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SUMMER 2012
13
women free morning-after pills during
the Christmas party season.
With a photo of the word “sex” lit up
in Christmas tree lights on its website,
the British Pregnancy Advisory Service
(BPAS), which boasts on its website
that it is Britain’s largest single abortion
provider, offered women a chance to
get free morning-after pills and
condoms sent to their homes after they
answer a few questions to ascertain
their “medical suitability” after a 15-
minute medical consultation.
A spokesman said the agency saw more
women with an unplanned pregnancy
in January than any other time of the
year.
But, pro-life groups say that not only is
the campaign “vulgar,” according to
Josephine Quintaville of the ProLife
Alliance, but it will lead to other
problems.
Christian Post
Register, voters urged
An inter-religious body of minority
faiths has staged a nationwide drive to
get millions of Malaysians to register to
vote, ahead of expected general
elections early this year.
At a recent press conference, the
Malaysian Consultative Council of
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism,
Sikhism and Taoism said there are as
many as 4.3 million eligible voters in
the country who are not on the
electoral roll.
“If you don’t register and vote, it’s like
saying you don’t care how your country
is run,” said the council’s president
Daozhang Tan Hoe Chieow in Kuala
Lumpur.
UCA News
Fury over free pill
The largest women’s health services
provider in Britain enraged pro-life
groups before Christmas by offering
“Our Christian identity has been
insulted”, said Pastor Samuel King,
president of the Pakistan Minorities
Movement (PMM). The group had
previously confiscated 1200 pairs of
shoes, inscribed with a cross and
Christmas symbols, from a shop. Its
owner was arrested on November 26
but freed by police after three days.
Christians have pointed out the
hypocrisy of Pakistan’s controversial
blasphemy laws, often used to victimise
minorities to carry out personal grudges
or business rivalries, but which do not
protect minorities.
UCA News
Confession goes green
The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council
in India has announced that Catholics
should include sins against the
environment when they visit the
confessional.
Father Stephen Alathara, spokesman for
the KCBC, said: “Any exploitation of
nature amounts to sins against God.”
He added that the directive would be
included in a pastoral letter to be
circulated among dioceses this month.
UCA News
Kashmir Christians afraid
A fact-finding mission to India's
Kashmir Valley has found that Muslim
leaders' increasingly shrill opposition to
conversions has instilled fear among the
Christian minority. “Christian men,
women and children are in a state of
panic, fearful of their security,
uncertain of the future, uncertain of
their jobs,” team member Dr. John
Dayal told
Compass Direct News
.
The Rev. Chander Mani Khanna,
pastor of All Saints Church in Srinagar,
was arrested in November on charges of
hurting religious sentiments of Muslims
after several youths were baptized; he
was released on bail on December 1.
At the same time, said Compass, a
sharia (Islamic law) court has reportedly
summoned the Rev. Jim Borst, a Dutch
Catholic missionary, to appear on
charges of proselytising and “forced
conversions”.
Assist