* JUST A THOUGHT - Handel's 'Messiah' might have become a tradition but the Messiah dare not become a tradition. The Messiah lives.
(by Fano Sibisi, 05 December 2009, www.cft.org.za) (to index)

* FORMER BROTHEL OWNER SWITCHES SIDES - The city has found a unique weapon in its fight against prostitution - a former brothel owner who last hit the headlines when she took her attempts to have prostitution legalised all the way to the Constitutional Court.

Ellen Jordan, who lost R3,2-million and was bankrupted by her fruitless efforts to have the country's prostitution laws declared unconstitutional seven years ago, has since switched sides and will now be advising the city on the ins and outs of the industry.
Reports during her court case in 2002 dubbed her "the Madam of South Africa", but Jordan said yesterday she had changed and now believed the sex industry was exploitative and women were driven to it through lack of choice.

Dissenting from the majority judgment which found prostitution laws were not unconstitutional, justices Kate O'Regan and Albie Sachs said that making prostitutes the main offenders and their pimps mere accomplices, reinforced sexual double standards and perpetuated gender stereotypes.

Councillor JP Smith echoed this position yesterday, saying the city would in future focus less on law enforcement targeting prostitutes and more on enforcement targeting their clients - including cracking down on strip clubs, brothels and pimps.
But he said the city, in conjunction with religious bodies, would focus most of its efforts on setting up structures to provide a way out for sex workers.

Speaking at a press conference following a meeting with the Family Policy Institute, Jordan and Doctors for Life International representative Abraham Warren, Smith said there were not enough places of safety in the city, and the matter would be urgently addressed.

Social workers would also be accompanying vice squads in future, he said.

Jordan said she believed the city was doing "the right thing" in helping "girls" who were "lost" and "exploited" because they saw "no other alternative, no other way".

Warren, whose organisation appeared for the State in opposing Jordan's Constitutional Court bid, said he believed the most effective way to help was to provide a comprehensive exit strategy for sex workers.

Asked whether it was not an infringement on the rights of women to tell them they were not allowed to work as prostitutes, Warren said there were other examples of laws that on the face of it infringed certain rights, but were designed to protect.

Errol Naidoo, head of the Family Policy Institute, said the smoking law, for instance, limited the right of people to smoke wherever they wanted to, yet there was no outrage about that because everyone understood that it was a harmful practice.

Asked about timelines for implementation of the new strategy, Smith said roleplayers were rushing to get structures in place, as there was increasing evidence that recruitment of women and children was taking place ahead of the World Cup and the "bumper season" pimps were expecting.

After losing her Constitutional Court case, Jordan had commented that she feared the ruling had only opened the door to more corruption, exploitation and abuse.

Yesterday, she said that cracking down on prostitution would not drive the industry further underground.
"I don't think it can go any lower than it is," she said.
(Cape Times, 25 Nov 2009) (to index)

* KWASIZABANTU YOUTH CONFERENCE, UNDER WAY 13 – 18 DECEMBER 2009 – The Bi-Annual KwaSizabantu Youth Conference has started 13 Dec 2009 and will continue till 18 Dec 2009, with the theme being "There is a Rock". This Rock is Christ Jesus.

Speakers at the conference include the Director of KwaSizabantu Mission, Rev Erlo Stegen, his brother Rev Friedel Stegen, Rev Joseph Chauke and Dr Sieling. The Gideon Bible Distribution team will also be given an opportunity to speak to the young people and hand out Gideon Bibles.

