Key Quotes for 2011

A world perspective in bite-size chunks
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Last update: Wednesday 25th March
 
Parents should retain the right to take their children out of sex education classes if they wish to, the Schools Minister said in Parliament in early June. Nick Gibb was speaking to a House of Lords Select Committee about the Government’s internal review of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE), which includes elements of sex education.
EducationEvangelicals Now July 2011
 
Pastors from unregistered churches (‘house churches’) in China in May lodged an unprecedented petition with the Chinese parliament calling for religious freedom and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict involving one of Beijing’s largest house churches. The bold move – the first of its kind in 60 years of repressive Communist rule in China – follows the detention and house arrest of hundreds of members of Shouwang Church, which has attempted to stage outdoor worship services over five consecutive Sundays. The move is backed by Chinese church pastors in the United States and Canada who have launched a worldwide ‘Help Shouwang’ signature campaign; they hope that drawing international attention to the persecution of the church will stay the Chinese government’s hand in meting out even harsher punishments against it. All of the church’s leadership have been under informal arrest since April 9. At least 169 Christians were rounded up by up to 1,000 police officers during the first meeting; 47 were detained the following week, and on Easter Sunday at least 34 were arrested while a further 500 were confined to their homes. More have been detained each Sunday since and, on June 5, at least 20 were arrested 16 of whom were released by midnight with the other four released the next day (these figures have been updated from Religion Today)
Religious PersecutionEvangelicals Now July 2011
 
Men are twice as likely to be distracted while driving a car as women, according to research from Santander. The survey found that one in ten men who has had a driving accident, compared with just one in twenty women, admitted to crashing a car because they were distracted. The study of 1,000 motorists revealed that one in twenty women reported near misses as a result of distractions while driving, which included adjusting the car stereo, eating or drinking.
Odd FactsThe War Cry 25 June 2011
 
The BBC has also announced that Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch is to present a series about how Christianity has helped to shape English identity. The Church history expert says of the project: ‘Now that Great Britain is so radically questioning its future, it’s all the more important to find out who the English really are. And what we’ve discovered as we’ve gone looking will surprise many: Christianity created Englishness and there was an English church before there was England. The three-part series is due to be shown on BBC Two later this year.
MediaThe War Cry 25 June 2011
 
English Heritage is to give an annual award to people who rescue or repair a listed place of worship. The award will be one of four honouring people who save buildings or sites on the country’s Heritage at Risk Register. The first Angel Awards will be presented at a reception at the Palace Theatre in London in the autumn. A panel which includes Andrew Lloyd Webber and Melvyn Bragg will judge the short listed entries.
EnvironmentThe War Cry 25 June 2011
 
Hundreds of people gathered at Edinburgh Castle to be among the first to write verses in a digital Bible. The Scottish Bible Society and Bible Society of England and Wales are taking digital tablets to places in the UK and inviting people to use a digital pen to write at least two verses, which will be uploaded to the internet. The project commemorates the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. At the end of the project a paper copy of the Bible will also be created. For more information visit thepeoplesbible.org
Religion/SpiritualityThe War Cry 2 July 2011
 
Christians are dying for their faith at the rate of one every five minutes, Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne told and EU Conference in Hungary…The January 2011 issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research reported the number of Christian martyrs per year peaked at around 160,000 in the year 2000.
Religion/SpiritualitySalvationist 2 July 2011
 
Mark Burnett, the British Hollywood producer of The Apprentice and Survivor, has announced his latest project: the Bible. The series of five two-hour shows, promising state of the art CGI, will be screened in 2013.
MediaThird Way July/August 2011
 
According to the recent BBC documentary Secrets of the Superbrands, Apple products are capable of creating the same reactions in the brain as religious images – but only if you’re a big enough fan of Apple products. As part of the programme, UK neuro-scientists conducted an MRI scan on Apple fan Alex Brooks, the editor of World of Apple. When showing him pictures of Apple products, they found that the parts of his brain that were triggered were the same as those in religious people viewing religious images. Non-Apple products did not create the same reaction.
HealthThird Way July/August 2011
 
“God is in my life. I don’t hide from that. The search has been on since the 1960s. I stepped off the path there for many years and found my way back onto it, thank God.”
The former Beatle Ringo Starr.
What famous people sayThird Way July/August 2011
 
A survey undertaken on behalf of the National Year of Reading in 2008 found that nearly half of all men have lied about what they read to try to impress friends or potential partners. A poll of 1500 people found men most likely to lie when it makes them appear intellectual or romantic. Women (one third of whom lied about their reading habits) thought men should have read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography or Shakespeare. Men would be impressed by women not only reading Shakespeare but also news websites and song lyrics.
Social IssuesReform July/August 2011
 
Hundreds of state schools are ignoring the legal obligation to teach religious education, reported the Daily Mail. According to the paper, the law states that RE should comprise at least 5 percent of a schoolchild’s curriculum, and 14 to 16-year-olds must take half a GCSE course in the subject. But research has shown that one in four schools does not teach RE at GCSE level.
EducationThe War Cry 9 July 2011
 
Popstar Robbie Williams has revealed that he regrets denying Jesus died for our sins in some of his lyrics, and said that God “might have found me”. Williams finishes the song ‘Bodies’ with the statement ‘Jesus didn’t die for you’ repeated several times. Released in 2009, the song discusses faith and God but denies the Christian faith. However, in a blog he penned in June, he said that the song was “gibberish”. “I haven’t found God or anything like that but she might have found me.”
MediaChristianity August 2011
 
A Christian who reached the final of Britain’s Got Talent with piano playing that amazed the judges, has spoken out about experiencing bullying for being a Christian.
Paul Gbegbaje wants to be a good witness in the music world where there are many difficulties and temptations. “I see it as being a light in a dark place”, he said. “There are people trying to [encourage you to drink]. If you don’t do that, they will want to know why you don’t,” he said. “I don’t have to preach and shove a Bible in someone’s face, they just have to see me living that [way] and that God lives through me. It’s about being an ambassador.”
MediaChristianity August 2011
 
The government has welcomed a report that seeks to restrict sexualised media content that children have access to, but will wait to see if the industry responds before legislating. The report recommends that music videos have age restrictions on them, and that the front pages of men’s magazines are covered. It proposes that retailers sign a code of practice on the design and marketing of clothes for children. It also proposes restricting the sexualised content of outdoor advertising, listening to parents’ views about the watershed, and banning the employment of children under 16 as ‘brand ambassadors’.
MediaChristianity August 2011
 
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