15 July 2002
* YOUTH TOLD TO FLEE AIDS THROUGH
ABSTINENCE – (South Africa) Addressing a gathering of thousands of young
people, Rev Erlo Stegen said that the only safe way to flee the Aids epidemic is through
abstinence. The crowd of approximately 6,000 teens were at the Kwasizabantu Youth Week
from 5 to 12 July. The conference theme was "Listen to Him" (based on Matt 17:
5). Approximately 25-30% of 18 to 22 year-olds in South Africa are infected with HIV,
which leads to Aids. Rev Stegen told the young people how true purity is found through
Jesus Christ and receiving the gift of life through His death on the Cross.
"Listening to Him, Jesus Christ, saves you from death and destruction."
(www.kwasizabantu.com)
* U.S PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE CASE -
(San Francisco, California) The 8-year-old girl whose father successfully sued to have
the US Pledge of Allegiance declared unconstitutional has no problem with reciting the
pledge at school, her mother said on 11 July. "I was concerned that the American
public would be led to believe that my daughter is an atheist or that she has been harmed
by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words 'one nation under God,"'
Sandra Banning said in a statement. "We are practicing Christians". Michael
Newdow, the third-grader's father and the atheist behind the pledge lawsuit, argued that
his daughter was "injured" by being forced to listen to others recite the
pledge. Some legal experts said the mother's revelation that the girl herself willingly
recites the pledge in class could cast doubts on the legitimacy of the case. (CNN, 12
July)
The federal appeals decision that called the Pledge unconstitutional "unleashed a
flood of letters to newspapers around the country, the vast majority lambasting the
decision." A Newsweek magazine poll found 87 percent of respondents supported the
phrase and 54 percent thought the government should not avoid promoting religion,
according to Reuters. (Religion Today, 9 July)
In the meantime on 4 July five hundred immigrants became Americans during a ceremony at
Disney World by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Immigration Judge Roberto Morena said
to applause: "We are one nation, especially under God. And I don't believe 'under
God' should be looked at by a judge so callously". (CNN, 5 July)
* FOUR RELIGIONS PLAN FOR
MULTI-FAITH SCHOOL - (UK) The Church of England has thrown its weight behind an
extraordinary proposal to unite Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Hindu children in the
country's first multi-faith secondary school. The plans, backed by leading figures from
all four of Britain's main religious groupings, are aimed at transforming the image of
faith-based education which has been criticised in the wake of last summer's race riots.
They hope that the 1,000-pupil school planned for the London borough of Westminster will
be the first of a series of similar ventures around the country. On 7 July the church
described it as a "highly significant" development, which will open the way to a
new era in relations between Britain's religious communities... Religious Education will
be split, with some elements taught collectively. The pupils will also meet separately for
daily prayers before coming together for whole-school assemblies with a more moral or
ethical emphasis. The proposed school still needs formal backing of the Department for
Education and Skills. (The Guardian - UK News, 8 July)
* PRINCETON BIOETHICIST: 'CHRISTIANITY
HURTS ANIMALS' - (USA) Peter Singer, Princeton bioethicist and animal rights
advocate says Christianity is harmful to animals. Mr. Singer, who condones the killing of
severely deformed newborns, made those views known at an animal rights conference on 29
June at the Hilton Hotel in McLean. "One of the things that causes a problem for the
animal movement is the strong strain of fundamentalist Christianity that makes a huge gulf
between humans and animals, saying humans have souls but animals do not," Mr. Singer
said in a telephone interview with the Washington Times. Richard Land, president of the
Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and a Princeton
alumnus, said that Mr. Singer's "basic assessment that orthodox and fundamentalist
Christianity has been a problem for the animal rights movement is correct," Mr. Land
said. "As orthodox Christians, we've been almost as much of a problem for animal
rights as Peter Singer [has] been for human rights." ... (The Washington Times, 4
July)
* CANNABIS LAWS EASED IN UK -
Cannabis is to be reclassified as a less dangerous drug to free-up police resources to
fight hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, UK Home Secretary David Blunkett has
announced. He unveiled the controversial measure in the House of Commons just hours after
the government's former "drugs czar" Keith Hellawell said he had quit his role
as a government adviser in protest. It came shortly after Tony Blair defended the move
during Prime Minister's question time. The change will put cannabis on a par with
anti-depressants and steroids. Possession of small amounts would no longer be considered
an arrestable offence. But shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin criticised the
reclassification, warning that Mr Blunkett was handing control of cannabis to dealers. The
