* THOUSANDS OF YOUTH
HEAR HANDEL’S MESSIAH - About 6,000 children and teens from rural areas
attended the Händel's Messiah at Kwasizabantu Mission on 8 December, rendered by the
Natal Bach Choir and P.A.M.S. Choir with the P.A.M.S. Augmented Orchestra under the baton
of Lutz Kohrs. Mr Lionel Mtshali, Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, told the audience that
"we should seek more time to enjoy cultural programs of this caliber." He
praised the professional rendition of Händel's Messiah. Also in attendance was the German
Ambassador, Mrs Anna Margareta Peters, who was in KwaZulu-Natal for the first time. In her
greeting she quoted Martin Luther who declared that "music is a gift of God."
Although an orchestral and choral performance of this nature is normally beyond their
reach, the audience, consisting of mostly teenagers from townships and rural areas, sat
through a three-hour performance with great enjoyment and attentiveness. The youth are
attending the bi-annual Youth Week at Kwasizabantu Mission where the theme was
"Youth. in this age".
* WITCHES GATHER FOR
RECONCILIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA – A huge number of witches (sangomas) have
gathered at the `Vlakplaas’ farm to pray to the ancestors for reconciliation and
peace. Vlakplaas is known as an `Apartheid death farm’ and is considered holy by
`traditional healers’. About 700 of them have gathered in 9 tents (symbolising the 9
provinces of South Africa) on the farm. The traditional healers will be performing a
reconciliation ritual at Vlakplaas. They are addressing the nation's ancestors,
slaughtering cows, drumming, dancing and singing. (SABC, 14 December)
(Editor: There is one Mediator and Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Saviour. Only through Him is there reconciliation.)
* 63,000 CHRISTIANS UNDER THREAT OF
ANNIHILATION IN INDONESIA - Charles Colson reports in his 14 December newsletter that
Islamicists are threatening the lives of Indonesian Christians on the island of Sulawesi.
"As I speak, 63,000 Christians on the island of Sulawesi are days,
maybe hours, from annihilation at the hands of the Laksar Jihad, a well-organized,
well-funded, and well-armed Islamic militia. Believers crowded into the Christian city of
Tentena after their villages and hamlets were attacked and destroyed. According to reports
from the region, following the Laskar Jihad's capture of a Christian village, "houses
and churches were looted then burned, Christian women raped and all those unable to flee
either were butchered or forcibly 'converted' to Islam." Tentena and it environs
aren't alone in experiencing what Islam does with non-Muslim neighbors. Since September
11, "at least thirty-eight Christian hamlets, villages or towns... in Indonesia have
been attacked by the Laskar Jihad or any one of four associated Muslim
paramilitaries." What's more, the Laskar Jihad, like other Islamic groups, includes
soldiers imported from other Islamic countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, even
Albania and Bosnia. And Indonesia isn't the only place where Christians are under attack
by their Islamic neighbors. By some estimates, two million Sudanese Christians have died
as a result of their government's attempts to impose Islamic law on its non-Muslim
population. Further south in Africa, Nigerian Christians in the Northern part of that
country face similar attempts by Muslim leaders. And, oh yes, in case you were wondering,
there is no place on earth where the opposite is the case -- no place where Christians are
persecuting Muslims. All of this inevitably leads to the conclusion that bin Laden and his
followers did not hijack Islam, they simply took it seriously."
* IRAQ/SYRIA OCTOBER BIBLE SALES
SET RECORD - Well over 35,000 Bibles and Christian books were sold during the Baghdad
and Damascus book fairs held October 8-18 and October 20-29 by the Bible Societies of
Lebanon and Jordan. For Christians in the Arab world, international book fairs provide a
unique access each year to buy new Christian titles published in Arabic, as well as their
own copy of a Bible or New Testament. (Compass Direct, 12 December)
* GERMAN COURT REJECTS WRONGFUL
BIRTH SUIT - KALSRUHE, Germany, December 14, 2001 (LSN.ca) - A German Federal Court
has rejected a lawsuit by couple demanding financial compensation from doctors for not
warning them of their children's handicaps while in utero. The British Medical Journal
reports that parents of identical girl twins say that if doctors told them one of the
twins was disabled they would have aborted the baby, who is now a child dependant on a
wheelchair.
