Anglican Mainstream

By Piero A Tozzi, Christian Post

In a major foreign policy address last December in Geneva before United Nations delegates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton identified "deeply-held … religious beliefs" as among "the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] people." Criticizing those who "cite religious or cultural values" to oppose "LGBT" rights, she then made a doctrinal point: if properly understood, "religious traditions" actually support the progressive march of "human rights" and sanction homosexual behavior.

Clinton's remarks followed an executive order making "combating criminalization of LGBT status or conduct" by foreign governments "central" to U.S. foreign policy.

Harnessing a "good religion vs. bad" theme to advance divisive social policy strikes a favored administration chord. Just as the White House has promoted ObamaCare's abortion pill/contraception mandate by using "Catholic" spokesmen such as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Vice President Joe Biden to blunt Church disapproval, the Obama administration speaks in religious language to advance its global social policy objectives while marginalizing faith-based opposition.

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by Lucia Muchova, Turtle Bay & Beyond

Medical Students for Choice (MSFC), a US group set up to provide abortion training for medical students, will provide grants for up to 15 British and Irish students to train in abortion provision at British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinics- “the UK’s leading independent provider of abortion care” per their admission.   According to the Guardian, MSFC campaigners are “concerned that an absence of termination training in medical schools – coupled with what they see as a political hostility – will lead to a shortage of practitioners that could jeopardise women’s access to services in the future.”   To remedy the desperate lack of interest in abortion provision, MSFC will provide students with funds to cover their travel and accommodation. The Guardian reports these expenses are part of MSFC’s $100,000 budget funding externships in 10 countries. The abortion industry is clearly facing less and less interest among medical students to train as abortion providers. Attempts to remedy the dearth of expert providers must, therefore, extend beyond national borders:   Read here    

By Douglas Farrow, Touchstone Magazine

[...]  Same-sex marriage dispenses with all of that, however. By excising sexual difference, with its generative power, it deprives itself of any direct connection to nature. The unit it creates rests on human choice, as does that created by marriage. But whether monogamous, polygamous, or polyamorous, it is a closed unit that reduces to human choice, rather than engaging choice with nature; and its lack of a generative dimension means that it cannot be construed as a fundamental building block.

Institutionally, then, it is nothing more than a legal construct. Its roots run no deeper than positive law. It therefore cannot present itself to the state as the bearer of independent rights and responsibilities, as older or more basic than the state itself. Indeed, it is a creature of the state, generated by the state’s assumption of the power of invention or re-definition. Which changes everything.

Six years ago, when same-sex marriage became law in Canada, the new legislation quietly acknowledged this. In its consequential amendments section, Bill C-38 struck out the language of “natural parent,” “blood relationship,” etc., from all Canadian laws. Wherever they were found, these expressions were replaced with “legal parent,” “legal relationship,” and so forth.

That was strictly necessary. “Marriage” was now a legal fiction, a tool of the state, not a natural and pre-political institution recognized and in certain respects (age, consanguinity, consent, exclusivity) regulated by the state.

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Pravin Thevathasan, MercatorNet

An international conference of psychiatrists is ignoring the clamorous debate over the psychological consequences of abortion.

That there are psychological consequences to having an abortion have been accepted by many in the pro-life and pro-abortion camps. The psychiatrist Professor Ian Brockington has commented: "Some [post abortion] mothers feel like criminals and brood over the dead foetus. Some find it hard to look at small babies and burst into tears when they see babies or when abortion is mentioned."(1)   Perhaps most importantly, the "pro-choice" Professor David Fergusson reported in 2008 in the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP) that his research shows that women who have abortions are twice as likely to suffer mental health issues and three times more likely to suffer specifically from depression than women who have either given birth or never been pregnant.   And yet there is an ideological drive to state that there are no psychological consequences to having an abortion. In 2011, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, together with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, brought out a systematic review that claimed that there was no causal link between abortion and subsequent mental ill health. The steering group which produced the review included psychiatrists Ian Jones and Rock Cantwell.   Read here  

By Steven M Perry, First Things

As government and other political institutions continue to fail us, people of faith remain the only consistent safety net for those in need. Take, for example, the State of Illinois, which recently passed the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act. The Act requires state-funded adoption agencies to place adoptive children with same-sex couples when they are available. Pursuant to this law, Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois will no longer provide adoption services. This is just one example of what is happening throughout the country: Ideology is beginning to trump the common good.

