Victory for street preachers
Two Christians arrested for refusing to stop preaching outside a pro-LGBTQI+ witchcraft shop in Glastonbury will face no charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case after the Christian Legal Centre defended the pair, with legal costs awarded to the preachers.
Arrested by officers wearing rainbow lanyards
Christian Concern report that John Dunn and Shaun O’Sullivan were arrested by officers wearing rainbow lanyards, even though it was the preachers who had been verbally abused by bystanders, with one threatening to report them for a ‘hate crime’. The police said that witnesses alleged that the preachers were “causing harassment, alarm and distress… including saying that homosexuals are paedophiles”.
“The police must uphold the law, not identity politics”
O’Sullivan completely denied the accusation, and was later vindicated by police bodycam evidence.
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre said: “It is not an offence if someone is offended by the truth of the Bible. The police must be impartial and uphold the law, not LGBTQI+ identity politics.”
‘Conversion therapy’ ban defeated – for now
The latest attempt in the ongoing campaign to ban counselling to change a person’s sexual orientation was voted down by MPs, but the threat remains.
It threatened to prosecute parents who oppose their child changing gender
Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle’s Private Member’s Bill failed to pass its Second Reading on 1 March because too few MPs turned up to support it.
Several MPs denounced it because it threatened to prosecute parents who oppose their child changing gender, and religious leaders who might tell someone not to leave their marriage partner for a homosexual relationship. The Bill was also vague on the definition of ‘transgender’ which left it open to abuse.
However, the Coalition for Marriage is warning the issue is far from over, as the Government is still formulating its own proposals, and if those don’t see the light of day before the next election, a Labour government would introduce its own bill. Colin Hart, the coalition’s chairman, commented: “At C4M we question why a new law, with all the evident risks… is necessary at all.”
Christian Concern said: “‘Harmful conversion practices’ are not happening, and if they were, they would be illegal anyway… It is encouraging to see the strength of opposition expressed to the bill, but the battle is not over.”
A Labour government would introduce its own bill
The Scottish Government, which is developing its own ban on ‘conversion therapy’, could even make it illegal to counsel someone to stay celibate.
Christian teachers win right to appeal
Two teachers sacked for their beliefs about transgender ideology are being allowed to take their cases to the Court of Appeal, after years of legal battles.
Both cases may be significant for Christian teachers’ rights in the future.
Higgs has fought a five-year legal battle with her former school
Former school assistant Kristie Higgs was fired for her private social media posts, in which she shared a petition against compulsory sex education and criticised the LGBT+ syllabus at her son’s Church of England primary school as “brainwashing”. Her opposition to transgender ideology was described as neo-Nazism.
With the help of the Christian Legal Centre, Higgs has fought a five-year legal battle with her former employer, Fairford Secondary School in Gloucestershire. Her case is expected to be heard later this year.
In 2017, mathematics teacher Joshua Sutcliffe was found guilty of ‘misgendering’ a girl who said she identified as a boy, and was disqualified from teaching by the Secretary of State for Education.
Sutcliffe, also supported by the Christian Legal Centre, is thought to be the first teacher to have been banned from teaching for refusing to refer to a pupil by his or her preferred pronoun.
The government finally announced its draft transgender guidance for schools in December 2023, Section 6.3 of which says: “No teacher or pupil should be compelled to use preferred pronouns.”
Pro-life students threatened by screaming mob
Students at the first meeting of the Manchester Pro-Life Society had to be protected by police from angry protesters.
On 29 February, police escorted members of the society in and out of the Students’ Union building after a crowd of 250 or so demonstrators gathered outside. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) condemned the mob and called for “urgent action” to stop such “shocking scenes” happening again.
Pro-life students were “terrified” and were spat upon
The protesters shouted chants like “Stay in there and die” and threw eggs and swore at the pro-lifers as they left. Two female pro-life students say they were followed home, and another received a rape threat, yet even the Daily Mail focused on the protesters’ claim that it was pro-abortion students who felt threatened by the new society.
The protest was organised by the Stop Manchester Pro-Life group, whose Instagram post called for “peaceful protest” yet displayed three fists. A petition against the Manchester Pro-Life Society had been signed by almost 19,000 people.
A pregnant 22-year-old had to be escorted home by police
According to Right to Life UK, the pro-life students were “terrified” and were spat upon. A pregnant 22-year-old had to be escorted home by police.
The university’s Students’ Union stated that “we are required to affiliate the group”, citing relevant legislation – including the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 – giving the impression they would not have made the same decision if it wasn’t for the Act.
The treasurer of Manchester Pro-Life Society said: “If it wasn’t for the police and security, people would have definitely been physically hurt… I was genuinely afraid.”
A spokesperson for RTL UK said: “These students should be allowed to discuss serious moral issues like abortion, free from such vile verbal threats and physical intimidation.”
Government defunds NHS gender ideology scheme
NHS England has axed its push to eradicate sex-specific language after the Department of Health and Social Care decided the scheme was not “value for money” and pulled the funding.
