The story of an awesome little girl

Eric and Janet Beatty knew before their daughter was born that she was going to be different. Prenatal screening showed facial deformities. Baby Clara had Treacher Collins syndrome, caused by a genetic fault.

It was unusual for Treacher Collins babies to be born in Belgium, where the Beattys lived, because parents almost always decided to abort.

For the Beattys, there was no question of abortion - despite the looks of disapproval from medical staff both before and after the birth. "It was kind of strange sometimes with the doctors," said Eric, "some of whom I think really, really questioned why we had this baby."

The Beattys moved to the United States where Clara could get the nursing care she needed. Cosmetic surgery, if she had it, would need to be repeated as she grew, so Clara - she's nine now - is waiting until her teens.

When people stare, she just smiles and says "Hi." But "I want to try to make myself as much like the other kids," she says, "so I can stop having everyone asking me questions, because it gets so annoying."

When Clara finishes her homework, she helps classmates with theirs. She volunteers as a mentor for an acting troupe for children with special needs. When she grows up, she wants to be a doctor. "It's fun," she says, "to help someone and give them a better chance at life."

Some classmates at school couldn't understand why a reporter would want to write a story about her (you can read the story here).

"Why?" said one.

"Because Clara is awesome," said another.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream

About 2,700 years ago, Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian Empire, had a dream.

In the dream, he saw a great image. The image's head was of gold, his chest and arms of silver, his stomach and thighs of brass, his legs of iron and his feet part of iron and part of clay. As Nebuchadnezzar watched, a stone cut out without hands hit the image's feet. The image was broken to pieces, while the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel the prophet, who had been taken as a captive to Babylon from Israel, interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar. (You can read the story in Daniel, chapter two.)

God, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, wants to show you what will happen in the days to come. You, he said to Nebuchadnezzar, are the head of gold. After you will come an inferior kingdom of silver, then a third kingdom of brass. The fourth kingdom of iron will break and bruise others. Then will come a divided kingdom, symbolised by the feet part of iron and part of clay. At that time God will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, but which will stand for ever.

 The kingdom which followed Nebuchadnezzar was the empire of the Medes and Persians. The third kingdom was the Greek empire of Alexander the Great. The fourth kingdom was the Roman Empire. In this historical timeline, we are now in the days of the feet of iron and clay.

The stone cut out without hands is the Lord Jesus Christ. In these days He will return, destroy His enemies and set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. His return will be the most momentous event since the crucifixion and resurrection 2,000 years ago.

Are you prepared?

Just in case you needed to know

I understand from the news tonight that scientists may have found the God particle.

I don't know much about the God particle, but I do know that God exists.

I've just been talking to Him.

Battling on for the right to die

There has been a concerted effort in the battle to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia in recent days.

The British Medical Journal had three articles in a recent issue aimed at neutralising medical opposition to euthanasia.

Of 45 motions tabled for the 95-minute session on medical ethics at the annual representative meeting of the British Medical Association, 20 dealt with euthanasia or assisted suicide, 14 of them supporting a relaxation of the BMA's current opposition to assisted suicide legalisation.

Nine of the 14 used almost identical wording, suggesting they emanated from the small minority group Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying, which is supported by Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society).

In the event, only one motion on the subject was debated. It called for the BMA to adopt a neutral position on change in law on assisted dying. Had it succeeded, it would likely have led to a further attempt to change the law in Parliament. It was defeated.

The motion also suggested that "assisted dying is a matter for society and not for the medical profession" - but, said Dr Hamish Meldrum, the BMA's outgoing chairman, "the medical profession is not only part of society, but it would be members of the medical profession that would have to carry out the wishes of society were there to be a change in the law."

Dignity in Dying is planning a mass lobby of Parliament on July 4.

A number of organisations opposed to the legalisation of assisted suicide have organised a rally at Emmanuel Centre, Westminster, tomorrow, July 3. Speakers include Anne Widdecombe, Lord Alton, MPs Jim Dobbin and Fiona Bruce, Dr Peter Saunders, Brian Iddon and Lord McColl of Dulwich. The rally will include an opportunity for people to visit with their MP at the Houses of Parliament. 

Tony Nicklinson, a 58-year-old from Melksham in Wiltshire, took his case to the High Court. He has locked-in syndrome. His mind is in perfect working order, but he is paralysed from the neck down, and he wants permission for a doctor to end his life. If permission were given, it would have the effect of legalising euthanasia.

The majority of people with locked-in syndrome want to live. Because Tony Nicklinson is unable to take a lethal dose himself, his request challenges not so much the law on assisted suicide as the law on murder. Few would fail to have sympathy for him in his condition, but to grant his request would set a dangerous precedent indeed.

As Baroness Campbell, herself disabled with spinal muscular atrophy, has said, disabled people need help to live, not help to die.

'Help me!' he cried - and then. . .

Mechanic Bruce Van Natta was lying underneath a massive truck when the jack gave way and the truck fell on his stomach with the loudest noise he had ever heard.

Blood shot into his throat. He coughed and spat out a large blob. He was bleeding internally from major arteries severed in five places.

"Lord, help me!" he shouted out, twice. He saw that the left hand side of his body was only one inch thick, thinner than the thickness of his spine. The right hand side of his body was two inches thick.

The driver of the truck looked at Bruce and went into shock. The driver managed to call the emergency services and replace the jack, but only in an unstable position under one of the truck's springs.

