Today's children tomorrow: Urgent PETITION

Since my previous blog on this subject there has been much criticism of Mr Gove's proposal to axe support for the School Sport Partnerships (SSPs).

There has been widespread anger in every walk of life including elite athletes and MP's with the Prime Minister being questionioned in the House.

Please sign the PETITION organised by the NUT to get this shabby treatment of our children reversed and encourage as many as you can to do the same.

None so blind as those who will not see

Islamic extremists are not typical of the Muslim presence in Britian (yet) so the problem is swept under the carpet but how much evidence of a problem in our midst do dhim-wits need? In Great Britain we have become so accustomed to the type of demonstrations illustrated above that the participants are simply dismissed as cranks. When British troops return from duty and are heckled by Islamic demonstrators they are dismissed as minorities entitled to protest in a democracy.

Their placards are not idle threats. In Islamic countries Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims are being massacred and driven out of their homelands, proof that jihadists are deadly serious. The double-standards employed by dhim-wits here reinforce the view that they regard only Islam as sacred with no understanding of what that means for our survival as a Christian nation. To question their stance is regarded as bigotry.

Thankfully there are many more peaceful Muslims than extremists, the excuse regularly used for inaction but there is no excuse for ignoring threats to our liberty. It takes only a few, four in fact in the last major outrage when the 7/7 bombers killed fifty-two civilians and injured 700. The Inquest into that atrocity has revealed that the backbone of Britain has been replaced by a paralysis of self interest. From The Guardian today it is even more apparent that the full force of the law is reserved for relatively peaceful protest.

The aim of Islam is a world under Sharia law in which the democracy Islamist protesters use to further their cause would not be permitted. Evidence from most Islamic countries clearly demonstrates that minority religions are not tolerated. In the process of Islamisation, the beheading demanded on the placard is no idle threat. Meanwhile, when it comes to Panorama warning us of serious problems facing this country, the Prime Minister is more vocal about football than our freedom.

Water Aid

Today sees the end of "Africa Water Week". It probably passed you by but you can see reports here.

It doesn't stop there. Thousands of children die needlessly for the sake of a few pounds. As Advent approaches and you wash our hands regularly, think of those with no running water and consider a Christmas gift, the water of life, for those who pray for water rather than take it for granted. Why not visit the Water Aid SH2OP for Life and buy your Christmas cards adding a watery gift. Make someone else's Christmas happier than they could have imagined. Thanks.

"We are all in this together." (3)

"David Cameron launched his "happiness index" yesterday as he announced that the Government would measure people's quality of life as well as economic growth."

It's all relative!

For better or for worse...

...for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death us do part, according to God's holy law.

The Mail Online has reported that "Two million husbands and wives are not lawfully married because of a Church of England blunder" speculating that "marriage partners heading for divorce may try to deny their spouse maintenance, support or even a home on the grounds that they were never really married". What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

There is a serious point here. Constant change has made a complete mess of Anglicanism but in reality, however man or woman legislates it is in the sight of God that we shall be judged. The Anglican Church has been on a slippery slope ever since change was introduced to make it more 'relevant'. Gone is much of the mystery, the awe, the beautiful language making worship commonplace. Political correctness has replaced tradition, so much so that the catholicity of the church is being surrendered. The result? An Anglican Covenant that proposes the use of sticking plaster to heal broken limbs.

Drastic surgery is needed. The feminisation of the church must be halted. The first step is to abandon the divisive measure permitting women bishops signalling to the Universal Church that unity is more important than feminism. The alternative is further decline with the Anglican church becoming little more than a social network when the Lord's table might as well be used to serve tea and biscuits.

May it please Your Majesty!

Funny old game, politics. Her Majesty the Queen, Defender of the Faith and Head of the Church of England wears a funny hat as she listens to children read from the Quran.

Hopefully none of the bits that would see an end to Christianity!

