Firstly, the ‘No to Racism’ placards are from ‘Stand up to Racism’. That is a Socialist Workers’ Party offshoot.
It was formed when the SWP brand went toxic in 2013 after two women accused a senior member of rape.
As the Guardian reports, ‘Weyman Bennett, one of two co-conveners of Stand Up to Racism, … is a longstanding member of the SWP’. For the record, the other, Sabby Dhalu, apparently comes from the National Assembly Against Racism, an organisation associated with the Trotskyist Social Action.
Well, you might expect those two to be opposed to the policies of Donald Trump. And anyone vaguely to the right of Leon Trotsky, to be frank.
Why have Stop the War joined?
Stop the War cannot see that Trump is a man of peace. It’s Hillary they should have worried about.
Stop the War’s articles are highly critical of President Obama’s pro-war policies, US and UK destabilisation of Iraq, Libya and Syria and NATO sabre-rattling in Europe. Look at this article on the Christian Voice website in which we deplored the NATO build-up and celebrated the 2013 vote in the UK Parliament which stopped airstrikes against President Assad’s forces. Now look at this one on the same subject on Stop the War. You will not find a hair’s breadth of difference between them.
So why are we in this ministry praising God for President Trump’s election and his ‘America-first’ inauguration speech? Because he says he is going to seek peace with Russia and stop interfering (let alone starting wars) in other sovereign states.
If Hillary Clinton had been elected, she would have given the green light to every war-mongering hawk, neo-con and interventionist in both the Pentagon and the US State Department. She was the WW3 candidiate, Trump is the man of peace. Why do Stop the War not get that? Stay with us! All will be revealed.
Militant ‘wimmin’ on the women’s march
Feminists on the ‘women’s march”
OK, others on the ‘women’s march’ are just die-hard feminists, and they do have a point. You would expect Donald Trump not to subscribe to the feminist dogma that men and women are from competing tribes, continually squabbling over the division of a cake of a given size.
But Stop the War marching against someone patently anti-war? Why? Because they are ‘for Palestine’ and ‘against Islamophobia’, that’s why. Stop the War is hopelessly pro-Muslim. They have a disgraceful article on their website claiming the inhabitants of Mosul actually welcomed the Islamic State takeover in 2014. They do not even agree with fighting Islamic State or Muslim terrorists.
So that is why they hate an American President whose only pledge on military action is to destroy Islamic State. And on that note, Stop the War, we’ll have to differ.
Micah 4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
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On their facebook page, #DisruptJ20 have said: ‘We must take to the streets and protest, blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and make more noise and good trouble than the establishment can bear.’ The irony is that Donald Trump ran as the anti-establishment candidate. It is #DisruptJ20 who stand for the true big-money, globalist establishment.
But who is on the next level? Who is providing the money? After all, a spontaneous demonstration needs a lot of organising.
George Soros
Billionaire financier George Soros provides the money for anti-Christian activism and violent protests worldwide.
Step forward financier George Soros. The billionaire funds ‘Occupy Wall Street’ through an intermediary known as the Tides Foundation in San Francisco. Look for any anti-Christian NGO worldwide, and you can be sure the Tides Foundation is funding it. Gay rights in Uganda, abortion rights in Tanzania, you name it. Tides, and others like them, are putting up the money.
Reuters News Agency says this: ‘According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros’ Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based group that acts almost like a clearing house for other donors, directing their contributions to liberal non-profit groups. Among others the Tides Center has partnered with are the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundation.’
As this page shows, Tides Foundation makes no secret of its financial support for ‘Occupy’.
Davos Curse
Meanwhile, Soros has cursed both Donald Trump and Theresa May at the Davos World Economic Forum, saying the former is ‘a would-be dictator’ and the latter ‘won’t last’. And when Mr Soros says something, he has the financial muscle to at least try to bring it to pass.
Obviously, Donald Trump, as much as Theresa May (and for that matter Jeremy Corbyn and all in political leadership) need our prayers. We need to stand with the Lord against the ‘Kings of the Earth’ like George Soros.
Please Pray
In particular, on the day of his inauguration, please pray that President Trump does make America prosperous and a force for righteousness in the world. May he stop the flow of US money to abortionists and LGBT rights activists. May he appoint strong, righteous men to the US Supreme Court. May he defend Israel’s right to a peaceful existence. May he end NATO sabre-rattling against Russia. May he stop destablising sovereign states in the Middle East, because peace – even freedom from war – the Lord says is a good thing. May the new President strike the balance between protecting strategic industries at home and fostering trade. May he root out corruption in the US.
And if you have further prayer points, please leave them in a comment below!
Scriptures:
Psalm 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Matthew 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Revelation 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
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‘EL’ outside the court. Face obscured because Family Court rules forbid the identification of children or parents.
A father fighting a local authority in the family court narrowly escaped jail for contempt of court yesterday.
We may only identify him as ‘EL’ and his fourteen-year-old son as ‘J’ on instruction from Judge Richard Scarratt, pursuant to rules designed to protect the secrecy of the family courts.
[At the time of writiing, we were not aware we could name the father under rules covering ‘committal proceedings’ (sending people to prison) in the civil courts. But we shall not correct it. The article stands.]
Father posted notes and pictures
The judge said EL posted notes, an image and the name of his son, identifying him as a child in care.
He also had a picture of himself and his son on Twitter and has posted tweets identifying ‘ J’ and his school. Another post identified a contact centre and its manager.
These activities contravened a reporting restrictions order in the case made by Mrs Justice Theis in September 2015.
MarkChaloner – represented Medway Council but acted decently throughout.
It was never stated in evidence or in the submissions of Mark Chaloner, barrister for Medway Council, precisely how any member of the public could actually identify the son from this information. Nevertheless, Judge Scarratt decided the case was proven.
Local authorities fear the light
But His Honour criticised Medway Council for seeking (in vain) to have the case heard in private. ‘Only in rare cases should committal proceedings be heard behind closed doors and this is not one of them’, said Judge Scarratt.
EL’s supporters were consequently in court. Many of them were also parents of children unjustly, they told this reporter, in the care of local authorities.
Attempts such as that by Medway Council to hold the case in private only strengthen the public’s view that local authorities are ashamed of what they do in the family court.
Suspended sentence in family court
His Honour Judge Richard Scarratt
When it came to sentencing, His Honour was clearly conscious that if he sent EL to prison it would hand the father a publicity coup. A fine would also run of the risk of non-payment and consequent committal. So he handed down a suspended sentence of 56 days and told EL to behave himself for a year.
EL and J are only allowed to meet for a couple of hours four times a year, in the ‘contact centre’. The father says Medway Council have not always kept to that ‘care plan’. Mr Chaloner, who acted decently throughout, undertook to make sure Medway would arrange a meeting this month. Judge Scarratt demanded a report next month on that matter.
Father’s campaign will continue
EL is clearly not going to let things rest. He set up a new protest on the steps of Canterbury Combined Court immediately after the hearing. His campaign will continue, he told this reporter, until his son is returned.
Jer 22:3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
1John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
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Protestors support ‘EL’ outside Canterbury Family Court. He is fighting Medway Council for return of his son ‘J’.
Medway Council is asking a court to jail a father for contempt of court after he posted a picture of his in-care son online.
Medway Council took son into care
Canterbury Family Court heard the father, a concert pianist, had breached an order made by Mrs Justice Theis in 2015 banning him, or anyone, from doing anything which might identify his son.
The son, who also plays the piano, is being fostered after being taken into care – for the second time – by Medway Council.
Circuit Judge Richard Scarratt instructed this author that we may only refer to the father as ‘EL’ and the son as ‘J’.
That is because of secrecy rules the family court employs to protect the reputation of the courts and local authorities.
Barrister Mark Chaloner, a Southampton local Councillor who is representing Medway, refused to tell me why the boy was in care. That may be because he was busy. But a woman who appeared to be briefing him refused to give her name, perhaps because the grounds for keeping ‘J’ in care appear very thin.
Medway Council allowed boy to play Breivik’s violent video game
Medway Council allowed ‘J’ to play a video game which inspired Norwegian neo-Nazi killer Anders Breivik
‘J’ was taken into care for the first time in 2010. His father, who is a single parent, left his son, 8 or 9 at the time, home alone. ‘J’ got into some trouble with a neighbour’s son. Rather than warn ‘EL’ not to leave his son alone again, Medway Council took the boy away.
The father told this ministry that when his son came out of care, the effects of the emotional harm inflicted on him by the council became apparent in increasingly violent behaviour.
Mistakes made in asking for help and complaining
Canterbury Combined Courts
In 2014 there was a bout of extreme behaviour from ‘J’. ‘EL’ made the mistake of dialing 999 to ask for for help from paramedics. Ambulance staff attended with police and naturally, social services again became involved. There were lurid stories in the press of the boy ‘cowering under a piano’.
These stories, put about by the local authority, made it appear as if the son was hiding from his father. In reality, says the father, he was trying to hide from the police and social services.
