Children

vicar john parker bishop stephen cottrell

What bishop would tell a vicar: ‘You’re no longer welcome in the Church of England’?

It made the pages of the Daily Mail, so it's serious: 'Vicar resigns after being 'silenced' over a Church of England school's plan to keep an eight-year-old pupil's sex change a secret from parents', they helpfully summarise in one of…

No-fault divorce won’t end the ‘blame game’; it will just displace resentment and anger

April 9, 2019
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On the day plans were announced to reform the divorce laws in the UK to remove all reference to blame, the Daily Mail published a front page headline: 'How Boat…

give me the child birmingham school LGBT Muslim protest

Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the transgender-inculcated person

March 11, 2019
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'Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man' is a Jesuit maxim attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society…

Channel migrants: the greatest kindness we can show is to send them straight back to France

January 2, 2019
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The Bishop of Dover the Rt Rev'd Trevor Willmott has called for a kind and compassionate response to the Channel migrants – those from Iran or Iraq who are desperately…

Lowering the voting age to six isn’t a bad idea: it would give the family its rightful electoral status

December 7, 2018
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Prof David Runciman (Cambridge University) is of the view that an ageing population is creating a democratic crisis: the views of those beneath the age of 18 – the current…

A quarterback and a porn star walk into a bar…

October 8, 2018
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You might think this would be the set-up line for a bad joke, but, no, it’s for real. Amidst the typical National Football League off-season stories about murder, sexual assault,…

What if Alfie Evans had been named Ahmed Edris, and the flight were to Mecca, not Rome?

April 26, 2018
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An awful lot has been written about the tragic case of Alfie Evans; so much, in fact, that there is absolutely no desire at all to add to the mountain…

Why is gassing Syrian children with sarin or chlorine worse than blowing them to smithereens?

April 13, 2018
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The civil war in Syria is just appalling: the chaos and suffering; it's hell on earth. Hundreds of thousand have have been killed over the past seven years, many of…

Accepting more child refugees from Calais prolongs the heartache of those already in care

January 24, 2018
154 Comments

It appears that the perfidious French have ‘got one over on us’ again. Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed with President Macron to pay additional monies to assist the control…

Mandatory reporting of CofE child abuse is complicated, so let’s proceed incrementally

December 11, 2017
239 Comments

When judges are considering whether children can be returned to failing parents, they set the bar at a fairly low standard: ‘good enough parenting’ is sufficient. This approach does not…

Boys in tutus and tiara hysteria: media attack Church of England for totally the wrong reason

November 13, 2017
265 Comments

Today's furore is caused by the Church of England's declaration that unrepentant sinners will go to hell and only Jesus can save them boys ought to be able to wear…

West Midlands Police: FGM parents/cutters only prosecuted “if in the child’s best interests”

February 27, 2017
685 Comments

It has long been a cause of puzzlement why thousands of recorded cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK result in so few prosecutions and zero convictions. Now…

NSPCC Childline: rise of Corbyn and Clinton leads to rise in young people’s anxiety

October 31, 2016
167 Comments

Thousands of young people are very worried and seeking counselling from the NSPCC's Childline for unbearable levels of anxiety. Almost 12,000, to be exact. This isn't funny: mental health issues…

Infertility redefined: World Health Organization declares Sir Cliff Richard “disabled”

October 20, 2016
280 Comments

The world has gone mad. Or, rather, the World Health Organization has gone mad. Hitherto, the definition of infertility has been based on the inability of the woman to become…

Child euthanasia: Belgium administers fatal injection to terminally-ill teenager

September 19, 2016
276 Comments

With children it is usually cancer: incurable sickness, unbearable pain, debilitating, degrading misery. What child wouldn't prefer to go an be with Jesus? Belgium's Federal Control and Evaluation Committee on…

Calais unaccompanied refugee children: Welby grills and Government blathers

September 7, 2016
204 Comments

Question: "To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to speed up the reuniting of refugee children in the camps of Calais and Dunkirk with their families in…

Same-sex marriage/blessing confronts Church of England with "a structural flaw of fatal proportions"

August 30, 2016
192 Comments

We have reached Chapter 5 in the great Anglican sexuality saga: 'Church of England parishes consider first step to break away over sexuality'. It isn't clear what the dénouement…

While the Church of England becomes a safe place for children, it is hell for those wrongly accused of abuse

August 25, 2016
105 Comments

"To address the whole culture of silence in Church is vital," writes the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in the Church of England Newspaper, "it is a form of…

The destruction of Andrea Leadsom: is it no longer permissible to be proud of motherhood?

July 9, 2016
571 Comments

"I absolutely am a Christian and I am very proud of it," Conservative leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom told Channel 4 News. "And it absolutely acts in the background in…

Second Sunday of Advent: the gift of a child

December 6, 2015
124 Comments

It is this Second Sunday of Advent, and the trees are going up. It's beginning to feel a bit more like Christmas. Children all over the world are eagerly…