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CFT's bi-weekly CHRISTIAN NEWS 30 August 1999 * NO SEX EDUCATION - TEACHERS WALK OUT OF AIDS LECTURE - Scores of Gauteng teachers walked out of an HIV awareness lecture at the end July because they were offended by the graphic nature of the material. When 200 teachers were given a talk on sexually transmitted diseases and were shown slides of a graphic nature, more than half of them got up and walked out. The next lecturer spoke about contraception and sexual protection, producing a female condom. Most of the remainder of the audience of teachers then got up and left. There have been complaints that the material is explicit and embarrassing. The lectures are part of a Gauteng Education Department project on HIV/Aids education. Lecturers said that on some occasions there had been "100% walkouts." (Saturday Star, 31 July) (Ed: Won't teachers be more enthusiastic about an `abstinence-based' strategy of HIV/Aids education?) * NELSPRUIT WOMAN DIES AFTER ABORTION - A Marie Stopes clinic is to face legal action because of a woman who died due to haemorrhaging after an abortion. Dr Gulam Karim, Mpumalanga Department head of Health accused the Marie Stopes clinic and the doctor who performed the abortion of negligence. The clinic in turn blames the Rob Ferreira hospital for slackness in fetching the patient from the clinic after heavy haemorrhaging started. (Beeld, 14 August) "Legalising abortion does not make it safe," said Dr Albu van Eeden, chairman of Doctors for Life. "Studies show that 20-30% of suction abortions performed in hospitals have long-term physical side-effects affecting fertility and reproduction even if performed by qualified staff. Complications for legal abortions include hemorrhage (heavy bleeding), perforation of the uterus (puncturing the womb) and tearing of the bladder or bowels. Other physical side-effects include pelvic infection which may necessitate hysterectomy, tubal pregnancy and blood clots in the lung." * INTERNET SITES MAY ENCOURAGE SUICIDE - Internet sites advising on methods of suicide may be discouraging people from seeking help, according to the British Medical Journal (7 August). More than 100,000 sites about suicide now appear on the world wide web. Many of these seem to condone suicide and forbid anyone offering to dissuade users from taking their own lives. Some of the suicide websites are highly graphic, with copies of suicide notes, death certificates, and colour photographs. There are also electronic bulletin boards where suicide notes or suicidal intentions are posted, and one site alone has 900 postings a month. One of the sites, the so-called "Church of Euthanasia" site, is now setting up what is described as the world's first suicide assistance telephone hotline that will include touch key access to an A-Z of suicide techniques. * PROSTITUTES ARRESTED - (KwaZulu-Natal) Residents of Margate south and Ramsgate north have flooded the police's SANAB unit with complaints about the daily parades of prostitutes along Marine Drive and Main Road. They say what used to be decent areas are being given a bad name because of the prostitutes. Seven women were arrested and charged with soliciting. One was also charged with trying to bribe a policeman after she "offered R80". (South Coast Herald, 20 August) (Ed: It should be remembered that prostitution IS still illegal in South Africa.) * CHINESE STUDENTS CHOOSE ABSTINENCE - A recent survey conducted on five college campuses in Beijing, found that more than half (54%) of the capital's university students feel pre-marital sex should be "absolutely prohibited", while the vast majority have chosen to "follow the traditional moral rule" of remaining abstinent, the China Daily reported yesterday. (The Natal Witness, 28 August) * BROTHEL DESTROYED - There were fears that the bodies of up to 70 prostitutes may be lying beneath the rubble of an illegal Turkish brothel in Yalova, which was destroyed during the earthquake on 17 August, the Anadolu news agency reported. A group of six men, believed to be the owners of the brothel, have denied rescue workers access to the site, saying that the dead belong to them. (The Mercury, 24 August) * WACO REVELATIONS - Recent revelations about the FBI's Branch Davidian standoff in 1993 are fueling the arguments of Republicans in Congress who say that Attorney General Janet Reno and the Justice Department have been less than honest. After years of denying the use of incendiary tear gas grenades, capable of starting fires at the ranch Davidian complex, the FBI recently confessed to using such devices, but insisted that the fires were not ignited by them. * CHINESE ARREST 30 CHRISTIAN LEADERS IN CLAMPDOWN ON ILLEGAL CULTS" - Over thirty Protestant House Church leaders were arrested