Gay ‘marriage’ bill will dissolve the glue holding society together: former Archbishop of Canterbury

by Hilary White – Apr 02, 2013

LONDON, April 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gay “marriage” has little to do with “equality,” being in reality the result of “an aggressive secularist and relativist” mindset that intends to abolish the very foundations of western societies, according to George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. The result, he said, will be the “alienation of a large minority of people who only a few years ago would have been considered pillars of society.”

Lord Carey said in an op-ed in the Daily Mail over the Easter weekend that it is “a bit rich” to hear Prime Minister David Cameron call upon Christians to “stand up and oppose aggressive secularisation” when it is he who is doing the most to push that agenda forward. Carey cited a ComRes poll that found more than two-thirds of Christians in Britain believe they are becoming a “persecuted minority”.

While such beliefs may be premature, he said, “the Prime Minister has done more than any other recent political leader to feed these anxieties.”

“I am very suspicious that behind the plans to change the nature of marriage,” Carey wrote, “…there lurks an aggressive secularist and relativist approach towards an institution that has glued society together for time immemorial.”

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British Christians fed up with coarse, sneering mockery of Christianity

by Hilary White – LONDON, April 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) 

Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative Party MP and social commentator, has written in the Daily Telegraph that British people are fed up with the increasingly unfunny and hateful barbs against Christianity in comedy programs.

The laughs today, she wrote in an op-ed, are sought not in subtlety but in coarseness, sneering at the creed having replaced satire aimed at the believers, and mockery of the person of Christ replacing mockery of His all too fallible followers. It is a vital distinction.

Although Christianity and comedy have long been natural bedfellows, she added, something has changed in recent years. Gentle mockery or sharp satire aimed at Christians and their leaders have been replaced by abuse of Christianity itself.

Widdecombe, a convert to Catholicism from the Anglican Church, was asked by the BBC to investigate why Christianity is such an appealing target for comedians and why Christians might not like it.

After all, the BBC execs reasoned, comedy producers respect Islam sufficiently to avoid laughing at the Prophet, so why are even the most sacred aspects of this country’s major faith seemingly the stuff of so much comedy? Is it because the Church here is seen as part of the Establishment? Or is it due to the rise of militant atheism? Or is it simply that comics would be afraid to do to Islam that which they regularly do in their routines to Christianity?? (more…)

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Brits are too polite and scared of offending “vocal and aggressive Muslims”: former Obama adviser

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 16 March 2013 | Steve Robson British society is scared of offending “vocal and aggressive” Muslims, claims a former adviser to Barack Obama. Professor Lawrence…

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London Protest: Christians Persecuted in Pakistan Demand Equality

by Enza Ferreri – 4th March 2013

Saturday 2nd March I attended in London the protest against discrimination and persecution of Pakistani Christians.

Organized by the British Pakistani Christian Association, it included the presentation of a petition both to London’s Pakistani Embassy and to the British Prime Minister’s residence in 10 Downing Street. Several religious figures and human rights campaigners were speakers at the demonstration.

A Peace Rally and Memorial Concert in Trafalgar Square followed, in memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Roman Catholic man who was Pakistan’s first Minister for Minorities Affairs from 2008 until Muslim extremists assassinated him in 2011 for his work to abolish the country’s blasphemy law which has been used to persecute faith minorities. He was the only Christian in the government.

Minister Bhatti had received repeated death threats for his consistent defence of the rights of Pakistan’s religious minorities and for his fight for the abolition of Pakistan’s shameful blasphemy laws, which mandate the death sentence for anyone thought to have spoken ill of Muhammad or to have in any way offended Muslim sensitivities: the standard of accepted evidence is very low, and intent or lack of it is not a consideration in passing the sentence.

Two months before the assassination of Bhatti, another man campaigning for the same cause, Provincial Governor Salman Taseer, had been killed by his own bodyguard, who for his crime was welcomed as a hero by many Pakistani Muslims.

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Britain’s Cameron Faces Gay Marriage Revolt as Plots Swirl

2/5/2013 Andrew Osborn/Reuters

British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to set off a rebellion within his ruling Conservative party on Tuesday over his government’s plans to legalize gay marriage, thanks to support from political rivals.

But though Parliament is likely to vote to give the draft law its initial approval, more than 100 of Cameron’s 303 Conservative party lawmakers are expected to vote against it on what they say are moral grounds.

Behind in the polls, Cameron is trying to perform a tricky, and some analysts believe, impossible balancing act: to reconcile his desire to show his party is progressive, with the views of many of those inside it uncomfortable with such reform.

Amid growing talk of a possible leadership challenge against him, many Conservative lawmakers say they feel Cameron is not a real conservative, and is sacrificing what were once core party values on the altar of populism.

