Southern Africa

• INTERFAITH CLEANSING CEREMONY TO CLEANSE SA PAST
• RESEARCH SHOWS SOCIAL ILLS AMONG SA TEENS
• OBE PUPIL’S PAPERS APPALLING

* INTERFAITH CLEANSING CEREMONY TO CLEANSE SA PAST - This year's National Reconciliation Day was celebrated by conducting cleansing and reparation ceremonies. A cleansing ceremony, by Sangomas and `Faith healers’ was performed at the former apartheid death-squad farm, Vlaakplaas, outside Erasmia in Pretoria. President Thabo Mbeki attended the cleansing ceremony.
(16 December, SABC News) (to index)

* RESEARCH SHOWS SOCIAL ILLS AMONG SA TEENS - There are disturbing findings of a study on youth risk behaviour conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC), released on 9 December by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. With the high prevalence of HIV/Aids and violence, the report shows that children as young as 14 are engaged in sexual activity (41%), while 70% of those have had one or more sexual partner. About 10% of pupils were reported to have been forced into having sex by other pupils. Dr Priscilla Reddy of the MRC, who led the survey, told reporters that an earlier study in the Western Cape in 1994 indicated condom use of only 4%. This had increased considerably, but only 29% of teens were practising safe sex. Tshabalala-Msimang was asked whether the latest survey, indicating that about 71% did not always use condoms, did not warrant a change in the government's approach. "What would excite me would be if they didn't engage in sex, and therefore didn't need condoms," she replied.
Other results of the survey - conducted among 10 700 pupils in grades 8 to 11 - showed that: At least 9% of those surveyed had carried a weapon to school, including guns, knives, pangas or kerries; About 15% had been threatened or injured at school, 19% had been injured in fights, a third felt unsafe at school and 40% had been bullied; Half the children admitted having had alcohol before turning 13, with about 9% saying they had used dagga; Of the children interviewed, 17% had been offered, sold or given an illegal drug at school, while 31% had experimented with smoking, 6% of them under the age of 10; About 6% had used Mandrax, with similar figures for cocaine and club drugs. The figures for heroin and inhalants were around 11%, and for dagga 12,8%. Almost a quarter had engaged in binge drinking.
(10 December, The Star) (to index)

* OBE PUPIL’S PAPERS APPALLING - Between 20% and 25% of grade 10 pupils at several schools in Gauteng have become victims of the suspended outcomes-based education (OBE) process and failed their final exams. Several principals and department of education officials said they were deeply concerned about the situation. Two principals from Pretoria said grade 10 pupils, who were the first group to receive OBE from grade 1 until the end of grade 9, could not manage the old curriculum. The new OBE curriculum for grade 10 was not yet in place when these pupils completed grade 9 last year and they had to revert to the old curriculum. "It is the first time they have been confronted with tests and exams. The content was simply too much for them to handle," said a principal. The problem was that these pupils did not know what it meant to study and memorise information. They were used to group work and marks made up from assignments and portfolios. "They have no idea what it means to sit on your backside and study." Another principal said the quality of the pupils' answer sheets was also appalling. Some could not manage 20% for mathematics. Still another said it would probably have gone worse at his school if subject teachers had not put in so many additional hours to help pupils. (10 December, News24) (to index)

International

• MUSLIMS PARTY AT CHRISTMAS BAN LIBRARY
• SUCCESSFUL REVERSAL OF GAY AGENDA IN N.CAROLINA SCHOOLS
• POP SINGER BLASTS LEADERS AT VATICAN
• CHINA SEIZES WRITER WHO BACKED CHURCH
• ON A LIGHTER NOTE