Bruce pulled as hard as he could on the truck's bumper to pull himself clear, but passed out. "My spirit left my body," he said, "and went up in the roof of the garage. My spirit was up there looking down, at perfect peace."

Then he saw, he said, a huge angel on either side of his body, dressed in white. Their arms were underneath the bumper.

An air ambulance arrived, but could not winch his body up because there was no ambulance equipment below.

A woman knelt next to him and began slapping his face. "Bruce Van Natta, open your eyes," she said. "Bruce Van Natta, open your eyes." His spirit shot back into his body and he felt excruciating pain. Every time he closed his eyes, his spirit left his body and began to travel down a tunnel. Then the woman slapped his face and his spirit returned.

"Do you want to live?" she said. "Do you have a wife and kids?" He remembered his wife and four children. I can't die, he thought. I've got to be here for my wife and family. He decided he had to keep his eyes open.

It was more than two hours before he was in hospital. Three doctors attending to him got into a disagreement. The CT scan showed he should be dead, but his heart was still beating. "We couldn't make sense of it," said one. "We didn't know what to make of it."

They repaired the major arteries but attempted nothing more, convinced he would die within hours. Twelve hours later, his heart was still beating.

Bruce had five operations in the next 12 months, then 18 months of rehab. But there was still a problem. The average adult has 20 feet of small intestine. All but three feet of Bruce's small intestine had been destroyed, and that three feet wasn't working properly. The doctors could feed him intravenously for only a year and then he would die.

A man named Bruce Carlson heard of the problem from a prayer chain and woke up two mornings in a row feeling he had to go to the hospital to pray for Bruce.

When he arrived, he laid his hand on Bruce's forehead and prayed for the small intestine to grow. Bruce said he felt an "electric shock" and heard a snap. He could feel his intestines rolling around.

X-rays and CT scans showed his small intestine had grown an additional seven feet in answer to prayer.

Bruce left his business and is now engaged in full-time Christian ministry.

You can read the full story here.

'Terrible' threat to Britain's children

It seems to me that the Government has talked a lot about pornography on the internet and done precious little about it.

Sue Berelowitz, England's Deputy Children's Commissioner, who has been conducting research for a report due out in September, told MPs that sexual exploitation of children is happening all over the country, much of it fuelled by children accessing extreme pornography on the internet.

There were parts of London where children from the age of 11 expected to have to indulge in sexual activity with line-ups of boys for up to two hours at a time. It was "quite common" for girls to be lured via internet chat rooms to meet a friend, only to be met by a group of boys and gang raped in a park.

"What is being done is so terrible that people need to lay aside their denial."

She said children could get anything they liked on their mobile phones, which was affecting children's thresholds of what they think is normal behaviour.

A parliamentary inquiry revealed that almost one in three children aged 10 or under had seen sexual images online, and suggested that four out of five children from 14 to 16 access online pornography.

According to the Daily Mail website, hundreds of millions of pages on the web have sexual content, and British teenagers spend an average of 87 hours a year looking at internet pornography.

Only 37 per cent of families in the UK had set up any sort of parental controls on their teenagers' computers.

For the children's sake, something needs to be done about internet pornography. Now.

This 'mad, terrifying obsession'

Melanie Phillips complains in the Daily Mail that the BBC is now "peddling the ancient racial libel that the Jews exercise a unique control over the levers of power," which she calls "unvarnished Judeophobia." You can read the details here.

She continues by pointing out that actors including Emma Thompson, Richard Wilson and Alexei Sayle have called for a boycott of Israel's Habima theatre which has been performing Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice - "oh the irony of it!" - in Hebrew at the Globe in London. This, she says,

. . . was on account of what they described as Israel's 'policies of exclusion' against the Palestinians and its 'human rights violations and the illegal colonisation of occupied land.'

Dear oh dear - does one laugh or cry at such mindless parroting of demonstrable untruths? Quite apart from the fact that Habima is totally apolitical and a call for such a cultural boycott is, as the author Howard Jacobson put it, Kafkaesque, have these high-minded souls called for a boycott of Lebanon where Palestinians are excluded from citizenship? Have they called for a boycott of Syria where countless thousands have been slaughtered? Have they called for a boycott of Iran for threatening a second genocide of the Jews and jailing, torturing, stoning and hanging its own dissidents, women and gays?

Have they indeed called for a boycott of the Palestinian Authority for censoring and intimidating Palestinian and western journalists, and for brainwashing Palestinian children with Nazi-style propaganda in order to raise them to hate and murder Jews and Israelis?

No, of course not. The only country they want to boycott is the one country in the whole of the Middle East that is a true democracy, that affords human rights to all its citizens, that allows freedom of worship to all religions, that treats women as equals and safeguards the welfare and liberties of gay people - and treats in its own hospitals, alongside its own citizens, Palestinians from these 'excluded' territories including those who are trying to murder as many Israeli citizens as possible.

This irrational obsession is madness. It is terrifying. And no one in the wider community is saying anything about it.

Just a few days left

The UK Government decided it would change the law in order to redefine marriage, thus allowing same-sex marriage in England and Wales (Scotland will make its own decision). It said there would be a consultation, but it would not be about whether or not it would happen, only about how it would work.

The Government was taken aback at the response, as a petition objecting to the proposed change gathered half a million signatures in a matter of weeks.