‘EL’ then made a second mistake. He complained about Medway Council. Many parents report the system ‘biting back’ when they complain. The Council promptly commissioned one Melanie Gill to provide a psychologist’s report on the father. In this ministry’s experience, a case in the family court is never complete without a psychiatric report on the parents.
New Jewish mental condition
Melanie Gill, inventor of ‘Inherited Holocaust Trauma’
Miss Gill’s website claims she specialises ‘in developmental trauma, attachment science, schema theory, family dynamics, mental health and child and adult forensic assessment’.
EL’s 84-year-old father happens to have survived the Jewish ghetto in Vinnytsa in Ukraine during WW2.
Although conditions were appalling in the ghetto, the Nazis did not separate families as in the concentration camps and EL’s father remained with his father and mother.
Out of this, Melanie Gill dreamed up a previously unheard-of condition. She decided EL was suffering from ‘inherited holocaust trauma’.
Because of this imaginary genetic condition, which must affect a huge number of Jewish people, EL was found unfit to care for his son until he had therapy, which no reputable psychiatrist would provide.
The anti-Semitic stance of Medway Council was further in evidence when their social workers refused to allow ‘J’ to attend a Passover (Pesach) celebration with his father.
Care Plan ‘not honoured’ by Medway Council
Some of the Christmas Cards which Medway Council refused to deliver to ‘J’
A care plan allows ‘EL’ to see ‘J’ in a ‘contact centre’ four times a year, although he says Medway do not honour this committment. Father and son are forbidden to speak in their native language and when ‘EL’ tried to pass a copy of the Human Rights Act to ‘J’ the social workers objected, saying it was not in ‘J’s’ ‘best interests’ to know his human rights.
‘EL’ also says:
* Medway refused to deliver Christmas presents to his son,
* They refused to pass on Christmas cards from family and friends,
* They even refused to allow ‘J’ to take a phone call from his grandfather,
* Medway refuse to accept that keeping ‘J’ in care is doing him any harm.
The court heard from Ann Domeney, Deputy Director of Social Care at Medway. She told the court she had seen a Facebook page and some Twitter feed of photographs and other details of ‘J’ and ‘EL’ together and the name of a contact centre and its manager.
Social Care Deputy Ann Domeney runs a sideline offering management consultancy to her previous local authority employers.
Is it likely?
Judge Scarratt can only find ‘EL’ in contempt of court if what he has published ‘is likely directly or indirectly to lead to the identification of the child’. Under cross examination from ‘EL’, who represented himself, neither Ann Domeney not Mr Chaloner’s second witness, contact centre boss Sarah Cahill, could think of anyone in the general public who had identified ‘J’ from the information he posted. The likelihood appears slim.
Judge Scarratt will pass judgment today. If he finds ‘EL’ guilty of contempt of court he will then pass sentence on him. That could range from a conditional discharge to imprisonment. The maximum sentence is two years.
Post-Script
As a post-script, it appears Ann Domeney previously worked for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. She has now set up a very lucrative little business, ‘A D Children’s Services Ltd‘ supplying that council with ‘management consultancy’.
His Honour Judge Scarratt has been criticised and his judgments set aside on at least two occasions in the Court of Appeal for siding with local authorities rather than giving due weight to the evidence of parents. His Honour, ‘Dickie’ to his friends, has also been up an African mountain fundraising for a charity, of which his wife is a trustee, which provides children’s home places to local authorities. But more about all that after the verdict, expected today.
Have you been affected by Family Court injustice?
If you have been affected by injustice in the family courts, we should like to hear from you. In particular, if you are a young adult who was wrongfully taken into care and your right to a family life was thereby disrupted, you may have a cause for legal action against the local authority. Contact us at info@christianvoice.org.uk
Psalm 72:4 He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
Malachi 4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Luke 17:1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! 2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
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Dr Kenneth Zucker was fired for rejecting the fasionable ‘gender affirmation’ approach.
Fifteen years ago it was middle-aged men, very often fathers, deciding they should have been women all along, who formed the backbone of the miniscule transgender movement. They were so few, and so off-the-wall, they were a mere add-on to the homosexual network. Even bisexuals took precedence among ‘LGBT’ activists.
But now the focus has shifted to the school. Four year-olds are coming out with the ‘trapped in the wrong body’ mantra. Last night (12th January 2017), a BBC2 documentary explored the culture war between the ‘gender affirmative’ mainstream and the traditionalist dissidents. The iplayer version of ‘Transgender kids who knows best‘ is available for 29 days.
Gender Affirmative
‘Gender affirmative’ blindly accepts what the child is saying. It objects to any idea of a psychological or emotional root to the child’s gender dysphoria. It objects to there being any parallel dysfunction in the child’s mind. It allows the child to progess to hormone treatment which blocks the onset of puberty and from thence to full hormone treatment and ‘sex reassignment’ surgery, which is irreversible.
Ontario MPP Cheri di Novo
Crucially, ‘gender affirmative’ holds the levers of power in the UK and in Canada, the focus of the documentary.
But the film also gave a welcome platform to Dr Kenneth Zucker. He ran Toronto’s Child Gender Clinic for thirty years and helped many children accept their God-given biological gender. In the documentary he said a “whole range of psychological issues can manifest themselves in a child’s desire to change their gender”. Dr Zucker said a majority of the children he had treated also had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or were on the autism spectrum, or had other psychological problems. One girl he treated had seen her mother murdered and began to think if she had been a boy she could have prevented it. So she then hated being a girl.
Female-to-male transsexual and psychoanalyst Hershel Russell. The whiskers are the result of all the male hormones she had to take.
There was a heartbreaking moment when a girl described how she had undergone a double mastectomy as part of gender reassignment surgery before realising she wanted to remain as a woman.
A creepy activist, female-to-male transsexual and psychotherapist called Hershel Russel made light of the case. ‘There are very few,’ she said.
Furious transgender activists
Activists were furious, according to the Guardian. Susie Green own son wanted to be a girl. She is now chief executive officer of the ‘trans’ agitators Mermaids Foundation. She told the paper: “We’ve had real concern that this is going to cause them to be targeted, because it supports this idea of trans children being mentally disturbed or that they can be cured. Parents are very afraid.”
But parents outside activist groups are relieved someone is sticking up for them. There was an uplifting story in the documentary of a family who resisted their daughter’s claims that she was a boy. They attended Dr Zucker’s clinic. Showing her she could play ball games and take part in rough sports transformed her life. She is now a happy adolescent girl.
In 2015 Dr Zucker was sacked and his clinic closed when his approach fell foul of the spirit of the age. His work was “not in step with the latest thinking”. the BBC defended his inclusion in the programme. They said: ‘He believes he was fired for challenging the gender affirmative approach.’ Five hundred of his colleagues signed a letter supporting him.
‘Trans’ activists on the march
At the very end of the programme, ‘Warner’, a small boy dressing up as girl with the full approval of his misguided parents, said he thought there were ‘a couple of pieces missing’ in his brain.
But surely our whole society is now a few sandwiches short of a picnic. We sack doctors trying to help young people. We browbeat parents into ‘gender affirmation’. We allow adult activists to impose damaging hormone treatments designed to block puberty on children who know no better. We allow surgeons to mutilate bodies and physicians to interfere with young people’s biochemistry. And we do all this because it is politically correct.
Have you been on the receiving end?
Be watchful. Gender affirmation is coming to a school, a church or a family near you.
If you have a story to tell about how ‘gender affirmation’ messed up your life, or how you overcame it, please get in touch.
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It says: “That this House notes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the impact of the conflict on civilians; condemns any breach of International Humanitarian Law; and calls for an urgent independent investigation into reports of breaches of International Humanitarian Law on both sides of the conflict.”
Saudi Arabia bombed a funeral in Yemen
Al Jazeera’s map shows the areas held by the Houthi rebels in green and those controlled by the government in red.
It amounts to a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and neither side has been particularly scrupulous about observing human rights.
However, Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, has the advantage of air power. There have been many well-documented instances of Saudi air strikes causing great devastation in the Houthi areas. One of the more notorious caused 140 deaths at a funeral. But the aircraft and arms used by Saudi Arabi are supplied by the US and the UK. That makes the UK complicit. For that reason, MP’s have been calling for over a year for arms sales to Saudi Arabia to be curtailed.
EDM’s call for an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia
In November 2015, Early Day Motion 665, tabled by Margaret Ferrier, called for an end to military exports to and military cooperation with Saudi Arabia. The motion described it as ‘one of the most repressive regimes in the world’. The motion has just thirty-three signatories to date. No Conservative has signed.
The Saudi attack on a funeral in Sanaa left 140 dead.
On 1st March last year (2016) Tom Brake tabled Early Day Motion 1170, again calling for an ’embargo’ on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. It also asked for the UK government to condemn the use of cluster munitions against the Huthi rebels. These were sold to the Saudis by the UK in the 1980s (see below). This motion has 59 signatories, again drawn solely from the ranks of Labour, LIbDems, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party’s MP.
In February 2016, the International Development Committee wrote to the Secretary of State for International Development, who was Rt Hon Justine Greening MP at the time. They too asked the government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, noting these were worth £3 billion since the start of the conflict.