by the local Public Security Bureau during the afternoon of Monday 23 August as they met in a believer's home west of Tanghe, a county seat in Southwestern Henan Province, to receive teaching on prayer. This incident is seen as particularly serious as National Security officers were also involved in the arrests and interrogation. According to local believers, the government regards the house church leaders as leaders of cults. Thus the arrests were carried out in pursuit of the clampdown on "illegal religious cults" following the campaign against the Falun Gong group. The tight security in the run up to the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China on 1 October is also increasing pressure within the country. (CSW press release) * PUBLIC MOCKING OF CHRISTIANS IN INDIA - Mockery and denunciation of Christians in India is becoming more public. Posters and billboards liken Christian missionaries to wolves and ridicule the Bible and Jesus, Newsroom, a Christian agency, says. Inflammatory pamphlets, posters, and statements have been printed in huge quantities and widely distributed in cities and towns. One poster portrays a priest as a cat presiding over a congregation of mice and carries the message, "Do not convert, ban conversion." Priests and missionaries lie and deceive Hindus and must be punished, another ad says. "The targets were once missionaries and church institutions," the Christian Voice said. "The attacks are now directed against the Bible and our Savior [and] include blasphemies against our Lord. If they go unchecked they can only lead to further violence by criminal elements." Several Christian meetings have been cancelled in Punjab because the government said it could not provide security.(Religion Today) * CREATION CAN BE TAUGHT SAYS GORE - Vice President Al Gore shocked scientists on Thursday with a statement from his office that local school boards had the right to teach creationism, although he personally favored the teaching of evolution. "The vice president favors the teaching of evolution in public schools. Obviously, that decision should and will be made at the local level and localities should be free to decide to teach creationism as well," said Alejandro Cabrera, a spokesman in the vice president's office. The statement, in response to an inquiry from Reuters, came a week after Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush supported the teaching of creationism in public schools alongside the theory of evolution. Several hours later, Cabrera called Reuters back to clarify that "the vice president supports the right of school boards to teach creationism within the context of religious courses and not science courses." When told of Gore's initial statement, Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, responded: "My God, that's appalling!" (Reuters) * DRUNK DRIVERS' CARS SEIZED - New York City has begun seizing the cars of drunk drivers. In one month 180 cars were seized and drunk driving declined 40%. (VIW, July) * GENES EXPLAIN LAZINESS - Couch potatoes could have a new excuse for their inability to exercise. Scientists at the University of Glasgow in Scotland believe there may be a gene for laziness which could partly explain why some people just don't like or can't tolerate exercise. They are planning a study of Glasgow children to try to find a common genetic element in the youngsters who don't exercise as much as others. "There may be a link between exercise intolerance and genetic make-up which restricts or promotes exercise depending on your genes," Professor Susan Ward, the director of the Centre for Exercise Science and Medicine at the university, told The Daily Telegraph newspaper. (Reuters) * ABORTION CLINICS DECEIVE PATIENTS - Abortion clinics deceive their patients into thinking abortion has no lasting harmful effects, and should be prosecuted by state attorneys general under the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, according to David Reardon, Ph.D., director of the Elliot Institute, a post-abortion research and education group. Reardon is spearheading an effort to collect complaints against abortion clinics from women he claims were not given complete and accurate information about abortion's risks. (Maranatha Briefs) * BISHOP USES CHURCH MEMBERS TO SMUGGLE DRUGS - Middle-aged and elderly women members of the Bible Truth Church of God were duped into drug smuggling by their bishop, a British court was told. Bishop Donald Burris -- who the court heard was considered the mastermind behind the scheme but had not been arrested -- asked the women to carry the bottles home through customs as a favor. When arrested, police collected shampoo bottles stuffed with cocaine worth almost $100,000. (Newswatch)
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