Despite what the Government had said, when the consultation document was published, it contained Question 1:

Do you agree or disagree with enabling all couples, regardless of their gender, to have a civil marriage ceremony? (In law, there is not civil marriage and religious marriage, only marriage.)

And Question 2:

Please explain the reasons for your answer.

The consultation closes this Thursday, June 14. Homosexual activists and their supporters are pushing for all those in favour of same-sex marriage to take part in the consultation. It is important that people who believe the law on traditional marriage should remain unchanged should also have their say in the consultation, so that the Government should be aware of the strength of feeling on the issue.

Those who do not want the law to change can reply to just Question 1 and Question 2, which can be done in a couple of minutes. You can access the full document here, or a short reply form, with some suggestions for answers to Question 2, here.

A morality tale for our day

Once same-sex unions have been sanctified with the word "marriage," some homosexual couples will have children, writes Michael Cook at MercatorNet.com. But where will they get their children?

All lesbian couples need is a sperm donor and possibly an IVF clinic. Male homosexual couples wanting children with some of their genes need a surrogate mother.

Surrogacy brokers are springing up wherever in the world there is poverty as well as sympathetic government regulation. Surrogatemothers.biz advertise surrogate mothers from the Ukraine. Advocates for Surrogacy advertise the services of women in Guatemala. Affordablesurrogates.com market surrogates in Greece, Panama and India.

Premila Vaghela, a 30-year-old Indian woman with two children of her own, died in the eighth month of pregnancy of unexplained complications after collapsing in her IVF clinic. Doctors there did an emergency caesarean and gave the  child to the American woman who commissioned it. "Premila paid the price of offering herself as surrogate with her life," said the Indian media.

(A Sunday Telegraph investigation claimed there are already up to 1,000 surrogacy clinics in India, all unregulated. There were an estimated 2,000 births to surrogate mothers in India last year, with up to 1,000 of the babies going to Britain. Couples and single people pay an average of £25,000 a time; the surrogate mothers are paid up to £6,000 to donate eggs and carry babies.)

The contracts the women sign are incredibly exploitative. They must agree to the most intrusive limitation of their lifestyle and to accept reduction of the number of foetuses in the womb (three embryos are transferred at a time) if necessary.

Reproductive tourism, says one Indian magazine, is immensely valuable, not only empowering the surrogates, but bringing a lot of revenue for the state. "Where the storks dare to fly. . . Bringing smiles to couples across the world."

Says Michael Cook: "Supporters of same-sex marriage have to face the stark fact that legislation  will mean misery for women in developing countries. Perhaps death will be rare. But it will certainly happen. Are gay couples ready to force women to have selective abortions? Are they ready to accept that some women will die bearing a child they paid for? Are they ready to accept the degradation and exploitation that are inherent in their dream of being married?"

A very present help in trouble

William MacDonald tells* how during the First World War young men in an island community in the Scottish Highlands were being called up for military service in increasing numbers. Each time contingents of them gathered at the pier to sail to the mainland, friends and relatives assembled there and sang:

God is our refuge and our strength,

in straits a present aid;

Therefore, although the earth remove,

we will not be afraid:

Though hills amidst the seas be cast;

though waters roaring make,

And troubled be; yea, though the

hills by swelling seas do shake.

A river is, whose streams make glad

the city of our God;

The holy place, wherein the Lord

most high hath his abode.

God in the midst of her doth dwell;

nothing shall her remove:

The Lord to her a helper will,

and that right early prove. . .

That is, of course, the Scottish metric version of Psalm 46 - the psalm that begins "God is our refuge and strength." Psalm 46 prompted Katharina von Schlegel to write the hymn Be still, my soul, and Martin Luther to write the famous hymn A mighty fortress is our God. When discouraging news came - and Luther had his share of discouraging news - he would say to his friends "Come, let us sing the 46th psalm."

The days of the First World War were a more godly age. Nowadays many have turned away from God, and society is descending into chaos and disorder. But God is unchanging.

Psalm 46 continues: "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God." That river speaks of God's peace, God's love and God's provision. These things are not pie in the sky, but real. Not everyone has them - but they are the daily experience of those who walk with Him.

God forces Himself on no one. But He is available for those who seek Him.

"If you seek him, he will be found by you."

"Seek, and you will find."

* Believer's Bible Commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995, p620f.

Britain's (almost unnoticed) record of shame

According to Government figures published this week, 196,082 officially sanctioned abortions were performed in England and Wales last year. There were a further 12,471 abortions in Scotland, making a total of 208,553 in England, Scotland and Wales. That's 17,000 a month; 4,000 a week; something like 600 a day.

Of the 196,082 abortions in England and Wales, 189,931 were on England and Wales residents. Of these, 98 per cent were carried out on the ground that the continuation of pregnancy would involve risk to the physical or mental health of the woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated. Of these, 99.96 per cent were on mental health grounds - despite the fact that there is no evidence that continuing with an unplanned pregnancy poses any greater risk to a mother's mental health than having an abortion.

Only one per cent of abortions were carried out because of the risk of the baby's being born handicapped.

Ninety-six per cent of abortions were funded by the NHS. Sixty-one per cent of abortions took place in private clinics under NHS contract.

Thirty-six per cent of women having an abortion last year had had one or more abortions previously.

When 49 children were massacred in Syria the other day, European countries expelled Syrian diplomats in protest. Yet when 208,553 unborn children were massacred in Britain last year, as some commentators are pointing out, scarcely anyone turns a hair.

