Asia BibiChristian Voice is joining a witness for Asia Bibi outside the Pakistan High Commission tomorrow, Monday 12th November 2018. Citizengo and the British Pakistani Christian Association have called the witness, to start at 3pm.
We invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us as we pray for her swift and safe exit from Pakistan.
Address of witness
Pakistan High Commission, 34-36 Lowndes Square, London SW1X 9JN
The venue is near Knightsbridge Station
And this author will just say I have never before put together an article and sent out an E-Alert about it on the Lord’s day. But the British Pakistani Christian Association have specifically asked for our help. They tell me they greatly value our attendance. And did not our Lord Jesus himself say our choice is stark?
Luke 6:9 Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?
Acquitted of blasphemy
The Christian mother-of-four was accused of blasphemy by Muslim women in June 2009. This was in retaliation for her drinking from the same water supply as them. Some said she also told them Jesus had forgiven her sins and asked them what Mohammed ever did for them. She was convicted of blasphemy in 2010. Aasiya Naurin, to give her Urdu name, had been on death row ever since.
But just last month the Pakistan Supreme Court acquitted our sister. The court, we understand, articulated its decision with precision. the court was concerned to uphold the country’s blasphemy law. Equally, the ruling cited ‘material contradictions and inconsistent statements of the witnesses’. These ‘cast a shadow of doubt on the prosecution’s version of facts’.
Protests lead to bar on leaving
Pakistan’s Muslims continue to call for Aasiya to be hanged.The decision sparked immediate protests from Pakistan’s notoriously-moderate Muslims. Three days of riots ensued. A religious cleric, Qari Salam, submitted a petition. In response, the Pakistan government promised an unprecedented judicial review – a hearing of a petition – against the Supreme Court decision. They also promised legal proceedings to prevent Aasiya from leaving Pakistan.
Disgracefully, she has been offered asylum by the Netherlands, but not by Britain. The UK is understood to be terrified of protests by British Muslims. But how could that be true when our politicians repeatedly assure us that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’?
Pakistan’s new prime minister Imran Khan pledged to restore Pakistan’s tattered image abroad!
Former cricketer Imran Khan swept to office as Prime Minister in August. His was a populist platform. According to news agency Reuters he has promised to create 10 million jobs and build an Islamic welfare state.
However, Express Tribune points out his maiden speech
made ‘no mention of religious minorities, marginalised communities, attacks on women, religious intolerance’.
Furthermore, one whom some thought was imbued with a measure of courage caved in swiftly to the rioters’ demands. His promises to restore Pakistan’s tattered image abroad and to push tourism by building four new resorts a year must now lie in tatters.
Free but not free
Aasiya has now been freed and reunited with her family in a secret location. Nevertheless, Imran Khan’s decision keeps her under effective house arrest in a Pakistan filled with evil men bent on killing her.
Her lawyer has fled Pakistan, and the lives of two politicians who spoke up for Aasiya were ended by their body guards. Prime Minister Khan must firstly do everything he can to ensure her safety and security. Secondly, he must show some guts and allow her and her family to leave Pakistan.
Thirdly, the UK Government has to offer political asylum to Asia Bibi. Fourthly, our Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, should be calling in Pakistan’s High Commissioner, HE Sahebzada Ahmed Khan, and telling him Pakistan will be thrown out of the Commonwealth until it guarantees the rights of its Christians.
Prayer
Please pray for Aasiya Naurin (Asia Bibi). Pray for Imran Khan to show some courage. Pray for our Government to support Pakistan’s Christians. You might pray for the Lord Jesus to reveal himself to Muslims in dreams and visions and convict them of sin and their need for a living Saviour rather than a dead prophet. Lastly, please pray for a good turnout for tomorrow’s witness and for the realm of heaven to be shaken so that our sister and her family is released and Christians are protected in Pakistan.
Naturally, please join us outside the Pakistan High Commission at 3pm on Monday 12th November 2018 for an hour or two if you possibly can!
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‘Gendered Intelligence’ CEO Jay StewartA Christian Voice evangelistic witness outside a transgender conference in North London touched a nerve this morning.
Five Christian men turned up to give out leaflets, pray and evangelise. But organisers at the Resource for London venue in Holloway Road took exception to us handing out our tracts on the public pavement. They alleged everything from obstruction of the entrance to hatred. None of it was true.
Gendered Intelligence
The conference was organised by an LGBT lobby group called ‘Gendered Intelligence’. Its title was ‘Transforming Spaces’. The idea was ‘to explore the power of trans affirmative spaces’.
Real women have complained about ‘trans-women’ invading places they thought were women-only. Toilets, refuges and prisons spring immediately to mind. Not to mention women’s sports. So the idea of self-deluded aggressive people claiming ‘trans affirmative spaces’ is more than a little ironic.
Our presence brought some of the organisers outside with leaflets of their own. They tried to prevent those entering taking our tracts. Nevertheless, a number of dear souls took them and went in. And we chatted to two of the conference staff: a real woman and a ‘trans’ one.
Freedom of Sppech
Finally, ‘Gendered Intelligence’ CEO, Jay Stewart, thought it would be a good idea to waste police time. So he dialed 999 and a police car arrived. Initially, Police Constable Tehrani told us to pack up and move on. He suggested we were engaged in snti-social behaviour. However, this author explained concepts such as of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly on the public highway to him.
After viewing our leaflet and calling his superiors, PC Tehrani took a completely opposite stance. By the grace of God, he and his colleague PC Herald now explained freedom of speech to the activists.
Jay Stewart was nominated as Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016. Creativity, self-confidence, perseverance and adaptability are said to be among the essential qualities of a social entrepreneur.
Mr Stewart certainly displayed self-confidence and perseverance as he argued with PC Tehrani. ‘What if the leaflet was racist?’ He asked. ‘But it isn’t’, said the officer. ‘But it’s offensive’, tried Mr Stewart. ‘To you, maybe,’ replied the policeman, ‘but that’s just your opinion. There’s nothing unlawful in it. It’s just setting out a position.’ Mr Stewart was finding himself short of creativity and adaptability. He simply could not cope with Christians challenging his politically-correct establishment-approved stance.
Prayer & debriefing
So the police left and we carried on until 11am. Some continued giving out tracts to passers-by and engaging in conversations. Others prayed outside the venue, praying for hearts to be changed and for confusion to reign among the enemies of the Gospel.
We debriefed over a coffee and continued to pray for the tide to turn back and for souls to be saved.
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She is proposing a £4.5 million ‘action plan’ aimed at making society ‘more inclusive’ for homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders. They make up the media’s so-called ‘LGBT community’. And part of the ‘action plan’ is to brand any course of treatment or healing for same-sex desires as ‘abhorrent’.
As the Bible says:
Proverbs 29:27 An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
The initiative follows a major Government survey to which more than 108,000 LGBT people responded. The rest of the population, 99% of us, knew nothing about it.
The survey found out of the 1% of the population who are sadly L or G, as many as 2% had undergone conversion therapy and a further 5% had been offered it. That, clearly, will never do.
The action plan states: ‘We will consider all legislative and non-legislative options to prohibit promoting, offering or conducting conversion therapy.’
Avoid holding hands
The survey showed LGBT’s claim to experience ‘prejudice’ on a daily basis, the Government said.
More than two thirds of those who took part in the survey said they avoided holding hands with a same-sex partner in public for fear of a negative reaction. 23% said work colleagues had reacted negatively to them being LGBT. So not everyone has been steamrollered by the LGBT juggernaut.
LGBT hate incidents had been experienced by 40% of people in the survey. More than nine in 10 of the most serious offences went unreported, says the Standard. But a ‘hate incident’ could be someone like me objecting to repellent homosexual propaganda in Lloyds Bank, or a mother not being too pleased about dirty boys holding hands in front of her children.
The Prime Minister said: ‘We can be proud that the UK is a world leader in advancing LGBT rights, but the overwhelming response to our survey has shone a light on the many areas where we can improve the lives of LGBT people.’
Will DUP support the plan?
Arlene Foster’s DUP have kept Theresa May honest over Brexit. Can they do the same in respect of the LGBT action plan?
Mrs May’s administration depends on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP has remained a shining light in Northern Ireland, preventing ‘gay-marriage’ and abortion reaching the Province. Can the DUP shut down this ludicrous and freedom-sapping initiative?
Mrs May went on: ‘I was struck by just how many respondents said they cannot be open about their sexual orientation or avoid holding hands with their partner in public for fear of a negative reaction.’
‘No one should ever have to hide who they are or who they love.’
Does that include paedophiles and serial adulterers? Mrs May needs to understand that many of us, from strong religious convictions, seriously object to homosexuals flaunting their perversions in public. She continued:
‘This LGBT action plan will set out concrete steps to deliver real and lasting change across society, from health and education to tackling discrimination and addressing the burning injustices that LGBT people face.’
LGBTs matter more than others
The plan aims to investigate ‘LGBT abuse online’; as if no other form of abuse online is anywhere near as important. It also wants to improved ‘mental healthcare for LGBT people with a focus on suicide prevention’. That means other suicides, like those of young men in general, do not matter as much.
Lev 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
It will also say that society is to blame for suicides among homosexuals, not the disorder of homosexuality itself.
Inevitably, it will step up gay propaganda in state schools under the guise of ‘combating homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying’.
Finally, a national adviser on reducing LGBT inequality will be appointed as part of the initiative. And a BBC internal survey just found 10% of their staff were ‘that way inclined’. That’s five to ten times as many as in the population. Homosexuals are also over-represented in Parliament and academia. There is no ‘LGBT inequality’ in our law or in our public institutions. Just in the public mind.
Pastors may not pray?
And of course there will be the ban on ‘gay conversion therapy’. The psychological profession’s regulation bodies already prohibit their members from offering any such therapy. In the 1970’s activists such as Peter Tatchell browbeat the psychiatric profession into removing homosexuality from any list of disorders.
Therapist Lesley Pilkingon was struck off by her professional body, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. She was targetted in a sting operation by activist Patrick Strudwick, as he boasts in the Independent here.
