Does God's Mercy Endure Forever?

NETHERLANDS: EUTHANASIA PROPOSAL READIED FOR CHILDREN AGED 1 TO 12
from: NL Times

(13 Oct.) Terminally-ill children between the ages of 1 and 12 will likely be granted access to euthanasia, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told Parliament on Tuesday. End of life procedures carried out by doctors in the Netherlands were already possible for infants up to one year old, and for children above 12 years old.

De Jonge said that the termination of life should be possible for "a small group of terminally ill children who agonize with no hope, and unbearable suffering." It will affect between five and ten children per year who suffer "as a result in some cases unnecessarily, for a long time, without any prospect of improvement." He stressed "the great importance of the best possible care for this group of terminally ill children."

For the children referenced in the new policy, doctors are only allowed to give palliative care, like sedation, or withhold nutrition over an extended period of time until the patient dies. Doctors describe this as "a gray area" between normal palliative care and active life termination, he said, and they have been calling out for more regulation.

The party said it was inappropriate to push the significant legislation through with less than a half year remaining until the next election. De Jonge said his proposal will protect the interests of children, and will afford more transparency to the "gray area." This in turn makes physicians more accountable to parents, and provides a basis for review and assessment of individual cases, which already exists for euthanasia patients of other ages.

There was likely a majority in Parliament willing to support expanding access to end of life treatment to the age group, which is also supported the association of pediatricians (NVK) and parental groups. "In response to the position of the NVK, I want to ensure more legal safeguards for doctors who, on the basis of their professional standard, proceed with life-ending actions of children aged 1 to 12 years," he said in his four-page brief. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This sounds like everything has been well-thought-out, right? What could possibly go wrong? Well, here is what the Christian ethicist Wesley J. Smith writes about this in the National Review: "There is no reason to think the 'terminally ill' limitation will last, much less be enforced. After all, babies in the Netherlands are euthanized under the Groningen Protocol, both because of terminal illness and serious disability. Children are already subjected to terminal sedation — that is, being put in an artificial coma and dehydrated to death. Terminal sedation is not palliative care! It is slow-motion euthanasia. Dutch death doctors always use the 'gray area' excuse to expand the caste of the killable. Once death is in the driver's seat, it never hits the brakes."

BELARUS: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SURVEY, OCTOBER 2020
by Olga Glace: Forum 18 News Service

(21 Oct.) Before the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Belarus on 2 November, Forum 18 notes continuing violations of freedom of religion and belief and of interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. These have worsened amid widespread continuing protests against falsified results of the August 2020 presidential election, and against the regime's other serious violations of the human rights of the people it rules.

After the regime's falsification of the August 2020 presidential election results and violence against people taking part in the ongoing protests, public events to pray for Belarus and for violence by the regime to end have increased. The regime has increasingly used Administrative Code Article 23.34 ("Violation of the procedure for organising or conducting a mass event or demonstration") against those taking part in public prayer events. For example, Catholics organising and participating in prayer events in the street in Minsk, Grodno, Lida, and other towns have been and continue to be accused and fined under Article 23.34. As the Human Rights Centre Viasna (Spring) has documented, the same charges are also brought against people organizing and participating in peaceful political protests against the regime. Many Protestants also participate in such protests.

Regime officials are hostile towards followers of beliefs they see as a threat and the regime maintains a network of KGB secret police and religious affairs officials to ensure compliance. Restrictions include:
* restrictions on who can hold meetings for meetings for worship and where they can be held;
* difficult or expensive permission to hold large public events, and prosecutions of those holding smaller events;
* difficulty of opening places of worship, and excessive charges for confiscated places of worship still owned by the state;
* strict controls on foreign citizens who exercise their freedom of religion and belief;
* denials of permission to work to Catholic and Orthodox priests; prior compulsory censorship of religious literature;
* arbitrary and unpredictable denials of religious broadcasting;
* lack of a full, equal provision for conscientious objectors to military service; and
* obstruction of the freedom of religion and belief of death-row prisoners and their families.

As one Belarusian Protestant commented, "they have created conditions so you can't live by the law. We would need to close half our churches in order to operate technically in accordance with the law." Implementation of restrictions on freedom of religion and belief is not uniform, as the regime appears to seek to maintain control of society. Prosecutions are sporadic, but are sufficiently frequent and random to encourage many religious communities to remain within the web of official restrictions.

