eChurch Blog

I remember laughing heartily (In a dark way) when I first heard of the “extended” drinking laws which were being rolled out in a attempt to reduce socially harmful drinking patterns….errr….the restricted drinking hours were enacted in the Victorian times in an attempt to reduce socially harmful drinking patterns….hmmm

The Christian Institute

Brown: all-day booze laws ‘aren’t working’

Previous recent related posts

DPP could cause ‘constitutional crisis’ on assisted suicide

Assisted suicide (Euthanasia) guidelines laid out by Keir Starmer Director of Public Prosecutions

Assisted suicide: The worm has turned – The response to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ “guidelines” for when assisted suicides in England and Wales won’t be prosecuted has been almost universally hostile.

New legal guidance on assisted suicide has succeeded only in taking our country down a literal dead-end of ever-increasing darkness, though obviously the idea was to make things clearer for those contemplating this awful step.

Dial 911 for suicide assistance?

Article from the Christian Institute

Scots law chief won’t follow DPP line on assisted suicide

From the Christian Institute

Churches join up against gay ordination in Scotland

By Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study from Marquette University has found that religious attitudes toward sexuality, parent-based sexual education and intact two-parent households have a positive influence upon youth in their sexual practices and the onset of first sexual intercourse.

Researchers took a nationally representative sample of 3,168 men and women ages 15-21 years old from a 2002 National Survey of Family Growth and obtained the data from 60-90 minute interviews with participants from the 2002 survey.

The study’s findings confirmed previous research literature, which suggests “religiosity” – defined by the authors as a set of institutionalized beliefs, doctrines and rituals, and ethical standards for how to live a good life – is “a protective factor that appears to contribute to decreased sexual risk behaviors.”

According to the study, those who viewed religion as “very important” reported an average of 1.9 lifetime sexual partners and on average began sexual activity at 17.4 years. In contrast, those who viewed religion as somewhat important or “not important at all,” began their first sexual activity at 16.9 years and had an average of 2.9 lifetime sexual partners.

However, researchers found that high religious attitudes toward sexuality (RAS) “appeared to be the most protective religiosity variable in terms of decreasing sexual risk.”

RAS had the greatest influence for youth remaining virginal by 21 years – an effect greater than just frequent attendance of church services or religious values.

Among those who valued religion as “very important” 20 percent were still virgins by age 21; among those who attended church services frequently, 25 percent of participants reported they were still virgins by 21 years.

But those who had high “religious attitudes on sexuality” reported the highest rate of virginity by 21 years and the highest rate of delayed first sex. 34 percent of these youth remained virgins by 21 years, and the average onset of sex began at 18.8 years.

By contrast, researchers found that only 8 percent of those with low religious attitudes toward sex were still virgins by 21, and began their first sex on average at 17.0 years old – just about the same time as those who did not value religion (16.9 years).

However, parents and an intact two-parent household also have an enormous effect on children and the choices they make in regards to sex, researchers found.

“Those adolescents who lived in a two-parent family from birth to the age of 18 were 14 percent less likely to ever have had sex compared to those who did not and had significantly fewer lifetime sexual partners” researchers reported.

Of youth with parents who raised them with a “just say no” attitude toward pre-marital sex, 31 percent remained virgins until 21 years, and the mean age of sexual debut for the group was 17.4 years. For youth, who “did not learn to say no,” having their parents involved was also beneficial: 29 percent remained virginal until 21 years, although the average age of first sex for this group was 17.1 years.

Just parental involvement in children’s sexual education and voicing their expectations for their children in regards to sex was superior in reducing the rate of risky sexual behaviors and onset of first sex than formal sex education. Researchers found that the topic most brought up by parents with their children was “how to avoid having sex,” but the study found primarily that “speaking with parents about abstinence was associated with decreased sexual risk behaviors.”

Youth who had only formal-based sexual education were far more prone to engage in sexual behaviors than their peers who had the involvement of their parents in sex-education. Of those trained in “abstinence and abstinence-plus” sex-education 26 percent remained virginal by 21 years, and on average began their sexual debut at 17.6 years. Those without any abstinence-component to sex education had only 25 percent remain virginal by 21 years, and began having sex at 17.1 years.

