The Bishop of Oxford has been at it again.

In the news again, on the BBC's Today  programme this morning [jump forward to 1.31], theBishop of Oxford had trouble in answering John Humphries' question whether or not Jesus was the Son of God. In fact, the interviewer had to labour the point to get an answer as to whether Jesus should be featured at all in school assemblies. 'Reflection, silence and singing' were OK but care was needed to strike the right balance in multi-cultural schools.

Bishop Pritchard was particularly impressed with an ONS figure which showed that 71% of the population 'identifed' with Christianity. 'Identified' does not put bums on pews but perhaps this is part of his plan to speed the decline in church attendance. What really irked a friend in Wales who emailed me this morning (the former Bishop of Oxford is leading a team managing the decline of the Church in Wales under the leadership of their current Archbishop) was the statement that 100% of pupils in some Church of England schools are Muslims. Ignoring the financial implications for the church, this suggests to the bishop that parents of Muslim children send them to Church schools because they know that God will be taken seriously!

So there we have it. If God is to be taken seriously we should make all Church Schools 100% Muslim even though they do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They believe in their God (Allah) and that everyone else should too so that would put an end to the multi-culturalism our church leaders and teachers care so much about without ever having to worry again about mentioning the name of Jesus.

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Judgement

No, not bankers with their noses in the trough, completely oblivious to natural justice, but judges themselves who persist in trying the patience of ordinary law abiding citizens.

Yesterday it was the turn of Mr and Mrs Johns from Derby who had already fostered many children but were disallowed from further fostering homeless children under the equality laws because of the way they expressed their Christian faith. The judges said, “We sit as secular judges serving a multicultural community of many faiths. We are sworn (we quote the judicial oath) to 'do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will’.” An ironic comment following the Prime Minister's remarks following on from Angela Merkle's that multiculturalism had failed. Once again it appears that any views can be expressed provided they are not Christian or perceived to question other faiths.

Also in our one size fits all society, the European Court has decided that insurance risk assessment must be abandoned in the interests of gender equality resulting in higher premiums in general and for women in particular. Coming hot on the heels of the votes for prisoners farce, many law abiding citizens must be wondering where all this is leading and would be justified in thinking that 'equality' and 'human rights' judgements have become a load of cobblers - unless they are football fans.

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Near neighbours

"A programme crossing religious and cultural boundaries has been awarded a further £3m by the Government in support of its work. The Near Neighbours programme is a partnership between the Church Urban Fund and the Archbishop's Council that provides small grants to grassroots multi-faith projects" (story here). That's £8 million so far for learning to be good neighbours, something that Christians are familiar with even when not reciprocated.

Sadly this story has links with my previous entry despite the apparent good works. The idea of Near Neighbours "in a nutshell" is to bring people together who are near neighbours in communities that are diverse, so they can get to know each other better, build relationships as people and collaborate together on initiatives that improve the local community they live in. In other words, trying to make multiculturalism work. Archbishop Welby had this to say: "In our Christian belief...one of the biggest characteristics of Jesus was not being frightened about who He talked to. He didn't only sit in His own holy little huddle but He reached out telling us to love our neighbour" quoting the story of the Good Samaritan.

Of the 2,000 visitors to this Blog since my previous entry few bothered to watch "What the West Needs to Know" according to the viewing count. Perhaps they have the same view as the Home Secretary, that presenting the facts spreads hate! If so, and an hour and a half is too much time to learn why 90% of conflict around the world involves Islam, perhaps they can be persuaded to spend just eight minutes here. One of the three points covered is the Islamic principle of Taqiyya where Muslims are allowed to deceive non-Muslims if it helps Islam:There are two forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, taqiyya and kitman.  These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause Islam - in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them.

Archbishop Welby was right when he said that Jesus was not frightened about who He talked to but Jesus' message was clear. He said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". Yet some Islamists even claim that Jesus was a Muslim (here)! Jesus alsosaid: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves". Love your neighbour, yes, but also be aware of what your neighbour believes.

Churchill was considered to be “scaremongering” when he spoke in the 1930s of the growing Nazi German threat. This is what he wrote earlier in The River War (1899) about the threat of Islam:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine‹must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

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Head in the sand

"Multicultural education is a 'cult of tolerance' in which you demonstrate your

sensitivity to other cultures by being almost totally insensitive to your own."

The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter -Quran 5:33

Archbishop of Mosul: "I have lost my Diocese to Islam - You in the West will also become the victims of Muslims" (readhere).

Coptic Bishop: Without Action, It’s Only a Matter of Time Before Islamic Fundamentalism “Infects the Entire World” (readhere and here).