The regime seems to want to manage down expectations of how freedom of religion and belief can be exercised to produce static religious communities with a minimum of confrontation. This leads to some religious communities' expectations of how freedom of religion and belief can be exercised being contained within an invisible ghetto of regulation. Yet without change to both the restrictive legal framework and the attitudes of the regime and its officials, freedom of religion and belief and other human rights violations will continue. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Notice that Belarus didn't even bother to change the name of the KGB after the collapse of the USSR: its secret police-controlled state apparatus, as well as the types of restrictions on religious activity, are still intact from the Soviet era. The Belarusian Protestant's comment about it being impossible to live by the law is what we experienced living in the USSR/Russia for 17 years: the laws are deliberately so written that one must break some laws in order to survive, giving the authorities a pretense on which to arrest or exile you whenever they decide to.

ILLEGAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS CARRIED OUT AT ST. VOLODYMYR'S CATHEDRAL IN CHERSONESOS, CRIMEA
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(23 Oct.) Employees of the "Tauric Chersonesos" entity began excavations near the walls of St. Volodymyr's Cathedral, located on the territory of the Museum-Reserve, as reported by the correspondent of Krym.Realii.

On October 22, excavations were carried out in two pits near the main entrance to the cathedral, located on the side of Quarantine Bay. The pits were fenced off with ribbons and metal fences. Archaeologists working in the pits refused to comment. A construction machine was working near the excavation sites. It is also noted that in one place, the facing tiles were removed from the cathedral wall.

Earlier, local media reported that during the preparation for the renovation of St. Volodymyr's Cathedral, employees of the reserve discovered an ancient cemetery – the burial grounds of the X-XI centuries-near the walls of the cathedral. According to Anna Namoylyk, an employee of the museum-reserve, in an interview with Rossiya1 TV channel, more than ten people were buried in the excavated area of the cemetery. Up to now, the website of the Museum-Reserve provides no official information about the excavations and found artifacts.

In October of this year, the Director-General of UNESCO in his report noted the deterioration of the situation in Crimea and Sevastopol. Earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy included by his decree the Russian State Hermitage Museum, the Russian Geographical Society, the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other entities in the sanctions list, in particular, for archaeological excavations in the annexed Crimea.

Speaking at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, Former Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsa said that Russia's actions in Crimea pose a "serious threat" to Chersonesos and the Khan's Palace. After the annexation of Crimea, Russia took under its jurisdiction all objects of cultural and historical significance located on the territory of Crimea. Kyiv insists that the monuments belong to the Ukrainian people and asks to accept them under the protection of UNESCO. The UNESCO World Heritage list already includes the Tauric Chersonesos nature reserve. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Chersonesos is a former ancient Greek city that dates back to New Testament times. There is no official explanation by Russia of the reason this "Tauric Chersonesos" entity has begun excavating an ancient cemetery in Crimea. Is Russia deliberately trying to offend and arouse the Ukrainian people? The act of disturbing the remains of ancient Christians demands some explanation and this excavation work should be halted.

FEDERAL AGENCY RECOMMENDS ENDING GOVERNMENT DISABILITY JOBS PROGRAM
from: Disability Scoop

(19 Oct.) An independent federal agency says it’s time for a decades-old government jobs program for people with disabilities to come to an end. The National Council on Disability, which is charged with advising the president and Congress on disability issues, is calling for the AbilityOne Program to be phased out. The 82-year-old program funnels government contracts to a network of 500 nonprofits across the nation that make products or provide services to federal agencies. At least 75% of the direct labor hours undertaken by the nonprofits must be performed by people who are blind or who have significant disabilities.

However, in a report out this month, the National Council on Disability said the program is antiquated and is failing to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities. "The AbilityOne Program is a federally sanctioned segregated jobs system," said Neil Romano, chairman of the council. "Not only is its effectiveness in question based on our research, it is a policy relic in tension with current national disability policy." Currently, about 45,000 people with significant disabilities or blindness are employed through AbilityOne, according to NCD. And, in the 2018 fiscal year alone, the federal government allocated $3.6 billion worth of contracts to the program through a mandatory preference system. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This report goes on to tell that executive salaries have increased even while the number of people with disabilities that they serviced decreased. This program was created in the 1930s and incorporates an outdated model of merely providing simple manual labor to people with disabilities, not how to restore them to the fullest level of employment and integrate them into society. Time for it to go!

POLAND'S HIGH COURT EFFECTIVELY BANS ABORTION
from: BioEdge

(24 Oct.) A ruling by Poland’s highest court has effectively banned most abortions in a country where there are only about 2,000 legal abortions a year, but women's groups estimate that tens of thousands are performed illegally or abroad.

In an 11 to 2 decision, the Constitutional Tribunal declared that abortion due to fetal defects is unconstitutional. It will only be permitted in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother’s health and life. These constitute about 2% of legal terminations in recent years. Most legal abortions performed in 2019 in Poland were Down Syndrome babies.

