China: The paradox of the rapid spread of Christianity
In China there are more Christians today than there are members of the 87 million-strong Communist Party. They grow by an average of 10% a year, which means there will be 250 million Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. While in the 1980s the faith grew most quickly in the countryside, in recent years it has been burgeoning in cities. A new breed of educated, urban and socially and economically active Christians has emerged. This rapid growth of the Church is forcing an official rethink on religion. In fact, the Party is even asking Christians for their help. But there’s also a downside to this growth. See an assessment of the Church in China at Joel News International.
Surprise! Arabs and Jews unite to proclaim Messiah's return
A new generation of Arab and Jewish followers of Jesus met together last week to strategise on how to ‘turn Israel upside down.’ Two hundred and sixty Messianic Jewish and Arab pastors, youth leaders, evangelists, Bible-school teachers and ministry leaders gathered for a three-day council to discuss, study, pray and work together to effectively bring the Word of God in power to Arabs and Jews throughout the whole Land of Israel. These seasoned men and women of faith embody decades of labour proclaiming the Gospel to local Arabs and Jews. Most have given up everything to preach Messiah to their unbelieving Muslim and Jewish families and friends. Despised because of their faith, they have lost jobs, suffered rejection and endured multiple other hardships, yet their passion to bring the Good News to their people remains unquenched. ‘We will keep preaching and teaching the Word of God until it changes the people of Israel,’ declared one leading pastor.
Law Society withdraws controversial Sharia guidance
In a significant policy shift, the Law Society has issued an apology and withdrawn controversial guidance for solicitors on how to draft ‘Sharia-compliant wills’ that would deny women an equal share of inheritance and exclude non-Muslims entirely. The advice, released in March this year, was intended to ‘assist solicitors who have been instructed to prepare a valid will which follows Sharia succession rules’. But today Andrew Caplen, the President of the Law Society, has apologised and announced the withdrawal of the guidelines: ‘Our practice note was intended to support members to better serve their clients as far as is allowed by the law of England and Wales,’ he said. ‘We reviewed the note in the light of criticism. We have withdrawn the note and we are sorry.’ The guidelines attracted severe criticism when they were published.
Philippines: Missionaries attacked, prayed and survived
A gunman shot a Filipino pastor in the foot, pointed a handgun at his head, and demanded to be taken to the American missionaries’ complex. Missionaries Daniel and Colleen Jaquith were woken by gunshots, then the gunman burst into their room, with the pastor as hostage, demanding money. In response the Jaquiths dropped to their knees and began to pray. ‘Stop praying! Stop praying!’ the intruder yelled. They paid no attention and continued to pray. Then the pastor started a scuffle, Dan was shot in the arm, Colleen bound the bleeding arm with a pillow case while the pastor wrested the firearm from the gunman who then fled into the night. Later police arrested the gunman, who had a long history of drug use and law breaking. Their brush with death was terrifying but Dan is filled with gratitude for God’s protection and His answer to their prayers. Dan said he gives the Lord praise for His mighty deliverance during desperate times of trouble.
China: The paradox of the rapid spread of Christianity
In China there are more Christians today than there are members of the 87 million-strong Communist Party. They grow by an average of 10% a year, which means there will be 250 million Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. While in the 1980s the faith grew most quickly in the countryside, in recent years it has been burgeoning in cities. A new breed of educated, urban and socially and economically active Christians has emerged. This rapid growth of the Church is forcing an official rethink on religion. In fact, the Party is even asking Christians for their help. But there’s also a downside to this growth. See an assessment of the Church in China at Joel News International.
Collapse of the two-parent family
The shifting patterns of family life in the UK are exposed in the latest findings from a study of the lives of 13,000 children born at the beginning of the new century. More than one in three children have already lived through domestic upheaval such as seeing their parents break up by the age of eleven and only half still have married parents by the time they finish primary school. But while the study provides further evidence of a powerful link between family break-up and issues such as behavioural problems or poverty, it also reveals how the children themselves are still 'strikingly happy'. It gives a vivid picture of modern British childhood with details on everything from what time children go to bed and whether their parents still use a ‘naughty’ chair to their intelligence test scores or their illicit use of social networking sites such as Facebook.
Sales of ouija boards up 300%
Ouija boards are selling fast. Google reports that sales of the board are up 300 per cent, and it is threatening to become a Christmas ‘must buy’. The culprit is a new Hollywood horror film titled Ouija. Low-budget, lowbrow, the critics hammered it, but cinema-going teens, looking for something scary in the Halloween season, loved it. Cue big box office takings and huge demand for Ouija boards, many manufactured by the American toys giant Hasbro, who helped finance the making of the film. But to some people, including churchmen, it is a danger to be avoided, a trigger for psychological harm - or something worse. ‘It’s like opening a shutter in one’s soul and letting in the supernatural,’ says Peter Irwin-Clark, a Church of England vicar who has witnessed the dark side of Ouija. ‘There are spiritual realities out there and they can be very negative.’
Police took dying girl aged three to hospital after ambulance delay
A three-year-old girl who died after a house fire had to be taken to hospital in a police car because there were no ambulances available. Neighbours spent more than 20 minutes attempting to revive Angel Smith while they waited for an ambulance. She was eventually taken to hospital in Carmarthen by police officers. The delays suffered by Angel in receiving treatment from qualified paramedics emerged following mounting concern over the use of police vehicles to transport sick patients to hospital when ambulances are unavailable. The family’s local MP, Simon Hart, described the tragedy as ‘totally unacceptable’. He said he had also discovered that three of the six ambulances in south-west Wales were off duty at the same time on the day of the fire. A Dyfed-Powys representative said, ‘as a police force we request an ambulance almost on a daily basis and often you hear 'there’s no ambulance’. The ambulance service has had far too many cuts and this I’m afraid is the result'.
'Up to 13,000' slaves in Britain
A new report, the first scientific estimate of the scale of modern slavery in the UK, has shown that the number is four times what was previously thought. Victim levels are estimated to be between 10,000 and 13,000 including women forced into prostitution, domestic staff and workers in fields, factories and fishing boats. Home Secretary Theresa May said the scale of abuse was ‘shocking’. She added: ‘The first step to eradicating the scourge of modern slavery is acknowledging and confronting its existence. The estimated scale of the problem in modern Britain is shocking and these new figures starkly reinforce the case for urgent action. That is why I have introduced a Modern Slavery Bill, the first of its kind in Europe. But I have always been clear that legislation is only part of the answer. Everyone must play their part if we are to consign slavery to history where it belongs.’
Peer: Law should ‘reasonably accommodate’ religious belief
The former Bishop of Oxford has suggested there should be ‘reasonable accommodation’ for religious belief in law, during a House of Lords debate. Lord Harries initiated the debate on the role of belief in public life, in which he referred to recent cases in Europe where human rights appear to have clashed with fundamental religious views. He said: ‘My own view is that human rights should prevail in areas of dispute but that the law should be formulated and enforced with what the Equality and Human Rights Commission once termed ‘reasonable accommodation’. ‘That seems to be in the spirit of the culture of the United Kingdom’. He maintained that there are certain ‘fundamentals’ on which there can be ‘no compromise’, but on some issues ‘there ought to be some scope for latitude’. Speaking earlier this year, Lady Hale said, ‘it is not difficult to see why the Christians feel that their religious beliefs are not being sufficiently respected’.