|
| |
|
|
|
|
Recomendar |
|
|
Agregar a
favoritos |
|
|
Página de inicio |
|
|
¿Quiénes somos? |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Does
God divide Europe from America?
Brussels, September 4th, 2003 (ACPress.net)
As the European Union
struggles over whether to refer to God and Christianity in its
constitution, experts on U.S.-European relations say that differences
between the United States and Europe over the importance of
religion may contribute to the rift over foreign policy.
At a recent conference, experts said conflicting opinions over
the separation of church and state, the use of religious language
by politicians, and the prominence of faith in the public sphere
have accentuated the diplomatic split between Europe and America.
Whereas Americans equate freedom with the ability to practice
religion openly, many Europeans believe freedom is gained by
confining religion to the private sphere. Experts also cited
President Bush's frequent invocations of God as a major source
of diplomatic tension. The president's use of religious rhetoric
in articulating his administration's policy toward Iraq, Iran
and North Korea shocked Europeans and reinforced the stereotype
of America as a religiously zealous nation.
The stereotype may, in part, be true, according to a study conducted
by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press, which
found nearly 60% of Americans said religion was important to
them, compared to just 11% in France and 21% in Germany. On
the other hand, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's references
to God and faith in recent times rang alarm bells within the
Westminster establishment and led one of his leading advisors
to warn: "We don't do God". The debate is not going
to go away, any more than God Himself is.
Source: Religion today. Editing: ACPress.net
A breath of Swiss air...
and death
Zurich, September 4th, 2003 (ACPress.net)
'Salida' (meaning, 'Exit'),
a Swiss organisation which promotes euthanasia and helps people
practise assisted suicide, 'helped' 748 people on their way
to judgment between 1990 and 2000, according to a report published
by Zurich University.
Cases of assisted suicide have tripled in the last 10 years,
which the report attributes to "increased demand"
rather than the flexibility of legislation or the use of less
rigorous methods. The average age of those who took their lives
this way was 73 for men and 72 for women. Most of them came
from urban areas.
In Zurich Canton, for instance, 80% of them were terminally
ill with cancer, heart, breathing or brain problems, or Aids.
The rest suffered from ailments such as rheumatism, arthritis
or were in lots of pain. Nine people requested death for psychological
reasons; all but one of these suffered from depression. An 'ethics
committee' has in theory controlled such requests since 1998
by making patients undergo a special examination first. Although
in principle the Association 'Salida' advises depressives not
to go ahead with euthanasia, in practice a third of them do.
Until 1997, the lethal substance which ushers in death was administered
orally, but since then has been injected or via a catheter,
"probably because this makes death come more quickly",
says the report. 'Salida' now has 50,000 members, which is equivalent
to 1% of the total population of Switzerland.
Source: EFE. Editing: ACPress.net
German Catholic
churches on sale due to crisis
Berlin, September 4th, 2003 (ACPress.net)
The Catholic Bishop of
Aquisgran in south-west Germany has announced he is to put some
of the 920 parish churches in his diocese up for sale, due to
the financial and religious crisis he is facing.
A special commission is to be formed to ensure the suitability
of potential buyers. Sales criteria will exclude those who want
to turn the churches into discos or shops, while museums and
libraries will get preference. According to research by Dortmund
University, a third of the 35,000 Catholic churches in Germany
sit empty due to a lack of parishioners.
Aquisgran diocese is only one of many Catholic diocese in Germany
which have serious financial problems, and has taken this drastic
step to avoid bankruptcy. Neither is this a novel situation
in Europe; more than 10 years ago, the Catholic church in Holland
also had to put some of its properties up for sale due to a
drop in income.
Source: EFE. Editing: ACPress.net
|
|
L
a t i n . A m e r i c a |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Census
confirms evangelical growth in Chile
Santiago, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
The Chilean census for
2002 shows that the highest proportion of evangelicals live
in the south of the country, and that the largest church is
'Talcahuano', which has more than 50,000 members.
In some of the coal-mining towns, the presence of evangelicals
is so strong that they form a majority among the population.
The fact that Catholics are still around 70% of the total population
of Chile is due to the fact that many nominal Catholics put
their religion down on the forms, and that Catholicism remains
strong in the big cities.
