News and Prayer Update
Monday PrayerCast 6th June 2022.
It’s Monday morning, 6th June 2022, and it’s the beginning of Summer, and this is the regular Monday PrayerCast – where we take a look back over some of the recent news and events in Northern Ireland and further afield, with a Christian worldview.
Let’s start this report with a quick round-up of some of the news that you probably won’t have heard on the mainstream media. Here’s the headlines…
In England an abortion clinic belonging to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) – in Tipton, Sandwell, was inspected by the “Care Quality Commission” who found that [quote] “Pregnancy remains which should have been stored in a freezer were left in an unsecured cupboard at an abortion clinic.” For “pregnancy remains,” read murdered babies. Left in a cupboard to rot, for up to two weeks, at room temperature. That’s what they call, ‘healthcare.’ How do people imagine that anyone who operates an abortion clinic cares one iota about anyone’s health?
In the USA the toy manufacturer Mattel has produced a transgender Barbie. One can only wonder what that looks like. The doll is allegedly a tribute to someone called Laverne Cox, an LGBT actress who turned 50 on May 29. The doll is part of a collection of dolls that Mattel have called ‘Tribute.’ There’s even a Queen Elizabeth II Barbie in the collection. Who’d have thought it, the Queen compared with a LGBT thespian.
Let’s do some NI Items…
Belfast Live, a news website here in Northern Ireland reported last week that Monkeypox cases had doubled in NI. The headline screamed, alarmingly, “Monkeypox – Northern Ireland cases rise as Public Health Agency warn of symptoms.” It was true though. Monkeypox cases did double… from ONE to TWO! I’m sure we will have more scary monkey business as the summer progresses, and the open air events season aids contagion…
Here in Ulster, Abolish Abortion NI, one of the local anti-abortion groups has issued a statement on social media, noting that Sarah Ewart has been awarded the OBE. In their post, the organisation says, “In 2018 Sarah Ewart took a case against the laws in Northern Ireland that protected the life of children in the womb. Her case revolved around the fact that she had to travel to England to have her disabled child put to death…. In yet another example of how sin sick our nation is Ms Ewart has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘services to Abortion Legal Reform in Northern Ireland.’” The citation reads, “For services to Abortion Legal Reform in Northern Ireland.” Sick indeed.
Up in the Maiden City, – Derry/Londonderry, parents have complained that a wall in the children’s department of Altnagelvin Hospital has been decorated with a display containing LGBT and transgender propaganda. The website Gript reported, “The display featured the controversial ‘Genderbread Person’ diagram — an ’educational tool’ which teaches children that gender is decided in the brain and is not related to anatomy, along with a poster which read ‘love has no gender’ and a list of ‘gay icons’ and ‘LGBT trailblazers.’” It’s significant that, these perverse messages are being aimed at children. One parent who had taken her child to the hospital was appalled by the blatant promotion of transgender ideology. She commented, “Seeing this at the hospital, I’m so afraid now,” she said. “If my child visited that hospital, what are they going to try and teach my child when I’m not there? I don’t feel safe as a parent, I don’t feel comfortable, and quite frankly, it makes me feel scared.” I ask, “What business has a hospital, to be teaching children sexuality. Hospitals are about caring for the sick, not indoctrinating small children.”
In a sick video, circulated on social media, a large group of drunken men and youths are seen singing about the death of Michaela McAreavey. Mrs McAreavey and her husband John had just been married in 2011, and had gone on honeymoon to Mauritius, where she was brutally murdered. The video is poor quality, and thankfully the words are difficult to make out, but the video seems to have been shot in an orange hall, and the banner of Dundonald Purple Vine LOL is clearly visible on the wall. Mrs McAreavey came from a well known nationalist family with connections to the GAA, – a Catholic, Nationalist sporting and cultural organisation. While I have no time for the GAA, to mock the death of a young woman is shameful and spiteful, and should have no place in any decent society, never mind on premises that are supposed to promote the protestant faith. The Bible teaches us in Romans 12:15 that we are to, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” That includes our Catholic neighbours. In a statement, the Orange Order has condemned the video. Belfast Live reports the Order as saying, “The video currently circulating on social media relating to the murder of Michaela McAreavey is utterly abhorrent and the Orange Institution condemns the content without reservation.” An investigation by the Orange Order is underway, and if any members are found to have been present they will be disciplined.