But what if someone goes to their pastor and asks for prayer to rid themselves of unwanted same-sex desires? What if the pastor suggests a Christian healing ministry? Will ministries, even churches, that take a Biblical view on sodomy and lesbianism be banned? What if the pastor or a friend of one seeking healing offers to cast out a demon?
Attack on basic freedoms
Let us be under no illusion. This is an attack on freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of association, and inasmuch as Christianity forms the backdrop to a desire to be free from same-sex desires, or constitutes an element of the healing process offered, on religious freedom.
And why is such a ban being proposed? Simply to protect the fragile sensibilities of homosexual activists:
Firstly, the mere thought that someone could be dissatisfied with being homosexual and want to change is politically incorrect.
Secondly, the very idea that someone could actually change is politically inconvenient.
Thirdly, the concept that human sexuality is not rigidly determined at birth is at odds with the gay agenda.
Fourthly, the idea that there is something inherently wrong with sodomy and all things gay may not be entertained.
Gay Conversion Therapy ban criminalises ideas
There are people walking away from the homosexual lifestyle? How very dare they.
Homosexual activists cannot get over the fact that many ordinary people view same-sex desires and those outwardly expressing them as abnormal, unnatural, deviant and pathological. In particular, they cannot abide the church not honouring their perversion. But it never can:
Mark 10: 6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
And becoming one flesh in the Bible’s full emotional, spiritual and physical sense is something a pair of gays or two lesbians can never do.
So to be blunt, Mrs May is going to try to criminalise ideas. And that way lies tyranny. Another part of George Orwell’s nightmarish 1984 vision is in place. Here come the Thought Police.
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Baroness Cox campaigns tirelessly for persecuted Christians worldwide
Baroness Cox, who was in Damascus last weekend, campaigns tirelessly for persecuted Christians worldwide
A group of peers and clerics was in Syria hours after Saturday’s bombing, Christian Today has reported. (All our links open automatically in a new tab.)
The delegation included Lord Dykes and was led by Baroness Cox. The trip was planned some months ago, and went ahead despite the bombings. Naturally, it attracted a chorus of disapproval.
On Syria, Baroness Cox asked a question in Parliament in December 2017 which forced the Government to admit it had given £60m to opposition groups in Syria, including £10m of our money to armed factions.
Rt Rev Michael Langrish, former bishop of Exeter, was present. So was Rev Andrew Ashdown, who organised the visit. Rev Giles Fraser, currently in charge of St Mary Newington (South London), was also in the group.
Rev Giles Fraser posted this view of Damascus from the minister’s window.
A tweet from Canon Fraser drew the particular ire of Aaronovitch. Dated 15th April, it said: ‘Fascinating meeting today discussing the long tradition of religious pluralism in Syria with the Minister for Religious Affairs. And the view from his office window.’
Mr Aaronovitch wrote: ‘Given their ubiquity in Baathist Syria it’s quite possible that one of the buildings glimpsed from the window could have been a regime detention centre.’
Has anyone said the Syrian government is not repressive?
But the only alternative to it is the murdering jihadists financed by the UK, the US and the Sunni Muslim Gulf nations.
And out of the two, the Christians, Druze, Shia Muslims and Alawites of Syria know which they prefer.
Armaments fund Christians’ critics
The Daily Telegraph quoted one Dr Hisham Hellyer. “When British peers and Christian clergy have been to Damascus in the past, they were rightly condemned as presenting an image of appeasement to Assad’s regime, and showing him as some sort of protector of Christians, as though Syrian Muslims mattered for nought.”
Well, it isn’t that the Syrian Sunni Muslims, to be specific, ‘matter for nought.’ It is that if they were in power, all the others would be murdered or driven out.
Tomahawk missile. What the BBC graphic does not say is ‘Cost $250,000’. The 2017 attack cost the US Defense Department $14,750,000. Shares in Raytheon jumped 1.7% in the wake of the 2017 missile strike. Raytheon help fund the Atlantic Council.
But this is interesting. Dr Hellyer is ‘a senior research fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London’. The Daily Telegraph says so. And where does the seemingly-neutral Atlantic Council receive funding from?
Its own website lists the UK Foreign Office, US Dept of State, NATO and the United Arab Emirates. They all hate Bashar Al-Assad. Also listed are Rockefeller Brothers, Chevron Oil, Carnegie and a number of other merchant banks.
President Bashar al-Assad flanked by (l-r) Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, Rev Andrew Ashdown, Lord Hylton and Baroness Cox. We do not know the identity of the other three persons.
They were condemned by anti-Assad voices in the UK, but Baroness Cox defended the trip.
She said: “You’re in the country, you want to meet as many people as you can. You go to raise concerns, which you can’t do if you don’t meet.
“The main purpose was to hear the voices of the people of Syria.”
‘Let us decide our own future’
Baroness Cox said the Syrian people were anxious about foreign intervention. “They plead with us: ‘Please do not let the British government and the international community bring about an enforced regime change, let us decide our own future’, and the government is doing a lot to try to promote reconciliation,” she said.
Rev Andrew Ashdown said: “The people within Syria, of all faiths and all sectarian backgrounds, are appalled at the narrowness of Western media reporting and one-sidedness.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali added, “Britain maintains relations with and encourages visits to countries like the Sudan, Iran and Zimbabwe. Why is Assad demonised to this extent? In the Middle East, the choice is not between angels and monsters but between one kind of monster and another. With all my experience, I cannot say that he is the worst of all.”
Baroness Cox voiced the fears of local people that “ the West’s plans for regime change would be disastrous … and they would become another Iraq.” That was why, before last weekend’s raid, we were praying: Douma: Stop the West rushing to war!
Christians in Syria
Orthodox Christians in Damascus
We (that is, Evangelicals) have a tendency to regard the Christians in Syria as not quite like us. They do weird things like light candles and wear funny hats. We can be tempted to think they are not even born again. (As if there are two classes of Christians, ‘born-agains’ and ‘non-born-agains.’) Discuss in the comments!
Most Syrian Christians are in communion either with the Greek and Russian Orthodox. There are also Eastern Orthodox. Then there are the Eastern, or Melkite, Catholics.
Christians in Syria used to form 10% of the pre-war 22 million population. Only a minority of Christians in Syria are Protestant. The Anglican church in Damascus is currently closed because of the unrest.
But nevertheless, this Easter, Christians all over Syria were able to celebrate the Risen Lord Jesus, as we reported at the time.
Russian Cyber Attacks
Recently, an MP told me that Russia is mounting ‘cyber attacks’ against the UK. (As if we don’t do exactly the same thing.) The attacks were not specified, but message was clear. ‘The Russians are attacking us! Stop seeing any good at all in them!’ That leads me to this fascinating quote:
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don’t want war. Neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship…
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
There is plainly no threat to the UK of a Russian invasion. Consequently, the ‘threat’ has to be of the mysterious ‘cyber’ variety. No doubt all countries are getting up to all kinds of cyber trickery on each other. And now news comes from the Independent that senior MPs are getting together. Chairmen of the top House of Commons Select Committees will collaborate on the ‘Russian threat’.
We read: ‘Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat will lead the new “Russia Co-ordinating Group”, along with Labour’s Home Affairs Committee head Yvette Cooper, Treasury Committee boss Nicky Morgan, and the heads of intelligence, defence, DCMS and national security bodies.’
And here is the Sun claiming Russia targets MILLIONS of UK computers. In 2016, the Washington Post claimed Russian hackers had gained access to the electric grid in Vermont. It was a false claim. Undeterred, the FBI have put out a new report claiming Russian hackers are trying to disrupt energy supplies. It seems light on security advice, such as ‘install security software’, ‘never open attachments’ and ‘do not click on unexpected links.’ But it’s heavy on scare.
Russia was suspected of a cyber-attack on the Ukraine electricity system in 2015. For all the effort whoever it was put into it, Wikipedia tells us a mere 0.015% of daily electricity was not supplied. It still cut off 230,000 people for between one and six hours. A second attack, a year later, caused little more trouble but was more automated. However, the same articlesays the US and Israel also targeted an Iranian nuclear installation in 2009. Clearly, everyone is at it.
Fake News and Money Laundering
Along with the ‘cyber threat’, the MPs will consider ‘fake news’ or propaganda. That’s the likes of Russia Today (RT), Sputnik, Off-Guardian and (surely not!) Christian Voice. But ‘fake news’ is in the eye of the beholder. Are the people of Britain not grown-up enough to decide who is telling the truth? That is the reasoning behind what we used to call ‘a free press’ and ‘freedom of speech’. Unless you take Goering’s view and conclude that the non-mainstream media interfere with the government’s process of telling us we are being attacked.
The third ‘Russian threat’ is the money laundering said to be done in London by Russian oligarchs. So here is where it all looks like an exercise in clutching at straws. ‘Money laundering’ is ubiquitous. Is it really a security threat?
So we are left with ‘cyber warfare’. And on that, we are urged to accept the word of our leaders that it is a real threat to the UK and that the UK (and US) is not also engaging in it. They will have, sadly, an uphill task. Some of us still remember Dodgy Dossiers, 45 minutes, ‘sexed-up’ intelligence and ‘the 70,000’.
Psalm 7:14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
Better to be at peace
Surely the best alternative (unless you are an arms manufacturer) is to be on better terms with the Russian Federation? Is that completely impossible? Who says so?
Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Prince Vladimir accepted the Christian faith for the ‘Rus’ in Kiev in 988 AD. Would it not be a good idea to talk peaceably to the leaders of this great Christian nation? Should we not seek common ground against the real threat of militant Islam, for example?
Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
Thank God for the UK delegation in Syria. Pray for words of peace and understanding. Pray for repentance in our leaders. Theresa May and Boris Johnson have only this week been trying to force gay rights on the nations of the Commonwealth. Lord, change their hearts. And send your Holy Spirit into your people as we pray for our land:
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
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Jim Shannon MP will lead in a debate prompted by ‘Turn the Tide’
MPs Jim Shannon and Norman Lamb are leading a debate on Christian freedom in the House of Commons on Thursday.