idea proposed by Mr Blunkett was a "muddled, dangerous policy" and would lead to
an "open season for drug peddlers", he said. (BBC News, 11 July)
* ONE IN THREE EUROPEANS ANTI-SEMITIC -
A new form of anti-Semitism has taken hold in Europe, fuelled by anti-Israeli sentiment,
according to a survey which shows almost one in three Europeans now harbours some
anti-Jewish feelings. Attitudes towards Jews vary across the five countries surveyed with
Belgians, Germans and the French "most likely to hold a prejudiced view of
Jews". Denmark and the UK are said to be the least prejudiced. But attitudes in the
UK show a worryingly high level of anti-Semitic sentiment. The survey, in which 2,500
people were polled – 500 in each country – was commissioned by the
Anti-Defamation League, a US-based organisation set up just before the First World War to
combat anti-Semitism in the US. (Independent.co.uk, 30 June)
* NEW U.S. IMMIGRANTS TO ISRAEL -
Rabbi Joshua Fass from Florida (USA), co-founder of the program Nefesh b'Nefesh, arrived
in Israel on 9 July with almost 400 North American immigrants to Israel - the largest
number to arrive at one time in 25 years. Addressing a ceremony at Ben Gurion airport,
Fass said that Israelis should view their arrival as "a passionate and palpable
expression of solidarity. We come from over 20 states as a common people, with a common
goal, to share our lives with yours," Fass said. He hopes the world notes the arrival
of the North Americans and understands that Israel is not just a haven for those fleeing
persecution. "We are not running from discontent. We choose Israel, it is the soul of
the Jewish people. Our fate, past and future, is bound to this land."... (Washington
Post, 10 July)
* CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL
FREES BLACK SUDANESE SLAVES - Approximately 4,735 Black Sudanese slaves were
redeemed by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) during a 12-day visit to Sudan ending
July 6, according to a press release from the organization. The overwhelming majority of
the redeemed slaves - mostly women and children - were captured over the past two decades
by the armed forces of the Government of Sudan and allied Arab militias during raids
against Black non-Muslim communities in Southern Sudan. The redeemed slaves were liberated
from bondage in Northern Sudan and were returned to their homeland in the South through
Sudan's 'Underground Railroad' - a local peace and reconciliation endeavor of Sudanese
civil society involving Arabs, Black Africans and CSI. Extensive interviews conducted by
CSI with freed slaves confirm a clear pattern of physical and psychological torture.
(Religion Today, 11 July)
* AIDS 'WILL WIPE OUT' BOTSWANA -
Botswana, whose relative riches have failed to stop it becoming the country most blighted
by HIV/Aids, said on 7 July that it was facing extinction from the disease. A staggering
39% of adults are infected with HIV in the diamond-rich southern African country, with
rates over 50% in the northeast and among urban expectant mothers, and the pandemic is
still outstripping all efforts to control it. "We are all engaged in a fight to the
death," Health Minister Joy Phumaphi told a fringe meeting at the international Aids
conference in Barcelona in Spain. Scientists had believed HIV/Aids might reach some
natural limit in sub-Saharan Africa, where 28.5 million people are now infected, but
Botswana's experience has so far dashed that hope. Life expectancy for the 1.6 million
Botswanans has fallen below 40 years for the first time since 1950. Studies suggest it
could dip below 30 if the spread of the virus is not reversed. "Our comprehensive
strategy is still in its early stages and the rate of infection still exceeds the pace of
the roll-out of our critical programmes and initiatives." (Reuters/News24; 7 July)
* S.A. PRIEST WINS INTERNATIONAL
AWARD - (South Africa) "One of the great things about the 'Right to
Live campaign' is its ability to bring in all the organisations of the Church to work for
a single aim: to promote the sanctity of human life". Those were the words of Fr.
Massimo Biancalani of Durban when he received the Michael Bell Memorial Award (Initiatives
for Life), from the International Alliance of Catholic Knights and presented to him by
Robin Lydall, Supreme Knight of the Knights of da Gama, at a function in Durban. The
International Alliance represents orders of knights working in 26 countries throughout the
world. The award was made for Fr. Biancalani's leadership in organising opposition to the
termination of pregnancy legislation in South Africa and establishing three homes for
women with pregnancy crises, abused women, and an Aids home. He said that he accepted the
award in the name of all the children, abused women and Aids victims who have been helped
by the 'Right to Live campaign'. He announced that two new homes were being planned. (The
Southern Cross, 3-9 July)
* POST TRAUMATIC STRESS IN
NURSES PERFORMING ABORTIONS - (South Africa) Since the incident at Philadelphia
Hospital and the public objections raised against nurses who do not assist women who are
aborting, nurses have spoken out about the trauma they experience when performing
abortions or assisting with abortions. One nurse (37) says she is still haunted by the
struggling sounds of a foetus she left to its fate as an aborted baby, fifteen years ago.