(The actual figure, according to Middle East Eye, is £3.3 billion during the first twelve months of the Yemen conflict.)
Opposition called debate on Yemen last year
Emily Thornberry MP
This is not the first debate in the House of Commons on Yemen. On Wednesday 26th October 2016 the Opposition tabled a debate. They called for a ‘UN-led investigation … into alleged violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict in Yemen’. Labour’s Emily Thornberry also called ‘on the Government to suspend its support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces in Yemen until it has been determined whether they have been responsible for any such violations’.
Naturally the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, objected to all of that and tabled an anodyne amendment. This was carried, according to the Hansard record of the debate, by 283 votes to 193.
Labour tabled the debate, as Peter Oborne reported in Middle East Eye, ‘ in the wake of a recent Saudi coalition attack on a funeral in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which killed more than 140 mourners’.
UK does not know where arms end up
In answer to a Freedom of Information request by Christian Voice, the Department for International Trade admitted it does not know how many armaments sold to Saudi Arabia have been passed on by the Saudis to their client jihadis in Syria. These include Al-Nusra Front (as was) and of course Islamic State.
CAAT’s Andrew Smith spoke at this conference on Yemen last year. It is not just the US which supplies Saudi Arabia. The UK sold them £3.3 billion worth of arms in the first year of the Yemen conflict. These have been used against civilians in Houthi rebel-held areas.
Legal action is being taken by the Campaign against the Arms Trade to have the UK’s sales of arms to Saudi Arabia ruled unlawful. This appears timely and with the political prevailing wind.
The sale of arms is worth staggering amounts of money to the UK’s manufacturers. One year ago, the Independent reported CAAT’s figures that since David Cameron came to power in 2010, licenses worth £5.6 billion had been granted for arms sale to Saudi Arabia. They are our biggest armaments customer worldwide.
It is legitimate to ask if the UK should be supplying arms to Saudi Arabia and other despots. In practical terms, if we do not know and cannot control where they end up, they could be used against us. But we can also ask if these are the actions of a constitutionally Christian nation.
We should remember Judah’s king Jehoshaphat was condemned for forming a military alliance with the Ahab regime in Israel:
2Chron 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD
Meanwhile, the House of Commons International Relations Committee is taking evidence today. They are asking witnesses ‘How can the UK assist political reforms and stability across the Middle East?’ Many of our readers would respond: ‘By ending ‘Responsibility to Protect’, stop destabilising sovereign states, cease activities aimed at ‘regime change’ and spend the money on the NHS or Transport, or Broadband. Or anything else at home.’
It is worth remembering that Saudi Arabia was, for most of the twentieth century, a client state of the United Kingdom. The UK financially supported the Saud family. (Please remember when pronouncing Arabic that each vowel is enunciated separately.) The UK set up the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
The discovery of oil in 1938 altered the dynamics of the relationship somewhat. But how do matters stand today? Is the House of Saud merely an ally of the UK? Dan Glazebrook suggests it goes further than that. He claims Saudi Arabia does the Middle Eastern dirty work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Christ Church Aden during reconstruction in 1994/1996. Sadly, as a result of the violence, the church is now closed again.
Christians in Yemen
Whatever the truth of the UK/Saudi relationship, life for the estimated 40,000 Christians in Yemen is now particularly harsh, with the Sunni jihadists and Islamic State elements who are active in the south and east of the country taking a particularly hard line. Christian books including Bibles are being burned and churches have been damaged or destroyed.
Pray for today’s Committee meeting, tomorrow’s debate, for an end to arms sales to anti-Christian despots, for CAAT’s court case and for the UK to stand up for Christians in Yemen and across the world.
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According to reports in the Daily Express, the Independent and RTamong others, the US has just landed the biggest shipment of military equipment since the Cold War at Bremerhaven in Germany as part of a NATO build-up.
The Express said hundreds of tanks had been off-loaded at the port and are now trundling across Europe to Poland.
The Indy ventured: ‘Some 3,500 troops from the 4th Infantry Division in Fort Carson, Colorado, will join up with the equipment, which includes 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, over the next two weeks.’
NATO exercise on Russian border
The military build-up is part of a NATO sabre-rattling exercise to be held later this month on the Russian border.
The MainStreamMedia line is typified by what has been written in the Daily Express: The exercise ‘comes amid growing fears that war-hungry Russian president Vladimir Putin could trigger an all-out global conflict’.
In reality, the President of the Russian Federation is far too pragmatic to fall into the trap. Witness his refusal to respond when President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats in the row over ‘the hack that never was‘. Western diplomats are well aware that Russia is only interested in defending its own people, spheres of influence, bases and allies. They must know Mr Putin has little ambition to recover old Soviet Union assets.
in his book ‘1984’ (written in 1948) George Orwell predicted that empire-building governments would engineer a continual state of war.
What is the real reason?
So what might be the real reason for the military build-up? These ideas may not be mutually-exclusive:
1 President Obama, in the short time he has left, is trying to ‘poison the well’ of relations between President Putin and President-elect Trump. He gambles that Trump will not wish to appear ‘weak’ by bringing all the kit back home and that therefore Putin will remain in a cross mood.
2 The myth of a ‘war-hungry’ President Putin is useful for NATO chiefs and their pals in the armaments industry in order to keep up defence spending.
3 Some military people have not yet adjusted to the end of the Cold War.
4 George Orwell’s prediction that governments would use wars and rumours of wars in order to distract the population from focusing on domestic problems is coming true in our lifetime.
5 President Obama is incandescent at the Syrian Government’s recovery of eastern Aleppo, the strengthening of President Assad’s position and the vanishing likelihood of ‘regime change’ in Syria.
John Kerry, still annoyed by the House of Commons
John Kerry still irritated by UK vote
To bolster the last idea, outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry last week expressed irritation at the vote in the House of Commons in 2013 against military action in Syria. He blamed it for President Obama’s lack of action against President Assad and the latter’s subsequent military successes.
Mr Kerry said: “Now, we were marching towards that time when, lo and behold… Prime Minister David Cameron went to the parliament… and he sought a vote for approval for him to join in the action that we were going to engage in. And guess what, the parliament voted no, they shot him down.”
Mr Kerry described how MPs’ 285 to 272 vote against joining American-led airstrikes led to the demands from the US Congress for its own vote on action. It is good to be reminded of how great an answer to prayer was that historic vote in August 2013. The link above shows how your MP voted.
Can you offer another reason for the NATO exercise? Please leave a comment below!
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Christians Celebrating Christmas in liberated Aleppo December 2016.
‘O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing’.
(From the carol: ‘It came upon the Midnight Clear’)
Celebrating Christmas in Aleppo last month.
We thank God for the liberation of Aleppo last month (December 2016) by the Syrian Government, supported as they were by Russia and Iran (and opposed by Boris Johnson and the British Government), and for the eviction of Western- and Saudi-supported jihadists from the east of that historic city.
The reunification of the city was a triumph for peace. Christians in Aleppo were able to celebrate Christmas in their churches for the first time in five years!
But now, as we pray for a cease-fire and a political solution, the British Government should recognise it is time to help rebuild Syria.
For the first time in five years Christmas was celebrated in Aleppo. Most British MPs seemed to think the liberation of the east of the city from Al-Nusra Front jihadists was a bad thing.
4 If we have to spend as much as £12.2 billion on foreign aid, send some of it, in fact, a lot of it, to Syria to help rebuild that country and its infrastructure, especially helping its Christians to re-establish their homes and their businesses, and
5 Never again interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, under the pretext of ‘Responsibility to Protect‘ or with any other excuse.
It’s time for bricks, not bullets.
PRAY for the UK Government to stand for peace in Syria. PRAY they understand that further support for rebel groups will only add to the bloodshed and destruction. PRAY for them to accept reality and bring war to an end.
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‘White Helmets’ as they like to be seen, rescuing children from ‘Assad’s bombs’.
With the liberation of Aleppo, we have heard much about the so-called ‘White Helmets’ in Syria.
Last month, ‘Avaaz’, a group of George-Soros-funded globalists in the US, ran a campaign to raise a “people’s million” in dollars for the ‘White Helmets’.
The campaign was started after the group was unaccountably overlooked for this year’s Nobel Peace prize.
The message went far and wide, with the UK contingent on the Avaaz emailing list invited to donate from £2 to £32 to the ‘White Helmets’ to ensure ‘the recognition they deserve and the funding they desperately need’.
JUST ORDINARY SYRIANS?
Syria’s ‘White Helmets’, Avaaz claims, have saved ‘70,280 lives … rushing to the scene of bombings to pull people from the rubble and carry them to safety’. ‘For their heroic efforts’, it goes on, ‘White Helmets volunteers are often targeted — Russian and Syrian regime planes bomb civilians, then circle back to bomb the rescue workers who scramble to help’.
White Helmets celebrating with Al Nusra Front fighters in a video on YouTube.
