* KWASIZABANTU MINISTERS' CONFERENCE 2009 – The 2009 KwaSizabantu Ministers' Conference has just started with the theme, "The urgency of the hour". The director of KwaSizabantu Mission, Rev Erlo Stegen, took the opening service and preached powerfully from Eph 5:15, 16 and John 9:4.
"The Bible says that as servants of the Lord we should not live as fools in this evil time. We must redeem the time for time is running out. We might imagine that we have much time left. But it is not the case.

We must work while it is day, for the night is coming. We must not be as fools, play around and compromise but do His will and work.

We cannot serve God and money. Let God's Word transform us. It would be tragic if we proclaim the Gospel and then we are disqualified. Let us fear lest we appear before the Lord and say that we have done great things in His Name and He says that He does not know us.

Wherever you are from, what will it help if you profess to know Him but He denies you?

* A COMPLEX JUDGEMENT - Freedom of religion must be protected whenever possible, but when a helpless person’s life is threatened by dogma – like when a child needs a lifesaving blood transfusion – the state has the right to intervene.

This was the view of a panel of legal and theological experts who took part in Safm Radios’ After Eight Debate on the topic of religion and the right to life.
The subject was chosen in the light of the recent decision by a Johannesburg court that the 12- years-old daughter of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who object on religious grounds (to a blood transfusion), be given a blood transfusion.
It has also been given prominence recently by a number of other cases, including one in Italy where the parents of a woman who has been in a coma for 17 years sought permission to have her life support system switched off.
Such cases are extremely delicate, the debating panel agreed, especially when they involved religious beliefs.

"We explicitly protect the freedom of religion," said panel participant Pro Karthy Govender, an expert in constitutional law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a member of the Human Rights Commission.

"What you have in some instances – certainly in respect of a child – you have other rights which talk about a child’s best interest being paramount."
Govender said that when a third party, such as a parent, is involved, the law requires that a "dispassionate person", such as a judge, decide the matter.

The judge "exercise a very difficult judicial discretion to determine whether a child’s right to medical care should predominate over religious beliefs".
He said in such cases the judge became the third party and would hear evidence on the matter.
"If the judge is of the view the child’s life can be saved, in most cases he will grant an order. It is not a simple issue. Each case has to be judged on its merits.
"Govender said that when an individual explicitly asked that certain treatment not be given his or her wishes were normally granted.
"But when that person wishes to exercise that right over a third party, then more difficult questions arise."

Another participant, Victor Owuor, a lecturer at the George Whitefield College, said human life was sacred because it was created by God and had to be treated as such. Owuor said people had an obligation to look after the bodies over which they had been given "custody" and, if need be, that included getting medical treatment.

* FBI RECOVERS 48 JUVENILES IN PROSTITUTION RAID – Law enforcement officials arrested more than 500 people, and took custody of 48 juveniles in a coordinated 29-city weekend sweep aimed at combating child prostitution, the FBI announced Monday.

Task forces made up largely of state and local police officers arrested and booked what authorities said were 464 adult prostitutes, 55 pimps and 55 customers on state charges. While most faced local charges, a senior FBI official said he expected there were would be some federal charges as well.

The FBI Monday said 19 searches were conducted, netting a total of $438,000 in cash, plus illegal drugs, cars and computers.
The four dozen juveniles were recovered in the third phase of Operation Cross Country, an initiative that seeks to help child prostitutes and crack down on people who control them and patronize them.

In the previous coordinated operations, authorities recovered 21 alleged child prostitutes last June and 47 in October.
In 2003 the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched what was called the Innocence Lost National Initiative to address what had become a growing problem of children forced into prostitution. Many were young runaways.

Officials say the 32 Innocence Lost task forces formed nationwide have now recovered about 670 children in the six years, and seized more than $3 million in cash.
The most recent operation involved law enforcement agencies in several states including California, Alaska, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Alabama, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Minnesota and Arizona.
(CNN, 23 Feb 2009) (to index)

* BIBLES PUT OUT OF REACH IN LIBRARIES (England) – Government-backed guidance has told librarians to store Bibles and other religious texts on the top shelf in order to avoid offending Muslims.

The guidance suggests moving all religious texts to the top shelf because of the Muslim belief that the Koran should not be kept among ‘common things’.
But critics argue that Christians do not apply such beliefs to the Bible, which they say should be easily accessible for everyone.

The news emerged as Poet Laureate Andrew Motion said during an interview that children should be taught more about the Bible because it is an "essential piece of cultural luggage".
Mr Motion, an atheist, said too many students now arrive at university to study English Literature with scant knowledge of its deeply biblical foundations.
Commenting on his experience of teaching students, he said: "When I ask them anything about the Bible, they frankly, by and large, don’t know. I don’t particularly blame them for it.

"But I do think there is a real problem with the education system that has allowed these great stories to disappear, to fade out of the diet everyone gets at school."