La presencia evangélica es tan fuerte en la zona que
en el sector del carbón varias ciudades están
habitadas en su mayoría por personas de este credo, dice
la fuente. El hecho de que los católicos sean más
del 70 por ciento de la población de Chile se refleja
en su fuerte presencia en las ciudades más grandes.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Battle for religious equality continues in Peru
Lima, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
The debate on religious
freedom in Peru goes on. Victor Arroyo, sociologist and Executive
Secretary of CONEP (Evangelical Council of Peru), said in a
talk recently that "Peru is not just culturally pluralist,
but in religious terms too."
Arroyo held that the Catholics no longer dominate in they way
they did, but complained that legislation failed to recognise
this fact. Non-Catholic churches and religious groups may still
only operate as civil organisations, which negates in practice
the promised equality and religious freedom. He added that evangelicals
ought to fight for genuine equality in religous affairs as a
vital part of the process of implanting democracy, as religious
equality is related to justice, pluralism, tolerance and the
co-existence of differences of thought.
Arroyo believes that this can only be achieved by a truly lay
state, which separates one religious creed from the setting
of a legal, educational and cultural agenda - something which
has not yet happened in Peru. This is not only due to articles
in the Peruvian constitution, said Arroyo, but the fact that
the Vatican continues to cast its long shadow over the Andean
nation through the international Concordat. Evangelical churches
have been at the forefront of the struggle for religious freedom,
and they must not give up now. However, he believes greater
uniformity is required; up till now, some churches have fought
merely for recognition and rights at a local level, whereas
there is still a battle to be fought nationally.
Source: Hugo Lévano,
ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Church homage
to Ecuadorian economist
Quito, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
The efforts of economist
Wilma Salgado, Head of the Bank Deposit Guarantee Agency, who
managed to force the high and mighty to pay their debts relating
to the fall of several banks in 1999 so as to return to people
their savings, have been honoured at an emotional evangelical
ceremony.
The public recognition of his work was organised by the Evangelical
Fellowship of Ecuador and the Christian Centre for Political
Reflection (CCPF). It was held in the Lutheran Church in the
capital, Quito, and led by Felipe Adolf, the host minister.
The Ecumenical Fraternity Choir sang, Pastor José Falconi
preached on Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2: "Talk no more
so very proudly; let not arrogance come from your mouth; for
the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed."
The church was full of pastors, leaders, members of evangelical
churches, Catholics and figures from political life, including
supporters of the CCPF. In the centre of the church, they had
placed a table on which there were scales with cards giving
bad news from the Press: an increase in poverty, 88,000 million
dollars paid in foreign debt by Ecuador, appalling prison conditions,
wider gulf between rich and poor, suicide among youth, etc.
The scales were right down against the table on that side.
Then there were cards read by guests at the service containing
Bible texts relating to these problems. The Bible texts restored
the scales to a perfect balance when they were placed on the
second plate, as a symbol of people like Wilma Salgado who fight
in the name of God against injustice in our world.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Peruvian
leader laments evangelical division
Lima, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
Peruvian Presbyterian
minister Pedro Arana has expressed his regret at the division
caused among evangelicals in his country over the constitutional
debate, between those who accept the new situation and those
who believe evangelicals have been sold short.
"It is a very sad moment as the emergence of a new evangelical
organisation weakens the witness of the churches to society
and in their dealings with the state", says Arana, who
was once an MP in the Peruvian Parliament and now combines his
pastoral duties with the leadership of the Peruvian Bible Society.
Before the debate over religious liberty - or the lack of it
- granted to evangelicals in the new constitution, most evangelical
churches belonged to CONEP (The National Evangelical Council
of Peru), but the split gave rise to the formation of UNICEP
(Union of Peruvian Evangelical Churches), some of whose members
accused CONEP of having betrayed the evangelical community in
the agreement they made with the government. CONEP belongs to
the Inter-confessional Committee which negotiated the issue
of religious liberty, and which accepted a wording which retains
the privileged status of the Catholic Church even though Peru
is no longer officially confessional, and Catholicism in general
is in freefall.
Religious minorities were grouped together in a clearly second-rate
category in the constitution, which is what has upset those
churches which have joined UNICEP. A better deal, and a possible
reconciliation, may have to wait until evangelicals are in a
majority in Peru. This is not just a pipedream, if current trends
are maintained.