‘These heroes’, it gushes, ‘are just ordinary Syrians – bakers, teachers, tailors – who felt they couldn’t do nothing, and threw themselves right into the line of fire’. ‘The White Helmets aren’t from an international aid organization, and they need every dollar they can get’, it goes on.
CASH-STARVED AND LOCALLY-GROWN?
So are the ‘White Helmets’ really a cash-starved locally-grown humanitarian group of peacemakers and para-medics as Avaaz claim?
Well, actually, no, they aren’t. They are a foreign-inspired and foreign-funded partisan force working against the Syrian government. As can be gathered from the comment about ‘Russian and Syrian regime planes’ bombing them, they only work in rebel-held areas.
There is footage online of ‘White Helmets’ waiting while jihadists execute people they disagree with before carrying the bodies away. They have been briefed in advance. Also online are videos of ‘White Helmet’ persons celebrating with Al Nusra jihadists firing guns in the air (see picture above).
White Helmets founder British insider James Le Mesurier. We discovered the background is the Eminonu docks in Istanbul, Turkey, where the UK-funded Syrian National Council is based and where he trained the ‘White Helmets’
‘White Helmets’ are also called ‘Syria Civil Defence’, perhaps to engender confusion with the genuine Syrian government ‘Syria Civil Defence’ or even to claim to be locally-inspired.
But they are actually a Western-Arab import. The ‘White Helmets’ was started in 2013 by insider James Le Mesurier. He claims to have been a British Army Officer, but does not give his rank.
He also claims to have been on the staff of the United Nations and to have been a consultant for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as well as private security companies.
‘The organizational underpinnings of the White Helmets can be sourced to a March 2013 meeting in Istanbul between a retired British military officer, James Le Mesurier—who had experience in the murky world of private security companies and the shadowy confluence between national security and intelligence operations and international organizations—and representatives of the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Qatari Red Crescent Society.’
Naturally, the Syrian National Council is an anti-Assad opposition group based in Istanbul and just as naturally, it is funded by the British Foreign Office. Earlier in March 2013, the SNC was given Syria’s seat in the Arab League at a meeting of the league held in Qatar. Scott Ritter continues in ‘TruthDig‘:
‘At that meeting, the SNC assumed Syria’s seat, and the Arab League authorized member states to actively provide support, including arms and ammunition, to the Syrian rebels. The Qataris, working through the SNC, helped assemble for Le Mesurier $300,000 in seed money from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom for a seven- day course designed to train and equip a 25- person rescue team, recruited by the SNC, for duty in so called “liberated areas” of Syria. The SNC made available a pair of Syrian activists – Raed Saleh and Farouq Habib – to assist Le Mesurier in this work.’
The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, under Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Simon MacDonald (seen here welcoming his new Foreign Secretary in July) funds the ‘White Helmets’.
$30m Budget
GlobalResearch.ca says the ‘White Helmets seems to have an annual budget of US$30 million and has raised a total support of well over $100 million’ in its three years of operation.
A White Helmets’ briefing page says: ’funding for their humanitarian relief work is received from the aid budgets of Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.’
‘The United Kingdom has provided support to Syria Civil Defence (also known as the White Helmets) through the cross departmental Conflict Pool and its successor, the Conflict Stability and Security Fund. Our assistance has been delivered through trusted third party implementers. The total value of funds committed between June 2013 and the end of the current financial year (31 March 2016) is £19.7m.’
Naturally, photos abound of men wearing white helmets carrying wounded infants out of bombed sites presumably in Syria. But journalist Vanessa Beeley told RT the ‘White Helmets’ are ‘terrorist support group & Western propaganda tool’.
Syrian women have spoken out against the ‘White Helmets’
‘This organization is a fraudulent shadow state construct created by NATO to simply propagate the propaganda that will demonize Assad’s government and also demonize Russian legal intervention in Syria,’ said the journalist, who recently returned from Syria.
While there, she was told by an emergency worker with the legitimate Syrian Civil Defense that the White Helmets are ‘very poorly trained in paramedic work.’ Beeley went on: ‘He claimed that they drive around with guns in the back of their car, like every other terrorist there. They carry out and facilitate criminal activities in Eastern Aleppo.’
A woman named Rana from Damascus said: ‘they are an armed force [which has] covered themselves under the wing of ‘humanitarian’ organization. In rural Idlib they did so many executions against Syrian civilians that don’t support the fake revolution’.
DUAL-PURPOSE ORGANISATION
So which is it? ‘White Helmets’, good or bad? Jan Oberg of GlobalResearch suggests a both/and approach. He suggests the White Helmets is ‘a dual purpose organisation. They claim to be ordinary Syrian volunteers who came together around the idea of saving lives and are truly altruistic ‘bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and many more, the White Helmets are volunteers from all walks of life.’ It could well be that some of them actually are, even a majority.
‘That doesn’t preclude that other elements – not the least those operating outside Syria such as foundations, PR and marketing firms, change organisations, NATO government and NGOs are in it with less noble, war -promoting purposes.’
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A row has broken out on the left following a headline yesterday in the Morning Star (in red opposite) saying ‘Final liberation of Aleppo is within sight’.
Many were from the disgruntled Blairite wing, like John Woodcock MP who fumed about the paper: ‘They sponsored the Momentum conference. If you associate with this traitorous scum after this front page you’ve no place in our politics.’
There. If you question the Establishment line, you are a traitor.
Tom Blenkinsop MP called the paper an ‘absolute disgrace’, while Stephen Doughty thought they were ‘vile and disgusting’. Angela Smith, a Remoaner of expenses scandal fame, asked ‘How can anyone claim what is happening in Aleppo is ‘liberation’?’
House of Commons Debate on Syria
Jeremy Corbyn reportedly reads the Morning Star but his team missed an open goal in the Syria debate.
During the two-hour debate not one Member of Parliament condemned the UK for funding and encouraging jihadists in Syria. Not one mentioned that whatever his faults, President Assad had protected religious minorities including Christians in Syria. Not one mentioned that the Western-funded terrorists in Syria had torched churches and murdered Christians. Not one asked to which groups the UK’s money had gone or where what it had bought was now.
The fault was especially bad in Labour’s ranks. They are supposed to be an Opposition. By cosying up to the Conservatives, allying themselves with the Establishment’s new ‘Cold War’ stance and blindly following the ‘Rebels Good, Assad Bad’ line the Labour front bench missed any number of available shots at an open goal.
Donald Trump will end ‘Responsibility to Protect’ or ‘Excuse to Interfere’ as it should be known.
‘Responsibility to Protect’ is dying
Mitchell himself used the debate to try to breathe life into the doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’. This is the line invented by financier George Soros to give legitimacy to the US and its allies to destabilise the countries of national leaders whose faces do not fit, fund opposition groups, run fake news and try to effect ‘regime change.’
By the grace of God, ‘Responsibility to Protect’ is now on its death-bed. Donald Trump has said the days of the US interfering in countries around the world is coming to an end. With Trump as Presidenta new era of US co-operation with Russia could begin.
An Islamic State militant urging people to fight against President Assad in Aleppo (The Guardian)
That would leave the likes of Messrs Mitchell, George Osborne and Michael Fallon up a creek without a boat, let alone a paddle.
Aleppo is being liberated from jihadists
But to answer Angela Smith’s question, yes, east Aleppo is being liberated. How can we claim that? Because those holding the people there hostage were and are a bunch of hard-line jihadists. Or, as the Morning Star’s Ben Chacko put it in an editorial, ‘murderous religious extremists’.
The paper went on: ‘The insurgents being driven from East Aleppo after a four-year occupation are still being lionised as freedom fighters in the press and Parliament. Their defeat by the Syrian army is being treated as a tragedy. They are not and it is not.
‘The occupiers of East Aleppo are terrorists, who have deliberately targeted civilians in their regular bombardment of government-held West Aleppo — a bombardment that, in contrast to the Russian and Syrian bombardment of the eastern parts of the city, does not appear to bother Western governments.
‘They are tyrants, who have held the civilian population hostage. Families who have managed to flee have spoken of the use of civilians as human shields; the massacre of people who sought to leave the city by insurgent militias; the execution of family members of those who successfully got away, as a warning to others to stay put. And they are fighting for a brutal, medievalist vision.’
‘Civilians’ or jihadists?
We should also be sceptical of reports of actions taken by the Syrians against ‘civilians’. The terrorists are not above disguising themselves as civilians to escape and begin actions elsewhere. As the Morning Star’s James Tweedie put itin a post about the retaking of Aleppo:
‘Hidden among the refugees Syrian authorities found Yousef Fahd Deeb, who confessed to being head of the “sharia tribunal” office of the al-Jabha al-Chamiya terrorist organisation which sentenced 25 civilians to death by public firing squad.
‘He said that insurgent factions included numerous foreign jihadists from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Russia’s Chechnya region.’
Odd politics
Politics is truly in a odd state in this country when the Morning Star and Christian Voice, not normally found on the same page, are the only ones trying to call the Government to account over its support of jihadists, its sense-defying ‘Assad must go’ Syria policy and actually celebrating the defeat of terrorists in Aleppo.
