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* TRUE LOVE WAITS AND WORLD AIDS DAY - "NOW THAT WE CAN JUST DO IT, WE FIND THAT WE JUST BLEW IT". The flower power love era has been turning our societies upside down since the sixties. We’re liberated from traditional bondage. We’re thoroughly sexually free … happy, free, fulfilled, sure: free, yes really, truly … AIDS? In 1993 the US Surgeon General declared that condoms should be handed out to all high school students because ‘teens can’t control themselves’. Having more faith in teenagers than this, a Youth Pastor in Nashville Tn, Richard Ross, asked his youth group if any were willing to take a public stand for virginity. Fifty-three teens were. So was born the now 100 country strong international campaign called True Love Waits. Within a year, TLW had spread to South Africa and now, five years on, over 285 000 unmarried South Africans of all races have signed a pledge card promising sexual abstinence until marriage. Silly how free love has made true love out to be crazy. But all tides turn, and now that we’ve felt the scars of looseness, virgin’s becoming a nice word again. Young South Africans are embracing TLW vibrant message of fidelity … freedom from STD’s … enjoyment of sex within the safety of marriage … It just goes to show that we’re strong enough to face the current; to take the tough way because its the safe way. Volunteer TLW-ers go out to schools, universities, colleges, churches … wherever … to share the message. Sometimes they come just in time to stop a teen from going the inch too far. Sometimes they don’t come in time: but even non-virgins are encouraged to sign and start afresh. TLW also has a phone and letter counselling service. So, on World Aids Day, our young people need the solution to AIDS. True Love Waits has got it. It isn’t condoms : they leak. It’s abstinence ‘till the altar, faithfulness thereafter. There’s no leak in that and our 285 000 TLW cards tell you : you won’t be alone.For more information, visit our website at www.truelovewaits.org.za or write to: P.O. Box 5167, Durban, 4000 Tel: 031-5661004, ask for Dorothy, Jerusha, Sylvia, Neil or Estelle Fax: 031-5661850/38 Email: mail@truelovewaits.org.za PS: this message is also available as a TLW audio clip for World Aids Day. Send an email to TLW: mail@truelovewaits.org.za <mailto:mail@truelovewaits.org.za> with "SEND CLIP" in the subject line, to receive a RealAudio 2 minute clip of less than half a meg. Guaranteed virus free!

* GUTENBERG BIBLE ONLINE - The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in the west, is set to go on the internet in full for the first time. The British Library has collaborated with researchers from Keio University in Japan to provide electronic versions of two of the 15th century Bibles to improve access for scholars around the world, without damaging the originals. The library has two complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible - one printed on paper, the other on vellum - and putting them online will make it easier for scholars to compare the two. They are due to go on the British Library's website on Wednesday. The British Library wants to ensure the bibles last another 500 years Kristian Jensen, curator of early printed books at the British Library, said. "...We've been able to magnify them to such an extent that you can see details that it's very difficult to see with the naked eye," he added. Dom Cuthbert Brogan, prior of St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire says it is fitting that a book that marked a revolution in printing should now join the internet revolution. "With printing, we had the increase in literacy and the possibility of lots of people having a copy of the Bible, not just people who had the money to commission printed volumes," he said. "Now we have the internet doing the same thing again. We have the possibility of information not being kept to a few, but spread across the world by the Web." (BBC)

* BILLY GRAHAM BOWS OUT - Billy Graham, the world's first television evangelist, is stepping down from the ministry he founded 50 years ago. Graham, 81, has Parkinson's disease and his health is deteriorating. His son Franklin, 48, will take over. (26 November 2000, Sunday Times)

* DUTCH LEGALIZE EUTHANASIA, EVEN FOR MINORS - (The Hague, Netherlands) A 12-Year-Old Would Need at Least One Parent's Consent - The Dutch Parliament voted on 28 November 2000 to legalize euthanasia, making the Netherlands the first country in the world to allow so-called mercy killing. The bill was passed, 104-40. It still awaits the approval of the Senate, which is considered a formality. The law is expected to take effect next year. The new legislation will allow Dutch doctors to take recourse to euthanasia under certain conditions. The doctors must ascertain that the patient is enduring "unbearable sufferings," due to a terminal, medically diagnosed sickness, and that the patient wants to put an end to his life. Minors 16 or older will be able to opt for euthanasia without parental consent. Minors aged 12-16 will have to have consent of at least one parent. Under the new law, a patient will be able to make a written request for euthanasia, giving physicians the right to use their own discretion when patients become too physically or mentally ill to decide for themselves.According to CNN, Rita Marker, executive director of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, said the statute would send a signal "telling people that if it's legal, it's right." Doctors will have to submit themselves to the control of regional specialized commissions, made up of physicians who will judge whether the "diagnosis" is correct. These commissions may take a case to court, if there is evidence that the mandatory conditions were not met. The parliamentary debate that preceded the voting was intense and reawakened the old disagreement between the Christian parties and the parties of the governmental coalition of Prime Minister Wim Kok... The small Christian parties SGP and Christian Union have described the law as a "juridical monstrosity." For years, euthanasia has been illegal but tolerated in the Netherlands. According to official figures, 2,565 cases have been registered since 1998, 90% of whom were terminally ill cancer patients. (ZENIT.org, 28 November 2000)

* DOCTORS FOR LIFE REACTS TO EUTHANASIA NEWS - The organisation Doctors for Life told Christian News that the recent decision by the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament has once again proved the slippery slope argument."Over a period of 25 years the Netherlands has gone from tolerating voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill, to voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill, to voluntary euthanasia for the chronically ill, to voluntary euthanasia for the mentally ill, to involuntary euthanasia and now euthanasia for children from the age of 16 years up...With 60% of cases of euthanasia in the Netherlands being non-voluntary at this stage, the Dutch experience is proving that the so-called "right to die" always ends up with the power over life and death in the hand of the doctor and not the patient. We would therefore like to urge the Department of Health to remove the clause on active euthanasia from the proposed South African legislation.," says DFL.

