Conservatives’ LGBT group linked with paedophile ring after former chairman is jailed for sharing child porn
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5320759/Conservatives-LGBT-group-linked-paedophile-ring.html
Arlene Foster and the DUP have kept Theresa May honest over Brexit
Can they do the same in respect of the LGBT action plan?
Arlene Foster and the DUP have kept Theresa May honest over Brexit
The Democratic Unionist Party have prevented a disastrous customs split in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland party sent Britain’s Brexit negotiating team back to the drawing board. The Cabinet have now to offer a solution to the EU side.
Alternatively, they must admit having a soft border with the Republic of Ireland is impossible.
Moreover, a solution has to be found before the end of this week, or ‘No Deal’ could be on the table. The situation urgently needs our prayers.
But we must not forget prayers of thanksgiving for the DUP. Also, ask God to continue to be merciful as the UK leaves the EU.
Scotland and London leaders saw an opportunity
Theresa May had suggested a ‘continued regulatory alignment’ a between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland., effectively keeping Ulster in the single market and customs union.
The news was seized upon by Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who demanded any promise for Northern Ireland be replicated for Scotland. That call was followed by a similar suggestion from the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
But it was all shut down by Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster who said ‘any form of regulatory divergence’ between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland would be unacceptable.
Mrs Foster revealed she had been asking the government for the wording of text relating to the Irish border for five weeks. She said it was a ‘big shock’ when the document landed on Monday morning because ‘we realised there was no way we could sign up to that text’.
UK’s ‘economic and constitutional integrity’
Speaking at Stormont, she said:‘We have been very clear. Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom. We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the United Kingdom. The economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom will not be compromised in any way,’ she said.
Nigel Dodds MP, deputy of the DUP, said the Republic of Ireland had advanced its interests in an ‘aggressive and anti-unionist way’, and had ‘set back Anglo-Irish relations and damaged the relationships built up within Northern Ireland in terms of the devolution settlement, and that is going to take a long time to repair’.
Mrs May promised to leave Single Market
Theresa May set out her vision in January for the UK departure of the European Union. During the speech, she said Britain will be leaving the EU’s customs union and single market. The DUP have kept her honest to that position. The word of God says:
Numbers 30:2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
Just imagine what could have happened had the Conservatives been returned with an overall majority at the last general election. That they only hold power now only with the support of the DUP is itself an answer to prayer. And for that, we should thank God.
Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith MP told the Guardian: ‘The Prime Minister is fully aware that when it comes to the border issue Northern Ireland remains an integral part of the UK and therefore there cannot be any regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.’
Brexit could happen with ‘No Deal’
Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, Labour’s Keir Starmer, a noted ‘Remoaner’, encouraged the Prime Minister to ‘rethink her reckless red lines’ and consider putting customs union and single market back on the table for Brexit negotiations.
But Brexit Secretary David Davis pledged that no part of the UK will be ‘left behind’ in the EU single market. In our prayers we must remember men are fallible and hold him to that:
Psalm 118:9 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
Mrs May has less than two days now to salvage a Brexit deal to open trade talks before the end of the year. If the Prime Minister does not secure a deal by tomorrow, Friday, it will stand little chance of being confirmed at the EU Council meeting held 14th – 15th December.
The UK would have to wait until March for the next time the 27 other EU countries will come together for a summit. However, Mr Duncan Smith has suggested it might be impossible to secure a deal at all. ‘No deal’, where the EU and UK are unable to agree on Brexit terms could be the only outcome. But the word of God tells us to look to him for provision:
Psalm 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
World Trade Organisation rules
In such a case, UK companies would trade with the EU on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. That would affect both imports and exports. It is a two-way process. Click here for the Tariffs table, then click ‘European Union’ and whatever product you are interested in. Then click ‘Next’ and download whichever format works best for you.
In reality, WTO tariffs are generally at 2%. Nevertheless, aircraft, identified by Business Insider as our biggest export to the EU, attract a tariff of 2.7%. Pharmaceuticals, another large export, are free of any import tax. Motor vehicles are taxed at 10%. But the European Automobile Manufacturers Association says exports of cars from the UK to the EU are dwarfed by imports.
The EAMA say: ‘80% of the UK’s automobile production is exported, of which 52.8% (worth 14.6 billion) goes to EU member states. The other way round, the EU represents 81% of the UK’s motor vehicle import volume, worth 44.7 billion.’
World trade is not new
For millennia, the British Isles, like the whole world, have engaged in trade. Over two-and-a-half thousand years ago the prophet Ezekiel lists all the merchandise arriving in the Mediterranean port of Tyre. For example:
Ezek 27:12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs. … 15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
World trade is not new. Today, the EU exports overall more to the UK than we export to them, and there is a wide world outside the shrinking EU. Let us remember that in our prayers. But our major prayer point is for the entire United Kingdom to leave the EU completely. That is what the people voted for.
Revived Roman Empire
And there is a spiritual dimension. Our series of videos last year revealed the EU was deliberately designed as a revived Roman Empire.
If that is correct, the Bible says, of such a political entity:
Rev 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
The European Union’s parliament tower in Strasbourg was structured to resemble the unfinished Tower of Babel. Representations of a woman riding a beast are all over the EU. And both the original Treaty of Rome and the doomed EU Constitution were signed on top of Rome’s equivalent of Satan’s Seat. If this is not John’s spiritual Babylon, it is doing a good job of presenting itself like that. It follows the UK must not have any part in it. Our leaders must instead return to the Lord in repentance:
2Sam 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
Meanwhile, reports are saying the UK would pay around £50billion in a so-called ‘divorce bill’. The claim emerged from the EU side just a week after Theresa May officially signalled she was willing to up Britain’s offer to £38billion to get talks moving.
