The Scottish Government is trying to change their legal definition of marriage to include homosexual partnerships, and have issued an online consultation which was aimed at Scottish residents.

It now transpires that those outside Scotland have been completing the questionnaire. In an open letter published on an Anglican website, Colin Hart, the Director of the Christian Institute, has written: “Yesterday, the pro-gay marriage groups let it slip that they are asking people outside Scotland to respond, suggesting that the Scottish Government will accept non-Scottish responses.”

The Christian Institute website states: “The Nationalist-led Scottish Government has confirmed that its consultation on gay marriage is open to anyone in England and elsewhere outside Scotland.”

TODAY is the last day a response to this consultation can be submitted.

ACTION:

Please respond to this online consulation (click here)

The Scottish Christian Party has produced a one-page summary of the questions and suggested answers which is available here.

Please Pray & Act Now!

The Trust Chairman’s introduction states: “It is a privilege to be funded by the public through the licence fee … this privilege should neither be abused nor taken for granted.” The Director General, Mark Thompson, says, “There is a plan for a BBC with clear priorities and an uncompromising commitment to put quality first.”

There is a lot to be proud of in the BBC, but we have also seen a serious decline in standards in recent years, and there could be worse to come. Our friends in Safermedia currently have a particular concern with BBC Three, a TV channel targeted at a youth audience with content which they (and us) consider inappropriate.

Please take the chance below to protect and improve the future of the BBC. As the BBC Trust says, “Your views help shape the decisions we take about the BBC’s services and the priorities we set the BBC’s management.”

ACTION:

Please respond to this online consulation (click here)

The closing date for the consultation is Wednesday 21st December.

Please Pray & Act Now!

Although PSHE Education includes a wide variety of topics the main area of concern is sex and relationships education. This is particularly relevant for Primary Schools where many of the topics are taught in an ‘age-appropriate’ way.

The following points are key. Please endeavour to include these in your responses:

• Education should include moral as well as intellectual training and development, especially in the case of PSHE education. There is no such thing as ‘value-free’ teaching and this approach should be abandoned, especially with regard to sex and relationships.
• Expecting children to make “informed choice” about sex without giving them any moral framework for doing so is unfair.
• Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) teaching should include the full facts. In particular, the health and other benefits of marriage, abstinence and faithfulness should be clearly presented. The health risks for mother and baby of teenage pregnancy, the dangers of abortion and the failure of condoms to protect adequately against a number of sexually transmitted diseases should also be clearly defined.
• Medical evidence showing the benefits of marriage and the harm which results from many so-called alternative sexual practices should not continue to be ignored in SRE teaching. Abstinence and faithfulness should be presented as commendable choices.
• The welfare of children should be paramount. Parents’ views should therefore count for most, not those of lobby groups or self-styled experts. There should be greater parental choice and input with regards to the teaching of PHSE.
• Parents are the best judges of whether a child is at a suitable stage in its psychological, biological and emotional development for a particular level of SRE teaching. Parents should therefore continue to have the right to remove their children from SRE classes.
• Experience in the Netherlands is often cited in support of the propositions (a) that better sexual health outcomes and a lowering of teenage pregnancy rates will result solely from a more open and positive approach to SRE and (b) that sexuality education will in and of itself lead to later and more responsible sexual behaviour. Evidence does not in fact support such conclusions from the Dutch experience. The two key factors are (i) strong family units, (ii) a strong sense of purpose and goals for life.
• There should be no teaching of SRE in primary schools. Children experience a latency period between about six and ten years of age during which they are naturally reluctant to become involved in sexual matters. These instincts exist for their protection. They should not be forced to deal with such things before nature intended.
• PSHE education cannot influence children for good in isolation. If Government is serious about addressing teenage pregnancy and the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases it must take measures to remove the excessive sexual content of advertising and the media in general with a review of the messages being broadcast to children and young people.

Do not be concerned if you feel unable to answer all the questions. It is more important to state your specific concerns. Do encourage others to complete this online response also.

We’re forwarding this message to you from our friends in Safer Media.

