John Hayward Posted: 4 February 2009
Keywords: Worldviews & Culture,
Why has the BBC sacked Carol Thatcher, apparently for comparing in private someone's hairstyle to that of a gollywog, when it continues to pay the likes of Jonathan Ross a fortune for being consistently disrepectful and offensive each week?
Why has North Somerset Primary Care Trust suspended a nurse for offering to pray for a patient when every NHS hospital employs a chaplain and encourages volunteer workers to do precisely the same?
Do we really need a Good Childhood Inquiry to tell us that children living with separate, single or step parents are 50% more likely to fail at school and three times as likely to have behavioural problems as those living with married parents? Next they'll be telling us that the reason six in ten children leaving care in Denmark go on to university, compared with just six in a hundred here in the UK, is because each child has a dedicated person to look after and help raise them(!)
Is it just me...?
Dear Jubilee Center,
I see that you are listed as a member organization of the Centrist Democrat International. Where did that organization's web site go? I used to be able to access it at this web address www.idc-icd.com. Now it has disappeared. Where did it go? Do they need volunteers to help with web development?
Best Wishes,
Philip
Philip Truscott 5 February 2009
Are there two John Haywards? This is a change from the usual erudite style!
The Good Childhood Inquiry got a LOT of publicity though, and although (some) Christians might not need to hear it, it will have reached a lot of people who are ideologically-committed to the idea that no one family model is better than any other. The report might have made some of them think twice.
Stuart 5 February 2009
No, Stuart, there's just the one of me ... It's been an even busier than usual week and I wanted to create the space for discussion, so thought a few questions might make a change. Fear not, usual service will be resumed next time!
Philip, I'm not sure where you see the Jubilee Centre listed as a member of the CDI. However, we are loosely associated with the European Christian Political Movement, an association that reflects and works on Christian-democrat politics in Europe from an explicit Christian-social view and places relational thinking at the heart of its vision for Christian-democracy. That said, a quick search on google for the CDI reveals their website to be www.cdi-idc.com - Hope that helps.
John Hayward 5 February 2009
What about the foster mother, who has cared for more than 80 children over ten years, who has been struck off by a council after a 16-year-old Muslim girl in her care became a Christian?! Doesn't the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and even the European Convention on Human Rights, not to mention the UK's Human Rights Act, guarantee the 'right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion'?
Have we not been warned? 'Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of.'
2 Timothy 3 10 February 2009