The UK has agreed it must take a share in the EU’s liabilities. These will total after Brexit as much as 98billion (£87billion), the Financial Times reported. But that gross figure will reportedly amount to a net payout of around half that because some of the claims on the European budget will never actually come to pass. Payouts will continue for several decades because they include pensions payouts to civil servants who will still be claiming cash in 50 years or more, according to reports.
Brexiteers and Remainers both slammed the huge bill. Nigel Farage said it was a ‘sellout’, adding: ‘Make no mistake about it – 55billion to leave the EU is a very, very bad deal.’
Pro-EU Labour MP Chuka Umunna said: ‘Boris, Gove and other Leave campaigners never said there would be a big divorce bill to pay – quite the opposite.’
Not a ‘divorce bill’
But Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP, said the money is not a ‘divorce bill’. The Bible says:
Eccl 5:4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Mr Hannan went on, ‘Britain is not the kind of country that walks away from its debts. Those debts will fall gradually, according to the European Commission, over the next 40 years. We’d be paying the equivalent of a billion pounds a year, rather than the £17billion (gross) or £9billion (net) that we’re paying now.
‘Remember the EU 27 will still be our customers as well as our allies. We want them to be rich so they keep buying our stuff, investing in Britain and coming here as tourists.’
The MEP went on: ‘Sure, we could refuse to pay. We could go to an international tribunal, which might reduce the overall sum we owe. But that would destroy any chance of a friendly deal with the EU, which would leave all sides worse off. Better by far to approach the question of how to phase out our payments in a friendly spirit.
‘At the end of this process, we should aim to have a close, mutually profitable relationship with the EU, involving not just free trade, but also continued co-operation on intelligence, police co-operation, scientific research and the like. Only now we’d be doing these things as an independent country, not as an EU province.
‘The big-ticket items, though, will be cancelled. No more Common Agricultural Policy. No more Cohesion Funds. And no more EU foreign aid racket.’
A radical solution to the ‘Irish question’
Finally, there is a very simple way to solve the Brexit border problem between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The Republic of Ireland followed the United Kingdom into the European Union. They have now passed the stage of being a recipient nation. They are now starting to contribute. Financially, the EU is not benefitting Ireland any more. Most of their trade is with the UK. Let them follow us out.
Grenfell Tower was gutted by the fire, which appears to have spread through external cladding
Grenfell Tower was gutted by the fire, which appears to have spread through external cladding
Even as we pray for those involved in the disaster, the horrific blaze and loss of life and property at Grenfell Tower in West London will raise many questions. Fire safety, fire escapes and the flammability of construction materials will be among them.
Public safety is duty of government
Jeremy Corbyn has immediately pointed the finger at Government ministers. He is right to do so.
The Bible makes clear that public safety from men of violence is the first duty of the state. The Apostle Peter lays this out clearly:
1Peter 2:14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
Meanwhile, the Apostle Paul says that is why we pay taxes:
Romans 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. … 6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Law given to Moses contains building control
But public safety does not end there. The law-books of Moses contain building regulations. These may be little known. Nevertheless, they came from the mouth of God and are universally applicable. One of them in particular has public safety in construction very much in mind:
Deuteronomy 22:8 When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.
Flat roofs are notorious for danger at the edge. The continuation of the wall past the roof for a distance of around three feet provides safety. We can take out from this that any building must be safe. Moreover, this is not a mere personal duty. The use of the singular shows it applies to the whole nation. The judges would take to task anyone who cut corners.
In any event, if a building fell and killed or injured people or property, the general rules of equity would kick in and restituion would be made. In the event of a death, that restitution would be made with the life of someone culpable. That is clear from the scripture.
Grenfell Tower refurb met regulations
Last year a building firm completed a two-year £10m refurbishment. Rydon Construction replaced windows and put in a communal heating system. Crucially, they installed new exterior cladding. The insulation in this instance may turn out to have been inflammable. Astonishingly, many modern rigid foam insulation products can catch and spread, as this report graphically shows. They include the popular polystyrene, polyurethane and polyisocyanurate. The latter, with the brand name of ‘Celotex’ was used on Grenfell Tower. Only last year, safety experts warned the Government about cladding buildings in plastic foam like Celotex. And it has emerged that a fire-resistant version of the cladding would have cost just £5,000 more at Grenfell Tower. Just how ‘fire-resistant’ it is has not been revealed. Many materials take a while to catch fire, but once they do the effect is terrifying.
According to the BBC, the firm said it was “shocked to hear of the devastating fire”. They said the work “met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards”.
If that is true, and local Building Control must have signed the work off, then the regulations must be looked at again.
But be very sure. This is not a matter where the government may legitimately blame some agency. If these is avoidable loss of life in the realm, ministers must shoulder the blame.
Ahmadi boy holds a poster in a vigil which directs to the Ahmadiyya website, next to their main slogan of ‘Love for All, Hatred for None’
Many will have been cheered by images of Muslims at vigils for the recent victims of terror.
The mainstream media have been quick to promote the idea of Muslims standing in solidarity with society. After all, it bolsters the establishment proposition that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’.