“He hasn’t got a lot of political capital left in the bank,” Stewart Jackson, a Conservative MP who opposes the gay marriage bill, told Reuters. “There is only so much the Conservative Party is going to take. He has to deliver some authentic conservative policies very soon.”

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Sharia Police already a Reality in London

Posted on Friday, January 25, 2013 by Enza Ferreri

Five people so far have been arrested by the police in connection with the offences committed by the self-proclaiming “Muslim vigilantes” last weekend, including causing grievous bodily harm and public order offences.

The video that can be seen clicking on the link just below the post title shows ordinary people on the streets of East London being confronted by Muslim vigilantes telling them that it is a “Muslim area” and “this is a Muslim patrol”. They say: “No alcohol is allowed”, “The Muslims patroling this area forbid evil, and alcohol is evil”, forcing people to relinquish cans and bottles.

Other utterances are: “We don’t care if you believe it or not”, “We need to control this area and we need to forbid these people to dress like this and exposing themselves outside the mosque”, followed by telling aggressively to a normally-dressed (i.e. without hijab) woman and man: “Remove yourself away from the mosque now, and don’t come back. Do you understand?”.

To another woman who retorted that she was appalled they shouted: “We don’t care if you are appalled at all” and “Vigilantes implementing Islam upon your necks”.

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Egyptian Christian Evangelist Packs Out Westminster

Peter Wooding (Oct 29, 2012) – Source: ASSIST News Service

“I believe that if the Believers unite together in prayer and commitment we could see a great revival. We need to stop running to the hills in white robes, but do everything we can to tell the world about Christ before He returns.” -Dr. Michael Youssef

(London, England)—At a sold out International Evening at Westminster Chapel Saturday October 20, “Leading The Way” Founder and President Dr. Michael Youssef, challenged everyone to urgently occupy themselves with the work of the Lord, before the return of Christ.

“We need to stop running to the hills in white robes, but do everything we can to tell the world about Christ before He returns,” Dr. Youssef told more than 1,000 Leading the Way supporters and listeners at the event which was hosted by Premier Radio.

Travelling straight from Australia where he shared the same message based on Luke 19 where Jesus says ‘Occupy til I come,’ Dr. Youssef’s timely challenge highlighted the dangers of people predicting the times and dates of Christ’s return.

“Just seeing the urgency of the time should not just make us sit there and count the days but really get busy witnessing and serving and getting involved in global evangelism, which is what “Leading The Way” does,” said Dr. Youssef who is set to celebrate 25 years of worldwide Christian ministry.

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Gay Marriage Push Should Be Abandoned, Say 71 Percent of Britain’s Tory Party Grassroots Members

By Daniel Blake , Christian Post Contributor October 8, 2012

British Prime Minister David Cameron should drop his proposals to redefine marriage, according to a poll of his grassroots Conservative Party members.

The ComRes poll was commissioned by the Coalition for Marriage and found that a massive 71 percent of Conservative constituency chairmen believe Cameron should abandon his aggressive push to amend the definition of marriage of between one man and one woman.

The poll has also found that 47 percent of those polled believed that Cameron’s liberal stance on gay marriage had come at a cost to the party.

Furthermore, more than 70 percent believed that Cameron’s push for same sex marriage regardless of what others felt had damaged the prime minister’s standing in the party. Only 11 percent believed that his liberal agenda had enhanced his reputation within the party.

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Sharia courts ‘as consensual as rape’, House of Lords told

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 10/20/12 | John Bingham

MUSLIM women in Britain are being forced to “live in fear” because of the spread of unofficial and unregulated sharia courts enforcing Islamic rules, the House of Lords was told.

Rulings by informal religious “councils” and tribunals are sometimes no more “consensual” than rape, peers were told.

The warnings came in the first ever full Parliamentary debate on the subject in the UK.

Baroness Cox, the independent peer and Third World campaigner, last year tabled a private member’s bill in the Lords setting out plans to rein in a network of unofficial self-styled “courts” which apply Islamic principles.

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Rushdie: “The pope gets ridiculed every day, but you don’t see Catholics organizing terrorist attacks around the world”

ANSAmed, October 2 (thanks to Insubria) Salman Rushdie usually demonstrates that he doesn't really have any clue about why he is under an ongoing death fatwa, but in this he…

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God Is on Your Side

Excerpted from Higher Ground (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1995) by R.T. Kendall

If the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us … they would have swallowed us alive. … Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. —Psalm 124:2-3, 6

Do you know what it is like to have somebody physically attack you? The trauma is one that, humanly speaking, you don’t overcome easily. Or perhaps you have been verbally attacked. You know the awful feeling when somebody points a finger of blame at you.

The Lord’s people in this psalm were the objects of anger. It is very frightening to be near someone who is angry. Perhaps you live in constant fear of a co-worker’s temper or the angry outbursts of a loved one. You know how it feels to live in a situation from which you wish you could be delivered.

