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CFT's bi-weekly CHRISTIAN NEWS 15 December 1999 * CHEAPER, FASTER AND `SAFER' ABORTION METHOD IN SA - Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, SA Minister of Health, handed out certificates to about 90 nurses who have been trained in the new MVA (manual vacuum aspiration) procedure. Through it a pregnancy of less than 6 weeks can be terminated within ten minutes, without the mother being anaethetised or admitted to hospital. The procedure would be used at community health centrums, relieving state hospitals' burden. Nurses from all nine provinces have been trained to apply the new method. (Beeld, 10 December) * BRITISH CHURCHES DECLINE IN MEMBERSHIP - "Religion is dead," declares a controversial slogan appearing on billboards across Britain. "God isn't religious - why should you be?" The poster campaign is aimed, not at trashing Christianity, but at arousing peoples' dormant faith ahead of the year 2000, a time when statistics show British church attendance is in its worst decline ever. (Daywatch) * JAMES BOND NATIVITY PLAY - In an attempt to make the Christian faith "relevant" 2,000 years after Jesus' birth, a British church is planning a nativity play with a James Bond theme, featuring black-clad "special agent" angels engaged in "Operation Emmanuel." Earlier plans for the angels to be armed with guns were abandoned after negative media publicity. (Daywatch) * GREEK CHRISTIAN RADIO CLOSED - Police shut down an evangelical radio station in Athens, Greece, Dec. 2. Twelve officers raided the administrative offices of the Biblical Circle, a nonprofit organization that runs Channel Station 2000 Radio, Compass Direct News said. Police arrested retired pastor Lakis Regas, 73, who was working as a technician. Regas spent the night in jail and was released the next day by a judge's order. "We have been operating and proclaiming the Good News of Christ for 11 years without any problem," station director Thanos Karbonis said. "Channel Station 2000 is very fruitful. It has brought many people to Christ." Greek authorities accused the station of not having a proper operating license, but free radio stations are routinely denied licenses, Compass said. Karbonis said he believes the Greek Orthodox Church is behind the "censorship operation" and that anti-Protestant sentiments seem to be on the rise in Greece. (Religion Today) * COLSON CRITISES `LIFE' ARTICLE ON JESUS - Charles Colson, a leading Christian commentator in the US and director of Prison Fellowship Ministries, has sharply criticised Life magazine's latest article ""2000 Years of Christianity." According to Life, the true miracle of Christianity is that a "bruised, battered and divided religion" somehow managed to survive to the eve of the third millennium. Colson writes: "This so-called history" reflects not just a bias against those who practice the Christian faith, but an appalling ignorance. We need to understand the sad truth that most of our non-Christian neighbors simply have no idea about Christianity's contribution to culture. They don't understand that it was Christian values and Christian teaching about liberty, law, and virtue that made western civilization possible in the first place. Instead, they've been told that Christianity is merely one contender among many competing belief systems. And some have even accepted what critics have charged the claim that Christian beliefs are the cause of suffering and evil in the world today." (BreakPoint) * RIGHTS EXTENDED TO FOREIGN-BORN GAY PARTNERS - The South African Constitutional Court ruled that foreign-born partners of homosexual relationships must have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts regarding access to citizenship of South Africa. Reading extracts from the judgment, Mr Justice Laurie Ackermann said the law, as it stood, fomented homophobia. "The rights of equality and dignity were found to be closely related in the present case and it was held that the section reinforced stereotypes of gays and lesbians... This conveyed the message that gays and lesbians lack the inherent humanity to have their families and family lives in such same-sex relationships respected or protected, and constituted an invasion of their privacy". The home affairs department policy, in terms of the Aliens Control Act, allowed the heterosexual partners of South African citizens, but not the partners of gays and lesbians, to apply for permanent residence. (The Mercury, 3 December) The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality sees the Constitutional Court's ruling, that foreign partners of homosexuals may apply for permanent residence, as the first step towards legalising gay marriages. * GAY COUPLE NOW PARENTS OF TWINS - (London) A gay couple became the proud fathers of twins this week. The children were born with the help of a surrogate mother. The men, Barrie Drewitt and Tony Barlow are the first gay couple in Britain to get children in this way. The twins - a