* MUSLIMS PARTY AT CHRISTMAS BAN LIBRARY - A British library that banned the display of posters promoting Christmas services for fear of offending other religions hosted a party to celebrate a Muslim festival only days earlier. Church officials in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, were told by the town's public library last week that their posters could not be displayed because they pertained to a "religious preference group". However, a party to celebrate Eid, the breaking of the fast of Ramadan, had been held there less than a week previously. The party was organised by Rehana Nazir, the multicultural services librarian at Buckinghamshire county council, and was advertised with leaflets distributed at the library. About 20 children, and several adults, attended. Michael Stillwell, 66, from High Wycombe, who was given a leaflet by library staff said: "It seems like pure hypocrisy to hold a festival from one religion and to then ban a simple poster." (14 December, The Telegraph) (to index)

* SUCCESSFUL REVERSAL OF GAY AGENDA IN N.CAROLINA SCHOOLS - A coalition of evangelical Christians has successfully fended off a campaign by homosexual activists in one North Carolina school district. Members of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) have been pressuring the Winston-Salem/Forsyth School Board to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in the district's nondiscrimination policy. However, the board recently decided not to revise its policy. Pastor Ron Baity of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem led a coalition of Christians that opposed the pro-homosexual effort. He says for a long time homosexual activists, and especially the GLSEN crowd, have been coming to the school board meetings and pushing their agenda, while not a single church in the area came and spoke out against their movement. When his group finally got organized to start attending the board meetings and making their voices heard, he says members of the board said "We've been wondering where the churches are at." But Baity says as a result of the coalition speaking out, things started to change immediately. "It's been a real burst of spiritual energy for our people because they've been encouraged to see that if you do get involved, there is a possibility that you can make a change," the coalition leader notes. "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you get a group of people together of like mind and just approach the authorities," Baity says. (15 December, Agape Press) (to index)

* POP SINGER BLASTS LEADERS AT VATICAN - US hip-hop singer Lauryn Hill stunned leading members of the Roman Catholic Church when she accused them of moral corruption, exploitation and abuse from the stage during a Christmas concert at the Vatican. Hill, 28, launched her diatribe in front of an audience of 7,500 guests at a packed Paul VI hall, used by Pope John Paul II for indoor public audiences. "I'm not here to celebrate, like you, the birth of Christ, but to ask you why you are not in mourning for his death in this place," Hill said, reading from a prepared statement as she came on stage for her performance as part of an all-star gala concert. "Holy God has witnessed the corruption of your leadership, of the exploitation and abuses which are the minimum that can be said for the clergy," she added, calling on the hierarchy to "repent". Stunned hierarchy in the front row at Saturday night's concert included one of the most senior figures in the Church, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who is head of the Italian bishops conference. An aide to Ruini, Bishop Rino Fisichella, described the singer's speech as "a rash outburst. An uneducated act showing a lack of respect for the place she was a guest and for those who invited her." (15 December, AFP) (to index)

* CHINA SEIZES WRITER WHO BACKED CHURCH - An Internet writer who posted articles online supporting China's unofficial Christian church has been arrested amid a widening police crackdown on unregistered religious activities, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Tuesday.
Computer technician Zhang Shengqi was detained last month in a raid on the home of his fiancee in the northeastern city of Jilin and has been charged with leaking state secrets, the China Aid Association said.
Zhang was later transferred to a jail in the eastern city of Hangzhou, where local authorities earlier detained two other activists as part of a crackdown on unofficial church activities, the association said. Zhang's arrest appeared to be related to police suspicions that he helped church historian Liu Fenggang post information on the Internet about the Hangzhou crackdown. Liu, a veteran pro-democracy campaigner, has also been detained in Hangzhou on state secrets charges.
City authorities earlier this year demolished a number of unregistered churches and detained preachers in what activists said was a trial run for techniques to be used against unregistered religious groups elsewhere in China. (16 December, Washington Post) (to index)

* ON A LIGHTER NOTE – A German man has been sentenced to three years for 40 counts of conning churches and individuals into giving him about 6000 Euros to ease the pain of losing his parents. The 31-year-old’s parents are still alive. (14 December, Sunday Times)

(The editors of Christian News together with Christians for Truth staff, pray that you and your family will enjoy God’s richest blessings this Christmas and New Year.) (to index)