The decision was immediately criticized by the commissioner for human rights for the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic, who decried it as "a sad day for women’s rights." In addition, the former liberal Polish premier and PiS critic Donald Tusk, who is now the head of the European People's party, called the timing of the abortion issue "political wickedness. Throwing the topic of abortion and a ruling by a pseudo-court into the middle of a raging pandemic is more than cynical.".

The governing Law and Justice party (PiS) will probably pass legislation banning abortions in the case of fetuses with congenital birth defects. An attempt by the PiS government to tighten the abortion law in 2016 after nationwide protests. So PiS legislators asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality of abortion for birth defects.

Few media reports looked into the Court’s reasoning. In language familiar to protesters in the US and UK over the past year or so, it condemned eugenics. It contended that terminating pregnancy due to defects of the fetus amounted to eugenics – a sensitive issue in a country which suffered so much under Nazi occupation.

The children's rights commissioner, Mikolaj Pawlak, supported the decision. He said that "eugenic" abortion amounts to "denying the right to life" as it "allows for the killing of an unborn child solely on the basis of suspicion of a serious disease." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Down Syndrome is not a disease, it can be a relatively minor birth defect. Many children born with Down Syndrome lead happy lives, are loved by their parents, and grow up to be productive adults. If we eliminate "Downies," who is next: children with autism, or dyslexia, or red hair, or the "wrong" gender, or babies of Christian mothers? Imagine for a moment that some government lined up a group of people among whom there were some who displeased the state, and executed all of those people.

China is already forcing abortions on and sterilizing Uighur Muslim women. Already, most of Planned Barrenhood's eliminated babies have dark skin. These are most definitely forms of eugenics or religiously- and racially-based genocide. It is unconscionable that this CNN article and other leftist secular-(un)humanist news outlets would twist this story into a plea for "human rights"!

ESTONIA TO HOLD A REFERENDUM IN SPRING ON MARRIAGE AS A UNION OF MAN AND WOMAN
from: Interfax-Religion

(22 Oct.) Leaders of Estonian coalition parties on Thursday signed a joint statement on holding a referendum on marriage as the union of a man and a woman in spring 2021. The statement was made in the context of crisis in the government caused by what some called "homophobic" statements by Minister of the Interior Mart Helme.

Last week, in his interview with Deutsche Welle, explaining why the government intends to hold the referendum and introduce a definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the Estonian Constitution, the Minister of the Interior said that "the state cannot survive [commentator's emphasis] without children and without morals."

Helme added that he treats homosexuals "unfriendly" and advised sexual minorities to "leave for Sweden" where "everyone looks at them politely." His statements caused discontent among a number of political and public figures, as well as crisis in the coalition itself.

Many politicians and representatives of the LGBT community demanded to abandon the idea of the referendum, which was recorded in the coalition agreement when forming the government. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: It should be obvious to everyone that homosexual relations do not produce children, so if a significant minority of people in a country adopt homosexuality, the number of births will fall far below the replacement rate and that country will eventually vanish from the earth. Once, when we rented a room through AirBNB, I commented to our hosts that homosexuals must recruit because they don't reproduce naturally: she denied this obvious fact and reported me to AirBNB, which sent me a warning that I must not make any "homophobic" comments while renting through AirBNB. No problem: I won't rent any more rooms from them until they change their foolish pro-homosexual orientation.

RUSSIA: JANUARY 2019 - JUNE 2020: LIST OF 98 PROSECUTIONS SIMPLY FOR NOT SHOWING FULL OFFICIAL NAME
from Forum 18 News Service

TEXAS ALLOWS SOCIAL WORKERS TO REFUSE CLIENTS WITH DISABILITIES
from Disability Scoop

EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT CHURCHES OF UKRAINE FAST AND PRAY FOR SUCCESSFUL ELECTIONS IN OCT. 2020
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

U.S.-CHINA SQUABBLES HURT CHINESE CHRISTIANS
from Mission Network News

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IS AGAINST EXPLOITING RUSSIAN WOMEN AS SURROGATE MOTHERS BY FOREIGNERS
from Interfax-Religion

RUSSIAN PATRIARCH KIRILL MEETS WITH HIERARCHS OF BELARUSIAN EXARCHATE
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

"HE WAS ABSOLUTELY FEARLESS" - REMEMBERING ARCHPRIEST DMITRY SMIRNOV
from Orthodox Christianity

WHERE CHINA'S BISHOPS STAND AS SINO-VATICAN DEAL IS RENEWED – ANALYSIS
from Eurasia Review

ARMENIAN ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP ACCUSES TURKEY OF BACKING 'THIRD ARMENIAN GENOCIDE'
from Christian Persecution