“It is important for parents to make it explicit that they do not approve of adolescents engaging in sexual activity,” researchers concluded. “This ‘simple’ practice of letting one’s child know about expectations for their sexual behavior has been shown to be efficacious.”

“Further, the influence of parental education about avoiding intercourse was strengthened when there was a close relationship between the parent and the child.”

The researchers conclude that formal sex-education in the United States – even abstinence-based education – has thus far failed on its own power to address rampant sexual promiscuity and high numbers of sexual partners among youth. A new approach is needed, but the study’s findings indicate that integrating religiosity and close parent-child relationships into sex-education may be the most promising avenues for fixing the problem.

The results and conclusions of the study are contained in a paper called “The Association of Religiosity, Sexual Education, and Parental Factors with Risky Sexual Behaviors Among Adolescents and Young Adults” written by lead researchers Kristin A. Haglund and Richard J. Fehring.

Report from Christian Unite

SHANXI, China, (christiansunite.com) — On Friday, September 25, nine Fushan Church leaders, including Pastor Yang Rongli, were kidnapped by Shanxi PSB officers while traveling to Beijing to petition the central government for justice concerning the local authorities’ brutal attack on September 13th. They were illegally seized without warrant, and have not been heard from since Friday night. After the arrests, local authorities forcibly confiscated all computers, TVs and other church- owned valuables, calling them “illegal materials.” Remaining church leaders and active members were placed under house arrest and are now under constant surveillance.

On September 26, the central government stationed state military police inside the main Fushan Church in Linfen city, where 5,000 of the 50,000-member Linfen House Church network worship together weekly, to prevent them from entering the building or holding services. Military police now guard the building and the surrounding areas around the clock.

ChinaAid has since learned that the central government was and is directly responsible for the escalating crackdown campaign against the Linfen Church. Ironically twisting the facts, the Beijing PSB has categorized the Linfen Church incident as a “violent uprising” and resolved to use military force to subdue the alleged “unrest.” Reliable government sources informed ChinaAid that a notice was sent to all relevant government agencies over the weekend, ordering them to be prepared to use military force to crackdown on the churches throughout China, in the same way the recent violent incident in Xinjiang was suppressed. They are calling the maneuver the “Xinjiang Model, ” a method that resulted in the deaths of several hundred people in Xinjiang in August.

“To have military police occupy a peaceful church is an unprecedented tragic development in 60 years of PRC history, which itself shows the reality of today’s situation regarding religious freedom in China,” ChinaAid President Bob Fu stated. “The Chinese government has no reason to be fearful of the peaceful Christian church. We call upon the international community to continue to urge the Chinese government to respect Chinese citizens’ religious freedom and to avoid shedding innocent blood.”

ChinaAid denounces the comparison of the attack on the peaceful Fushan Church to the Xinjiang incident and the excessive use of military force to suppress the Linfen House Churches. We call for the immediate release of the kidnapped church leaders, and the rightful restoration of all church property. We further call on the Chinese central government to cease enacting the “Xinjiang Model” of military involvement to unjustly subdue a peaceful church populace.

We call on the international community to continue protesting the brutal treatment of Christians and the suppression of religious freedom in China.

For more ways to take action and contact authorities, go to www.ChinaAid.org

I am sorry, you will have to forgive, but I did find this rather funny.

As I was reading through the news relating to the current apocalyptic position we find ourselves in today with regard to “human man-made global warming”, the first article I read came from the BBC, who reliably informed me that we will need to come up with $100 billion for the developing world alone (according to World Bank Study) in order to….err….keep the world cool or something and all survive?

Anyway, some good news on the horizon to help us recover our posture. As I was visiting one of my favourite websites the Climate Depot they gave me the good news from the Snow Board Club that:

Reports that snow has been falling on almost every continent on earth over the past week.

Continents With Resorts Open For Skiing: 4
Countries With Resorts Open For Skiing: 9
Ski Areas Open (Approximately): 60

• Fresh snow in Europe.
• Fresh snow in New Zealand as season winds down.
• Fresh snow in Australia leads some resorts to extend season.
• Fresh snow for Whistler as Olympic season draws near.
• Fresh snow in Chile and Argentina

Right, I’m off to light the fire…..

