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