Equality and repression

The Pope has entered the debate on Labour's plans for a secular legally enforced religion with prosecution and imprisonment for those who commit heresy against the wisdom of Labour/ the BBC/ the Guardian. ( This is spun, just as blatantly, by the militant secularists who will tolerate no dissent on Equality legislation. )

I'm afraid from a UK point of you he's a bit late - before the vote in the house of Lords would have been better- but better late than never.

But will the Catholic Church recommend anyone-but-Labour for the general election ? Given Labour's enthusiasm for murdering unborn children who are viable human beings you would have thought that this line would already have been crossed.

Sadly as an Anglican, the Church of England's Bishops are almost invisible on this issue of the freedom of religion.

Anyway, a few corrections from what I've heard on the radio this morning.

The Church isn't worried about employing gays or anyone else. It is worried about appointing people who openly proclaim its teachings are wrong to positions of pastoral or doctrinal authority or whom represent the church. The Church better than many other knows that all have sinned and carry on doing so - its those who say this state doesn't matter or exist that worries it.

Now there are those who argue that the current Equality legislation doesn't force this. I heard a member of the hard line British Humanist association talking about just janitors etc. However, since he has no basis for being honest and fears no judgement I go with the advice of of Christian lawyers who warn it does.

What's happening here is the establishment of an arbitrary humanist morality backed by the terror of the state. Its the opposite of what those who have an open mind or a faith should want to see.

Arguments will be made in terms of rights of services etc but some of those people making those arguments have other agendas.

The bottom line is that any Christian or Muslim should think very long and hard before voting Labour.

Labour has become a rabidly anti-Christian organisation whose actions lead to the repression of Christians and needs to be recognised as such.

How the government and BBC are brainwashing your children against Christianity

Old Holborn has a guest post on the BBC's bit sized GCSE revision site.

Its incredible stuff - and maybe that's how they get away with it. ( The site can be viewed directly here ).

The BBC would like us to believe that religious programming can be left in the safe hands of a Muslim. The relative treatment of Christianity and Islam in these revision articles shows this is just not the case.

Warning: If you have a weak heart or underlying medical condition that will be made worse by a sudden rise in blood pressure then you'd better not follow the links.

"Wake up, Christian England! " - John Sentamu

Today let me recommend the article by Archbishop John Sentamu in The Daily Mail, which is primarily written in relation to recent events of anti-Christian oppression by the Labour lead state.

Key quotes include:

Why then, while our children are encouraged to celebrate the religious festivals of all the major faiths, are there those in public office who seem to be ignorant of how this country's established religion gave birth to this nation?


In the 8th century, the Venerable Bede, the father of English history, wrote not only of how the English were converted to Christianity, but how the Gospel played a major social and civilising role in this country by uniting a group of warring tribes and conferring English nationhood upon them.


The opening clause of Magna Carta in 1215 acknowledged the importance of the Church and its right to propagate its views. "

and

"Those employed as public servants and charged with running our local services, be they schools, hospitals or councils, receive their public authority only under a system of governance which is constitutionally established from the 'Queen in Parliament under God'.

For public servants to use their authority to deny the legitimacy of the Christian faith, when they receive such authority only through the operation of that same faith, is not only unacceptable but an affront. "

'my teacher told me I couldn't talk about Jesus'

There is another disturbing example of the Labour inspired persecution of Christians, this time of a little girl and her mother at a Devon primary school.

In short a little five year old girl was overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend and had been pulled to one side and told off by her "supporting equality and diversity" teacher. This lead to her being in tears when picked up by her mother after school.

Her mother also happens to work at the school, and sent a private email in her own time and from home to some fellow church members that the school has got hold of and is now under the threat of dismissal ( see the Daily Telegraph here for full details ).

Remember the Stasi Labour government has just set up the General Teaching Council that is busy trying to prevent teachers discussing their beliefs and to promote the state religion of "equality and diversity".

At the time that Labour is falling over itself to give in to threats of violence by militant Islam, it is setting the state on Christians.

Perhaps the Church of England's synod should have been discussing if any of its clergy should be allowed to be members of the Labour party ?

The Labour government sly attack on free speech and freedom of conscience

A while ago there was a lot of debate over Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which initially would have made it a criminal offence to be involved in the "incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation".