boy, Aspen, and a girl, Saffron will now be registered with two fathers and no mother. (Beeld, 13 December) * BRITISH ELDERLY STARVED TO DEATH - FOR LACK OF HOSPITAL BEDS - Elderly patients in some British hospitals were dying because they were being withheld food and water in what amounts to involuntary euthanasia, doctors said. Families and hospital staff have complained about the treatment of elderly relatives. SOS National Health Service Patients in Danger, a pressure group of concerned family members, are planning to take the cases of 50 patients who died to the European court of human rights. A geriatrics specialist at a London hospital said involuntary euthanasia was occuring in government-funded hospitals because of lack of beds. (The Mercury, 7 December) * ISLAMIC LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN NIGERIA - Nigeria's attorney general declared unconstitutional the implementation of Islamic law as planned by six northern Nigerian states. The statement follows widespread protests against the states' actions by Christians in Nigeria. He did not say what the Nigerian government would do if the Muslim governors in the six states did not back down, as indicated by some who insist that theirs is a divine mandate. (Daywatch) * HOMOSEXUAL BOOKS BURN IN UGANDA - The Christian non-governmental agency World Vision (referred to as "fundamentalist" by the Sunday Times) has burnt more than 500 books which it said contained gay material. Donors in the US reportedly sent the books to World Vision Uganda for distribution in schools. Homosexuality in Uganda is punishable by life in prison. It is described as an "offence against the order of nature". Last month a school expelled four boys accused of homosexual behaviour, and leading Ugandan clergymen issued a statement condemning homosexuality. Pastor Michael Kyazze has accused the US government of promoting homosexuality in Uganda. (Sunday Times, 5 December) * WOMEN `PROGRAMMED TO END MARRIAGES' - A US researcher claims to have studied husband-wife relationships in 62 countries for 15 years. According to Professor Helen Fisher, a divorcee and professor in anthropology at Rugers University, women will always be more likely than men to end a marriage within the first few years after their wedding. According to Fisher women are prompted to find a new partner because "their genes tell them that children fathered by a series of men, creating a multiplicity of talents, stand a better chance of survival. Her research revealed a pattern of courtship, marriage, adultery and divorce lasting only four years. Fisher conceded that many marriages last a lifetime, but said these were relationships in which love, after its four-year expiry date, had been replaced by affection and friendship. (Sunday Times, 5 December) * A VEGETARIAN JESUS - Christian and Jewish theologians in the UK say there is no firm evidence in the Bible that Jesus was a vegetarian - despite such claims by a British animal welfare group which has caused controversy in Northern Ireland over its advertising campaign with the slogan: "Jesus was a vegetarian. Show respect for God's creatures - follow him." Its other slogan, used on its web site, is: "Jesus was not a butcher: he was the Prince of Peace." Dr David Hillborn, theological adviser to the Evangelical Alliance, said it was inconceivable that Jesus, as a scholarly Jew, would have shunned meat. "He would have followed the dietary guidelines of Orthodox Jews and would not have eaten pork, but he would certainly have eaten other meat," he said. "Jesus observed a tradition where animals were not only eaten, but sacrificed. There is no record of him objecting to the sacrifices or to the consumption of meat." Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok of the University of Wales, a vegetarian, said that if Jesus had been a vegetarian he would not have given others fish. "A vegetarian would have given out carrots, not fish," he said. (Sunday Times, 5 December) * A `TAKE AWAY' CHRISTMAS MESSAGE - The First Church of the Nazarene in Little Rock, Arkansas, is closing its parking lot to set up a drive-through Nativity scene for those who want to experience the "true meaning of Christmas" but don't want to leave their cars. The church expects about 10 000 people to take the 15-minute drive. Motorists pass through nine scenes illuminated with candles, each telling a part of the Christmas story. Many churches have had to turn to secular-style marketing efforts to attract a crowd, according to Carla Johnson, professor of communications at St Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. She says that outdoor morality plays dates back to the Middle Ages, "It's a way of reaching a culture that's more visual than literate". (Natal Witness, 14 December)
CFT's `Christian News' staff pray that you and your family would be richly blessed this Christmas and New Year. "FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN..." Is 9:6 |
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