Christian News

15 April 2004
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Southern Africa:

 

• Peaceful elections in South Africa
• Boycott threat over gay bishop
• Films without sex gross more

* PEACEFUL ELECTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA - Christians in South Africa (and many prayer partners in other countries) having been praying for peaceful elections in South Africa. Thus far, the elections on 14 April have been the most peaceful ever. This is the 3rd democratic election in the country and, though many predicted KwaZulu-Natal as a possible violent "hot-spot", there have been no major incidents. With most of the counting completed it seems that the governing party, the African National Congress, will obtain the two-thirds majority it has been seeking. For up-to-date information about election results go to Independent Electoral Commission's website: http://www.elections.org.za/ (to index)

* BOYCOTT THREAT OVER GAY BISHOP - Anglican bishops from Africa would boycott meetings with liberal US church leaders who supported the ordination of gay bishops, the head of Nigeria’s Anglican Church said ahead of a congress on 14 April. The Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola, who heads the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (Capa), which convened in Kenya’s capital this week, has condemned the ordination of homosexuals as a "satanic attack on God’s church". Akinola said there is a "tear in the very fabric of our communion", and that ordaining and consecrating an openly gay (man) "has amounted to crafting a new template and we can’t log on to that template." Capa has about 42 million Anglicans, more than half the world’s Anglicans. (15 April, The Mercury) (to index)

* FILMS WITHOUT SEX GROSS MORE - A new study has found that films containing explicit sex or nudity do much worse at the box office, earning nearly 40% less on average than more wholesome movies. An analysis of 1 120 movie releases over the past four years has shown that films without sex scenes, such as Disney's Finding Nemo or Toy Story 2, earned an average of $41.1-million, while films with sex have grossed 38% less. In 2003, the final year of the study, the gap was even wider, with films without sex earning more than double those with explicit scenes. The survey also demonstrated that an increasing number of films carry a moral message, with 63% of the top-grossing films since 2001 portraying edifying story lines that follow uplifting and redemptive plots. The findings, taken from an analysis of box-office earnings in the US, were compiled for the Christian Film and Television Commission, a viewers' campaign group, and published in its monthly magazine Movieguide. (11 April, Sunday Times) (to index)

International

• Vietnam clamps down on Christian protest
• No deal with bin Laden
• US seeks details of reported crackdown on Christians in Vietnam
• Ministers challenge gay couple
• Christian radio station reach out to U-S troops

* VIETNAM CLAMPS DOWN ON CHRISTIAN PROTEST - Vietnam's Central Highlands remained sealed off Monday by police and security officials following protests by hundreds of ethnic minority Christians over Easter weekend. Scores were arrested and injured when more than a thousand people took to the streets Saturday in Buon Ma Thuot, the provincial capital of Daklak, in what was supposed to be peaceful prayer demonstrations against religious repression and land confiscation. Most of the indigenous mountain tribes are Protestant. Vietnam has blamed "overseas instigation" for triggering the protests, which are a repeat of mass demonstrations in 2001. "In recent days, some extremists in some localities in Daklak and Gia Lai provinces — with overseas instigation — have engaged in actions of causing social disorder, even assaulting authorities, destroying public welfare projects and property in some villages," Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in a statement. (12 April, AP).
Meanwhile, Ekklesia reports that "hundreds were killed" An estimated 400 Christians have been killed during peaceful and prayerful demonstrations by Christians in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. On Saturday 10 April up to 400,000 Vietnamese Christians, from the Degar people, gathered in several Vietnamese cities to demonstrate against the government’s refusal to allow them to follow the Christian faith freely. The demonstrators in the cities, which included the Central Highland city of Buonmathuot, were attacked by soldiers, police and other Vietnamese civilians. The Christians were shot at, beaten with electric batons and bombarded with rocks and stones. Hundreds were killed (400 according to one report) and many others have suffered broken bones reports the Barnabas Fund which works to support Christian communities in the Islamic world. In a press release on 9 April an organisation representing the largely Christian Degar people, known as the Montagnard Foundation, drew attention to the planned demonstrations, which were to include a specific call for the Vietnamese government to lift the embargo on international human rights monitoring in the Central Highlands area. In a word of warning concerning the demonstrations the Foundation cautioned that "Without the direct intervention of law abiding states, the UN and the European Commission, the repression against the Montagnards will be bloody." (13 April, Ekklesia) (to index)

* NO DEAL WITH BIN LADEN - London, England - European politicians have ruled out negotiations with Osama bin Laden after a tape, that the CIA says is likely to be the al Qaeda leader, offered a truce to European nations if they pulled troops out of Muslim countries.
"It is completely unthinkable that we could start negotiations with bin Laden. Everyone understands that," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters.
European Commission President Romano Prodi said there could be no negotiating under a "terrorist threat." The CIA --, after evaluating the tape, -- said Thursday that although it was impossible to be absolutely sure the voice on the tape was bin Laden's, it most likely was.
In Britain, the Foreign Office said there was no proof the voice on the tape was bin Laden. However, the message was being taken seriously.
"We can't negotiate with al Qaeda," a spokesman said. "Their attacks are against the very idea of co-existence and conflict is their raison d'etre.
"To hide in the face of the threat is not an answer. The right response is to continue to confront terrorism, not give in to its demands."
French President Jacques Chirac, during a visit to Algeria, said: "There can be no possible bargaining with terrorists."
Reuters also quoted Chirac as reiterating that there would be no French military involvement in Iraq.
A German government spokesman said the country would not negotiate with "criminals" like bin Laden.
"There will be no negotiations with terrorists and serious criminals like Osama bin Laden. The international community must continue the fight against international terrorism together. Germany will continue to contribute to that," the spokesman said.
The CIA said the speaker on that tape was "likely" bin Laden, who describes the U.S. involvement in Iraq as the beginning of an occupation of Persian Gulf states for their oil.
"Whoever made the tape," a CIA official said noting the Yassin death reference, it "clearly has been made in the last three weeks."
On March 25, Al Jazeera aired a tape believed to be from bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, calling on Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf. (15 April 2004, CNN) (to index)

