Christian News
29 February
2004
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Southern
Africa:
ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT WELCOMES
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES
BRAZILIAN
MISSIONARY MURDERED
ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT WELCOMES
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES
Peter Hammond of Frontline
Fellowship ( www.frontline.org.za
) writes, "Last week we received a letter signed by the President of the Republic of
Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa thanking us for "the book Biblical Principles for Africa…this
book will not only help me grow spiritually but will assist me to see and appreciate
things in a different perspective. …I thank you for your wonderful gift…"
Shortly after this, Frontline Fellowship Board Member and partner, Rev. Bwanali Phiri,
arranged for every Member of Parliament in Zambia to receive a personal copy of Biblical
Principles for Africa.
This is an election year in South Africa, and the election date has been
announced as 14 April. Africa Christian Action has produced another Biblical Issues
Voter's Guide which is available in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. The first print run of
100 000 is being completed at this time. The Christian Action Network has set up a special
website: www.savotersguide.com
which has already been receiving tremendous interest.
This weekend Excellence Christian Academy in Zambia celebrates their 7th Anniversary. I
have been invited to speak at the celebrations.
Please do pray for our teams in the field, and for the Bible college projects which we are
involved in. Covenant College is heading into its fourth year. We are about to launch Holy
Trinity College in Sudan, and Excellence Christian Academy in Zambia is also preparing to
launch a Bible College programme."
"All the nations You have made will come and worship before You, Oh Lord; they will
bring glory to Your Name. …teach me Your way Oh Lord, and I will walk in Your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your Name. I will praise You, Oh Lord my God,
with all my heart; I will glorify Your Name forever." Psalm 86:9-12
(February 2004, Frontline Fellowship)
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BRAZILIAN
MISSIONARY MURDERED
Unknown assailants murdered a Brazilian
protestant missionary in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, on Tuesday, according to
the Nampula police.
The missionary, Duraci Epinger, was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and she
had worked in Mozambique since 1998.
Police spokesperson Oliveira Maneque, cited by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, said the
police were alerted to the crime by the missionary's neighbours. The police found a
bloodstained hammer beside Epinger's body, and this is believed to have been the murder
weapon. There was no sign of any break-in, which led the police to suspect that Epinger
may have attended a knock on the door, and invited her assailant into the house. The
motive for the crime is unknown, and some reports from Nampula say that neither Epinger's
car, nor property inside the house were stolen.
"We haven't detained anyone yet, we just have our suspicions", said Maneque.
So far, there is no evident link between this killing and the current hysteria in some
quarters over alleged trafficking in children and in body parts in Nampula. Nonetheless,
Lusa claims that in 2001 Epinger had sent a letter to the leadership of her church
alleging that she had received death threats related with "the alleged traffic in
body parts of children".
But her name was not mentioned in connection with the current spate of rumours, dating
from late last year. Those have been spread by Catholic nuns, notably another Brazilian,
Maria Elilda dos Santos. Despite the lack of evidence to support stories of an enormous
conspiracy to cut up Nampula citizens and sell off their body parts, the hysteria created
forced the Attorney-General's office to set up an investigation.
Its preliminary results are quite clear - 14 bodies were exhumed, and none of them were
missing any organs.
But deranged rumours are never killed off by the power of reason and
investigation. No sooner were the findings of the Attorney-General's Office released than
Elilda dos Santos was once again being interviewed by the more credulous of the media,
insisting that she had seen bodies minus their eyes and brains.
Things which nobody else in Nampula seems to have witnessed.
(27 Febr 2004, AllAfrica.com )
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International
SCHWARZENEGGER FIGHTS
GAY UNION
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has told his top
legal official to act against the city of San Francisco for allowing gay marriages.
He ordered the state's attorney-general to take immediate steps to
get a court ruling against the same-sex weddings.
Mr Schwarzenegger said they represented "an imminent risk to civil order".
More than 3,000 gay couples have been married in San Francisco since the city's new mayor
decided to defy state law and allow such weddings.
On Friday, a judge denied a request by the conservative group, Campaign for California
Families, for an injunction halting the same-sex marriages. He said the group had failed
to show convincing evidence that allowing gay weddings to continue would cause irreparable
harm. It was the second failed attempt to secure an injunction barring the unions.
Hours after Friday's court hearing, Mr Schwarzenegger wrote to the state's attorney
general, Bill Lockyero. Our civilised society and legal system is based upon a respect for
and adherence to the rule of law," he wrote. "The city and county of San
Francisco's unfortunate choice to disregard state law and grant marriage certificates to
gay couples directly undermines this fundamental guarantee. "Because the city and
county of San Francisco's actions are directly contrary to state law and present an
imminent risk to civil order, I hereby direct you to take immediate steps to obtain a
definitive judicial resolution of this controversy."
As well as issuing marriage licences, his officials are also suing the state in an attempt
to the get the law overturned.
(21 Febr 2004, BBC)
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GIRL SCOUT TROOPS CRUMBLE
- Groups disband over Planned Parenthood furor
CRAWFORD -- Brownie Troop 7087 is no more, and another Girl Scout
troop has only two members left after the other girls were yanked out by their parents.