A few thousand young people have already arrived for the conference with some still on their way. Please pray for the Lord's blessing that many would come to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
(CNews, 14 Dec 2009) (to index)

* MAN TRAPPED IN 23-YEAR ‘FALSE COMA’ - A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night.
Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed.
He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said.
"I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," said Mr Houben, now 46.
Doctors used a range of coma tests, recognised worldwide, before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was "extinct".
But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.
Mr Houben describes the moment as "my second birth".
Therapy has since allowed him to tap out messages on a computer screen.
Mr Houben said: "All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt."
His case has only just been revealed in a scientific paper released by the man who "saved" him, top neurological expert Dr Steven Laureys.
"Medical advances caught up with him," said Dr Laureys, who believes there may be many similar cases of false comas around the world.
(IOL, 23 Nov 2009) (to index)

* ANGLICAN LEADER WARNS OF LESBIAN BISHOP’S ELECTION - The head of the global Anglican Communion has warned Episcopal bishops to think twice before they confirm Saturday's election of an openly lesbian bishop in Los Angeles, Calif.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says the choice of the Rev. Mary Glasspool, 55, "raises very serious questions" about the American church's place in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
"The process of selection, however, is only part complete," Williams said. "The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications."

He reminded church leaders they had agreed there should be a "period of gracious respect" on such controversial decisions, the London Telegraph reported.
Should her election be confirmed, Glasspool would be the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican fellowship. The first was Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire who was consecrated in 2003.

There are currently 77 million Anglicans world wide.
(CBNNews, 7 Dec 2009) (to index)

* PASTOR ACQUITTED OF HATE CRIME CHARGE IN CANADA - Canadian judge last week exonerated a former pastor who was charged of committing a hate crime for sending a letter to a local newspaper criticising homosexuality.

Judge E C Wilson overturned a 2008 ruling by the Alberta Human Rights Commission that ordered former Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin to stop all public criticisms of homosexuality and to pay the plaintiff $5,000 in damages, according to The Canadian Press.

Wilson ruled on Friday that the 2002 letter, which carried the headline "Homosexual agenda wicked", was not a hate crime but is permissible under freedom of speech.

"The decision of Justice Earl Wilson of the Court of Queen's Bench in Boissoin v Lund will have a significant long term positive impact on religious freedom in Canada," wrote Gerald Chipeur , Boissoin’s attorney, in a summary analysis of the judgment, according to LifeSiteNews.com.

Chipeur commented that the definition of what qualifies as hate speech was made clearer through the ruling. He also said the judge took away the "tools of censorship" and protected freedom of expression.

In 2002, Boissoin sent a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate newspaper criticizing the pro-gay rights curriculum in the province’s education system.

"From kindergarten class on our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators," Pastor Stephen Boissoin wrote.

The letter caught the attention of a human rights activist who filed a complaint against the pastor for "hate-mongering". The activist supported his case by pointing to a homosexual who was beaten up two weeks after the letter was published as evidence that such speech can incite violence.

Boissoin’s attorney, however, argued that the plaintiff cannot prove the connection between his client’s letter and discriminatory practices against homosexuals in Alberta. The lawyer also highlighted that Alberta’s hate speech laws cannot suppress people’s right to express their opinions.

"While the decision did not strike down Alberta's 'hate speech' laws, it significantly limited the application of such laws," Chipeur said.

But plaintiff Darren Lund responded to the ruling saying, "I really think this is a step backwards for our province," in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.

"In my view, the judge’s ruling sets such strict standards for hate speech that this section is rendered all but unenforceable."

The case of Boissoin, which had been ongoing for more than seven years, was used by conservative Christian leaders in the United States as an example of what could happen if DC lawmakers passed an expanded hate crimes law.

Prominent Christian right leaders such as James Dobson, Chuck Colson, and Tony Perkins warned that a hate crimes law could lead to "thought police" who consider verbal attacks or speeches to be hate crimes.

Despite the vocal protest by conservative leaders, a US-version of the expanded hate crimes law was passed in October. The law adds violence against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability to the list of federal hate crimes. Conservative groups have vowed to keep a close watch on whether the legislation respects free speech and religious liberty as its supporters have promised.
(Christian Today, 9 Dec 2009) (to index)

* FAST-GROWING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES CRUSHED IN CHINA - Towering eight stories over wheat fields, the Golden Lamp Church was built to serve nearly 50,000 worshippers in the gritty heart of China's coal country.

