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Christian News 31 December 2000 * KIDS PREFER SANTA TO JESUS - The story of Jesus appears to have been rejected by kids in favour of Santa, with only 8% of children now associating Christmas with religion. The story of the nativity was soundly beaten by the present-bearing charms of Santa, with 67% of children saying they associated the holiday period with presents. A survey by media buying agency MediaCom TMB asked 1,200 eight-to-16-year-olds to nominate one or more of five options as the thing they most associated with Christmas. Presents topped the poll, followed by family and school holidays. Religion only just beat TV, which racked up 7% of the vote. There was some slightly better news for traditionalists with 40% of children commenting that Christmas was a time for the family. However the Rev Jonathan Jennings, a spokesman for the Church of England, said that the picture was much more positive than the survey suggested. "Our experience through school curriculum and community groups is that most children are aware of the nativity story and the importance of that to the Christian faith," he said. "The fact that a film like The Grinch with its important underlying counter-commercial message is so successful indicates that children are more sophisticated than this survey suggests." MediaCom TMB monitored the attitudes of children to help it plan advertising campaigns for clients such as Volkswagen and Nokia. (The Guardian, 12 December) * COURT REJECTS SUIT TO OUTLAW CHRISTMAS - For the second year in a row, Richard Ganulin has lost a lawsuit challenging Christmas as a national holiday. But he isn't giving up. Next he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw Christmas as a holiday. "It's not that I'm against Christmas," insists the Cincinnati lawyer. "I'm seeking the dignity of equality for non-Christians." The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the week before Christmas that Christmas is a legal federal holiday in the United States. The court upheld a decision issued just before Christmas 1999 by Cincinnati U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott. Government attorneys defending Christmas as a holiday said courts have repeatedly recognized the secular aspects of Christmas, such as Santa Claus and Christmas trees. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which intervened in the case on behalf of three federal employees who want Christmas to remain a federal holiday, praised the Sixth Circuit decision and said it came "just in the Nick of time." "I'm going to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court," said Ganulin, who admits his chances are remote. "I hope the Supreme Court rules in my favor, but I'm a realist." Sixth Circuit judges Boyce Martin, Ralph Guy and Guy Cole didn't explain their ruling except to say they agreed with "the reasons set forth in the district court's opinion." (Cincinnati Post) * TV FILM AIMS FOR TRUE STORY OF JESUS - The search for the historical Jesus has turned into a mild war of television specials. After Peter Jennings' "The Search for Jesus" transfixed nearly 17 million viewers of ABC in June, a major Christian ministry (Coral Ridge Ministries) has produced the counter-film "Who Is This Jesus". The two-hour ABC film interviewed liberal scholars of the Jesus Seminar, who have said Jesus was a political dissident or faith healer who was exaggerated as divine by biblical authors. The new one-hour film casts doubt on the Jesus Seminar and asks orthodox biblical scholars to explain why Gospel stories about Jesus - born in a manger, crucified and raised from the dead -may be historically accurate. Coral Ridge Ministries film producer Jerry Newcombe said "We want to show that there are a lot of credible scholars who hold to foundational Christian beliefs." The TV debate reflects one that already has arisen in publishing and the news media, which gave extensive coverage to the Jesus Seminar in the early 1990s.The seminar's members met and voted on which parts of the four Gospels were historically accurate and concluded that only 18 percent of Jesus' words recorded in the New Testament were truly spoken by Him. Princeton Theological Seminary biblical scholar Bruce Metzger, who appears in the new film, said about the Jesus Seminar: "Some of them start with a 'criticism of suspicion', rather than a neutral approach". The new film is hosted by actor Dean Jones and features the Rev. D. James Kennedy, a Presbyterian minister who heads Coral Ridge Church and its ministries. Kennedy said that liberal biblical scholars "assume the supernatural is impossible" and so interpret the historical Jesus as only a wise man or political rebel killed by the Romans. Scholars who accept the supernatural, he said, find plenty of historical evidence for Jesus' Messianic claims, miracles and prophecies fulfilled in his Bethlehem birth and death on the cross. (The Washington Times) * JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CAVE BELIEVED FOUND ON EAST BANK OF JORDAN RIVER - (Amman) A cave unearthed in 1999 under the remains of a fourth century Byzantine church on the east bank of the Jordan River was the winter home of the Christian New Testament prophet John the Baptist, project director Mohammad Waheeb said. But experts are still investigating the identity of a human skull found near the cave to determine if it could also belong to John, who the Bible says was the cousin of Jesus Christ, Waheeb told AFP. He was commenting on a report published by Al-Dustour newspaper, which said the skull found near the cave in Jordan's Wadi Kharrar "could be that of St. John the Baptist". "Research has determined that the cave belonged to St. John the Baptist, but experts led by Dr. Abdullah al-Nabulsi are still examining the skull," Waheeb told AFP. "... the region of Wadi Kharrar was inhabited by many a hermit," he said. Wadi Kharrar, located just east of the Jordan River and opposite Jericho was known in antiquity as Bethany Beyond the Jordan. Further east is located the biblical site known as Machaerus, where John the Baptist is said to have been beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. According to Waheeb the cave carved into the rock was dated to the 1st century A.D. and the skull was found and the skull was found "directly next to the cave, buried on its own," he said. Remains of three other ancient churches were found around the cave, demonstrating the "sacredness" of the site, where Waheeb and the Jordanian ministry of tourism say Jesus Christ was baptised. (AFP, 27 December 2000) * CHRISTIANS KILLED FOR REFUSING ISLAM - Christians in the Maluku islands have been forced to convert to Islam, with nine people killed for refusing, the provincial governor has confirmed. Saleh Latuconsina said the Islamisation took place on two islands, Kesui and Teor. Mr Saleh, who is the Governor of Maluku, made the statement after meeting