'Gay lessons' in maths, geography and science
Children are to be taught about homosexuality in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a Government-backed drive to ‘celebrate the gay community’. Lesson plans have been drawn up for pupils as young as four, in a scheme funded with a £35,000 grant from an education quango, the Training and Development Agency for Schools. The initiative will be officially launched next month at the start of ‘LGBT History Month’, an initiative to encourage teaching about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues. The lesson plans, spread across the curriculum, will be offered to all schools, which can choose whether or not to make use of them. Craig Whittaker, Conservative MP for Calder Valley and a member of the Education Select Committee, criticised the scheme as a distraction from teaching 'core' subjects and a poor use of public money.
Pray: for schools to consider carefully how the minority nature of such material is out of proportion to the LGB community. (Jas.4:7)
Proposal for an English Baccalaureate and RE
Senior religious-education (RE) professionals are warning that their subject could disappear from the curriculum in community schools if the subject is not included among the humanities that qualify for the planned English Baccalaureate. The new qualification, which is to be introduced to ensure that pupils receive a more rounded education requires good passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language, and either history or geography. Religious studies (RS), currently a popular examination choice, is not included as a humanities option. Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, which represents secondaryschool heads, says that his members believe that the proposed Baccalaureate is too narrow: ‘Religious studies, in particular, is glaringly absent. In the light of the global political situation, surely the objective study of religious issues should be encouraged,’ he said. A recent poll among 18 to 25-year-olds revealed that RE lessons were remembered as valuable for several years after leaving school.
Pray: that Christian teaching remains as a required element of schools’ curricula. (Ro.16:17)
Russia: Airport bombing
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed growing ethnic tensions in Russia after a suicide bomber killed 35 people and injured over 150 at Moscow’s busiest Airport. He denounced the attack as ‘the horrifying scowl of sin’ adding ‘actions once condemned even in war are today becoming a form of protest.’ No one has claimed responsibility but previous terrorist attacks in Russia originated from separatist movements in the troubled Northern Caucasus region. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, backed by the Kremlin, has been accused of human rights abuses and crushing Islamic militants, while supporting his own form of Islamic fundamentalism. Ethnic tensions have grown in Moscow recently, including anger over plans to build a new mosque in a south-eastern district of the city. Muslim migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia have emigrated to the Russian capital, fleeing wars in their home regions since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Pray: for the turmoil in Russia to usher in a timely Christian revival. (Is.14:26-27)
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/russian-patriarch-denounc_n_814025.html
Russia: Airport bombing
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed growing ethnic tensions in Russia after a suicide bomber killed 35 people and injured over 150 at Moscow’s busiest Airport. He denounced the attack as ‘the horrifying scowl of sin’ adding ‘actions once condemned even in war are today becoming a form of protest.’ No one has claimed responsibility but previous terrorist attacks in Russia originated from separatist movements in the troubled Northern Caucasus region. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, backed by the Kremlin, has been accused of human rights abuses and crushing Islamic militants, while supporting his own form of Islamic fundamentalism. Ethnic tensions have grown in Moscow recently, including anger over plans to build a new mosque in a south-eastern district of the city. Muslim migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia have emigrated to the Russian capital, fleeing wars in their home regions since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Pray: for the turmoil in Russia to usher in a timely Christian revival. (Is.14:26-27)
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/russian-patriarch-denounc_n_814025.html
Belgium: Thousands demand politicians form a government
Tens of thousands of Belgians took to the streets on Sunday to shame political leaders who have failed to form a government more than seven months after an election and left the country at the mercy of financial markets. Organisers of the ‘Shame: no government, great country’ protest said up to 50,000 people had joined the march through the capital Brussels. Police put the figure at 34,000. Since the inconclusive June 2010 parliamentary vote, a caretaker administration has run the country while Dutch and French-speaking party leaders have argued over the degree to which powers and tax-raising rights should be transferred to regions of the linguistically divided country. ‘We are here because we want to show the political leaders that things must change. It's the politicians who are trying to split the country'.
