Please Pray Against The Locusts Currently Devastating East Africa.

The other crisis: Locusts imperil millions in Africa.

TODAYEast Africa is facing a "Level 3" food emergency as serious as the coronavirus crisis, as climate change creates ideal conditions for 'Biblical' swarms of locusts. Read on »

The Media: Two Excellent Letters.

How Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston show up media at Downing Street briefing. Yorks Post.

From: J. Anthony Gadie, Patrick Brompton, Bedale.

By YP Letters

Wednesday, 29th April 2020, 4:41 pm

Are questions by Laura Kuennsberg, the BBC's political editor, too abrasive? Email your views to The Yorkshire Post letters section.

WATCHING the interminable 10 Downing Street press conference the other day, and getting frustrated at the inane level of questioning, I was reminded of the 2002 Reith Lectures delivered by Professor Onora O’Neill on the subject of A Question of Trust.

The third lecture was entitled Called to Account and the fifth Licence to Deceive, so you can see why I was so reminded. The Professor regrettably failed to identify any better regulatory processes or systems of checks and interrogation than those currently employed. Perhaps there are no such answers?

They should take lessons from Sir David Frost who calmly, and without rancour, managed to get a confession out of President Nixon when all other attempts had failed. His Sunday morning BBC discussion programme was a weekly delight. Andrew Marr would do well to take lessons from these. The approach of our current batch of journalists is wrong, and their hostile and aggressive questioning just serves to put the interviewees on the defensive and make them evasive.

Laura Kuenssberg, Robert Peston, Hugh Pym and co continue to seek guarantees from Ministers and impose arbitrary targets on them in these ‘never before experienced days’. They are reminiscent of Jeremy Corbyn at his worst.

Sir Keir Starmer made a better start last Wednesday, and Tom Bradby and Adam Boulton are currently the best inquisitors.

From: David Pearson, Harrogate. Perhaps university media courses should be re-configureed to include more of these techn-iques, and academia should seek to find better methods of accountability.

IN the media, there is an obsession with statistics. Picking over minutiae serves no purpose. The scale of the task vastly surpasses anything since World War Two.

We are embroiled in a global human tragedy no country was prepared for.

We have no more right to procurement of essential supplies than any country.You could say the world was complacent.

Our political leaders have mountains to climb to guide us through this and to rebuild the world community. I am sure we will all want to play our part.

There is so much sorrow and sadness for those who have lost their lives. Our hearts go out to their families. I hope they can find peace with the beautiful memories they have of their loved ones.

Wrongful Convictions? - No.

I recently read 'The Secret Barrister' and find it a fascinating tome which reveals many of the inadequacies of the criminal justice system but like so many within the legal system, who perhaps ought to know better, the anonymous author tends to lean largely to the left and his perspectives are sometimes spot on but oft times rather dubious also.

In six years as a JP and a further four as a Chairman of Magistrates, I am wholly convinced that I was never once incorrect in any decision I made as to guilt in any criminal trial:

1) If the evidence was not clear from start to finish, a not guilty verdict would always be delivered. We were not supposed to convict unless all was 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

2) I always had two colleagues with me during the process.

3) It is only in civil cases where 'the balance of probabilities' comes into play - and therein, there will inevitably be many miscarriages of justice because 'all may not be quite as it seems'. 51% to arrive at a decision is significantly different to the 99%+ that magistrates work to.

4) It may be annoying when you hand out that 'not guilty' when you are 90% convinced of guilt - but it is the only fair way to run criminal courts.

5) I must observe that so many of that kind of 'miscarriage of justice' could have been avoided with: better CPS preparation; more thorough police presentation of cases and more honesty from solicitors who were willing to represent the interests of clients ahead of the interests of integrity and justice as well as often being prepared to 'use truth to mislead' The Bench.

Sadly, the public perception is that many innocent people are wrongfully convicted of crimes in the UK. This is rank balderdash perpetuated by: TV documentaries, films, leftist politicos, sensationalist reporters, trashy authors, the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Radio 4 and occasionally - other broadcasters too.