* PROBLEMS WITH POKEMON - Parents, whose children are in the grips of the Pokemon craze, have called for the banning of the Tazo trading discs. This follows the death of Tongaat teenager Ajen Ramsamooch, who is believed to have left a note saying he was going to meet Ash, one of the Pokemon characters. This happened two days after Ajen told his mother that Ash had evil powers which made children kill themselves and said "But me, I can challenge Ash. I am stronger than him". Tim Mes, chief executive officer of Simba, which is involved in the Pokemon promotion, said that while Ramsamooch's death was tragic, he did not believe that Pokemon had an adverse effect on children. "The Pokemon promotion has been set down for a limited period. It will end after the festive season," he said. Sunday Tribune reports that in Quebec, Canada, a 14-year-old pupil was stabbed in a fight over Pokemon cards, while in Ankara, Turkey, a four-year-old boy was injured while trying to fly like some of the Pokemon characters. A seven-year-old Turkish girl, Seda Aykanat, jumped off a balcony and broke her leg, apparently believing she was a Pokemon character with super-human powers, reports the Mercury. Turkey's Health Minister Osman Durmus has urged TV stations to replace Pokemon cartoons with other children's programmes. Psychologist Dr Poobalan Naidoo said he had received many calls from concerned parents... "Some parents are worried about the behaviour of their children who have been locking themselves in bathrooms and saying they identify with Ramsamooch's experience..." he said. Rumours have been circulating that the Pokemons have been appearing in the toilets of schools and that they have been telling children to do weird things. (The Mercury, 16 November & 27 November; Sunday Tribune, 12 November 2000; Sunday Times, 12 November 2000)

* WILL SA HEALTHCARE SYSTEM BE LEFT WITH `RU-486' EMERGENCIES? - The controversial "abortion pill" RU-486, which became available in the US recently, ending a 12-year battle by the anti-abortion lobby, could be registered in South Africa within a month, reports the Sunday Times. Paul Cornelissen, managing director of Marie Stopes abortion clinics in SA, said the drug "...may make it easier to meet the demand for abortion. The only concern is that its use will need to be monitored closely to ensure it is done correctly. Dr Albu van Eeden, spokesman for Doctors for Life, called the drug's use barbaric and akin to Nazism. "I find it horrifying that the government has swallowed the notion that it is okay to eliminate a class of people through the use of chemicals," he said. Zanele Hlatshwayo, a senior researcher at the Johannesburg-based Women's Health Project, said licensing the drug should be supported "if it will mean that more women have access to abortion... and that it will be used appropriately and safely and the healthcare systerm is equipped to handle any emergencies that may arise from its use". (Sunday Times, 26 November 2000)

* VIETNAM PERSECUTES CHRISTIANS - (Washington BP) On the eve of President Bill Clinton's historic mid-November trip to Vietnam, a religious freedom advocate dropped a bombshell - 50 pages of secret Vietnamese government 0documents detailing oppressive policies against Christians.

Baptist Press says that although Clinton gently raised human rights issues while in Vietnam, he failed to confront the government over its brutal repression of Vietnamese Christians, Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., said. A week before Clinton's Nov. 16 departure, Shea released the secret documents, which include instructions for controlling churches, a policy against group Bible studies and a policy forbidding people to listen to foreign religious broadcasts. "These documents are the smoking gun," Shea said. "They show that church closures, arrests and Bible burnings are not isolated acts of overzealous cadres but are the policy directives of the Vietnamese Communist Party and state religious officials. They give the lie to Vietnam government claims that the state has liberalized religious freedom in recent years." (Baptist Press, 30 November)

* BIG MAC IN FOR EXCOMMUNICATION? - As Christians around the world began planning their Christmas meals, theologians in Italy were debating whether such formal and drawn-out meals were morally superior to fast-food fare. Massimo Salani declared that the invasion of Europe by McDonald's and other fast-food eateries signalled the "complete neglect of the sacred nature of food". According to him fast food seemed to correspond more with a Protestant individualism than with the Catholic tradition of community meals. One newspaper gave the story the headline "Theologian excommunicates the hamburger!" Swiss Fr Georges Cottier, the papal theologian, said "These are silly things. I don't consider it a serious argument, that hamburgers are considered `Protestant' or non-Christian". He acknowledged that eating habits were moving away from sit-down to stand-up in much of the world. "Personally, I don't like the food of McDonald's in a city like Rome, which has exquisite cooking. But it's a question of taste..." Cottier added that prayer before meals - another declining tradition - reminds people that "all this comes from God and reflects His glory". (The Southern Cross, 3 December 2000)