Source: F. Oshige, ALC. Editing:
ACPress.net
The roots of Mexican Protestantism
uncovered
Mexico City, September 4th,
2003 (ACPress.net)
According to Carlos Martínez,
sociologist, Mexican Protestantism grew slowly but surely for
almost 50 years before the arrival of the first Anglo-Saxon
missionaries.
His thesis is that "Mexican Protestantism grew in different
places and situations (which) refutes the idea that it came
from a single source, or that Anglo-Saxon missionaries started
from scratch. It was a combination of internal and external
efforts." Martínez believes that indigenous conditions
were also receptive to the gospel in certain cases. These were
characterised by an anti-clericalism among many Catholics and
frustration that Roman dogma dominated public and political
life in Mexico.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
|
|
R
e s t.. o f..
t h e.. W o r l d |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Which car would Jesus have
driven?
New York, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
It may seem to be a completely
banal and highly irrelevant question to ask, but a publicity
campaign in the USA is based on it: 'What car would Jesus have
driven?'
Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), founded in 1993 and
with 23 Christian organisations as members, is a non-governmental
set-up which promotes ecological issues, believing Christians
to have a moral responsibility to look after the created world.
This campaign seeks to get people out of their cars and on to
public transport, or at least into more environmentally-friendly
vehicles.
Jim Ball, Commercial Director of EEN, is reminding Christians
of their duties towards creation with a 30-second TV advert
which is now being broadcast in several American states. "Too
many of the cars, lorries and 4-x-4 vehicles with which we choose
to pollute the air, reheat the atmosphere, modify the climate
and endanger our health", says the warning. This is considered
incompatible with the biblical injunction to love one's neighbour.
The campaign is funded by private donations, plus help from
other voluntary groups. The initiative includes a 'missionary
tour' of eight American states during which EEN representatives
will visit eleven cities. Ball believes that allowing damage
which could be avoided is anti-Christian, and he asks those
people who need a car to choose one which is less damaging to
the environment.
Source: IBL News
Editing: ACPress.net
Film version
of Jeremiah's life wins secular prize
New York, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
A film on the life of
Jeremiah in the series 'Heroes of the faith', produced by the
Bible Society, has won the 'APEX ' (Awards for Publication Excellence)
prize for 2003.
The prize is awarded by a secular organisation in the USA, 'Communications
Concepts' and the video-film about Jeremiah took the first prize
in the category 'Special interest and multimedia publications'.
Competition was stiff, with nearly 5,000 entries across all
the categories, including more than 100 in the section in which
'The life of Jeremiah' was entered. A previous film in the same
series - 'The life of Paul' - won the APEX prize in 1999.
Source: SBU, ALC
Editing: ACPress.net
Mafia murderers turn to Christ in Japan
Tokyo, September 4th, 2003 (ACPress.net)
Members of the Japanese
Mafia, 'Yakuza', are leaving the organisation and turning to
Christ in a movement of the Holy Spirit among some of the most
hardened criminals in Japan.
Their little fingers have been amputated and their chests tattooed
with dragons and guerrillas, but several ex-members of the Yakuza
- once devoted followers of the cult leader - are now evangelical
Christians. Kareo Inoue is a pastor and says: "Jesus is
my new Lord and now I only obey God's Word." Inoue and
seven other ex-gangsters are the founding members of Barrabas
Mission in Japan, an evangelical group which seeks to preach
the Gospel and help the poor.
This is truly a miraculous transformation in men who admit they
did not even keep the commandment 'Do not kill'. In one sense,
they remain yakuzas in that they still address each other as
'brother', but now Satan is their enemy and Jesus Christ is
their Lord. On Saturdays, they are out in Veno Park in Tokyo
giving out food to the poor, cutting tramps' hair and helping
the elderly.
Their aim is to bring to Christ many of the approximately 80,000
Mafia members who exist in Japan, and they know this will be
difficult. They have already broken the first rule of the yakusa
- leaving the group is punishable by death. Yet those who come
to listen to their message are mostly people from their old
world - prostitutes, drug addicts and so on - because who knows
best how to help them but those who were on the road to hell
themselves?
Source: El Mundo
Editing: ACPress.net
Mother Teresa: a trademark
nun
New Delhi, September 4th,
2003 (ACPress.net)
The order of nuns founded
by Mother Teresa - Missionaries of Charity - has requested a
patent from the Indian authorities so as to ensure they have
the rights to the use of their founder's name as a trademark.