Pray: that the government would listen to the people and work through their differences together. (Ep.4:2-4)
Belgium: Thousands demand politicians form a government
Tens of thousands of Belgians took to the streets on Sunday to shame political leaders who have failed to form a government more than seven months after an election and left the country at the mercy of financial markets. Organisers of the ‘Shame: no government, great country’ protest said up to 50,000 people had joined the march through the capital Brussels. Police put the figure at 34,000. Since the inconclusive June 2010 parliamentary vote, a caretaker administration has run the country while Dutch and French-speaking party leaders have argued over the degree to which powers and tax-raising rights should be transferred to regions of the linguistically divided country. ‘We are here because we want to show the political leaders that things must change. It's the politicians who are trying to split the country'.
Pray: that the government would listen to the people and work through their differences together. (Ep.4:2-4)
Homosexual activist targets Christian
On 20 January a Christian counsellor will be summoned before a Professional Conduct Panel for giving therapy to a homosexual man who pretended to be a Christian. Lesley Pilkington, a counsellor with over 20 years of experience, is defending herself against a formal complaint by Patrick Strudwick, a homosexual journalist who secretly recorded two therapy sessions with her. He published an account of the sessions in The Independent and has since received the award of journalist of the year by the homosexual-rights organisation Stonewall. Those offering such counselling have been increasingly targeted by the homosexual lobby, many of whom do not accept that people can change their behaviour. But in 2006, the homosexual rights activist Peter Tatchell wrote in the Guardian: ‘Much as I would love to go along with the fashionable ‘born gay’ consensus (it would be very politically convenient), I can't. The evidence does not support the idea’.
Pray: that the charge will be dismissed on the basis of entrapment and natural justice. (Ac. 24:1)
Divided church is poor witness
In a sermon to mark the start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on Tuesday, the Rev Bob Fyffe said the movement for unity had ‘transformed things for the better’. ‘It is this movement that has helped to overcome some deep-rooted enmities that have scared communities, transforming churches to be more open to each other.’ The task before believers, he said, was to be recognised as Christians by how well they had loved others. ‘To be divided as Christians is to offer poor witness to the world,’ he said. The call to Christian unity must be more than a dream. It is the living out of these high ideals that helps others see that faith can be a source of hope. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is held each year by the church worldwide from January 18 to 25. This year’s theme is ‘All things in common’.
Pray: for unity between denominations and that differences can be overcome for the sake of the Gospel. (1Co.1:10)
DIY abortions at home?
Britain’s largest abortion provider is set to go to the High Court in a bid to allow women to abort their pregnancies whilst at home. BPAS, formerly the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, is seeking to change the interpretation of the law so that women in the first nine weeks of their pregnancy can take the second set of drugs necessary to induce an early medical abortion whilst at home, rather than under clinical supervision. The proposal has alarmed critics who believe that this would trivialise the procedure and ignore the dangers. A spokesman for the pro-life charity Life said: ‘Clearly BPAS’ intention is to increase access to abortion yet further, by making it little more than a pill-popping exercise'. Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: ‘Abortion is an appalling ordeal for women, as well as the killing of an unborn child. BPAS is trivialising abortion and jeopardising women’s welfare.’
Pray: that the High Court will recognise the importance of counselling at each stage in the path towards an abortion. (Ps.32:8)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/abortion-provider-wants-to-allow-diy-abortions-at-home/
Judge rules against guest house owners
A judge has sided with a homosexual couple who were refused a double room at a Christian guest house. (see Prayer Alert 02-2011) Owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull implemented a policy of allowing only heterosexual married couples to stay in their double rooms when they opened the guest house, also their family home, in 1986. Their website gives notice of the policy on its booking page. They were sued by civil partners Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall for £5,000 in damages on the grounds that the policy discriminated against them under the Equality Act. Judge Andrew Rutherford ruled that the Bulls’ policy was unlawful and that the Equality Act requires that civil partnerships are treated in the same way as marriage. The Bulls must now pay Preddy and Hall £3,600 in damages. Responding to the ruling, Mrs Bull said: ‘Our double-bed policy was based on our sincere beliefs about marriage, not hostility to anybody’.
Pray: that the Equality Act be amended to distinguish between legal and behavioural rights. (Jas.1:21)
More:http://www.christiantoday.com/article/judge.rules.against.christian.guesthouse.owners.who.refused.civil.partners/27378.htm