The problem was that both traditional Christianity and Islam oppose homosexual practice on moral grounds and based on their reading of their scriptures.

A compromise was found in adding the following free speech clause:

In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.

But now, on the second reading and with short notice ( to prevent proper debate and consideration of the issues ) the lobby groups have persuaded the government to reintroduce on second reading a clause into the Coroners and Justice Bill (clause 52) which reads:

58 Hatred against persons on grounds of sexual orientation
In Part 3A of the Public Order Act 1986 (c. 64) (hatred against persons on
grounds of sexual orientation etc), omit section 29JA (protection for
discussion or criticism of sexual conduct etc).

This bring back all the problems that had originally been settled. It is designed to oppress and outlaw sections of traditional Christian and Muslim belief.

The anti-Christian Gay fascist lobby is making a mistake here, since Labour won't be in power much longer and this is going to get repealed even if the sly and underhand nature of its anti-democratic application is successful.

And for Labour they will be seeing the first prosecutions of Christians ( lets be honest they dare not prosecute Muslims ) about the time of the general election. This will play badly in marginals.

PS This is one of those Ratchet issues, where those who propose the change hope to achieve more than the removal of hatred, but to create an enforced uniform state morality that will through the attrition of court cases replace traditional values and make those who have them fearful of the state.

"It's difficult to be a Christian in politics these days."

No Ruth - its difficult to be a Christian in the Labour party, and especially Gordon Brown's cabinet, these days.

H/T to the mole's review here

Labour to pay the price for its anti-Christian bias at the ballot box

Just found the quote over at Labour home from a Catholic voter in Crewe:

"None of the Catholics I know who take their faith seriously can take Labour seriously anymore"

The same article reports the views of a Labour MEP Mary Honeyball who has questioned the rights of a catholic to hold high office.

Whilst Stephen Pound (Labour MP and also a catholic) decries her views, he clearly suspects they have wide spread sympathy inside Labour as he introduces the possibility of a catholic political party.

So that's Labour showing bigotry in terms of religious, race and sexism - all in the same week.

As I've said before I don't see how any Christian could vote for the current Labour government or even be a member of such a monstrous party that whipped the legalised mnurder of children between 20 and 24 weeks gestation and tries to deny it ( see Harriet Harman. )

The BBC censors the murder of Christians - why ?

What the BBC reported:

Two Britons murdered in Somalia

Two British nationals have been killed by Islamist fighters in a town near the Ethiopian border in central Somalia.

The bodies of 70-year-old Birmingham man Daud Hassan Ali, and a 32-year-old UK woman, both thought to be of Somali origin, were found in Beledweyne.

The bodies of two Kenyan teachers were also found at the scene. British officials in Kenya are investigating.

The Islamists reportedly raided an English language school after taking control of the town on Sunday.

What also happened ( see if you can spot the details the BBC thought you shouldn't know ):

Four Christian teachers murdered in Somalia

Four Christian teachers, two of them converts from Islam, were murdered by Islamic militants last Sunday, 13 April, in Beledweyne in south-central Somalia.

Mr Daud Assan Ali (aged 64), Ms Rehana Ahmed (aged 32), both of Somali origin, and two Kenyans were shot and killed when militants stormed the school where the Christians were sleeping.

Both Mr Ali and Ms Ahmed lived in the UK and were converts from Islam to Christianity. Mr Ali returned to his home town in 2004 to realise his life-long dream of establishing a school. The Hiran community education project Private English School was only completed one month ago. In his blog for supporters of the school, Mr Ali expressed concern about night-time raids by militant fighters in his last posting on 30 March.

A spokesman for the Islamist group responsible for the attack on the town claimed that the killings were not premeditated, but that the four teachers had been caugh t in cross fire. However, several residents of Beledweyne are convinced that Mr Ali and his colleagues were singled out because they were Christians and the Islamists feared that they were teaching their pupils about Christianity. Mr Ali’s wife also said in an interview that her husband had been targeted because he was a convert from Islam to Christianity.

There are a tiny number of Somali converts to Christianity living in Somalia, many of whom have been murdered in recent years by Islamic radicals, who have vowed to wipe out all Somali Christians. Recent fighting between Somali Islamic militias and Ethiopia has heightened anti-Christian feelings, as there is a long history of conflict between Somalis, who historically have all been Muslims, and Ethiopians, who historically have been majority Christian.

