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CFT'S bi-weekly CHRISTIAN NEWS 15 May 2000 * CONTROVERSIAL TV SERIES FOR SA - A controversial series on local South African television pushes the limits of hard-core drama. Oz, a 16-part series set in a maximum security prison, is scheduled to start on Friday 26 at 10:30pm, on SABC3. According to the Sunday Times the series contains full-frontal nudity, body mutilation, gay sex, and masturbation. Britain's Channel Four was reportedly "too squeamish" to give the show a prime-slot, preferring to bury it in a graveyard viewing time. It had been scheduled for Sunday nights but, "in consideration to Christians", the SABC has rescheduled it for Friday nights. Ms Hanneli Becker told Christian News in a telephone interview that "in the light of the unhappiness among Christians a concession has been made" by organisers. According to Ms Becker the Sunday Times article was misleading as Oz is not pornographic but is a "serious drama on life in prison." It is not on the "Touched by an Angel" level but is a thought-provoking look at prison life. (Ms H. Becker of SABC3 can be contacted at: 011- 7145921 or 082 - 5613700) * CHRISTIAN WRESTLING - A new organisation "that hopes to express the love of God to youth all over the country in a new and dynamic way" by means of wrestling, has been opened. According to the association: "today the popularity of wrestling is at an all time high… With a show and a testimony by one of our wrestlers or a gospel presentation, we will do whatever it takes to spread the word." The new "Christian Wrestling Federation" features the slapping, snarling, and bone-rattling body slams without the vulgar language and sex. "We do all the kind of wrestling you see on TV, but leave out the parading women and all the negative stuff," Rob Vaughn, CWF founder, told The Dallas Morning News. Vaughn, who wrestles as "Jesus Freak," is a former college football player and a Sunday school teacher. Other wrestlers go by names such as "The Beast" and "Angel." ...Fans at the church seemed to love the show. "It'll get people to come to church more often," said Stephen Cade, "It's fun to watch, and it's for Jesus Christ." (see www.christianwrestling.com) * ISLAMIC KHARTOUM RESPONDS TO CHRISTIAN EVANGELIST - Phenomenal Muslim interest in six gigantic Christian rallies has stunned Khartoum, capital of the Islamic and religious state of Sudan during the days of April 24 - 29. An invitation by 148 churches, including Roman Catholic and Episcopalian, brought German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. In Khartoum attendance figures daily leapt up to 210,000. Tens of thousands waited all day in 62 degree Celsius sunshine for the evening appearance of Bonnke. The Sudan President defended permission to allow a noted Christian into the country on the grounds that Christians were in Sudan before Muslims and had a right to celebrate Easter. Officials gave every assistance, and Sudan army units guarded Bonnke day and night against possible extremist reactions. The crowds were partly Christian - generally only nominal, but otherwise mainly Muslim, despite Sudan being the only African state subject to full Sharia Islamic law forbidding conversion to other faiths. His addresses recorded on private recorders had been copied and are being sold everywhere in shops and markets around the city. Christian churches have been packed by newcomers, including many Muslims. The Evangelical Church leader felt it had changed the heart of the people. Bonnke himself predicts that the Christian message has broken through the religious parameters of the whole nation. (Christ for All Nations Press Release, 5 May 2000) * CHRISTIANS IN INDIA PARLIAMENT DEMAND END TO ATTACKS - Christian members of India’s Parliament have formed a committee to focus attention on growing intolerance of religious minorities throughout the country and demanded that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government take immediate steps to stop the attacks on Christians. The violent trend began Christmas week 1998. Incidents have occurred in states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its allies, as well as in states ruled by the opposition Congress Party. In the past week, police reported attacks by suspected Hindu extremists on three churches in Indore. Selva Kumar, a Catholic seminary student at St. Joseph’s Institute, was stabbed in the neck on May 11 when returning from a village where he has been teaching English to Dalits. Dalits are lower caste Indians who are shunned by upper caste Hindus. (Newsroom - 14 May 2000) * SUCCESSFUL PROTEST AT NEW ABORTION CLINIC - Enthusiastic ministers and staff from Pregnancy Crisis Centre joined for a week-long protest (8 - 13 May) outside the new Marie Stopes Abortion Clinic opened in Isipingo, Durban. A group of about 30 Christian ministers had contacted CFT for advice on how to organise a legal protest. Teams from the group of 30 churches protested daily outside the clinic, some in the morning, some in the afternoon, despite unpleasant weather. Some of the doctors at the Medical Centre, which had sub-let a venue to Marie Stopes, pleaded with the organisers to stop the protest, but to no avail. The protest ended on Saturday, 13 May, when about 350 people came together for a mass protest. They were addressed by the President of CFT, Rev. Fano Sibisi, the Durban Youth Mayor, Pierre