"When I turned my back on her, part of me stayed behind. I ask myself how I could
have helped a woman murder her own child... One abortion is like the door to a pit of
depression." She says abortion goes directly against a woman's instinct to care,
comfort and protect, and nurses are not, like patients, anaesthetized. Ms Josh Wood, a
counselor involved with 30 crisis centers in Limpopo, says nurses dislike patients
screaming, "because it becomes part of their nightmares at night". In her book, Achieving
peace in the abortion war Dr. Rachel MacNair writes that the scenes medical staff see
repeatedly in abortion wards cause them to think about it obsessively, causing depression,
exhaustion, anger, low self esteem and identity conflict. They withdraw from colleagues
and get impatient with patients. Then follow the cruel, gruesome nightmares about murder
of a foetus, as well as loneliness. Eventually the nurses become as if emotionally
dead...(Beeld, News24, 4 July)
* 'HELL LOSING ITS FIRE' IN
AMERICAN SERMONS
- In churches across America, hell is being frozen out as
clergy find themselves increasingly hesitant to sermonise on it. "There has been a
shift in religion from focusing on what happens in the next life to asking, 'What is the
quality of this life we're leading now?' " said Harvey Cox Jr., an author, religious
historian and professor at Harvard Divinity School. "You can go to a whole lot of
churches week after week, and you'd be startled even to hear a mention of hell."
Hell's fall from fashion indicates how key portions of Christian theology have been
influenced by a secular society that stresses individualism over authority and the human
psyche over moral absolutes. The rise of psychology, the philosophy of existentialism and
the consumer culture have all dumped buckets of water on hell. "It's just too
negative," said Bruce Shelley, a senior professor of church history at the Denver
Theological Seminary. "Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer-oriented.
Churches today feel the need to be appealing rather than demanding." (San Francisco
Chronicle, 6 July)
* NEW WEBSITE FOR
REPORTING INTERNET OBSCENITY - (USA)
Morality in Media has launched OBSCENITYCRIMES.ORG, a new Web site where people can
report possible violations of federal laws that prohibit the distribution of obscene
materials (hard-core pornography) on the Internet. MIM will forward such reports to the
appropriate United States Attorney and to the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section in Washington for investigation and possible prosecution. MIM President
Robert Peters commented that, "The ObscenityCrimes.org Web site shortens the distance
between citizens, whose homes and places of business have been invaded by Internet
obscenity, and federal prosecutors, who have the responsibility to enforce federal
Internet obscenity laws." (Religion Today, 26 June)
* SALVATION ARMY STANDS FIRM
& PAYS PRICE - (USA) In Portland, Maine, city leaders have decided that
upholding a pro-homosexual ordinance takes priority over feeding the city's needy. The
Portland City Council has voted not to exempt The Salvation Army from an ordinance that
says all agencies receiving funding from the city must provide "domestic
partner" benefits to its employees. The move will cost The Army $60,000 a year in
city funding. But it also means Portland's only "meals-on-wheels" program that
feeds the needy and elderly is now in jeopardy. Richard Minn, divisional commander of the Northern New England division of The
Salvation Army told Cybercast News that this is about "a political agenda
peddled by special interests that seek to legitimize homosexual partnerships and are
fundamentally hostile to religion." Minn says The Salvation Army will now go directly
to the public seeking support to keep the program going. (Agapepress, 1 July)
* LEAKING WATER AT WAILING WALL
- (Israel) Sages across the Holy Land were trying to fathom the significance of a
mysterious damp patch that has appeared on Jerusalem's Wailing Wall early July.
Worshippers noticed water trickling from between the huge blocks of stone on a Sabbath
day. But before technicians could diagnose the problem, the area's host of mystics and
holy men were already at work trying to divine the water's inner message. Was the Wailing
Wall now weeping? And if so, what did it mean? Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who presides over
the wall, told the Jerusalem Post that the dripping was "highly unusual" and
suggested that "maybe the wall is indeed crying because of the current situation in
the country". Rabbi Menachem Fromann went further. "There is a prophecy that
everybody knows, that states that when water comes through the stones of the wall it
presages the advent of the Messiah," he said. "Perhaps God is opening up a path
for peace and people will feel this and move towards it." (smh.com.au;
telegraph.co.uk, 4 July)
* 'THOU SHALT NOT LIE' -
(Bucharest) Twenty beggars masquerading as monks were arrested after police discovered
they were completely ignorant of the Bible. The 20 men, sporting beards and long habits,
were at a loss when asked to recite well-known verses from the Bible. Their ad-lib
attempts to re-invent the Bible did not impress the police who arrested and fined them.
Romanian cities are swamped with beggars in religious garb, who collect funds to
supposedly build churches. (Sunday Tribune, 2 July)
