Displaying items by tag: laws

Criminal charges against eight leaders of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) were confirmed on 7 October. They are charged with criminal trespass and illegal possession of church properties. The SCOC is a Nuban denomination experiencing religious and ethnic discrimination. However, a new minister of guidance and religious endowments could change the spiritual atmosphere. He stated recently, ‘Sudan is pluralistic in its thought, culture, ideologies, Islamic religious sects, and even religions.’ He also called for the return of Sudan’s Jewish community. He told the UN that ‘all public order laws are suspended and will be repealed’. These were used against women, especially those from marginalised communities. Sadly, reports emerged on 10 October that public-order police were patrolling Khartoum and harassing individuals. Pray for Sudan’s new multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious nature to be welcomed by police, and for the new policy changes to be applied by all law courts.

Street evangelist Allen Coote was arrested outside St Paul's Cathedral for reading the Bible aloud. No members of the public complained: it was cathedral staff who reported him. Allen believes the cathedral’s subsequent concession to allow him just 30 minutes’ speaking time per week was unreasonable and said, ‘The Bible tells us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone. Now, there are many people on the concourse of St Paul's who come from all the nations of the world, and I was just basically reading what they should hear. Some of them were really pleased to stop and just listen to me.’ The cathedral has a policy to limit any ‘source of disturbance’ outside its doors, in order to offer visitors a ‘welcoming space’. Alan is now supporting a campaign by the Barnabas Fund which is calling on Parliament to pass a new law which specifically protects the right to proclaim the Bible in public.

Recently we prayed for our children to develop discernment to navigate a disturbing social media landscape. On 22 April health secretary Jeremy Hunt threatened social media firms with new laws if they didn't do more to protect children online. He gave them until 30 April to outline action on cutting underage use, preventing cyber-bullying, and promoting healthy screen time. He said, ‘I am concerned that your companies seem content with a situation where thousands of users breach your own terms and conditions on the minimum user age. I fear that you are collectively turning a blind eye to a whole generation of children exposed prematurely to the harmful emotional side-effects of social media. This is morally wrong and deeply unfair to parents faced with the invidious choice of allowing children to use platforms they are too young to access or excluding them from social interaction that the majority of their peers are often engaging in.’

700 churches in Rwanda have been closed in a mass government clampdown. The board which monitors public and private organisations said, 'Some churches conduct worship services in shoddy, unclean structures, to the detriment of health and safety. Noise pollution has been reported, and some operate without the required operation permits.’ Pentecostal churches run by charismatic preachers claiming to hear directly from God or saying they can perform miracles have spread rapidly, and many operate out of tiny structures without planning permission. In order to start a church in Rwanda a pastor needs a government certificate that expires after one year. A new law will make it more difficult for a person to call themselves a preacher and start a new church without any theological training. Some preachers 'deceive their congregation with misleading sermons'. However the authorities are accused of trying to control preachers’ messages, in a country often accused of stifling free speech.

Many believe religious freedom is being eroded in the UK, and want the Government to protect it in law. Affinity, a fellowship of evangelical churches, has joined forces with Barnabas Fund to call for a new law to protect freedoms that have taken centuries to establish in the UK. Religious freedom is being replaced with secular freedom. People are invited to sign a petition at OurReligiousFreedom.org; it asks the Government to clarify religious rights in law so that potential persecution is prevented in the future. Currently believers have many legal rights that are being tested in the courts. Clarifying the current law would end spurious cases to prosecute Christians for things like preaching in public and end the need for social workers, teachers and healthcare workers to take their employers to court after being sacked for rejecting a politically correct version of the Bible, for example sexual ethics.

See also and the previous article.

Muslims have been praying outside in the streets of Clichy since the closure of a place of worship in March. Now a Muslim association is taking legal action against French lawmakers after clashes with worshippers on Paris streets. The lawmakers want to stop street prayers, saying it is an unacceptable use of public space. Carrying a giant banner and singing the national anthem, the protesters tried to push past a police cordon. The president of the region said the state must face its responsibilities and help to find a solution, but not at any cost. France needs decent places of worship for everyone, but at the same time people must live in a respectful manner with each other. The growth of Islam in recent decades has prompted calls for limiting its public visibility.

Rights advocates want to end Egypt’s long-tolerated child marriage tradition. Azza is in her early 20s and has given birth four times. When she was twelve her father decided it was time she got married. It mattered little to him that the groom was over twice Azza’s age and she had never met him. Azza and her sisters didn’t go to school; only their brothers were educated. In Egypt’s poor, rural communities, girls are deprived of education and become child brides at puberty, despite the legal age of marriage in Egypt being 18. But now the prosecution of an imam for marrying dozens of underage girls marks a shift in social attitudes. It also sends a message that the authorities are serious about enforcing the law. Maya Morsi of the National Council for Women (NCW) has urged parliament to raise the legal age of marriage to 21.

Figures about public attitudes to abortion, particularly women’s attitudes, suggest a lot of unease with the current abortion law. Some suggest that this unease is to do with advances in prenatal screening. It is hard to compare a six-month cut-off limit for abortions with ubiquitous images of foetuses at twelve weeks looking embarrassingly, palpably, human. They may not be capable of surviving outside the womb - but they’re human all right. On the most important issue, the period during which abortion is legal, a large majority of women (7 out of 10) are in favour of reducing the time-limit, with nearly six in ten in favour of a limit of 16 weeks or fewer. There is also a large majority wanting parents to be informed when their underage daughter has an abortion, and a very large majority in favour of a ban on sex-selective abortions.