Catholic Social Services lost funding not because they were ineffective, but because the orphans did not fit the State’s definition of underserved. According to the State of Illinois, same-sex couples are the underserved community and deserve higher priority than the orphans. In general, the government has become a force for “change” instead of a partner of charitable organizations. This was not always the case.

Read here

By Ed West, Telegraph

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that six terror suspects can be extradited.   The famous hook-handed Abu Hamza, along with Babar Ahmad, Haroon Rashid Aswat, Seyla Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, will soon be off our hands for good.   Over £4 million of taxpayers' money has been spent keeping the men in British jails, paying for legal costs and keeping their families their families on benefits.   All are wanted on terror charges in the US, but have been able to spend years fighting extradition because some argue that supermax prison would amount to inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the Human Rights code.   Well, I’m sure we’ll all be horrified at the thought that men responsible for hundreds of innocent deaths, who have leached this country dry and filled Guardian column inches and Radio 4 minutes with sanctimonious drivel, might be treated inhumanely.   None of this should have been allowed to happen in the first place. We should give asylum to our friends, not our enemies, and there are deep and fundamental problems with that system.   Read here  

By Glenn T Stanton

Professor Bradley Wright, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut, explains from his analysis of people who identify as Christians but rarely attend church, that 60 percent of these have been divorced. Of those who attend church regularly, 38 percent have been divorced.
 
"Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as the world." It's one of the most quoted stats by Christian leaders today. And it's perhaps one of the most inaccurate.
 
Based on the best data available, the divorce rate among Christians is significantly lower than the general population.
 
Here's the truth….
 
Many people who seriously practice a traditional religious faith — be it Christian or other — have a divorce rate markedly lower than the general population.
 
The factor making the most difference is religious commitment and practice. Couples who regularly practice any combination of serious religious behaviors and attitudes — attend church nearly every week, read their Bibles and spiritual materials regularly; pray privately and together; generally take their faith seriously, living not as perfect disciples, but serious disciples — enjoy significantly lower divorce rates than mere church members, the general public and unbelievers.

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By Alan Craig

Top of my manifesto when I stood for London Mayor in 2008 was the promotion of “marriage and stable family as a long-term solution to youth crime, educational underachievement and child poverty.”   Top of my manifesto when I stood for Newham Mayor in 2006 was the promotion of “marriage-based family and parental responsibility – for our children’s sake.”   An MP told me a few years ago that it was politically impossible to mention the M word in the House of Commons during the Blair years as an argument in favour of marriage was immediately vilified as an attack on vulnerable single mums.   Life has moved on, and today the defence of conventional marriage is vilified as a homophobic attack on gays and lesbians. That’s nonsense of course, but it’s notable that the whole out-of-touch London political elite – all three party leaders and all four main candidates for London mayor – have swallowed wholesale and undiscerningly the Stonewall claptrap that gay marriage is about equality.   So I’m doing my bit and sending out this email:   Read here  

By Tim Shipman, Mailonline

Tory Cabinet ministers have been ordered to attend Diwali and Eid festivals with Hindu and Muslim voters after being warned they can’t win the next election without increasing the number of Asian voters they attract.

George Galloway’s victory in the Bradford West by-election has convinced Conservative high command that they need to do more to reach ethnic minority voters.

Ministers and MPs are being quietly told that they need to ‘show their faces’ regularly at ethnic minority and religious festivals over the next three years, rather than simply turning up at election time.

Read here

(Hat Tip to Cranmer, who has spoofed this article here)

 

by James L Clark, Post & Chronicle

Hands On Originals Vs Gay and Lesbian Services Organization

The latest flap concerning alleged discrimination in Lexington, Ky., has to do with the decision of Hands On Originals (HOO) not to produce T-shirts for the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO), such shirts to be used promoting the "gay pride festival" in June, something the city endures every year in accommodating the homosexual community – which can be guaranteed to scream "Bigotry" if not allowed to parade its collective self on the city streets, complete with all the lewdness it can get away with.   The GLSO has lodged a complaint with the human-rights-commission in an obvious effort to destroy HOO, never mind that HOO's reason had to do with religious convictions and not "hate," the term used by the mainstream media for every action with which it disagrees. Also, getting another provider presented no problem. The local newspaper, Lexington Herald-Leader, has been inordinately cooperative editorially and "journalistically," even advertising a "grand protest" in a downtown park, conveniently 2.5 miles from the HOO headquarters, which might be hard for some folks to find.   Sixty people showed up out of a population of 297,000 or so, an indication that folks are fed up with this stuff.   Read here  

Jamie Doward and James Legge, Guardian

"We don't do God," Alastair Campbell famously insisted when journalists pressed the former prime minister, Tony Blair, on matters of faith.