The truth is, your real enemy is the devil. The devil’s work is to cloud your mind. He can come as an angel of light; that means that he will work through someone who has the appearance of being very righteous, a person of integrity, a person who is believable. Or he may come as a roaring lion.

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Victory for pro-lifers in key freedom of expression case

Published by Christian Concern – September 17th, 2012

A District Judge, sitting at Brighton Magistrates’ Court announced today that all charges were being dismissed against Christian pro-life campaigner Andy Stephenson. The case against his fellow campaigner, Kathryn Sloane, was dismissed on Thursday of last week (13 Sep) during the same trial.

All charges against both campaigners have therefore now been dismissed. District Judge Nicholson’s reasoning in the case is expected at 2pm tomorrow (18 Sep).

Andy and Kathryn were supported by the Christian Legal Centre and were represented in Court by human rights barrister Paul Diamond and Mr Michael Phillips.

Andy and Kathryn, members of the campaign group Abort67, were arrested in June 2011, whilst demonstrating silently in the vicinity of Wistons Clinic, operated by leading abortion provider BPAS, in Brighton. As part of its public education project, the group, which has held peaceful protests outside the establishment for 5 years, displays images of aborted babies but does so silently and without harassment.

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ROMNEY TOUR TO EMPHASIZE UNITY WITH ISRAEL AND EUROPEAN ALLIES

By Maeve Reston / Tribune Washington Bureau – July 23, 2012 

BOSTON — Mitt Romney’s seven-day foreign tour this week promises to be an elaborate show of statesmanship — from his meetings with more than a dozen leaders from Britain, Israel and Poland to his attendance at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London.

But his advisers said voters should not expect any major policy pronouncements. The presumptive Republican nominee for president, they said, is traveling abroad mainly to “learn and listen.”

In a campaign dominated by the economy, the international trip offers the former Massachusetts governor a rare chance to show voters that he would be a capable leader on the world stage. He will he have the chance to brush up his foreign policy credentials — a weak spot in his resume — and his presence at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Friday also will allow him to highlight his experience turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when the organization faced scandal and financial crisis.

Mindful that it would be considered bad form for a presidential candidate to criticize of the nation’s commander in chief on foreign soil, Romney’s aides said that he would not make direct policy contrasts with President Barack Obama while abroad.  But he plans to frame his foreign policy goals and the purpose of his trip in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday in Nevada.

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In UK: Overwhelming Vote of Support for a Christian’s Freedom to Share their Faith

Aimee Herd (July 10, 2012)  Source: Gary McFarlane, Caroline Petrie – ChristianConcern.com

“That this Synod express its conviction that it is the calling of Christians to order and govern our lives in accordance with the teaching of Holy Scripture, and to manifest our faith in public life as well as in private, giving expression to our beliefs in the written and spoken word, and in practical acts of service to the local community and to the nation.“

(United Kingdom)—On Sunday, July 8th the Church of England’s Parliament, the General Synod, agreed to “overwhelmingly back the right of Christians to ‘manifest their faith in the public square,'” said a report from ChristianConcern.com.

Present at the debate prior to the vote, was Nurse Caroline Petrie who had been discriminated against for offering to pray with a patient, as well as Olive Jones, a teacher who had been fired for sharing her testimony with a student.

After the debate, the Synod voted 263 to 25 to pass the following motion:

“That this Synod express its conviction that it is the calling of Christians to order and govern our lives in accordance with the teaching of Holy Scripture, and to manifest our faith in public life as well as in private, giving expression to our beliefs in the written and spoken word, and in practical acts of service to the local community and to the nation.”

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Bells Ring Out with Olympic Prayers

Peter Wooding : Jul 23, 2012 : Assist News Service

“This is an opportunity to be part of a prophetic act, a turning point which will shape the future of our nation. Let’s make a noise, talk about God, pray for peace, pray for reconciliation and commit to love God’s world and His people.” -Rev. Ian Bunce

(London, England)—Christians and churches across the UK are being encouraged to pray and make a noise and join in the nationwide mass bell ringing planned for the first day of the 2012 Games.

Ringing Bells in UK According to a More Than Gold press release to mark the opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the London Organizing Committee is calling for thousands of bells to be rung across our nations. The mass bell ringing on Friday 27th July will begin at 8:12am and will last for 3 minutes.

LOCOG are encouraging the tolling of “any bell, anyone, anytime.” It’s an opportunity for everyone to get involved in a special commission by the Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed.

More Than Gold, the agency helping churches make the most of the Games, is calling on Christians and churches everywhere to join in and use this moment to ‘Stop and pray at 8:12am on Friday 27th July for God’s Kingdom to come and for a turning to come in our nations.’

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