Westminster Hall will stage the debate at 1.30pm. The title is”Freedom of religion or belief.”
Earlier this month Barnabas Fund published a booklet entitled ‘Turn the Tide’ to which we provide a link here. (All our links open automatically in a new tab.)
Magna Carta vs Louise Casey
The booklet shows the history of religious freedom in our jurisdictions. It quotes Magna Carta: ‘”The English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.” So says the very first clause of Magna Carta, the “great charter” signed by King John and the barons of England on 15 June 1215. Only four of the Magna Carta’s 63 clauses have remained part of English law to this day. This is one of them.’
It goes on to show a Government review carried out by Dame Louise Casey struck against the Magna Carta principle. Christian Voice carried an earlier article on the Casey Report. ‘Turn the Tide’ says: ‘The report defined “extremism” as views “at odds with the views of mainstream society.” It gave examples from various religions include “newer Christian churches” and stated that “all such instances undermine integration and should be challenged.” Elsewhere the Casey Review made clear that it considered such views to include traditional views of sexuality. Dame Louise recommended “a new oath for holders of public office” indicating that this should express support for “British values.” Elsewhere in the report she included support for LGBT ideology as part of British values.’
Test Acts
The booklet reminds us that Parliament abolished various “Test Acts” between 1719 and 1871. It says: ‘These “Test Acts” required anyone wanting to become a school teacher, magistrate, local councillor, MP or university student to publicly assent, often by swearing an oath, to a particular set of beliefs. The law thus excluded Nonconformist Christians and Roman Catholics from any of the above positions.’
Orwellian: Dame Louise Casey
But in an astonishing display of anti-Christian prejudice, Dame Louise wrote: ‘While many people in the UK appear to be seeing religion as increasingly less important and, in some cases, less of a force for good, for others, religion is very important in their daily lives. Within this latter group there appear to be some who are keen to take religion backwards and away from 21st Century British values … on issues such as …sexual orientation.’
‘Turn the Tide’ contends that the courts and tribunals are upholding a new set of surreptitious Test Acts, brought in with no parliamentary scrutiny.
Cases cited by ‘Turn the Tide’
‘Turn the Tide’ cites the following recent cases in support:
In 2015, academics at Sheffield University expelled Felix Ngole from a social work course because he previously posted comments on Facebook supporting a Biblical view of marriage.
This is a new “University Test Act” it says – Sheffield University requires social work students to support same-sex marriage. And that is a religious or quasi-religious view.
In November 2017, Cherwell School in north Oxford suspended Christian teacher Joshua Sutcliffe.
Joshua Sutcliffe with Andrea Williams of Christian Concern
His offence was inadvertently to include a girl pupil who claims to be a trans boy in an approving ‘Well done, girls.’ Mr Sutcliffe had immediately apologised, saying it had been a mere slip of tongue.
‘Turn the Tide’ goes on: ‘However, later the pupil’s mother complained that the comment was discriminatory. Mr Sutcliffe was removed from teaching and made to work in the staffroom while an investigation took place. He was then suspended for an indefinite period after the school said his “misgendering” breached its equality policy.’
In a third case, it says: ‘Andrew McClintock, who had served as a magistrate for 18 years on the South Yorkshire bench, was forced to resign after requesting to be “screened out” of cases involving children for adoption with same-sex households.’
Preaching cases more doubtful
When it comes to street preaching, ‘Turn the Tide’ is on less stable ground. Yes, Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell were convicted of public order offences in Bristol magistrates court in February last year. Indeed, the prosecutor told the court ‘that publicly quoting from the King James Bible “in the context of modern British society, must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter.”‘
But our brothers saw their conviction overturned in the Crown Court later that year. No street preacher, properly advised and represented, has ever been convicted of a public order offence in our jurisdictions.
Nor is the case of Pastor James McConnell compelling. He was indeed ‘prosecuted for a theological critique of Islam in a sermon he preached in his church’ in Belfast. The sermon appeared on YouTube. According to the Guardian, Pastor James denounced Islam as “heathen”, “satanic” and a “doctrine spawned in hell”. Charges came under the Communications Act. But the court cleared Pastor James ‘after a three-day trial in a verdict that upheld the right to offend under the principle of freedom of expression.’
‘Turn the Tide’ calls for ‘a new law’
The DUP’s Chief Whip and Defence spokesman Jeffrey Donaldson supports a new law
Barnabas Fund is calling for a new law ‘which positively affirms all seven aspects of freedom of religion that have developed over the last 500 years in the UK.’ It has the written support of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP on the back page of ‘Turn the Tide’.
‘Turn the Tide’ says it will need to include ‘freedom from being required to affirm a particular worldview or set of beliefs in order to hold a public sector job or stand for election; work in professions such as teaching, healthcare and law; study at school, college or university; or give parental care to a child.’
Similarly, Christian prison worker Barry Trayhorn lost his case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in 2017. That was over his right to quote the Bible on homosexuality in a prison chapel service.
In 2009, as the Independent reports, Christian registrar Lillian Ladele lost in the Court of Appeal. She contested a ruling that she had not been discriminated against by being disciplined after she refused to conduct same-sex civil partnerships. And she lost.
Do we need a new law?
Whether we actually need a new law is open to debate. The same judges will interpret any new law who are ruling against Christian freedoms on a day to day basis in our courts and tribunals. It may be that a law could be drafted in such a way as to compel judges to uphold freedom of religion. However, they might simply invoke the higher cause of ‘human rights’ and strike it down.
In 2013 both the Christian Institute and the National Secular Society became concerned at the number of Public Order Offences the police and prosecutors were bringing against Christian street preachers. The Christian Institute were concerned on the matter of Christian freedom. The National Secular Society were concerned from a freedom of speech point of view. They wanted to protect comedians such as Rowan Atkinson who would insult religions and the religious. They were also concerned about adverse publicity of police crackdowns on preachers.
As a result, the Institute and the Society joined forces. They successfully campaigned to have the word ‘insulting’ removed from Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
The change has made not a scrap of difference to Christian preachers. The police are still arresting them. The CPS are still preferring charges. They are merely basing the arrests and the charges on the word ‘abusive’ instead. They are, as we point out above, still losing those cases.
But the heavy-handed police approach needs not a new law but smarter guidance from senior officers.
Support the MPs
Christian Voice intends to start taking these cases to the streets. We are now planning a witness outside Sheffield University and another outside Cherwell School. Watch this space.
But in the meantime, the Bible says:
1Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Please email your MP via this Parliament website link and ask him or her to attend the debate in Westminster Hall on Thursday and support MP’s Jim Shannon and Norman Lamb. Above all, please pray for the debate for the light of Christ to shine through.
The triple-lock matters to pensioners - and there are almost twelve million of them.
Theresa May has stated Britain will leave the EU’s Single Market. But she could easily lose the General Election.
As the political parties write their general election manifestos, one of them faces a particular challenge.
The Conservatives might think they have an unassailable lead, but they could easily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And that would put Brexit in peril.
NHI for the Self-Employed
Firstly., they would dearly like their manifesto to give them fiscal carte blanche. Their previous manifesto promised no rise in VAT, income tax or national health insurance (NHI) contributions. That may have been foolish, but it’s why Chancellor Philip Hammond came unstuck in March.
His March 2017 budget proposed to increase NHI for the self-employed. The Guardian found at least 18 Tory MPs prepared to vote that down. Hammond and Mrs May retreated.
But this time, if they take out the pledge, every Tory candidate will be signed up to the change. It follows they will be unable to object. But they may not have the opportunity. According to National Statistics, there are now over four and a half million self-employed in the UK. The trend shows not sign of slowing down. ONS say: ‘The level of self-employment in the UK increased from 3.8 million in 2008 to 4.6 million in 2015.’
The pensioners’ ‘triple-lock’
The triple-lock matters to pensioners – and there are almost twelve million of them.
Secondly, the Conservatives would love to abolish the so-called ‘triple-lock’ with this general election. The coalition government began this scheme in 2010. It increases the state pension each year by inflation, the increase in average earnings or 2.5%, whichever is the highest. Maintaining the triple lock until at least 2020 was another David Cameron 2015 manifesto commitment.
Labour have already pledged to maintain the triple-lock. If the Tories take it away, they could alienate every one of the UK’s 11.8 million pensioners in one go. Nearly one million over-75s live in poverty, according to the BBC. At April 2014, the basic state pension was around £440 a year more than it would have been if it had been increased only in line with the increase in average earnings. So it matters to people. Almost 2 million pensioners may live in a household with a millionaire, but if self-interest or altruism kick in, Mrs May could be in trouble.
So that is twelve million pensioners and four-and-a-half million self-employed. Fifteen million is a huge voting block to alienate. There are just 44.7 million electors in the UK, according to ONS. You do the maths. The Tories stand to lose the votes of over a third of the electorate. And these are people who actually vote. Lose them and they lose the general election.
LibDem leader Tim Farron is chief of the ‘Remoaners’
The Brexit dimension
The LibDems want to remain in the EU, or at least in the Single Market and Customs Union, which amounts to the same thing. Their leader, Tim Farron, is also promising a second referendum.
Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said today that his party would scrap Theresa May’s Brexit plans. Labour would unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU residents to stay before talks even start. Furthermore, he said the EU single market should be kept ‘on the table’.
Frankly, a general election yielding a Conservative majority is the only way of guaranteeing a full, proper, clean exit from the revived Roman Empire. Without putting trust in princes, Mrs May looks like she could achieve that. More EU jobs are dependent on the UK market than vice versa, but even World Trade Organisation tariffs are not actually that high across most sectors. Trade deals are good for trade, but companies manage to trade with foreign partners without them. There is no EU trade agreement with China, for example.
Pray for the General Election
Ben Gummer MP is writing the Conservative’s General election manifesto. If ever a man needed wisdom…
They may not realise that there is a massive spiritual battle going on over Brexit right now. Behind every material reality is a spiritual reality and we are aware of that.