I hope I can reassure readers that 'not guilty' is not at all the same as 'innocent': and 'innocent people convicted are the extremist of rarities.

Note too, how unwilling the CPS is to prosecute, even in 'open and shut cases'.

In the process, the Police do the first filtering; the CPS does the second; consequently, precious few can be wrongly convicted - as a huge majority must, by that point, be guilty. At a guess, I would place this as substantially above 99%.

All of this before 'not guilty verdicts' are added by the courts themselves.

Beyond that, there is an appeals system! Miscarriages of justice where conviction is concerned are as rare as rocking horse poo.

An interesting perspective. I once asked a longtime court reporter whether he had ever seen an innocent person convicted whereupon he replied, "No. but I have seen clearly guilty people in court where the case ought not to have been prosecuted."

Magistrates have too - and this will frequently result in an 'absolute discharge'.

In one case I was chairing, the Bench showed its displeasure of a prosecution by fining a man a whole £1.

'Richard Rohr's simple answers have nothing to do with orthodox Christianity.'

https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Richard-Rohr-s-simple-answers-have-nothing-to-do-with-orthodox-Christianity

The God On Whom We Can Lean.

EU PPE Scheme.

Andrew Neil

@afneil

·  23 Apr

Row rumbles on over why UK did not participate in EU PPE procurement schemes. Reasons given by UK are all over the place. But, perhaps more pertinent, no PPE has yet been procured by this Brussels programme.

Birdie.

I Agree. Musick Plays An Important Function In My Life.

The phrase 'music has charms to sooth a savage breast' sounds Shakespearian but in fact comes to us from The Mourning Bride, a poem by William Congreve, 1697: Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

Covid-19 = 21,678 Deaths At The Current Point But Nowhere Near As Bad As ...

Apparently not a baby in any way at all.

... 200,000 abortions annually.That figure is currently standing at almost ten times the Covid-19 total.

Destroyers of Social Order Should Not Be Dumped Back Into Our Communities.

Some offenders have been released far too early from jails, potentially to save money, says a former Met Police Commissioner who has called for a review of automatic release of prisoners half way through sentences.

Lord Stevens, who led the Met Police from 2000 to 2005, said: “There have been instances where people have been released from prison very very early and far too quickly.

“There needs to be an argument about whether this is done because of trying to save money and the problems in prisons of violence rather than actually ensuring that people are serving sentences they should be.”

He backed Victims Commissioner Baroness Newlove’s call earlier this week, in The Daily Telegraph, for courts... Telegraph.

Blogger: my only quibble is the use of 'people' when 'far too many people' is actually the truth.

Embarrassed Silence From The Many Who Agree.

Who Is The Radiance of God's Glory?

Extremism - Oh, Yes.

Extremism? - Oh, yes!

Are the hard right extremists? - In so very many ways, the answer must be  a clear and resounding 'yes' but there is a far more important question to be asked.
Are the mainstream parties who have robbed us of our culture, our rights, our heritage, our entitlement to free speech and freedom of thought actually any better? Just because what they have done to us has been gradual does not mean that we should lend them any future support.
They handed over our nation into the hands of: criminals; the ironically named do-gooders; foreign powers; bureaucrats and the imperialism of Brussels for 46 years. They have allowed the Chinese to complete the dismantling of our manufacturing base.
They have taxed us to a wicked extent to fund their fads and have undermined Christianity at every point.
They have brought us the wretched 'multiculture' as a replacement for social integration - and expect us to be grateful. They have snouts in the trough; lie to us consistently; enact the 'Nanny State; tell us what we must think and even how we must feel. They are without any sense whatsoever of the meaning of justice, evenhandedness or basic fairness.
As for the Greens - they are the same as The LibLabCon - just more so!
There are some signs that the Tories are starting to get the message - that the people matter far more than crazed ideologies.

Sedge Warbler Versus Cuckoo.

Introverts: Simple - Yes But At The Same Time, True Wisdom.

