Magic Statistics

Anthony Shelley, Human Rights & Society columnist for University of Washington student newspaper The Daily, suggests a connection between vilification of Christians in the West and persecution of Christians overseas.

Worldwide, Christians are despised and ridiculed, and ridiculed is putting it quite lightly. The lucky ones escape torture and execution, however, that wasn't the case for Peter Xu Yongze.

Four years ago in China, Yongze was hung on an iron gate and nearly torn in half, a horrible process that lasted for four agonizing hours. Amazingly, Yongze survived. His comrades, on the other hand, were murdered: one woman was beaten to death for distributing bibles. A man, who was imprisoned, died after inmates repeatedly lifted and dropped him onto the floor following commands from the jailer.

The list of human rights violations against Christians is endless.
. . .
This all may sound tragic and terrible but maybe you should ask yourself this question: Why are Christians the butt of jokes and the focus of animosity on every medium from late night talk shows to satirical plays?

To give you some perspective, news outlets regularly host experts, scholars, and Muslim religious leaders who repeatedly claim that Islam is a religion of peace while coverage of the persecution of Christians receives little or no attention at all.

The deafening silence from college campuses indicates that persecution of Christians is a non-issue to most North American university students.  Why is that?

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A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine argues that elective abortion is a significant risk factor for subsequent pre-term births.

[N]early 32 per cent of "very-preterm" U.S. births, that is, before 32 weeks gestation, are due to the mother having had a prior abortion. This information, combined with previous research in the relation between low birth weight children and cerebral palsy (CP), results in an estimated 1,096 children suffering from CP because of their mother's prior abortion.
. . .
Very pre-term babies have much higher than normal risks of suffering medical problems including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, lung impairment and serious infections.

The authors estimate that the direct costs to the US health care system arising from increased neonatal health costs due to abortion-induced pre-term babies totaled over $1.2 billion in 2002.

This study corroborates earlier investigations.

The research backs up previous findings published in 2006 by Dr. Richard E. Behrman of Stanford University’s Institute of Medicine, that named “prior first trimester induced abortion” as “immutable medical risk factor associated with preterm birth”.

Other previous studies are summarised here.

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A puerile bunch of yobs get their jollies disrespecting those who died to keep our country free.

Workers in Sydney Mines, N.S., are busy scraping graffiti off a cenotaph commemorating the community's war dead.

Sometime late Tuesday, vandals defaced the monument to fallen soldiers and tore up benches in the surrounding park.

"There's no need of that. I mean, what harm people have made," said Raymond Walker, 84, a veteran of the Second World War.

For days, people have been trying to remove the graffiti, bewildered why anyone would deface the cenotaph in the first place.

All sane Canadians wonder the same thing.

The Cape Breton Post wants the vandals held accountable.  Amen to that!

The Diocese of Niagara is holding its annual Synod meeting next month, and Canadian Anglicans have been waiting with bated breath to see whether a motion will be presented requesting diocesan Bishop D. Ralph Spence to authorise same-sex blessings.  The Diocese’s website contain no information as yet regarding what specific items will be discussed.  Only the schedule is given:

Thursday, November 15, 2007
Synod Service, Eucharist and Bishop's Charge
Christ's Church Cathedral 7:30 p.m.

Friday, November 16 and Saturday, November 17, 2007
Hamilton Convention Centre

We have just received a report from delegate Jude Carriere of St George’s Lowville, whose Synod package arrived today.  There appears to be nothing regarding SSBs.

I haven't had a chance to read it cover to cover, but at first glance the only mention of SSB is in the agenda as "Same Gender Blessings Discussion" at 9:20 on Sat Nov 17. The next agenda item is "Other Business" at 11:00, so it looks like they are expecting some discussion. At 11:15 the bishop gets to assent to Synod actions and close and we're out by 11:40 (before they close the streets surrounding the conference centre for the Santa Claus parade).

In the list of motions there is nothing terribly exciting. Approval of minutes, adopt the agenda, receive reports, elect people to various councils, approve auditor and budget items - the usual business. There is a motion 'that the Synod encourage parishes to consider doing all they can to reduce the effect of Seasonal flu in our churches'. I imagine I'll support that one.

There is a Memorial from St. James, Dundas, declaring that they will be a blessing community whenever the diocese permits it, as resolved by special vestry on Sept 30, 2007.

Further detail on the memorial comes from St James’s September newsletter:

Consistent with our understanding of community, the corporation proposes a motion that would make St. James a blessing community so that if and when our diocesan bishop grants clergy and parishes to perform same sex blessings we would be in a position to offer such blessing.

I like that: “if and when our diocesan bishop grants clergy and parishes to perform same sex blessings”.  Just a little presumptuous.

We shall wait and see if any sneaky last-minute motions are pitched at the Synod meeting.

c/p: Anglican Essentials Canada Blog 

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