Don’t believe everything you read. Many pro-abortion advocates gleefully point to the recent Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll as “proof” the May 25th referendum will reject the protection of human life from conception and adopt abortion. Only 47 percent of the sampling rate are in favour, meaning just over half the population remains undecided or against the change in legislation.

If an upcoming vote sacrificing the unborn was already a given, would “big gun” pop stars and Irish showbiz elite — the likes of actor Liam Neeson and rock band U-2 — be weighing in at the last minute to support a repeal? This was tried…and failed…before. Back in 2015, 250 artists also unsuccessfully called for a repeal. Upping their game, hundreds of thousands of pounds from outside the nation have been poured into forcing abortion on the Irish this time by George Soros, Amnesty International and International Planned Parenthood Federation alone. And now, most recently, although those supporting Life have repeatedly been denied internet platforms, the persecution continues: Google and Twitter are refusing to place ads on either side of the debate. Facebook is a hold-out so far, stating it will only reject foreign ads. We already knew – witness Facebook’s recent hearings in Washington, D.C. – these services routinely discriminate against the pro-life…

Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines has asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of the entire convention and explained why he can’t remove controversial Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson as a speaker at this year’s SBC annual meeting in Dallas.

Gaines, an alumnus of SWBTS and the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, issued a public statement in response to past controversial statements made by 75-year-old Patterson about women, abuse and divorce. Thousands of evangelical women are calling on him to step down.

“I praise God for the leadership [Patterson] gave to the SBC during the Conservative Resurgence. I am also grateful for his leadership at my alma mater, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,” Gaines said in a statement Friday. “I have talked with him in person and by phone regarding his comments and told him that I disagree with the counsel he gave to a woman who was married to an abusive husband.”

Late last month, a clip from an interview from 2000 that Patterson did with the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood was posted to a Baptist

As details emerge of the shocking tactics used in the two bomb attacks in Indonesia over the last 48 hours, a regional analyst has said he was not surprised by the apparent Islamist motive.

“Just a few weeks before the attacks, the government published a study, according to which close to 25 per cent of university students agree with the idea of a caliphate. Another study showed that eight per cent are ready for violent jihad, if given the opportunity. So in a way did not come as a surprise,” Thomas Muller, analyst at Christian charity Open Doors International’s World Watch Research unit, said in a radio interview for a Catholic broadcaster yesterday , answering a question about how a country once known for its inter-religious tolerance could give way to extremism.

A 2016 report looking at terrorism in Indonesia found that recruitment to the Islamic State group from the country was “one of the lowest” in the region as a proportion of its 200 million population, which it put down to “a strong culture of moderate Islam, a non-repressive government and relative political stability”. The report, by a group of regional analysts, said the threat from IS-inspired militants “should not be under-estimated”, however, given Indonesia’s long history of Islamic terrorism and lack of legal measures to prosecute individuals under suspicion of terrorism.

Yesterday‘s (13 May) suicide…