Florida School Board Bans Bibles to Prevent Satanic Group From Gaining Access to Students

Christian Post report– The school board of Orange County, Florida voted on Tuesday to ban the distribution of Bibles and all other religious materials at its public schools in order to prevent The Satanic Temple organization from handing out Satanic coloring books to students.

WFTV reported that board members voted 7-1 to amend school policy and ban all religious materials. The move is in response to The Satanic Temple attempting to offer coloring books and fact sheets to students in the Fall of 2014, after another group, World Changers of Florida, had offered Bibles.

The Liberty Counsel, which is representing the Christian group, argued that the school blocking the distribution of religious material is unconstitutional, and it may decide to sue.

“If my client is turned away because my client is a religious organization, then I think we’ll have grounds to sue the school board based on an unconstitutional policy,” said Roger Gannam of the Liberty Counsel.

Orange County School Board Chairman Bill Sublette said, however, that the school is ready to deal with any legal cases.

“This board has been fully briefed on the legal issues,” Sublette said.

The local Satanic Temple chapter argued that the message it is promoting is one of “tolerance and personal liberty,” and accused the school board of not wanting anyone but Christian groups to distribute religious material.

Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves said in a message back in September on the group’s website: “We would never seek to establish a precedent of disseminating our religious materials in public schools because we believe our constitutional values are better served by respecting a strong separation of Church and State.”

He added: “However, if a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students — as is the case in Orange County, Florida — we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions, as opposed to standing idly by while one religious voice dominates the discourse and delivers propaganda to youth.”

The Orlando Sentinel noted that the board members had debated whether to ban materials from all outside groups and protect the school from lawsuits.

“It is not the School Board’s job to promote religion of any kind,” said Warren Geltch of Orlando.

Some student, such as Conway Middle School seventh-grader Rhiannon Dodson, said that the policy should not have been changed.

“Don’t bar kids from learning and growing,” she said.

The Satanic Temple in Florida has been looking to gain presence in the state, and in December won for the first time the right to put up a holiday display at the Florida Capitol. The display, which had been rejected in all previous years, featured a biblical scene found in Isaiah 14:12 of Satan descending into hell.

Source: Christian Post

 

World’s Oldest Methodist Chapel Set to Use Lottery Funds for Starting Building Programme

Christian Today report– The oldest Methodist chapel in the world is to embark on a major building programme to bring it into the 21st century thanks to a massive grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The 276-year-old New Room in Bristol, founded by John Wesley, has been awarded a grant of £2.5 million. The money will be used alongside a grant of £1.4 million from the Bristol Methodist District to enable the existing facilities to be updated and the erection of a new three-storey building in its courtyard.

The ground floor of the new building will feature a shop and a café for visitors. On levels 2 and 3 there will be a large multi-media lecture and education room for up to 60 people, an extensive resource library on Methodist history, an archives room and offices.

A lift will connect the floors and the existing museum will be completely revamped to reflect John Wesley’s work in Bristol, in 18th century Britain, and around the world. The interior of the chapel, an architectural gem, will not be changed.

Rev Ward Jones, Chair of the New Room Trustees and the Bristol Methodist District, said: “We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded us this significant grant. The New Room has been situated in the heart of Bristol for over 275 years and we now have the chance to look to the future in a very exciting way.

“We will be able to upgrade our current facilities so that we can properly welcome and inform visitors from the local area, from schools and colleges, and from all over the world.”

(Christian Today)
(Christian Today)

The New Room, as Wesley called it, was the starting point for the growth of the Methodist Church, which currently has 75 million members around the world.

Rev Mandy Briggs, Education and Outreach Officer, said: “Wesley’s original focus was on education and we want to develop our work in this area, as well as being a place of history and faith that the people of Bristol and beyond can explore, enjoy and treasure.

“We will be able to offer tours, workshops and talks to schools and colleges as well as events for all ages in our new education room.”

Source: Christian Today

 

Mormon Blogger Excommunicated from Church

Christian Today report– Controversial blogger John Dehlin  is no longer a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints after an excommunication hearing held on Sunday.

Dehlin said that three family members and two friends spoke on his behalf before a council of 15 church leaders, but the evidence against him was damning.

“It’s hard for me to imagine an outcome other than excommunication,” he admitted following the proceedings.

