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Showing posts with label the Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Bible. Show all posts

Monday, 21 December 2015

They still don't get


Memorizing Islamic texts which condemn other religions.                 Telegraph/Photo: REUTERS


"The Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, has asked officials to review home schooling amid fears that thousand[s] of children are having their minds “filled with poison” by radicalised parents. Between 20,000 and 50,000 children are thought to be educated at home – but the Government has no idea of the exact number because parents are under no obligation to inform their local council.

Ms Morgan has already announced a crackdown on unregistered schools and “weekend madrassas” after some were found to be promoting extremist ideology. But senior government sources have revealed that home schooling is now “on the radar”.... The focus on home schooling highlights growing concern in government over the problem of children being radicalised by religious extremists abusing positions of trust to promote hardline doctrine." [My emphasis - Ed. Full report here.]

From the  Telegraph in 2011: "Several madrassas – religious schools often run by mosques – use “excessively strict approaches to discipline” to keep children in line, it was revealed. Researchers said the imposition of hard-line rules on behaviour instilled a sense of “spiritual fear” in young people, marking them out from mainstream schools.

The study, by the Institute for Public Policy Research, found a number of examples of madrassas actually employing corporal punishment. A ban on physical beatings, including the cane, was introduced in the 1980s. But the legislation does not cover “supplementary schools”, including many madrassas, where lessons are taught for fewer than 12.5 hours per week."

What is being studied? This is the Conclusion from "Peace or Jihad? Abrogation in Islam":

"The issue of abrogation in Islam is critical to understanding both jihad and da'wa, the propagation of Islam. Some Muslims may preach tolerance and argue that jihad refers only to an internal, peaceful struggle to better oneself. Western commentators can convince themselves that such teachings are correct. However, for learned Muslim scholars and populist leaders, such notions are or should be risible. They recognize that, in practice, there is compulsion in Islam. They take seriously the notion that the Qur'an teaches not just tolerance among religions, but tolerance among religions on the terms of Islam. To understand the challenge of the current Islamist revival, it is crucial for non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike to recognize that interpretation of Islamic doctrine can have two faces, and that the Medinan face may very well continue to overshadow the Meccan face for a major portion, if not the majority, of contemporary Muslims."

Political and religious leaders need to understand that "...everything in the Qur'an about forgiveness and peace is abrogated by verse 9:5 which orders Muslims to fight the unbelievers and to establish God's kingdom on earth." Once that fact is grasped it is evident that the "Islamic extremist" horrors witnessed are carried out according to the texts being studied.

Children in Britain should be educated according to British standards in the British way of life if we are to achieve any sense of integration. There is nothing to be gained by allowing children to memorize that their host nation is inhabited by less worthy creatures (apes and pigs) who deserve to die if they do not convert to Islam.

In the entry, "Why there will be no Merry Christmas wishes from 'ordinary' Muslims", twelve months ago I included video of an Imam explaining that in Islam, wishing each other a "Merry Christmas!" is "worse than fornication, drinking alcohol or killing someone" because Christmas celebrates the Incarnation which is rejected by Muslims along with the Crucifixion.

One has to wonder therefore why the Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed Shia theologians to Lambeth Palace at the culmination of three days of dialogue with Christian theologians. Expressing his appreciation for this dialogue, Archbishop Justin Welby said: "At a time of increasing fear and division in the world, it is ever more important that people of faith, Christians and Muslims, come together to work towards the common good for the betterment of all." What delusion. His sentiments are sound but can not be genuinely reciprocated by Muslims because it is contrary to their beliefs. It would have made more sense if he had followed a predecessor's example and demanded an explanation of why other faiths are persecuted in states where Islam dominates.

As Islam expands and Christianity wanes there is an unsettling change in attitude which regards Islam as fact and Christianity as fiction when there is Incredible Proof for Why You Should Have Faith in the Bible: "There are 16 total historians apart from Scripture that reference Christ. Almost everything about Christ we can find without ever going to the New Testament" and "There's more evidence that Jesus lived than Julius Caesar, yet no one doubts Caesar existed." Islam claims to be authoritative but denies historical evidence.