However - today the BBC cites Christianity and the conversion from Islam as being a potential motive in this case in a different article on those who convert from Islam to Christianity here.

The article includes the following:

Last week, British teacher Daud Hassan Ali, 64, was shot dead in Somalia. His widow, Margaret Ali, said her husband was targeted by Islamists who "believe it is ok to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith".

I will give credit to the BBC for putting a link to this article by Shiraz Maher (who is a man of sufficient integrity to follow where the evidence in front of him leads, not where he has decided already to go) on its from page, although in the magazine section today. We need to discuss and understand the world and religious faith as it is - not as certain media outlets censor it for us. Incidentally Maher has some inportant points of the interpretation of Islam, and also the attitude of many muslims in the UK which he believes to be misinformed.

Christians told to deny faith to foster

As expected the Labour party's anti-Christian laws have claimed their first victims. See below:

Vince and Pauline Matherick

Committed Christian couple, Vince and Pauline Matherick, have been told they will not be reregistered as foster carers following their refusal to sign an Equality policy which forbids discrimination on the grounds of homosexuality. Mr Matherick, a 65 year old minster at South Chard Christian Church and his wife, Pauline, have been fostering since 2001 and have looked after 28 children. Earlier this year they were asked to agree to a new Equality policy which would require them to say that homosexual relationships were equal to heterosexual marriages if asked by a child about such relationships.

Mr Matherick explained that he and his wife had never discriminated against anybody, but that they would not teach children about the practice of homosexuality because the Bible condemns any kind of sexual practice outside of a marriage relationship.

The Daily Telegraph reports their MP, David Davies (Monmouth) saying:

"It's absolutely horrendous that Christian men and women doing their bit for the community are being discriminated against because of their beliefs. I'm quite certain that social services would never dare to ask a member of any other established religion to agree to such a stance on homosexuality."

Quite. What is it about Christianity that the Labour party hates so much ?

Update: from CCFN

Council Accepts Christian Foster Parents should not be forced to Promote Homosexuality

Vince and Pauline Matherick, the Christian couple from Chard, Somerset, who last week were at the centre of national media attention when Somerset Social Services ordered them to sign up to a new Equalities Promise saying they would have to agree to facilitate and promote a homosexual lifestyle yesterday won the right to have their personal convictions and conscientious objections recognised.

The couple met yesterday (31 Oct) with Social Services leaders and secured an agreement to this effect. The Mathericks hope now to continue to foster children as before.

Mr and Mrs Matherick are represented by Paul Diamond (Counsel) and Michael Philips (Solicitor).

Andrea Williams comments, 'This is a significant step forward for Christian freedoms in that the Council has agreed not to force Mr and Mrs Matherick to act against their Christian beliefs. This should be of enormous encouragement to all Christians who want to take up the important role of caring for vulnerable children.'

Links

The Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/24/nfoster124.xml

The Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2727855.ece

The Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=489285&in_page_id=1770

ENDS.

What the BBC said and what Ahmadinejad actually said

The BBC really needs to get someone who understand Islam and Christianity to educate its journalists.

What the BBC is reporting is shown below:

( Wednesday, 4 April 2007, 20:24 GMT 21:24 UK )

But this is not what Ahmadinejad appears to have said based on the live translation from his press conference. He spoke about the anniversary of Jesus Christ's ascension. This is not Easter, but Islam's denial of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.


Its another slap in the face for what they see as the West's religion. The BBC supinely translates it into Easter - but why should they ? He didn't mean that. He was restating Islam's superiority and the BBC was either too ignorant of the majority faith of the country it serves or duplicitous in keeping the point quiet.