Don't misunderstand what I am saying. The stabbing and shooting to death of innocent children in Syria deserves all the condemnation there is - but the deliberate killing of 208,553 unborn children in Britain while the authorities stand idly by?

The story of Kasim Hafeez

Kasim Hafeez is a brave man. Not because his investigation caused him to discover something to be true, but because, having discovered it to be true, he decided to stand up for it.

Kasim is a British Muslim. Once a radical Islamist, a Jew-hater and an anti-Israel activist, he is now a Zionist - and proud of it.

He runs a website, www.theisraelcampaign.org (and writes a blog on the same site), whose aim is "to fight the hate, the lies and try to prevent more young minds being poisoned. . . 

"We want to stem the tide of Anti-Israel vitriol spewing from the many facets of society," it says. "We believe in peace in the Middle East for both the Jewish people and the Arab people, but this can not be achieved by the demonisation and vilification of the State of Israel."

In an article on another website, Kasim tells how the change in his life came about.

Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK, I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the "Zionist Entity" and all Jews. In short, there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East.

To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual's own opinions. More disturbingly, many of these people weren't radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured out. . .

My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews.

By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.

These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies, where speakers predicted Israel's demise as Hezbollah flags were waved proudly in the centre of London.

Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed.

So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz's The Case For Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after a brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking "vile Zionist propaganda."

I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause.

As I read Dershowitz's arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found more hollow rhetoric that I'd believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up to that point I had not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel.

Now, I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed others for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I'd really know the truth. . .

I did not encounter an apartheid fascist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about.

After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I'd for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth.

The choice was obvious. I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me.

Doing this is not easy and that's something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that's the reality in standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy, and that's what makes it so necessary.

This isn't about religion and politics; it's about the truth.

When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filled with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of.

We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue - it's about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It's also about trying to be a light among nations.
  

Israel's international humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don't get the message out there, no one will. We don't have to be head-bowed apologists leading with "Israel's not perfect. . ." - we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I'm proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that? 

From Jew-hater to Zionist

Britain was the world's top country for antisemitic attacks in 2010. It fell to second place last year. But while major antisemitic attacks generally are less common, harassment of Jews, such as shouting abuse in the street, is on the increase.

That's according to an annual antisemitism report by Tel Aviv University.

An investigation by the Jewish Chronicle showed that British MPs who have spoken in support of Israel have had to take security precautions after receiving death threats by post, phone or online. One MP had to be accompanied by police officers during the last election campaign. Another was forced to seek police protection.

A number of MPs were targeted by a Muslim group. Members of the now-banned Muslims Against Crusades stormed the constituency surgery of the Finchley and Golders Green MP, shouting that he was a "Jewish homosexual pig."

Last Thursday an elderly lady in Brighton had to be taken to hospital with shock after discovering her car had had its tyres slashed and been spray-painted with Nazi slogans and anti-Jewish graffiti.

Antisemitism has been around for a long time. It's a shame there's so much of it in Britain.

Which is why in my next blog post I intend to tell the story of a British Muslim - once a radical Islamist, a Jew-hater and an anti-Israel activist - who is now a Zionist and proud of it.

Imagine that.

GMC's advice to homosexuals

Two news items which ought to have a mention here:

The General Medical Council, the regulatory body for doctors in the UK, has published a leaflet in conjunction with the homosexual rights group Stonewall (as pointed out here) giving detailed advice about how to lodge a complaint against doctors who are felt to be discriminating against homosexual and bisexual patients.

The leaflet, entitled Protecting patients: your rights as lesbian, gay and bisexual people, has been part funded by the Department of Health and published following a survey by Stonewall into homosexual and bisexual men's health.

The leaflet says doctors must not unfairly discriminate against patients by allowing their personal views about sexual orientation adversely to affect their professional relationship or treatment. Doctors also must not express to their patients their personal beliefs in ways that exploit their vulnerability or are likely to cause them distress.

It asks patients who think their doctor is not fit to practise to  contact the GMC.

There is no doubt that doctors should treat patients without discrimination in any way.

But some homosexuals consider Christianity and the Bible "homophobic" and orthodox Christian views on sexuality offensive. Will this leaflet encourage vexatious complaints against doctors known to have orthodox Christian beliefs on sexual matters?

Moreover, the Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

The GMC has published a leaflet for homosexuals, but not apparently for any of the other groups.

Is this discriminatory?

And the second news item:

The petition objecting to the intention to redefine marriage to allow same-sex marriage and asking for marriage law to remain unchanged (you can see it at c4m.org.uk) has reached half a million signatures. Surely a clear indication that the great majority of people in Britain do not want marriage law to be tampered with.

Changing society's attitude to marriage

Sir Paul Coleridge, a senior judge in the Family Division of the High Court, is a remarkable man. Appalled at the number of divorces and the effect family breakdown was having on children, he began some years ago to speak out in support of marriage.

Now, he says, it's no longer time to speak only, but time to act. This week he launched the Marriage Foundation, an independent charity whose aim is to champion marriage as the "gold standard of relationships," and by so doing to change attitudes towards marriage and divorce from the top to bottom of society.

Sir Paul, who once famously said that a divorce was easier to obtain than a driving licence, describes family breakdown as "one of the most destructive scourges of our time," and the impact family breakdown is having on society as "out of control."