Pray the Tories do not alienate voters by abandoning the NHI pledge and the triple-lock. The Chancellor will have to wait. The most vital matter today is Brexit. If the Conservatives mess up the election and put Brexit in jeopardy there will be massive public anger.
Easter Message
We also need to pray that Theresa May takes this opportunity to make good her Easter message. She clearly said people in public service should be able to share their faith without risk of losing their job. But they are losing their jobs. So dispel accusations of hypocrisy by making that a manifesto pledge.
She also said the UK should be standing up for Christians overseas. So stand up for the Christians of Syria, and support the Syrian Government which is their only protector. Stand up also for persecuted Christians in Pakistan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, for example.
We should obviously like to see measures promised opposing the abortion industry and euthanasia. Reform of the family courts and the scandal of overbearing child protection is overdue. Crucially for the nation’s children, the Tory manifesto should stand against the fashionable transgender scam, especially in schools. That would cause outcry, but not fifteen million voters’ worth of outcry.
Finally, on foreign affairs, let us pray for a manifesto commitment of peace. Pray to have a Secretary of State for Defence, rather than – as we currently have – one for Provocation. Pray for a reset with Russia. Mrs May could pledge in this general election never again to destablise other nations. She could promise the UK will approach diplomacy with maturity. At the moment, Boris Johnson and Sir Michael Fallon seem like a couple of adolescent stags trying to prove their virility. The anti-Russia rhetoric is ludicrous and embarrassing.
Be sure every lobby group will be doing the same. Not the praying bit, obviously.
And do also pray for the other parties. On some matters, their general election manifestos could at the very least change the parameters of debate. Labour and UKIP could be better disposed towards peace, for example. There are plainly other issues attracting attention in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Wales to some extent. But if you live outside England, or even overseas, please spare some prayer time for the overall UK picture.
Deuteronomy 3:24 O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?
1Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: 24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.
1Thess 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
1Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
Robert Stacey convicted Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell on Tuesday 28th February. He handed down £2016 worth of fines and costs each. He even refused a stay of execution pending their appeal.
But we have discovered the retired laboratory manager holds office in the Royal Arch Provincial Grand Chapter of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.
The magistrate, 69 this month (March 2017), has also been a director of the Staple Hill Masonic Hall in Shrubbery Road, Downend, Bristol.
Provincial Grand Scribe Ezra
In fact, the man who could not pronounce ‘Catholicism’ is ‘Provincial Grand Scribe Ezra’. In court, Mr Stacey could barely read his own writing. Nevertheless, in January, ‘Grand Scribe Ezra’ managed to send out an invitation to the ‘Annual Convocation of Provincial Grand Chapter’. This will be held at The Crypt School, Podsmead Road, Gloucester GL2 5AE, on Saturday 6th May 2017, at 11.15am. ‘Companions are requested to be seated in the Chapter by 10.50am’, says the invitation.
‘Blue Lodge’ craft Mason apron. But inside the Lodge lies the occultist ‘Red’ Chapter
Royal Arch Freemasons love calling themselves by Biblical names. It is one way in which they invoke the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. So one Paul Diggins is ‘Provincial Grand Haggai’ while Michael Lettey is ‘Provincial Grand Joshua’. You will often find a ‘Zerubbabel’ and a ‘Nehemiah’ as well.
Freemason syncretism
Despite the Biblical allusions, the exclusive claims of Jesus in the same Bible are anathema to Freemasonry. Although Masons have to believe in ‘a Supreme Being’, their ‘Great Architect of the Universe’ encompasses all deities. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire says on its ‘politics and religion’ page, ‘a Freemason is encouraged to do his duty first to his God (by whatever name he is known) through his faith and religious practice.’
The United Grand Lodge of England says: ‘Every Freemason embarks on his own journey of self-discovery when he enters the organisation’. On the first page of a downloadable PDF it says in capital letters: ‘Freemasonry does not discriminate on grounds of … religion’. No, but you must have one, any one. All are equally valid.
Royal Arch Apron and Sash
Royal Arch Freemasonry
It is well-known there are ‘degrees’ in Freemasonry. The first three degrees take a member up to ‘Master Mason’ in a masonic ‘Craft Lodge’. But beyond and inside the Lodge lies the Chapter, the ‘Royal Arch’, with a further four degrees: Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason. Robert Stacey appears in the picture to be wearing Royal Arch Mason Regalia.
There are around 3,300 ‘Craft Masons’ in the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Lodges alone. It appears some 800 of them have been ‘exalted’ to the entry degree in the Royal Arch. Often the Lodge with its three ‘craft’ Masonic degrees is known as ‘Blue Lodge Masonry’ from its regalia. The Royal Arch is the ‘Red Lodge’ (although it is a ‘Chapter’ not a ‘Lodge’).
Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Royal Arch Banner
Mr Stacey as ‘Ezra’ is keen to help ‘craft masons’ ‘discover the “genuine secrets of a master mason” (and) the companionship of a Royal Arch Chapter’. In fact, he is at the front of an initiative ‘to make all master masons … aware of where the secrets can be found and to introduce the Royal Arch.’
The Bristol magistrate is no less than his Royal Arch Chapter’s recruiting sergeant.
In his book ‘The Brotherhood’, Stephen Knight laid a lot of Freemasonry bare. Of great significance is what happened when the two rival bands of freemasons, the Antients and the Moderns, united in 1813. They became the ‘United Grand Lodge of England’. Knight is quoted on a webpage as saying:
‘The Union’s acceptance of Royal Arch workings is of great importance~ for it completed in all essentials the structure of Freemasonry as it exists today. Just as the Moderns de-Christianised the movement, so with the acceptance of Royal Arch the Antients succeeded in introducing the undeniably occult – notably the invocation of the supposedly rediscovered long-lost name of God.’
‘Inside the Brotherhood’ was a follow-up to ‘The Brotherhood’
There was a follow-up to Knight’s book, ‘Inside the Brotherhood’ by Martin Short. It led to a call from the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee in 1997 for police officers, magistrates, judges and crown officers to publicly register their Masonic membership. Amid obstruction from the Freemasons, including from the United Grand Lodge of England, the initiative petered out.
Indeed, how many other local judges, police officers and prosecutors, not to say council officials and elected members, are ‘brothers’ of Stacey? How many are in the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Lodge or even the corresponding Royal Arch Chapter? We have found and listed a few names here. If any are recognisable as men in public office please let us know. But there will be many others.
Occult name of God
The long-lost name of God in Masonry is supposed to be Jah-Bul-On. It is regarded as so sacred no Mason is allowed to utter it alone. Like all aspects of Royal Arch Freemasonry it is syncretistic, occult and ridiculous. Jah stands for the Hebrew name of God, ‘Bul’ for the Canaanite deities ‘Baal’, while ‘On’ refers to the Egyptian ‘Osiris’. Being absurd, of course, does not stop Royal Arch from being quintessentially evil. We read this interesting detail:
‘In 1989 it was announced that JAHBULON would soon be dropped from England’s Royal Arch Ritual. ‘Grand Scribe Ezra’ Higham denied this was in response to recent Christian condemnations. Journalists later visiting Freemason’s Hall overheard chortles that junking JAHBULON had invalidated the book “Inside the Brotherhood’ even before it was published. However on 4th March Clifford Longley (The Times religious affairs correspondent) wrote that by replacing JAHBULON with JHVH – meaning Jahweh, the Jew’s Holy Name for God -Masonry may be falling in “deeper waters than the Grand Lodge has yet realised… While to invoke a false God is idolatry, to invoke the Name of the True God falsely is blasphemy”.’
The Royal Arch ‘Triple Tau’ device seen in the Apron above. It is actually a T over an H; Templum Hieroslymoe – “The Temple of Jerusalem,”
Blasphemous invocation of God
A lot of Masonic ritual is now ‘out there’ on the web and has not been denied by Masons. For example: ‘The Royal Arch degree catechism asks, “Are you a Royal Arch Mason?” To which the reply is made, “I – AM – THAT – I – AM.”‘
It goes without saying that to invoke the name of God from Exodus 3:14 is the height of blasphemy:
Exodus 3:13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Occult identification with Hiram
In another place, we read: ‘Fourth, continuing our tour of ritual, the third degree candidate plays the Masonic hero Hiram Abif (or Abiff) in a dramatic reenactment, wherein he identifies with Hiram in Hiram’s death, burial, and “raising.”‘ That is a complete rejection of the Lord Jesus. Every Christian identifies with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. To invoke an employee of the king of Tyre who helped Solomon build the temple is a mockery. Furthermore, such a rite is deeply occult.
Freemason Square and Compasses. The compasses describe a circle, part of Freemasonry’s occult symbolism. The square indicates their obsession with building.
In fact, Masons have a special regard for Solomon, king Hiram and Hiram Abif, believing they possessed ancient secrets. Masonic documents show them to be obsessed by ‘secrets’ and believe they have some really important supernatural ones. As it happens, they describe themselves as ‘not a secret society but a society with secrets‘, as if that makes it better.
Incompatible with Christianity
Dr. D. R. Denman, an Anglican scholar, once himself a mason, shows how opposed Masonry is to Christianity. Everyone outside Masonry is held to be ‘in darkness’. But Jesus Christ said his followers are no longer in darkness, but in the light:
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Dr Denman wrote: “Christ and the Craft are fundamentally opposed to one another. Well I remember the wave of nausea as I stood an initiate outside the Masonic Lodge and heard myself referred to as a poor candidate in a state of darkness who by God’s help was seeking the light. God’s grace had already shone in my heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: this I knew, and as I stood there listening to the first utterance of Masonic ritual I was aware of rampant evil.
“In vain, I sought for some acknowledgement of the Light of the World in the worship and ritual of the degrees that followed. There was nothing. The sense of blasphemy had become, by the middle of the Third Degree ceremony, so overwhelming that I was moved to protest and to leave the Temple, never to return.”
What is ‘the craft’ of masonry?
