Worldview Academy faculty speak and present

Uh huh. “Worldview Academy” appears to be mostly a website, along with a program of “camps” it offers around the country. Judging by the “camp” in my state, which lasts 5 days and charges $745, these camps are really just quick proselytizing jaunts.

We are drawn together by the conviction to live out a biblical worldview in heart, mind, and life. Each summer, we gather in camps across the country to pursue the Reason for living. Just as iron sharpens iron, our faculty and students dialogue and search the scriptures to deepen our knowledge of Christ and come together in following Him.

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Jack pulled out a piece of paper

Oh here we go – “they are persecuting me because of my faaaaaaaaith when I all I want to do is say God hates everyone I disapprove of.”

A Colorado bakery is under investigation for religious discrimination after a baker refused to write anti-gay words on a cake.

In March of 2014, a customer named Bill Jack requested several cakes in the shapes of Bibles from the Azucar Bakery in Denver, Colo., according to the bakery owner, Marjorie Silva.

Silva says Jack pulled out a piece of paper with phrases like “God hates gays” and requested her to write them on his cakes.

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Time for the UK to cut these ties

Sunny Hundal on the BBC blasts the UK government’s hugging of the Saudi regime.

Blogger Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticising Saudi Arabian clerics on his internet blog.

British blogger Sunny Hundal said this case, and others like it, mean the UK should stop “hugging” the Saudi regime.

In a personal film, he said it was time for the UK to cut these ties and “treat the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the contempt it deserves”.

We might as well be hugging IS.

Progressive Muslim voices are actually everywhere

Via Tehmina Kazi, a brilliant piece at Open Democracy by a friend of hers, Akmal Ahmed Safwat, an oncologist in Denmark.

Instead of verbally denouncing terror, many Muslims in the West are now challenging the radical, ultra conservative and violent Wahhabi/salafi version of Islam that gives religious justification for hideous crimes. They are doing so through a growing movement of progressive Muslims such as British Muslims for Secular Democracy, Muslims for Progressive Values (USA) and the Liberal Muslim Network (Norway).

We progressive Muslims do not distinguish between atrocities committed by radical movements like Al-Qaida or Boko Haram and those committed by despotic dictatorships that dare to call themselves “Islamic” governments; the ones that administer the death penalty for apostasy and homosexuality; that practice stoning and flagellation; that legitimize child marriage. Both justify their atrocious practices through selected, outdated interpretations of primary Islamic scripture and a so-called “irrefutable authority” of ancient scholars and books.

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A wink and a Sid James cackle

Padraig Reidy at Index on Censorship explains about the Sun’s page 3.

The Page 3 girl was a typical product of the British sexual revolution. What started, with the availability of contraception to women in the 1960s, as a liberation, quickly became another way to reduce them. Freed from the terror of unwanted pregnancy, women and girls were now expected to be in a permanent state of up-for-it-ness. The popular films of the late 60s and early 70s, the On The Buses, the Carry Ons, the Confessions…, portrayed British society as a parade of priapic middle-aged men, always attempting to escape their middle-aged, old-fashioned wives, in pursuit of seemingly countless, always available, young women.

It was fun, it was cheeky, it was vampiric — depending on how you wanted to look at it. [Read more…]

Why it’s so hard to believe women

Huh. I normally have zero interest in Jay Leno, but he said something good the other day. Emily Yahr at a Washington Post blog shares the details:

Just a couple of months ago, it seemed like some kind of taboo for high-profile entertainers to address the allegations that Bill Cosby raped dozens of women. But in the past two days, a couple of famous names in the tight-knit world of comedy have broken the silence — and spoken out in support of the women who have come forward.

The most surprising voice may be Jay Leno, the former “Tonight Show” host who essentially spent his entire career on NBC, home of “The Cosby Show.” Leno is also known for avoiding controversy to the point of blandness — but he bluntly discussed the situation and didn’t defend the comedian.