"There are an estimated 3.8 million children currently caught up in the family justice system," he says. "I personally think that's a complete scandal."

The foundation's website says if you look at the facts and figures, the case for marriage becomes overwhelming. Its advice to married couples having problems will be where possible to "mend it, don't end it."

It is estimated, Sir Paul says, that the financial cost to the nation of family breakdown "exceeds £44 billion a year: greater than the entire defence budget."

When he was married in 1973, "we took the element of public commitment via our wedding vows seriously. Standing up in front of your family and friends to publicly commit to another person gives marriage a psychological stability or glue lacking in other relationships. . .

"The evidence I find overwhelming is that married relationships are more stable and the children of such relationships fare better. For example, a baby born to cohabiting parents is more than 10 times more likely to see its parents separate than one born to married parents."

It's good to see someone who, seeing a need, does something about it.

Leaving God out

You may remember that Bideford Town Council had been starting its meetings with a formal prayer since the days of Queen Elizabeth I. An atheist former town councillor objected to the practice. Aided and abetted by the National Secular Society, he took the council to court - and won his case.

The legislation that Communities Secretary Eric Pickles consequently rushed through to ensure councils could open their meetings in prayer if they wanted to evidently hasn't had the effect that was expected.

The Sunday Telegraph says 40 councils have recently decided either to drop or "water down" the practice of opening their meeting in prayer. More are considering following suit. Twenty-one authorities said they planned to continue with prayers without changes.

In order to accommodate several atheist or agnostic members of Glocestershire County Council, the council chairman has taken it upon himself to remove all mention of God and of Jesus from the council's traditional opening prayer.

The old prayer said

Let us pray for God's blessing on all those who serve the people of Gloucestershire, and especially on the work of this county council.

May He give us wisdom to carry out our duties; the humanity to listen to those we represent; the courage to do what is right; and the generosity to treat each other with respect. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The new prayer says

May we find the wisdom to carry out our duties, the humanity to listen to all, the courage to do what is right and the generosity to treat each other with respect. Amen.

Said the chairman, Brian Thornton: "I am very happy with it. There is now unity. I kept the words, but there is no longer a reference to calling for God's help. It does the trick."

Does the trick? How do they know now who they're praying to? And do they get an answer to the prayer?

In Cheltenham, where they used to open their meeting with prayer, the council chaplain now leads members in up to two minutes' silence.

Can someone tell us why it needs a chaplain to lead two minutes' silence?

The remarkable story of Steven Thorpe

There used to be just one condition for a diagnosis of human death: irreversible cessation of breathing and heartbeat. In the 1970s, when organ transplantation was becoming more common and there was an increasing need for donor organs, doctors decided on another criterion for death: brain death, which isn't really death at all.

A patient certified as brain dead can be expected to be on a ventilator to enable him to breathe. He will breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. His heart will be beating. His body will be warm. If he is given liquids, he will urinate. He will digest food. If he is not turned regularly, he will develop bed sores. If he is not correctly positioned, he could develop pneumonia. If the patient is a pregnant woman, she can bring a baby to term. But a diagnosis of brain death allows the patient to be declared dead and his or her body used for donor organs.

The question of brain death is in the news once more with the story of an American woman who gave birth to twins almost a month after being declared brain dead, and with the remarkable - and unusual - story of Steven Thorpe. Seventeen-year-old Steven, from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, was in a car crash with two friends, one of whom was killed. He had serious injuries, and four doctors declared him brain dead. Doctors wanted to switch off life support and told his parents "You need to start thinking about organ donations." His parents refused.

They contacted a GP, who called in a neurosurgeon she knew. The neurosurgeon detected faint signs of brain activity. Two weeks later Steven woke up. Within seven weeks he was out of hospital.

There is one more thing that potential organ donors should be aware of. Potential donors, and next-of-kin whose permission is sought for organ removal, are led to believe that life support will be switched off and then the organs removed. In fact, life support is not switched off until after the organs are taken. (The only hearts, livers and pancreases that are used for transplantation are taken while the heart is still beating.)  The fact that potential organ donors and next-of-kin are not told that vital organs are removed before life support is switched off is immoral.

As one former consultant cardiologist has put it, "The uncomfortable fact is that the brains of the so-called 'brain dead' are not truly and totally dead and the diagnosis does not exclude the possibility that some donors may retain or regain some form or degree of consciousness during the surgical removal of their vital organs. We just do not know."

Tests for brain death do not and can not prove lack of awareness.

People should be able to donate their organs to be taken after their death if they wish to do so. No one wants to prevent replacement organs being available for people who need them or sick people being helped. But the end does not justify the means.

Time to say happy birthday

Today is Independence Day in Israel - Israel's 64th birthday.

There has always been a Jewish presence in the land. In the late 19th century, Jews began to return to the Promised Land in line with prophecies made thousands of years before. When independence was declared in 1948 Israel had a population of 806,000. Today, there are 7,881,000 Israelis - 75.3% of them Jewish and 20.6% Arab (the remaining 4.1% immigrants and children of immigrants who are not listed as Jewish by the Interior Ministry).

Israel has come through seven wars, two intifadas and more terrorist incidents than it's possible to count. Jew-hatred among Israel's neighbours is as fierce as ever and peace between Israel and the Palestinians as far away as ever it was. Threats abound. Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warned the other day that Egypt is becoming a bigger threat even than Iran. It is suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood is currently engaged in an international charm offensive, but once the Brotherhood consolidates power in Egypt, Egypt's peace treaty with Israel will be scrapped and the way will be open for war with Israel once more.

Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? Yes, there will. One day the Prince of Peace will return. He will appear in power and great glory to destroy His enemies and set up His millennial kingdom. Nothing is more certain. His first appearance was prophesied, and the prophecies were fulfilled in exact detail. His Second Coming is equally sure.

He will return when His Jewish people are ready to welcome Him. He will reign from Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israel has completed another difficult year. Birthday celebrations are in order.

The life and death of a 'hatchet man'

You will have heard of Chuck Colson.

Colson, trained as a lawyer, became a master of dirty tricks and "hatchet man" for US President Richard Nixon. He was said to be ruthless. "I would walk over my Grandmother for Richard Nixon," he said once.

He described himself as a nominal Episcopalian, but he had no idea who the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son were. "Oh, I think religion is fine," he told one man, "provided one has as little of it as possible."

Colson left the White House after the Watergate scandal, which cost Nixon the presidency. He called on a company executive, hoping to get some work. Instead of talking about work, the executive spent the evening talking about Jesus, reading Colson extracts from a book called Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis, and praying for him.

Later that night Colson burst into tears at the wheel of his car and said a prayer himself. He told his wife he thought he'd had a conversion experience - but he didn't know what the term meant.

While still under investigation concerning Watergate, news leaked out that Colson had become a Christian. "How convenient," many said. Said the Boston Globe: "If Mr Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody."

It's said that Colson could have beaten charges in connection with Watergate, but he chose something he knew he was guilty of and decided to plead guilty. He went to prison. 

In prison one day a fellow prisoner named Archie shouted: "Hey, Colson. You'll be out of here soon. What are you going to do for us?" "I'll help in some way," said Colson. "Bull," said Archie. "You all say that. I've seen big shots like you come and go. They all say the same things while they're inside. Then they get out and forget us fast. There ain't nobody cares about us. Nobody!"

Colson proved him wrong. When he got out, he started Prison Fellowship International, which now operates in 150 countries. He regularly visited prisons to preach the gospel and pray with prisoners on Death Row.

He founded the Chuck Colson Centre for Christian Worldview. He was awarded 15 honorary doctorates. He wrote more than 30 books, which sold millions of copies. He became a regular columnist and broadcaster. All the royalties from his books, his fees from public speaking and the $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion he gave to charity.

He influenced an incalculable number of ordinary Americans, as well as countless people who are now Christian leaders themselves.

On Saturday, Chuck Colson died. He was 80.

I mention these details in order to make a point. In the gospels, you read how Jesus spoke to people and transformed their lives. Can He do the same today?

Course He can.

A disaster looming for Britain's children

Britain is preparing to reap a terrible harvest, and most people are sitting back and watching it happen.

A Government report shows that

One in three 10-year-olds has seen explicit internet pornography;

Four out of five 16-year-old boys and girls regularly access porn online;

At one school pupils swapping hardcore images on memory sticks was "absolutely rife";

The Portland Clinic in London said 26 per cent of young people coming to it for psychological treatment were hooked on online porn.

This is the first generation of children to be subject to such a barrage of obscenity. Miranda Suit, of the campaign group Safermedia, said: "This generation is going through an experiment. No one knows how they will survive this unprecedented assault on their sexual development. They are guinea pigs for the next generation."

Internet service providers (the people who provide access to the internet for computer users) have largely refused to do anything about it. Prime Minister David Cameron has spoken often about it, but appears to have achieved nothing.

Won't someone stand up for that which is clean, decent and godly?

If you are concerned to protect your children from online pornography, see here and read the article here, including the comments attached.

Open the door for a few. . .

Latest figures from the American state of Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, show that the number of known deaths by assisted suicide has grown from 16 in 1998 to 71 in 2011 - an increase of 450 per cent.

 The number of Swiss nationals who have died by assisted suicide in Switzerland increased by 700 per cent - from 43 in 1998 to 297 in 2009. These figures do not include people from abroad who have travelled to Switzerland to die.

Both Oregon and Switzerland have small populations compared with the UK.

Because assisted suicide is not legal in Britain, some 15 to 20 Britons travel to Switzerland to die each year. If it were legal here, campaigners say, there would now be over 1,000 assisted suicides in Britain each year.

Those in favour of assisted suicide continue to campaign for it to be legalised in the UK. When more attempts come before Parliament later this year, it is sincerely to be hoped that parliamentarians will bear these figures in mind.

'Just like 'is Dad'

I heard an interesting story this morning.

A junior school in Bradford was putting on a nativity play. At the appropriate point in the play, three kings appeared, wearing dressing gowns and crowns made from tinfoil.

The first two presented gold and frankincense, reciting the words they had been taught. The third saw his parents in the audience and promptly forgot his lines. He stood before the baby Jesus with his gift of myrrh. There was a long pause.

"Say something," a teacher hissed from the wings. The young lad thought carefully in order to come up with something appropriate. Then, in a broad Yorkshire accent, he said: "Ee, 'e's just like 'is Dad."

The audience was delighted.

The lad was right, or course. Someone said that when God wanted people to know what He was like, He sent His Son. The Bible calls Him "the image of the invisible God."

So if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus, and you've got it.

Why not same-sex marriage?