Nevertheless, after a bit of analysis, it appears virtually all the Muslims we saw at the recent vigils have been from the Ahmadiyya sect.
The sect has been prominent in the aftermath of the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks. Their women were lined up on Westminster Bridge, as the Independent reported. A minute’s silence on the Bridge, reported in the Metro, also saw Ahmadiyya slogans prominent.
The Muslim women on Westminster Bridge were all Ahmadi
Love for all
It is nice to remember that not all Muslims want to kill and maim kaffir, or unbelievers. All the same, to claim these peaceful Muslims as representative of majority Islam is a bit of a stretch.
The Ahmadi use slogans such as ‘Love for all, hatred for none’. Indeed, that becomes their website name. In addition, they believe the Muslim Messiah has come.
Ahmadiyya is named after its founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian in 1889. Ahmad claimed he was the awaited Messiah and Mahdi prophesied by ‘Prophet’ Muhammad and foretold by the Qur’an.
Ahmadiyya HQ in Morden, Surrey
The Ahmadiyya have mosques all over Britain with eight in Greater London alone. The largest mosque in Western Europe is their international headquarters in Morden, Surrey. The Baitul Futuh Mosque (English: House of Victories), was completed in 2003. It cost approximately £15 million, which came entirely from donations given by the 30,000 Ahmadi Muslims in the UK. So the sect is not poor or small.
Ahmadi slogans – but is this the ‘True Islam’ fallacy?
Nevertheless, alongside majority Islam those numbers are tiny. The 2011 census showed 2.8 million Muslims in the UK.
Islam has 1.8 billion adherents worldwide, of whom something over ten million are Ahmadis.
Ahmadayyi started In the Punjab but the sect is now persecuted in Pakistani. By a law passed in 1974, no Pakistani Ahmadi may call himself a Muslim.
Canon Giles Fraser, writing in the Guardian, says: ‘Even the application form for a Pakistani passport has a section requiring all Muslims to condemn the founder of their community, making Pakistani citizenship all but impossible for Ahmadis.’
That is why the sect is now headquartered in Surrey.
Regarded as heretics
The Ahmadiyya practice the first five Sunni Muslim pillars of Islam. That’s the Shahadah, Prayers, Fasting, Alms and the Hajj. They omit the Sixth Pillar of Jihad, unsurprisingly. But despite the similarities, Sunni Muslims, the Muslim majority worldwide, regard them as heretics or unbelievers. So do the Shia minority like them?
Ahmadayya slogans are at the fore in the minute’s silence on Westminster Bridge
No. Because the Ahmadi spun off from the Sunni, they are nine-carat heretics to the Shia.
So let us not be fooled by images of ‘Muslims’ standing in solidarity with the fallen. These are sadly not Sunni Muslims renouncing the Jihad. We might applaud the peaceful
ways of the Ahmadiyya. However, they may have the effect of convincing the unaware that Islam as a whole is peaceful. Regretfully, it is not.
Secondly, the followers of Ahmad may convince themselves that they have found the world’s Messiah. Again, they have not. There is only Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Prince Charles is Patron of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies which has invited extremist Vice-President Kalla to speak on 'Middle Path Islam' in Indonesia
Prince Charles is Patron of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies which has invited extremist Vice-President Kalla to speak on ‘Middle Path Islam’ in Indonesia
The Prince of Wales is embroiled in a row over the persecution of Christians by Muslims in Indonesia.
The invitation and topic are all the more risible because of Kalla’s involvement in the recent persecution of a Christian standing for election in Indonesia.
V-P Kalla’s ‘Middle Path Islam’ in the ‘Indonesian Experience’ can only be described as intolerant and vicious. And V-P Kalla himself is still struggling to shake off his student history of encouraging Muslims into acts of violence against Christians.
In 1968 Kalla was leader of the HMI (the Islamic Student Association) of Makassar. An allegation of blasphemy was made against a Catholic. Kalla was recorded instructing all members of HMI and other Muslim organizations to come to nearby mosques at 8 pm. After the evening prayer (‘ishā’), the Muslims started attacking the Christian buildings. Meanwhile, the loud-speakers of the mosques were shouting out ‘Allahu Akbar, defend your religion, be a martyr!’ Page 39 of a dissertation records: ‘The Christian buildings attacked in the incidents were 9 Protestant churches, 4 Catholic churches, 1 nuns’ dormitory, 1 Academy of Theology, 1 office of the Catholic student organization, and 2 Catholic schools.’
Intolerance followed by blasphemy conviction
But it’s the latest example of Indonesian ‘Middle Path Islam’ which will embarrass Prince Charles. A Christian governor seeking re-election in Jakarta was convicted of blasphemy against the Koran. The Telegraph reports on the matter here.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as ‘Ahok’, is a Christian who was standing for re-election in Jakarta
Basuki Cahaya Purnama, affectionately known as Ahok, lost his re-election as governor of Jakarta because of religious intolerance. He was then convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. The trial was held just a week ago, according to this report in the Guardian.
During the election, Muslim organisations close to Mr Kalla urged people to take to the streets against Ahok. V-P Kalla himself backed the hard-line Islamist Muslim candidate, his protégé, Anies Baswedan. This was despite an obligation that the Vice-President must remain neutral. Baswedan was supported by groups like Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia. HTI distributed a booklet, entitled: ‘Welcoming a Muslim Governor, Kick out the Kafir Governor, Forming a Sharia Jakarta.’
