Social media is abuzz with a story from The Lapine which reports:

“More than 100,000 paperback-edition Gideon Bibles have arrived in Nepal to provide relief for the millions of Nepalese desperate for help following the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has struck the country.”

Now if you don’t know, The Lapine is a satirical website, so their stuff should always be read skeptically. The ironic part of the story (and what makes for good sarcasm) is that it is not that unbelievable. Things like this have been done numerous times.

Curious as to the truth, I spoke to a representative of Gideons International this morning and was told that the organization does continually ship Bibles all across the world. However, they send them on container ships, not planes.

Concerning Nepal specifically, I was told that they had their own printing operations within the country, and that they had printed 200,000 copies of the Bible in December. Therefore, I need not worry, the Gideons in Nepal had plenty of Bibles to hand out to the victims.

It’s too bad the Gideons don’t have sandwich making facilities in Nepal.

Join me in making an actual difference in the lives of the victims of the Nepal earthquake. Donate to The Foundation Beyond Belief’s disaster recovery drive.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/brotherrichard/2015/04/the-gideons-did-not-rush-bibles-to-nepal-they-were-already-there/

The Pope has personally met with France’s proposed ambassador to the Vatican – to tell him his appointment will be blocked because he is gay.

The French government has refused to back down after selecting openly gay diplomat Laurent Stefanini to head to the home of the Catholic Church – which remains actively opposed to LGBT rights.

However, the Vatican has snubbed the country’s selection of ambassador – refusing to answer the nomination in a bid to get it withdrawn.

Pope Francis, who as the head of the Catholic Church is the sovereign of Vatican City, met with Mr Stefanini this week to personally reject him.

According to Reuters, the Pontiff met with the diplomat to tell him that he will not be allowed to become the country’s diplomat, because of his sexuality. Mr Stefanini is single, but the Pope also reportedly raised concerns about same-sex marriage.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/04/24/pope-personally-rejects-frances-gay-ambassador-to-the-vatican/

Michael Gove’s right, of course. It is time these words appeared somewhere in the Guardian, and his defence of Christianity in the Spectator provides an excellent opportunity. Christianity, he says, is now regarded in England with condescension or dismissal when not with active hostility. To say that you are a Christian is “to declare yourself intolerant, naive, superstitious and backward”.

This is obviously true, as anyone who reads the comments here knows. Muslims are undoubtedly less popular and more reviled than Christians, but it is a safe general assumption that anyone who claims their actions are informed by Christian principles will be assumed to be arguing from false premises and self-interest veiled by self-deception. If there is any moral reasoning involved, as Gove says, Christian belief is considered an actively disabling factor.

“Where once politicians who were considering matters of life and death might have been thought to be helped in their decision-making by Christian thinking – by reflecting on the tradition of Augustine and Aquinas, by applying the subtle tests of just-war doctrine – now Christianity means the banal morality of the fairy tale and genuflection before a sky pixie’s simplicities,” writes Gove.

--snip--

But the real problem is the slow drift of religion into a category separate from the rest of life and thought. Religions that work have nothing to do with faith: they are about habit and practice, and the things that everybody knows. Gove quotes the Book of Common Prayer, which I also was brought up on, and love deeply. But it’s gone now. It will never again be a book of common prayer. The more that any religion becomes distinct from the culture around it, the weaker and weirder it becomes. Of course it can flourish as an embattled and angry sect. But Christianity in England has not been like that for at least 1,000 years. Seventy years ago, TS Eliot could write that dogs and horses were part of English religion, as much as bishops were part of English culture.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/02/michael-gove-christianity-detached-british-culture