By Barry Rubin

Next year marks important anniversaries of two of the most important events in Western history both of which, as far as I know, have been pretty much ignored.

Next September 21, it will be 2500 years ago exactly, on September 21, 491 BCE (BC to most of you), that the Greeks defeated the Persian invasion at Marathon.

And next August 24, it will be 1600 years ago, on August 24, 410, that Rome fell to the Visigoths under Alaric. Historians mark this date as the end of the Roman Empire.

These two dates–whose anniversaries fall within a few days of each other–can be said to mark, respectively, the beginning of Western civilization’s primacy and it’s at least temporary end.

The victory for the Greek city-states marked the triumph of relative democracy and logic-based philosophy, among other things. It laid the basis for all that was to come.

The collapse of the Roman Empire brought to a close the Classical era of history and high civilization in general. While the truth is somewhat more complex, it can be said that it took humanity, certainly in the West, 1200 years to return to the intellectual and cultural level that had existed then.

While there has been a long and complex debate on why Rome and ancient civilization collapsed, clearly there were both internal and external reasons. Among the former can be counted: a loss of civic pride and patriotism, refusal of citizens to fight for their country, and decay of traditional values. The latter factors include the assault by other peoples with a strong religious and national sense of identity who were still willing and even eager to fight, and the flooding of the empire by immigrants who had a different world view and agenda aimed at taking it over.

People are free to draw conclusions regarding a comparison with contemporary conditions, but the subject should certainly be considered seriously. The study of Roman history has also undergone some change which seems to coincide with Political Correctness. The classical explanations for the Rome’s decline and fall included moral corruption, the loss of identity, and letting the “wild warriers” of the Germanic tribes settling on its territory due to a labor shortage.

Many more recent writers speak of the Romans as not being nice enough to the Gothic immigrants, on whom they increasingly depended for their army.

On the other hand, we should never forget the great achievements. As Aelius Aristides summed them up in a 175 letter to Emeror Marcus Aurelius:

“Now the whole world keeps holiday and laying aside its ancient dress of steel [armor] has turned in freedom to adornment and all delights. The cities have abandoned their old uarrels, and are occupied by a single rivalry, each ambitious to be more pleasant and beautiful….Today Greek or foreigner may travel freely where he will…as though he was passing from homeland to homeland….To be safe it is enough to be Roman….You have…bridled rivers with many a bridge, cut mountains into carriage roads, filled the deserts with outposts, and civilized all things with settled discipline and life.”

As one of the relatively few people who can claim direct descent from the Persian Empire’s beneficiaries (King Cyrus of Persia ended the Babylonian exile of the Jews and allowed the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem) and from the Roman Empire’s victims (since it killed and exiled my ancestors after the capture of Jerusalem following the great revolt there) I can appreciate counter-arguments regarding Persia’s tolerance and Rome being an aggressive and often repressive dictatorship, too.

But the broader, long-term points remain valid.

(Here one can insert some sarcastic and humorous remark about what the world would be like if Rome existed today. An emperor who apologized for all its past conquests or the representative of Caligula or Nero chairing the UN Human Rights Commission? I leave the choice of appropriate examples to readers.)

Still, if many experiences remind one of personal mortality, this is an event that should make us think about civilizational mortality, something we hopefully won’t be finding out about directly.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books. To see or subscribe to his blog, Rubin Reports.

Christian Today by Jenna Lyle

The UK division will be headed up by the former volunteer recruitment and development officer at Bible Society, Mike Freeman.

He said that although there were already organisations in the UK providing physical assistance in times of crisis, there was a shortage of people specially trained in grief and trauma support.

“Our aim is to establish a network of individuals across the UK specially trained in providing assistance to those badly affected by disasters – natural or the result of human action – by offering emotional and spiritual assistance,” he said.

“We will help not only survivors and the relatives and friends of victims, but also emergency services personnel who may be adversely affected by their involvement.

“The role of the RRT is focused on listening to people, praying with them, helping them to grieve and to deal emotionally and spiritually with disaster.”

