Bishop backs Lords amendment to safeguard children at risk of being deported to Rwanda
The Lords have inflicted more defeats on the government’s Rwanda bill during the second day of its report stage. They approved an amendment restoring the power of domestic courts to consider judicial reviews in cases when asylum seekers who are children may be removed to Rwanda, so that age assessments enabling deportation can be tested. The Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, said: “We want to minimise the risk of any unaccompanied child being sent to Rwanda, which the treaty supposedly rules out but acknowledges might happen because they have been wrongly deemed to be an adult”. She also asked for a review of the Home Office’s age assessment guidance “given that errors have been made in the age verification process and children have been subjected to unsafe adult environments as a result”. The amendment restoring the power of the courts was passed by 265 votes to 181. Guardian report here. Hansard account here
Christian debt charity welcomes budget changes – as far as they go
Gareth McNab, external affairs director of Christians Against Poverty, has welcomed the abolition of the £90 fee for debt relief orders which are a debt solution for people with low disposable incomes and few assets . He said they had campaigned for reform of DROs for a number of years, as they were a barrier preventing thousands of households from breaking free from debt. He also welcomed the temporary extension of the household support fund which provides essentials for families in need. But he said that tinkering with other changes was insufficient and inadequate: “The average deficit of £255 a month is an often insurmountable gap that means households are trapped in debt in order to eat and pay rent”.
£1million for a war memorial to Muslims who died in both world wars
The Chancellor has announced a grant of £1million to provide a war memorial for Muslims who died in both world wars. It follows an appeal for help by Sir Sajid Javid, for a proposal to establish a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Jeremy Hunt made the announcement in his budget speech, saying there was a need to fight extremism and heal divisions: “I start today by remembering the Muslims who died in two world wars in the service of freedom and democracy.. Whatever your faith or colour or class, this country will never forget the sacrifices made for our future.”
Baptists get behind voter registration campaign
It’s Voter Registration Week (4-11 March) and the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Church of Scotland, Methodist Church and United Reformed Church are taking part in a scheme to ensure people are signed up and able to vote when the general election is called. The Voter Registration Champions scheme, run by Citizens UK, trains volunteers from member organisations to help them enrol voters, amid concern that people won’t register in time or fail to have photo ID. Baptist Union general secretary the Rev Lynn Green, says the people most at risk of not voting are young, rent their home or have moved recently, economically disadvantaged, from ethnic minorities and from marginalised communities. She will encourage all Baptist churches to enlist in the project.
Research on role of Christian nationalism in US elections
As the US presidential race gathers pace, the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington DC has published research on the extent of Christian nationalism in the United States, the idea that the US should be an explicitly Christian nation. It interviewed 22,000 people to see what drove their beliefs, how politicians use Christian nationalism in their appeals and how the ideology intersects with political issues. It has found that three in ten Americans are adherents or in sympathy with Christian nationalism and there is a high correlation with support for Trump, the Republican party and evangelical / charismatic Christians. It also found that the movement has remained steady among all groups except Hispanic Protestants, where it has grown by 12 percentage points. The states with the highest support are Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama and Kentucky. But identifying the nationalist vote is not necessarily a predictor of a Trump victory. In Alabama, one of the states that voted for Trump as the presidential nominee in Super Tuesday this week, 47 per cent identified as nationalists, but Trump won 80 per cent of the vote. Research is here
Investigation into Southern Baptist Convention is stopped with no charges brought
A investigation by the US Department of Justice into the way the US Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee handled abuse cases, has been stopped and no charges have been filed. It began soon after a report by consultants “Guidepost Solutions” into the way a series of complaints over 20 years were handled by the Committee. The Religion News Service reports that few details about the investigation have been made public and the Department of Justice has never acknowledged an inquiry was underway.
Call for climate change to be a priority in forthcoming election
The former Environment Secretary John Gummer, now Lord Deben, has said there is a clear gospel imperative for looking after the natural environment and moving away from fossil fuels. Speaking at the Catholic Union Ampleforth Lecture, Lord Deben said that “we are supposed to be stewards of what we have been given” and yet Britain had seen the biggest decline in biodiversity of any country in the world. He converted to Catholicism in 1992, after a lifetime in the Church of England. At the lecture, he praised the contribution of the Catholic Church to the discussion around climate change, describing Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si, as a “remarkable document”. The talk was organised in partnership between the Catholic Union, Ampleforth College, and the Ampleforth Society, and hosted in the school’s performing arts centre. Lord Deben, former chair of the Climate Change Committee, urged the audience to ask prospective MPs to make climate change a priority.
Pope Francis’ health a continuing cause of concern
The Associated Press reports that Pope Francis appeared to be in fragile health at the weekly general audience in Rome. He is said to be suffering from respiratory and mobility problems and was in hospital last week for tests. Yesterday the Pope, who is 87, presided over the general audience outside, but asked an aide to read his remarks and was unable to get back onto his popemobile. AP says that last year, Pope Francis had a bad bout of acute, infectious bronchitis and underwent a CAT scan that ruled out pneumonia.
Baha’is say 30 graves have been desecrated by authorities in Tehran
The Baha’i International Community based in London says more than 30 new graves of Baha’is who have recently died and buried in a Tehran mass grave, have been razed the ground by the Iranian authorities. Grave markers have been removed and bulldozers used to flatten the land to remove any sign that fresh graves were there. A spokesperson said Baha’is have been forcibly buried at the site for more than two years, with families not allowed to be present and Bahai funeral practices unable to be observed. The statement says this is an example of “the Iranian government’s 45-year campaign of systematic persecution of the Baha’is and follows years of harassment at the cemetery”.
Rowan Williams: Genesis heroes are revolutionary compared to the manic, violent narratives of today
The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has reviewed a book about Genesis written by the novelist Marilynne Robinson, which he says is a work of exceptional wisdom and understanding. He says Genesis is “the slow unfolding of moral truth in the chequered lives of highly fallible individuals” with stories that never pretend its heroes are anything other than painfully human. He said: “In a world of manically, violently self-justifying national narratives, from the USA to the Middle East to China, this is every bit as revolutionary as when Genesis was first composed. Telegraph report here