 

* US SEEKS DETAILS OF REPORTED CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS IN VIETNAM
- The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi was pressing Wednesday for access to a volatile region of Vietnam, amid conflicting reports about the extent of a reported Easter weekend crackdown against ethnic minority Christians.
U.S.-based campaigners claimed that "hundreds" of the villagers in the central highlands had been killed, citing eyewitness accounts. There has been no independent confirmation of the allegations, and other reports spoke of scores of arrests and injuries, but no deaths.
Police turned back U.S. Embassy officials planning to visit the area on Saturday, when thousands of the ethnic minority villagers, known collectively as the Montagnard or Dega (mountain people), held what supporters described as peaceful prayer gatherings and demonstrations against religious oppression and land confiscation.
A spokesman said by phone Wednesday the embassy was pursuing the request, but had yet to hear whether staffers would be allowed to visit the central highlands.
He said the embassy was unable to confirm reports of serious clashes or killings.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a press briefing earlier the U.S. was trying to obtain information on what had happened.
The Italian government has also taken an interest. The prime minister's office in Rome said that Vietnam's ambassador was called in, while Italy's ambassador in Hanoi was instructed to request the government to allow international monitoring of the situation in the central highlands.
Vietnam's communist government has long been accused by the West of persecuting Protestant Montagnard and members of other religious faiths not recognized by the state.
Rights groups have reported decades of persecution, including instances of individuals or whole villagers being forced to renounce Jesus Christ under threat of violence.
According to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, more than three-quarters of Montagnard churches were forcibly disbanded and shut down in recent years. Pastors have been arrested, and meetings in homes for teaching, worship or prayer are expressly forbidden.
After Saturday's events began in the provincial capital, Buonmathuot, authorities closed the entire region to outsiders to deal with the protests, blocking roads and canceling flights.
The Foreign Ministry in Hanoi blamed the disturbances on "extremists" whom it said had acted under "overseas instigation" to cause "social disorder." Local government officials had taken steps to stabilize the situation, it said.(14 April 2004, CNSNews) (to index)

* MINISTERS CHALLENGE GAY COUPLE - By SAMIHA KHANNA, Staff Writer
DURHAM -- Two Christian ministers want to be named defendants in a gay couple's civil lawsuit against Durham County for refusing to issue them a marriage license.
A Christian legal group filed a motion to intervene Thursday in the civil lawsuit brought last month by Richard Mullinax, 36, and Perry Pike, 41. Mullinax and Pike are suing the county's register of deeds because he denied the couple a marriage license under the state's definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
Because marriages are made official by ministers, the religious leaders would be directly affected by the outcome of the lawsuit, said Michael Schmidt of the Patrick Henry Justice Center, a Christian legal foundation in Laurinburg. The center filed the motion on behalf of the Rev. Ernest Ferrell of Edgewood Baptist Church and the Rev. Gregory Clark of Guess Road Baptist Church, both in Durham.
"They are wanting to uphold the traditional meaning of marriage," Schmidt said Saturday.
The motion was supported by the Alliance Defense Fund, Schmidt said, a Christian-based legal group that has taken a nationwide stand against same-sex marriage.
An attorney for Mullinax and Pike said she doesn't believe the ministers should be allowed to intervene because the outcome of the case won't directly affect their interests.
"Ministers aren't obligated to marry anyone," said Cheri Patrick, a Durham lawyer. "They'd be just as free to say no to these two men as they would be to a man and a woman who want to get married."
Schmidt disagreed, saying that if a same-sex couple were able to obtain a marriage license, a minister who refused to marry them would be subject to lawsuits. "This puts them directly in the target of being the object of attack," Schmidt said.
A county attorney representing the register of deeds has filed a motion seeking dismissal of the case. Both motions will be heard May 10 in Durham County civil court.
Patrick thinks the motion to intervene will fail because it is without basis, she said.
(11 April 2004, Newsobserver.com) (to index)

* CHRISTIAN RADIO STATIONS REACH OUT TO U-S TROOPS - Two Christian radio stations in the United States are doing what they can to not only support U-S troops, but give them a chance to hear the Gospel. 88.3 FM WAYK, Kalamazoo, Michigan and 89.9 FM WAYG, Grand Rapids, Michigan made the project part of the annual Sharathon fundraiser.
Rich Anderson is the station manager of WAYK, known as WAY-fm in the area. "Anybody that gave 10-dollars or more to WAY-FM, we set aside a part of that to send one CD to somebody serving the U-S military overseas. We managed to muster enough pledges to send about 3,500 CD overseas."
Anderson says the government is actually paying for the CD's to be shipped to service men and women serving their country. He says the CD was just a part of it. "With each CD is just a little piece that says, 'we appreciate what you're doing, serving our country and serving us and we're praying for you and we're thinking about you and here's just a small token of our appreciation. And, by the way if you have any question about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or just want to dialogue with someone back home, here's our personal email addresses," says Anderson.
As men and women die in the war on terror, Anderson says this presents great ministry opportunities. "You hear a lot of people say, 'there are no atheists in a fox holes. You get put in a crisis situation like a lot of these men and women are when they're on the front lines. You start thinking about spiritual things and this is just one little tool to help plant the seed. (Mission Network News) (to index)