“Introverted seekers need introverted evangelists. It's not that extroverts can't communicate the gospel, either verbally or non-verbally, in ways that introverts find appealing, it's that introverted seekers need to know and see that it's possible to lead the Christian life as themselves. It's imperative for them to understand that becoming a Christian is not tantamount with becoming an extrovert.” 
― Adam S. McHugh, Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture

Kaduna.

“We are showing concern for their wellbeing…”

Like you, we’re feeling the impact that the coronavirus pandemic is having on all aspects of life. Yet in spite of the daily challenges we face, we’ve been inspired by stories of faith and generosity in these extraordinary times.  CSW’s Nigeria office shared news of churches in Kaduna state, who had gathered and distributed food and other essentials to over 1,000 households in need during the state's COVID-19 lockdown.  “[The initiative] is meant to identify with beneficiaries during the hard times and to show our concern for their wellbeing, even as we are all passing through the difficult experience...” John Joseph Hayab, Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Kaduna state It’s humbling and inspiring to think of church communities in Kaduna (some of whom live with the daily threat of violence, kidnapping and attacks on their homes and churches) demonstrating the love of God through acts of kindness to their neighbours in need in these difficult times.

Democracy Elsewhere? - How About More At Home?

Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

IS it only me that thinks the UK is a little hypocritical in trying to introduce democracy in other countries such as Iraq, North Korea and China when we don’t follow those principles? Yorks Post.

After All Those Years As A 'Bad Boy' - Now, Study After Study Give Thumbs Up To COFFEE!

Life expectancy can largely be attributed to a healthy balanced diet. Experts say you should eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day, base meals on higher fibre starchy foods, have some dairy or dairy alternative, and eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein. Choosing unsaturated oils and spread and eating them in small amounts is also important, alongside drinking plenty of fluids.

• Live longer: One major change you can make. 
  

Drinking as little as two cups of coffee a day has been found to increase life expectancy by up to two years

But when it comes to one of the nation’s favourite drinks, coffee, how much is considered a healthy amount?

Drinking as little as two cups of coffee a day has been found to increase life expectancy by up to two years, according to a new study.

Research published in the European Journal of Epidemiology analysed previous studied which looked at the benefits of drinking coffee.

The study analysed the ages and causes of death of more than 450,000 people, along with dietary records, which included how much coffee they drank.

Researchers found drinking coffee was linked to a reduced risk of all-cause mortality “irrespective of age, overweight status, alcohol drinking, smoking status and caffeine content of coffee”.Express.

I Do Not Often Agree With Ofsted But ...

Lazy children will be among the biggest losers of lockdown, Ofsted chief warns

The chief inspector of schools said that disadvantaged children are not the only ones who will fall behind while schools are closed

ByCamilla Turner, EDUCATION EDITOR ; Amy Jones and Tony Diver27 April 2020 • DT.

Last Year From Release Int.

Release’s annual forecast of where Christians were expected to be most under pressure during 2019.

Around the world Christians face an increasing array of violent persecutors, whether the brutal Islamic State in the Middle East, Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria or Hindu extremists in India. Jesus warned His followers that ‘If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also’ (John 15:20). Our report on the likely trends of persecution in 2018 is a wake-up call to take our prayers and support for our persecuted family to a new level.

Read the full report: https://releaseinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/PERSECUTION-TRENDS-2019-5.pdf

The predictions were extremely accurate and we can expect little difference in 2020.

Endure.

The Church Must Teach Apologetics Far More Than It Does.

Apologetics deals with answering critics who oppose or question the revelation of God in Christ and the Bible. The purpose of this definition is helping the Christian to "always be ready to make a defence to everyone who asks them to give an account for the hope they have" (1 Peter 3:15.)

Blogger: in expounding God's Word today, there is a tendency to preach the Scriptures from within. If you have believers in your group who all know the Lord, that is perfectly fine. Even they, however, may still need to be better equipped for the daily struggle - they must know how to defend from attacks. This works hand in hand with putting on 'the whole armour of God' as described in Ephesians 6.

Those attacks may often be evidenced without any malice - it is frequently just down to the lack of understanding of friends, workmates etc. But if you cannot reach the mildly curious or non-aggressive unbelievers - how will you possibly cope when you are face to face with an embittered and/or aggressive atheist?

