![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/cap.gif\" "\\"cap\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nChristians Against Poverty<\/a> (CAP) has been forced to leave AdviceUK<\/a>, an umbrella group representing the interests of thousands of advice workers, after it was decided that praying was \u2018incompatible\u2019 with membership.<\/p>\n The decision has been described by campaigners as an \u2018extraordinary curtailment of freedom of expression\u2019. It follows a series of similar cases involving Christians whose freedoms have been curbed following the introduction of controversial equality laws.<\/p>\n Steve Johnson<\/a>, chief executive of AdviceUK, described the offer of prayer by CAP as an \u2018emotional fee\u2019. Asked to explain what he meant, Mr Johnson replied that CAP was effectively expecting clients to \u2018pay\u2019 for their advice by agreeing to pray with the counsellors. \u2018Advisers must not offer or impose their values,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n However, CAP has been a member of AdviceUK for six years and says it has never made prayer a condition of its free service.<\/p>\n In a statement, it said: \u2018While CAP is committed to providing impartial help and advice to all members of society, as an expression of our care for clients we do offer to pray with people.<\/p>\n \u2018In discussions around ethos and purpose, AdviceUK made it clear that they saw any form of promotion of faith to be incompatible with membership criteria.<\/p>\n \u2018In order to protect the integrity of both organisations, it was amicably agreed that CAP would not continue to be an AdviceUK member.\u2019<\/p>\n CAP said that its counselling service would be unaffected by AdviceUK\u2019s decision. A spokeswoman added: \u2018Given the right support, people can and will pay off what they owe.<\/p>\n \u2018We help people in debt regardless of age, gender, faith or background. In our most recent questionnaire of more than 1,000 clients, 88 per cent said that prayer was appreciated or OK.\u2019<\/p>\n AdviceUK, which has 870 member organisations, boasts of being \u2018in a unique position to influence Government departments and other bodies\u2019. It says it \u2018provides a voice to funders and supporters\u2019.<\/p>\n Christians Against Poverty is hardly a group we should have expected to be thrust into the front line of defending the Christian faith in our land. Motivated by a Christian desire to help others, they have simply gone about doing good, taking no payment for their services, declining to become involved in politics. But prayer is a central part of their ministry<\/a>, as you would expect of a Christian agency.<\/p>\n A common question asked of Christian Voice by secularists is ‘Why are you spending all your time protesting against what you see as evil?\u00a0 Why aren’t you out helping the poor and needy?<\/p>\n Christians Against Poverty is doing exactly that, but even that is not good enough any more, except if they deny their faith and the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 No longer do our good works shine before these men, who will contrive to find something evil to say about Christians whatever we do.\u00a0 Truly, every Christian agency and every church involved in social work is now in the front line.<\/p>\n READ<\/strong>: 1Sam 2:30\u00a0 Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith … them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.<\/strong><\/em> PRAY:<\/strong> For Christians Against Poverty that they will stand strong. Pray that God will honour their stand and make them an even more powerful force to help people out of debt.<\/p>\n EMAIL<\/strong>: info@capuk.org<\/a> to let CAP know you are praying for them.\u00a0 If you want to invite CAP to speak at your church, email mattsanderson@capuk.org<\/a><\/p>\n EMAIL<\/strong>: steve.johnson@adviceuk.org.uk<\/a> to protest at his treatment of CAP. You could also let him know you are praying for him!<\/p>\n JOIN CHRISTIAN VOICE<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n Members receive our monthly newsletter \u201cChristian Voice\u201d during Parliamentary sessions and briefing papers on topical issues as they arise.<\/p>\n We also send our members E-Alerts on matters which need immediate action.\u00a0By God\u2019s grace, we try to ensure the information in them is always accurate and accessible.<\/p>\n Every new member also receives a copy of the Christian Voice publication \u201cBritain in Sin\u201d. This timely work reveals for the first time the full extent of our nation\u2019s rebellion against God with:<\/p>\n Members also recieve a copy of Understanding Islam, which tells you all you need to know about the \u2018Religion of Peace\u2019, and our booklet on halal meat, \u2018Labelling Halal\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Christian group has been ditched by an umbrella group of advice lines for offering to pray for people with debt problems. Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has been forced to leave AdviceUK, an umbrella group representing the interests of thousands of advice workers, after it was decided that praying was \u2018incompatible\u2019 with membership. The decision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[36,38,35,37],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","tag-adviceuk","tag-atheism","tag-christians-against-poverty","tag-persecution"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":13,"rttpg_category":"Christian freedom<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"A Christian group has been ditched by an umbrella group of advice lines for offering to pray for people with debt problems. Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has been forced to leave AdviceUK, an umbrella group representing the interests of thousands of advice workers, after it was decided that praying was \u2018incompatible\u2019 with membership. The decision…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLuke 12:8\u00a0 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:
\nMatt 5:16\u00a0 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
\nTitus 2:7\u00a0 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n
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