Syria has a long way to go and its remaining Christians need our prayers. But at last the people of Aleppo can start getting back to some kind of normality after four years of oppression by UK-sponsored jihadists.
Acts 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. (KJV)
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BBC2's pomotional picture of the 'Muslims Like Us' housemates.
Mehreen Baig: ‘They (some Muslims) think I’m a Muslim girl gone bad. But I pray every single day. ‘
I watched the first episode of Muslims Like Us last night.
The cast list was a bit odd. Yes, it was balanced between the sexes, with five men and five women. But the racial and (lack of) age mix was strange for me.
Among the women was an opinionated woman of white appearance in Islamic dress. She was called ‘Saba’, which means ‘soft breeze’ in Arabic. She was anything but soft.
There was a Middle-Eastern-appearing woman called Naira (Arabic for ‘source of light’), dressed British-style. Then we had two head-scarfed Asian girls, Humaira (which means ‘rosy’) and Zohra (‘bright’).
BBC2’s promotional picture of the ‘Muslims Like Us’ housemates. L-R back row: Nabil, Naila, Fehran. L-R Front row: Humaira, Mehreen, Zohra, Mani, Baraa, Saba, Abdul Haq / Anthony Small.
Finally, although she appeared first, there was an Asian girl called Mehreen, (possibly ‘loving nature’) described as a teacher, although she is also a model. Some Muslims, she said, think she is ‘a Muslim girl gone bad’. One could see why, as she tottered on her heels in Western dress. ‘But I pray every single day’, she said. (Yes, it’s a ‘religion of works’.) There was no black woman among them.
In contrast, there was no-one of white extraction among the males. Ex-boxer Anthony Small, now styling himself ‘Abdul Haq’ (translates ‘servant of truth’), was brought up by Christian parents in a Caribbean household before associating with Anjem Choudary. Nabil (which means ‘noble’) was a Nigerian stand-up comedian from Croydon.
We had a Syrian, Baraa, (‘innocent’), a Pakistani, Mani (‘one who prevents’), who is married to a girl waiting for her visa in Pakistan, and Ferhan, (which means ‘happy’) the much-trailed homosexual.
Mehreen digests a tract on Islamic dress from Abdul/Tony
Everyone his own scholar
Without an authoritative older man to defer to, each of the five, all in their late twenties or early thirties, became his own ‘alim’, or Islamic scholar. But it was normally left to Abdul (Tony) to set a standard. He wanted not just separate bedrooms but separate floors for boys and girls. He lost that one.
Although obviously irritating with his endless supply of tracts on non-mixing of the sexes, Islamic dress for women, the imperative of preaching (‘da’wah’) and so on, he came across as someone of integrity, so to speak, and on his own terms.
Anthony Small in earlier fight-winning mode.
Gay Muslims Like Us?
He was the only one to separate himself from the women at mealtimes. He was also the only one to avoid eye contact with them, although he could not help the odd glance at Mehreen. And when Ferhan’s appalling white gay friends pitched up (he has also associated with the notorious Birmingham activist and promoter of LGBT to children Andrew Moffat, Abdul/Tony was the only one to clear off.
Mehreen turned out to have a soft spot for Abdul/Tony as well. ‘I wonder if he’s married?’ she pondered early on (the answer, according to the Mirror, was ‘Yes’, but he might have found room for another three), before venturing at the end: ‘Abdul’s not a nasty man. He’s a mixed-up man’.
Early on they had to sort out the direction of Mecca in order to pray correctly. Naila did not pray. ‘Religion is control’ she ventured.
Nice sadness turns to karaoke
Ferham Khan (left) with Andrew Moffat (2nd right) at Brimingham ‘Pride’ in 2019
By a horrible coincidence, the Nice atrocity occurred the previous night to filming. Naila was overcome by it, but for Abdul/Tony the important thing was to remember that ‘Muslims are best because we believe in Allah’. Saba snapped that scholarship was ‘dangerous’, while the others held their peace.
For excursions, Naila took all the girls except Saba out to a karaoke pub, while only Baraa joined Tony/Abdul leafleting in town. Nabil managed to get everyone out helping at a soup kitchen. Tony/Abdul could not help doing da’wah among the down-and-outs, while two of them managed to give the inoffensive Mehreen some racist comments about her sort of people taking our jobs.
Tee-shirts were instructive. For Nabil it was ‘Black Lives Matter’, for Tony/Abdul ‘Islamic Revolution’.
Have the BBC put our safety at risk?
Tonight, according to the trail, the ‘housemates’ will explore the divide between Sunni and Shia. But already my worst fears are justified. Yes, you can find plenty of comments on social media about how bad, unrepresentative, bigoted, etc etc is Abdul Haq. But in truth, Mehreen’s comment about him makes some kind of sense. He is a good-looking guy, quiet and reserved, not ranting and raving. He is not coming across so badly as to alienate every single viewer by any means. The danger is, he is providing a focus for those who want to take their religion seriously to the point of radicalisation. Anyone concerned about modesty and feeling that Western society has gone a bit far in the permissive direction and that Islam of the IS variety is the answer will find a ready champion in him.
Let us leave aside the question of whether the programme should have aired at all. I freely confess I found it fascinating and instructive. I am sure many Christians will say the same. Equally, I am uneasy at anything promoting a religion of death, and pray that hearts will be more receptive especially at this time of Christmas to the Lord Jesus, Prince of peace and Lord of life.
Given that it aired at all, the BBC should not have included ‘Abdul Haq’, despite the publicity he has brought to the venture and the occasional spark he has prompted. The danger is not that Tony is winning any argument, but that he is providing a point of witness. It is one that any number of disaffected young men – and women – may attach to, become radicalised and possibly turn to terrorism. BBC2 could end up putting our safety at risk.
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A Student body is urging the use of ‘gender neutral pronouns’ at Oxford University, reports the Oxford Mail.
The National Union of Students is apparently behind the move, which will see ‘he’ and ‘she’ replaced with the silly gender-neutral ‘ze’.
But the ‘ze’ pronoun will only be used if the person requests it. It is unlikely to be preferred by ‘transgender’ students, if there are any, since these are determined to use the sex-specific pronoun of their gender of choice.
Pronoun card from the University of Milwaukee. You are meant to put the appropriate pronouns in from the respective columns.
Indeed, deliberately using the wrong pronoun for a transgender person is an offence under Oxford’s behaviour code, the newspaper has said.
Instead, ‘ze’ will be used by those who decide they are neither male nor female. Those who are genuinely neither male nor female, or possess conflicting sexual organs, are know as ‘intersex’.
This condition is rare, but it afflicts the South African runner Caster Semenya, who has decided to identify, and run, as a woman despite having internal testes. There is at present no ‘ze’ gender classification at the Olympics. Athletes are male, or female.
Christian Voice was first with ‘Gender Neutral Pronouns’
Christian Voice first reported on this matter two months ago, so Oxford University and the Oxford Mail are somewhat behind the times. In an article in our October Newsletter, ‘Brighton Bell’ wrote:
‘At the University of Sussex in Brighton, students from the school of History, Art History, and Philosophy were sent an email with regards to pronouns. More precisely, the use of ‘gender neutral’ and ‘gender non-binary’ pronouns.
‘The email states that it has come to the attention of the university that a number of students don’t wish to be referred to by ‘traditional’ pronouns such as he or she, but instead prefer gender neutral pronouns such as they and their.
‘It goes on to say that students should notify the university if they wish to be addressed by such pronouns by their lecturers or fellow students. It may be tempting to put this down to an isolated incident at a radical university, but as we shall see in this article, this issue has become increasingly widespread.
‘Before looking at how widespread the debate over the use of pronouns is, let us first consider how the issue came to be in the first place.
MASCULINITY IS ‘TOXIC’
‘The ‘traditional’ view that there are two genders is going out of fashion among today’s young people. Especially in academic circles, people are taught to accept that gender is not a binary. Instead of there being two genders, an endless number of genders exist. Many students today are taught that gender is not an immutable characteristic, but instead merely a social construct. The term for this is the ‘gender non-binary’. People identify as new ‘non-binary genders’ which most outside the hallowed halls have never heard of before.
‘Feminists have for a long time been seeking to blur the lines between male and female, especially with reference to attacking masculinity. Masculinity is denounced as ‘toxic’, and feminists argue that men who act like men are expected to act are wrong to do so. Changing gender from a binary of male and female to a spectrum in which one can choose from a menu of options is one way in which to attack maleness. If you can convince people, and especially men, not to identify with the gender they were born with, it will lead to a decline in masculinity.
‘Effectively, feminists seek to make the heterosexual male a dying breed, as it were.
400 GENDER OPTIONS
‘So, just how many new genders are there? According to a recent count on the website Tumblr, which is the home of the online feminist, there are over 400 gender options now to choose from. From the more popular ‘genderqueer’ and ‘genderfluid’, to far more obscure options, all are to be accepted without question, unless one wishes to be called ‘transphobic’ or ‘transmisogynist’.