Perhaps you think I'm over reacting - but the whole of Christianity hangs of the death and resurrection of Christ ( the Christian ascension day is quite some time off). Its makes an argument about GPS read outs in the sea look like a minor irrelevance. Its up there with holocaust denial for its significance coming from the mouth of Ahmadinejad. Imagine a Western leader standing up and denying what Islam says about its prophet ! ( You don't have to imagine just see what happened to the Pope. )

See extract below ( from Answering Islam site on Isa - the name Muslims use for Jesus )

‘Isa did not die on a cross

Christians and Jews have corrupted their scriptures. (Âl 'Imran 3:74-77, 113) Although Christians believe ‘Isa died on a cross, and Jews claim they killed him, in reality he was not killed or crucified, and those who said he was crucified lied (An-Nisa’ 4:157). ‘Isa did not die, but ascended to Allah. (An-Nisa’ 4:158) On the day of Resurrection ‘Isa himself will be a witness against Jews and Christians for believing in his death. (An-Nisa’ 4:159)

From the Christian scriptures - Paul letter to the Corinthians - written before Islam existed, buy people who were alive at the time of Christ. ( underlining is mine)

1 Corinthians 15

The Resurrection of Christ

1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance^[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter,^[b] and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Happy Easter - Man in a Shed.

Update: Let us Reason has a intresting discussion on this last subject here...

Here it comes - the GL lobbies war of attrition against the Church

A Church of England Bishop is being taken to court by Stonewall ( on behalf of some 41 year old 'youth worker' ).

Get ready for a lot more of this as the gay and lesbian lobby, with its many friends in high placed NuLabour government positions (where the traditional family has nearly no friends) and the BBC, starts its war of legal attrition against the Church. The SORs recently pushed through will provided a never ending stream of such cases - and the lobby groups will ensure they keep coming to court. Soon we will be in a position where the former soviet block had more religious freedom than Britain.

The Catholic church at least openly recognised the threat - despite the failure of its main representative in government Ruth Kelly to stand up for her beliefs and place her career first ahead of her faith ( Q: What is her faith worth ? A: Less than her career as is now clearly demonstrateable. ) But they still stop short of telling its members not to vote Labour and that is the only effective course of action here.

PS Check out the spectacular Bias of the BBC story - that fails to point out the issues of faith and the church's teaching but just trots out the lines it was no doubt fed. The picture of the bishop with the heavily biased caption below is also inexcusable - but typical from such a politically motivated organisation as the BBC.

Note: Whilst getting the link for the Catholic line from Cranmer I noticed that his Grace has also posted on this issue here...

Why do the left hate Christians so much ?

We now have a situation where the Cabinet can face down the prime minister of the day to make sticking to your Christian faith a crime ( SORs ).

Charles More has an article in the Daily Telegraph which pulls together a load of further examples of how Christians and the Christian culture of this country are under attack from the forces of secular leftism. See here ... I've put a small extract below:

Another charity, which wishes to remain anonymous as it tries to rebuild itself after the loss of council funds, helped get disaffected black youths out of gun and drug crime. A council officer accused it of "brainwashing" and "being a cult". When asked why, he said that no other course in the field had been nearly so successful, so there must be something funny about it. He did not like the charity's video projector used in its courses, which showed a logo saying "We empower youth".

But of course, for a Christian, faith and works go together, the latter flowing from the former. Works without faith would be like a body with limbs, but no heart.

The faith is why the works are necessary. As Ian McColl, of the Spitalfields Crypt Trust, puts it: "We wouldn't do it if we didn't believe it."

And if you believe something, you cannot just abandon it at convenient moments. All the mainstream Christian Churches teach that homosexual acts are not the moral equivalent of heterosexual acts within marriage (though a good many individual Christians disagree with this view).

I wonder what the Christian Socialist Movement make of all this - my guess is that they are all for just giving in ( they'll rationalise it differently - but it will most likely mean the same ).... You can't tell one way or the other by looking at their web site - but they do report the Son of the Manse visiting the Pope.

Related item - Iain Dale point to this note from Dizzy thinks on how the Labour government and parliament exempt themselves from the equality act.

Update: Its seems the Christian Socialist movement is in crisis - I'm not surprised given the government they have helped to bring about.

Extract from the CSM renewal blog...

In Proverbs we are told: “Without a vision the people perish”. The Christian Socialist Movement is perishing - precisely because it lacks a clear vision and purpose. Membership is in decline, it is running at a loss and has lost almost all of its reserves, and those who remain loyal are questioning its purpose and activities. Without drastic action to raise funds and recruit members in the next year, CSM may simply perish within a year.

Since it seems to Man in a Shed that socialism and Christianity are directly opposed that would be no bad thing, IMHO.