A Christian radio station in nearby Waco aired ads for two weeks urging folks to boycott
Girl Scout cookies. Dozens of people in this deeply conservative Central Texas area have
been protesting what they call a "cozy relationship" between the Girl Scouts and
Planned Parenthood, which provides various health services, including abortions.
"It's not that we're a bunch of activists. We're just a bunch of moms who care about
their kids," said Lisa Aguilar, who took her 10-year-old daughter out of a Crawford
troop. "For us, it's the morality. Where is Girl Scouts going?"
The Bluebonnet Council of Girl Scouts, which oversees troops in the Waco area and 13 other
counties, recently said it would not be affiliated with two Planned Parenthood-sponsored
sex-education programs this year.
But the Crawford mothers and Pro-Life Waco remain convinced of the two groups' ties. The
Bluebonnet Council gave the Planned Parenthood of Central Texas executive director a
"woman of distinction" award last year.
The uproar started earlier this month when John Pisciotta, the director of Pro-Life Waco,
aired a 30-second radio ad asking listeners not to buy the cookies because of the
"cozy relationship."
The ads stopped this week after the Bluebonnet Council announced it would not sponsor this
year's sex-education programs.
(28 Febr 2004, Houstoncronicle.com)
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EIGHT VIEWS OF 'PASSION'
The Denver Post invited several Colorado religious leaders to
share their thoughts on Mel Gibson's controversial new film.
TED HAGGARD, pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and
president of the National Association of Evangelicals
I have said many times in recent months that Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the
Christ” is the most powerful presentation of the life and death of Jesus Christ that
I have ever seen.
It is shocking and hard to watch because of its portrayal of the brutality of Roman
crucifixion, but it is also inspiring in its depiction of sacrificial love. I was touched
deeply by it, and I can’t wait to see it again.
MICHAEL WALKER, senior pastor at the Church in the City in Denver.
As a Jew whose grandfather was an orthodox Jewish rabbi, I have been called to minister to
all peoples. Consequently, my passion is for all people. I believe this movie will stir
the hearts of people everywhere to understand the Passion and the rest of the story. I
would like to encourage people to see the movie, visit our Sunday morning services and our
Friday night Shabbat service to learn more about the Passion of the Christ and the Jewish
roots of our faith.
CURTIS A MARTIN, president of the Fellowship of Catholic
University Students in Greeley.
Hundreds of people sitting motionless in recollected silence: This is what I have
experienced after both of my screenings of "The Passion of The Christ." As I
watched this literally breathtaking movie, I found myself remembering one of the most
powerful passages from the Hebrew Scriptures.
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves
esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our
transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell
upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each
of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of all to fall on
Him.”(Isaiah 53:4-6)
There has been a great deal of controversy over this movie, but I think most of it misses
the point — namely the person of Jesus of Nazareth. People can argue about religion
and bigotry, but the movie is about neither. Instead it is about a love that is so great
it is willing to lay down its life for another.
RABBI HOWARD ABEL HIRSCH, founding president of the Center for
Christian-Jewish Dialogue
"The Passion of the Christ" is a violent film that is frequently awesome and
inspiring. Mel Gibson's film, however, neither accurately reproduces the Passion story of
the gospels nor reflects the best current scholarship.
Gibson has repeatedly emphasized that "The Passion" is not an anti-Semitic film.
I accept that judgment. Anti-Semites hardly need pretexts for their irrational hatred. If
one is not predisposed to hate Jews, "The Passion" will hardly incite such
hatred. By the same token, even though Jewish sensitivity to the crucifixion is
understandable in the light of subsequent history, it is high time that Jewish leaders and
organizations cease telling Christians just how to interpret their sacred history and
experience. Gibson has the right to tell the story as he feels it.
As we approach Passover and Easter, the film reminds us that we all have a moral
obligation to understand what went wrong in Christian-Jewish relations and build upon the
advances that have been made during the past 40 years. I left the theater overwhelmd by
the brutality, but equally determined to refocus on love and reconciliation, which was
what Jesus' sacrifice was about.
DOROTHY DANIEL, pastor at A Place of Refuge Christian Center in
Arvada
“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus; what can make me whole
again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh! Precious is the flow that makes me white as
snow; no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
This song, written by Robert Lowry, so describes what I felt as I watched the Mel Gibson
movie “The Passion of the Christ” on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life;
there was no end to that precious flow. The blood, sweat, and tears held its place. It was
there in the beginning and by the end there was a fountain of it. Those who refused to
touch him with compassion were either splashed by it or smeared by it.
This movie is a must-see. It clearly displays the purpose for passion.
RABBI STEVEN E. FOSTER, senior rabbi at Congregation Emanuel in
Denver
One of the great freedoms we have in America, and indeed one for which we are willing to
fight and die, is the freedom of religious expression. Only in America could a movie like
Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" be produced and shown in 3,000
theaters, and at the same time be a lightning rod for criticism and concern.
... I understand that believing Christians and Jews will see this movie differently and
that is part of our ability to live in this wonderful country.