And what are those ‘secrets’? Freemason websites speak of their charitable work, of brotherly love, of moral improvement. They speak of their ‘Craft’. But they never say what the ‘Craft’ is that they are learning. It certainly isn’t stone-masonry. That may be the imagery, but Masonic lodges are not teaching their 1st Degree Apprentices how to cut a block of limestone or make a trefoil window out of it.
The Masonic Lodge of Education says: ‘Masonic education helps you attain a basic education in the craft.’ It states ‘much like King Solomon’s wisdom in biblical times of laying a strong foundation for his Temple (edifice); our full understanding of the Masonic Craft becomes necessary to fully embrace its rays of light.’ That sounds esoteric. The ‘Masonic Craft’ has clearly parted company with the building trade. But what has it become?
Occultism and New Age Mysticism?
The website admits: ‘your Lodge Library contains absolutely nothing really helpful with which to train a new brother to bring him up in the Craft.’ Which continues to beg the question: What is ‘the Craft’? No-one ever says. That may be because it is ‘secret’, and that itself is suspicious. Or it may be because it is occult, more to do with, dare we say it, witchcraft than construction. If not witchcraft, we are in the realm of arcane mysteries, with cross-over into New Age ‘revelation’.
It is always better to source from Masonic sites not those opposing it. One Grand Chapter site speaks of ‘ancient rituals’ and admits: ‘There is also an esoteric side of Ancient Craft Masonry’. It talks of symbols having ‘an exoteric meaning’ and ‘esoteric symbolism’. The site admits: ‘Some of the symbolism in Craft Masonry originates in the ancient mystery traditions of the world. Hermetism, Philosophy, Kabalistic, and Alchemical, for example, share many of the same symbols with Freemasonry.’
So Freemasonry encompasses (if the expression does not fall too awkwardly in the context of their well-known symbolism above) occultism, idolatry and blasphemy. Above all it denies Jesus Christ, the only one who can set them free.
Stacey should not have sat
Moreover, it was a Royal Arch Freemason, Robert James Stacey, ‘Grand Scribe Ezra,’ who made criminals of two Christian evangelists. He found them to be ‘abusive’ and ‘disorderly’. Their crime? To contend in public that only by the name of Jesus Christ could men be saved. Such a claim was a great personal challenge to him. Royal Arch Masonry claims itself to be the way, to have the truth and the light and to lead to abundant life.
Stacey should have recused himself over such a blatant conflict of interest. Ironically, a Christian District Judge, legally qualified, declined to hear the case for exactly that reason. But a Royal Arch Freemason, steeped in anti-Christian occultism, would be severely prejudiced against the Christian message. Christ confronts everything he believes in. It destroys all his ‘secrets’. How would he ever be capable of reaching an impartial verdict?
Two magistrates sat either side of him, Josephine Ramsden and Gerard McDermott. It is disappointing they went along with Stacey in the guilty verdicts despite the circumstances and clear case law presented.
A register of Freemasons in public life must surely now become compulsory.
The anti-transgender bus is currently impounded in Madrid
A bus with an anti-transgender message in Spanish has been banned from Barcelona and not allowed to move in Madrid.
And now a judge has supported Madrid’s capture of the bus, reports the BBC. Jose Juan Escalonilla said the bus could not move until the slogans, including “if you are born a man, you are a man”, were removed.
The story made Breitbart, after which the BBC and RT took it up. Secularists, of course, are incensed. RT’s story gives more detail and pictures some anti-Christian slogans photo-shopped onto the original bus image.
Crude cartoon
In fact the slogans go further than that. The bus was painted in response to an advertisement placed by ‘trans’ activists featuring a crude cartoon of two boys and two girls, all naked, in which one of each sex is pictured with the genitalia of the other. In a sop to normality, the ‘boy’ figures have short hair, the ‘girl’ ones long hair. The BBC link above reprints the cartoon.
It said: “Hay niñas con pene y niños con vulva. Así de sencillo”. ‘Hay’ is ‘there are’, ‘niñas’ is ‘girls’, ‘niños’ is ‘boys’ while ‘Así de sencillo’ means ‘It’s that simple’. You can work out the obvious words for genitals.
Anti-transgender response
But is it that simple? The bus disagreed: ‘Los niños tienen penes, las niñas tienen vulva, que no te engañen”. “Si naces hombre, eres hombre. Si eres mujer, seguirás siéndolo”.
To help you translate, ‘tienen’ is ‘they have’. ‘que no te engañen’ means ‘Don’t be fooled’. Breitbart helps us with the rest: ‘If you are born a man, you are a man. If you are a woman, you will still be one.’
The bus was impounded under municipal rules against outdoor advertising. The judge did not find the bus went as far as being a hate crime. However, he said the bus was an “act of contempt”. Moreover, it was meant to “injure” the dignity of people of a different sexual orientation, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Furthermore, Señor Escalonilla said the bus may not move until the slogans are removed.
Make yourself heard
Ignacio Arsuaga
The bus belongs to a Catholic group, Hazte Oir, but it was funded anonymously. The group plans to take it on a nationwide tour of Spanish cities.
Ignacio Arsuaga, the president of Hazte Oir, which translates as “Make yourself heard”, argued the group had a right to protest against “laws of sexual indoctrination” and had the right to freedom of speech, says the BBC.
The group contend Madrid City Council’s “kidnap” of the bus was “clearly illegal”.
Mr Arsuaga claimed the slogan on the bus stated only “a fact of biology that is studied in schools”.
The Mayor of Barcelona said the controversial coach would not be welcome there. He wrote on Twitter: “In Barcelona there is no place for LGBT-phobic buses. We want our children to grow in freedom and without hatred.”
Of course, in the rarified atmosphere of gender identity, anti-transgender people speaking the truth have no defence against a charge of ‘hatred’.
Jackie Evancho struggled to find the bottom note in the Star Spangled Banner
Finally, at least to date, the girl who sang the US National Anthem at President Trump’s Inauguration has chipped in.
Just days ago, Mr Trump overturned Obama-era guidance allowing transgender students to use school ‘rest-rooms’ matching their gender identity. As a consequence, boys in frocks can no longer pop up in the girls’ toilets.
Here’s Jackie and her brotherAnd here they are again
In return, he might bring in a singing teacher to enlighten Miss Evancho on where to find a bottom A flat.
Take a stand
But seriously, as if singing within your range is not serious, we all, from the President down, need to take a stand.
We all need to say very clearly that no amount of hormone drugs and no grotesque surgical mutilation will ever stop a man being genetically a man and a woman remaining genetically a woman. After all, if you seriously and honestly believed you were Long John Silver, would you really expect doctors to cut off your leg and buy you a parrot? Medicine is given because someone is ill. Doctors should heal, not destroy. Of course ‘Trans’ people have issues, but they need help to accept their body at a psychological, emotional and dare we say spiritual level. Some may even need deliverance. But none needs the surgeon’s knife.
Welcome to the Post-Truth World
In the UK of course, the House of Commons started the rot in 2004. Regrettably, they passed the Gender Recognition Act in that fateful year. Under it, men and women can now go back and falsify their birth certificates.
As a result, Parliament legislated a lie. So welcome to the ‘post-truth’ world.
Pray for the truth to triumph. Pray for righteousness to prevail in a world parting company with reality. You could pray the bus is released and continues on its prophetic journey through Spain. Pray it wakes us all up and starts a movement. Above all, never forget always to refer to people by their God-given gender, never by their assumed one!
Psalm 33:4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
2Cor 6:7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left…
2Peter 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
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Michael Stockwell, Adrian Clark and Michael Overd in front of Bristol Magistrates Court
Bristol Court tramples on freedom of speech
A magistrates court in Bristol has convicted two Christian preachers charged with public order offences.
The case against two other men collapsed.
Justices of the Peace Mr Robert Stacey (Chairman), Mr Gerry McDermot and Mrs Josephine Ramsden gave judgment on Tuesday 28th February 2017. The justices rode roughshod over principles of freedom of speech set out in a catalogue of previous cases.
They imposed a fine and costs on each convicted totalling £2016.
The case arose over an outreach in Bristol city centre last July (2016). Four preachers were setting out the Gospel in front of John Wesley’s Chapel in Broadmead.
Out of the four, Don Karns had charges laid and then withdrawn. Having heard the prosecution case against Adrian Clark, their worships decided he had no case to answer. That left Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell who were found guilty today.
Public Order Act
The men were prosecuted under the Public Order Act 1986. This says, at Section 5:
‘(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he—
‘(a) uses threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
‘(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening or abusive, ‘within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.’
The Court saw a video of the whole event recorded by one of the defendants.
In the video Mr Overd described the crowd as ‘depraved’ because of their ignorance of God. He told them he had been like that himself. He said all mankind were liars and thieves, and he specifically included Mohammed and the Buddha in that. Allah was a false god, he said, and only Jesus Christ was the way to salvation. He denounced extra-marital sex and homosexual behaviour.
Crossed the line
Bristol Magistrates Court
But the Crown, said Mr Ian Jackson, prosecuting, held that these ‘crossed the line’.
Mr Stockwell told the crowd the ‘Thief comes to kill, steal and destroy’. ‘People were on their way to hell because of their failure to adopt the world view of Christianity’, said Mr Jackson.
The inclusion of homosexuality in a list containing thieves and drunkards also crossed the line into abuse.
But Michael Phillips, defending, told the court the list of sinners was in the Bible, at 1Cor 6:9-10. It was the same passage cited in the Appeal Court case of Alison Redmond-Bate, where important principles of free speech were laid down and her conviction set aside.
There, as in this case, said Mr Phillips, a hostile crowd gathered and the police were called to maintain order. There, as in this case, the preachers rather than the trouble-makers were wrongly arrested.
Witnesses gave false evidence
The prosecution brought four witnesses. Event Sales Manager Dimitri Lavallée, describing himself as a Buddhist, had called the police, by falsely telling them the preachers were making racist and homophobic statements. He saw no violence and heard no threats. He evidently did not like ‘peoples faith and lifestyle choices’ being criticised.