V-P Kalla’s Islamist friends reminded Muslims of a verse in the Qur’an. Al Madia 51 says: ‘O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.’ [Pickthall translation] Ahok’s enemies said this verse meant they could not be governed by a Christian. That in itself revealed the intolerance of Kalla’s Islam in Indonesia
Ahok’s claim they had misinterpreted the verse led to the charges of blasphemy. Furthermore, the Indonesian court upheld them.
Prince Charles speaks of ‘understanding’
Jusuf Kalla, Vice-President of Indonesia, is a hard-line Islamist
And now Vice-President Kalla has the nerve to give a lecture on how wonderful has been the Indonesian experience of ‘Middle Path Islam’.
Prince Charles has a quote on the Centre’s website. He says: ‘The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies has done so much to promote and improve our understanding of the Islamic world. That mission has great importance in our increasingly interdependent world. The relationships between Islam and the West matter more today than ever before.’
Dr Farhan Nizami, Director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
We shall certainly understand a great deal about the Islamic World of the Oxford Centre should the lecture by Kalla go ahead. It will be a calculated insult to Indonesia’s minority Christians.
Moreover, the lecture will cast a shadow over the heir to the throne. Indeed, should it go ahead, his only course must be to resign as Patron.
Funding raises questions
The uncomfortable fact is Muslims can be as academic as they like. Nevertheless, they can never quite shake off the extremism, hatred, violence and sheer intolerance inherent in Islam.
The British Pakistani Christian Association and Christian Voice are joining Indonesian ex-pat Christians at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies on 18th May in a witness against the lecture by Vice-President Kalla.
Ephesians 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Volunteers attend to some of the hundreds of stranded pilot whales still alive. (REUTERS/Anthony Phelps)
We are all mortified, not to say mystified, by the stranded pilot whales in New Zealand. But in Orkney some four thousand years ago, the people would have regarded such a beaching not as a tragedy but as a bounty from the sea.
No-one knows how whales manage to get themselves beached in the shallows. It is a mystery. One theory is that the lack of depth plays havoc with their sonar.
It is certainly a sad sight when great living creatures find themselves in such difficulties and we are powerless to help them.
One would have thought X (insert favoured figure) ‘millions of years of evolution’ would have sorted the problem out, but no. Still the whales come.
Orkney – cradle of British civilisation
Neil Oliver with the foundations of a stone age temple at Ness of Brodgar on Orkney
Last night (Thursday 9th Feb 2017) on BBC4, the TV archeologist Neil Oliver led a team uncovering Orkney’s neolithic past. The programme was part of the series Britain’s Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney. The first rule of archeology is this: ‘Remember, these were people like us’. Dr Oliver in particular pays great respect to the people of the past. (He pays less deference to politicians of the present, particularly those of the SNP. But let that pass.)
The Orcadians were pagans. They worshipped the signs of the heavens and quite probably deified anything which was important to them, such as the sea and the weather. They also kept large herds of cattle. It is probable they viewed their cattle as a store of wealth, like African nomadic tribesmen today.
The foundations of their temples at the Ness of Brodgar were built over sacrifices of their cattle. As a confirmation of the practice, building sacrifices into foundations is spoken of in the Bible. Joshua prophesied that whoever would rebuild Jericho would bury two of his children in the foundations:
Joshua 6:26 And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. (KJV)
Stone Age Orkney highly civilised
The Orcadians were not on the evidence found so far as depraved as Hiel the Bethelite, the Iron Age king who fulfilled the curse of Joshua in 1Kings 16:34 probably around 860 BC.
We have an image of Stone Age people grunting and shivering as they struggled to build a fire. Secrets of Orkney has laid this canard to rest. They were highly civilised people, wealthy, delighting in art, skilled shipbuilders and navigators, trading across the world, exchanging ideas. The excavations on Orkney give us confidence in accounts of trade and technological advance in the Bible. Bible people too really were people like us.
The programme last night also explained how the people of Orkney would have taken advantage of regular strandings of whales. They took the meat and rendered the blubber. The evidence shows they used the bones to make everything from needles to the internal structure of their boats. The BBC iPlayer link is here if you want to watch on catch-up.
The whales’ contribution to the ancient Orkney economy may be scant consolation to those mourning the pilot whales in New Zealand. Nevertheless, it might just add a tiny bit of perspective. Perhaps the whales and their sad, mysterious death wish are there for our benefit. Perhaps the good Lord graciously designed them like that. We may be horrified at the thought of the Orcadians rushing to the sea shore to slaughter beached whales. But then again, Stone Age people might well view some of the things we take for granted in our civilisation today as barbarous.
Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
The UK state broadcaster denied that Muslims were favoured over Christians. This was a complete reversal of the truth.
The debate could impact on the UK’s own refugee policy. The Home Secretary has just stopped the ‘Dubs’ child refugee programme.
US Court overturns Refugee Ban
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said it would not block a ruling by a Seattle court that halted the President’s executive order. The court said the President had not proved a terror threat to justify reviving the ban.
The ruling means that people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen with visas can continue to enter the US. Refugees from around the world, also subject to a temporary refugee ban, are no longer blocked either.
But evidence uncovered by a UK aid charity has shown that Muslim refugees, or migrants, passing through UN camps are exposed to radicalisation. Jihadists run refugee camps as Islamic enclaves. Accordingly, Christians avoid them.