“I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe women,” Leno said in a Q&A during a television conference in Miami. “You go to Saudi Arabia and you need two women to testify against a man. Here you need 25.”

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Ominous headline: “New Saudi king promises continuity”

Booooooooo. Wrong. Bad move. Go back and start over. Lose a turn.

“Continuity” for Saudi Arabia means more fanatical religiosity governing everything, more theocratic meddling, more sadistic punishments for the utterance of liberal thoughts, more frenzied efforts to conceal the existence of women, more criminally bad treatment of foreign workers, more crawling before “god” and stamping on perceived inferiors.

Within hours of acceding to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom, King Salman, 78, vowed to maintain the same policies as his predecessors.

“We will continue adhering to the correct policies which Saudi Arabia has followed since its establishment,” he said in a speech broadcast on state television. [Read more…]

68 confirmed measles cases

You know that measles outbreak that started at Disneyland? Pediatricians say yo, that’s a hint that people should be vaccinated.

The leading U.S. pediatrician group on Friday urged parents, schools and communities to vaccinate children against measles in the face of an outbreak that began at Disneyland in California in December and has spread to more than 50 people.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said all children should get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine between the ages of 12 and 15 months old and again between 4 and 6 years old.

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Saudi ambassador to Germany is saying Raif won’t be flogged again

International Business Times has an exciting story dated a few hours ago…but sadly it seems to be based on a misreading of a Facebook post, so not so exciting after all. Ludovica Laccino reports that a Saudi official has said Raif won’t be flogged any more.

Saudi Arabian activist blogger Raif Badawi, sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for advocating free speech, may not have to serve the full decade in prison.

Badawi family’s spokesperson, Dr Elham Manea, who is also an associate professor specialising in the Middle East at University of Zurich, said on Facebook that the news was delivered by a Saudi ambassador in Germany.

She wrote: “Saudi ambassador in Germany informed NDR-TV that flogging will not continue and‪#‎RaifBadawi‬ maybe not have to serve the whole time in prison.”

Fantastic – but if you follow the link to Facebook, you find that Elham didn’t say that; the link is to a post that someone else wrote. The post is in German, with an automated translation below –

Noch mit Vorsicht zu genießen, es gibt noch keine offizielle Bestätigung. BBC meldet gleichzeitig den Tod von König Abdullah. Der Botschafter Saudi-Arabiens in Deutschland soll gesagt haben: “Die Bestrafung von Herrn Raif Badawi wurde, wie ich verstanden habe, gestoppt. Er wird keine Peitschenhiebe mehr erhalten. Ich nehme an, dass Herr Badawi, nachdem die Auspeitschung gestoppt wurde, nicht zehn Jahre in Haft bleiben wird.”
Elham ManeaJérôme SegalEnsaf Haidar

Even with caution to enjoy, there is still no official confirmation. At the same time, BBC reports the death of King Abdullah. The Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Germany is supposed to have said: “the punishment of Mr Raif Badawi was, as I understand it, stopped. He will receive no more lashes. I suppose that, after the whipping stopped, Mr Badawi will remain not ten years in prison.”
Elham ManeaJérôme SegalEnsaf Haidar

Followed by a link and headline and extract –

Prügelstrafe für saudischen Blogger offenbar gestoppt

Laut der saudi-arabischen Botschaft in Berlin soll der Blogger Raif Badawi offenbar keine Peitschenhiebe mehr erhalten. Außerdem könne auch die Haftstrafe verkürzt werden.

Google translate gives me –

Flogging for Saudi blogger apparently stopped

According to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Berlin blogger Raif Badawi is apparently no longer to receive lashes. In addition, the sentence could be shortened.

The source is NDR.de, which is Norddeutscher Rundfunk, about which Wikipedia tells us –

Norddeutscher Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein.

So, that sounds like a reliable source.

But why is it only the ambassador to Germany who is saying this?

I don’t know, but at least he is apparently saying it.