How do you reach these dear lost souls if you are insufficiently prepared to explain your faith? Constant bombardment with Scriptures is wholly inappropriate- and yet, it is a knee-jerk reaction by many. 

Preaching to mixed congregations needs to be from the outside of the Bible and moving inwards - we will rarely make our case well by attempting to start with the Bible and work outwards.

Please meditate on this thought - especially those of you who preach The Word.

Beautiful Song.

Hebrews 2 - Pay Heed.

3) How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? 

Tyranny At Work.

Wilberforce Academy Director, Dr Joe Boot, argues that the Church has progressively stepped away from its legacy of cultural apologetics, and – in line with the changing culture – has begun preaching only a gospel message of personal salvation. This has opened the door to a charge of progressivism against Christian values, which only a reformation in the Church can turn around.

Over the last ten years or so, I have become increasingly accustomed to an unofficial evangelical embargo; a degree of kindly ostracism, a sort of smiling marginalisation from various Christian leaders in Canada – the evangelical establishment. If there is an evangelical version of ‘no-platforming’ then, looking back, I experienced it as a quiet drying up of invitations to speak at certain places, conferences and events where I had been previously sought after for years. At one point, I was so busy in the work of popular Christian apologetics in North America that I needed to keep a bag half-packed in my wardrobe. But after some time, I began to notice that my travel toothpaste was lasting much longer than before!
 

The narrowing of the gospel message

Competent Christian communicators who are willing to stick to an ostensibly ‘gospel-centred’ evangelical message of personal salvation in Christ, or limit their defence of the faith to God’s existence, the uniqueness of Jesus among religious founders and the reliability of the Bible (especially from an evidentialist or rationalistic perspective) will continue to find a ready audience in popular evangelicalism. These issues are intuitively regarded as a ‘safe zone’ of personal and private faith in a secularised culture.

There is a fairly narrow set of ‘faith’ questions that many believers regard as pertaining to a ‘religious sphere’ of life grounded in individual conviction and personal piety. Even though the traditional questions of Christian apologetics are rarely heard on actual university campuses these days, in this line of thinking, apologetics is regarded as a useful tool in aiding personal evangelism (the importance of which should not be neglected) and bringing people to personal salvation.

However, dare stray into the rich Christian legacy of cultural apologetics – which articulates and defends a total Christian philosophy of life in terms of the Scriptures; a worldview that touches every area of life and thought – and you are asking for trouble. Go to the religious root of the idolatry afflicting our culture and point to its key branches in various social, cultural, legal, political or educational aspects of society, and you will find that cultural prophecy is as unpopular amongst God’s people today as it was in the days of Amos or Jonah. Speak about the full implications of Christ’s Lordship and kingdom declared in the gospel – as well as the need to defend them in the public space – and you will witness the steady whittling away of those people who are willing to be seen with you in public!

I recall well that once I began speaking of the importance of Christ’s Lordship in recovering a decaying education, politics, law, arts and cultural life, suddenly I was ‘hysterical’, ‘extreme’, a ‘dominionist’, and dangerous to invite to speak lest something be said about human identity, sexuality, education, or some other contemporary cultural issue that offends someone!

These questions of life are supposedly a matter of doubt, subject to mere opinion (i.e. not ‘gospel’ issues) touching on the so-called secular space where we, whose kingdom is not of this world (a radically misused statement of Jesus), dare not tread! And so, a ‘don’t-rock-the-boat’ mentality declaring ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace, maintains remarkable appeal.
 