On Tuesday, Dehlin was found guilty of apostasy because of his “categorical statements opposing the doctrines of the church, and their wide dissemination via your Internet presence, which has led others away from the church,” according to North Logan stake president Bryan King.

The Utah man’s blog serves as a forum for Mormons questioning their faith to talk to like-minded individuals. Dehlin also became an ordained minister in another faith, and has openly supported same-sex marriage.

Dehlin, 45, faced numerous disciplinary actions over the years, but refused to give up the controversial activities.

“My wife, Margi, and I are proud to stand in support of both free expression and gender/marriage equality within Mormonism,” Dehlin said in a statement following the church’s decision.

“While we are saddened that the LDS Church has chosen to excommunicate me for publicly supporting these values, we support the church’s right to make this decision.”

The Church denied that Dehlin was ousted because of his support for gay marriage and female priests in the LDS Church.

Instead, King’s letter took issue with Dehlin’s “statements that the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham are fraudulent and works of fiction,” and “teachings disputing the nature of God and the divinity of Jesus Christ,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Source: Christian Today

 

Obama Hid His Support For Gay Marriages in 2008, Says Former Advisor David Axelrod

Christian Post report– President Barack Obama intentionally misled voters when he stated that he supported traditional marriage during his 2008 presidential election campaign, former Obama advisor David Axelrod claims in his new book.

Obama supported same-sex marriage when he was an Illinois state senate candidate in 1996, but claimed he opposed same-sex marriage when he ran for president in 2008.

“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman,” Obama told pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in 2008, adding that he supports civil unions for same-sex couples.

But that was not true, Axelrod wrote in Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, which was published Tuesday.

According to Time’s Zeke Miller, who recieved an advance copy, Obama did not think he pulled off the deception well. He turned to Axelrod after the Warren interview and said, “I’m just not very good at bullshitting.”

Obama already supported same-sex marriage, and spoke with his campaign advisors, including Axelrod, about how to speak about the issue, given his conviction that marriage should be redefined to include same-sex couples, according to the book.

By his own admission, Axelrod, along with campaign manager Jim Messina, advised Obama to lie about his position because it could cost him the state of North Carolina (which he won in 2008).

Throughout most of his first term, Obama claimed he was “evolving” on the issue of gay marriage, but “as a Christian” still believed that marriage was between one man and one woman.

“Yet if Obama’s views were ‘evolving’ publicly, they were fully evolved behind closed doors. The president was champing at the bit to announce his support for the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed — and having watched him struggle with this issue for years, I was ready, too,” Axelrod wrote.

In May of 2012, Obama claimed he had changed his mind and was in support of gay marriage. The announcement came reluctantly. After Vice President Joe Biden accidentally claimed he supported gay marriage in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama was under increased pressure to clarify his views about marriage.

“At a certain point I’ve just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think that same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

Miller’s subtitle referred to the book’s revelation as “a striking admission of political dishonesty.”

Source: Christian Post

Franklin Graham Urges Christians to Take Part in Politics

Christian Today report– Reverend Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is strongly urging Christians to be more involved in politics in the face of secularists who are denying that Jesus ever existed, the Tea Party Organisation reports.

As much as Christians want to avoid politics, Graham said they have to get involved now because “gays and lesbians are in politics” along with “all the anti-God people.”

As a result, students in public schools are now prevented from praying in public, passing out religious paraphernalia, and even forming Christian clubs.

“I’m here to tell you, church, God loves each and every one, and Christ died for our sins, and we’ve got a responsibility to take this message to the ends of the Earth. And I want to encourage you to take a stand in your communities. Get involved in government,” said Graham.

If Christians do nothing, the evangelist warned that secularists will take control of the country, and their beliefs that Jesus never existed could become standard.

“America has changed and it’s not coming back unless the church takes a stand. Now I’m not talking about Baptists or Republicans or Tea Party. I have no confidence that any of these politicians or any party is going to turn this country around,” Graham explained. “The only hope for this country is for men and women of God to stand up and take a stand.”

Graham just returned from a recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Burma, which he visited with the Samaritan’s Purse organisation that he heads. “It’s terrible,” he described the countries’ situation. “There is so much suffering in the world. We need to pray for that area of the world.”