It rewarded hospitals which labelled pregnant women “clients”
The Christian Institute reports that the NHS Rainbow Badge scheme has been running since 2021, giving gold, silver or bronze awards to hospitals depending on how well they promoted gender ideology. Critics called the scheme anti-women because it rewarded hospitals which labelled pregnant women “clients” and asked patients for their “preferred pronouns”.
Helen Joyce of women’s group Sex Matters welcomed the end of the scheme as “a huge step towards rooting transactivism out of our public institutions… the Rainbow Badge harmed women’s rights by prioritising trans identities over sex-based rights.”
But an NHS England statement said: “The NHS Rainbow Badge programme is an important initiative to address LGBT+ health inequalities and to support LGBT+ inclusion… Our work in this area will continue.”
Starmer supports euthanasia
Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party and the man predicted to be the next Prime Minister, has committed himself to bringing forward a Bill to legalise ‘assisted dying’.
In an article for The Conservative Woman, Simon Caldwell says ‘assisted dying’ is “the contemporary euphemism for assisted suicide or euthanasia”.
In a much-publicised telephone call filmed by ITV on 14 March, Sir Keir assured Dame Esther Rantzen, a cancer sufferer campaigning for doctors to be given more powers to kill their patients, that ‘I’m personally in favour of changing the law’.
King makers and king breakers!
Can Christians collectively be a tour de force in restoring the righteous to authority in the UK?
By Maureen Martin
Historically the Church has been a powerful voting bloc, mainly because our culture was dominated by Judeo-Christian values.
However, political parties no longer court the Christian vote, thanks to the nation’s moral decline since the 1960s. One only needs to look at the tyranny of the woke gestapo now plaguing the West for evidence of the mire in which we find ourselves.
Christians have been complicit in the cleansing of their values from the culture
As a nation we have legalised the mass murder of unborn babies, sanctioned same sex marriage and indoctrinated our children with toxic transgender ideology, all of which are antithetical to Judeo-Christian values. The most troubling aspect of this trend is the willingness of many Christians to be complicit in the cleansing of their values from the culture by electing governments who advocate for all the above. We have become the authors of our own demise in this Greek tragedy!
The reality is that we are still a powerful voting bloc and can collectively shift the Overton window (the range of policies the public is willing to consider and accept) if we flexed our electoral muscle and voted as a unit for candidates who supported our values with biblically based manifestos. Let’s run the numbers: in the London Borough of Lewisham, for instance, according to the 2021 census the population size was 300,000 of which 131,706 were Christians. In the 2022 mayoral race the winner, with a turnout of 35%, received 39,000 votes, out of a total of 69,000 votes cast.
If the Christians in Lewisham voted strategically, it would only require approximately 35% of the Christian population to elect their chosen candidate without the assistance of any other demographic. I have a vested interest because I am currently running for mayor again after the resignation of the Labour mayor who was elected in 2022. So the Christian vote alone could cause a major political upset.
The difficulty is getting this message out to the Church. The evangelicals in the USA are acutely aware of their voting power and so are those who run for office! Democrats often pretend to be more conservative/republican to court evangelical votes.
The 2016 presidential election is a perfect example of Christian voting power. The evangelicals were essentially responsible for the first presidential term of Donald J Trump, who delivered four years of peace and prosperity.
We are still a powerful voting bloc
The evangelicals in America know they can be king makers and king breakers! When you elect one ‘king’, you effectively remove another.
The UK Church could follow suit and mirror the biblical model of God’s prophets selecting and anointing Old Testament kings on God’s behalf. Let’s unite and be strategic in our support for political parties and candidates who support Judeo-Christian values, share the Christian world view, and follow through with biblically-based policies.
It’s time we restored the righteous to positions of authority and experience: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).
Maureen Martin is an ordained minister, business owner and President of the Christian People’s Alliance: www.cpaparty.net. Tel 0208 855 8027 or email Info@cpaparty.net
Islamic blasphemy law?
Should Labour win the general election, criticism of Islam could be banned.
Labour has already adopted a catch-all definition of Islamophobia proposed by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims in 2018:
“Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”.
Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern says, “Islam is not a race. Therefore it is wrong-headed to define Islamophobia as ‘a type of racism.’ You cannot change your race, but you can change your religion.”
Since the Labour Party has also promised to introduce a new race equality act, should it obtain power, Dieppe says this definition could be enshrined in law. “The definition talks of ‘perceived Muslimness’, so if someone perceives you have been Islamophobic then by definition you have been! You are guilty by allegation.”
One example of Islamophobia would be “accusing Muslims as a group, or Muslim majority states, of inventing or exaggerating Islamophobia, ethnic cleansing or genocide perpetrated against Muslims”.
Thus, suggesting that Hamas may be exaggerating claims of genocide in the current Gaza war is Islamophobic, as would be claims of genocide made by Muslims.
Tim Dieppe fears that in defining ‘Islamophobia’, it is criticism of Islam itself that becomes unacceptable.
“As Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch recently pointed out, it is an Islamic blasphemy law by the back door”, says Dieppe.