False charges against street preacher
30 Mar 2018
Pastor David Lynn leads a Toronto church and has preached on the streets for 22 years without conviction. He also heads up Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries, which has 40,000 supporters and a YouTube channel with 8.8 million views. When he preached outside Barking tube station on 20 March, he was arrested and kept in custody for over 20 hours. David began preaching at 1 pm, and at 3.30 pm a group of supporters joined him. He preached about people searching for love in the wrong places; only through a right relationship with Christ can this deep need be satisfied. A large crowd formed, and David handed the microphone to onlookers to allow them to respond to his preaching. Fortunately his preaching was videoed, so that when a lady accused him of calling her ‘perverse’ and ‘sinful’ the footage of the event did not substantiate her complaint.
CofE would be shut down if it were a school
30 Mar 2018
A lawyer representing survivors of clerical sex abuse in the CofE said at a public hearing, ‘The Church of England is an inappropriate organisation to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults, and would have been closed if it were a school.’ The inquiry used the diocese of Chichester as a case study to investigate the CofE’s failure to protect children from sex abusers. Another lawyer said, ‘Over the past three weeks I have been struck by how inappropriate the Church as an organisation is to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults. Personally, I would not want my son to spend a moment in the company of a member of this organisation.’ The lawyers were struck by the ‘impotence’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold bishops to account, calling it a deep-seated cultural and structural problem.
Disturbing sculptures highlight male suicides
30 Mar 2018
Suicide claims the lives of over 6,000 British men and women every year, and is the single biggest killer of men under 45. An artwork called Project 84 highlights the fact that an average 84 men in the UK take their lives every week. The sculptures, of anonymous men with hoodies tied tight around their faces, were installed on the roof of ITV’s ‘This Morning’ studio on 26 March and were created with the support of bereaved family members. They were designed to give pause for thought to those passing by on the street below. Some viewers branded the artwork 'insensitive' and 'disturbing'. ITV’s backing of the artwork is designed to initiate conversations around male suicide and the need for better suicide prevention and bereavement support.
Brexit vote corruption?
30 Mar 2018
Claims from a Cambridge Analytica (CA) whistle-blower that the Leave campaign won by ‘cheating’ has some people calling for a second vote and others hoping the result can be overturned by Parliament. Our electoral system is under scrutiny, as new evidence shows that both remainers and leavers appear to have done what they could financially to maximise their vote. Researchers now believe it is probable that both sides were up to similar tricks. The controversy over the Brexit vote has drawn British involvement with CA to the attention of Transparency International. If Brexit campaigns end up on the wrong side of the law, pray that they will face the subsequent consequences. But, however we reached Brexit, the referendum result has three likely guarantors: the Conservative backbench, the Labour frontbench, and public opinion. See also article 4 in the World section, about CA.
Labour's anti-Semitism problem
30 Mar 2018
A demonstration in Parliament Square by two Jewish groups has drawn attention to Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-Semitism problem. Many leading British Jews have written to him complaining that Labour contains pockets of anti-Semitism that he has turned a blind eye to or dealt with inadequately. Jewish Labour MPs have been subjected to anti-Semitic rants and intimidation from supporters of the hard left. Jewish students have abandoned Labour groups, feeling threatened and vilified. The hard left is almost defined by its hostility to Israel, and in the heat of political debate ancient hatreds flame. Labour candidate Alan Bull said the Holocaust was a ‘hoax’. Corbyn called Hamas and Hezbollah ‘friends’. He is a Facebook member of Palestine Live and History of Palestine, riddled with anti-Semitism under the cloak of pro-Palestine activism. See
Theresa May stands with persecuted Christians
30 Mar 2018
On 28 March DUP MP Jim Shannon commented during PMQs on the return of many believers to the Nineveh Plains, and asked the Prime Minister to pledge her support to them. In her reply Mrs May said, ‘Easter is of course the most important time in the Christian calendar. It is a time of new life and hope. The message of the cross and the resurrection helps to support Christians around the world. We stand with those persecuted Christians. We will be looking to see what more the Government can do to support them.’
Ireland: referendum on legalising abortion
30 Mar 2018
The overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland will hold a referendum on 25 May on whether or not to alter its constitution to legalise abortion. The move follows the recent Irish Senate vote in favour of holding the poll by a wide margin. Last year prime minister Leo Varadkar won leadership of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party after campaigning on same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws.
France: police officer dies for hostage
30 Mar 2018
Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, a practising Catholic, was shot and stabbed after he traded places with one of the captives following a shooting spree in southern France. His brother Cedric said his actions were ‘beyond the call of duty’. France's gendarmerie honoured its fallen comrade, saying Col Beltrame ‘gave his life for the freedom of the hostages’. His sacrifice was compared with that of St Maximilian Kolbe, who in 1941 volunteered to take the place of a fellow prisoner condemned to death at Auschwitz. Beltrame and his fiancée, Marielle, were shortly to marry.