John Wesley’s Chapel in Broadmead, near where the brothers were preaching
Witness Ahsanul Khan said he was shopping and engaged the preachers about Islam and the authenticity of the Bible. He agreed he enjoyed the cut and thrust of debate. But he did not like the preachers ‘saying all of us were sinners’. They were ‘discriminating us’, he said.
Alexander Walker could not remember the substance of any remarks but said some in the crowd were ‘incensed’ by them.
Finally, Lindsay Tamsin Powell said she was in Bristol’s Broadmead saw a placard about Islam and heard the preachers say gay people ‘would burn in hell’. A preacher told a gay person he was ‘disgusting’, she said.
She stayed for about an hour, did not see any violence, but said she was ‘upset’. Ms Powell did not to see people ‘hated on’. She thought we should be ‘nice to each other’. The preachers ‘told a Muslim guy he would burn in hell’, she said.
Mr Phillips asked Lindsay Powell to identify which man in the dock said gays and Muslims would ‘burn in hell’. She pointed to Mr Stockwell. But it was never said, Mr Phillips told her. ‘Disgusting’ was never said either. There was no anti-Islam placard. Her testimony was false.
All the witnesses accepted they had stayed around and anyone was free to listen or to leave.
Provoking violence?
Mr Robert Stacey, speaking on behalf of the bench, said the case revolved around whether the individual behaviour of the two defendants crossed the line between freedom of speech and public disorder. He said the case law set the bar very high before the law should intervene. Speakers had to ‘move into the territory of provoking violence’, he said.
The court heard no evidence of any violence. But the bench held the mere fact some disorderly elements in the crowd became restless meant the preachers had provoked violence. Mr Stacey, who had some difficulty in reading what he had written and pronouncing long words like ‘Catholicism;, said the preachers were abusive and disorderly.
In addition, they were motivated by hostility to religious beliefs and therefore the offence was ‘aggravated’. This was despite the statute law saying religious aggravation only kicked in when hatred was directed at members of a religious group, not at their religious beliefs in isolation.
The case was proved ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’, added Mr Stacey.
Bristol case highlights uncertainty
Mr Phillips told Christian Voice there was an automatic right of appeal to the Crown Court to be heard by a circuit judge, far more learned in the law than lay magistrates. Moreover, it is almost certain the convictions will be quashed there. But in the meantime, Mr Overd and Mr Stockwell have this conviction hanging over them and other preachers – and the law – appear to be in a state of uncertainty.
It surely cannot stand, as Mr Overd reported, that some police forces maintain the right of preachers to freedom of speech while others arrest them. There should be much better guidance both to police forces in the United Kingdom and to the Crown Prosecution Service.
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Dame Louise Casey is determined to use British values against Christians
A senior Government advisor, Dame Louise Casey, has said Christians in public life should not be allowed to hold traditional Christian views on marriage.
Speaking to MPs on the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Dame Louise said: ‘it is not okay for Catholic schools to be homophobic and anti-gay marriage. … it is not how we bring children up in this country. It is often veiled as religious conservatism, and I have a problem with the expression “religious conservatism”, because often it can be anti-equalities. We have got to be careful that people can choose, obviously, to live the lives that they want to live, but that they cannot condemn others for living differently.’
‘like arguing with an alcoholic’
Philip Egan
Catholic Bishop Philip Egan (Portsmouth) said any restrictions on Catholic schools passing on the Church’s moral teachings would be worthy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The bishop said it was increasingly difficult to engage in reasonable discussion and argument over anything to do with sexuality.
Trying to preach sexual morality in Britain has become ‘like arguing with an alcoholic‘, he said. ‘After a while, they won’t argue with you on grounds of reason, they just become furious and respond that way. There is something in our culture increasingly like that.’
Although Dame Lousie singled out Catholic schools, there are many Christians and other religious groups to whom her sentiments would apply.
Oath of ‘British values’
‘The Casey Review: a review into opportunity and integration’ was set up by Theresa May in July 2015. It was ‘a review into opportunity and integration in some of our most isolated communities’.
Theresa May appointed Louise Casey
Dame Louise was formerly at Shelter, the Home Office Anti-social Behaviour Unit and the ‘Respect Task Force’ according to a Government webpage.
She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2016 for ‘services to families and vulnerable people’.
In her review she calls for immigrants and public servants to take an ‘oath of British values’.
Her report proposed that migrants should swear an “oath of integration with British values and society” before they become British citizens.
‘Tolerance, democracy and respect’
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid MP
Similarly, both Dame Louise and Sajid Javid MP, the Communities Secretary, are calling for civil servants and all in public office to swear an ‘oath enshrining British values.’ These are specified as ‘tolerance, democracy and respect’.
If a public official were to violate such an oath, they could be excluded from public office. A teacher would have to stop teaching. Even a nurse might have to quit.
But looking deeper into the attitudes of Dame Louise reveals an intolerant mindset. It is one probably owned by many people in government, officialdom and the media.
Firstly, she says one ‘cannot condemn others for living differently’. Well, we can. We call it ‘preaching conviction of sin.’ In Human Rights language it’s called ‘freedom of expression.’ And funnily enough, the Government does it, in campaigns against smoking and obesity. Ordinary people do it whenever they warn a friend about taking drugs.
Homosexual men take a cocktail of expensive HIV medications on the NHS
But those have an impact on public health and the costs of the NHS! So does homosexuality. Currently, 50% of sexually transmitted diseases in the UK arise as a consequence of men having sex with men.
Homosexual men are the main reservoir of rectal gonorrhea (no surprises there). There also lead the field in syphilis. The anti-retrovirals gay men take to stop HIV developing into full-blown AIDS (HAART) cost £320,000 per patient over a twenty-year period.
The only way homosexual men benefit the public purse, apart from taxes, which we all pay, is by dying younger than the average. By doing so they reduce the demand on pensions. Sorry, but public health economics is not a pretty subject.
Whose children are they?
Secondly, ‘to be homophobic and anti-gay marriage … is not how we bring children up in this country’. Well, excuse me, but whose children are they? Dame Louise has the statist idea that the nation’s children belong to the Government.
They don’t. They belong to the nation’s families. And some of those families are liberal in their views while some are conservative. Some families are lazy. Others are industrious. Some are rough and some cultured. Some wouldn’t know a spiritual aspect of life if it bit them. Others are deeply religious. It’s called ‘diversity’ in its truest sense. And when a nation’s government pontificates that it is ‘not okay’ for parents and teachers to convey to children that marriage is an ordinance of God between one man and one woman for life, you are living in a society with a death-wish.
Not to accept ‘British values’ becomes a thought crime
Thirdly, government appears to be moving towards a position where what people do in their destructive lifestyles is not just tolerated but celebrated and encouraged. Meanwhile, what people think is condemned. Well did the bishop remind us of George Orwell and his prophetic book ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. In it, the state takes reprisals against society’s dissidents who commit ‘thought crimes’.
We are not allowed to ‘condemn others for living differently’, but the Government will condemn us for thinking differently. You do not secure ‘societal cohesion and unity’ by forcing law-abiding people to act against their conscience. Instead, you store up resentment and anger. Tolerance has to tolerate intolerance. Homosexuality is on such shaky intellectual ground it cannot allow freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.
A “British values” oath will sever our nation from its Christian roots. In doing so, politicians will saw off the very branch of our heritage they are sitting on.
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
2Cor 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
NatWest told its London office: “We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities.”
The bank said its decision was final and it is “not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it.”
Nor does it seem to have been prepared for any media questions about the decision. More about that and the bank’s embarrassing u-turn below.
RT has been a thorn in the side of the UK Government for some time. The Russian government-owned station, broadcasting on Freeview channel 135, gives a pro-Russian slant in a UK media atmosphere dominated by a constant diet of anti-Russian stories from ‘official’ Western sources.
Recently, with the Russian-backed Syrian Government taking ground from UK and US client jihadist groups, the Foreign Office and US State Department have started to panic.
NatWest’s parent is RBS, itself 70% owned by the UK Government.
The bank gave no explanation to RT. But then they couldn’t tell the media the reasoning either, adding shambles to injustice. The whole RBS group will refuse to service RT, and if other banks follow suit, it will effectively make its UK operation untenable.
All through Monday the RBS press office was struggling to put together some kind of reasonable spin on the matter. But what can they say? RT is a legitimate media channel. It’s places like Turkey which close down media outlets because their slant doesn’t agree with the government line, isn’t it?
Downing Street has of course denied any involvement of the government in the NatWest decision.
“It’s a matter for the bank and it’s for them to decide who they offer services to, based on their own risk appetite,” a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters, as cited by Reuters.
The fact that RBS is 70% owned by the taxpayer raises suspicion that someone has had a quiet word with Sir Howard Davies, the Chairman of RBS, and its Group Chief Executive Ross McEwan. We know how the establishment works in this country.
Dramatically, after waiting all day, at 6:15pm on Monday evening, NatWest appeared to back-track. A statement from Sarah Hinton-Smith at RBS was issued. It said:
“These decisions are not taken lightly. We are reviewing the situation and are contacting the customer to discuss this further. The bank accounts remain open and are still operative.”
We still do not know what was RT’s sin against political correctness. At least the RBS media machine has managed to string a few words together to express something coherent. But it contradicts what NatWest said earlier.
Earlier, the bank said its decision was final and it was “not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it.” Now, at the end of a trying day, the decision is suddenly open to discussion and under review.
The NatWest/RT case may yet be resolved. In the meantime, RT, welcome to the Club of the Outsiders!
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Permanent Under-Secretary Simon McDonald welcomed Boris Johnson to the Foreign Office last night.
Last night, new Prime Minister Theresa May made six senior appointments, covering the three great offices of state (Chancellor, Home Office, Foreign Office), and created two new post-Brexit positions. Continue to pray for her appointments today.
BORIS JOHNSON
The most astonishing appointment last night was that of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Mr Johnson is said to have had wide experience dealing with foreign governments promoting the capital city as Mayor of London. He is much better disposed to Russia than his predecessor and apparently speaks five languages fluently, including German and Russian.
