These articles were first published in our December edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
MP Diana Johnson introduced a ten-minute-rule Bill on 23 October that aimed to have abortion decriminalised across most of the UK.
Despite pro-life MP Fiona Bruce’s speech, MPs voted 208 to 123 to approve the motion. The Bill is highly unlikely to go forward due to limited parliamentary time. Labour MPs Stella Creasy and Conor McGinn promoted an amendment to government legislation pressurising Northern Ireland on its abortion and marriage laws.
The NHS has in the last few months begun redirecting two formerly public webpages about sexual health (‘It’s OK to say no’ and ‘Peer pressure’), to an article entitled ‘15 things you should know about sex’.
People accessing the original pages are redirected to content giving advice on how to have ‘safe sex’. The original page can’t be found via an NHS site search. Googling ‘It’s OK to say no’ does lead to a copy of the original NHS page on West Cheshire’s website.
In October, Michael Harvey encouraged Christians to invite people to church, remembering that success is about inviting people, and everything else ‘belongs to God’.
70% of Christians know the names of people they want to invite to church but never do. The reasons of fear of rejection, or people not liking the style of worship at their church were given as reasons for why people don’t offer invitations. Churches were called on to prepare weeks ahead for a guest Sunday.
Children in private junior schools will no longer have to be explicitly taught about gay marriage, cohabiting couples or same-sex families, according to guidance issued in early October that critics have described as a government U-turn.
The change is contained in guidance on the standards by which independent schools are inspected, which was put out for consultation in March by the education secretary, Damian Hinds.
A consultation on whether smacking should become a criminal offence in Scotland was launched on 2 November.
Scotland’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee is asking the public to give its views on the issue as MSP John Finnie’s Bill progresses through Holyrood. Finnie openly said he smacked his own children, including daughter Ruth Maguire, an MSP and the committee’s convener, and said they turned out ‘well-rounded’. A 2017 ComRes poll showed the proposed ban is opposed by almost 75% of Scots.
A majority of people oppose children being allowed to ‘self-define’ their gender, a poll in October found, but some respondents say they back choosing your own species.
Among the 2,000 people asked, 19% backed people choosing their own age and 10% said self-declaration of species was acceptable. For people aged between 18 and 24, the figures were even more marked with nearly one in five backing self-definition of species.
A new DVD was released in October of a film based on the life of Richard Wurmbrand.
Tortured for Christ was filmed in Romania by Voice of the Martyrs, and is a powerful depiction of the life of the man whose message and ministry reaches around the world. A free pack is available to enable UK Christians to show Tortured for Christ in church. Release can be contacted info@ releaseinternational.org or called on 01689 823491.