TBC NewsWatch

British Police May Allow Burka-Uniform

Telegraph.co.uk, 9/9/16, “British police force says it may allow female officers to wear burkas as part of uniform” [Excerpts]: A police force could ...allow officers to wear the full-face veil after it launched a recruitment drive to increase diversity.

West Midlands Police said it has “no barriers” relating to the burka as they announced that they would discuss allowing the traditional Islamic dress to become part of a policewoman’s uniform.

Chief Constable David Thompson said he would look into employing officers who wear the burka if the issue arose, as the force tries to increase the percentage of black and minority ethnic (BME) officers in the region to 30 percent.

The move was criticised by MPs, including David Davies, who worked as a police officer in London for nine years and told the Telegraph he is “horrified” by the suggestion.... “The burka is a symbol of oppression for women and not something that a modern police force should be supporting.”

(https://goo.gl/IBOCeJ)

Jesus Said Not To Worry-That Includes Politics

ChristianHeadlines.com, 8/17/16, “Jesus Said Not to Worry—That Includes Politics” [Excerpts]: It’s practically impossible to avoid hearing about the upcoming presidential election these days. Political talk is in the news, on social media, and in day-to-day conversations, and most of it is not very encouraging....

It’s easy to think that there has never been a more tumultuous political climate than today’s. And while we have certainly seen some unprecedented events in the 2016 election cycle, it may encourage us to remember that Jesus also lived in an incredibly tumultuous political environment.

The Romans were bearing down hard on the Jewish people, and most Jews, instead of recognizing that Jesus was bringing a kingdom not of this world, assumed that he had come to...establish an earthly kingdom.

What Jesus cares infinitely more about than our politics, however, is our hearts.

This point of view—a biblical point of view—actually frees us up to not worry and instead to focus on living out our Christian faith. After all, worry is detrimental to not only our own faith, but to serving others. Jesus had a lot to say about worry—namely, that we don’t need to do it because He cares for His children.

In Matthew 6 Jesus says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life....” It would be great to have a Christian president, but...even a Christian president will not solve our problems and take away our worry.

We must remind ourselves that this also applies to politics, and specifically to this November’s election.

(https://goo.gl/LukQIw)

Fossil DNA In Deep Seafloor Mud

ICR.org, 8/18/16, “Fossil DNA in Deep Seafloor Mud” [Excerpts]: Scientists found DNA in two undersea sediment drill cores from the Bering Sea. The researchers thought the chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) must have come from near-surface light-gathering organisms like diatoms, and not mud-dwelling organisms like bacteria. Discovering cpDNA from dead diatoms near the top of the seafloor presents no challenge, but these researchers found it hundreds of meters down. Long-age believers insist that hundreds of meters of sediment require at least hundreds of thousands of years to deposit. Given that DNA degrades relatively quickly, the team faced the significant challenge of explaining how DNA could persist long enough to get buried beneath that much sediment.

In the journal Geology, the three scientists described the DNA samples that came from various depths. Other researchers gave each an assigned age of over a million years. DNA is not supposed to last that long. Not even close.

The Bering Sea DNA they discovered joins prior finds that similarly challenge deep time. The authors briefly described examples of DNA and RNA preservation from sediments thought to be as much as 2.7 million years old. They wrote, “In general, genetic studies of material that pre-dates the Quaternary [i.e., more than 2.6 million years old] are at odds with the current understanding of DNA preservation, especially in wet environments.”

Clearly, DNA decays in hundreds of years at Earth-surface temperatures, but scientists find DNA that apparently lasted over a million years. How can this be?

(https://goo.gl/pNEAOU)