Let’s continue our watchfulness with respect to the food supply restrictions that are slowly but surely looming over us. The World Economic Forum annual meeting at Davos concluded with an appeal for a reduction in meat products and a dire warning about climate change. People should urgently bin the barbecue, forego the frying pan, and eliminate the eye-level grill, and embrace veganism. They want us to give up meat and eat grains and seaweed and cacti and other ‘climate-friendly meals. So, back in the UK, the socialist government in Wales is completely WEF compliant. Schoolchildren in Wales are being fed insects as part of a public-funded university study initiative “to educate students on the environmental and nutritional benefits of edible insects across the UK,” according to left-wing newspaper ‘The I.’ Save Britain dot com reported that a study being conducted at the University of Cardiff, is following the introduction of the insect based diet. One of the academics involved, “Verity Jones of the University of the West of England, appeared to imply in comments to I that one of the goals of the research is to weaponise children as “agents of dietary change” against their parents.” And, right on cue, the spate of attacks on food processing plants in the USA continues relentlessly. At the end of May one of the largest egg factories and a major grain supplier were both destroyed by fire, continuing the series of arson attacks on the American food chain. Back in the UK, we are due to lose around one million tons of wheat from our national grain harvest, because of the government’s policy of paying farmers to stop farming, and turn their arable farmlands into forests and wildflower meadows – the so-called re-wilding programme.The Belfast Telegraph is reporting that restaurants are having to remove steak from their menus. The blame is being directed at rising food prices, which the paper claims is due to the war in Ukraine. There’s no doubt that Ukraine contributes a huge amount to the world’s overall grain harvest, and fertiliser comes from the region too, but the real blame lies with the western sanctions, which are hurting us much more than they are hurting Russia.
Again, here in Northern Ireland, the Belfast Telegraph is reporting that restaurants are having to remove steak from their menus. The blame is being directed at rising food prices, which the paper claims is due to the war in Ukraine. There’s no doubt that Ukraine contributes a huge amount to the world’s overall grain harvest, and fertiliser comes from the region too, but the real blame lies with the western sanctions, which are hurting us much more than they are hurting Russia. You can’t help thinking it’s all part of the WEF’s anti-food agenda. As they say in Davos, “Build Back Better.”
God’s plan for the family, for human sexuality is not only the perfect moral standard for mankind, it is the practical answer to many of society’s problems today. Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6 “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. In NI at present the rising cost of living is bringing a surge of reports of children going hungry because of the rapidly increasing food prices. The cry is to pour more money into the problem, – and that may help on a short term basis. Now, this may not be popular, but surely the real answer is to get back to a society that values the two parent family, a mummy and a daddy, rearing their family together, working hard to make things better for their kids, and not just depending on handouts and dole money. The two parent, mum and dad family is the most important building block of human society, and as such, it should be nurtured and protected and encouraged. Lets pray for what society really needs. Biblical ethics, biblical morality, a return to God’s design for the flourishing of mankind.
Today’s Grace Gem is from Alexander Smellie
Smellie quotes Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom!” He calls this, the wisest form of arithmetic, and comments, I number my days aright, when I feel their fewness, when I recall their uncertainty, when I compare them with the unchangeableness of God. And I number my days aright, if I think of them in relation to the limitless future… As short as they are, my years prelude an unimaginable, deathless existence … let me be diligent in my Father’s business.
Let’s pray…
Our Heavenly Father, we praise you for your greatness, your holiness, your power. We acknowledge before you that you are the God who created and who sustains this world and everyone and everything in it. We have been thinking about this world, and about those who are influencing it, and we pray for justice and mercy and peace to prevail throughout your creation. Lord, we thank you that you did not only create the world but you ordained how mankind should live in relationship upon it. We pray for the restoration of biblical marriage, and the proper upbringing of children. We pray for the persecuted church, throughout the world and we seek your protection upon those who belong to Christ, and who are in danger for their witness for him. Especially we think of women and girls who are being abducted and enslaved in Africa. We long for their release and pray for their safety. Father, we acknowledge also our own faults, being too eager to have a quiet life, without being concerned for others. Forgive us we pray, and help us to be diligent, in going about the business of Christ’s kingdom.
That’s all for now! Catechism class is tomorrow – Tuesday at 1pm, and there should be a sermon podcast on Saturday.
Don’t be discouraged, – let’s keep watching, and keep praying, for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world…
The Salty Scrivener 