Glenn Stanton, of the American organisation Focus on the Family, says people who would not normally be in favour of same-sex marriage have been manipulated.

Homosexual activists, using focus groups and message testing, realised there was one message that would work better than all the others. The homosexual magazine OUT revealed in the mid-1990s that activists began using the phrases "marriage equality" and "freedom to marry" on the advice of a Los Angeles PR firm, based on how well they believed the expressions would work among heterosexual folk.

"The genius," writes Glenn Stanton, "is that while the average American might not personally like the idea of same-sex 'marriage,' they are hard-pressed to offer meaningful reasons for why it shouldn't be adopted in society. Compound this with the very deliberate and widespread accusation that opposition to same-sex 'marriage' and parenting is tantamount to hate-filled bigotry at its worst and back-woods ignorance at its best. With that gambit, this movement has really accomplished something. Show of hands: Who wants to be seen as hateful or ignorant?

"But here is the truth. Same-sex 'marriage' advocates have largely gained their ground through deception, emotional manipulation and diverting the public's attention away from the thousands of scientific studies that tell us healthy child-development requires the two different models of human parents: mothers and fathers. They have manipulated us by high-jacking civil rights language for their own narrow purposes. And as a result, millions of boys and girls will be subjected to intentionally motherless and fatherless families for no other reason than to fulfill the desires of adults who want such radical homes."

The suggestion that people have not known how to counter the homosexuals' argument is an interesting one. The homosexuals have said "We only want equality. A man and a woman can marry and a same-sex couple can't. That's not fair." And people have not known how to respond.

There are good reasons why marriage law should not be altered to allow same-sex marriage. I'm not going to list them here, because other people have done that already, and done it well. Dr Peter Saunders has given 10 good reasons why the law should not be altered. You can see them here. Have a look for yourself.

Prime Minister David Cameron is insisting same-sex couples be allowed to marry. By deciding to be trendy with the Trendies, he may have done himself and the Conservative Party a profound disservice. It seems clear the majority of Britons don't want marriage law meddled with. A new poll of 154 Conservative MPs found 37 per cent believed that the proposal to redefine marriage will fail, with 22 per cent unsure what the outcome will be. In the few weeks since it was introduced, the petition opposing a change in the law (you can see it here) has attracted 436,000 signatures.

Peter Saunders has written 24 articles on the matter. (You don't have to read them all!) But do read the one on the reasons for the law to remain as it stands. You may find yourself involved in a discussion on same-sex marriage. You wouldn't want not to be able to offer an intelligent contribution to the conversation.

Tortured for their faith

More people should be aware of the terrible conditions in which some other people live.

In North Korea, the kingdom of the Communist dictator Kim Jong-Un, large numbers of people live on soup made from grass and tree bark. Countless numbers die of starvation. Anyone found to be a Christian faces prison camp, torture and execution. Christianity still flourishes.

Every Christian in North Korea is said to have made the choice that one day he will die for Christ. "A friend of mine is being terribly tortured in prison," said one Christian. "I am convinced he can take the suffering because he constantly reminds himself of the joy that is set before him."

Despite closed borders, food, medicine and literature manage to reach people inside the country. Delivering the aid is intensely risky. "I experience so much stress I am sometimes afraid I will die from it," said one aid worker.

The organisation Open Doors says North Korean Christians pray and fast for days. Only when they feel God has confirmed they should accept a shipment do they give aid workers the go-ahead. When a shipment is safely delivered, rejoicing breaks out - on one occasion with an all-night prayer meeting, thanking God for sending new supplies and saving many lives.

"God has given us eternal promises," wrote one church leader. "We do not despair. I am confident that at the end of all hardships, there will be lasting victory."

If you would like to know how you can help, click here.

When is an unborn baby able to feel pain?

An unborn baby responds to touch just five-and-a-half weeks after conception. But at what stage of an unborn baby's development does it become capable of feeling pain?

"We simply do not know," was the verdict of Professor David Smith, chief editor of Neuroscience.

Professor Eve Johnstone, of Edinburgh University, head of the Medical Research Council's expert group, said an unborn baby is definitely aware of pain by 24 weeks of pregnancy, and possibly as early as 20 weeks.

Professor Vivette Glover, of Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London, called for unborn babies to be given anaesthetic in all abortions from 18 weeks.

Some doctors believe an unborn baby can feel pain at 13 weeks or less.

One report based on the work of leading gynaecologists and neurologists said the foetus is capable of feeling pain from about the 10th week of pregnancy.

And one doctors' report said scientists were not sure whether babies were able to feel pain from six weeks upwards, and pain relief should be given before all foetal procedures.

I mention the matter because Simon Icke, a Christian who used to live in Little Hulton, on the outskirts of Manchester, but now lives in Buckinghamshire, wrote to his MP pointing out that doctors had been found arranging abortions for women who wanted an abortion because their unborn child was the "wrong" sex (abortions on the ground of a baby's sex are illegal in Britain), and questioning the claim that in most abortions the baby feels no pain.

The MP, David Lidington, appears to have passed the letter to Health Minister Anne Milton. In her reply, she quoted claims in a report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that the foetus cannot feel pain before 24 weeks because the connections in the foetal brain are not fully formed; the foetus, while in the chemical environment in the womb, is in a state of induced sleep and is unconscious; because the 24-week foetus has no awareness and cannot feel pain, the use of analgesia is of no benefit; and more research is needed into the short and long-term effects of the use of foetal analgesia after 24 weeks.