He prayed that the Christian youth of today would take on the challenge of improving the conditions in impoverished countries and help spread the word of God there.

Source: Christian Today

ISIS Police Disfugure With Acid 15 Iraqi Women for Improper Veiling of Faces

Christian Post report– The Islamic State policing unit in Mosul severely disfigured the faces of 15 Iraqi women by pouring acid on them as a form of punishment after the women were caught without their faces being veiled appropriately, by ISIS standards, last weekend.

ISIS’ all-female policing unit, the Al Khansa brigade, which polices the streets of the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa and Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, reportedly carried out the punishments after the women were detained on Sunday in the Mosul neighborhood of Salamiya, a kurdish official told BasNews.

The official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul, Saed Mamuzini, told the news site that the women were subject to the cruel, face-deforming punishment simply because they were caught in public without wearing a Niqab, the cloth like veil that fully covers the face except for slit for the eyes.

“They have implemented this punishment so that other women in the city will never consider removing or not wearing the niqab,” Mamuzini said.

ISIS issued a clear warning in July that women in the city of Mosul caught without wearing a full face veil would be severely punished, The Jerusalem Post reported. The group reasoned that such a restriction would protect women and religion from debauchery.

“This is not a restriction on freedom but to prevent her from falling into humiliation and vulgarity or to be a theater for the eyes of those who are looking,” The Islamic State said in its warning statement. “Anyone who is not committed to this duty and is motivated by glamour will be subject to the accountability and severe punishment to protect society from harm and to maintain the necessities or religion and protect it from debauchery.”

Al Khansa Brigade has previously punished women caught without the appropriate attire with other forms of cruel torture. Last December, Al Khansa officers in Raqqa arrested a woman after she was found breastfeeding in public and claimed she had to be punished because her naqib didn’t meet ISIS standards. To punish her, the militants took her to the group’s Raqqa headquarters and placed her breast in a medieval-like spike-clamp torture device, called a “biter.”

“I felt then that my femininity has been destroyed completely, we no longer afford to live this way,” the woman named Batol told the monitoring group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. “I was not the only one that was tortured with this instrument. There were a lot of women in the headquarters and their situation was tragic.”

Although pouring acid on women and permanently disfiguring their faces might seem like the type of brutality that is exclusive to ISIS, acid attacks are quite common occurrences in nations with strict Muslim societies like Pakistan.

“The Qur’an directs men to beat women from whom they ‘fear disobedience.’ We have seen women who don’t abide by Sharia restrictions disfigured with acid in Pakistan and elsewhere,” writes renowned critic of Islam Robert Spencer, the founder of the Jihad Watch website. “This is just one more manifestation of the empire of fear that Sharia creates: virtue is enforced by terror, which means that it isn’t really virtue at all.”

Although it is quite common for women in Pakistan to be tortured for allegedly breaking Sharia law, women have also been subjected to acid attacks just because they are in disagreement with their husband or other males.

One example occurred in November when a man in Lahore, with the help of his father, beat his wife and then proceeded to pour acid down her throat over trivial domestic issues.

In September, a 16-year-old girl was attacked with acid after her family rejected a man’s request to marry her. Doctors said she lost 95 percent of her vision.

Source: Christian Post

 

UK investigating how passenger landed in UK without passport

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Home Office is investigating how a passenger was allowed to board a flight from Spain to Britain without a passport.

Officials said Wednesday the passenger was questioned by Border Force agents at Liverpool John Lennon Airport after he landed there on a flight from the Canary Islands.

The statement said the passenger was allowed to enter Britain after agents “carried out identity checks and established that he was a British national who previously held a valid passport.”

It said it was the airline’s responsibility to make sure each passenger has proper documents.

The Daily Mail newspaper said the passenger used a photocopy of a bus pass to board the Ryanair flight after his passport was stolen.

Ryanair said in a statement it has a duty to repatriate nationals on their return flight to their home country.

“If a passport is lost or stolen, we ask that an alternative, or a copy of, photo ID is provided in order to verify the passport details the customer provided at the time of check-in,” it said.

Source: Yahoo News

Sky Sports and BT awarded Premier League Rights for £5.14bn

Yahoo News report–  Sky Sports held on to five of the seven live packages on offer, but BT Sports increased the number of games which will be shown on their channel from 2016-2019 from 38 games to 42.