Figures obtained by Barnabas Fund showed the UK took in just 64 Syrian Christians out of a total of 4,000 refugees. Because the UK outsourced its refugee selection to the UN, the bias was inevitable.
‘The simple fact is that of 10,801 Syrian refugees admitted to the USA last year only 56 were Christians (there were also only 20 Shi’a and 17 Yazidis – the other two groups that John Kerry said were facing genocide), while 99% were Sunni Muslims.’
President Trump earlier defended his 27th January executive order. He said the policy was about prioritising religious minorities. He was asked if persecuted Christians would be a priority. Trump replied by criticising the previous Obama administration:
‘Yes, they have been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very, very tough to get into the United States. If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian it was almost impossible.’
BBC denied Trump’s Obama criticism
The BBC’s Nick Bryant: fake news comment.
The next Sunday, at the start of the 10pm television news, the BBC broadcast a comment by their New York correspondent, Nick Bryant. Mr Bryant said:
“In an interview with an evangelical television network [President Trump] claimed without any factual basis the old Obama policy favoured Muslims over Christians”.
The BBC also posted online a video of President Trump’s statement.
‘Research by the Pew Center shows broadly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims being admitted in 2016 to the United States. This suggest (sic) that the very small percentage of Christian refugees coming to the US from Syria is untypical.’
But the story was about Syria! The BBC indulged in fake news. It is clear they intended to cast the Trump Executive Order in a bad light.
Muslim Terrorism remains a threat
The US Court held the Executive did not provide enough evidence of their claimed terror threat. But such a threat is difficult to quantify.
Christians want to be hospitable but we must also be realistic. Every nation has a Biblical mandate to protect its borders, as I showed in this video. A refugee ban on Muslims makes sense both from a security and social cohesion point of view The US Constitution forbids religious bias. But we know there is a pro-Muslim religious bias in the numbers of refugees the UK and US admit. We also know the establishment are keen to cover that up. They will even use fake news to do so.
Protect security
As we went to press, a court was preparing to hear an objection to ending the UK’s child refugee programme. We do not know if there were any Christians among the 350 alleged ‘children’ taken in. Nor have we ever been told anything about the family situation of the children. Last year, the Home Office admitted 45% of 11,847 ‘child’ applicants whose ages were checked were not actually children. How many were jihadists? No-one knows.
The US Constitution also allows the US to protect its security. The case will probably now move to the Supreme Court. In the meantime migrants from the countries named are taking advantage of the relaxation. And Islamic State personnel will not be short of money for air fares. The US may only find out the Trump refugee ban was correct when it is too late.
Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)
Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.
Rt Hon David Davis MP, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
Members of Parliament have voted on principle to allow Theresa May to trigger Article 50 and begin the UK’s process of leaving the European Union.
The House of Commons defeated a negating amendment, tabled by the Scottish Nationalist Party, by a majority of 236 votes. MPs then carried the Second Reading of the Bill by an even more substantial majority of 384 votes.
Rt Hon David Davis tabled the Bill as a result of the Supreme Court ruling last week. The Court ruled an Act of Parliament was necessary before Article 50 could be triggered. Our report on that decision is linked here.
The Second Reading is a vote on the principle of the Bill. It will be followed by discussion of the Bill in the Committee Stage next week. Next is a debate at the Report Stage and finally the Third Reading. The Bill has then to go through the same procedure in the House of Lords. Amendments can be tabled at each stage. Once both Houses agree, the Bill will go for Royal Assent. Only then will it become an Act of Parliament.
This is what the Bill says:
A BILL TO Confer power on the Prime Minister to notify, under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the EU.
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Power to notify withdrawal from the EU
(1) The Prime Minister may notify, under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the EU.
(2) This section has effect despite any provision made by or under the European Communities Act 1972 or any other enactment.
2 Short title. This Act may be cited as the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017.
Rambling SNP Amendment on Article 50
The SNP’s Stephen Gethins proposed a rambling amendment (which was defeated) declining to give the Bill a Second Reading. It called for ‘effective consultation with the devolved administrations’. It wanted a White Paper, which Mrs May is to publish today. The amendment asked for ‘a guarantee on the position of EU nationals in the UK’. It also wanted answered ‘a range’ of unspecified ‘detailed questions’. Finally, it went on about ‘implications of withdrawal from the single market’.
But the SNP amendment did make one valid and encouraging point. Two years after invoking Article 50 the UK as a whole is out of the EU’s revived Roman Empire. We leave whether there is agreement between the UK and the EU or not. Only if the parties agree unanimously can the process be extended.
Edward Miliband (Doncaster North) (Lab) ‘I took part in the referendum campaign and I said that I would accept the result, which I do. That is why I will be voting for the Bill’s Second Reading tonight, not least because I feel that the referendum stemmed in part from the sense of disaffection and deep frustration about politics that exists in the country.’
Dr Andrew Murrison MP, seen here speaking about the Great War, made a fascinating point about fair trade.
On the matter of today’s publication of the White Paper: Chris Bryant MP (Lab): ‘I can’t have been listening.’ Mr Speaker: ‘If there is one thing I know about the hon. Gentleman, it is that he is invariably listening to his own wisdom. We are grateful to him for that.’
Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con): ‘We have seen the bizarre spectacle of Germany making more money from exporting coffee than the developing countries that grow coffee’.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con) ‘My constituents have made very clear that, number one, there must be an end to unchecked EU migration, and, number two, there must be no more billions for bloated Brussels bureaucrats. That plainly indicates that we must leave the single market, and that if we want to do unfettered trade deals with the rest of the world, we must leave the customs union.’