FRANCIS X. MAIER, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver and a
former screenwriter, story analyst and Fellow of the American Film Institute's Center for
Advanced Film Studies.
I've been watching movies for nearly 50 years. But last Monday at the Continental Theater,
I saw something for the first time. When the lights came up at the end of Mel Gibson's
"The Passion of the Christ," 1,400 people sat in silence as the credits rolled.
Nobody moved, and for good reason. The experience is overwhelming. In its artistic
execution and emotional impact, the film is spectacular.
Gibson has created a film that's intense, moving, true to the Gospels and unforgettable.
Nobody who sees it will leave the theater quite the same person. It's a film that
short-circuits our comfortable emotions of faith - the routine piety that gives us warm,
religious feelings - and replaces them with an experience of the real costs paid by a real
man whom believers embrace as the Christ. The film left me with one overriding
thought: I want to follow that man, who, of course, was Himself a Jew.
RABBI ADAM M. MORRIS, rabbi at Temple Micah in Denver
On Ash Wednesday I sat in a crowded theater, next to a friend and Christian clergy
colleague, to view the screening of Mel Gibson ’s “The Passion of the
Christ.”
As I watched Gibson's version of this sacred story from the Christian tradition in this
crowded theater, one word kept floating through my mind —“Fire!” I had the
sensation that Gibson, using his well-documented talents as an Academy Award winning
director, chose to tell this story to crowded theaters across the world in a manner that
would scream “Fire!”to Jews and to Christians.
The reality that I know, and seek to maintain, is one in which a sacred story of courage,
nonviolence and spiritual integrity is a story that does not polarize or provoke, but
promotes caring and love, cooperation and generosity.
(29 Febr 2004, Denverpost.com)
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U.S. DEMANDS MORE ABORTION
RECORDS - Justice Says Suits Make Data Necessary
The Justice Department has expanded its demands for private
medical records of abortion patients, issuing subpoenas this week for hundreds of files
from six Planned Parenthood affiliates, including the one serving metropolitan Washington,
according to officials and court records. The demand for records from Planned
Parenthood affiliates in Washington, New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Pennsylvania,
and Kansas and mid-Missouri follows similar demands in December for abortion records held
by five hospital centers in the Northeast and Midwest. The hospitals have resisted those
requests.
The disputes come as part of a series of lawsuits filed by Planned Parenthood and others
seeking to overturn the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was signed into law last
fall but has been sharply limited by court injunctions since then. Lawsuits filed in New
York, Nebraska and San Francisco challenge the constitutionality of the ban, which covers
a type of abortion known as "intact dilation and extraction," in which the fetus
is partially delivered.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Justice Department lawyers say the subpoenas are
necessary in order to determine the veracity of doctors' claims that the type of abortion
covered by the ban has been medically necessary as the plaintiffs claim.
"We sought from the judge authority to get medical records to find out whether indeed
the allegation by the plaintiffs that it's medically necessary is really a fact,"
Ashcroft told reporters on Feb. 12.
Ashcroft is an ardent opponent of abortion and, as a U.S. senator, sponsored a
constitutional amendment to ban the practice, prompting abortion rights advocates to
question his impartiality in the recent lawsuits. Ashcroft has said he is fulfilling his
duty as attorney general to defend the new abortion ban.
(27 Febr 2004, Washingtonpost.com)
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CHRISTIAN
COALITION SAYS ISRAEL'S SECURITY AND TERRORISM SHOULD BE THE ISSUE AT THE WORLD COURT
Washington D.C. -- Christian Coalition condemns the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for attempting to sanction Israel for erecting a
450-mile security fence to keep out terrorists. Earlier this week, a Palestinian terrorist
blew up a bus killing 8 innocent Israelis including 2 teenagers and wounding another 60.
Israel contends that the ICJ has no jurisdiction and indeed it does not. The International
Court of Justice -- as well as the General Assembly of the United Nations (whose
membership is dominated by dictatorships and despots) which authorized the hearing against
Israel – has no right to intervene with the sovereignty of a nation.
National President Roberta Combs said, "The International Court of Justice should be
putting on trial international criminals rather than putting Israel on trial for just
trying to defend itself. When I and some of my staff visited Israel in late 2002 upon
invitation of the Sharon government, we witnessed the site of a terrorist bus bombing
which killed a dozen innocent Israelis and wounded many others. Since then, the
terrorists' campaign of violence has continued as evidenced by Sunday's bus bombing.
Israel has the right to protect itself with a security fence, just as the United States
has the right to protect our borders."
The Israeli government is correct when it says its security fence is a defense against
suicide bombers. In fact, in areas where the security fence has already been constructed,
the incidents of suicide bombings has decreased. The Israeli people overwhelmingly support
such a barrier between them and the Palestinian terrorists. Quoted on Christian
Broadcasting Network's 700 Club Monday, New York Democrat Congressman Jerrold Nadler who
was 1 block from Sunday's terrorist bombing when it occurred said, "How can you
question the necessity of whatever security measures Israel takes?" If Israel's
security fence had already been completed, the innocent lives lost Sunday in the
Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem, probably would not have been lost.
(27 Febr 2004, Christian Coalition of America)
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