Key Quotes for 2014

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




Protestant church leaders in Bolivia are trying to revoke a new law that they say aims to ‘impose contrary beliefs’ and ‘denies us the right to be a church’. Asserting that Law 351 is unconstitutional, the National Assembly of Evangelicals of Bolivia (ANDEB) filed suit at the end of August before the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, demanding that it be revoked. Christian leaders argue that its re-registration requirements restrict the ‘rights and religious freedoms of churches’. The law stipulates a standardised administrative structure for all ‘religious organisations’ that church groups must adopt….Churches failing to complete the re-registration within a two-year period would lose their legal right to exist. The ANDEB suit charges that Law 351 aims to ‘control’ churches and ‘impose contrary beliefs’ upon the Christian faith and ‘denies us the right to be a church’.
Church	Evangelicals Now, October 2013



The Bible could be jettisoned by the BBC’s popular radio show, Desert Island Discs, according to an internal source, it was reported in early September. According to a report in The Independent, a BBC source said that there have been discussions about whether to end the presumption about the Bible being taken to the ‘island’ after more than 70 years on the show. The BBC have denied any plans.
Media	Evangelicals Now, October 2013



Calls for multi-partner marriage have begun since the Bill to allow same-sex couples to marry passed into law, with one BBC programme in August interviewing people in complex multi-person relationships. ‘Introducing polygamy in the wake of same-sex marriage might not be such a bad idea’, said Laurie Penny, who has criticised the ‘tyranny of the heterosexual couple form’.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now, October 2013



The Scottish Secular Society has launched a new campaign to force schools to create an ‘opt-in’ system for religious observance, it was reported in late August. Currently all pupils in schools across Scotland are automatically involved in religious worship and parents are given the option to withdraw their children if they wish. But the Scottish Secular Society has launched a petition demanding an opt-in, rather than an opt-out, system that will effectively require parents to give consent before their children are permitted to participate.
Education	Evangelicals Now, October 2013



Church leaders have called for a conscience clause in the same-sex marriage legislation in Scotland to protect individuals who believe marriage is between a man and a woman. The Free Church of Scotland wants the Scottish Government to include a clause within the Bill that is similar to abortion legislation which protects medical staff who oppose the procedure. A spokesman said: ‘The legislation has worked well for abortion, another deeply contentious moral issue, and it would make sense to have similar provision for same-sex marriage’.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now, October 2013



The Church of Scotland has insisted ‘there is still a place for strong Christian values’ in Scotland, despite new figures showing the number of Christians in the country has dropped by more than 400,000 since the millennium. However, the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Lorna Hood, admitted the figures made for ‘stark reading’. Statistics from the 2011 Census, released in late September, showed the number of people describing themselves as Christian was 2.85 million (53.8% of the population), a drop from 3.3million (65.2%) in 2001. The number affiliated to the Church of Scotland dropped from 2.1million to 1.7 million, or from 42.4% of the population to 32.4%. Meanwhile, the figure for people describing themselves as ‘no religion’ increased from 1.4 million (27.8%) to 1.9 million (36.7%).
Religion/Spirituality	Life and Work, November 2013



The World Council of Churches (WCC) has invited its member churches to join a global call to action against corruption – which impacts poor people the most. Studies have shown that every year over a trillion US dollars go missing from the global economy through bribes, dishonest deals and tax evasion.
Money	Life and Work, October 2013



Senior Liberal Democrat MP Sir Alan Beith has denied that Christians in the UK are being persecuted by equality laws, calling the tendency of some Christians to hide their faith because of such laws ‘silly’. The former deputy party leader said Christians were not being persecuted, but that poor interpretations of equality rules led some officials to assume that any public expression of Christianity might be offensive to atheists or people of other religions.
Religious Persecution	Christianity, November 2013



High-profile atheist Richard Dawkins has described himself as a ‘cultural Anglican’ in an interview with The Spectator magazine. The evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion was speaking at the lunch of his new memoir, An Appetite for Wonder, which traces his early life and scientific career. ‘I suppose I’m a cultural Anglican and I see evensong in a country church through much the same eyes as I see a village cricket match on the village green,’ he said, admitting that he had ‘a certain love for it’. Dawkins also said he thought people should be educated in the Bible in order to understand history, and that not all religious people should be put in the same category as suicide bombers.
What famous people say	Christianity, November 2013



A judge in North Dakota dismissed a lawsuit in mid-September which has resulted in the protection of unborn children. Earlier in 2013, Governor Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota signed legislation that banned abortions because of gender selection and genetic defects, such as Down’s syndrome. The state’s lone abortion provider, Red River Women’s Clinic (RRWC), immediately filed suit to stop these measures, as well as another provision that banned abortion as soon as a heartbeat could be detected. However, US District Judge Daniel Hovland dismissed part of the suit at the request of RRWC, which claimed it never performed abortions for genetic or gender reasons. The dismissal means that those two provisions will go into effect in the state.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now, November 2013



Euthanasia deaths reported on in September in the Netherlands jumped 13% last year to constitute about 3% of all deaths in the European country. It marked the sixth consecutive year for an increase in the Netherlands, which legalised euthanasia in 2002. Newborns with disabilities and people with chronic depression, mental pain and even macular degeneration have been euthanised.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now, November 2013



A woman in Belgium ended her life by euthanasia in early October after a sex-change operation did not meet expectations. She was euthanised on the grounds of ‘unbearable psychological suffering’. Research has shown that a high number of people who undergo sex-change surgery go on to commit suicide with some suggesting the rate is as high as 31%. She told a newspaper: ‘I was the girl that nobody wanted’, when growing up, and was simply ‘tolerated’ by her family.
Health	Evangelicals Now, November 2013



Magistrates will, in October, debate scrapping the religious oath for witnesses and defendants in court, but critics have raised fears that the move could further erode the Christian heritage of Britain. Instead, all those giving evidence in court would make a secular pledge, which it is thought would make it fairer and more relevant for people and help them understand the importance of what they are saying.
The Law	Evangelicals Now, November 2013



Those Scouts who don’t believe in God will be able to opt out of mentioning God in their pledge, it was announced in October. The traditional wording in which Scouts promise ‘to do my duty to God and to the Queen’ will remain the ‘core’ promise for the Scout organisation founded on Christian principles over a century ago. This differs from the Girl Guides, who scrapped all mention of God from their pledge earlier this year.
Young People	Evangelicals Now, November 2013



Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, has found that a third of primary school children had an ‘inadequate’ understanding of Christianity, it was reported in October. Inspectors, who visited 185 secondary schools and more that 30 primary schools, said teachers were fearful of ‘saying the wrong thing’ and that few children were being taught to get to grips with religion.
Education	Evangelicals Now, November 2013.

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