The guidance for libraries was published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, a quango answering to culture secretary Andy Burnham.
The guidance says Muslim groups advised that all religious texts should be kept on the top shelf, so that "no offence is caused, as the scriptures of all the major faiths are given respect in this way, but none is higher than any other".

Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank said: "One of the central planks of the Protestant Reformation was that everybody should have access to the Bible."
Earlier this month an education expert hit out at a new GCSE syllabus for Religious Studies, saying it focused on fashionable political ideas like the environment and binge drinking at the expense of religion.

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at Buckingham University, said: "I think it comes from the desire of politicians to stamp their influence on everything. It looks as if they are turning RE in to a pat qualification for political correctness.
"How is it to benefit the students? It is not going to be a basis for the further study of RE or spirituality to a higher level."

Last year Oxford University Press, the publisher of a children’s dictionary, was criticized over the decision to remove a number of words with Christian connotations like ‘sin’ and ‘vicar’ and replace them with terms like ‘biodegradable’ and ‘citizenship’.
(The Christian Institute, 18 Feb 2009) (to index)

* WHY THE BRITISH AREN’T BOARDING THE ATHEIST BUS – British atheist Richard Dawkins wants to stamp out Christian faith in England. But that faith is still very much alive.

When I arrived in London last week I fully expected to see one of the city's celebrated "atheist buses" racing past Gatwick Airport on its way to Victoria Station. I had read about how Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins, author of the book The God Delusion, helped raise more than 140,000 British pounds from donors in January to plaster the city's famous double-decker buses with signs that read: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Dawkins, who has publicly compared religion with the smallpox virus, is quite evangelistic when it comes to his doubts. But his London bus experiment was a dud, if you ask me. Early 2009 was not a good time to mount an atheist campaign. With British banks in crisis and companies laying off workers all over the U.K., most people would prefer to believe divine help is a possibility. "There's probably no God" is a depressing message to share with anxious Londoners who are weathering the Great Recession.

Although I boarded several buses in downtown London last Saturday, I never saw Dawkins' offensive advertisements. (I later learned that his campaign ended Feb. 1.) I did, however, see a bus plastered with a competing message, placed by Christian politician George Hargreaves. It said: "There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life."

A British Bible society has since joined this battle of the buses. It spent $50,000 to put up signs that quote Psalm 53:1: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' " And a Russian TV channel is partnering with the Russian Orthodox Church to post messages on London buses that say: "There is God. Enjoy your life."

This ruckus prompted the atheists to rethink their strategy. Now they plan to post more of their signs in April—just in time for Easter. Who knows—before this is over maybe the queen will step out of Buckingham Palace and weigh in on the matter.

I'll admit I tend to think of England as a godless country. We've all heard the stories of British churches being turned into mosques. But during my visit I found many encouraging signs that faith is still very much alive in the land that gave us John Wesley, John Bunyan and C.S. Lewis. I am sure Richard Dawkins is not alone in his atheism, but he has a lot of work to do if he thinks he can wipe out Christianity in England with a few billboards.

When faith is challenged here, British believers are known to fight back. Just recently a born-again nurse, Caroline Petrie, was fired from her job because she asked a patient if she could pray for her. At first her employer, the North Somerset Primary Care Trust, said that Petrie acted unprofessionally. But when the Christian Legal Center got involved and challenged the decision, Petrie was quickly reinstated.

When I arrived in England I spent three days ministering to a group of Pentecostal pastors from various parts of the U.K. Among them were immigrant church leaders who moved to England from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast and Congo. One young minister from Ghana lives in a town near Oxford (where Dawkins taught evolutionary theory) that has become a stronghold of New Age occultism. The young Ghanaian believes God sent him to the U.K. to help dismantle the spiritual darkness that has settled over this nation.

On Sunday morning I preached in a church in the east London suburb of Leytonstone. The pastor of the church is from Ghana, his wife is from Guyana, and his church members are from 15 nations. This is the new face of British Christianity. These immigrants, most of them now British citizens, are passionate in worship and aggressive in evangelism. Their vibrant faith is something Dawkins and his atheist friends never imagined they would contend with on British soil.

Also over the weekend I spoke to a group of Christian men in Littlehampton, a city on the southern coast of England not far from Brighton. After the meeting I learned that one of the guys in the audience was Martin Smith, lead singer of the Christian band Delirious. Smith is the author of the popular praise chorus "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever." He says he wrote the song in five minutes while on a vacation with his wife at a farmhouse in Devon.

Meeting Smith reminded me what a valuable contribution British Christians are still making to the global Christian scene. There is definitely a battle raging here for the hearts and minds of people, and evangelical believers are a minority facing a looming threat from both secularism and Islam. But in pockets of this country, Christian faith is strong, worship is passionate and many are eager to take the gospel into a hostile environment.
(Charismamag.com, Feb 2009)  (to index)