Andipatan, and a number of ministers. Pastor Pubal Govender, an ex-mayor of Isipingo, will meet with fellow ministers to discuss further action. (CFT - 13 May 2000) * AMERICAN TEEN-AGERS' SPIRITUALITY - A Newsweek poll shows conflicting currents in American teen-agers' thinking about spirituality. ...Groups that offer strict doctrines have become more attractive to teen-agers and to adults, the poll found. "Where the youth movements of the '60s and '70s were liberationist, movements are now constrictionist, all about setting limits," said Wade Clark Roof, a professor at the University of California...."A lot more teen-agers are becoming willing to say, 'Hey, I'm a Christian,' " Illinois teen Jacintha Bavaro told the magazine. Her mother Laura said, "We used to pretend we were going to church and go to Dunkin' Donuts." ...But a much larger segment of the teen-age population consider the collapse of institutions an opportunity to experiment, Newsweek said. They are suspicious of absolute truth and are not embracing doctrine, but are pursuing an eclecticism that means sampling from various religious faiths to see what works for them. ...The rise of interest in religion is accelerated through the Internet, which has become a spiritual supermarket, the study found. Many teens say that "the world is a complex place, so it makes sense to look around at what else is in the marketplace," Roof said. While 78% of teens said their religion was important to them, only half attend services. (Religion Today) * PORNOGRAPHIC MINISERIES ENTITLED "JESUS" - The CBS two-part miniseries have received mixed reaction. Some have sung its praises, but AFA reviewers cite several objectionable elements observed in the advance copy of the four-hour feature scheduled for airing May 14 and 17. Included in the film were the following: About six minutes into the movie, there is partial female nudity when Mary Magdalene rises from her prostitute's bed where she has just entertained a client. Dialogue includes sexual subjects. Later in the movie, there is another sex scene featuring Mary Magdalene. Jesus is angry at God for the death of Joseph. When Mary refers to God as Jesus' father, he declares, "Joseph is my father!" John agrees to baptize Jesus if he has repented of his sins. Jesus often appears to be confused and uncertain about his ministry. Because of these and other similar scenes and/or attitudes, AFA is unable to recommend the movie. TV Guide said that many viewers might be surprised by the movie's "reexamination of scripture and other historical accounts of biblical times." The same article quoted producer Lorenzo Minoli as saying, "This is a new Christ, a very human Christ, for the new millennium." (AFA) * METHODIST VOTE SPURS GAY ACTIVISTS TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN - Gay rights activists in the United Methodist Church have vowed to launch a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience in protest of three votes on Thursday at the church's general conference in Cleveland that maintained strictures against homosexuality. "We're not interested in floor fights" or debates, said the Rev. Mel White, director of an ecumenical "gay-straight alliance" called Soulforce, in an interview with Newsroom. "We think the Holy Spirit has left the United Methodist Church as a denomination. God is for justice, and when you exclude people from a congregation, God goes out the door with the outcasts." The Methodist Church entered its quadrennial conference last week amid talk of a major split between members who defend traditional church teaching and those who believe doctrine should be informed by modern understandings of life. White's Laguna Beach, California-based group also plans to assist gay-rights groups within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Episcopal Church as they meet for their national conferences this summer. The plan is for gay-rights groups within the Methodist Church to take the kind of non-violent protests Soulforce organized at the Cleveland convention to congregations across the country that bar same-sex unions and the ordination of self-avowed homosexuals. (Newsroom, 11 May 2000) * HEZBOLLAH TELLS CHRISTIANS: KILL JEWS - OR DIE - Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist group announced yesterday it would not execute the 3,500 Christian Lebanese who have served in the Israeli militia - but only if they start killing Israeli soldiers. "If you want clemency, then once Israel retreats from Southern Lebanon, you either have to kill Israeli soldiers, or kill the commander in your militia," Naim Kasen, the Hezbollah's second in command stated chillingly, but matter-of-factly, on television yesterday. Many Christians in towns on the Lebanese side of the border have joined the Israeli militia since Israel decided almost 20 years ago to keep a military presence in the country. When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced earlier this year he would be withdrawing all of his troops from Southern Lebanon by July, the Hezbollah said it was retribution time Israel has tried to get some of the Christian Lebanese soldiers political asylum in France - but France has refused, for fear of terrorist retaliation. Israel has also offered to bring the soldiers into Israel, but most of them say they want to stay near their families in their own country. (New York Post)
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