Christian News

15 February 2004
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Southern Africa:

• First TLW cards arrive for Athens Olympics
• SA doctor challenges abortion mortality rates
• Mandela not sure of heaven
• SA hospital stops doing abortions
• Thousands unite in prayer for CFT President

* FIRST TLW CARDS ARRIVE FOR ATHENS OLYMPICS - The first 1,000 True Love Waits commitment cards have arrived in Athens, Greece -- signed by Zulu youth of South Africa -- as part of an international display celebrating moral purity during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Valentina Khokhriakova, a Russian student at a Christian teachers’ college in South Africa, delivered the cards to the Athens warehouse where True Love Waits commitment cards from at least 100 countries will be stored. The 1,000 she delivered are some of an estimated 300,000 that South African youth have signed and that all to be sent to Athens. Nearly 1 million signed promises of sexual purity from Christian youth around the world will be displayed during the international True Love Waits celebration Sunday on 22 August. TLW is a ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. More than 95 other organizations -- secular and religious -- support the use of True Love Waits to promote sexual abstinence. True Love Waits organisers are encouraged by such a large number of cards coming from South Africa where AIDS has taken a heavy toll. "The True Love Waits message of sexual abstinence until marriage can impact the spread of HIV/AIDS there as it has done in the African country of Uganda," said Jimmy Hester, coordinator of the True Love Waits team at LifeWay. The HIV/AIDS rate fell from 30 percent of the population in the early 1990s to around 10 percent today in Uganda. Government leaders and some HIV/AIDS activists in Uganda accredit TLW for much of the success. "The fact that South Africa already has 300,000 cards that will be at the international event paints a great picture of the size and scale of this global celebration," said Hester, who is also senior director of student ministry publishing at LifeWay. An outdoor rally featuring Olympic athletes who stand for purity and youth from AIDS-ravaged nations giving testimonies of courage and moral resolve, will be a part of the Athens celebration. Other observances will take place across the globe on Aug. 22 as Christian students and churches commemorate the commitment to biblical sexual purity. (3 February, BP) (to index)

* SA DOCTOR CHALLENGES ABORTION MORTALITY RATES – A doctor in South African writes the following in a prestigious medical magazine: Studies have shown that 90% of illegal abortions are done privately by registered doctors. When there are adverse consequences and the mother is unable to pay she may delay seeking help, eventually arriving at the state hospital. Mothers die as a result of abortion whether legal or illegal. More mothers will die if abortion is legalized, not less, because women will still have abortions. In 1969 (before abortion was legalized in the US) the number of abortion related complications treated in US hospitals was 9000. In 1997 it was 17 000. A high rate of maternal mortality and morbidity is not due to a high rate of unwanted pregnancy resulting form inadequate contraceptive use. Increasing contraceptive use results in more sexual activity with more unplanned pregnancies, and more sexually transmitted infections, including AIDS. Unwanted pregnancy has not been reduced or eliminated by the provision of comprehensive family planning and contraceptive services together with literacy in either the UK or the USA.
In conclusion, history has shown that neither legalizing abortion, nor providing comprehensive family planning and education reduces the serious medical consequences of abortion to the mother. (January 2004, Tropical Doctor, Royal Society of Medicine Press) (to index)

* MANDELA NOT SURE OF HEAVEN - Former president Nelson Mandela is not worried about his health, but he has an idea on how he will approach death. Mandela (85), whose health has been a source of concern for several years, told reporters at his home in Cape Town he is not sure his name will be on the list when he finally knocks on heaven’s door. "For many years I have been told that I am frail, and others have gone further and said I am on the eve of going to my grave," he said after receiving an honorary doctorate from the British-based Open University. "I’m sure as that day comes I will go and knock at the door of heaven and I know what they will say, they will look at their list and say `your name is not there, can you try next door’. I won’t go next door because if I went there I know what will happen to me, I will burn for the rest of eternity," he said. "I will look for a branch of the ANC in that world and join it."(5 February, Witness) (to index)

* SA HOSPITAL STOPS DOING ABORTIONS – On 11 February the Health Professionals Conscientious Objection Campaign scored its greatest victory yet. All staff in a major South African hospital are conscientiously objecting to assisting with abortions and the killing has stopped. Numerous other small hospitals, especially rural ones are refusing to do abortions, but this is the first time a major urban hospital previously doing abortions has stopped. The name of the hospital is not being made public at this stage in order to make it more difficult for the Department of Health to victimise the workers. Some of the hospital staff were encouraged by a talk given by Dr Albu van Eeden of Doctors for Life by and a local pro-life activist. Many healthworkers have been intimidated into assisting with abortions against their will, not knowing that they have a constitutional right to refuse. The campaign educates healthworkers on their rights and give legal support to any who face such intimidation. The conscientious objection campaign is also spreading across medical schools and nursing colleges, with the support of Students for Life, Doctors for Life, Christian Medical Fellowship, Healthcare Christian Fellowship, His People Ministries and ChristianView Network. At the University of Cape Town, one third of medical students have signed. The campaign will be targeting more hospitals in the coming year. (11 February, LifeNews) (to index)

* THOUSANDS UNITE IN PRAYER FOR CFT PRESIDENT – The email request "SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST FOR FANO" has resulted in many thousands of believers uniting in special times of prayer across the world, on 15 February. At Churches and Christian fellowships in many countries, the email sent out by Fano's friends, was read out to congregations and fervent prayer was made for Fano and his family. Fano Sibisi, president of CFT, wrote the following: "Thank you very much to all of you for supporting the prayer initiative so wholeheartedly. My family and I are overwhelmed by such an outpouring of love and intercession. Dear friends, this is just a fraction of what happened yesterday. God saw and heard it all. May He bless you for your heart towards us!" (to index)

