Top 10 stories of 2009

The Atheist bus campaign - January

Buses with the slogan "there is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" took to the streets in several key UK cities in January 09. Public transport became the unlikely site for a debate between humanists and religious groups. Unusual and brilliant responses to the campaign included Theos think tank contributing a token amount to demonstrate that it was positive if it made people think about God at all.

 

Grim tales and doom and gloom news about the worsening credit crunch spread everywhere. It was a tale of slow improvement for most of the world in 2009. Despite occasional hints of positive climbing, unemployment was at historic highs and getting higher with each piece of news of more redundancies. Personal debt has been ever increasing and businesses of all kinds went into administration.  

 

Life Beyond Debt was the Evangelical Alliance's campaign in response to the current economic crisis. It addressed the Church's involvement in helping people out of debt and steward their money responsibly. It encourages all to think about the role that money plays in our life. Out of Life Beyond Debt came the Simplify campaign. Simplify saw hundreds of people live on less for a month in order to give away more and challenged people's lifestyles so we can become more generous. Jesus challenged us not to worry about money, but to think first of the needs of others.

 

 

The senior nurse, 45, from Weston Super Mare went through the courts in February this year after being suspended in December 08. Mrs Petrie, a Baptist, offered the prayer to a patient in her 70s on a home visit and she insisted that when refused she left the matter alone. She was reinstated in her job and was pleased to be invited back to work.

She was completely unknown and an unlikely star but her audition on Britain's Got Talent show, on ITV in April, catapulted her to a major youtube hit within days. Due to her appearance and nature it seemed unlikely that the judges would take more than one look but then they heard her sing. It was a huge talking point across the nation.

 

 

Dire warnings and huge scares of swine flu dominated the media from May onwards with warnings that half the population could fall ill and up to 750,000 people worldwide would die. The subject didn't leave the headlines for months as threats continued. The WHO declared a pandemic and millions spent on vaccines. As it stands it was less lethal than thought with 1% of the population in England had swine flu of which 0.026 % died.

 

The Government suggested that communities set up Flu friend networks at the height of the epidemic and the Evangelical Alliance inspired churches in the UK to be at the centre of these networks.

The world famous pop star Michael Jackson died in Los Angeles, aged 50, on 25 June 09. Jackson, with a history of health issues was due to make a comeback tour and play 50 concerts at the O2. There was controversy and confusion over the exact cause of his death. Being so well known and idolised over the world gave cause for the details to be explored in news across the world.

 

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi who was in a Scottish prison was released in August and allowed to go back to Libya. The Scottish government caused huge controversy with this decision stating that it was on purely compassionate grounds as he was suffering from terminal cancer. Further controversy and fury ensued when he received a heroes welcome on arrival in Tripoli, Libya. Many were appalled that a man responsible for the loss of 270 lives in the Pan Am jet bombing could go free.

This case got people discussing justice and compassion.  Kenny Macaskill said that Megrahi was now 'being judged by a higher power'. A discussion of these comments on Newsnight saw Justin Thacker, the Evangelical Alliance's Head of Theology, say: "The notion of justice leads us to have compassion, for instance compassion for the victims of crime. But also our compassion leads us to pursue justice at the same time so the relationship between compassion and justice is not simply one of opposition but they can actually relate and reinforce one another at times. Holding them in tension is part of what we try to do in creating a fair judicial system"

Copenhagen Climate Summit – December

 

The UN conference meeting in Copenhagen aimed to thrash out a global deal on climate change. The summit held 7-18 December was the biggest environmental meeting in history with the aim of sealing a worldwide deal to head off dangerous global warming - any rise over 2 degrees C. Hopes were high before the meeting and thousands marched in London as part of 'the Wave' protest to demand that the British Government put it high on their agenda and push for an agreement.

Sadly there were no firm or binding agreements made on emission cuts so it was a bit of a failure. Funding for developing nations to adapt to climate change was also in contention with 10 billion a year agreed but at least 100 billion a year required.