In depth | Evangelicals Now

Iraq: four kidnapped

BBC

Aid workers from a French Christian charity went missing in Iraq, in mid-January.

Authorities from both countries are investigating their disappearance.

Russia: polygyny please

BBC

A legal advisor on Islamic law suggested in September that Russia should adopt Islamic marriage laws to prevent depravity and fornication.

Polygyny (where the practice of polygamy only applies to men) would not only ‘ensure the enforcement of women’s rights’ but there would also be ‘much less depravity and fornication, which is spreading so rapidly nowadays’, according to the cleric Ildar Alyautdinov.

Australia: just Folau’s Law?

BBC

The Israel Folau saga looks set to have after-effects in politics, with conservative coalition MPs calling for stronger religious freedom laws, it was reported in late May.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is pushing for religious beliefs to be exempt from employment contracts. ‘You can’t bring people’s faith beliefs into a contract’, Joyce said. ‘Your own views on who God is, where God is, or whether there’s a God should remain your own personal views and not part of any contractual obligation.’

Vatican: child abuse

BBC

Child abuse in the Roman Catholic church was allowed to continue as files documenting child sexual abuse were destroyed, a conference was told in February.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx said that procedures to prosecute offenders were ‘deliberately not complied with’. The unprecedented four-day summit brought together 190 bishops from across the world.

Bibi: challenge rejected

BBC

In January, Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the acquittal of Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges and upheld its decision to overturn Asia Bibi’s conviction and death sentence.

The Supreme Court’s quashing of her sentence in October 2018 led to violent protests by religious hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws, while more liberal sections of society urged her release.

Holland: identify younger?

BBC

A man launched a legal battle in early November to reduce his age by 20 years.

Emile Ratelband, 69, a ‘positivity trainer’, wants to shift his birthday back, comparing the change to identifying as being trans-gender. ‘We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can’t I decide my own age?’ he said.

NI: church stands firm and takes flak

BBC

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) adopted a new policy at their Assembly meeting in late June that means anyone in a same-sex relationship cannot be a full member of the Church and their children therefore cannot be baptised.

The move comes after the PCI cut ceremonial ties with the Church of Scotland due to its more liberal attitude to same-sex relationships. The committee concluded: ‘In light of our understanding of Scripture and the Church’s understanding of a credible profession of faith, it is clear that same-sex couples are not eligible for communicant membership nor are they qualified to receive baptism for their children. We believe that their outward conduct and lifestyle is at variance with a life of obedience to Christ.’

USA: female footballer booed for beliefs

BBC

Jaelene Hinkle, a footballer for North Carolina Courage, received vocal abuse in May after having refused to play for the United States national team in 2017 because her Christian faith prevented her from wearing a shirt honouring LGBTQ Pride Month.

The North Carolina Courage defender, 25, was selected for games against Sweden and Norway in June 2017 when the shirt numbers were rainbow coloured.

Ethiopia: crocodile attack

BBC

A crocodile killed a Protestant pastor who was baptising followers near a lake in southern Ethiopia in early June.

Docho Eshete was conducting the ceremony for about 80 people at Lake Abaya in Arba Minch town’s Merkeb Tabya district. Residents and police said a crocodile leapt from the water during the baptism and attacked him.

Farron: answer on gay sex was not right

BBC

In a radio interview on 10 January, Tim Farron MP, the former Liberal Democrat leader, said he had tried to push away the question of ‘is gay sex sinful’.

He was asked this question in a news conference during the 2017 General Election by journalists. Having had time to reflect, he has now said he had answered ‘foolishly and wrongly, by giving an answer that, frankly, was not right’ when he had said it wasn’t sinful.

Kenya: prayers on the train

BBC

The daily journey to work can be a stressful, exhausting or plain boring experience. One husband-and-wife team of preachers in Kenya believes the time is best used for spiritual upliftment and has transformed a Nairobi commuter train into a prayer session.

Self-styled pastor Helen Wangui Tiphy, a secretary in a government office, believes she plays a vital role in helping commuters cope with their problems. ‘Many of the people travelling in the morning are jobless, others are discouraged. We decided to give them the word of hope. You can see someone has many problems, but when we preach the Word, you can see the person getting better and getting healed. There is power in prayer, that is what we believe,’ she said.

Sweden: midwife defeat

BBC

On 18 April, a Swedish court ruled against a midwife in a dispute over her refusal to carry out abortions.

Ellinor Grimmark argued that her Christian beliefs made it impossible for her to carry out abortions and that it was unfair to be turned down for jobs in Joenkoeping because of that. But the labour court ruled that she had not suffered discrimination. It said the authorities had not violated her ‘freedom of opinion and expression’.

Israel: Philistine cemetery

BBC

Researchers in Israel have made what they say is the ﬁrst discovery of a Philistine ceme-tery.

The discovery, made in 2013 and finally revealed on Sunday 10 July, may yield answers to an enduring mystery surrounding the origins of the Philistines.

The Entertainer: faith in the toyshop

BBC

Toyshop chain owner Gary Grant shared how his faith shaped not only the contents of his shop, but his whole approach to business in an interview in the late autumn.

Dyslexic, Gary Grant wasn’t interested in school at all, but said maths was ‘easy peasy’. He failed his 11-plus exam and hence went to what he calls ‘the failures’ school’, which he left at 16 with just one qualification – O-level maths. Now, however, despite having a finance director, he checks the weekly cash flow, signs every cheque and approves, or not, all outgoings.

Sex consent lessons

BBC

The government announced at the end of March that children from age 11 should be taught about sexual consent.

The lessons are planned for mixed and single-sex state and independent schools in every part of England.

Sizer warned

BBC

A vicar who posted a link to an article that blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks is to keep his job, but has been banned from using social media for six months, it was reported on 9 February.

The Revd Stephen Sizer, vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, Surrey, used Facebook to highlight an article that said the official narrative of the atrocity was ‘absurd’. The Bishop of Guildford said his ‘anti-Zionist agenda has become a liability’ and that Dr Sizer had agreed to refrain from commenting on Middle East issues.

Ethical stem cell miracle

BBC

A paralysed man has been able to walk again after a pioneering therapy that involved transplanting cells from his nasal cavity into his spinal cord, it was reported in late October.

Darek Fidyka, who was paralysed from the chest down in a knife attack in 2010, can now walk using a frame. The treatment, a world first, was carried out by surgeons in Poland in collaboration with London scientists.

In Depth: BBC