It is not as if the West had not been warned. See here,here, here, here, here, here and here. Need I go on? While the Islamic threat seemed to be someone else's problem it was much more convenient to be able to bury one's head in the sand in the mistaken belief that Islam is a religion of peace rather than confront the fact that cleansing of Christians and other minorities continues around the world where Islam dominates. In the current threat minorities are no longer simply displaced. - It is convert or die! Even young children are being groomed for jihad, recruited to kill Christians other minorities and Shiite Muslims (video here).

For too long apologists for 'the religion of peace' have dismissed Islamic extremists as not representative of Islam but on what evidence? Islam means 'submission' or 'surrender'. If lying is necessary for the sake of Allah, so be it - see understanding Taqiyya - it is part of the faith. Not all Muslims are bad any more than all Christians are good but that should not obscure the reality that when Islamists have the upper hand their attitude to others changes.

As soon as the Prime Minister arrived back from his Summer holiday he was belatedly identifying with the plight of the starving Yazidis who had at the same time been struggling to survive on Mount Sinjar after fleeing the terrors of Islamic State (IS) (here). Mercifully many found their way to relative safety while the rest of the world dithered (BBC pictures here).

Current events so alarmed the Bishop of Leeds that he was prompted to write to Mr Cameron in the following terms: "The focus by both politicians and media on the plight of the Yazidis has been notable and admirable. However, there has been increasing silence about the plight of tens of thousands of Christians who have been displaced, driven from cities and homelands, and who face a bleak future. Despite appalling persecution, they seem to have fallen from consciousness, and I wonder why. Does your government have a coherent response to the plight of these huge numbers of Christians whose plight appears to be less regarded than that of others? Or are we simply reacting to the loudest media voice at any particular time? Full text here.

Mr Cameron was on TV again this morning assuring voters that the current terrorist threat will not cause mayhem on our streets; his priority is to protect British citizens form the IS threat. But IS sympathisers are already here. They have been distributing leaflets in London's Oxford Street while around 500 are thought to have left these shores to fight with the jihadists in Iraq and Syria. In Tower Hamlets the Black flag linked to jihadists Isis has been flown as a sign of solidarity with their brother Muslims, once again demonstrating where loyalties lie.

If, as Mr Cameron says, he wants to keep families safe here in the United Kingdom he needs to address the real issue of the spread of Islam and investigate the contradiction between the so-called religion of peace and use of the sword. He could start here.

The name Muhammad with its variants is again the most popular boys name in Britain adding weight to the conclusion that Islam will be the dominant religion in Great Britain within a generation (here). Unlike Christianity there is no separation of Church and State. Islam is a way of life without borders based on a religious ideology governed by Sharia. It has already taken root here:

"There is not another religion in the world that consistently produces terrorism in the name of God as does Islam.  The most dangerous Muslims are nearly always those who interpret the Quran most transparently.  They are the fundamentalists or purists of the faith, and believe in Muhammad’s mandate to spread Islamic rule by the sword, putting to death those who will not submit.  In the absence of true infidels, they will even turn on each other."

- from The Myths of Islam (here).

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The real victims of political correctness.

In this 2010 CBN News video "What Will Happen When Islam Takes Over Britain WAKE UP!" a clear warning was given on the perils of not addressing political correctness.

The Prime Minister's claim in 2011 that multiculturalism had failed was met with a wave of indignant protests and denial. In 2016 the real victims of political correctness, mainly vulnerable children, are being identified on a regular basis.

This is the reality. From anExpress report: The authorities spent years letting gangs of Pakistani and British-Pakistani men get away with horrendous crimes against white girls. Evidence suggests that such groups have been operating in Rotherham, Oxford, Keighley, Bradford and Rochdale. The dangerously misguided desire to appear tolerant and politically correct allowed these gangs to operate unchecked for so long.

Nobody in authority has been prepared to stand against the tide. While political parties spend their time harvesting votes from minorities, the Established church continues her obsession with politically correct quotas, advancing the cause of minorities over suitability and validating Islam.

Tolerance of the intolerant rules. "WAKE UP" indeed!

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Another nice mess

As my friend Barack said to me George, "Well, here's another nice mess we've gotten o urselves into!"

The world and his wife it seems are piling on the pressure to tell us Brits that we should remain in Europe. To leave would be a catastrophe. If that is so, why in the world has Dave 'gotten' us into this mess at enormous cost financially and politically?

'Paddy Pantsdown' wagged his finger throughout BBC Question Time on Thursday as he previewed what President Barack Obama was to say about American blood being shed in Europe in the US's contribution to the 1917 - 1918 and the 1941- 1945 wars fighting for freedom in Europe. As Albert Steptoe once said, it might have been the '17 - '18 and '41 - '45 wars for them but it was the '14 - '18 and '39 - '45 wars for the rest of us.