From The Grauniad

Rowan Williams speaking at the General Synod: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Reporting on the opening of the new General Synod, The Guardian presents an article "Anglican church faces 'piece by piece dissolution', warns archbishop" under a picture of His Grace with the caption Rowan Williams speaking at the General Synod , apparently not knowing its Abbey from its Church House. A sign of the times?

Today's children tomorrow

Could this be the line-up Mr Gove envisages for his planned Children's Olympics?

Directgov, the government web site's guidance on 'Children and healthy weight' states that "Through the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People, the aim is to offer young people five hours of sport and PE each week (both inside and outside of the school day)." The funding for this project is to be scrapped under another false economy in the state sector. Front bench offspring and other privately educated children will not be affected.

Already worried that too many children are inactive and lack a proper diet this cut is absurd. Short term savings should not affect our children's future. There are already indications that obese children are at risk from heart disease, breathing problems, diabetes, liver and joint problems. The medical cost of dealing with these problems will be immense. That cuts need to be made is accepted but to prejudice the health of our children and build up problems for the future is not only short sighted, it is cruel.

World Toilet Day

Not everyone can squat in luxury. In fact many do so in fear.

Today, 19th November is World Toilet Day.

"We are all in this together." (2)

"Never had it so good!"

Macmillan's (in)famous words have been repeated by the Prime Minister's enterprise advisor, Lord Young, who has claimed that most Britons "never had it so good". The Prime Minister has rebuked Lord Young saying that the remarks were "insensitive and inaccurate". Rather like the Government saying that we are all in it together when some are, and many others soon will be, much deeper in it than others.

An interesting Christian perspective is available here.

Postscript

Lord Young pays the price.

Humble pie - Postscript

Vatican Radio has reported Archbishop Rowan's comments following yesterday's celebration of fifty years of ecumenical dialogue. In the linked recorded interview His Grace tries to say the right things but his face often tells a different story.

PPS A happier view here.

Christian persecution - old and new

Thankfully Christian persecution is no longer the Roman ‘sport’ which inspired box-office spectaculars such as Quo Vadis but the persecution of Christians continues today on a much bigger scale and is just as evil. From Konrad Szymanski in New Europe :

“According to the statistics at least 75% of religious persecution is directed against people of Christian faith and each year about 170,000 Christians suffer because of their beliefs. The total number of faithful who are discriminated amounts already to 100 million. It's also a known fact that more Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in all the prior 1,900 years. All in all it makes Christians the most persecuted religious group.”

Many of the worst atrocities are too distressing to illustrate here but burning, beating, beheading and all manner of brutality are documented on the web, including the use of rape as a weapon. The beating of Christians in Egypt (above) for opening their cafe during Ramadan is a minor punishment by comparison. In Iraq, killings and persecution have resulted in the Christian population being halved to 400,000 since 2003. Meanwhile in Pakistan ‘blasphemy’ is used as a weapon of persecution. Not only does much of the persucution go un-reported but Islamic states have attempted to get the United Nations to legitimise it. Meanwhile many delude themselves by making excuses.

Here in Great Britain, in addition to the Islamic atrocities perpetrated on British citizens we have subtler methods of oppression, often by do-gooders who are so immersed in political correctness it has almost become a religion. Even church-goers are not exempt. Orthodox Anglicans in the Church of England are oppressed by those who have abandoned the traditional faith of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church because they refuse to adapt their religion to suit modern life styles. In the forefront of this movement are the feminist organisation Women and the Church (WATCH) which battles ceaselessly to exclude Christians who don’t agree with their political agenda of parity for women in the church as though they were working for Local Government Social Services or the Co-op.

Those whose agenda is to make the church relevant to society fail to see that they have made faith irrelevant to many with the consequent decline of the church. If we are not careful the remaining vacuum will be filled by others leaving the oppressors themselves as victims.

Postscript

On his Blog Archbishop Cranmer has published a long but interesting US Report on Religious Freedom in the UK.

Humble pie

On 17th November the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will be in Rome for the 50th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. Humble pie should be on the menu. As this healthy recipe indicates, it is real family food, just made without meat.