But it appears that New Labour's high command missed a trick by declining to talk up their religious convictions, for new research suggests they would have been preaching to the converted: people with faith are far more likely to take left-of-centre positions on a range of issues, including immigration and equality.

The research, revealed in a new report by the thinktank Demos, undermines the widely held view that members of religious groups are more likely to have conservative tendencies.

Read here

Michael Merrick comments: [...]  Take for example this passage:

Indeed, despite religion’s adherence to fundamental core values that tend to be considered conservative, religion has also been the impetus for revolutionary social change, including the abolition of slavery and civil rights movement

What does it say? Well, that despite the conservative core values, religious folk do some good stuff too. Which apart from being mind-blowingly arrogant, also sells down the intellectual river the very movement within which most ‘progressives’ feel themselves most at home. In short, these positive achievements can happily proceed from conservatism; there is no reason whatever to believe they happen accidentally in spite of it. Just as Labour attacks capitalism (or used to) from a conservative viewpoint, in defence of the individual and the family and the community, so do Pope Benedict XVI and other religious folk pursue ‘progressive’ policies as a consequence of their orthodox commitment to faith. Whilst this might not be the settled view of the esteemed voices within the culture industry, who merely articulate what everyone within that same culture already assumes to be true, it is nonetheless true in the real world of lived relationships. To fail to understand this is to retreat into a culture war narrative that fundamentally misunderstands religion, and indeed politics – the inability of the ‘progressives’ to comprehend David Cameron being both a Tory and One-Of-Them speaks of the same naivety. As such, any report that can say ‘However, perhaps surprisingly, religious exclusivists are also likely to hold progressive political views,’ reveals only its fundamental ignorance of that which it seeks to analyse.   Read here (hat tip: Echurch)    

 

By John Bingham, Telegraph

The majority of Conservative MPs believe David Cameron’s same-sex marriage plan is doomed to failure and is a source of deep concern for their constituents.

An all-party poll of MPs found only 56 per cent believed the proposal to legalise same-sex marriage would succeed, with 41 per cent of Conservatives believing it. Almost as many Tory MPs (37 per cent) believed the proposal will fail and 22 per cent said they were unsure, the survey carried out by ComRes found.
 
It means that three out of five Tory MPs have doubts that the plan will go ahead. By contrast, more than two thirds of Labour MPs and almost all Liberal ­Democrat members polled were confident that it would go ahead.
 
The poll also found that 60 per cent of MPs did not think that the policy was of “significant importance” to their constituents. Among Tory MPs the proportion rose to 69 per cent.
 
Ministers have repeatedly insisted that there is no question of “watering down” the proposal to allow same-sex couples to be married in civil ceremonies before the next election.
 
The official consultation paper, launched last month, makes clear that the question is “how” the change could be made, not “whether”.

Read here

From Edgeways Books

“We are a Christian country,” says the Prime Minister.* A few months after this declaration the media were informed that, after a period of consultation, the laws are to be changed so as to permit the marriage of homosexual couples. This raises a question about Mr Cameron’s understanding of a Christian country, and of his role as the prime minister of a Christian country.

Marriage customs are in anthropology one of the main differentiating features of societies and vary extremely. It could hardly be clearer, however, that throughout Christendom marriage is the state in which one man is joined to one woman to make one flesh and that, as stated in the Prayer Book, marriage was ordained “first, for the procreation of children”. By definition homosexual couples cannot procreate children. So, if this is a Christian country it has no homosexual marriage.

Th is obvious fact has already been pointed out by the Archbishop of York and by the Roman Catholic archbishops. The question why Mr Cameron, as a “Church of England Christian, who will stand up for the values and principles of my faith,” does not see that his policy of homosexual marriage contradicts both this declaration and the opinion that this is a Christian country, is one we have answered several times. Mr Cameron is not a clear thinker.

The more serious question is: What authority to change moral law is enjoyed by an elected assembly in a Christian country? and the answer is none.

Read here (pdf)

By David Millward, Telegraph

Stripping Britain of its Christian foundations would leave the country vulnerable to “the most sinister of ideologies”, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury has warned.