From someone called ‘sykochica’ on a website entitled ‘steemit.com’. The comments show how seriously the contributors take this issue. The leading comment says: ’The perfectly binary gender is a social construct, not a biological construct ’ to which ‘sykochica’ replies: ‘I completely agree.’
‘These options aren’t mutually exclusive either, so one can choose to identify with more than one of these new ‘genders’. Let’s take a look at a couple of these new ‘genders’ to see just how ridiculous they are (the definitions are from ‘Tumblr’):
‘Abimegender: “A gender which is profound, deep, and infinite”.
‘Genderflora: “A gender that blooms and evolves depending on the weather and atmosphere; similar to genderfluid but more plant-like”.
‘Polygender: “Identifying as multiple genders; may be static or fluid”.
‘In addition to the above terms, a word has even been invented for normal people who identify with the gender they were born with – cisgender. Society is said to be ‘cisnormative’, meaning that those who identify with trans and non-binary genders are an oppressed group.
‘It’s interesting to note how proponents of the gender non-binary see gender as a fluid, social construct one can choose whilst simultaneously seeing sexuality as immutable and unchangeable; something one is born with and cannot choose.
BLURRING LINE BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE
‘Universities across the UK and America are now accepting the new gender theory as if it were proven fact. This has resulted in an increasing number of students identifying with a gender other than male or female. It has also raised the issue of by which pronouns they would like to be addressed. In addition to gender neutral pronouns such as ‘they, them, and their’, completely new pronouns are now also being made up to protect these poor students’ feelings. For example, the pronouns ‘ze, zie, and xe’ are just three of the many sets of pronouns one can now choose as an identity. The more that the gender binary can be deconstructed in these ways, the more the lines will blur between male and female.
‘How widespread is the issue of pronouns? It’s difficult to know just how many universities are implementing new policies on them, but there are certainly a number of examples of universities doing just that. This certainly isn’t an issue confined to the University of Sussex.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN PRONOUNS
‘For example, the University of Michigan in the USA have recently implemented a new policy to allow students to choose their own preferred pronouns. These pronouns must be respected by professors and fellow students on threat of disciplinary action. In a rather amusing twist, one student who found the policy to be ridiculous decided to change his pronoun to ‘his majesty’ in an effort to highlight just how insane the policy is.
‘At American University in Washington DC, students in an induction session were asked to introduce themselves by their name and preferred pronouns.
‘Meanwhile, at the University of Vermont, students are allowed to change their pronouns on the university’s computer system, having the choice between ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’, and ‘ze’, along with ‘name only’ if they wish to have no pronoun at all.
‘PUTTING PRONOUNS ON THE CARDS’
‘Back home here in the UK, our very own National Union of Students seems to have a serious problem with the use of pronouns. Last year, the NUS LGBT committee submitted a motion to the NUS women’s conference called ‘putting pronouns on the cards’. The motion complained that as current name badges used at conferences only state the person’s name and educational institute they attend. That was discriminatory as non-binary students then have to also write their pronouns on these badges so they are addressed correctly. Apparently, having to write a pronoun on a name badge can make one feel ‘uncomfortable, othered, or outed as trans’. The solution the NUS women’s conference came to is that all students will now be asked their preferred pronouns when registering for conference. These pronouns will then be printed on all name badges.
‘Interestingly, the NUS women’s conference also declares that it is open to “all who self-define as women, including those with complex gender identities which include ‘woman’, and those who experience oppression as women.”
‘BORN IN THE WRONG SPECIES’ IS NEXT
‘As you can see, the issue of gender is now at the forefront of what is going on in the academic world, and is a new battleground which must be fought. We cannot allow for traditional genders and gender roles to be eroded further in the name of ‘progress’ or political correctness. First it was sexuality, now it’s gender. What next? A ‘trans-species’ movement? Sadly, that is an idea also starting to gain some momentum. A number of people now not only believe they were born with the wrong gender, but they were also born in the wrong species.
‘Of course, all this ignores the clear words of scripture:
‘Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
‘1Corinthians 14:33a: God is not the author of confusion.
‘Indeed, God is not the author of confusion, and he created a binary of genders which are not social constructs. They are ordained by God himself. So the confusion of genders and blurring of gender lines has not come from God but from the world. It is a corrupting influence on today’s youth and society as a whole. Along with the blurring of gender lines comes an increase in experimenting with different sexuality, and the ever growing embrace of homosexuality as an acceptable, alternative lifestyle.
‘PRAY for Christian young people at university. It takes courage to oppose the militants and faith to persevere. Pastors and parents should be aware of this issue in order to be able to pray with and support our young people.’
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But now they are putting our physical safety at risk by giving a platform to a supporter of Islamic State.
Muslims Like Us
“Muslims Like Us”, to be broadcast on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th December at 9.00pm on BBC, is modeled on Channel 4 and 5’s ‘Big Brother’ format. But don’t expect any drunken on-screen shenanigans or tearful farewells. According to a BBC Press Release:
‘Put ten British Muslims with contrasting world views in a house together and press ‘record.’ What emerges is a passionate debate, honest disagreements, humour and moments of insight that reveal what is like to be a Muslim in Britain today.’
The Press Release goes on: ‘… the real British Muslim … is faced with competing and contradictory voices. Some suggest an orthodox version of the faith is entirely at home in Britain. Others demand compromises to be made by Muslims in order to integrate’.
Er, is that it? What about those who say it is British society, not Muslims, who should be doing the compromising? Halal food must be served to everyone in a school or prison. Peppa Pig? No thanks. That is a valid and widespread Muslim view. It could be argued it is the only legitimate Muslim view.
Anthony Small as Abdul Haqq (right) in a demonstration against British Servicemen in East London.
Disciple of Anjem Choudhary
What the BBC don’t admit in the PR is that one of the ‘housemates’ is someone exactly like that, a disciple indeed of jailed radical cleric Anjem Choudary.
Convicted fraudster and retired professional boxer Anthony Small – now known as Abdul Haqq – is a supporter of banned terror group Al-Muhajiroun and a defender of Islamic State.
The Breitbart website says: ‘Other housemates include “liberal” Muslims, a part-time model, a comedian, and gay Muslim man.’ The BBC really want us to believe Muslims are just ‘Like Us’.
Mohammed Shafiq is Chief Executive of the ant-Semitic Ramadan Foundation . His brother is Chairman.
Such a position cannot stand. Firstly, Mohammed Saddiq has himself defended Muslim anti-Semites and hate preachers. He has, or has had, two radical Islaimist hate preachers on the Ramadan Foundation’s Advisory Board, as ‘Harry’s Place’ points out.
But secondly, no matter who slags him off on Twitter, Anthony Small’s presence on Muslims Like Us will provide a focus for young Muslims sympathetic to his views. The problem is compounded because his version of Islam is more logical, more soundly based on the Islamic Scriptures, more coherent and more true to the example of the ‘prophet’ Mohammed than the liberal version clung to by a model or a gay or any number of liberal ‘housemates’.
Anthony Small in fight-winning mode before he was frozen out of the sport as a result of the demonstration in the picture above.
Danger of conversions
Nor is it just young Muslims we should be concerned about. The killers of Lee Rigby, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, were born to African-origin Christian parents. Anthony Small himself is of Caribbean extraction. He converted to Islam at the age of 24. It is beyond doubt his parents too were Christian.
Indigenous white young men and women are also steadily converting to Islam, attracted to its certainties, its rigour, its structore of rules and its demands on the whole of life.
Need for a balanced Gospel
Such a challenge can only be countered by a coherent and balanced Christian worldview. Yes, God is love, but Jesus Christ is King of kings and Messiah, ‘faithful and true’, demanding obedience of men and nations.
Christian pastors and parents will leave our young people at the mercy of forthright, charismatic Islamists like Anthony Small without such a Gospel. But it is not just eternal security which is at stake.
BBC is putting our security at risk
The BBC is putting our physical security at risk by Muslims Like Us. Its executives exist in a world in which no other point of view than their own could possibly make any sense. In the real world are disaffectioned young men looking for meaning to life. They could quite easily find it in the position taken by Mr Small. The programme will be videoed and will end up all over social media giving a platform to jihadist views The BBC will have encouraged a new generation of terrorists. MI5 will really need our prayers after this one.
1John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Revelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
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Herr Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green party, said he would be an “open-minded, liberal-minded and above all a pro-European president”. Herr Hofer might feel aggrieved at that. He was not exactly campaigning for an Austrian exit from the EU either.
THE ANTI-ELITE MOOD IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL
Austrians are said to be pro-European Union, but despite the sense of relief in Eurocrat corridors of power, we should not think the prevailing anti-elite mood has had an abrupt about-turn.
Crucially, mainstream politicians were not in the running. The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) candidates came fourth and fifth in the April 2016 first round, behind Herr Hofer, who won, Herr Van der Bellen, second, and independent Irmgard Griss in third place . This allowed the Green Party’s avuncular Herr Van der Bellen to claim to be an ‘outsider’, just like Herr Hofer.
Norbert Hofer
The significance of the first round was that parties winning over 50% of the vote for the Parliament in 2003 (see below) were soundly rejected by the electorate.
