Christian charity welcomes PM’s ‘moral courage’ to tackle modern day slavery

Theresa May is announcing a new transparency registry at a UN summit in Switzerland that will include listing companies using slaves – so shoppers are aware.

The plans also include £10m of government funding to prevent children in Africa being exploited by the farming industry.

 

David Westlake, CEO of anti slavery organisation IJM told Premier: “Well, I want to start by saying this is an area where Theresa May has actually made a stand and led the world really in terms of naming modern slavery as an issue.

“In your News Hour, today, well, while this 60 minutes goes on, 120 children will be sold into slavery. And that’s sold into sweatshops and factories and brothels, and of course children should be in families and playgrounds and schools.

“This is an area where she has had some moral courage and led the world.”

In 2014, the Home Office estimated there was between 10,000 and 13,000 potential victims in the UK – just 2,340 of those were officially reported and recorded.

Mrs May, who stepped down as leader of the governing Conservative Party earlier this month, is also due to call on world leaders to face up to their “moral duty” and take action to halt modern slavery.

Speaking at the United Nations’ International Labour Organisation centenary conference in Geneva, Mrs May will urge business and political representatives to do more to protect the millions of…

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Southern Baptist Report Condemns ‘Epidemic’ of Abuse, Looks at Ways to Assist Victims

Southern Baptist Report Condemns ‘Epidemic’ of Abuse, Looks at Ways to Assist Victims



(RNS) — A new Southern Baptist Convention report on sex abuse, filled with the voices of survivors, acknowledges numerous ways the denomination has failed to protect members of its churches.


The “Caring Well” report also summarizes a range of next steps to address the issue, including educating congregations about abuse, preparing them to help survivors and fostering abuse prevention.


“We lament the fact that it took a national movement of reckoning for abuse to force us to take this issue seriously in our own convention,” reads the 52-page report, which followed an investigation published May 31 in the Houston Chronicle detailing accusations involving dozens of Southern Baptists.


“It should now be obvious that the problem has been and still is more widespread than anyone has realized,” the SBC report said, “affecting our congregations all over the country, from the smallest church pastored by a bivocational minister to the megachurch with hundreds on staff.”


The issue has also affected seminaries, agencies and missions boards, the report said, adding, “all too often, it has not been handled justly.”


The report, to be presented during the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting this week, is the result of almost a year’s work by a sexual abuse advisory group commissioned by SBC President J.D. Greear. It is based on an inquiry…

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‘There is a place of welcome for everyone’

On Monday, the text, Male And Female He Created Them, was released to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education called an “educational crisis” in the field of sex education.

 

Pope Francis has repeatedly argued the position that people cannot choose their genders.

In a statement in response a spokesperson for CBCEW said it was a welcome contribution to developing Catholic thought on gender, but reiterated the Church wanted to support those who are transgender.

“We recognise that there are people who do not accept their biological sex,” it said. “We are concerned about and committed to their pastoral care.

“Through listening to them we seek to understand their experience more deeply and want to accompany them with compassion, emphasising that they are loved by God and valued in their inherent God-given dignity.

“There is a place of welcome for everyone in the Catholic Church.”

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Pro-Abortion Protestors Arrested after Harassing, Throwing Urine at March for Life Participants

Pro-Abortion Protestors Arrested after Harassing, Throwing Urine at March for Life Participants



Police arrested seven pro-abortion protestors Sunday at the annual Massachusetts March for Life on Boston Common.


According to the Boston Police Department, pro-life activists were listening to speakers and playing music when pro-abortion protestors tried to interfere with the March.


The seven abortion supporters were arrested and charged with assault, battery and disorderly conduct. No injuries were reported.


C.J. Williams, the community engagement director for the Massachusetts Citizens for Life said two pro-abortion supporters shouted expletives at the pro-life activists and one even pushed her. She also said that another pro-abortion supporter threw urine and a frozen drink on one of the rally speakers.


“One of our speakers… who is Black and gay, was assaulted by the other side and had urine thrown on him,” Williams said. “It got a little bit hectic there; it was not the dialogue I’d hoped for.”


Abortion activists shouted “Pro-life, that’s a lie. You don’t care if women die.”


Police reportedly had to break up a number of fights between the two groups.


This year’s theme for the March was “Love in Action.” Activists held signs that said “Pray to End Abortion” and many prayed.


“The dialogue wasn’t as constructive as it really could have been,” Myrna Maloney Flynn, the vice president of Massachusetts Citizens…

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Christian cake maker faces new lawsuit, legal team claim he’s being ‘harassed’

The owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, was last year given the right to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple on the basis of his religious beliefs.

 

Following the ruling he was asked to make a cake celebrating a gender transition which he again refused. He was once again cleared when legal action was pursued.

Now, once more he’s being sued – this time over the same ‘trans cake’ with the customer claiming it’s a birthday cake and therefore he has no right to refuse.

Alliance Defending Freedom

 

Throughout his ordeal he’s been supported by religious freedom charity Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Addressing the most recent action, ADF senior counsel Jim Campbell said: “A new lawsuit has been filed against Masterpiece Cakeshop that appears to largely rehash old claims.

“The State of Colorado abandoned similar ones just a few months ago.

“So this latest attack looks like yet another desperate attempt to harass cake artist Jack Phillips.

“And it stumbles over the one detail that matters most: Jack serves everyone; he just cannot express all messages through his custom cakes.”

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China Installs Surveillance Cameras in Churches to Monitor Christians

China Installs Surveillance Cameras in Churches to Monitor Christians



China’s Orwellian-like network of surveillance cameras now includes churches.