View our EU videos – relevant to the Article 50 debate
View our videos on YouTube here: they are all around three and a half minutes in length and very watchable:
Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)
Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.
A teenager has won the right for her mother to freeze her body in the hope that she may be brought back to life.
The court made the ruling in October, before the girl, 14, died from a rare form of cancer. Her father had opposed the application. Going further, he has accused the firm concerned, the Cryonics Institute, based in Michigan USA, of ‘selling false hope’.
He told the Independent: ‘I believe they are selling false hope to those who are frightened of dying – taking advantage of vulnerable people.
‘When I asked if there was even a one in a million chance of my daughter being brought back to life, they could not say there was.
‘I think it would be doubly impossible to both bring her back from the dead and cure her cancer, and companies should not hold out some false hope.’
THE ETHICS OF CRYONICS
The story, reported here by the BBC, has opened up debate on the practice and ethics of ‘cryonics’, the freezing of people with the intention of future resuscitation when and if the technology becomes available. (Cryonics is not to be confused with cryogenics, the study of extremely low temperatures. Even the BBC got them muddled up.)
So does cryonics work, and what would be a Christian view of it? Is it ethical, and if not, why not?
Cryonics is not mentioned in the Bible – obviously. But wisdom certainly is. God has given us common sense and analytical minds. If we lack wisdom, we can pray for it. Moreover, fraud and theft are mentioned quite a few times and that might be useful to us here.
Before we approach the ethics of it, what are the problems with cryonics both in the present and in the future?
PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN THE FUTURE
In the future, we are assuming not only that scientists will be able and willing to thaw people successfully but that doctors will also be able to revive what was, at the point of freezing, a dead person. Something killed him. It will still be there.
David H. Gorski is an American surgical oncologist, Professor of surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He points out that anyone being revived centuries from now would hardly know how to function (even Adam Adamant had problems, and he had only been frozen for sixty-five years). But crucially, there is the ‘question of whether some future society and scientists would even want to revivify a bunch of decades- or centuries-old bodies. They might want to do a few to prove it could be done, but after that each succeeding body would just be another burden. Sooner or later, the scientific interest would wane, as would the desire to devote resources to it.’
Clarence Birdseye invented fast-freezing of vegetables and fish. But not all materials can be frozen without cell-wall damage.
PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN THE PRESENT
In the present, the advocates and customers for cryonics are placing too much faith in the freezing process. Frozen food manufacturers can freeze peas, beans, spinach, broccoli, even baby carrots, but try freezing raw potatoes or courgettes. All you will end up with on thawing them out is a mush.
That is because the ice crystals break down the vegetable’s cell walls. The Library of Congress writes about Clarence Birdsey’s invention of the quick-freezing process: ‘Before quick-freezing came along, foods were frozen at a fairly slow rate. This caused large ice crystals to form, which ruptured the cell membranes of the food. When the food was defrosted, the ice crystals melted and water would leak out, taking with it the food’s flavor and texture.’
WATER IN THE BODY
The cryonics companies say they will remove the customer’s blood and replace it with a sort of anti-freeze, but the freezing of blood is the least of their problems.
The human body is 60% to 65% water. The average weight of a human being around the globe is around ten stone. That’s 140 lbs.
So that person’s water content is more or less ninety pounds. Two thirds of it, sixty pounds, is intracellular, one third, like the blood, is extracellular. Your 8 pints of blood weigh ten pounds, just 11% percent of your total water.
Freezing tanks full of liquid nitrogen and frozen bodies at Cryonics Institute
It’s the intracellular water which will do the main damage, reducing the body’s cells to thawed-potato-like mush.
Put simply, you cannot freeze a human body fast enough. No-one has even frozen and revived the smallest of mammals. Small roundworms (nematodes) and some insects can survive freezing but that’s about it.
DYING HEART AND BRAIN CELLS
And that is even before we look at what happens at death. Professor Gorski writes:
‘Within minutes, the heart muscle cells, deprived of oxygen-rich blood, start really dying … and the more of them that die, the less the chance of getting the heart started again. … The problem of the dead heart, however, is minor compared to the problem of the dead brain. The brain is highly metabolically active and is thus exquisitely sensitive to interruptions in blood flow. As soon as the blood flow stops from a cardiac arrest, the brain starts losing cells, and it only takes a few minutes before severe and permanent brain damage occurs that rapidly progresses to brain death; i.e., the death of the neurons controlling the “higher’ functions.’
Over a year ago, in June 2015, the Daily Mail reported a study under the typically dramatic headline ‘Memories can survive cryonic preservation‘. But the study was on the aforementioned nematode worms. A more realistic view comes from the President of the Cryonics Institute, Dennis Kowalski. Describing cryonics as ‘a roll of the dice’, he said he did not believe memories would necessarily survive after the brain had been frozen for decades. He said patients could awake as “clones” of themselves, with no sense of their former lives, and he added he only had a ’50-50′ belief that people enclosed in the freezing chambers would ever be revived.
RABBIT BRAIN THAWED OUT – PIG AWAITED
Will the technology ever arise to bring dead heart and brain cells back to life? And if it does, what will have happened to the memories, thoughts, impulses and daily body functioning which the brain controls? Even the heart has ‘brain’ cells. People are paying to freeze their bodies. Who will cough up the money to get their non-working heart and brain and their thawed-out squashy, pulpy body working again?