But that was before hundreds of police and hired thugs descended on the mega-church, smashing doors and windows, seizing Bibles and sending dozens of worshippers to hospitals with serious injuries, members and activists say

Today, the church's co-pastors are in jail. The gates to the church complex in the northern province of Shanxi are locked and a police armored personnel vehicle sits outside.

The closure of what may be China's first mega-church is the most visible sign that the communist government is determined to rein in the rapid spread of Christianity, with a crackdown in recent months that church leaders call the harshest in years.

Authorities describe the actions against churches as stemming from land disputes, but the congregations under attack are among the most successful in China's growing "house church" movement, which rejects the state-controlled church in favor of liturgical independence and a more passionate, evangelical outlook.

While the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religion, Christians are required to worship in churches run by state-controlled organizations: The Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association for Roman Catholics.

But more and more Chinese are opting to choose their own churches, despite them being technically illegal and subject to police harassment. Christians worshipping in China's independent churches are believed to number upwards of 60 million, compared to about 20 million who worship in the state church, according to numbers provided by scholars and church activists.

House churches have been around for decades, but their growth has accelerated in recent decades, producing larger and larger congregations that are far more conspicuous than the small groups of friends and neighbors that used to worship in private homes, giving the movement its name.

Their expansion and growing influence has deeply unsettled China's rulers, always suspicious of any independent social group that could challenge communist authority. Fears that Tibetan Buddhism and Islam promote separatism among Tibetans and Uighurs also drive restrictions on those religions.

"They are so afraid of rallying points developing for gathering of elements of civil society," said Daniel Bays, who follows Chinese Christianity at Calvin College, a religious school in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

While house churches have faced varying degrees of repression depending on the region and political climate, the latest crackdown appears to specifically target the largest congregations.

Authorities want to dismantle large churches "before they grow out of total control," said Bob Fu, a former Communist Party researcher in Beijing who now heads the China Aid Association, a Texas-based church monitoring group.

At least two other large churches have recently faced similar crackdowns.

In Beijing in October, authorities locked parishioners of Shouwang house church out of the space they had rented to worship in. In Shanghai, the Wangbang congregation faced a similar lockout. Both congregations had grown to more than 1,000 members.

Shouwang and Wangbang church leaders have not been detained, but activists fear further arrests are coming.

In a brief phone conversation, Wangbang's pastor Cui Quan said worship continued in small groups while he fought to have their lease restored. He declined to give other details.

Christianity was long associated with foreign interference in traditionally Buddhist and Taoist China, and came under heavy attack after the 1949 Communist revolution.

The most onerous restrictions were lifted after the death of communist leader Mao Zedong in 1976. Although Christians still account for a less than 10 percent of China's 1.3 billion people, recent years have seen rapid growth in house churches in both cities and rural areas.
(AP, 11 Dec 2009) (to index)

* ABORTION MILLS – 1,500 DOWN, 700 TO GO - Operation Rescue has launched Project Daniel 5:25 -- a reference to scripture dealing with handwriting on the wall.
Operation Rescue has done extensive research to determine how many abortion clinics have closed in the last two decades. Spokesman Troy Newman believes the days of legal abortion in America are numbered.

"[We] come up with a number of nearly 1,500 of these abortion clinics that have closed and not reopened," he explains. "And so just like the biblical story of Daniel, [who] reads the handwriting on the wall that says that this wicked kingdom will soon come to an end, it is absolutely true that the abortion cartel is coming to an end."

According to Newman, just 713 abortion clinics are open for business now, down from almost 2,200 in 1991. Newman tells OneNewsNow that his organization has yet to find an abortion mill that has complied with the law.

"And I know that's a sweeping statement, but I've been in this movement for almost 20 years," says the pro-life activist, "and I've seen abortion clinics close again and again and again -- and the major contributing factor is that they do not comply with federal [or] with state and local municipal ordinances."

Through Project Daniel 5:25, Operation Rescue is raising up an army of new volunteers to pray at abortion clinics and monitor clinics' activities, and to lodge reports with the pro-life group to challenge the remaining 713 clinics.
(OneNewsNow, 14 Dec 2009) (to index)