These articles were first published in our January edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
IVP, the evangelical publishing house, announced at the end of November that it would no longer publish books written by the controversial Revd Dr Stephen Sizer, a Church of England minister.
IVP in the US have followed suit. In Christian Zionism: Road Map to Armageddon? Sizer encouraged his readers to check out a news article that suggested Israel was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. He later denied that he thought the Israelis were involved in the attack.
Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament in November that the devolved government would explore the possibility of giving women from Northern Ireland access to abortions in Scotland’s health service free of charge.
The health service has so far refused to pay for abortions for women from Northern Ireland who travel to Britain for terminations. The procedure is only available in Northern Ireland’s hospitals when there is a direct threat to the mother’s life if the pregnancy continues. In all other cases it is illegal.
A Christian nurse who was fired by the NHS for talking to patients about her faith and occasionally offering prayer while helping them to prepare for surgery, is to seek reinstatement and compensation.
Sarah Kuteh, a nursing Sister from Bexley, had 15 years’ experience as a nurse. But she was investigated and dismissed this August for ‘gross misconduct’, even though her job involved asking about patients’ faith, as part of a pre-assessment questionnaire.
Lord Hall of Birkenhead, director-general of the BBC, said that the corporation will increase its coverage of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religions and could broadcast regular Friday prayers from a mosque, after complaints that the BBC was too Christian.
A large survey conducted by the BBC in 2011 found that Christianity was not well represented by the BBC. This was acknowledged in 2012 by Mark Thompson, the then director-general, who admitted that Christianity was treated ‘less sensitively’ than other religions.
An attempt to expel a pro-life group from the student union failed, after a motion was rejected by almost two to one in November.
At Newcastle University’s Student Council, 63% of members voted down a motion called ‘De-ratify Life Society’. Only 35% voted in favour. The motion claimed that the group was ‘discriminatory’ and ‘harmful to students’ and called for the student council to ‘work to prevent any antiabortion groups/campaigns on campus’.
The first Islamic bank in Scotland opened in Glasgow in late November.
Al Rayan Bank, which has over 2,000 customers, is Scotland’s first financial institution compliant with shari’a law. The bank hopes the new branch will help it form stronger ties with the Islamic Finance Council, a body specialising in promoting Islamic finance, which has offices on the same street.
The Digital Economy Bill was ushered through to the House of Lords in November after the Bill received an unopposed third reading in Parliament, meaning that it is close to becoming law.
The Bill aims to put in place protections that will stop children being able to access explicit 18-rated content online. An age verification regulator will be given the power to block a site if it does not put in place age-verification checks, and the need to put in age checks will be applied to overseas and UK generated material.