The ingredients of the Christian faith continue to cause meaty problems as they have done since the first schism. For Anglicans the process continues following the introduction of the ordination of women and problems over gay rights. Most Christians worship God with little or no thought of what separates them from other worshippers believing 'right' to be on their side, usually determined by the 'religion' of their birth. I see little problem with that, as long as they follow Christ's example and commandment to love one another, according to others the same privilege of conscience. In the Church of England supporters of the ordination of women have sought to deny others that right with a 'take it or leave it' attitude over women bishops, dismissing arguments that the innovation is contrary to scripture, tradition and the will of the universal church.

Detailed Ordinariate plans have yet to be published but if there is no change from their position that Rome is always right and others have to admit the error of their ways to be received, they will not have learnt the lessons of history that, unlike Christ, the church can and has made errors in the past. Christ is the true light, pure light made of many colours. To enable non-believers to see the pure light of Christ our varied colours have to be united because separated we are not understood. Fifty years of talking is long enough. It eclipses the true Light who, before His betrayal, prayed that we all may be one.

A healthy serving of humble pie must be the order of the day to avoid the faithful who fall between two stools being forgotten as they follow Christ's example as conscience dictates.

Lest we forget...

We will remember them

Order, Order

Reuter photo of a demonstrator leaving Millbank through a shatterd window

As Lib Dem Deputy PM Clegg rose to justify his party's shabby treatment of their student supporters during Question Time in the House today, his Con Chief, the ex-Carlton Communications PM Cameron was busy explaining to his Chinese audience that British students would be picking up the tab for their tertiary education. While not defending lying to the electorate, the disciplined Lab MP Phil Woolas must be reflecting on the difference.

Integrity v. Duplicity

Today His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury announced the resignations of two Bishops, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton, and "will now set in train the process for filling the vacant sees". Later reports indicate that five bishops have 'quit'.

Rumour has it that when Bishop David Thomas retired in 2008 the Archbishop of Wales declared that there would be a replacement over his dead body, ignoring the original intention of care for those who opposed the ordination of women when the measure was carried at their Governing Body.

Whatever one thinks about the ordination of women, Abp Rowan Williams has always acted with integrity respecting those who do not share his conviction. Abp Morgan by comparison appears to want only what he wants ignoring his mentor's example just as he has ignored the example of the One he professes to follow leaving a significant part of his flock without the pastoral and sacramental oversight they pray for.

Deprived of leadership, the faithful in Wales have yet to experience the exciting possibilities offered by an Ordinariate but as the Church in Wales declines, a leader may yet arise out of its dying body.

Muslim martyrs feel the pinch

This story appeared in the Comments section of the 'Cranmer' Blog yesterday and is reproduced despite some obvious inaccuracies regarding virginity outside England:

"BBC World Service Flash

Muslim suicide bombers in Britain are set to begin a three-day strike on Monday in a dispute over the number of virgins they are entitled to in the afterlife. Emergency talks with Al Qaeda have so far failed to produce an agreement

The unrest began last Tuesday when Al Qaeda announced that the number of virgins a suicide bomber would receive after his death will be cut by 25% this February from 72 to only 54. The rationale for the cut was the increase in recent years of the number of suicide bombings and a subsequent shortage of virgins in the afterlife.

The suicide bombers' union, the British Organization of Occupational Martyrs ( or B.O.O.M. ) responded with a statement that this was unacceptable to its members and immediately balloted for strike action.

General Secretary Abdullah Amir told the press, "Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of Jihad. We don't ask for much in return but to be treated like this is like a kick in the teeth".

Speaking from his shed in Tipton in the West Midlands in which he currently resides, Al Qaeda chief executive Osama bin Laden explained, "We sympathize with our workers concerns but Al Qaeda is simply not in a position to meet their demands. They are simply not accepting the realities of modern-day Jihad in a competitive marketplace. Thanks to Western depravity, there is now a chronic shortage of virgins in the afterlife. It's a straight choice between reducing expenditure and laying people off. I don't like cutting wages but I'd hate to have to tell 3000 of my staff that they won't be able to blow themselves up."