Mr Freeman, a former police officer, will work to establish 24 teams of volunteers across the UK by the end of 2010. The first public training event will be held in Shipley in Yorkshire on October 10.

Similar to the US model, the volunteers could be called upon at any time to help victims and work with other disaster organisations in the event of a major incident.

The Rapid Response ministry is well established in the US, where it has responded to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina and tragedies such as the fatal campus shooting at Virginia Tech.

The UK division will add to the international network of Rapid Response Teams, which the BGEA has expanded from its US base since the 9/11 attacks.

Simon Barrington, Chief Executive of the BGEA UK, said: “We are extremely fortunate to have secured the services of Mike Freeman, as his experience gained when commanding the policing of major incidents, allied to his training and recruitment skills, make him the ideal person to develop this initiative.

“Close liaison with the appropriate authorities, emergency services and existing support organisations is integral to this approach and Mike’s knowledge and contacts will be invaluable in achieving this.”

I like this

Asia News (www.asianews.it/)

VATICAN CITY (AsiaNews) – In this Year of the Priest, “The priest and the pastoral ministry in the digital world: new media at the service of the Word” is the theme chosen by Benedict XVI for the 44th World Day for Social Communications.

Commenting on the theme chosen by the Pope, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications says that “the main task of the priest is to proclaim the Word of God made flesh, man and history, thus becoming a sign of the communion that God makes with man. The effectiveness of this ministry then requires that the priest lives an intimate relationship with God, rooted in a deep love and deep knowledge of scripture, written ‘witness’ of the Word of God. ”

“The Message for the 44th World Communications Day – continues the statement – especially wants to invite priests, during this Year for Priests and after the celebration of the XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to consider new media as a powerful resource for their ministry in the service of Word and wants to give a word of encouragement so they may address the challenges arising from the new digital culture. ”

“The new media, in fact, if properly understood and valued, can offer all the priests and pastoral workers a wealth of data and content that was previously difficult to access, and facilitate the creation of partnerships and a growth of communion that was unthinkable in the past. Thanks to new media, those who make known and preach the Word of Life can in words, sounds and images – the real and specific expressive grammar of the digital culture – individuals and communities on every continent, creating new areas of knowledge and dialogue that can help propose and implement new itineraries of communion. ”

“If used wisely, with the help of experts in communications technology and culture – concludes the document – the new media may well become for the priests and for all pastoral workers a valid and effective instrument for evangelization and real and profound communion. It can become a new form of evangelization so that Christ proceeds along the streets of our cities and on the doorstep of our homes again to say: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me “(Rev 3, 20).

By Nirmala Carvalho
Asia News (www.asianews.it/)

The man who was preparing the bomb is dead. Four injured all belonging to the 32 Christian families living in the Nandamaha camp.

The bomb which exploded near the Nandamaha refugee camp is yet another extremist attack against Betticola Christians.

Sajan K George, director of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), has no doubts about the responsibility and reason for the explosion on 27 September which killed one man and wounded four other people. The wounded all belonged to the 32 Christian families living in the camp.

From initial investigations it appears that the victim of the bomb is the very attacker who was preparing the bomb when it exploded. He had arrived in the camp five days beforehand and did not come from the village of Betticola like the other guests of the centre. Police in Udayagiri, responsible for the zone, found four guns and a rudimentary grenade near the camp.

Immediately after the attack, police detained four Christians who had made a complaint. On 28 September they also detained three suspects accused of involvement in the explosion. Praveen Kumar, Commissioner of Police of Kandhamal responsible for investigations, said that the attack could be the work of Maoist militants. Sajan K George rejects this hypothesis and instead points to leaders of the Hindu extremists.

The Director of the GCIC said the explosion on 27 September is the latest signal against Christians in the village of Betticola, a community that has found no peace since they had to leave their parish after the pogroms of August 2008.

“The 32 families of Betticola – said Sajan K George – have been deprived of everything and are now reorganized around 20 km from the village of Nandagiri at Dugudi where they live in tents.”

The Director of the GCIC said: “They had lived in their village since 1995, but now there is no longer even one Christian home left and the extremists will not allow the rebuilding of the parish that was razed. The bomb is a clear signal to them: you can not return to Betticola”.