Every Friday Christian Concern will bring you stories of fundamental significance to Christians and our Nation. To equip you to pray and act. To put the hope of Christ at the centre of our Nation. In this editionChristian Concern - Christian Weekly News. 
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Christian Concern is pleased to be leading the Not Ashamed initiative.
Highlights, Religious Freedom, Family and Social, Sexual Orientation, Abortion, End of Life and Bioethics, Islam, International Persecution, Events 
Support Andrea and Christian Concern as she runs a Half Marathon this weekend
Dear friends and supporters
It is hard to believe that less than 3 years ago I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer not usually detected until it has spread too far. As I faced the prospect of death and not being able to raise my children I flung myself onto the Lord.
The cancer and the treatment of it ravaged my body and physical appearance. My vulnerability was complete. The starkness of a mastectomy and losing all my hair, however, was just a frail picture of the broken heart I had suffered for many years over a nation that had turned her back on the Lord Jesus Christ and all His purposes and Truths for our nation.
And so, since May, I have been training at 6am in order to increase my physical fitness. Of course, physical fitness means nothing without being sold out for Jesus, spending time with Him and serving Him. I Timothy 4: 7 -10 says:‘Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all people, especially of those who believe.’ In November, I hope to run the New York Marathon. On Sunday I am running the Half Marathon in Brighton. Marathons are a picture of how we run God’s race. It can be long and we need to train and be disciplined under Him.
At Christian Concern, we desire to serve Him, to be wise and courageous and be a voice for Jesus at the heart of national life. Thank you for standing with us.
We are only at the half marathon stage at Christian Concern. We intend to run the full marathon. Please sponsor me on behalf of Christian Concern so that we can run this marathon of life together, praying to see this nation turn back to Jesus, the Saviour of all people.
AndreaHomosexual “Marriage” in churches
On Thursday the Government made an announcement that they would allow civil partnerships to have a religious element to them and to be conducted in places of worship. In addition, a consultation will take place which will include a review on full homosexual “marriage” equality.
We believe that the Government will push hard for full homosexual “marriage”. Please see this e-mail from Government Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone to some of her supporters on Thursday.
Homosexual “marriage” has long been one of the goals of the radical homosexual rights lobby. If they succeed, then we are facing the complete re-definition of marriage and the family and the biggest social engineering experiment carried out by a Government this century. Marriage between a man and a woman has been clearly designed by God as a life-long commitment and the safest place to nurture children. The Government is proposing to re-define marriage from its biblical model to a model shaped by homosexual ideology, with potentially profound consequences.
The intermediary step of allowing civil partnerships in be held in churches would blur the distinction between civil partnerships and marriage, and although it is being promised that it will be optional for churches to participate, there is little doubt that our existing equality laws will be used and tested by homosexual campaigners to pursue discrimination claims against those ministers who decline to officiate civil partnerships in their own churches.
Please see our press release here giving an initial response to the Government’s announcement.
Please see an initial briefing here with action points. This will be revised as further announcements are made.RCOG Consultation is a sham
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has issued a consultation on its new draft abortion guidelines, which draw a number of conclusions about fetal awareness, conscientious objection and the long-term health risks of abortion which appear to be inaccurate and open to serious challenge on the basis of clinical evidence.
There has also been serious concern expressed over the lack of transparency and undue haste surrounding the process by which the new guidelines are being revised. Very few people apart from those with a close connection to the abortion industry were made aware of the consultation.
You can see the latest draft of the guidelines here.
For a detailed analysis of these developments please see these two articles by Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship:
Letter to the College President re RCOG consultation on new abortion guideline along with reply
New RCOG draft guidance perpetuates myth that abortion has few physical or psychological consequences for womenBPAS fails in bid to change law to allow women to abort at home
In a landmark judgment on Feb 14, the High Court rejected a legal bid by BPAS (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service), a major abortion provider, to allow women to take the second of two abortion pills at home rather than at a clinic.
BPAS had put forward a legal bid to loosen the law by arguing that women should be able to end their pregnancies by taking the second pill needed to induce an abortion at home. However, the Court ruled that the Abortion Act did not allow the pill to be taken by women at home.
Christian Concern welcomes this ruling as it stops an attempt to liberalise the UK abortion law and protects vulnerable mothers. For more information and comment from Christian Concern, please see here.
Friday, 18 February 2011
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