The Rt Rev Mark Davies used his Easter Homily to express anxiety at the consequences of undermining Britain’s religious heritage.

He cited the recent history of Europe to voice fears extremism would fill the void if Christianity was weakened.

“It has, indeed, been the experience of this past century, as both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have observed how the most poisonous ideologies have arisen within the Christian nations of Europe,” he said.

“Thus Nazism or Communism attempted to discard the Christian inheritance of faith and morality as if it had never existed.

“They sought either to return to the pagan past or to “re-create” and “redeem” humanity by political will and ideology with terrible consequences.
 
“If Christianity is no longer to form the basis and the bedrock of our society then we are, indeed, left at the mercy of passing political projects and perhaps even the most sinister of ideologies.”

Bishop Davies became the latest influential religious leader to warn of the consequences of increasing secularisation.

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By Ed West, Telegraph

This week’s issue of the Spectator is very important and worth buying – ie I’m in it, arguing that Britain should take action to alleviate the suffering of Iraq’s Christians, if necessary by offering sanctuary (no link, I’m afraid: you’ll just have to stump up the cash).   I met with three Iraqis who have been refused asylum in this country, all of whom had been threatened by Islamists back home. One had lost his shop to jihadi violence, another a brother. The Home Office wants to deport them back to Iraq.   Of two million Iraqi refugees currently outside of the country, some 30 per cent are minorities, mostly Christians, according to the UN: the bulk of them in Syria, Jordan and Turkey, unable to work and living in desperate poverty. Many in Syria now fear that it will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic communities.   The Christian population of Iraq has declined from over one million in 2003 to below 400,000 today. Overall some 1,000 Christians have been murdered since the 2003 invasion, and over 60 churches have been firebombed – the worst single incident being the October 21, 2010 massacre of 60 men, women and children at the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, which alerted the world to their suffering. Two weeks later Islamists detonated 11 bombs in Christian suburbs of Baghdad, killing five Christians and wounding 33, including a four-month-old baby.   Read here  

Amazingly, the symbolic Easter miracle happened here on Good Friday when we had our first rain for about six months.  The dust covered trees shone green again, and plants which were thinking about dying began to hope . . .  If we were to have another rain now, there would soon be a carpet of green.  The speed with which the transformation happens always takes my breath away.  New Life just breaks in !

Praise God also for a bomb-free Holy Week and Easter in Jos.  Security is high; no motorbikes allowed in town; many roads closed; barriers, and huge bollards around every church, and check points all over.  But it is definitely worth it!  I usually manage to escape the long lines at check points as I leave very early (around six) in order to play for the 7am service (would be 8am in UK!). Many people come late to church because it takes so long to get from one place to another, but the attendance this morning was quite encouraging – especially considering the effort that it will have taken many of them to come (lack of public transport etc.). The sustained praying that is going on here, together with the prayers of you and so many others around the world are making a big impact.  Thank you for praying – please continue!

We are just hearing that there were 1 or 2 car bombs in Kaduna this morning (another State capital, about three hours drive away from Jos, and a city where there have previously been riots and troubles).  It seems that the explosions happened close to, but not at, a church, which may mean that those killed were those who unfortunately simply happened to be passing by the wrong place at the wrong moment.  I cannot get any first hand information and details yet.

May you know the peace, the joy and the hope of the Risen Christ.

By Anugrah Kumar , Christian Post

Defying a decree issued by the late Pope Shenouda III prohibiting members of the Coptic Church from visiting Jerusalem, Egyptian Copts are for the first time flying to the Holy Land in large numbers to celebrate Easter. However, it has now been reported that some of them are being denied entry into churches upon arrival.

Copts were among the thousands of Christians gathered near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built at a site where Jesus was crucified and buried, for Easter Saturday. However, St. Helena Chapel at the church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem denied entry to them, Egyptian state-run news agency MENA reported.

"We neither allowed them to pray nor to break their fast," a chapel priest identified only as Mesaael was quoted as saying. "That infuriated them to the extent that some of them wanted to fight us. The priest added that Pope Shenouda's instructions were still valid and "we have to respect them even more than we did when he was alive."