The silent Church

Yet it is difficult to see how the ‘evangellyfish’ silence regarding scriptural reality and the claims of Christ can continue to hold in the face of the massive cultural change all around us. Consider just a few recent examples:

Last month, something very shocking happened in England – one amongst many incidents of this nature in the last couple of years. A Catholic journalist was interrogated by police at her house after she ‘misgendered’ the child of a transgender campaigner she appeared with on TV. She had the audacity to identify the child based on its biological sex.[1]

In recent weeks in Canada, a Christian activist has been fined by a tribunal an astonishing $55,000 for the ‘hateful’ act of misgendering an adult male claiming to be a woman, running in local elections.[2]

In an utterly terrifying decision made by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in just the last couple of weeks, a father has been accused of ‘family violence’ because he engaged in ‘expressions of rejection’ of his 14-year old daughter’s professed gender identity. According to The Federalist she had been undergoing testosterone injections without parental consent.[3]

In another startling incident of a growing number, a school worker in the UK was dismissed from her job after she shared two Facebook posts that raised concerns about relationships and sex education at another school in the same village ­– her own child’s Church of England Primary School.[4]
 

The charge of progressivism

George Orwell is commonly credited with writing the line that “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” The spirit of the age – characterised by constant change, man’s self-worship and a lack of any abiding standard – sheds light on our social moment where every basic assumption about creation order in the West is being challenged in terms of neo-Marxist cultural thought, popularly labelled progressivism.

Marx well understood that you cannot have social revolution without a sexual revolution. Since he thought of social conditions as determining people’s thinking, his concern was to change those conditions, and the Christian concept of marriage and family was, for him, at the root of oppression and exploitation. Moreover, it was at the root of the religious opiate of the people – the myth of God. He wrote, “once the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the holy family, the former must then itself be theoretically criticized and radically changed in practice.”[5]

The contemporary mantra, following Marx, continues to divide the world into oppressorsandoppressed, and the newly-expanded categories of people said to be victims of oppression are not simply Marx’s so-called wage-laborers, but all those ‘victimised’ by the Christian morality and social order of the past – such as male and female made in God’s image, Christian marriage, monogamy etc. In addition, since the origins of ‘Christendom’ are conceived of as European and white, every other people group and religion are likewise characterised as victims of the oppressive white Christian man and his middle-class family (white privilege). All Western history must now be interpreted through this illusory grid, and immediate revolutionary action taken to implement the social changes necessary to either convert or oppress the oppressor, casting them into the immanent hell, first of social and cultural ostracism, and then, if necessary, of criminal sanction, including fines and even prison.

For Marxism in any form, “justice being social, guilt must be also,” so the individual character and behaviour of the oppressors is irrelevant; they belong to a condemned Christian class that has a secret history and intention not revealed by their actual words and convictions. This is because the modern spirit,

“…views culture in terms of unending historical development, rejecting all the constant, creational structures that make this development possible.… As a result, it has no reliable standard for distinguishing reactionary and progressive tendencies in historical development. It faces the problems of the “new age” without principles, without criteria.”[6]

As such, the popular slogans about freedom, democracy, rights, inclusion and tolerance have no reliable or lasting value. These positive-sounding words have been press-ganged into the service of revolutionaries. They seek to overturn all existing order in the hope that, after demolishing all previous security, a radical and autonomous freedom will emerge where man is no longer troubled by conflict or a deep sense of alienation. Normative human sexuality, marriage, and family are the primary targets, and individuals and organisations supporting them are being viciously targeted in the courts and drumhead trials of today’s human rights tribunals.
 

The need for reformation

When I began warning people about the emergence and direction of these things in the churches over a decade ago and urged people to respond by pursuing Christian education and defending the truth openly – the pulpit leading the way – I was largely dismissed with the hand-waving of apathetic leaders who claimed a collapse of freedom would never happen here. Now the jackboots can be heard in the halls of power and a complicit media largely pretends these cases don’t exist. We are facing political and judicial imperialism of an increasingly totalitarian kind and instead of waking up, much of the church is now talking about getting ‘woke’ whilst the cultural prophets are stoned as scaremongers. Only a reformation in the church can turn the tide. May 2019. Christian Concern.

Birdie.

A Year Ago: Relevant Today - and EVERY Day.

 Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Monday, May 06, 201

Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.

Rachel Held Evans, wife, mother, blogger, and influential Christian author, is dead at the age of 37. Although we never met, and despite our serious theological differences, I am truly saddened by her passing. It was just last month she was hospitalized with the flu, and that quickly, she is gone.