with members of a joint team assigned to investigate a clash on Kesui island. The joint team found evidence indicating the islanders had been forced to convert religion, he said. Earlier in December, Sammy Waileruni, a lawyer with the Maranatha Christian centre in Ambon, said refugee reports indicated Muslims on Kesui - backed by the militant Jihad (Holy War) Force Islamic group - had slaughtered 93 Christians since late November for refusing to convert to Islam. But Mr Saleh said that "only nine people" were killed during the forced conversions on Kesui. Latest church parish statistics put the total number of Catholics on Kesui and Teor islands at 1900. The British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide said in November Muslim militant forces, many from outside the Malukus, had threatened that "there will be no church bells ringing in Ambon by Christmas". Mr Saleh said the joint investigation team had evacuated 172 residents from Kesui and Teor. "Sixty-three were from Kesui island and 109 from the island of Teor. There are still some 800 people who need to be transported off the islands, 700 of whom are Kesui islanders," the Jakarta Post quoted the Governor as saying in Ambon, the province capital. (AFP, 23 December 2000) * CHINA BLOWS UP CHURCHES IN RELIGIOUS CRACKDOWN- Authorities in eastern China have shut down, and in some cases blown up, 450 Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as Taoist and Buddhist temples, officials said Tuesday. The campaign launched in mid-November in the eastern province of Zhejiang was aimed at wiping out "illegal" religious groups which had not registered with the State Administration for Religious Affairs, they said. (RWN, 12 December 2000) * CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS TO TARGET DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY - (Sacramento) Children attending California government schools will soon be taught explicitly to avoid "discriminatory attitudes and practices" toward homosexuals in accordance with two new state laws that fund revised curriculum and unspecified "tolerance" programs. Assembly bills 1785 and 1931 were both passed in the Democrat-run legislature by a one-vote margin. While the latter went into effect immediately upon receiving a signature by Gov. Gray Davis on Sept. 30, the former goes into effect on Jan. 1...The bill also requires schools to report "hate-motivated incidents and hate crimes" to the Department of Education, which in turn shares such information with the Justice Department. While the author of the bill focuses on hate-crimes reporting, critics point to what they say is "far-reaching language" that will promote homosexuality and bisexuality to shape the attitudes of schoolchildren." Pointing to provisions in the bill that authorize "coordination" with "private agencies," political activist Randy Thomasson said, "The bill will also empower homosexual organizations to come into the public schools." (WorldNetDaily.com) * PLANNED PARENTHOOD BLAMED FOR ENCOURAGING TEEN SEX ACTIVITY - Washington - A report published by the research affiliate of Planned Parenthood, suggesting a more liberal definition for abstinence and calling for the collection of more data on teen sexual activity, is a thinly-veiled, long-range business plan for selling contraceptives, according to CNSNews.com. The Alan Guttmacher Institute published the report in a November/December newsletter. "Given the amount of federal and state money going into abstinence education, the lack of a consensus on whether and how to specify the behaviors to be abstained from, warrants close examination," wrote the report's author, Lisa Remez. Conservative groups see the report as an attempt to change the definition of abstinence and are urging the Republican Congress and President-elect George W. Bush to restrict federal spending on programs that benefit groups like Planned Parenthood. "A lot of [members of Congress] need to understand when these programs come up for funding, it includes things like what this [abstinence] study is trying to say, that even oral sex is considered abstinence. Congress needs to understand what it's voting on," said Wendy Wright, communications director for Concerned Women for America. Ed Szymkowiak, national director for the American Life League's STOPP International division, said the real motive of Planned Parenthood is to make money. "If you look at their basic game plan, birth control makes them the most money," said Szymkowiak. "When abstinence programs first became known in the early 1990s, Planned Parenthood fought tooth and nail against [them]," says Wright... "What ended up happening is abstinence has been wildly popular as a curriculum ... so Planned Parenthood has changed the definition so that abstinence is no longer abstinence until marriage but until you feel like having sex," Wright said. (BP, 29 December 2000) * IN PHILIPPINES, NET IS DIVINE - ``Church services'' has taken on a whole new meaning in the Philippines, where the Roman Catholic Church has become the nation's leading Internet service provider. The church has long been a political force in the Philippines, Asia's only predominantly Catholic country. Now, its voice is growing even stronger as it introduces Internet access across this poor land. Even villages that don't yet have reliable telephone service are getting networked to the globe thanks to the church. It is an experiment in how the latest in communications technology can transform the lives of the very poor. And, not accidentally, it gives the church one more means to spread its message. ``We call this `e-vangelization,' '' said Monsignor Pedro C. Quitorio III, the Internet guru for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). ``We believe there is a strong role for information technology in expanding the reach of the church.'' The church has constructed the nation's most comprehensive Internet backbone, running the 1,000-mile length of this far-flung archipelago. Eventually, CBCPNet, as the church-run entity calls itself, intends to wire every diocese, parish house and parochial school in the country. In partnership with private companies, it is also setting up Internet cafes around the country to give the nation's urban poor access to the Internet. Because it operates as a non-profit operation, CBCPNet charges less than commercial providers. Most users buy prepaid cards that allow them to surf for up to seven hours for 100 pesos, or $2. That's about one-third less than commercial services. The church is attempting to provide only its version of the Internet - free of violence, gambling and pornography. When typing in the Internet address for a Playboy Web site, the computer almost immediately displays this admonition: ``Thank God you were not able to enter that bad site. CBCPNet suggests that you access wholesome sites instead. God Bless You.'' (Mercury News) |
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