As some of you will remember, the first series of ‘Joy of Teen Sex’, shown in January / February this year, caused a great deal of controversy and alarm and was widely thought to be harmful to young people by both the public and by healthcare professionals (see more details at the end of this message). Sadly Ofcom did not uphold the “considerable number” of complaints, and Safer Media are still following this up.

We would be very grateful if you were able to watch at least one episode of ‘Joy of Teen Sex’ which is on for 6 weeks. You don’t have to watch the whole thing to comment, and it is now easier to contact the regulators than ever before: Go to the new website – www.parentport.org.uk - a one-stop shop where parents and anyone concerned about children, can lodge a formal complaint with Ofcom and ALSO post general comments by clicking on ‘Have your say’. This is important because statistics will be drawn from this feedback, and other people will be able to read your comments.

Thank you.

Some comments on the ‘Joy of Teen Sex’ series earlier this year:

23 healthcare professionals told Ofcom: ” …sexual and reproductive healthcare and education has been grossly misrepresented, leading to parents feeling anxious, young people’s right to accurate information not being delivered, and professional advice being ignored at all stages of programme development.”

Safermedia wrote to Ofcom: “The teenagers are encouraged to ‘improve their sex lives’ with exceptionally detailed advice on oral and anal sex, genital plastic surgery and genital piercing… S&M, sex toys, ‘sex-enhancing’ drugs and working in the sex industry. Young people do not benefit from this sort of information, quite the opposite in fact. By neglecting to discourage risky promiscuous sex, C4 is tacitly encouraging it, because the power of television imagery normalises the behaviour shown … It disinhibits, seriously undermines a healthy sense of modesty and virtue and can drive a wedge between generations by undermining parents’ guidance.”

Please Pray & Act Now!

Sex education campaigners, and some backbench Peers, want to make sex education compulsory in primary schools by forcing a vote at the Report Stage of the Education Bill on Monday 24 October.

At present primary schools are not forced to teach sex education. Yet if it becomes part of the national curriculum then highly explicit resources are likely to be widely used for children as young as five.

Please write to a Peer and ask them to (in your own words):

• Oppose any amendments which force sex education onto primary schools.
• Protect children from graphic material in the classroom.
• Protect the right of head teachers and governors to decide what is best for children at their schools.

You can pick a Peer to write to here

The coalition, which does not support this measure, does not have an overall majority in the Lords and could lose the vote, so please help lobby on this issue if you can.

A guide with further details and examples of the graphic teaching materials used has been produced by the Christian Institute and can be found here.

Please Pray & Act Now!

1. Frontpage Campaign re Pornographic Magazines

This urges the Government to introduce measures to ensure that these magazines are not displayed at or below children’s eye-level, near children’s publications or without opaque sleeving; to establish an independent UK regulator to replace out-of-date and ineffective legislation; and to introduce regulations so that magazines are assigned age ratings like films and DVDs:

http://www.thefrontpagecampaign.org.uk/Petition.aspx

2. CUT (Christians Unplug your Televisions)

“TV programmes directed at children should carry a government health warning”:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/12644

Please pray and act now, and leave comments (moderated) here:

Click here to download this edition of Trumpet Call, which highlights:

• SHARI’A IN THE UK – Truth hidden ?
• DRUGS – Legislation proposed
• EUTHANASIA – BBC propaganda
• SECULARISM – BBC bias
• OUR CHILDREN – Britain’s crisis
• PEOPLE AT RISK – Do we care?
• MORALITY & SCHOOLS – Vigilance?
• ABORTION – Ongoing concerns
• IRAQ – Wiping out the church
• RIOTS ON THE STREETS – The roots
• WASTED MILLIONS – The fiasco continues

This Trumpet Call lays out the facts and gives suggested actions for you to take. Please pray and act now, and leave comments (moderated) here.

A STRUGGLE IS NOW TAKING PLACE FOR THE SOUL OF OUR NATION AT THIS TIME OF CRISIS

This call is made in the name of many thousands of members of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Salvation Army, United Reformed, New and Independent Churches right across the UK

WE STRONGLY BELIEVE THE UNITED PRAYER OF GOD’S PEOPLE WILL HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND POWERFUL INFLUENCE UPON THE STATE OF OUR NATION TODAY.