In February 2016, scientists froze and thawed out the brain of a rabbit. The team, led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Robert McIntyre, filled the vascular system of the rabbit brain with chemicals that prevent decay and allow it to be cooled to -211 degrees Fahrenheit. When thawed, the brain was found to have all of its synapses, cell membranes, and intracellular structures intact.
The problems with the experiment, although described as a ‘success’, are that the rabbit died of something, and even if the brain looks intact, there is no way of seeing whether it would power a real live rabbit and retain memories and functionality. The team were said at the time to be awaiting the thawing out of a pig brain, whose size is closer to that of a human being. And what about all the other organs? Research costs money.
CRYONICS IS A BUSINESS
Remember, the cryonics companies want sales. The ‘Cryonics Institute‘, despite its ‘.org’ website address, is a business, albeit one claimed to be non-profit with only two paid employees, according to the Daily Telegraph. But even as a non-profit, it still has an emotional idea to defend and an empire to build. The Cryonics Institute even plays with language, not liking to call people ‘dead’ They are instead ‘deanimated’, to give the marketing-friendly impression they might at some future date be ‘reanimated’.
The firm invites potential customers to ‘imagine a world free of disease, death and aging.’ They go on:
‘At the Cryonics Institute, we believe that day is inevitably coming and cryonics is presently (sic – US usage) our best chance of getting there. Our mission is to extend human lifespans by preserving the body using existing cryogenic technologies – with the goal of revival by future science…
Fred and Linda Chamberlain founded Alcor
‘We provide long-term storage and security for members at our cryonics facility in Clinton Township, MI. We specialize in full-body cryo-preservation of humans and pets, DNA & tissue storage as well as cryonics outreach and public education about the cutting edge science we are engaged in. Members are afforded the opportunity to be preserved at cryogenic temperatures in hopes that future medical technology may be able to someday revive and restore them to full health.’
Another company, Alcor Life Extension Foundation, claimed in August this year to have frozen 148 ‘patients’. One of its founders, Fred Chamberlain, together with his father and mother, are among them. His wife Linda claims the company ‘is providing a realistic service that gives hope’.
HOPE OR WISHFUL THINKING?
But the ‘hope ‘of Alcor is just wishful thinking. There is no evidence that any dead person will ever be brought back to life and plenty of common sense and scientific reasoning against it.
Ethically, the companies are promoting a scam to the gullible. And that is fraudulent. It is theft. David Gorski says:
‘Perhaps what’s the worst about this is that people spend incredible amounts of money, which could be used to make their lives now better or be passed on to their heirs, chasing immortality. Cryonics is not, as its advocates say, an “ongoing medical trial”. Rather, those who choose to freeze themselves are more akin to the ancient Pharaohs, who spent enormous resources constructing elaborate tombs, so that they will one day rise from the grave and live again. Instead, they are found thousands of years later and end up in museums around the world.’
Cryonics is appealing to a human desire to live forever. The desire is good, indeed God-given. Nevertheless, there is only way to achieve it, and squandering your children’s inheritance on a false hope is not it.
REAL HOPE
The Christian life to come is not Alcor’s ‘might happen if you’re lucky’ type of hope. It rests on the promises of God Almighty. By Jesus Christ, says Paul:
Romans 5:2 … we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The customers of the cryonics companies are chasing immortality, but they will have as much success as the pharaohs. Everlasting life is found only in Jesus:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
As to being brought back to life, resurrection is surer than resuscitation. Jesus brought Lazurus back to life, but he did it to make the point to his sister Martha that by believing in him, she would live forever in the resurrection:
John 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he (Lazarus) shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
A BETTER PLACE
One final thought. When a Christian dies, we very often say ‘he (or she) is in a better place now’. If they are in a better place, why do we sometimes struggle, often in prayer, often with medicine, to keep them here? The only reason the Apostle Paul wanted to hang around in this life was to continue preaching the Gospel of Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven:
Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I know not. 23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: 24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Let us fix our hopes of eternal life on Jesus and on nothing and nobody else. And if the subject of cryonics comes up in conversation, the material here might just provide you with some arguments against it.
Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)
Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.
The list contains 20,000 names, with rank and number, of every regular serving officer, reservist officer and university military trainee.
Coming as Anjem Choudary was jailed for encouraging Muslims to join IS, the posting has been described as ‘a huge security blunder’.
Reservist Major Chris Green left the forces last year but his name is still on the list. He said the publication was a gift for Islamic State. He said: “This is a serious security threat when Isis and other groups are looking to target individuals. It is actually a pretty terrifying error. They are putting national security at risk in many ways.”
Michael Adebolajo stands behind Anjem Choudary at a rally held by the Muslim preacher. He went on to kill Lee Rigby
HIGH-STATUS TARGETS
In 2013, Fusilier Lee Rigby was murdered by two home-grown extremists, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, in Greenwich, London. The young men, both brought up in Christian families, tragically converted to Islam and were radicalised by Anjem Choudary.
In July this year (2016), a Royal Air Force serviceman was the target of an attempted abduction near RAF Marham in Norfolk. The serviceman successfully fought off the attackers but police are still hunting two suspects.
We have been unable to date to find the list ourselves, but IS geeks will have little trouble locating it. As it contains officers rather than the 175,000 other ranks, it will provide high-status targets.
The news channels listed above have not given a link to the list, displaying more concern for British service personnel than the MOD.