The latter will be especially useful as he pursues what we pray will be a more positive engagement with Russia than that taken by his predecessor. (Although never under-estimate the power of the PUS – see the picture. Sir Simon Fraser, Mr McDonald’s predecessor, has already said “highly professional people” will surround Mr Johnson as he takes on the role. Sir Humphrey?
Mr Johnson, like Theresa May, is pro-Israel. The BBC reports: ‘In 2015, Mr Johnson had to cancel planned public events in the West Bank because of security fears after he criticised backers of a boycott on Israeli goods, and he has previously described Hilary Clinton – US presidential hopeful – as having “a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.”‘
British sanctions against trade with Russia must be ended and Russian efforts to bring stability to Syria supported. We can pray that Boris, with a great-grand-father from Moscow, will have nothing to do with the posturing of the world elite which needs to see Russia as the big enemy and President Vladimir Putin as an aggressor and a threat.
A more positive engagement will help as Mr Johnson tries, as we hope he will, to find the reasons behind Russia’s new anti-evangelism law and argue against it from an informed and friendly position.
Write to your MP. Ask him/her to congratulate the new Foreign Secretary on your behalf and to ask him to pursue a positive engagement with Russia, lift sanctions and let you know what discussions he has with Russian officials about Russia’s new anti-evangelism law, which, of course, concerns you.
PHILIP HAMMOND
I prayed yesterday and I am still praying that Philip Hammond would leave the government completely, because of his stance on Syria and Russia (see below). Mr Johnson taking his place at the Foreign Office was a spectacular and unexpected part-answer to that prayer.
Mr Hammond, with his ‘Assad must go’ rhetoric, showed himself both ignorant of reality in Syria, and in thrall to the US-driven elites of this world. I made a video on this topic last October with an emphasis on Syrian Christians: Syria – Sense and Compassion. Do take a look – it’s less than 4 minutes.
Mr Hammond was also part of ‘Project Fear’ with his view that it would take longer than World War II to leave the European Union.
In the event, he has been made Chancellor of the Exchequer, which is a promotion. Pray for him to have the great wisdom and vision that job needs at any time, but especially at this time. I still pray that the Lord will intervene and that he will not be there long.
MICHAEL FALLON
Mr Fallon retains the post of Secretary of State for Defence. He was part of the ‘Assad must go’ triumverate (with Mr Cameron and Mr Hammond) and the same arguments apply to him as apply to Mr Hammond. It was a spectacularly ignorant and stupid line originated by William, Lord, Hague, totally driven by the desire of the US to destablise that country for financial and strategic reasons – Russia has bases in Syria.
It has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and drove the migration disaster of last summer, in which thousands of Islamic State activists were able to infiltrate European Union nations.
The United Kingdom needs a Defence Secretary able to stand up to the US in NATO and end the current policy of military build-ups and sabre-rattling at the Russian border. Make no mistake, such things are planned by the elite for their benefit, not ours. A top insider, Craig Breedlove, former head of NATO, was at the Bilderberg meeting in Dresden last month. And a series of leaked emails published in RT show how keen he has been to push the Obama administration into agitating in Ukraine and aggression against Russia.
I am praying that Mr Fallon has a change of heart and becomes a man of peace, whose strength is in the Lord. His voting record is good on the issues that matter. He voted against ‘gay marriage’ and against doctor-assisted dying, for instance. But he voted for military intervention against President Assad’s forces in Syria. if the Lord will not change his heart, will the Lord replace Mr Fallon as well.
Write to your MP (a separate letter with a different date will be best) and ask him/her to ask the Secretary of State for Defence to pull British forces out of NATO’s aggressive current confrontation with Russia.
AMBER RUDD
The new Home Secretary was, like Mr Hammond and Mr Fallon, a ‘Remainer’ who voted against having a referendum at all. She also voted for ‘gay marriage’ and, like Mr Fallon, for military action in Syria. That vote, mercifully, was lost. She abstained on doctor-assisted dying. Her voting record goes back no further than 2010, because that was when she first became MP for Hastings and Rye.
Amber Rudd stands in need of our prayer as she takes charge of this vital office of state. We should especially pray against the introduction of intrusive surveillance measures and the use of real or imagined threats to curtail civil liberties.
DAVID DAVIS
Thank the Lord that the veteran parliamentarian has become the new Secretary of State for Brexit, or whatever it will be called. This is an inspired appointment, as apart from a lapse when he voted for Masstrict, Mr Davis has been constantly opposed to the EU, as he has to measures like ‘gay marriage’.
So Mr Davis will need much prayer as he negotiates the UK’s exit with the European Unions’s Commission and/or Council of Ministers (they are currently fighting a turf war over which will handle the talks). He will need to invoke Article 50 quickly and be unafraid to pull out of the Single Market completely if that requires accepting freedom of movement.
Freedom of movement was perhaps the biggest factor persuading people to leave the EU, because of the problems it brings. It is not a matter of hospitality, it is a matter of social cohesion and security, as I showed in this video.
Mr Davis should remember the four reasons why the Germans will back down: Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagon and BMW. Other countries trade with the EU without being in the Single Market, the USA and India, to name just two.
Write to your MP (separate letter!) and ask him/her to congratulate the Secretary of State for Brexit on his appointment and wish him well. Ask your MP to ask him to invoke Article 50 immediately and to be ready to leave the Single Market completely if freedom of movement is demanded as a condition of remaining in it.
Dr Fox will be responding to nations across the world who are now queuing up to do trade deals with the UK. He reputedly knows the United States very well, but Commonwealth countries are obvious new trading partners. It was encouraging to see Ghana preparing a trade delegation. The European Union has caused much hardship across Africa and developing countries in other parts of the world by dumping food aid, knowingly depressing prices and impoverishing local farmers.
There is an opportunity here for us to do more for fair trade than just buying tea and coffee. We should also pray that overseas aid becomes much smarter. I’m anxious to be in touch with those who know best how fair trade principles could form the bedrock of Dr Fox’s approach, and let us pray that he will have great success. Let us pray that Brexit re-establishes Britain as a newly-free, global, outward-looking trading nation, one built this time on fairness and justice, not on deception and exploitation.
Write to your MP (yet another separate letter!) and ask him/her to congratulate the Secretary of State for International Trade on his appointment and wish him well in it. Ask your MP to ask the Secretary of State how fair trade principles will inform his dealings with developing nations.
LASTLY
Lastly, look out for chattering classes and the Twitter-sphere expressing ‘alarm’ and ‘concern’ over the elevation of Boris, David Davis and Dr Fox. Such will mean they are good appointments! We should never put our trust in princes, but Theresa May (be sure to put an ‘h’ in her name) has shown she was true when she said ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Those of our readers who supported Remain should also be praying the Lord uses the Brexit vote and this new administration for his glory and to advance his Kingdom on earth.
Mrs May will be familiar with these two prayers from the Anglican Morning Prayer service in the Book of Common Prayer. They can apply to an individual or a nation and they spoke to me vividly this morning:
A Collect for Peace.
O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Collect for Grace.
O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Chaired by Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of the giant AXA insurance group, it was the first time for a while that the men with the money were seriously worried.
Henry Kissinger speaking (of course) at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2008
Bilderberg, named after the Dutch hotel where the group first met in 1954, says it was ‘designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America’. Its website is a recent innovation. Up until ten years ago journalists had to find out the annual guest list from staff at the latest venue. Leading members have included Dennis Healey, Kenneth Clarke, Peter, Lord Carrington, the Irishman Peter Sutherland and Henry Kissinger.
The website says of its meetings: ‘There is no desired outcome, no minutes are taken and no report is written. Furthermore, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.’
Bilderberg is the primary concentrated gathering of the world’s elite. The annual meetings take place under what is known as the ‘Chatham House rule’ which was invented by London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs. This says ‘Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.’
1 Current events, 2 China, 3 Europe: migration, growth, reform, vision, unity, 4 Middle East, 5 Russia, 6 US political landscape, economy: growth, debt, reform, 7 Cyber security, 8 Geo politics of energy and commodity prices, 9 Precariat and middle class, 10 Technological innovation.
WORRIES ABOUT BREXIT AND TRUMP
Jim Messina, advisor to the Democratic Party’s Hilary Clinton, attended Bilderberg last year.
Behind (3) were worries about the UK’s Brexit vote. All of a sudden, the elite had realised that the European Union needed reform, vision and unity. Were they concerned about migration? Or is flooding Europe with jihadists part of the plan for greater restrictions on freedom? As for ‘growth’, there you have it, from the horse’s mouth. The EU is an empire which must keep expanding.
Their other big worry is Donald Trump. He may not be a very nice man, but he is anti-establishment. He is not an insider, not ‘one of us’. Unlike Hilary Clinton (Bill was chosen as US President by Bilderberg and Hilary’s chief adviser Jim Messina was at the conference last year) Trump is not someone they can control. The ‘US political landscape’ has really put the wind up them. How can they stop Trump?
Russia was on the agenda, because presenting President Vladimir Putin as an aggressor and a threat is a key part of the game right now. But then, the disadvantaged ‘precariat’ and the middle class could spoil the whole globalist project.
Delegates came only from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States and world bodies. There was no-one from Central or South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle or Far East, the Antipodes or Africa. Bilderberg is exclusively trans-Atlantic.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will tour the world telling the lesser beings what the elite expect.
After it has deliberated, US Secretary of State John Kerry will be sent around the world to tell the leaders of lesser nations what to do. After the 2002 meeting, his predecessor Colin Powell was despatched to India and Pakistan to tell them not to go to war over Kashmir. Both backed down immediately. The June 2002 Bilderberg meeting was the turning point. Welcome to the New World Order.
Present this year were Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, ex CIA chief David Petraeus, the King of the Netherlands, the IMF’s Christine Lagarde, Philip Breedlove (Former Supreme Commander of NATO), Benoît Coeuré of the European Central Bank and Kristalina Georgieva, Vice President of the European Commission, the EU’s foreign minister.
