* BUSH SEEKS TO BAN HUMAN CLONING - In a strongly worded speech by President George Bush he said that he will seek to ban human cloning. "As we seek to improve human life," the president said, "we must always preserve human dignity. Advances in biomedical technology must never come at the expense of human conscience. As we seek what is possible, we must also seek what is right, and we must not forget that even the most noble ends do not justify any means." Then he got to the heart of the matter: "Life is a creation, not a commodity. Our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured." Bush then talked about how cloning would cheapen human life - just as abortion has. Allowing cloning would lead to a society "in which human beings are grown for spare body parts, and children are engineered to custom specifications, and that's not acceptable." American Christian commentator, Charles Colson said that though Bush is not a theologian he has offered theology for the masses and has drawn "a line in the sand and said, `Beyond this point we will not go.' " (Breakpoint, 4 April)

* SWISS 'BATTLE FOR LIFE' HEATS UP - In Switzerland opportunities to speak for the life of the unborn are arising more than ever before. In spite of abortion being illegal (except when endangering the mothers' health), every sixth child in Switzerland is being aborted. This inconsistency between what is legal and what is taking place moved the government to formulate a new pro-choice bill, allowing the mother to abort her child for whichever 'plight' during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. After the 12 week period abortion is allowed if a doctor has evaluated the mother's situation and considers her plight to be valid enough (eg. a psychological reason). She may then legally abort her child up to the day before delivery. Many Christian organisations in Switzerland are unitedly fighting this bill. They formulated an alternative bill, which gives protection to the unborn and simultaneously offers support to the mother in need. This has become a hot topic in newspapers and political TV discussions. Representatives from every pro-life organisation, also from CFT, are receiving many invitations to represent the rights of unborn children, in opposition to the pro-abortion lobbyists. They are giving talks on radio, etc. and furthermore organise "information evenings" for the public. These pro-lifers are standing for the truth in the frontline of this spiritual battle and need prayer support for wisdom and courage. They find that many people are simply refusing to hear and see the truth about abortion. A little booklet, "A new human being: Fate or Chance?" is being sent to every household in Switzerland to inform people of the truth. It contains facts about abortion, testimonies relating to it, as well as statements and arguments against its use.
On 2 June the Swiss public will vote, deciding whether one of these two bills will replace the previous law on abortion or not. The choice is: 'Legalisation of abortion', or 'Protection and help for both mother and child'. (Monika Dätwyler, member of "Mother and Child", 15 April)

CFT Switzerland will be holding their annual conference on 27 April, with this year's theme being: "The Value of Life".

* SA MORAL REGENERATION SUMMIT - The South African Government has announced a "Moral Regeneration Summit" which is to be held on 18 April 2002 at the Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria. In announcing the summit Deputy President Jacob Zuma said that they will use it to "launch the country's Moral Regeneration Movement" which is a "partnership between government and civil society". The main focus of the summit will be on "empowering local Communities to strengthen the moral and spiritual life of the nation." The terrible rape statistics (especially child rape) is one of the main reasons given for the necessity of the summit.

In reference to "Moral Regeneration" the Editor of Mercury said on 15 April that "In truth, there are grounds for deep concern about sliding moral values, not only in South Africa but around the globe. The old certitudes of right and wrong, truth and untruth, have given way in too many areas to a kind of relativity. Politicians are expected to lie. The elite are expected to grab what they can. In places, flagrant dishonesty is covered up and whistle-blowers are treated with opprobrium, as if they were the culprits... In certain quarters the sanctity of human life has lost all meaning".

The Government has met with religious leaders from time to time and invariably the meetings have had an interfaith basis. Some Christian leaders fear that participation in interfaith gatherings creates the impression that we are all serving the same God and there is no single way of redemption.
The Moral Regeneration movement seeks to reinstate `African spirituality'. In the July 2000 Moral Regeneration workshops "participants criticised the religious sector for exchanging the African spirituality for a foreign one." The commission established at those workshops (which were addressed by the Deputy President) saw the "specific role of the religious sector as that of resuscitating African spirituality". "Participants talked of a need to revive UBUNTU values. Thereby, they meant that Africans should recover the long lost religio-socio-economic values by which pre-colonial communities of this continent lived and which impacted on every sphere of their lives..." (CFT)

* POSSIBLE THERAPIES USING ADULT STEM CELLS - (Chicago, IL) The hand tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease that had started to interfere with a California man's life have largely disappeared since doctors retrieved stem cells from his brain, grew them into neurons and then transplanted those cells back into his brain, doctors reported on 8 April. The brain cell transplant was the first in humans involving "adult neural stem cells," a recently discovered type of cell that can morph into every kind of brain cell. If studies confirm the procedure's usefulness in other patients, the approach could evolve into a biological therapy for the disease in which patients would essentially grow their own cures from a few starter cells taken from their own brains. The work was led by Michel Levesque, a neurosurgeon with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Celmed BioSciences. This comes at a time of intense political debate over the science and ethics of embryonic stem cell research. (Washington Post, 9 April)
Australian surgeons have carried out the world's first trial using adult stem cells to repair heart damage in a 74-year-old man, researchers said on 10 April. Surgeons at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital north of Sydney extracted stem cells from patient Jim Nichol's bone marrow, then injected them back into his heart wall to stimulate blood vessel growth in areas which lacked sufficient blood supply. Nichol was discharged from hospital on 9 April and his condition will be monitored over the next six months by researchers who undertook the trial as part of an international experiment also being carried out in Hong Kong and China. Scientists around the world are split over whether adult stem cells are as effective as embryonic stem cells in growing into a range of different tissues. Beginning April, Australia's states and territories endorsed a national plan to allow human embryos to be used for stem cell research. (Reuters, 10 April)