It is urgent that, as Christians, we take our positions as members of the Body of Christ and PRAY earnestly for the United Kingdom.

The current riots across the land hold up a mirror to the moral and spiritual sickness of our nation. The issues facing us today are not primarily political or social but spiritual. This is yet another manifestation of the consequences of our nation turning its back on God and His ways. It follows the exposure of corruption in the banking system, the Parliamentary expenses scandal, the phone hacking inquiry and corruption in the police.

We believe that God, in His mercy, is shining the light of His Truth on to the ugly wound of our nation which is in need of cleansing and healing. The riots are the fruit of our betrayal of our younger generations whom we have robbed of hope and purpose.

The police, politicians and others in positions of worldly authority are desperately searching for ways to bring the rioters under control. In this situation it is the mandate of the people of God to exercise spiritual authority through united prayer.

WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO JOIN WITH CHRISTIANS FROM OTHER CHURCHES IN YOUR AREA TO PRAY FOR THE NATION:

• For those in positions of authority – MP’s, Local councils, Police, Community leaders – to be given wisdom and Godly advice.
• For church leaders to speak with one voice, identifying clearly the spiritual nature of what is happening.
• For confusion of spiritual communication between demonic forces and a collapse of mob formation.
• For protection of people, their lives and their property in areas of rioting, and protection of police and those enforcing law and order.
• For cleansing and healing of the underlying causes of our national sickness.

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING THOSE WHO ARE PRAYING ON THE STREETS OF OUR CITIES DURING THE DAYTIME AND GATHERING IN CHURCH BUILDINGS AND HOMES TO PRAY AT NIGHT

WE HAVE A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY TO BRING HOPE TO OUR NATION

Having produced five programmes presenting Euthanasia in a good light, the BBC made the remarkable decision to allow a pro-euthanasia campaigner to produce one of their programmes which has screened an assisted suicide event.

It is well known that when suicide is presented there is an immediate danger of replication on the part of vulnerable people, but the BBC chose to ignore this. They even ignored their own guidelines, which clearly state “factual reporting and fictional portrayal of suicide, attempted suicide and self-harm have the potential to make such actions appear possible, and even appropriate to the vulnerable”. The BBC, which is increasingly seen as a propaganda medium for secular humanism, clearly did not heed the guidance given by the World Health Organisation which stated “Don’t publish photographs or suicide notes. Don’t report specific details of the method used. Don’t give simplistic reasons. Don’t glorify or sensationalise suicide”. The BBC clearly ignored the fact that this kind of programme is a direct threat to sick and needy people who might already feel pressurised to bring their lives to an end either because they feel a burden upon other people or for some other reason.

The BBC programme was an act of gross irresponsibility and it is important that we make our views known to them and to our local MPs.

Action

• Challenge the BBC to have a programme or series which focuses on the substantial benefits of palliative care.
• Challenge the BBC to keep to the WHO guidelines and its own guidelines about the portrayal of suicide.
• Challenge the BBC about the bias and lack of balance inherent in having a programme produced by a campaigner from a particular viewpoint.
  Write to Chief Executive, Mr. Mark Thompson, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA.
• Write to your MP c/o the House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA, or via www.writetothem.com

Please Pray and Act Now!

Increasingly the BBC is giving prominence to secular humanists in their programmes. Earlier this year they even gave a platform to an official of the National Secular Society in a discussion on the persecution of Christians overseas. When the Maranatha Community requested the BBC to divulge the number of occasions when they had quoted, interviewed or featured in any way the National Secular Society in its news and current affairs programmes during the two year period ending 31 December 2010, they refused to do so. This followed a formal submission under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. THEY GAVE NO REASON FOR THEIR DECISION TO HIDE THE TRUTH FROM LICENCE PAYERS. This is not good enough and again points to a lack of neutrality on the part of the BBC.

Action

Write to the Chief Executive, Mr. Mark Thompson, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA.  Point out that this secrecy is damaging the BBC which already has a reputation for being strongly biased against the Christian Church and faith.

Please Pray & Act Now!