Most churches within the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement in one major Chinese city, Huai’an, have government-mandated surveillance cameras that allow the communist government to monitor the congregation’s every move, Bitter Winter reported.


For example, Bitter Winter visited a Three-Self congregation that had 28 high-definition surveillance cameras, including six above the podium and four at the entrance. 


Within the Huaiyin district of Huai’an city, 155 of the 170 Three-Self churches have government-mandated cameras that are connected to a network allowing the government to watch Christians, Bitter Winter reported. Huai’an’s population is 4.7 million


“The Religious Affairs Bureau pressured us into installing them,” a member of the church told Bitter Winter. “Each surveillance camera is connected to the public security organs, as required by the Religious Affairs Bureau. They can see every move in the church. If we didn’t follow their demands, the church would have to be shut down.”


The cameras are part of a massive network of cameras across China that allow the government to monitor citizens. There are an estimated 176 million surveillance cameras across China, The Atlantic reported. That number could reach 450 million by 2020.


China’s persecution of…

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Body of atheist to be exhumed 20 years after ‘mistaken’ burial in church graveyard

​Gwendolen Patricia Crow, 58, was involved in a road accident on 10th January 2000.

She died shortly after in hospital and was buried ten days later in consecrated ground at a Surrey church yard without her family’s knowledge.

 

A judge of the Church of England’s Consistory Court has now granted rare permission for the committed atheist’s remains to be exhumed and cremated.

Morag Ellis QC, deputy  hancellor of the Diocese of Southwark has agreed with the family’s wish for the woman’s remains to be scattered elsewhere.

The judge explained that when Mrs Crow was killed her family was “traumatised” so a family friend, Simon Ebsory, who was a practicing Christian, arranged the funeral for them “with the very best of intentions”.

She was buried in St Nicholas Church churchyard at Charlwood near Crawley, Surrey.

Mrs Crow’s daughters and widower, William Crow all made a plea for her to be exhumed as, “we do not regard this as a suitable place to honour the memory of this woman”.

According to The Telegraph, when Mrs Crow died, she was on her way to help out at her daughter Justine’s bookshop. Justine, who was pregnant at the time, gave birth the day after the accident.

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‘In God We Trust’ to remain on US currency after Supreme Court rejects atheist challenge

Michael Newdow, an activist who filed the case on behalf of a group of atheists, said that inscribing the nation’s motto on money was a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion.

He argued that the federal government has turned atheists into “political outsiders on the basis of their fundamental religious tenant”.

 

The phrase “In God We Trust” first appeared on US coins in 1864, and Congress passed legislation in 1955 requiring all currency to bear the words.

This isn’t the first time Newdow has challenged what he deems as the government’s endorsement of religion.

In 2004, his case brought to the Supreme Court that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment, was dismissed.

He also attempted but failed to block Chief Justice John Roberts from saying the phrase “So help me God” while administering the presidential oath of office to President Barack Obama during his inauguration in 2009.

Newdow repeated this attempt unsuccessfully for the 2013 and 2017 inaugurations.

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Peregrine falcon chicks ringed at Salisbury Cathedral

The group of three females and one male were ringed on Monday morning by Ed Drewitt of the British Trust for Ornithology, who also weighed and measured the birds.

Mr Drewitt was assisted by Phil Sheldrake, RSPB Conservation Officer, while the birds of prey weighed in at between 25oz and 32oz (700-900 grams).

 

All four birds will be identifiable as South West region peregrines as a result of their blue rings, and are expected to fledge at the end of June.

Ben Birchall/PA Wire

 

They will then spend a month or more around the cathedrallearning how to be independent before going their own way.

Ben Birchall/PA Wire

 

Those hoping to learn more about the cathedral’s latest additions will be able to do so thanks to the newly launched Peregrine Tower Tours, while from June 26 to July 24 RSPB volunteers and specialists will be on hand to help people watch the birds in action.

Ben Birchall/PA Wire

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Hotel manager offers free lodging for women who come to Michigan for abortions

Google Maps

Shelley O’Brien runs a hotel in Yale, Michigan, a small town north of Detroit. She is making headlines because of her offer to women who live in states where abortion is restricted: if they come to Yale, “we will support you with several nights lodging and transportation to and from your appointment.”

O’Brien likens her support of abortion to the Underground Railroad that was used to lead slaves to freedom. “I have three granddaughters, two great nieces and a lot of other women that I care about, and I don’t want any of them to die in back-alley abortions,” she added. “And I don’t want any of them to ever have to proceed with a pregnancy if they don’t want to. . . . People aren’t perfect, and people shouldn’t have to die for their mistakes.”

But babies should?

A $50 million trip to space

NASA has announced that private tourists can travel to, stay on, and return to earth from the International Space Station. For around $50 million, you can spend thirty days in space. But the fallen world you left will be waiting for you when you come back.

I live in Dallas, Texas, where a ferocious storm toppled a crane Sunday afternoon, falling on a downtown apartment building and killing a twenty-nine-year-old woman. Yesterday morning, giant tree branches littered our neighborhood. More than 100,000 people are still out of power this morning.

Former Red Sox star David Ortiz was transported to Boston early this morning after he was shot in a Dominican Republic club Sunday night. A helicopter crash-landed on the roof of a high-rise building in Midtown Manhattan yesterday afternoon, killing the pilot. Officials say there is no link to terrorism.

And an airplane passenger opened the emergency exit door after mistaking it for the toilet. Fortunately, the plane was still on the ground. Unfortunately, the exit slide deployed automatically and the flight was delayed by seven hours.

The power of hope in…

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