Comedy Vehicle arrives at last

As reported last week, the BBC abandoned the scheduled transmission of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle over the easter weekend, fearful that it would offend Christians. The programme was finally shown last night; if you didn't see it, you can catch it on YouTube.

Link: BBC Derails Comedy Vehicle

God's wisdom for raising children

According to today's Focus on the Family's radio broadcast, there is no shortage of parenting advice available through books, television and the Internet. However, if it's not based on biblical wisdom, they say, then it's not worth following.

So what exactly does the bible have to say about raising children?
What about Deuteronomy 21:18-21? 'If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death.'

Or how about Leviticus 20:9? 'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death'.

In Matthew 15 Jesus actually condemns the Pharisees for failure to uphold God's law by refusing to put to death children who curse their parents.

As Focus on the Family says "if you want to grow a happy child — a child who is comfortable in his or her own skin — make sure your child is obedient. And the Bible tells you how to do that."

Just what exactly are they asking parents to do?

Meanwhile, a man who works for Focus on the Family has appeared in court on two felony counts of using the Internet to lure a 15-year-old girl for sex.

Link: The Hidden Contradictions in the Bible

Faith schools increase social division

Research presented at the UK's Royal Economic Society today showed that faith schools increase social segregation and fail to improve exam results overall. The paper by academics at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education, both part of the University of London, also argues that it is the privileged intake of such schools which accounts for their better than average test results.

The study tracked 550,000 students in state secondary schools to examine the impact of religious schools on attainment and social stratification. While there was little evidence that faith schools drive up standards, they were found to cause segregation by class, ability and religion.

Despite a steep decline in church attendance across all denominations and limited support for the principle of state-funded religious schooling in attitude surveys, there continues to be relatively high demand for places at religious secondary schools. On a typical Sunday in 2005, just six percent of the UK population attended church, with under two percent in Anglican or Catholic churches. Yet 15 percent of children are educated in religious secondary schools, funded mostly or entirely by the taxpayer.

Link: UK teachers call for religious schools to be scrapped
Link: Report says some Muslim schools should be closed

BBC derails Comedy Vehicle

Is the BBC running scared (again) after being attacked by the Bishop of Down and Dromore, who said he was "stunned" at broadcasters' offerings after reading TV listings for Easter?

The scheduled edition of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, entitled 'Religion', was suddenly dropped without explanation over the Easter weekend. The Times published a review of the show based on a preview tape. Unaware that the programme had been pulled, the reviewer says "Daringly or negligently, BBC Two may have upset Eastering Christians by transmitting Stewart Lee's anti-religion stand-up set last night. Benedict XVIII got it in the neck and so did John Paul II, or, at least, his marketing man did for selling lollipops bearing his features in Vatican Square. His routine about the evangelist who turned up at his door with the poser “If Jesus is the answer what is the question?” (reply: “Is it, 'For which role was Robert Powell nominated for a Bafta?'”) was brilliant."

Stewart Lee wrote Jerry Springer The Opera, broadcast on BBC Two in 2005. Extremist group Christian Voice picketed the BBC, claiming that the show was blasphemous and highly offensive. A private court case brought by Christian Voice against Lee and others involved with the production for blasphemy was rejected by a Magistrates' Court.

Update: Complaints were made to UK TV regulator Ofcom after a character in the long-running soap Coronation Street made "anti-Christian" remarks during an episode on Easter Sunday. The broadcast watchdog said it received 23 complaints after the character referred to the faith as "superstition" and God as a "supernatural being".

Link: Who Stole Easter

Words of Comfort

A string of shootings in the US in the last month has claimed the lives of 53 people. According to evangelist Ray Comfort, every one of the murderers had one thing in common. "They all lacked a fear of God. If someone fears God they won't lie to you, steal from you, or commit adultery with your spouse. They won't even lust after them. They won't hate you, harbor anger or be bitter towards you, and they certainly won't kill you."

I think we can all name a string of high-profile God-fearers who have done exactly that: lie, steal, and commit adultery. Ray, what you're saying is simply not true — in other words, it's a lie!

Link: Comfort conspiracy?

UK teachers call for religious schools to be scrapped

Leaders of the UK's National Union of Teachers are expected to call for a wholly secular school system when they convene for their annual conference this week. They say that faith schools should be phased out because education is becoming segregated; they will also call for Christian assemblies to be scrapped to let schools reflect all faiths — or offer no worship at all.

Teachers will say the 7,000 state-funded primary and secondary faith schools should be stripped of their right to select pupils based on their religion. Delegates will also debate an active campaign against proposals for new faith schools

The drive would put the union at odds with government ministers, who have encouraged an expansion of faith schools and solicited sponsorship of academies by religious organisations.

Mecca mosques wrongly aligned

Muslims are anxious about the validity of their prayers after it was discovered that 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way.

All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque. But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba.

There have been suggestions that laser beams could be used to make an exact measurement.

Who stole Easter?

Did you know that, like Christmas, Easter was celebrated for thousands of years before Christianity came along?

Rather than being a Christian holiday, Easter celebrations date back into ancient history and are found around the world, as the blossoming of spring did not escape the notice of the ancients, who revered this life-renewing time of the year, when winter had passed and the sun was born again.

The early Christians founded their faith on paganism, with the celebration of the dead and risen Christ usurping a similar celebration of the dead and risen god Adonis, which was celebrated in spring.

Easter actually gets its name from the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, whose symbols were the hare and the egg; hence, the Easter bunny was originally a hare. Buns marked with a cross were eaten in honour of Eostre (the cross is thought to have symbolised the four quarters of the moon); they were later adopted by Christians to represent the crucifiction.

Link: Who Stole Christmas

'The Pope is either stupid, ignorant or wicked'

I know it's April Fools' Day, but this is serious. Richard Dawkins has described the Pope as "stupid" for claiming that the use of condoms could increase Africa's Aids problem. Professor Dawkins, the prominent biologist and atheist, has said that Pope Benedict XVI would have blood on his hands if his beliefs were followed by Catholics around the continent.

Speaking at a university in Spain, he said: "I wonder on what basis anyone can say condoms make Aids worse. The Pope is either stupid, ignorant or wicked. If people take his words seriously he will be responsible for the deaths of thousands, perhaps millions of people."

Last month Pope Benedict told reporters that condoms were not a solution and even "increase the problem" of Aids, as he arrived for a visit to Africa. In an editorial earlier this week, the Lancet, one of the world's best-known and most respected medical journals, called on the Pope to retract his statement and said his comments could be "devastating for the health of millions of people".

Meanwhile, playwright Hanif Kureishi, author of My Beautiful Laundrette, has told the BBC that 'most religious leaders are ignorant fools'.

Link: The Pope and Gays on Theology Now