Week ending 30 August

The news of 1400 underage girls being subject to rapes and gross sexual abuse in Rotherham has shocked and disgusted almost everybody who has heard or read about it, not only in this country but around the world. We are told the authorities knew, indeed some of the girls complained and were chased away, and the reason was the perpetrators were all men of Pakistani origin and therefore Muslims, so staff were frightened of being called racist. If only we Christians could receive such consideration.

The Bible Society wished to portray the story of Jonah and the whale by having an inflated rubber model of the fish to tell children the story, and hoped to hold it in London’s Royal Park. They were of course banned from doing so. It seems anything remotely Christian is banned in London under the present regime. What a contrast to Rotherham.

We had the commendable and evangelical Bishop Nazir Ali writing for the ‘Telegraph’ newspaper stressing the need for parents to care for their children and calling for sex education to be based on the context of sex in marriage. (proper marriage that is)

Against that we had David Laws, a schools Minister in this unfortunate coalition government calling for sex education to be given to all children from the age of seven, and stopping the rights of parents to withdraw their child from such education. This is to be in the Liberal Democrat election manifesto, so we need not worry too much. He is upset that it cannot be forced upon free schools and academies. You can bet such education will not talk about sex in the context of marriage between a man and a woman.

Christians need to demonstrate that we are a factor in any future election. Traditionally the Conservative Party was seen as the one most sympathetic to Christians until David Cameron was made Prime Minister.
Since the legalising of same sex marriage, many Conservatives abandoned their allegiance, and most of us will still hold to our principles and vote elsewhere.

Christians can therefore influence prospective politicians by promising to support the United Kingdom Independence Party, which whilst not likely to gain many seats can stop Conservatives. The defection of Douglas Carswell to UKIP has sent shock waves through the Conservative Party and if Christians threatened to withhold their support to the Conservatives, Cameron may realise it is not UKIP that is loony, but rather himself if he does not seek a liaison with them.