Iran: a different path
13 Apr 2023
Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian women could vote and wear Western clothing. Religious minorities, like Christians, were protected by law. Since 1979, leaders have been doing everything according to Islamic principles, which is driving people to look for something else. Jesus is ‘something else,’ something separate from Islam, and many Iranians are finding him. Many Iranian believers also have Muslim friends and family members who are sick of Islam, are sick of what is happening in their country, and want something else. To help Iranian believers reach loved ones and neighbours for Christ, Voice of the Martyrs USA is sending 300,000 Bibles into Iran this month. When equipped with Scripture, Iranian believers can hand those (frustrated) people a Bible and say, ‘Why don’t you read this? This is a different path.’
Archbishop of Canterbury’s mental health
13 Apr 2023
Justin Welby has spoken candidly about taking antidepressants instead of ‘something much worse.’ In a Holy Week lecture series at Canterbury Cathedral, he spoke of having professional help with his mental health, saying, ‘As the psychiatrist I see tells me, the aim is not to make me so laid back that I'm horizontal, but just to settle things enough that I react like an average sort of human being. I'm sad when things are sad, and happy when they're happy, and so on and so forth.’ He likened human emotions to Winnie the Pooh characters, comparing himself to Eeyore, the often melancholy donkey, as opposed to a ‘bouncy’ Tigger. Some of us are Tiggers, some are Eeyores. Probably, some are other characters in Winnie the Pooh.’ The lecture was based on the emotional rollercoaster within the Easter story, from Jesus' persecution and death to resurrection joy.
Junior doctors strike
13 Apr 2023
‘If we keep going like this, we'll have no doctors left.’ This is the message from junior doctors on the picket line of a four-day industrial strike. Speaking outside Stoke Mandeville Hospital, they said the NHS is facing an exodus of doctors unless conditions are improved: ‘It’s about improving the NHS and improving patients’ safety, improving worker retention and making workers feel valued again.’. Their comments were repeated outside hospitals everywhere by junior doctors claiming wage cuts of over 25% since 2008/9. They want a 35% pay rise. Downing Street said the proposed increase was ‘unreasonable and not affordable for the British taxpayer’. A London junior doctor, who is not striking, said the 25% cuts are based on questionable assumptions. The Nuffield Trust calculates the 8% pay cuts up to 2021-22 based on actual earnings. Also, many junior doctors opt to work part-time, then pick up additional shifts at high locum rates. A junior doctor in London earns in the region of £55,000, and that’s before locum shifts.
Ofsted unfit for purpose
13 Apr 2023
Dr Martin Hanbury has quit as an Ofsted inspector, saying he felt his role could cause more harm than good. Teachers in the National Education Union are also being urged to refuse to do inspections for England's regulator. But Ofsted said most school leaders found them constructive and collaborative. Last month the Department for Education said inspections were hugely important and a legal requirement. Mr Hanbury told the BBC that regulating schools was important, but the current system was ‘scrutinising’ schools without giving them support. He called the one-word grading system ‘totally unfit for purpose. It's a very simplistic way of describing a really complex system. It's like trying to measure a cloud with a ruler. An inadequate school is very rarely inadequate in everything it does and, equally, an outstanding school is never outstanding in everything it does.’
Undercover lobbying investigation
13 Apr 2023
MP Scott Benton was stripped of the party whip after reporters posing as investors secretly filmed him saying he was prepared to leak market sensitive information to their bogus investment fund and ask parliamentary questions on its behalf, in breach of parliamentary rules. Under those rules, MPs are forbidden from advocating a particular matter in the House or raising it with ministers in return for payment. They are also prohibited from serving as paid parliamentary advisers or consultants or guiding firms on ways to influence Parliament. In a meeting, Mr Benton said he could support the fund, which he believed was set up by an Indian businessman looking to make investments in the UK betting and gaming sector, by attempting to water down proposed gambling reforms. This scandal comes as the Government carries out a major review of gambling laws, considering stricter regulations which could affect operators’ profits.
Consider and confess
13 Apr 2023
Through Haggai, the Lord calls His people to ‘consider their ways’. Despite their best efforts, Israel’s ‘agricultural economy’ is failing, because they have neglected the ‘house of the Lord’ (Haggai 1:1-11). In Hosea, ‘the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish’, because of the sins and apostasy of the people, particularly the priests and prophets (who should know better) (Hosea 4:1-11). Then and now, the state of the land and its inhabitants is an indicator of the spiritual condition of (God's) people. Many current issues in rural life (and society in general) are symptoms of the underlying spiritual malaise in the nation and church and its leadership. Diverse wings of the church are capitulating to the spirit of the age by uncritically adopting its consumerism, ‘celebrity culture’, and ’woke’ agenda or even consorting with the ‘gods of the nations’ by mixing New Age / pagan practices with Christian worship.
The shift in tone and mood was unmistakable as US president Joe Biden visited the Republic of Ireland, having spent a short time in Northern Ireland. Baseball cap on, and into a pub. ‘It feels like I'm coming home,’ he said in Dundalk, County Louth. The NI politics tightrope negotiated, it seems it is now time to unwind a little. His sister and son were in tow: it was not diplomacy but a return to family roots and a sense of belonging. 30 million Americans also have Irish ancestry, and Biden hopes for a political dividend the year before a presidential election. Meanwhile his visit to Northern Ireland, although talked about for months, only lasted 17 hours. There is no such thing as a low-key trip for an American president, but this came close. Quick, short, with Rishi Sunak's input minimal, not even appearing at Biden's only public appearance - raising some eyebrows in government.
Bill’s impact on the environment
13 Apr 2023
The House of Lords debated a bill on 11 April, and if wise amendments are not made before it receives royal assent it is regarded as the gravest threat to our wildlife in decades by a number of wildlife and conservation charities. A new bill, officially called the Retained EU Law Bill, threatens to wipe out thousands of crucial laws which protect wildlife by the end of the year. This will lead to even more pollution poisoning rivers, more wild places at risk of being damaged - and potentially destroyed - and more wildlife threatened with extinction. It is an attack on nature, and environmentalists are urging the Government to bin it before it’s too late. The Government wants to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030. If this bill is passed without change, it will undermine any possibility of achieving that goal. A Rocha believes the bill should be abandoned in its current state.