eve Fairbanks rhetorically asks “what on earth is going on?”.
“In 2017, 13 percent of women from age 18 to 35 who answered a Georgetown University-affiliated survey of American Catholics reported that they had considered becoming a Catholic sister. That’s more than 900,000 young women, enough to repopulate the corps of ‘women religious’ in a couple of decades, even if only a fraction of them actually go through with it.”
Fairbanks also notes, to her great surprise, that the women discerning religious life tend to be younger, more successful, and more doctrinally conservative than their predecessors.
And, despite their differences in political and religious views, she also found their reasons for choosing the strictest forms of Catholic sisterhood—profoundly relatable.
There will be a change to the way people will be asked about their religion in the next census.
The previous census, in 2016, asked: “What is your religion?” followed by a choice of faiths, with no religion as the final option.
The new wording is: “What is your religion, if any?” The first option is “no religion” followed by a list of faiths.
While no Church had called for a change, Atheist Ireland had previously called for the question to ask “whether people practise a religion” to avoid prejudicing the answer with “preprinted options”.
Michael Nugent, chairperson of Atheist Ireland, said: “It’s a step in the right direction, a slight improvement, but they’ve changed it as minimalistically as they could. Before it was a leading question, the assumption was you had a religion.”
People who practice consensual non-monogamy are the focus of a special task force recently launched by the American Psychological Association (APA), which said it is seeking to reduce the “stigmatization” of the “marginalized” group.
“Finding love and/or sexual intimacy is a central part of most people’s life experience,” the task force said in a statement.
“However, the ability to engage in desired intimacy without social and medical stigmatization is not a liberty for all. This task force seeks to address the needs of people who practice consensual non-monogamy, including their intersecting marginalized identities.”
The APA said that the task force would look into those in polygamous relationships including “polyamory, open relationships, swinging, relationship anarchy and other types of ethical non-monogamous relationships.”
The goal of the task force is to “generate research, create resources, and advocate for the inclusion of consensual non-monogamous relationships” in research, education and training, psychological practice, and public interest, the group added.
Both the DUP and Aontu have reacted strongly against the vote in Westminster to impose abortion, and same-sex marriage on the North unless the devolved institutions are up and running by October 21st.
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said it was “fundamentally wrong” for Westminster to legislate for issues such as marriage and abortion which are devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly. He warned that the vote could act as a disincentive to Sinn Féin to restore the Stormont institutions before October 21st.
“It is not right that we should drive a coach and horses through the devolution settlement in relation to certain issues which people feel passionately and deeply about here but which are the subject of devolved powers in Northern Ireland and at a time when there are real prospects of discussions taking place among the political parties leading to an agreement for the restoration of devolution. The effect of taking decisions before agreements are reached is to skew those negotiations,” he said.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said the emergency legislation was “an attack on the Good Friday Agreement, the devolution of power and the will of the people of the north of Ireland.”
He added: “It is outrageous that British politicians with no democratic mandates in Ireland should seek to change this law in the north of Ireland. Shockingly, despite all of this Sinn Féin and the SDLP have remained completely silent.”
New proposals for exclusion zones outside healthcare centres that facilitate abortions are expected to be given to the Minister for Health Simon Harris later this week. Mr Harris has been in consultation with the Attorney General and the gardaí in relation to the planned legislation. He is due to receive a set of proposals as to how the new law will work in the coming days following these consultations. It comes after an anti-abortion protest last week saw a number of baby-sized coffins placed on the ground outside the National Maternity Hospital. “This has taken far longer than I expected but I hope to have proposals on this matter shortly. While the Department has continued to engage with the Attorney General and indeed An Garda Síochána and I want to assure women and healthcare staff that there is existing legislation in place to protect them and to protect patients,” Mr Harris said.
Members of the Westminster parliament voted on Thursday to extend abortion and same-sex “marriage” to Northern Ireland. They also voted to decriminalise abortion, while it still remains a crime in the rest of the UK.
This will only come into effect if the Stormont parliament is not restored by the 21st October.
“The vote to extend abortion will leave a hawk’s egg with better protection than an unborn child” said Peter Lynas, director for Northern Ireland ot thr Evangelical Alliance.
Clare McCarthy, speaking on behalf of Right to Life UK, commented: “This amendment is an unconstitutional and disrespectful attempt to override devolution in Northern Ireland and to attempt to impose abortion on demand on the Northern Irish people. The law on this issue should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives, not for MPs in Westminster to decide.”
Thousands of people attended the 2019 Rally for Life in Dublin on Saturday 6th July, showing that the prolife movement is alive and well after the abortion referendum.
Niamh Uí Bhriain, a member of organising committee, said people wanted to “continue to stand for life.”
Archbishop Eamon Martin was among the participants. “I march today because I believe it remains as important as ever to affirm the sanctity of all human life. The direct and intentional taking of the life of any innocent human being is always gravely wrong – we must avoid becoming desensitised to the value of every human life.”, Arch. Martin said.
Speaking at the rally, John McGuirk warned that the next battle for the prolife movement will be opposing any attempt to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Many doctors and healthcare professionals were at the march. “I got into medicine to help women and babies, I will not be forced to take part in abortions” said Dr Trevor Hayes, consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny. All obstetricians working in St Luke’s hospital are conscientious objectors and have written to GPs in the region to advise that abortions will not be practiced in the hospital.