International

• British children to learn less about Jesus
• Passion film hype
• American airlines apologises for christianity remarks
• ‘Homosexual issue likely to split anglicans’
• Destruction on Chinese home church caught on video
• Atheists push for Darwin day

* BRITISH CHILDREN TO LEARN LESS ABOUT JESUS - The teaching of religious education in schools should be renamed spiritual education, with children being taught more about atheism and less about the life of Jesus and the 10 Commandments, according to the British Government's favourite think-tank. The lessons should be widened to include "non-religious belief systems", a report by the Institute For Public Policy Research says. It calls for equal weight to be given to agnosticism and humanism as is given to Christianity. Children should also be taught about cults such as the Baha'i, made famous by the government scientist Dr David Kelly, paganism and even environmentalism. The report, What Is Religious Education For?, is being considered by education ministers as they draw up the first national curriculum guidelines on religious instruction. Some of the report's conclusions will provoke controversy. Instead of accepting the 10 Commandments, children should be taught to question the plausibility of events and teachings in the Bible, it says. Rather than referring to God, they should be taught that there is a "divine being whose moral judgments are significantly more reliable than ours". "From the age of five, children should learn that there are people who do not believe in God, the afterlife or the power of prayer or that the Universe was created," the report says. They should also be told from an early age of the alternatives to marriage and that there are non-religious ways of marking momentous experiences. A heavy emphasis would also be given to educating children about Islam to guard against what the think-tank regards as a growing phobia in schools towards Muslims. Children with strong religious beliefs would be encouraged to question them and to ask what grounds there are for holding them. (15 February,The Telegraph) (to index)

* PASSION FILM HYPE - Thousands of articles and programmes about "The Passion of Christ" film are being generated in virtually all media across the world. The old question of who is to blame for Jesus’ death is being hotly debated. Some Jewish groups are accusing the films’s producer, Mel Gibson, of sparking anti-Semitism. Pressure from Jewish lobby groups has resulted in Gibson removing the line from St Mathew in which the Jewish High Priest says: "His blood be upon us and on our children." Bible-believing Christians agree that we are all guilty of the death of Christ because He carried the "sins of the world". Expect much more hype in the coming weeks. The more the better. (5 February, Daily News) (to index)

* AMERICAN AIRLINES APOLOGISES FOR CHRISTIANITY REMARKS - The chief executive of American Airlines apologized after the pilot of a recent cross-country flight got on the intercom and asked all Christians aboard to raise their hands. The pilot, Rodger K. Findiesen of Annapolis, Maryland, has been grounded while the 7 February incident is investigated, Gerard Arpey said. The pilot of the Los Angeles-to-New York flight asked all Christians aboard to discuss their faith with their fellow passengers. "Let me assure you that we take this very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation," Arpey wrote to Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, a group that monitors anti-Semitism. The airline "promotes an environment of respect for the diversity of all persons, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, disability, gender, age or sexual orientation." (13 February, AP) (to index)

* `HOMOSEXUAL ISSUE LIKELY TO SPLIT ANGLICANS’ - After 450 years of unity, the Anglican church looks to be sliding inexorably into schism over the issue of gay bishops, according to some analysts. "This is a definite step in the direction of schism," Church Times editor Paul Handley told Reuters after conservative U.S. Anglicans formed their own Episcopalian network in protest over the ordination of an openly homosexual bishop. At a 2-day meeting in Texas, the Conservative Episcopalians, angered by the recent consecration of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, set up the new network within their church. The Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes comprises of 12 dioceses that represent about 10% of the 2,5 million Episcopalians. It insists that it is trying to form a church within a church and not seeking a break. (22 January, The Witness) (to index)

* DESTRUCTION ON CHINESE HOME CHURCH CAUGHT ON VIDEO - Shocking video of the destruction of an unregistered Chinese church has been smuggled out of China to a persecution watchdog group. The Tu Du Sha Church in Zhejiang Province was bulldozed to the ground June 26, reports the Voice of the Martyrs. The church, in Hangzhou City, was founded around 1930 by the group launched in the 19th century by famed missionary Hudson Taylor, China Inland Mission. Weekly attendance had grown to 1,500. Police first arrived before 4 a.m. expecting the church to be empty, VOM said. Instead, they found 300 Christians gathered for prayer. The police left, but returned just before 8 a.m. with 200 military policemen and more than 40 vehicles. In spite of the protests of church members, the church was completely destroyed, the Oklahoma-based group said. A Chinese Christian covertly videotaped the entire scene, and the video was smuggled out of the country. "In our 36 years of ministry, we've never had a videotape like this," said Tom White, VOM's U.S. director. "This tape shows how the Chinese government treats Christian groups that refuse to register," he said. (14 February, Worldnetdaily) (to index)

* ATHEISTS PUSH FOR DARWIN DAY – Atheist, agnostic and humanist organisations in the Americas, Europe and Asia have geared up for a 5-year campaign aimed at achieving international recognition of 12 February as "Darwin Day". Their target date is 2009, the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. The reasons? "Because a Darwin Day would send out a signal that science matters in an era when pseudo-science and fear of science seems to be gaining ground," argues the British Humanist Association, which is playing a key role in the campaign. The head of the U.S. Darwin Day movement, Amanda Chesworth, says it is "very, very scary (that) creationism is spreading further and further". (16 February, The Witness) (to index)