The total value of the auction – which was extended into a second round after no packages were won outright – dwarfs the previous domestic rights package of £3bn for 2013-16, when BT Sport dramatically entered the picture by capturing two packages.

Sky have held the rights for Premier League football ever since the competition’s inception in 1992, originally paying £191m for the right to broadcast 60 games per season from 1992 to 1997.

However, after brief entries from Setanta, from 2007-10, and ESPN, from 2010-2013, BT have confirmed their status as major rivals to Sky by increasing their proposition in their second successful entry into the auction.

BT also have the exclusive rights to the Champions League from next season.

There are 14 additional games per season in the Premier League deal from 2016-2019 with most of these matches to be shown on Friday evenings in a new departure for the league.

The Sunday 4pm package remains the most attractive to broadcasters as it contains the most first picks, which is why the slot often showcases the biggest games in the Premier League.

Source: Yahoo News

Prince Charles Tells UK Muslims to Abide by Britain Values

Capital Bay report– Prince Charles risked provoking a new political and religious storm yesterday when he said Muslims living in the UK should follow British values.

In a staunch defence of Britain’s ‘Christian standpoint,’ he denounced the radicalisation of young Britons by Islamic fanatics and said they should show more respect to ‘the values we hold dear’.

People who had ‘come here, were born here or go to school here’ should ‘abide by our values,’ he said. His comments were made as he started a six-day tour of the Middle East, seen as another stage in assuming more of the Queen’s international duties.

It is a clear response to critics who say he should not meddle in sensitive political matters. The Prince will also challenge Arab leaders head-on during the trip. The

Mail on Sunday can disclose that he is to tell new Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud to his face that he should stop the 1,000 lashes handed down as punishment to Saudi blogger Raif Badawi for comments which the regime claimed were critical of Islam.

Prince Charles last night called for a halt to the persecution of Christians by Islamic State and other militant Islamic groups, telling them bluntly: ‘We were in the Middle East before you.’

And he killed off speculation that when he becomes King he will give up the Monarch’s traditional ‘defender of the faith’ role in favour of a multicultural ‘defender of faiths’ title.

His renewed ‘defender of the faith’ pledge will be seen by some as a U-turn and a signal that the Monarch’s role as the head of the Church of England is far from over.

The Prince’s intervention comes hard on the heels of a new book which claims the Queen is worried that her heir plans to be an ‘activist king’. The Prince’s comments on Islam and Christianity are broadcast in an interview with BBC Radio 2’s The Sunday Hour this morning, suggesting he plans to be very active.

‘The radicalisation of people in Britain is a great worry, and the extent to which this is happening is alarming, particularly in a country like ours where we hold values dear,’ he says. ‘You would think the people who have come here, or are born here, and go to school here, would abide by those values and outlooks.’

It was ‘frightening’ that young British Muslims were radicalised by ‘crazy stuff on the internet’.

Charles will reinforce his tough stance on Islamic extremism by telling the new Saudi king to show clemency to Saudi blogger Badawi.

His sentence of 1,000 lashes and ten years in jail over his website which encouraged Saudis to criticise Islam and their rulers has caused international outrage.

Diplomatic sources say that Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud may pay more attention to Charles, a fellow royal, than a foreign political leader.

Capital Bay
Capital Bay

 

prince charles in jordan

 

 

THE WOUNDS HAVE YET TO HEAL FROM FIRST FLOGGING

Blogger Raif Badawi, 31, was last year sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for his website which encourages Saudis to debate politics and religion.

His Free Saudi Liberals online forum – now closed – criticised Saudi Arabia’s clerics and claimed that a university in the country had become ‘a den for terrorists’.

In 2013, after Badawi’s wife and children fled to Canada, he was cleared of apostasy, the rejection of Islam, which could have carried a death sentence. But he was found guilty of ‘insulting Islam’ and ‘going beyond the realm of obedience’.

The father of three received the first 50 lashes on January 9, and he was expected to receive 50 more every week for the following 19 weeks.

Amnesty International say the second 50 lashes have been delayed. It was reported that the wounds had not healed, and his wife said that as a diabetic who suffered from hypertension he may be unable to physically withstand another flogging.