* BISHOP AND MISSIONARY RELEASED FROM SUDAN - After much prayer and international pressure Bishop Bullen Dolli and Dr. Peter Hammond have been freed by the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). They had been detained in Yei, the headquarters of the SPLA in Western Equatoria. Intensive investigation by the SPLA Public Security Office and Military Intelligence revealed an intricate plot to discredit and to murder Bishop Dolli and Rev. Hammond. The drama began last year when short wave radios were brought into Southern Sudan by Frontline Fellowship and handed over as gifts to the Episcopal Church of Sudan. In December 2001 orders went out to confiscate the radios and arrest those involved with them... It was later revealed that the SPLA had received information from sources within the Khartoum government that the National Islamic Front was going to place four short wave radios into Western Equatoria for espionage purposes. When Frontline Fellowship brought in the radios for the Churches it was assumed that Bishop Bullen Dolli and missionary Peter Hammond must be the ones in contact with the Islamic Government. Arrest warrants were issued for the Bishop and for the Director of Frontline Fellowship. It is now thought that this was a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Sudan Government to cause problems for the missionaries and for the churches as well as to discredit the SPLA for arresting Christian Leaders. The SPLA normally respects the Church and protects religious freedom... (www.frontline.org.za, 12 April)

* VIOLENCE AGAINST COLOMBIAN CHRISTIANS CONTINUE - After peace talks came to a halt in the 38-year-old battle between guerrilla organizations and the Colombian government, an increase in violence was expected. But no one anticipated how much that violence would be directed against Christians, according to the Persecution & Prayer Alert, published by Voice of the Martyrs. On April 7, VOM reports, Father Juan Ramón Núñez and a parishioner were shot and killed in the southern village of La Argentina during mass. On April 9, guerrillas kidnapped two priests and a third, who was close to the murdered archbishop, was forced to leave the country because of death threats. The World Evangelical Alliance issued a statement (April 9) warning of the dangers facing Christian workers in Colombia and calling for prayer. They state, "Pastors, evangelists and missionaries infuriate guerrilla leaders and drug lords because they stand against violence, drugs and corruption, often leading corrupt politicians, guerrillas and criminals out of darkness 'into the kingdom of God's Son'." (Crosswalk.com, 10 April)

* LAWSUIT OVER KINDERGARTEN CHRISTIAN - School officials in upstate New York (Utica) were to go to federal court on 12 April to battle a lawsuit that blocks them from silencing a 5-year-old girl who says grace before her kindergarten snack of cupcakes and milk. The controversy began Jan. 15 when teacher Lori Maragno hushed Kayla Broadus for saying, "God is good. God is great. Thank you, God, for my food." Board officials later declared in a letter and press release that the child was prohibited from praying aloud in school. Kayla's mother, Cheryl Broadus, responded by filing a lawsuit Feb. 1 with help from civil rights lawyer Thomas J. Marcelle. According to Washington Times, Saratoga Springs School District lawyer Gregg T. Johnson appeared to change the board's position in a telephone interview, April 11. He said his clients now want to settle what is becoming a national embarrassment and concedes that Kayla may pray aloud if she avoids disrupting her 19 classmates during instruction. "As long as her silent or audible prayer does not delay the class or disturb the class they have no intention of intruding on her ability to say prayers," Mr. Johnson said. (Washington Times, 12 April)

* ILLINOIS PANEL: 'DEATH PENALTY BAN NOT THE ANSWER' - (USA) Two years after Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted executions, saying he couldn't trust the state's criminal justice system, a panel he named to examine the process is ready to recommend changes aimed at keeping innocent people off death row. Abolishing capital punishment is not among the proposals to be announced on 15 April, but the commission's report will include about 70 other recommendations for judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police, said co-chairman Frank McGarr, a retired federal judge. "Many states and national leaders will look to see the recommendations that Illinois comes up with as a model for what else needs to be done in other states," said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., which researches capital punishment but takes no position on it. Ryan imposed the moratorium on capital punishment in January 2000 after several cases in which men were freed from death row because new evidence exonerated them or there were flaws in the way they were convicted. Since the 1977 reinstatement of the death penalty in Illinois, 13 men have been freed while 12 have been executed. "The Legislature will have to decide whether they're going to adopt our improvements," McGarr said. (CNN.com, 14 April)

* GERMAN SCIENTIST: 'WORLD'S COMPLEXITY CRIED OUT FOR CREATOR' - A German scientist is convinced that the Bible makes no mistakes, according to "idea," an evangelical news agency based in Germany. Professor Werner Gitt, former director in the Federal Institute for Physics and Technology in Brunswick, has "no problems believing that God created the world in just six days," reports idea. The evolution theory was in contradiction not only with science, but also with human logic, Gitt told idea. "The complexity of the world was so immense that it simply cried out for an intelligent creator. And this could only be the creative God described in the Bible." Faced with the argument that most scientists adhere to the theory of evolution Gitt said that "truth was not something to be found by majority decisions." The evolution theory, founded by Charles Darwin was based on an atheist worldview, Gitt added. According to idea, the scientist rejects a theistic evolution assuming that God controlled evolution over millions of years. All evolutionists agree that death means that the less adaptable beings will be eradicated and only the higher developed beings survive. This view is incompatible with the Scriptures, Gitt maintains. (Idea, 9 April)