The judges ruled that an abortion of the handicapped twin would have been illegal because
the procedure would have severely risked the life of the other twin. Only an extreme
handicap and exceptional situation of the mother could have justified the abortion of one
handicapped twin and the threatened death of the healthy one, they argued. (Lifesite.net)
* BIN LADEN TAPE DAMAGES
ISLAM - U.S. Muslim scholars said the tape broadcast Thursday of Osama bin Laden (news
- web
sites) quoting religious teachings while celebrating the Sept. 11 attacks hurt efforts
to convince Americans that Islam rejects terrorism.
Bin Laden cites the Hadith - the record of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad -
and says the assault would benefit his religion. Others on the tape said the success of
the hijackings were a blessing from Allah. "This is totally out of context and does
not represent at all the understanding of Islam and the teachings of the Quran,'' said
Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America.
On the tape, bin Laden plucks phrases and short sentences from the Hadith about struggles
with nonbelievers, making it difficult to know exactly which teachings he was referring
to.
However, U.S. Muslim scholars agree that individual references to fighting in the Quran
and Hadith cannot be used as justification for widespread violence.
* FRANKLIN GRAHAM CLARIFIES POSITION
ON ISLAM - The son of Dr Billy Graham and Director of two Christian organisations, has
stated his position regarding Islam on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal on 9
December. Franklin Graham writes: "…while I respect the rights of all people to
adopt their own beliefs, I would respectfully disagree with any religion that teaches
people to put their faith in other gods. As a Christian minister, my calling is to
proclaim the God of the Christian faith, whose son Jesus Christ died for the sins of all
mankind….The persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of
Islamic conquests and rule for centuries. The Koran provides ample evidence that Islam
encourages violence in order to win converts and to reach the ultimate goal of an Islamic
world. Conversions from Islam to any other faith are often punishable by death. One
example is the treatment of non-Muslims by the Islamic government of Sudan. In the past
year, our hospital in southern Sudan was bombed seven times by the Islamic regime in
Khartoum. These bombings pale in comparison with the two million Christians and animists
killed, and thousands more enslaved, by the regime in recent years. In most countries
where Islamic law dominates there is practically no freedom of religion (not to mention
freedom of speech or the press). In most Islamic countries, including so-called moderate
Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, it is a crime to build a Christian church, Jewish
synagogue, Hindu temple or any other non-Muslim house of worship. In contrast, there are
about 3,000 mosques in the U.S., with new ones being built every week. Muslims are free to
worship Allah in the U.S., but Christians are not free to worship Jesus in most Muslim
countries. There has not been a single church in Afghanistan since the exiled king,
Mohammed Zahir Shah, destroyed the first and only one in the history of the country in
1973. (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95001576
)
* ROBERTSON QUITS POLITICAL
POST – The Washington Post reports (6 December) that television evangelist
Pat Robertson, one of the most powerful figures in the religious right, resigned yesterday
as president of the Christian Coalition, a mainstay of support for the Republican Party
throughout the 1990s. Roberta Combs, the coalition's executive vice president, succeeded
him.
Robertson, 71, who first rose to prominence on his own Christian Broadcasting Network and
its "700 Club" program, cited a "renewed call to the Christian
ministry" in explaining his decision to leave the coalition. "With the few years
left to me of active service, I must focus on those things that will bring forth the
greatest spiritual benefit." Robertson credited the coalition with changing American
politics. "Without us, I do not believe that George Bush would be sitting in the
White House or that Republicans would be in control of the U.S. House."
* CLONED MONKEY EMBRYOS ARE A
"GALLERY OF HORRORS" - A high percentage of cloned monkey embryos that look
healthy are really a "gallery of horrors" deep within, says a researcher at
Advanced Cell Technology, the company that last month published the first paper on cloned
human embryos. This could mean that there is something unique about primate eggs that will
make cloning monkeys or people far more difficult than cloning other animals. At the very
least, the experiments show that there's a lot to learn before primates can be cloned.
Tanja Dominko, who presented the results last week at a conference in Washington DC, did
the work before joining ACT, while she was working for the reproductive biologist Gerald
Schatten at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton. Several groups have
been trying for years to clone monkeys, but while the embryos look normal, no one has ever
got them to develop further. (12 December, New Scientist)