Protests were held outside Saudi embassies across the world, and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond raised it with Saudi ambassador Prince Mohammed Bin Nawwaf Bin Abdelaziz last month.

However, Amnesty has accused the UK of being ‘muzzled’ by its commercial and strategic links with the kingdom and of failing to object strongly enough.

A video posted on YouTube shows Badawi receiving his lashes in a square outside a mosque in Jeddah, watched by a crowd of several hundred who shout Allahu Akbar (God is great) and clap and whistle after the flogging.

The Prince last night touched down in Jordan, where he will meet Jordanian King Abdullah II, before travelling on to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Charles also intends to use his Middle East tour to call for an end to attempts to drive Christians out of the region. IS terrorists slaughtered thousands of Yazidis and Christians in Northern Iraq, and Christians are also threatened in other Muslim countries.

If nothing was done, the time could soon come when ‘there are no Christians left in the Middle East… they are intimidated to a degree you can’t believe,’ the Prince said.

He rammed home his point in uncharacteristically plain terms: ‘The tragedy is even greater because Christians have been in the Middle East for 2,000 years, before Islam came in the 8th Century.’

Furthermore, the Prince went out of his way to quash claims that he does not want to be ‘Defender of the Faith’ when he inherits the throne. He said his comment about being ‘defender of faiths’ to embrace all religions – made 20 years ago – had been ‘misinterpreted’.

The Church of England’s role was not to defend Anglicism to the exclusion of other religions, he said, but to protect the free practice of all faiths.

He would approach it from a ‘Christian standpoint’ and be both ‘defender of the faith’ and ‘defender of faiths.’

The former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries, said the Prince’s comments were a ‘helpful clarification’. He said some had seen the Prince’s earlier remarks as watering down the Church of England’s historic role in an increasingly multi-faith country.

Lord Harries said the Prince may have been advised he could not easily change the traditional title, given to Monarchs since Henry VIII, because of the constitutional implications.

The Prince appeared to accept he could be ‘deeply immersed’ in his own faith in the Church of England while being ‘protective of other faiths’.

Lord Harries said: ‘He is making the important point that they are not mutually exclusive.’

 

prince charles with iraqi christians

Prince Charles’s trip to the Middle East and his radio interview come after a new book Charles: Heart Of A King by writer Catherine Mayer, claimed that the Queen is concerned her son will be an ‘activist’ Monarch.

Charles’s principle private secretary William Nye was forced to write a public letter describing it ‘ill-informed speculation’. He said Charles was ‘inspired’ by his mother’s example and understood the ‘necessary and proper limitations’ on the role of a constitutional Monarch.

Ms Mayer’s biography claims Charles disagrees with the bans imposed in France and Belgium on Muslim women covering their faces with burkas and niqabs, seeing the move as ‘an infringement of human rights’ which criminalises women rather than challenging the custom.

Additional reporting: Jonathan Petre

The rapier wit and wisdom of the ‘Meddling Monarch’

Prince Charles’s reputation for ‘meddling’ stems from decades of making his views clear on political matters – at home and abroad.

The Prince bombards Ministers with his views on subjects ranging from the Human Rights Act (he is opposed) to complementary health care (very much in favour).

His ‘black spider memos’, written in a scrawling hand, are dreaded across Whitehall.

Until now, his most incendiary interventions on the diplomatic stage have come in relation to China: Charles is a friend and supporter of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader who campaigns against Beijing’s human rights abuses in his former homeland.

In 2006 The Mail on Sunday revealed that the Prince was unhappy with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, calling it ‘The Great Chinese Takeaway.’

He also described Chinese government officials in his personal journals as ‘appalling old waxworks’ and attacked the ‘ridiculous rigmarole’ and ‘awful Soviet-style display’ of Chinese soldiers during the handover ceremony.

Then, in 1999, Charles caused alarm at the Foreign Office by boycotting a banquet at the Chinese embassy in London hosted by the then president Jiang Zemin: as a gesture of solidarity with the Dalai Lama, Charles chose instead to attend a private dinner at his home with Camilla Parker Bowles and close friends.

And last year, the Prince strongly criticised Vladimir Putin. Shortly after the Russian leader had seized Crimea, Charles told a woman who lost relatives in the Nazi Holocaust: ‘And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.’