So when Werner Kogler, a Green party politician, described the result as a “small global turning of the tide in these uncertain, not to say hysterical and even stupid times”, he missed the point, as well as casting voters in the UK and USA as stupid.
VOTING PATTERNS IN AUSTRIA
The Freedom party secretary, Herbert Kickl, was more astute. He acted as Hofer’s campaign manager and was well aware that the establishment had swung behind Herr Van Der Bellen, but quietly. He said: “In this case the establishment – which pitched in once again to block, to stonewall and to prevent renewal – has won.”
In the 2003 Austrian Parliamentary elections, the Greens polled 12.42% of the vote, winning 24 seats. Hofer’s Freedom Party, the FPÖ, polled 20.51% and won 40 seats. Between them, the SPÖ and ÖVP had over 50% of the vote and 99 seats. Clearly, many of their supporters voted for Herr Van der Bellen. But equally, a good number voted for Norbert Hofer, concerned about immigration and jobs.
An analysis ofthe voting patterns in May is highly revealing. Men voted considerably more for Hofer, women for Van der Bellen. The young were somewhat more inclined to go for Van der Bellen. The working class were overwhelmingly for Hofer. Cities voted for Van der Bellen, the countryside for Hofer. This time around is likely to have returned similar results.
ONE MAN’S REFUGEE …
Herr Hofer was castigated by some for apparent antipathy to “the weak, poor and vulnerable – who today particularly include refugees and foreigners”. The barb had significance in the country which gave birth to Adolf Hitler. Indeed, so well did the ‘far-right’ label stick (but was Hitler actually far-right or far-left?) that Herr Hofer’s posters were routinely defaced with little moustaches.
A Christian position may well remember the Holy Family were refugees in Egypt, but they did not go there to subvert the Egyptian government, start a wave of crime or begin a campaign of terror.
There is a theological balance to be struck between hospitality and security, as I show in this video:
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Victoria Derbyshire interviewing ‘Jason’ and her mother Leanne
Hard on the heels of ‘I am Leo‘ and its ‘Just a Girl‘ series, the BBC’s ‘Victoria Derbyshire Programme’ has joined its irresponsible campaign to promote transgenderism among primary school children.
In a video clip on a BBC webpage the child says: ‘I felt like a boy trapped in a girl’s body and it just really didn’t feel right, it was horrible.’
Miss Derbyshire asks: ‘What do you remember about when you were treated as a girl and had a girl’s name?’
The child answers: ‘Well I was treated like any other, anyone else was but I just didn’t feel like the same as everyone else so I felt different and I felt that I was a boy and I am a boy. I came home, I think as, pretty much every day I came home sort of crying because I didn’t know how to explain it. If I was to carry on living as a girl I don’t think I could do it I just I probably wouldn’t, I wouldn’t let anyone see me, I probably wouldn’t come out of my room.’
‘Jason’s’ mother Leanne tells Victoria Derbyshire she and her husband fully support Jason’s wish to be a boy. She says: ‘I think it’s really hard for a parent or anybody on the outside looking in to understand that they are trapped in the wrong body and that is how they feel and it’s like torture for them every day.’
‘WRONG BODY’ MANTRA WITH NHS TREATMENT
Leuprorelin costs £1000 per monthly injection and is available on the NHS
What we see is the popular ‘trapped in the wrong body’ mantra coupled with emotional blackmail.
Disturbingly, we learn that 120 children who identify as being transgender have had NHS treatment to pause their puberty over the last five years and that ‘Jason’ ‘is one of the youngest.
She is now having monthly injections of hormone blockers, which effectively and temporarily halt the progress of puberty.
In ‘Just a Girl’, aimed at children 6-12, the fictional ‘Amy’ wears girl’s clothes and explains to viewers that he was born as a boy, Ben. He too is already in the process of halting puberty by drugs.
The treatment costs the taxpayer something like £1000 per month and the NHS even produced a ‘Guide to Hormone Therapy for Trans People’. The Guide makes clear that in addition to the hormone blockers, a child will need to take regular injections of the hormone appropriate to their ‘chosen’ gender.
This will obviously lower fertility, and if the patient embarks on surgery to have either testicles or ovaries removed, infertility will be permanent. ‘Jason’ and ‘Amy’ will not have children, and ‘Jason’s’ mother Leane will not have the joy of grandchildren from her.
Frank Godwin’s representation of Treasure Island’s Long John Silver
PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT
If someone really and truly believed he was Long John Silver, would the NHS chop off his leg and buy him a parrot? No, his doctor would refer him to a psychiatrist.
Medicine is there to cure, not to harm. Hormones, let alone surgery, are undertaken with the intent of impairing or destroying a natural bodily function. That is contrary to medicine.
A more mature society would deal with the underlying psychological and emotional problem, with the aim of making the child feel at home in the body the good Lord gave him or her. Indeed, the problem could even be spiritual.
The extent to which transgenderism is now becoming fashionable, aided in the UK by our state broadcaster, promoted by materials on the NHS website, means many more small children will fall for it year by year, trotting out the ‘trapped in the wrong body’ line.
Bob McCoskie of New Zealand’s ‘Family First’ reports that ‘the overwhelming majority of such children – from 75 to 98 percent – who experience gender dysphoria grow out of it by the time they reach puberty. … The leading clinics seeing such children – such as those in Canada and the Netherlands – do not recommend parents and schools facilitate gender changes in such children for various reasons. The push in culture today to embrace and affirm such children’s wishes is founded more upon a political ideology than it is in careful science and experience.’
It may be argued that political ideology is bent on societal and individual self-destruction.
Leading clinicians working in the Netherlands report ‘the results unequivocally showed that gender dysphoria remitted after puberty in the vast majority of children.’ They refer to this switch back to the child’s natal gender as “desisting”. Thus, most such children are indeed not ‘transgender’. The Amsterdam Gender Identity Clinic, one of the largest clinics in Europe treating gender dysphoric children, does not recommend that parents, teachers, or clinicians facilitate pre-adolescent sex transitioning, cross-dressing or name-changing.
Children find it hard to reverse the momentum that was created for them by well-intentioned but enabling adults.
Rupert Everett. ‘After I was 15, I never wanted to be a woman again’.
STATE-SPONSORED CHILD ABUSE
Going along with such a child’s apparent wishes to adopt the opposite gender could mar them for life and could be seen as state-sponsored child abuse.
British actor Rupert Everett has also warned parents and clinicians against encouraging children who believe they should be the opposite sex. Speaking from his own experience as a boy, Everett, who is homosexual, said, ‘I really wanted to be a girl. Thank God the world of now wasn’t then, because I’d be on hormones and I’d be a woman. After I was 15, I never wanted to be a woman again.’
Schools going along with transgenderism in the liberal West really ought to carry out a full risk-assessment if they are encouraging immature children into life-changing decisions they will regret later.
Schools and parents should ask themselves:
How will any amount of ‘transitioning’ change the child’s chromosonal and genetic structure?
How will a male to female child produce eggs or a female to male child sperm?
How do they know the child wil not afterwards regret the ‘transition’ and sue?
WE ARE MARRING GOD’S IMAGE OF MALE AND FEMALE
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Proverbs 14:12 (&16:25) There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
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Europa on the Bull outside the Council of Ministers building in Brussels
The European Union faces a crisis this weekend, with a referendum in Italy and Austria re-running its presidential election. But is the entire EU project doomed? Is the heart of God against the EU just as he was against the antichrist Roman Empire? If so, have the Eurocrats been hiding their true intentions in plain sight?
ITALIAN REFERENDUM
A vote against the reforms proposed by Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, could dent confidence in Italy’s banking system and spell disaster for the Euro. At the very least, it could sweep the Five Star Movement’s anti-EU leader Beppe Grillo into power.
Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister of Italy, wants more power.
Signor Renzi wants more power for whoever forms the ruling party, and Italians fear he, or someone in the future, could act like Il Duce of old.
Meanwhile, a triumph for Nobert Hofer, of the Freedom Party, could result in a referendum on Austria’s membership of the European Union.
Norbert Hofer; the slogan roughly translates as ‘Austria, again and again.’
Hofer is described by the BBC as ‘far-right’, although his opponent, the Green Party’s Alexander Van der Bellen, may be equally far-left. If Herr Hofer wins, there would surely be demands for reform of the EU super-state.
But does the EU need mere reform, as Mr Cameron famously proposed (although I was never sure whether he thought he had already achieved reforms or whether he thought he was going to secure reforms after a Remain vote in the Brexit referendum), or is the purpose of God for it to be broken up?
EUROPA ON THE BULL
This spring, I went to Brussels to look for a mythological woman who has become a symbol of Europe. I found her outside the Justus Lipsius Building, which houses the EU council of Ministers (above). She is also the subject of a statue in Strasbourg (below) and her image is just about everywhere in the EU. By placing Europa on the Bull all over the European Union, were the Eurocrats secretly telling us something about the destination and purpose of the EU, but doing so right out in the open? And if I am right about what they propose for the people of Europe, wasn’t the result of the UK’s Brexit referendum a real token of the grace of God?
