Britain’s civil servant tasked with integration issues has likened Catholic teaching on traditional marriage to Islamic extremism that has been exposed in schools in Birmingham. During a sitting of the Communities and Local Government Committee, at which Dame Louise Casey answered questions on her report into the so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ schools affair, she said the issues uncovered about extremism were “not okay, in the same way that it is not okay for Catholic schools to be homophobic and anti-gay marriage. That is not okay either — it is not how we bring children up in this country”. Dame Louise went on to allege that opponents of same-sex marriage using religion to cover their anti-equality views. “It is often veiled as religious conservatism, and I have a problem with the expression ‘religious conservatism’, because often it can be anti-equalities,” she said.
The academic advantages of faith schools may be exaggerated, a new study in Britain has claimed. Undertaken by the Education Policy Institute, the study examined the characteristics of pupils attending faith schools, how socially selective faith schools may be, and pupil attainment. It found that disadvantaged pupils are under-represented at faith schools, while those with high prior attainment are over-represented. The researchers were thus prompted to seek a control group in non-faith schools with similar characteristics to those in faith schools, finding that the difference in attainment is largely eliminated once pupil characteristics are accounted for in this way. The study comes at a time when the British government is proposing to increase good school places which includes a proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith-based admissions for oversubscribed faith free schools.
The US state of Kentucky has signed into law two pro-life bills which had been fast-tracked by the state Senate to Governor Matt Bevin for signing. The laws – the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act – ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and require that women receive an ultrasound and the opportunity to see it before the final decision to have an abortion. “It is an honour for me to sign into law these historic pieces of legislation that protect our most vulnerable,” Governor Bevin said. The new laws come after years of legislators attempting and failing to get such protections past a Democrat-dominated House of Representatives in Kentucky. The year 2017 is the first time Republicans have controlled the House since 1921. With the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, Kentucky becomes the 16th state to enact such a control on abortion.
Christian pharmacists in Britain could be forced to provide services which are against their conscience, under newly proposed guidelines. The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is currently engaged in a consultation process on revising its own guidance to pharmacists which, if approved, would insist that staff “take responsibility for ensuring that person-centred care is not compromised because of personal values and beliefs”, while weakening the right of referral to another pharmacist. It adds that in some cases, a pharmacist’s beliefs could render them “unable to take up certain working roles”. This could see Christian pharmacists being forced to provide access to abortifacient drugs, such as the morning after pill. Similar guidelines already exist in Ireland.
British taxpayers’ money is being used to fund abortion provision in African countries where the procedure is illegal, a leading pro-life advocate has said. Culture of Life Africa has produced a new video in which it exposes the activities of Marie Stopes International (MSI) in a number of African countries where the group offers ‘reproductive health services’. The video speaks to one nurse, Desire Kirabo, who worked as an MSI centre manager in Uganda, where abortion is illegal. She explains how she began working there thinking it was a family planning organisation but in reality was providing abortions. “[B]ut they disguised that,” she states. It became apparent to her that “it was all about abortion”. The video also contains disturbing claims about the later disposal of aborted bodies.
The Dáil is set to debate a full motion condemning the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. According to The Irish Catholic newspaper, a draft motion is currently being drawn up for circulation to all parties in an attempt to gain all-party support for a condemnation of the ongoing suffering endured by Christian communities. It is hoped the motion will be tabled for a full debate by the end of January. “This is a matter of grave concern and we want to work with other parties so that the Dáil can speak with one voice in condemning the persecution of Christians in the Middle East,” said Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Darragh O’Brien, who is responsible for the motion. He added that he and party colleagues are “very conscious that other nations such as the United States, Britain, and the European Union” have already adopted resolutions and motions condemning the genocide and continued suffering of Christians at the hands of religious extremists. “That makes it all the more urgent that we do this too,” he said.
A Students’ Union in England is discouraging the use of ‘he’ or ‘she’ on campus in a newly issued policy. The University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) is calling for the use of ‘they’ in place of gender-specific pronouns where individuals have not already stated their preferred pronoun. In addition, the new policy insists that pronouns should be “stated at the beginning of every meeting, even if they have been stated at previous meetings”. The union has stated that training for elected union officers on the USSU policy will be developed with a group that “seeks to free individuals and society from the oppressive confines of the gender binary”. The group in question is understood to be ‘Gender Liberation Sussex’, which believes that distinguishing between the sexes on a biological basis is harmful “and should be dismantled”.
A terrorism watchdog in Britain has warned that people of faith could be caught up in proposed legislation aimed at tackling extremism. Speaking during a BBC radio interview, David Anderson QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, said the British government’s anti-extremism Bill was “the single document that has alarmed me most” during his time in the post. “I’ve not met anyone who can really define [extremism] in a satisfactory way,” he explained, adding that attempting to tackling such a vague concept will mean “the police are going to feel they have to investigate all sorts of people who are miles away from being terrorists, but may just practise religion in a conservative way.” Pointing out that communism was never banned during the Cold War, he added that to “start applying the force of the law to people who oppose certain values, I think, is a really difficult and dangerous line to go down”.