Christians know that false prophets will test their faith but our faith leaders entertain representatives of a supremacist ideology on an equal level which accords legitimacy to beliefs that, certainly in Christian terms, must be wrong because there is "only one way to the Father". Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There is no ambiguity.

What is needed is not an education system which permits children to memorize texts that demand all to convert or die but one in which faith can be challenged in the same way that Christianity has been challenged and proved to be true. Any faith which can not tolerate scrutiny must be suspect. Denying Muslims the truth is to deny them salvation.

This morning I read "Archbishop of Canterbury supports 'our Muslim brothers and sisters' ". Read The Logic of Islamic Intolerance for an explanation of why such trust is a perilous mistake.

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

When bishops were bishops


Canon Rosie Harper                                                                REUTERS/Yui Mok/POOL


After reading "Bishop 'club culture' will change with the first woman, says senior priest" (here), I was reminded of a dear departed old priest's comment in one of his delightfully erudite and ever witty sermons, "I am old enough to remember the days when bishops really were bishops". His homilies were so well crafted that one couldn't be quite sure whether he was taking a swipe at preferment based on political correctness or whether he was lamenting the passing of towering bishops he remembered with affection and awe.

Calling for the new Bishop of Oxford to be a woman Canon Rosie Harper is reported as saying, "The first woman bishop must find a new way of being a bishop and not merely become a female version. Bishops currently behave like 'little boys lost' who 'posture' that they know what they are doing and find it impossible to escape the gentlemen's club culture until they retire", comments no doubt gratefully received by the wimpish bishops who championed her cause rather than that of Apostolic Church to which they pretend allegiance!  

The Canon's next shot: "We've got to look to the future... obviously, you look for the best person for the job but having made the decision to have women bishops, the Church has to enact it not just leave it on the back burner. The face of the Church of England... is exclusively male and that needs to change very quickly." So having fought against so-called discrimination in the Church - which there wasn't - positive discrimination MUST be used to find the best woman for the job (which sums up the position these days) on the absurd pretext that the face of the Church of England is 'exclusively male'.

'Deeply committed to working for issues of justice and equality within and beyond the church' (self praise here), read also Feminists of Faith for more of Canon Harper's views on men and equality. Also 'OUT 4 Marriage' (here) and a supporter of assisted dying (here), she talks of 'what sort of a God' you believe in and selectively quotes the Bible to justify her views on killing based on suicides recorded in the Old Testament while overlooking the Commandment "Thou shalt not kill"!

The first woman bishop will have to find 'a new way of being a bishop' because a woman bishop contradicts Biblical teaching. But who cares about the Bible, faith and tradition any more - apart from the vast majority of Anglicans around the World! 

The women bishops legislation has completed its passage through General Synod and Parliament and has received Royal Assent leaving the way clear for the Archbishop of Canterbury to move at the 17 November Synod that the canon be enacted. The motion will be put before the Synod for a vote with a show of hands but without a debate. And that will be that. The death of the Catholic and reformed Church of England we knew and loved. 

Killed by secular debate in Synod and in Parliament by MPs who worry about the West Lothian question while happily nodding through without demure an issue which affects the faith of their constituents whether they have any themselves or understanding of the religious issues involved. Going back to that sermon I began with, yes, I hear you Father!

PART II

In The Oxford Student (here) the campaign to make the Bishopric of Oxford the first in the Church of England to be filled by a woman is hotting up.

"The women’s rep for Pembroke College, Anna Simpson, commented: 'It is fantastic to see this possible change tying in with wider movements in Oxford for gender equality and more generally that institutions are moving forward with the times' ". 

There will be a Public Meeting on the 11th November at Christ Church Cathedral at 7:15pm to discuss  the appointment. 

Other items offered by The Oxford Studentfor thought to be interest to readers are :





This should please my sternest critic who wrote earlier: "All male lead instutions (sic) have moved on from this decades ago (police, law, medicine) and now it's time for us to do the same. 

Will these people never learn that faith is not about secular institutions and gender politics!