Europa on the Bull outside the rear entrance of the European Parliament Building in Strasbourg.
In the Greek myth, their top god Zeus became infatuated by Europa, a Phoenician princess. He changed himself into a bull and enticed her onto his back. Once she had sat upon him, he made off to Crete with her. In Crete he changed back into his human form, flung the bull into the heavens, where it became the Taurus constellation, and raped her. Like Europa, are the people of Europe being lied to about the purpose of the trip and the eventual destination?
EUROPA WRITING THE EU CONSTITUTION
The disturbing tale of the rape of Europa is all over the EU, not just in the statues outside the EU Parliament in Strasbourg and the Council of Ministers Building in Brussels.
Europa writing the EU Constitution on a commemorative Italian 2-Euro coin.
Europa on the Bull has been on an Greek and an Italian 2-Euro coin. On the latter, she was writing the EU’s failed constitution – how scary is that? Europa herself is on the ‘Europa’ series of banknotes and the Bull, with a bit of astrology thrown in, is on every EU residence permit.
Going deeper, is there a parallel between Europa on the Bull and the Woman on the Beast of Revelation chapter 17? The woman, the whore, sits on the beast just as Europa sits on the bull. She goes where the beast, or the bull, wants to go.
The woman in Revelation 17 appears to be an earthly power (she personifies the Roman Empire of the time) and the beast seems to be a demonic spirit empowering her. In the same way, Europa seems to personify Europe and its peoples, and the bull she is riding is the demonic spirit of Zeus, whose altar is referred to in Revelation 2:13 as Satan’s seat.
I could go on, but it’s all in this short video (less than 4 minutes). Click and see for yourself:
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Confused? Article 127 is the exit clause for the European Economic Area.
The so-called ‘Hard Brexit’ involves leaving the European Union’s Single Market and its Customs Union. A ‘Soft Brexit’ would stay in them, making the vote in June to ‘Leave’ the EU of no consequence.
So just where does the European Economic Area fit in?
OK. Let’s draw it all together.
CUTTING THROUGH THE JARGON
The EU’s own website says: ‘The Single Market refers to the EU as one territory without any internal borders or other regulatory obstacles to the free movement of goods and services. … The European Single Market is one of the EU’s greatest achievements. … The Single Market is at the heart of the European project …’ It also allows the free movement of people, but they are a bit coy about admitting that.
The BBC explains: ‘A customs union is a form of trade agreement between two or more countries. It means they decide not to impose tariffs (taxes on imports) on each other’s goods and agree to impose common external tariffs on goods from countries outside their customs union. Setting common external tariffs is what distinguishes a customs union from a free trade area.’
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states: ‘The European Economic Area (EEA) unites the EU Member States and the three EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) into an Internal Market governed by the same basic rules. These rules aim to enable goods, services, capital, and persons to move freely about the EEA in an open and competitive environment, a concept referred to as the four freedoms.’
The UK Government confirms the EEA allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to be part of the EU’s Single Market. It goes on: ‘Switzerland is neither an EU nor EEA member but is part of the single market – this means Swiss nationals have the same rights to live and work in the UK as other EEA nationals.’
THE UK IS A CONTRACTING PARTY TO THE EEA AGREEMENT
The UK signed the EEA Agreement in Porto on 2nd May 1992 and ratified it on 15th November 1993. It came into force on 1st January 1994. The UK is a ‘contracting party’ to the EEA Agreement.
Article 127 of the EEA Agreement says: ‘Each Contracting Party may withdraw from this Agreement provided it gives at least twelve months’ notice in writing to the other Contracting Parties.
‘Immediately after the notification of the intended withdrawal, the other Contracting Parties shall convene a diplomatic conference in order to envisage the necessary modifications to bring to the Agreement.’
In the face of the legal challenge about to be launched by a pro-single market think tank with no working website called ‘British Influence‘, the Government has maintained that EEA membership ends when the UK leaves the EU. But that is not what the Agreement says. So a bit like the Roundheads in the book ‘1066 and all that‘, the Remoaners in this case are ‘Right but Repulsive’. (The Cavaliers, you will remember, were ‘Wrong but Wromantic’.)
Where does this leave the UK Government? Quite simply, they must just get on with it and bring a short Bill before Parliament to leave the EU and trigger both Article 50 and Article 127. Or they can add all that to the bill they have promised, dubbed the ‘Great Repeal Bill’. which will repeal the European Communities Act 1972.
And if they lose the vote, they will be able to call a General Election and win it.
WE DO NOT NEED TRADE AGREEMENTS TO TRADE
The Bible reminds us that nations do not need trade agreements to trade. Ezekiel 27 is an important chapter which sets down in minute detail the extensive network of ocean-going international trade 2,600 years ago. It was centred around the wicked city of Tyre and included metals from the British Isles:
Ezekiel 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.
All trade agreements do is reduce tariffs, which may or may not be of benefit. The EU exports more to the UK than it imports from us, and German car-makers will not want a trade war. The Bible also reminds us that leaders have to trust God and make decisions. First Moses then the Lord told Joshua:
Joshua 1:6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
In particular, rulers have to take the initiative, set a standard and lead the people:
2Chronicles 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
PRAY that Theresa May, David Davis, Boris Johnson and Dr Liam Fox will get on with it and take the UK properly out of the European Union with its pretensions to continue the antichrist project of Babel. View our video:
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The Bible tells us to pray for our leaders, but there is an urgent need to pray for Donald Trump, especially as he embarks on his ‘Thank You’ tour with all the security challenges that presents.
TRUMP IS NOT YET ‘PRESIDENT-ELECT’
Despite the generous words of President Obama, Donald Trump is not yet, at this time of writing, the ‘President-Elect’ of the United States.
He will only become President-Elect when the fifty US electoral colleges have met, in their own states, on 19th December 2016 and that when the President of the US Senate counts up the votes, 270 or more state electors have voted for him.
What would happen were Donald Trump to become President-Elect but be assassinated after 19th December and before his swearing in? His running mate, Mike Pence, having been elected Vice-President-Elect, would become President on 20th January.
Hillary Clinton
But what would happen were Donald Trump to be assassinated before 19th December? Then, as I understand it, the electors would be free to vote for whomsoever they wished. Mike Pence might be elected. But so might the runner-up, Hillary Clinton.
CHANCES OF ASSASSINATION
A Mrs Clinton Presidency would be a green light to the Neo-Conservatives, hawks and interventionists in the State Department and the Pentagon to bomb far-away places and increase NATO aggression against the Russian Federation. It would also be bad news for Israel, and great news for abortionists, gay rights groups and those who paint transsexual signs on toilets. Her judicial appointments to the Supreme Court would entrench the antichrist agenda, and the effects of all that would undoubtedly be felt this side of the Atlantic and across the world.
Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981
There is a lot of money and ideology at stake and we should be under no illusion about that. There are dark forces already at work trying to undermine Mr Trump. An assassination attempt on him is not beyond the bounds of reason. Joe Tex says the chances are:
‘about 1 in 4 that he will be killed, injured or narrowly escape an assassination attempt. There is a 90% chance that at least one attempt will be made, since one attempt has been made on 9 of the last 10 Presidents.’
By working with Russia, President Trump will also be the best hope for peace and for Christians and Christianity in the Middle East. It was President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair who were responsible for the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, which began in 2001. The same two took their countries into war on false pretences against Saddam Hussain in Iraq in 2003, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and sowing the seeds of Islamic State.
Even on President Obama’s watch, the US, the UK, under David Cameron, and France threw Libya into chaos in 2011 and the same year, with the help of funding from financier and agitator George Soros, destabilised Syria, bringing about today’s refugee crisis across Europe. The civil war in Syria saw jihadists Al Nusra Front and Islamic State finally become established. This BBC timeline video is helpful.
Mike Pence
Depending on who Mr Trump appoints as Secretary of State, there is hope we shall hear far less of the Soros-inspired ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which in practice means organised destablisation and fake news from establishment media followed by regime change, followed by anarchy.
We must pray especially against the appointment to that office of the war-monger John Bolton. Having said that, Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney are each of them anti-Russia insiders. The delay in the appointment must mean the Trump team are still looking for someone who shares his views.
(03/12/2016 Update: On his ‘Thank You’ tour, Mr Trump has said “We will destroy ISIS. At the same time, we will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments, folks.”)
IT ALL HINGES ON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Clearly Mr Trump, his advisers and his running mate Mr Pence, who gives his testimony in this video, need wisdom from on high in their appointments.
But of course, much hinges on the electoral college on 19th December. If Donald Trump makes it that far, and if the electors stay faithful to their state vote, he will at that point become President Elect and the elite will have been denied the Clinton presidency they were counting on.
So we must pray urgently for safety and protection for Donald Trump and also of course for Mike Pence. In particular, may the Lord frustrate all attempts to assassinate Mr Trump.
Pray also that his appointments will be marked by wisdom and a desire for peace.
Psalm 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
1Timothy 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.
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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.
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