English bishops defeated

The General Synod of the Church of England has refused to endorse its bishops’ controversial policy on civil partnerships. When the British Parliament passed laws in 2005 permitting civil partnerships, the House of Bishops issued pastoral guidance to cope with the new arrangements. It said that gay clergy could enter into civil partnerships, but only if they first assured their bishops that they would abstain from sex. The policy was considered absurd by virtually all parties in the homosexuality debate. On March 1 conservatives and liberals united to reject the guidelines. The bishops themselves had been deeply divided on the issue but had attempted to create a compromise. They will now review their policy.

Attacks in India

On Feb. 28 approximately 500 Hindu militants attacked a Gospel for Asia (GFA) Bible school in Brajarajnagar, Orissa State. According to a March 6 report from Compass Direct, the mob of Bajrang Dal group members armed with sticks, axes and swords forcibly entered the campus of the Believers’ Church Bible College and started to beat the 240 students and staff members present. The women’s dorm director and five of the students were seriously injured.  One student is reported to be in critical condition. The attackers also ransacked the campus, destroying the roofs of many school buildings and disconnecting the electricity. They demanded that the school be closed and that GFA cease all their work in the state. At last report, no one had been arrested for the attack.

Later on March 3 two Christian youths were beaten by members of the Bajrang Dal (BJD), a Hindu militant group, for distributing Christian literature. According to a March 6 report from Compass Direct, Bobby D’Souza, 24, and Sandip Mohite, 21, were handing out tracts at the Kandivli railway station in Mumbai, Maharashtra State when almost sixty militants snatched the leaflets from their hands and started to hit and kick them. They dragged the youths to the local police station and filed a complaint against them on allegations of forcible conversion and denigration of other religions.  Both of the youths were hospitalized because of the injuries they sustained. Voice of the Martyrs

UK: Religious schools & morals

After this April’s implementation of the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SOR’s), British religious schools may no longer teach school children that the Christian viewpoint on sexual morality is “objectively true,” a government report says. The Joint Committee on Human Rights, made up of members from Parliament and the House of Lords, has issued a report on the implementation of the Regulations recommending that religious schools be required to modify their religious instruction to comply with the government-approved doctrine of “non-discrimination.”

The report says the Regulations will not “prevent pupils from being taught as part of their religious education the fact that certain religions view homosexuality as sinful,” but they may not teach “a particular religion’s doctrinal beliefs as if they were objectively true.” Published Feb. 26, the report says, “We do not consider that the right to freedom of conscience and religion requires the school curriculum to be exempted from the scope of the sexual orientation regulations.”

With the Equality Act 2006, the government empowered itself to create regulations making it illegal for anyone providing goods, services, facilities, premises, education or public functions to discriminate against that person on the grounds of “sexual orientation.” The SOR’s are scheduled to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April after a ratifying vote in Parliament. They came into effect in Northern Ireland Jan. 1. For full story see www.LifeSiteNews.com.