My ministry reached out to her on more than one occasion to dialogue about our differences, but without success. At no point, though, did I question Rachel’s sincerity. That she came to very different conclusions than I (and other evangelicals) did, especially in terms of God’s view of LGBT issues, was a cause of deep concern, given her influence. But I always felt she arrived at her (wrong) conclusions after wrestling with Scripture and interacting with people.

You might say to me, “Out of respect for her family and followers, now would be a good time to be quiet. We don’t need to hear about your differences.”

But that’s not why I’m writing this article.

I believe what I believe, based on Scripture, and I will continue to preach and teach with conviction. That is not in question. And I will continue to warn and confront.

What is in question is how we respond to news of the tragic death of this young wife and mother who leaves behind a husband two children.

When I learned about Rachel’s passing, I tweeted, “I had strong differences with some of the Christian expression of Rachel Held Evans but am truly saddened and shocked to hear of her death at age of 37. May God comfort her husband and family.”

In response, one conservative Christian wrote, “How could you be sad? I pray for these kinds of things to happen.”

I tweeted back, “Those are ugly and dangerous prayers to pray. You might find yourself the victim of your own praying one day.”

He responded with, “1 Corinthians 5 says we judge the church. The lady was misleading the church, defiling it.”

I wrote, “Paul did not teach the Corinthians to pray for the death of sinning church members. He taught them to excommunicate them. (My last comment to you. May God give you the grace to see things from His perspective.)”

He continued to defend his position, citing other scriptures, but by then I had muted him.

Sadly, he was not alone in his attacks. As a progressive pastor tweeted to me, “I appreciate your irenic words and spirit. We’ve seen some really mean stuff from the Christian Right out here today. Peace and every blessing.”

That is why I wrote this article, because the way we judge others is the way that we will be judged. Do we really want to ask God to kill those with whom we differ? Are those the kinds of prayers we should be praying?

Again, my differences with Rachel Held Evans were serious and substantial (see hereand here). And my differences with the aforementioned progressive pastor are even more serious and substantial. I believe he is in serious error, and I believe that he is leading his people astray on certain key issues.

At the same time, it’s not my role (or yours) to play God, and my prayer for those with whom I differ is not judgment and destruction. It is grace and mercy: “Father, lead them into the truth. Show them their errors. And grant them the courage and the humility to follow You and Your Word wherever it leads, regardless of cost or consequence.”

Even if I am sure they are wrong, my prayer is not for the Lord to strike them down. God forbid! Rather, I pray that He will give them space to repent and change their views.

And I also pray for myself, “Father, show me my blind spots. Show me areas where I have misrepresented You in any way. And grant me the courage and the humility to follow You and Your Word wherever it leads, regardless of cost or consequence.”

Am I 100 percent sure about the foundations of my faith? Yes, 100 percent.

Am I willing to die on these convictional hills? Yes, without a doubt.

Truth is truth. It doesn’t change with each new social fad or contemporary movement. It is not relative. It is absolute.

Consequently, if the Word of God is clear to me on a subject, especially after years of study and prayer, then to compromise my convictions would be a grave sin against my Lord.

But that does not give me the right to damn others to hell or to pray for their demise. To the contrary, I pray for mercy.

It’s one thing if ISIS terrorists were about to wipe out a Christian village and we prayed, “Oh God, deliver Your people,” after which lightning struck from heaven, consuming all the terrorists.

It’s another thing when a brother or sister in the faith begins to go down a path we feel is wrong or even dangerous.

That’s why I warned this conservative Christian about praying down judgment on those whose views he deems theologically incorrect. In doing so, he might inadvertently pray judgment on himself.

From all I could tell, Rachel’s theological shifts were due to her desire to be consistent in her Christian faith. And she was open and honest about her struggles with the Bible and her faith.

I truly hope she in the presence of the Lord today with her questions fully resolved.

As for those of us who are still in the land of the living, if we can’t be civil and gracious when a 37-year-old wife and mother passes away, we had better to do some serious questioning of our own faith.

Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Donald Trump Is Not My Savior: An Evangelical Leader Speaks His Mind About the Man He Supports As President. Connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.

Discipline Produces Character.