Spokespersons for the unions in the North East of England, Ireland, Wales and the entire Australian continent stated that the strike would not affect their operations as "There are no virgins in their areas anyway".

Apparently the drop in the number of suicide bombings has been put down to the emergence of that Scottish singing star, Susan Boyle - now that Muslims know what a virgin looks like that they are not so keen on going to paradise.
***
(copied this in verbatim but apologies for the last sentence and to Susan Boyle as it is a bit gratuitous)"

And now for something completely different....

The Great British arena

"We are all in this together!"

It's as simple as ABC:

Architects + Business = Cuts

By The Book!

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is back in the news.

Following widespread reports of her imminent execution (apparently Wednesday is a good day for executions in Iran) later reports suggest that "Iranian legal authorities had not yet reached a final verdict in the case of Sakineh Ashtiani and that the information regarding her execution did not correspond to reality".

The authorities must take great comfort from the knowledge that this poor woman's suffering is by the book - as they see it.

Outrageous

Two innocent people. The one on the left corrupted by her religion. The one on the right deliberately singled out for attack by her as he offered his services freely in support of ALL his constituents, regardless of colour, race or creed.

At home and abroad stories of the consequences of a 'peace loving' religion filter through as though they were just unfortunate accidents. The majority of people living in Britain and throughout the world are regarded as inferior by millions simply for being Christian. In any other sphere hatred and incitement would not be allowed but this is ignored in religion because only a few do the dirty work. It only takes a few.

Postscript

From The Independent: After the sentence was passed,...... a group of men began shouting in the public gallery "Allahu akbar" ("God is great"), "British go to hell" and "Curse the judge".

Another covenant?

The Anglican Communion is taking desperate measures to stitch together something that might be passed off as a silk purse rather than the sow’s ear it has become. When the General Synod meets later this month to discuss the proposed Anglican Covenant, designed to hold together its disparate members with their “constitutional autonomy [in] the Anglican Communion”, they will find that lines have already have been drawn and campaigns organised against it.

As the major churches of East and West strive for unity with signs of [gender neutral] brotherly love, the Anglican Communion persists in pushing itself further and further away pretending that God is for their liberal agenda, necessitating rules for dealing with strife. Gone is the mystery, the tolerance, the ‘love thy neighbour’ of the New Covenant which swept away the hypocrisy of old. In its place we have a secularised, do as you please organisation where faith has given way to political correctness, often self-centred rather than Christ-centred.

An example of how badly things have gone wrong is demonstrated by the Episcopal Church of the United States illustrated in the Anglican Curmudgeon Blog and, closer to the context of the Church of England, by the St Barnabas Blog.

Seeing how Anglicanism is falling apart clearly shows that re-interpreting the Gospel to suit today's lifestyle does not work. This is exemplified by the web site of the CofE's neighbouring Church in Wales, the introductory page of which has much more to do with politics than with religion. “His Darkness” the Archbishop of Wales, a disciple of Mrs Jefferts Schori, frequently claims that he is making the church relevant to society today, blind to the fact that the unchanging mysteries of Orthodoxy and Catholicism have far more relevance outside his little domain. Even unchanging Islam growing in their own backyards fails to convince liberals that they may be mistaken.

Compare these examples of modern day Anglicanism with the timeless teachings of the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Compare traditional faith with the modern difficulties caused of choosing another way. I do not ever remember the Archbishop of Canterbury looking so uncomfortable as he does when he seeks to explain the Anglican Covenant. And with good reason as its main purpose is stated to be how to sort out divisions that have arisen [of their own making Ed]. Archbishop Rowan ends by saying that he hopes the covenant will be a “truly effective tool for witness and mission in our world”.

I wish him success in his endeavour but it must be blindingly obvious that if the Anglican Church had continued to follow the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, there should be no need of another.