Unfortunately, critics say the RCOG report is "a political rather than a scientific document that aimed to shore up the pre-existing position of the RCOG rather than to take a dispassionate view of the scientific evidence." The RCOG's statement that the ability of the foetus to feel pain cannot occur before 24 weeks, they say, is the result of "the substitution of wishful thinking for empirical enquiry."

Dr Martin Ward Platt, a consultant neonatologist, says there is no evidence that a human foetus lacks awareness and there is strong evidence for an opposite view. The RCOG's statement that there is good evidence that the foetus is sedated by the physical environment of the womb, he says, is simply not true.

The Government appears to have no desire to change existing abortion limits.

But if unborn babies are to be killed, what of the suggestion that an anaesthetic should be given before the abortionist's tools do their deadly work?

Is it a question of "out of sight, out of mind," or does not giving an anaesthetic help doctors pretend "It's all right. They're not really babies"?

The power of an endless life

Quite a few people have come back from the dead.

There was the son of the widow at Nain, whom Jesus raised from the dead as his body was being being taken to its burial. There was the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus, whom Jesus similarly blessed. There was Lazarus, who had been dead four days when Jesus called him out of the tomb and restored him to his family. All of these eventually died again.

There is only One who rose from the dead like He did, alive forever. "I am the First and the Last," He said. "I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore" (Rev 1:17, 18). If Jesus isn't alive, the Christian faith is meaningless.

You know the story: how they laid Him in the tomb, rolled a great stone across the door, sealed it shut, set a guard on the tomb, then found the stone rolled away and the graveclothes empty. (Some teach that He rose spiritually from the dead. If that's the case, what happened to the body? How come He appeared in a physical body and ate food with the disciples?)

You may think it a little over the top going around saying that Jesus is alive. But it's a personal encounter with a living Saviour that turns a heathen into a committed Christian. Christianity isn't just a religious practice, a doctrine, a creed, a belief. It's a personal, daily relationship with the living, resurrected, glorified Son of God.

Jesus said "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). Do you hear His voice like that? If not, tell Him you're sorry for the life you've been living. Ask Him to take over. Make Him the Lord and Saviour of your life.

It's the most important decision you will ever make.

If they had but known

Here is a remarkable pair of verses:

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Cor 2:6, 7.

There were quite a few attempts on Christ's life. There was Herod. Herod killed all the male children under two in the Bethlehem area. But he missed Him.

There was the time they tried to throw Him over a cliff outside Nazareth; and the time the Jews took up stones to stone Him after He claimed to be divine. Each time He walked through the midst of them and went on His way. They couldn't kill Him yet: He had a job to do.

Then came what He described to the chief priests, the captains of the temple and the Jewish elders as "your hour, and the power of darkness." He had come to make a way for people's sins to be forgiven. There was a price to be paid. It was a terrible price. Now He had to die.

(In the garden, He had prayed "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." There was no reply. There was no other way.)

He allowed them to take Him. He was condemned, mocked, spat upon, beaten, scourged. He was nailed to His cross.

When Jesus died, they thought they had got rid of Him. But God had it all in hand.

Sunday was coming.

The non-PCs fight back

I am in favour of people's right to believe and people's right not to believe - but people dictating to Christians about what they can and can't do gets to be a bit much.

The Student Union at University College London decided that the campus would take a pro-abortion stance and affiliated itself to the organisation Abortion Rights. It voted that if the Catholic Society at the university organised a meeting with a pro-life speaker it must also have a pro-choice speaker and an independent chairman "to ensure there is a balance."

Some students took legal advice and threatened the Student Union with a legal challenge unless the decision concerning the Catholic Society were overturned. They pointed out that the resolution breached section 43 of the Education (No 2) Act 1986, which defends freedom of speech in universities, and Articles 9 (Freedom of Religion), 10 (Freedom of Speech) and 11 (Freedom of Association) in the European Convention of Human Rights. They also pointed out that proposals to affiliate and donate to the Abortion Rights campaign were against the charity laws that govern student unions.

The Student Union trustees have now accepted that their decision regarding the Catholic Society was unlawful.

Neil Addison, director of the legal centre which advised the students, said "I am delighted with the result, which is due to the courage of pro-life students refusing to be intimidated. I find it worrying that a students' union should be so ignorant of the concept of free speech and demonstrate such a totalitarian and intolerant mindset."

Said Andrea Minichiello Williams, of Christian Concern: "This was an attempt to stop freedom of speech and belief. It is a snapshot of what is happening across the country. Deeply held beliefs are being labelled as offensive and those who hold them are being victimised. Political correctness is being used to control what people can think or say. It is an ideology that must be challenged because it's undermining historic freedoms in a significant way."

I wrote about Christians belonging to a number of different churches - they are a registered Christian trust - who have gathered over the past three years outside Bath Abbey to pray for people, including people who are sick.

Atheist Hayley Stevens complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that the group's claims "could not be substantiated." The Advertising Standards Authority upheld the complaint and ordered the group to stop stating on their website or in literature that God can heal in answer to their prayers.

Christian MPs Gary Streeter, Gavin Shuker and Tim Farron have written to the ASA telling them that unless they have "indisputable scientific evidence" that it is impossible for God to heal in answer to prayer, they intend to bring up the matter in Parliament.

Interesting, eh?