There were current or former ministers of finance from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden. Money is important to the group. There were prime ministers from Belgium and Holland and the deputy PM of Turkey. In total, perhaps a couple of dozen politicians, a handful of academics and half-a dozen journalists and editors came to hear what the bankers and industrialists want to happen.
British academic Guy Standing thinks ‘the precariat’ are ‘dangerous’. ‘To whom?’ one may ask.
GB CONTINGENT
The GB contingent illustrates the point. Present were Marcus Agius, Chairman of PA Consulting Group (formerly chairman of Barclays), Douglas Flint, Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk Telecom Group plc, Demis Hassabis, Co Founder and CEO of DeepMind, the artificial intelligence company, John, Lord Kerr, Deputy Chairman of Scottish Power, and John Sawers, former head of MI6, now Chairman and Partner of Macro Advisory (the ‘strategic insight’ people).
Guy Standing, Co President of the Basic Income Earth Network and Research Professor at the University of London was the academic. He has written on the ’precariat’, describing them as ‘dangerous’. ‘Political populism’ which appeals to them ‘must be challenged’, he writes, in words every Bilderberger would approve. His views recently became a book.
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor in Chief of The Economist and Martin H. Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times were the GB media contingent. Don’t expect them to write anything about it, although Wolf is very concerned that ‘nativist populists’ must not win. The only GB politician this year was Labour MP Helen Goodman, a minister under Gordon Brown and now a member of the Treasury Select Committee.
We can be certain of one thing:: whatever the Bilderbergers have discussed, their schemes will benefit them first and the rest of us a long way second. But also be certain of this: the Lord will have the final word.
READ: Psalm 2:1-4, 48:7, 64, 76:12, 149; Isaiah 24::21; Luke 8:17; John 15:18; 2Cor 10:3-5; Rev 19:19-20.
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Press Release from Christian Voice – Immediate: 12.20 hrs 20th January 2016
The Head of Children’s Services at a local authority has threatened a journalist over a video claiming her department ‘visited injustice’ on a family in her borough.
Jacky Tiotto, Head of Children’s Services at the London Borough of Bexley, has written to Stephen Green of Christian Voice demanding he take down a YouTube video in which he interviewed the parents of four children taken by Bexley and kept in care.
Ms Tiotto says a section in which the parents talk about advice given to them by a family court judge to plead guilty to child abuse in the Crown Court is a contempt of court. So, she says, are three other occasions where the parents say judges and social workers would not listen to the children.
The parents were actually charged by police with abuse following a foolish and false allegation from the eldest son. They were acquitted in July 2015 in the Crown Court when their son vehemently retracted his allegation.
A section in which the parents claim the social worker in the case acted out of religious hatred escapes Ms Tiotto’s wrath.
Despite neither the case nor the children and not even the parents being identified, and despite contesting the accuracy of the information in the video, the highly-paid Children’s Services boss claims Green is contravening Section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960. This prohibits ‘publication of information relating to proceedings before any court sitting in private’ under the Children Act 1989.
Stephen Green, said today, ‘Rather then waste her precious time and council tax on frivolous legal action, Jacky Tiotto should be calling her staff to account over this case and reuniting this family.
‘A section in her letter where she says it is up to the parents to make a court application for return of their children, rather than for Bexley to do the decent and honourable thing and return them voluntarily, displays a callous disregard for justice, for ordinary families and for the emotional harm being done to these children on her watch.
‘In addition, the parents have been punished for doing nothing wrong. Other parents are now contacting me and it seems this case is by no means unique.
‘Jacky Tiotto is responsible for a massive, continuing injustice and it is obviously embarrassing to her and Bexley’s administration that it has come to light.
‘I’ll take legal advice, but my inclination is not to be deterred from giving the victims of injustice a voice by threats from uncaring bureaucrats’.
ENDS
For further information, phone Stephen Green on 07931 490050.
Northampton Magistrates Court where evangelist Bill Edwards is on trial twice this month: on 19th and 20th November 2015
STOP PRESS 20/11/2015:
CASE ON THURSDAY 19th DROPPED!
CASE ON FRIDAY 20th DROPPED IN RETURN FOR BIND-OVER ORDER!
PRAISE THE LORD!
BUT WHY WERE THESE CASES EVER BROUGHT?
Article continues:
Another Christian evangelist is in court on alleged public order offences.
Bill Edwards, well-known to this ministry for his tireless efforts for the Gospel, is to face magistrates in Northampton twice this month, on 19th November and then again the following day, 20th November. The cases will both be heard at 10.00am at Northampton Magistrates Court, Campbell Square, Northampton, NN1 3EB. Both charges have been laid under the Public Order Act 1986.
PRAYER IMPORTANT
Mr Edwards has told Christian Voice he values prayer more than actual physical presence. He said: ‘Obviously I will be glad of support by Christians at either of the court cases but it is a very long way for folk like you to come and prayer for the Lord’s help is, of course, more important.’
Despite that, members local to Northampton will surely want to support him, and those who can reach the court will wish to demonstrate how serious their prayers are by being there in person.
LOCAL MP COMPLAINED
The first charge relates to a peaceful protest Bill Edwards carried out outside the house of local MP Andrea Leadsom (Conservative) in the village of Slapton on 18th July.
Mr Edwards said: ‘I did not expect to be arrested and planned after an hour to move to another village for door to door evangelism. I did try to inform Northamptonshire Police beforehand about the protest but was unable to get through in time before I left home. I told Mrs. Leadsom why I was there and spoke to her husband and children and their friends.’ He is charged under Sections 4A and 5 of the Public Order Act.
ARRESTED AT SCHOOL
The following day the evangelist is charged under Sections 5 and 6 of the Act. Mr Edwards told us: ‘The second arrest and charge occurred after I carried a banner against homosexuals outside a primary school in Brackley on July 21st. There was a great deal of anger and physical opposition from certain people and again I was surprised with the outcome. Both of my banners employed words of Scripture.’
A personal note:
Evangelists like Bill Edwards are rare. They often do things others of us wouldn’t. I should probably content myself with writing to my MP or asking to lobby him at the House of Commons. I am not sure, even if he refused to meet me, that I should protest outside his home. If I did, of course, I should expect him to have a thicker and more avuncular skin than the average person and should be extremely surprised if he were to call the police.
As for the school, I know how liberal many parents are these days and have myself been shouted at when trying to encourage parents to protect their children from homosexual propaganda. In that situation, one really would expect the school’s head teacher to call the police, but would expect the police to defuse the situation on their arrival rather than start arresting people.
On the other hand, for some years now the police have been arresting evangelists for so-called ‘homophobic’ language, to the extent that even the National Secular Society became embarrassed by the negative publicity around assaults on our freedom of speech and joined the Christian Institute to call for a change in the law.
But despite that high-profile joint campaign by the National Secular Society and the Christian Institute to draw the teeth of the Public Order Act by removing the word ‘insulting’ from the list of behaviours it made illegal, nothing has actually changed. The police appear to carrying on with ‘business as usual’.
That is why, although Bill Edwards’ approach might differ from my own (although I too was arrested under the same Act of Parliament for witnessing outside Cardiff ‘Mardi Gras’ in 2006), I am honoured to stand with him and to show the magistrates that at least one of his brothers in Christ supports him enough to turn up on the day.
READ: Deut 31:6; Psalm 103:6; Jer 1:17, 5:14; Luke 12:11-12; Acts 4:18-20; Rom 10:8; 3John 1:17.
PRAY: Thank the Lord for evangelists who are prepared to risk arrest for preaching the Gospel. Pray that Bill Edwards finds favour with the magistrates. Pray for his solicitor, Michael Phillips, to be a good and effective advocate. Pray for much support from local Christians. Pray for Bill Edwards, as he says, ‘that the Lord will be glorified whatever the outcomes … and that I may witness a good confession against the homofascism and antichrist attitude of the authorities of our country.’
SUPPPORT: Come to Northampton Magistrates Court, Campbell Square, Northampton, NN1 3EB at 10.00am on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November.
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Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State of Education, the one with a gay activist from Stonewall (Conservative activist Luke Tryll) as her first appointed advisor, is in the news again.
She is telling teachers to report children who exhibit negative attitudes to homosexuality to the thought police.
They are going to grow up to be terrorists, apparently.
Even the teachers’ unions, so often bastions of progressive attitudes, are not amused by this new imposition of subjective workload.
The BBC reported:
‘The education secretary was speaking as schools in England and Wales were issued with a guide to identifying pupils in danger of radicalisation.
‘She said attacking core British values or being extremely intolerant of homosexuality were examples of behaviour that could raise the alarm.
‘Ms Morgan said it was “a safeguarding” issue comparable to protecting children at risk from gangs or sexual abuse.’ Yes, really. Homophobia is that bad.
Asked on BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme to come up with an example of behaviour that might be a cause for concern, she said: “Sadly, Isis are extremely intolerant of homosexuality.”
‘Sadly?’ Is Nicky Morgan carrying a bit of a candle for ISIS? Would she love them better if, despite all their land-grabbing, slaughter, extortion and rape they had applied for a float in the London Gay Pride parade?
As it happens, Muslims in general are ‘extremely intolerant of homosexuality’.
Is the Government with this initiative taking the first tentative steps to rounding up all Muslim children and sending them and their families off to the Muslim land of their heritage? I doubt that.
What instead we are seeing is a desire to grab hold of Christian children and force some politically-correct attitudes into them. The Trojan Horse affair, which started with a Muslim takeover of schools in Birmingham has been used to give Ofsted new guidelines which are now being used against Christian schools.
It will be the same here. There is already a drive to sneak homosexual propaganda into schools on the pretext of ‘tackling homophobic bullying’. This counter-terrorism slant is just a bit of window-dressing to make pro-sodomy indoctrination a bit more acceptable.
In reality, it won’t be a Muslim child who will be picked on. Instead, look out for the first story of a child of Christian or working-class parents being reported to the police for ‘homophobia’ and then taken into ‘care’ by Social Services.
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