Read here

Choral Evensong from Southwark Cathedral – BBC Radio 3 – available now for a week

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f68ds Salvation Army International Staff Band Gala Concert – BBC Radio 2 – available now http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d44jj   5TH APRIL MAUNDY THURSDAY Royal Maundy Service from York Minster – BBC Radio York – service starts 2 hours in [nb acoustic background noise] http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00q7d9s Video report – Washington Post http://tinyurl.com/cbpcxuw Music for Holy Week from the BBC singers – BBC Radio 3 [Byrd, Tallis etc followed by Dvorak’s Stabat Mater] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f68kw 8:25 pm The Story of the Cross – BBC Radio 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fbd48 Miserere Mei Deus – Allegri – Easter from Kings 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gd7jf   6TH APRIL GOOD FRIDAY 2 pm St John Passion – Bach – BBC Radio 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d6n0j 7:30 pm Easter at Kings: MacMillan: Kiss on Wood; Palestrina: Stabat Mater; Tavener: Popule Meus ; MacMillan: Seven Last Words from the Cross – BBC Radio 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d6n0n 7:30 pm Angelic Voices: The choristers of Salisbury Cathedral – BBC2 TV [UK only] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f6tb8 8 pm Canterbury Cathedral – ‘At the foot of the Cross’ – Good Friday Meditation including Stainer's Crucifixion – BBC Radio 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d95bg 9:50 pm Cathedral Heritage – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f6chc ‘There is a Green Hill Far Away’ – Easter from Kings 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gd7pg   7TH APRIL SATURDAY 1 pm The 158th Boat Race – BBC1 TV [UK only] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fp0×4 5.05-6.20 pm Easter from Kings – BBC 2 TV [UK only] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g7r20 7 pm Still Ringing after all these years: a short history of bells [and bell ringing] – BBC4 TV [UK only] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ct1c   8TH APRIL EASTER SUNDAY 05:43 am The Bells of Exeter Cathedral – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d84h2 06:35 am A sunrise meditation on the resurrection from Gloucester Cathedral – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fhnsr 08:10 am Easter Eucharist from Manchester Cathedral – the Bishop of Manchester preaches – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fhnsy features the first broadcast of 'The Peoples' Passion' a new commission by the BBC for Easter being sung by 120 choirs around the world http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/peoples-passion/ 10 am Easter Day Eucharist from Coventry Cathedral – BBC 1 TV [UK only] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g4ngl 4 pm Choral Evensong for Easter Sunday from Gloucester Cathedral – BBC Radio 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dtsdb 5:25 pm Easter Praise from St Mary's Portsmouth – BBC1 TV [UK only] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g7ttc 8 pm 'Easter Glory' – Easter hymns from Lincoln Cathedral choir – BBC Radio 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fbj2d ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ – Easter from Kings 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gd7gk   MESSAGES FOR EASTER   ‘The Meaning of the Resurrection: then and now’ – Bishop Tom Wright – Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/04/05/3471387.htm also see his prior piece ‘Can we believe in the Resurrection?’ http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/04/22/3198806.htm   3 Easter Video Messages from the Archbishop of York: ‘Good Friday: how good – because he is in it with us!’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXRuBu5z-d4 ‘Baptisms – a chance to start again’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OIAGOB-XA8 ‘Easter Day – there is hope and a future’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAB1QYqIUcw   DRAMA AND DOCUMENTARIES FOR EASTER   Cathedral Conversation: 5 part documentary on Britain’s Cathedrals – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f6n2k The People’s Passion: Afternoon drama by Nick Warburton set in a fictional cathedral – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fbg3h RESOURCES FOR EASTER ‘Easter With Premier’ – Premier Christian Radio http://www.premier.org.uk/easter Holy Week Prayers – Lent and Beyond http://tinyurl.com/cjmcywo Stainer’s Crucifixion – BBC Singers http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qqmff ‘My Soul is Complete’ – Ben Cantellon – Kingsway Music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-yaUm4F6Q ‘Salvation’s Song’ – Stuart Townsend – Kingsway Music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKeu9xH4T_w Jerusalem 3D http://vimeo.com/15034110

 

From Civitas

We have just published a new online report by Professor David Conway on faith schools. He concludes:   “All would stand to benefit from such committed forms of religious education in the country’s state-funded schools, not simply because it would be likely to improve the educational performance, behaviour and well-being of the nation’s schoolchildren. They would also all benefit because, I believe, only by continuing to provide it can this country be assured of remaining the independent and united liberal polity that it has for so long been and from whose continuing to be such all its diverse inhabitants would derive benefit, even those who do not share that faith or any other.”   Read here