All in the 'IN' camp at home and abroad appear to be reading from the same news sheet prepared and circulated by No 10. That is in addition to the ?9 million of tax payers money they have spent on circulating propaganda for the 'IN' campaign. So much so that it is difficult to trust anything that is said or written about the consequences of leaving Europe.

Paddy Pantsdown claims that every important world organisation and every world leader "with the exception Vladimir Putin" wants us to remain in Europe. Indeed, the President of the United States has gone so far as to threaten that the UK would be left at the back of the queue when negotiating future trade deals with the US if we left, not that Obama will be President in that eventuality. But so much for friendship and our 'special relationship'. When self-interest rears its head it is OK in the US but not in Great Britain!

For many I suspect the head says IN but the heart says OUT. The decision would be easier if the self-perpetuating bureaucracy in Brussels desisted from regulating everything they can think of plus anything else they had not thought of when it comes to light. If Turkey is allowed in that will allow another flood of economic migrants with all the dangers already apparent as they try to impose their alien ideology on their hosts. The last thing we need is more failed multiculturalism.

My feeling is that the British people have had enough of being told what to think and what to do and are inclined to vote with their hearts, sink or swim.

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Yesterday's clerics' errors

Lord Harries of Pentregarth, former Bishop of Oxford                                Picture credit: Endeavour Public Affairs

The former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, features in the Oxford Times "weighing in on EU vote". He is among 37 "faith leaders" who in an open letter to the public have called on Britain to stay in the EU. Lord Harries is a formercollaborator of the Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan who together with Dr Morgan's predecessor and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, signed the open letter. Considering this trio's judgement on the ordination of women and their liberal agenda resulting in the parlous state of Anglicanism, particularly in Wales, it is difficult to afford much credibility to their opinions on the European Referendum.

As for the former Bishop of Oxford, an ardentpromoter of same sex marriage, his opinions would be better left in the ivory towers of Oxford. This is the cleric who suggested that the Coronation of Prince Charles should be opened with a reading from the Koran, as a ?Creative act of accommodation? To make Muslims feel ?Embraced? By the nation.

There will be plenty to 'embrace' based on report from Migration Watch, "The Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU – The Potential Implications for the UK". It claims that up to "half a million refugees and their relatives" could move to Britain after 2020 in a "secondary flow of refugees" because of EU rules on the free movement of people. While Germany, Greece and Italy had borne the brunt of Europe's refugee crisis, those granted asylum could settle in the UK in the coming years once they had acquired EU citizenship.

Based on his 2015 Christmasplea the Archbishop of Wales will be thrilled to read that Cardiff, Swansea and Newport have been named as three out of 10 places in the UK with the highest number of asylum seekers per head of population.

The 2011 census recorded 45,950 Muslims in Wales, far more than the 30,468 average Sunday attendances in 2014reported by the Church in Wales. Most of the Muslims in Wales are spread between Cardiff (23,656), Newport (6,859) and Swansea (5,415) with smaller communities in the valleys and across rural and North Wales.

In their appeal to the electorate the faith leaders claim that "faith is about integration and building bridges, not about isolation and erecting barriers. As leaders and senior figures of faith communities, we urge our co-religionists and others to think about the implications of a Leave vote for the things about which we are most passionate."

TOSH! As the former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks rightly pointed out on the BBC Newsnight programme last night, "multiculturalism has been a failure". He referred to thewarning by Trevor Phillips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that "British Muslims are becoming a nation within a nation". Trevor Phillips said we are "in danger of sacrificing a generation of young British people to values that are antithetical to the beliefs of most of us, including many Muslims".

The Remain campaign has lost much credibility by basing their claims on scare stories, foggy forecasts and guesstimates. There may or may not be problems if we leave but these pale into insignificance compared with the ramifications of uncontrolled immigration which have not been properly addressed.

Still in denial of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 and 1916, Turkey hopes to join the EU. That would result in 78 million mainly Muslim people, and rising, eligible to go where they please in Europe compared with Turkey's population of less than 30 million in 1960.

As Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan says, "Family planning not for Muslims". In Great Britain Census figures reveal a ‘startling’ shift in Britain’s demographic trend with almost a tenth of babies and toddlers born in England and Wales being Muslim'. Combining immigration figures with the higher birth rate it is understandable that some forecasters predict that Christianity is set to be a minority religion in Britain by 2050 as Islam and atheism rise.

The Justice Secretary Michael Gove has claimed that he has been forced to allow terror suspects to enter Britain because European Union rules left him powerless to intervene. During his time in the Cabinet Mr Gove "experienced frustrationdanquot; at Britain?S "inability to refuse entry to those with a criminal record and even some who are suspected of terrorist links".

The only way to bring order to our borders is to "quit the EUdanquot;, says former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith.

Postscript [06.06.2016]

From the Rev Dr Peter Mullen:Bishops are no laughing matter

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