Roger Aubrey

Vindication for Christian Registrar

A Christian registrar who was harassed and discriminated against after she refused to carry out same-sex civil partnership ceremonies has won a key legal battle. Lillian Ladele, 47, said that she was treated like a pariah by colleagues at Islington council in North London after she said that she could not carry out the ceremonies as a matter of religious conscience.

 

Read more about this story here.

'You can't preach here'

Two Christian preachers were stopped from handing out Bible extracts by police because they were in a Muslim area, it was claimed yesterday. Oh yes, this incident happened in the UK. Read more

'Radical Islam filling a void'

The decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness and has created a "moral vacuum" which radical Islam is filling, one of the Church of England's leading bishops has warned. Read more of what Michael Nazir Ali has to say here.

Should we just go in?

The continued iniquitous behaviour of the ruling military junta in Burma guarantees the death of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of ordinary helpless and needy people in that country. Ever since Cyclone Nargis struck over a week ago with devastating effects, the generals have steadfastly refused any proper and adequate international assistance and relief, which is poised ready to help.

How far can a country go before the international community, in the guise of the UN, steps in and says enough is enough? When is it right to say that a nation's sovereign rights to rule its own people are to be forfeited for the sake of the survival of its population? Does there come a time when the UN says 'we're coming in'? It seems a little clearer when it comes to war (but even then the examples of Darfur and Tibet demonstrate the weakness of the toothless tiger that is the UN). But isn't what is happening in Burma an act of war? The generals are killing their own people by wilful neglect and active ignorance. I know the ethical and political questions are massive: but people are dying when they could be saved. That just can't be right.

Church alive in Zimbabwe

There was a fascinating article in Saturday's Times, about one of their journalists, Jonathan Clayton (pictured). Clayton recently spent eight days in jail in Zimbabwe after being detained while  attempting to enter the country. In a graphic account, he tells how he was interrogated and treated while in the hands of Mugabe's thugs. I found one sentence particularly moving; Clayton wrote: 'During my eight days in custody most of the only food and drink I had came from donations from local churches. Without them Zimbabwe's prisoners would have nothing to eat or drink'.

That is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in action. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, who right now are suffering and struggling to put food on their own tables, are still blessing those in prison, even those who are not believers. In doing so they are doing it to Jesus himself; as the Lord said, For as much as you do it for the least of these, you do it to me'.

You can read Jonathan Clayton's article here.

Family life is in meltdown

Let me strongly encourage you to click on this link and read an article from Saturday's UK Daily Mail. It was the front page lead and featured the remarks of one of the leading High Court judges in this country, Mr Justice Coleridge. The Judge, who is in charge of the family courts in South-West England, feels he has a duty to speak out concerning what he calls the meltdown of family life in this country and the havoc it is wreaking on our society. It makes chilling reading.

To me, this is the voice of a secular prophet.

Cuba begins to face its future

Today's decision by Fidel Castro to resign as Cuba's President and military commander-in-chief is one of the most significant moments in that country's history and for its future. The news media is awash with political comment on what it means for Cuba in the immediate and the long term. Not surprisingly, Western leaders are calling for a swift move to democracy. Things don't move that quickly in Cuba.

For those of who have the privilege of travelling to that beautiful country and working with the churches there, our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues. My Cuban brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom I last visited just a month ago, will continue to pray for their nation and the world. They will get on with preaching the gospel and extending the Kingdom of God. They know change will come and that one day they will be able to travel to other parts of the globe with the good news of Jesus and return to Cuba. They know that they are already now in the midst of a great move of the Holy Spirit that is sweeping the island (there are currently some 800,000 believers in a population of eleven million).

In your praying, pray for the church in Cuba. Pray that they will be ready in the time of rain.

Beyond words

I couldn't let this post pass by without drawing your attention to or reminding you of a horror beyond words.

Last Friday in Baghdad, Islamic terrorism reached a new nadir of obscenity when two women with Down's Syndrome were made into human bombs. Each of them had explosives strapped to them and then made to enter two markets where animals were being sold. (Sunni Muslims believe that the keeping of pets is sinful; hence this heinous deed). These poor ladies, apparently oblivious to what was about to happen to them, were then blown up by remote control devices, killing over seventy people and maiming scores of others.

Read more on this atrocity here.

Death sentence for internet download

There is a disturbing story in today's Independent newspaper about a young Afghan man, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who has been sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report on Islamic fundamentalism. What makes the account so awful is that this has occurred not in Taleban controlled Afghanistan but in the so called democratic part of the nation ruled by Hamid Karzai, the ally of the west.

Read the story here.

Is it me?

Get a load of these two little gems from Saturday's Times:

A self-described 'atheist pastor' is a bestselling author in the Netherlands. The Rev Klaas Hendrikese's book, 'Believing in a God Who Does Not Exist: Manifesto of an Atheist Pastor', is being reprinted for the third time. 'The non-existence of God is for me not an obstacle but a precondition to believing in God,' he says. 

Uh, right; clear as mud.

The atheist author Richard Dawkins says he is a 'cultural Christian' who likes 'singing carols along with everybody else. I'm not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history'.

The whole point of Christmas is the Incarnation: God becoming one of us in the Person of Jesus Christ. No God = no incarnation = meaninglessness of Christmas = waste of time 'singing carols'. Save your energy Mr Dawkins and be true to your 'non-faith'.