NEWSWATCH MARCH
GOOGLE HOME GOES
SILENT ON ALL RELIGIOUS
FIGURES AFTER JESUS
CONTROVERSY
Google Home users are being
stopped from getting answers to
questions about religious figures after
it emerged the technology does not
respond to the question “Who is Jesus?”
Insisting the response was a temporary
measure being taken while different
solutions are explored, Google offered
an explanation for
what had happened.
Google Home devices contain
Google Assistant technology which
can play music, read the news and
answer questions - all in response
to a verbal enquiry. In a statement
released on Twitter, a spokesperson
said: “The reason the Google Assistant
didn’t respond with information about
‘Who is Jesus’ or ‘Who is Jesus Christ’
wasn’t out of disrespect but instead
to ensure respect.”
Users of the voice-activated digital
assistant have been expressing their
confusion and dismay after discovering
the device had been programmed to
answer questions about Mohammed
and Buddha but not about Jesus.
Source: premier.org.uk/news
ANCIENT POTTERY
SHARD FOUND IN
BETHSAIDA WHERE JESUS
PERFORMED MIRACLES
Israeli archaeologists have discovered
a small, highly decorated pottery shard,
which is about 2,300 years
old and depicts the birth of the
Greek goddess Athena, at a site
that is believed to be the biblical
town Bethsaida, where Jesus
performed miracles.
The shard was uncovered by the
Bethsaida Excavations Project at a dig
site north of the Sea of Galilee in 2016,
but the archaeologists have found out
now that it depicts the goddess Athena
springing to life fully formed from the
head of her father Zeus, as the nymph
Dione and goddess Aphrodite look on.
Source: christianpost.com
JIM CAVIEZEL IN TALKS
TO PLAY JESUS IN MEL
GIBSON’S ‘PASSION’ SEQUEL
Jim Caviezel is poised to reprise his
role as Jesus Christ in the upcoming
sequel to Mel Gibson’s The Passion
of the Christ. ICM Partners, which
represents Caviezel, has confirmed
that the actor is in negotiations with
Gibson, who would presumably
produce, direct or both. The actor,
49, first played thirty-something-
year-old Jesus 14 years ago.
Gibson indicated then that the
film might not be released until late
2019 or early 2020. Long before
then, Caviezel will appear in another
film based on the Bible: Paul, Apostle
of Christ, which Affirm Films, the
faith-based label from Sony, will
open March 28.
Source: hollywoodreporter.com
SENIOR OFSTED OFFICIAL
BACKS HEAD TEACHER
OVER HIJAB BAN FOR
UNDER-EIGHTS
Ofsted’s chief inspector has warned
of the danger posed by people who use
religion to “actively pervert” education
as she made an unusual intervention
in a dispute between parents and the
head teacher of a primary school over
banning the youngest Muslim girls
from wearing the hijab.
In a speech to a Church of England
schools conference in February,
Amanda Spielman supported the head,
Neena Lall, who imposed the ban in
January in the face of opposition from
parents and community leaders at the
predominantly Muslim state school
in east London.
Lall’s decision to ban the hijab –
on the grounds that Islamic teaching
did not require girls to wear it until
reaching puberty – provoked criticism
from local councillors and parents
who complained it had been done
without consultation.
Source: theguardian.com
Community Security Trust (CST), a
charity that monitors antisemitism,
recorded 1,382 anti-Semitic incidents
nationwide in 2017. This was the
highest tally the organisation has
registered for a calendar year since it
began gathering the data in 1984.
The breakdown of the crimes
shows the number of violent anti-
Semitic assaults increased by more
than a third (34%), from 108 in 2016
to 145. Three-quarters of all the
anti-Semitic incidents were recorded
in Greater London and Greater
Manchester, where the two largest
Jewish communities in the UK are
located. The most common single
type of incident in 2017 involved
verbal abuse randomly directed
at Jewish people in public.
Source: independent.co.uk
NORTH KOREA’S PHOTOS
OF ‘FAKE CHURCHES’ AIM
TO COVER UP ABUSE OF
CHRISTIANS
A publication has exposed several
photos of “fake churches” in North
Korea that had actors pretending
to pray in a bid to cover up the
reclusive regime’s abusive treatment
of Christians and other human rights
violations. In a report, Express said
North Korea was using photos of “show
churches” in an attempt to cover up its
human rights record. A spokeswoman
for Christian persecution watchdog
Open Doors told the publication that
the sham churches only served to
show foreign visitors that the reclusive
regime upholds religious freedom.
“In Pyongyang there are four
church buildings – a Catholic church,
two protestant churches and a Russian
Orthodox church, which was opened in
2006,” the Open Doors spokeswoman
told Express. “Defectors testify that
these churches serve as show pieces
for foreign visitors in an attempt to
prove that there is religious freedom
in North Korea.”
Source: christiandaily.com
ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS
IN UK AT ALL-TIME HIGH
Anti-Semitic hate incidents have
reached a record level in the UK,
with the Jewish community targeted
at a rate of nearly four times a day
last year, figures indicate. The
Revival Times March 2018 27