Former Conservative MP Louise Mensch greeted the news of Charles’ visit to the Middle East by calling his friendship with the Saudi royal family ‘repellent’ – due to the Gulf state’s human rights record – and calling on him to tackle the issue during his official visit which started yesterday.

My fears over intimidation of Christians, by HRH The Prince of Wales

There is a real worry that there could come a time when there are no Christians left in the Middle East because the numbers have gone so dramatically down.

With what has happened in Mosul in Iraq and other centres, there are very few Christians left because they were intimidated to a degree you can’t believe.

Everything has been taken from them. Many of them are so fearful now of ever going back.

It is a most agonising situation, but we must remember that all around the world there is appalling persecution going on, not only of Christians but of Muslims and of other faiths and religions.

The radicalisation of people in Britain is a great worry, and the extent to which this is happening is alarming, particularly in a country like ours where we hold values dear.

You would think that the people who have come here, or are born here, and who go to school here, would abide by those values and outlooks.

But the frightening part is that people can be so radicalised, either through direct contact with somebody, or through the internet. There is an extraordinary amount of crazy stuff on the internet and clearly some people get particularly affected by it and join with others.

I can see some of this radicalisation is a search for adventure and excitement at a particular age.

So what I have been trying to do with the Prince’s Trust and other groups is to find alternatives for adolescents and people at a young age – constructive paths to channel their enthusiasm, their energy, their sense of wanting to take risks.

I started something in 2007 called ‘Mosaic’, which was designed to try to help young people in Muslim areas, particular in deprived areas in the UK, with mentoring to help build self-esteem and self-confidence.

I have been asking them recently to do more towards de-radicalisation, and there are some really interesting examples of how people can be deradicalised once they become radicalised because they find they are horrified by what it leads to.

Of course, how you prevent radicalisation in the first place is the great challenge. You cannot just sweep it under the carpet. But the most important thing is to remind people of the distortions that are made of great religions, and the original ideas of the founders of these religions.

Often you find their message is so distorted by their putative followers. That’s the tragedy and, of course, traditional Islam does not permit this sort of thing.

Inevitably, I find it heartbreaking that these sort of things should happen, particularly when I know that there has never been more activity going on with interfaith dialogue and endless efforts made to bring everyone together.

And the tragedy is even greater because Christians have been in the Middle East for 2,000 years, before Islam came in the 8th Century.

But I think the secret is we have to work harder to build bridges, and we have to remember that Our Lord taught us to love our neighbour.

When I called myself Defender of Faith all those years ago I was trying to describe the inclusion of other people’s faiths and their freedom to worship in this country. At the same time as being Defender of the Faith, you can also be protector of other faiths.

From that point of view, it was very interesting that 20 years or more after I mentioned this frequently misinterpreted phrase, the Queen, in her address to faith leaders around the time of the Jubilee, said that as far as the role of the Church of England was concerned, it is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions but to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country. She was conveying what I was trying to say.

Source: Capital Bay

Archbishops Apologise for Bisdop Holocaust Remarks

Christian Today report- Archbishops of the Anglican Church in New Zealand have been forced to issue an apology for remarks by a bishop which offended both Jews and Muslims.

The Bishop of Te Wai Pounamu, Rt Rev John Gray – South Island’s first Maori bishop – invited representatives of other faiths to the diocese’s annual ministry school. During a plenary session entitled ‘Hard Talk’ he told the Jewish speaker that the Holocaust “should have taught you a lesson”.

He then appeared to hold the two Muslim guests personally responsible for the slaughter inflicted by Islamic State and Al Qaeda, asking what they were doing about it, and questioned why their faith did not accept the Trinity.

The archbishops issued a public apology for the “for the hurt which had been caused” by Bishop Gray’s remarks. It continues: “We as leaders do not share or support the views that Bishop John has expressed, and his comments do not represent the Anglican Church’s view on these matters.”

The apology by the three archbishops – Most Revs Brown Turei, Philip Richardson and Winston Halapua – went on to say that the Church “values the relationships and the dialogue that it has with other faiths”.

The local Sunday Star Times quotes representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities as finding Bishop Gray’s remarks offensive, but says that they welcomed the apology.

Source: Christian Today