FOOLISH
The Bible says: Proverbs 12:23 A prudent man concealeth knowledge: but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness.
The Ministry of Defence, under the leadership of its Secretary of Defence, Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, is by that standard foolish.
Mr Fallon has done much to prolong the suffering in Syria, helping to arm jihadist rebels. He survived Theresa May’s opening reshuffle, but surely the time has come to replace him with a more able man whose God-fearing nature leads to care and consideration for the military personnel under his command.
Exodus 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)
Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.
The group of twelve, seven of whom were women wearing hijabs, say they were stared at as if they were “some kind of aliens” when they visited the Lincolnshire seaside town.
They visited ‘Skeggy’ for the first time last week and say they will not be returning. Walking past a pub, a man shouted ‘terrorists’ at them.
They complained about their visit to the ‘Tell Mama’ website, which specialises in stories of discrimination against Muslims.
Lincolnshire Police say no incident was reported.
THEM AND US
Islam vs secularism expressed in dress on the beach.
The family themselves later added to the ‘them and us’ atmosphere around the story by saying they were ‘so happy’ to see another Muslim woman, who they say smiled at them and said ‘Salaam’ (Arabic for ‘peace’).
One of the group said: “Once we reached the main area where there were shops, we noticed a lot of people just staring at us as if we were some form of aliens. It didn’t really bother us until we walked past the pub and a man shouted ‘terrorists,’” she said.
That comment in itself, although crass, reflects a reasonable public association of Islam with terrorism which the British establishment have yet to grasp.
Halal food on the shelves of ASDA in Slough
‘COMMUNITIES’ NEED TO FEEL ‘COMFORTABLE’
A ‘Tell Mama’ spokesperson said: “The family will not be returning back to Skegness and such incidents will no doubt impact on wider perceptions within Muslim communities around areas.
“This is also worrying since communities need to feel comfortable around each other in our country, rather than feeling polarized. We are sure that the people of Skegness are not reflected through the actions of a few.”
The trouble is, Muslims themselves have done so much, with their ostentatious dress, their demands (and those of multi-culturalists) for halal food not only to be sold in supermarkets but enforced in schools and prisons, planning applications for mega mosques, the development of Muslim ghettoes, to emphasise Muslim polarisation from the Christian majority in the United Kingdom.
DIVISIVE PLURAL
The UK’s take-away food trade has become dominated by Muslim ‘Halal’ outlets, happy to take money from ‘unbelievers’.
Tacet UK Muslim acceptance of terrorism and support for self-styled Islamic State has not helped. And then ‘Tell Mama’ complain ‘communities’, itself a divisive plural, are not feeling ‘comfortable’ around each other.
Of course we aren’t. Muslims have made it very clear they don’t feel comfortable among Christians and secularists, while the latter are wary of Muslims. Muslims absolutely do not want to integrate, they want British society to accede to their way of doing things.
If follows that for hijab-clad women to moan about people staring at them as if they are ‘aliens’ is trying to have their cake and eat it. Islam and the expression of it really is alien to the UK.
SPIRITUAL BATTLE
For a generation there has been a spiritual battle in the United Kingdom between Christianity and Secularism. Now Islam is added to the mix. Secularism has no answer to Islam except appeasement and Christianity needs to recover the faith of the Apostles and Martyrs.
If we are not to come under the sway of Islam, Christian men to stand up and start pressing our leaders to proclaim this is a Christian country. It would be entirely Biblical to say those happy with that state of affairs are welcome here but those intent on agitating for Islam can leave.
‘Choose this day whom ye will serve.’
Joshua told the people of Israel to make their minds up between competing politico-religious beliefs:
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
King Asa dramatically realised a nation’s political destiny revolved around its belief system:
2Chron 15:12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13 That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
Such a penalty for sedition horrifies us today, but if Islam keeps growing, middle-eastern Christians’ experience of Islamic State, not to mention persecution of those of their number who convert to Christianity within these shores shows Muslims will be quite happy with it in the united Kingdom when push comes to shove. Given current demographic trends, there isn’t much time to reclaim our Christian heritage.
Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)
Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.
Press Release from Christian Voice – Immediate: 07.20 hrs 22nd March 2016
The stance of the College of Policing to encourage more sexual abuse victims to come forward by assuring them they will be believed, as reported by the BBC, is denounced today as ‘preposterous’ by a Christian group.
College of Policing Chief executive Alex Marshall said claims should be “believed” unless there was evidence to the contrary.
But Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, says such a position is the opposite of what is done in every other alleged crime.
Stephen Green said today: ‘Following the embarrassment of ‘Operation Midland’ in which a man known as ‘Nick’ caused untold pain to Harvey Proctor and Lord Bramall among others by false claims, a position of believing allegations of sexual abuse looks just preposterous.
‘Sexual abuse should be treated no differently from any crime. The police should ask if there is any evidence to corroborate an accusation.
‘The Biblical position is that no-one should be convicted on an accusation not supported by witnesses. Corroborating evidence is such a witness. The law should never have been changed to allow convictions if the complainant is simply more believable than the accused.
‘In criminal law, Blackstone’s principle that: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer” should be guiding both the police and the CPS. By following the stance of the College of Policing we shall see more injustice and the public hounding of the innocent.
‘People can tell lies. People can be fantasists. On the other hand, sadly, real innocent victims may never get the justice they deserve. It is time for people like Alex Marshall to face up to the real world.
ENDS
For further information, phone Stephen Green on 07931 490050
