Displaying items by tag: Media

‘The Iranian media, schools, everything you see and hear is Islamic’, said Ramin Parsa. ‘They brainwash you. We had no magazines or books. We saw caricatures of Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian babies. They sowed hatred in our hearts.’ Ramin went to the mosque every morning to pray. Every morning at school, they shouted, ‘Death to Israel! Death to America!’ Although it is illegal, every house has a satellite dish - an alternative to non-stop religious propaganda on government channels. On the Trinity channel he heard about Jesus. Ramin didn’t immediately believe. ‘If you give Jesus your heart, he will change your life. He loves you,’ the man was saying. ‘He died for you and rose again from the dead.’ Then Ramin relented. Asking to be forgiven, he started weeping. He felt God move in his body, providing heat and warmth. He rushed to see his mother, ‘Why is your face so shiny?’ she asked, bewildered.

A BBC programme aimed at nine- to twelve-year-olds claims that there are 'over 100 gender identities'. The film, ‘Understanding Sexual and Gender Identities', is offered on its website as part of its relationships and sex education package for home schooling. It tells children that becoming transgender is a way to be 'happy', while making no mention of the growing legal and medical concerns about the rising number of children saying they want to change gender. When a pupil asks, 'How many gender identities are there?' the teacher replies, 'There are many gender identities. We know we have male and female, but there are over 100 if not more gender identities now. Some people might feel they are two different genders, some might think they are bi-gender. There are some who might call themselves “gender-queer” - like, I don't want to be anything in particular, I just want to be me.'

Justin Bieber has teamed up with the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS choir to record a Christmas single, a remix of the star's single Holy, which reached number seven in October. The charity collaboration comes five years after the two acts were locked in a battle for the Christmas number one. Bieber said, ‘I was honoured to meet everyone from the choir and I'm really happy that they got their number one.’ Their new charity single is aiming for Christmas number one, with proceeds to be split between NHS Charities Together, which represents more than 230 NHS charities, and the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Charity. An immunisation clinical coordinator said, ‘The message that holding someone is such a special thing that it's almost a holy experience is so resonant with current difficulties and personal challenges.’

Ofcom reported, ‘the BBC is too white, middle class, and London-centric’ and the new BBC director-general believes ‘comedy output has left-wing partiality and needs a radical overhaul as TV and radio comedy are unfairly biased against Tories, Donald Trump and Brexit. He wants to restore ‘trust and confidence’ by reflecting all sides of the political divide. Tory MP Ben Bradley said that BBC comedy is Left-wing Tories and Brexit rants. ‘If they truly represent all licence-fee payers, that needs to change.’ Meanwhile, a new news channel is to be launched that will be ‘distinctly different from the out-of-touch incumbents’ and has already been awarded a licence to broadcast by Ofcom, under the name GB News. Its founder has said the BBC is a ‘disgrace’ that ‘is bad for Britain on so many levels’ and ‘needs to be broken up’. A rival project is also being devised by Rupert Murdoch’s British media empire. See

On 3rd September, a group of Christians uploaded a video on YouTube, entitled The Greater Middle East Blessing. In the video, Christians from 11 nations in the greater Middle East, sing The Lord’s Prayer and The Blessing in 8 different languages. The opening sequence of the video states that they came together across political, ethnic and language divides to pray for, and bless, their region. It communicates hope to the hearts of those who watch it and hope for the Middle East because Christ is there through His Church. May it also encourage people to pray for, and stand with, our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, as they continue to be salt and light in the region. see

The nations have been devastated to see the destruction in Beirut, but also inspired by the response of the help and support from church, communities, charities and media broadcasts from SAT-7. Presenter Marianne Awaraji Daou said, ‘Thank you for your prayers and support. We feel the unity of the body of Christ during these hard times, and this lifts us and blesses our hearts.’ One survivor speaking on a SAT-7 programme said, ‘The Lord is merciful and compassionate. Jesus protected me, my family, and the people I love. I thank Him every moment. I want to say that evil is increasing, but I believe that the Lord will use everyone who went through this disaster to be His witness. I believe that God works through our prayers and through those who help. My hope is in You, Lord.’

The concert version of the 2016 production made a virtue of distancing on stage. ‘Could we start again please?’ asks Mary Magdalene in the lustrous 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Theatres have waited months for the same question to be answered since they closed in March amid the coronavirus outbreak. So it’s tempting to sing out your own ‘hosanna’ when a company of performers assemble on stage, two metres apart, and triumphantly rip off their masks at the top of this rainswept open-air revival to be performed until 27 September. Seating capacity was reduced by 2/3rds for a 90-minute concert-style version of the musical, leaving audiences to luxuriate in extra space, while requiring the strictly socially distanced actors to still convey intimacy on stage.

Since January there have been constant murders, looting, rape and abductions of Christians in Southern Kaduna. On 9 August a series of short videos entitled ‘Stop the Killings in Southern Kaduna’ was released as part of a campaign calling for an end to targeting Christian communities. The videos feature high-profile celebrities, actors, comedians, music artists and business executives. The president of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union said, ‘There is no greater lie than the narrative that the killings in southern Kaduna are between farmers and herders. 75% of the victims were women and children’. CSW has called for effective action to address the situation and echoes the Nigerian entertainment industry which has spoken out about the relentless loss of life. CSW says, ‘We continue to call for urgent international interventions, including the convening of a special session of the UN human rights council, with particular focus on the current crisis in southern Kaduna and Plateau State.’

A pro-life filmmaker is claiming censorship after his documentary was removed from Amazon Prime video ‘because of poor customer reviews’ despite the film receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. Marcus Pittman’s movie, ‘Babies are Still Murdered Here,’ goes into the deep underpinnings of major national lobbyist groups. It asks why after 46 years babies are still being murdered. Amazon categorises reviews based on keywords: some keywords were pro-life, end abortion and pro-life movement. This may be why the film was removed. Amazon has faced allegations of censorship before. Last year it pulled books describing how a relationship with Jesus Christ helped people out of same-sex attractions, saying it was in ‘violation of our content guidelines’, but did not point out which parts were objectionable.

California ordered a ban on indoor singing in places of worship, so a worship leader and an outreach ministry leader have proclaimed that ‘the Church has left the building.’ Sean Feucht, who recently led a crowd of nearly 1,000 in worship songs facing the ocean in Huntington Beach, said they were going out on the bridge between church and community: ‘We’re going to meet in parks. We’re not restricted to the four walls. We can still be the church even if we’re not in our buildings.’ A newspaper article supports the claim of ‘revival’ with its headline, In Huntington Beach, a revival with church at the ocean’s edge, photos of baptism, and testimony from attenders. An Instagram video post captured by this reporter shows Feucht leading the crowd at the event: see