The order has asked for the rights not just to Mother Teresa's
name but also her logo. Their objective is to prevent other
groups from exploiting the name for commercial purposes. "Mother
Teresa said on various occasions that she did not want her name
used by people or organisations without her consent", said
Nirmala, the current Mother Superior of the order.
Mother Teresa, originally of Albanian descent, died in Calcutta
at the age of 87 just a few days after the death of Diana, the
Princess of Wales, in September 1997. She won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1979 and her order has not ceased growing since her
death.
Source: BBC
Editing: ACPress.net
Education Bill threatens
further strife in Indonesia
Djakarta, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
Indonesian Christians
have been targeted a by new bill which will force their private
schools to build mosques and employ Muslims to teach Islam.
On June 11th, the Indonesian Parliament finally passed the hotly
debated Education Bill. The section which has aroused particularly
fierce passion is Article 13, which states that all schools
which have over 10 students of a particular faith must provide
a teacher of the same faith to teach them their religion. A
place of worship would also have to be provided.
Despite the apparently fair wording, Article 13 will have an
unjustly disproportionate affect on Christian schools, whilst
leaving Muslim schools untouched. The best schools in Indonesia
are private Christian schools; because of their standards many
Muslim children attend, making up to 65% of pupils in some schools.
Private Muslim schools are not so sought after and the number
of Christian parents who seek to send their children to such
schools is so small that no Muslim schools will be affected.
These schools were originally set up by missionary organisations;
the irony is that now they are faced with the prospect of having
to pay for Islam to be preached to their students. At present
all parents who enter their children are required to sign an
agreement stating that they have no objection to their children
receiving a Christian religious education. Because there are
no known cases of forced conversions, Muslim parents are clearly
willing to make this ‘sacrifice’ in order for their
children to receive a good all round education.
Some of the legislators admitted that proponents of the bill
are aiming to use it to exert influence over Christian schools.
Mr Marbun, a former member of the National Commission on Human
Rights said to the Straits Times that “There is a trend
to Islamise our education system, which could threaten our nation’s
mission to educate the people.” Ministers and other eminent
Indonesians send their children to Christian schools and those
who are worried about the potentially ‘Christianising’
affect Indonesia’s schools have on the future ruling elite
are gaining a louder voice.
Some have attacked the new law as state interference in the
individual’s right to believe. Gus Dur (former President
Abdurrhaman Wahid) stated quite bluntly on television in June
that he believed it was a tactic to erect an Islamic state.
Some political leaders of predominantly Christian areas have
threatened to break away from the republic.
There is one mitigating point that is meant to lessen the impact
of the new law; if schools decide not to provide the stipulated
lessons and places of worship, the article will not be enforced.
The working committee’s chairman, Anwar Arifin, said “We
will leave the monitoring of the article to the public as part
of social control and punishment.” Baring in mind Indonesia’s
increasingly volatile religious climate, such a declaration
is very disturbing for the Christian community. Many Christian
schools have declared that they will ignore this legislation,
and need our prayers that God will protect them from those who
may try to force the schools to comply.
Source: Barnabas Fund
Editing: ACPress.net
New hope
for Christian widow in Jordan
Amman, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
Siham Qandah has been
assured by a Jordanian prince that he will personally ensure
that she is not sent to prison, while her lawyers continue to
fight for justice, including the custody of her children.
The latest developments in Siham’s case are fourfold.
Firstly, Prince Mired bin Raed is continuing to give his help,
which he promised to do in April. Secondly, a court case in
Amman requested by Siham’s lawyers in May, giving evidence
that her estranged Muslim brother fraudulently handled the benefit
money that he was supposed to hold on behalf of her children,
has hit difficulties. The lawyer appointed by Prince Mired has
been replaced because of a family connection with the judge
who authorised Siham’s brother’s withdrawal of money
from the benefit account. This means the case will now focus
on the brother’s lack of interest in the children, rather
than on his embezzling money.
Thirdly, her children, Rawan (15) and Fadi (13) are thinking
of starting their own court case against their uncle, which
is their right under Shari’ah. To do this they must obtain
from a Shari’ah court a certificate of eligibility allowing
them to submit a case in a civil court. They have been unable
to get this as yet. Fourthly, Siham is planning to appeal against
the ruling that she has to hand over her children, on the grounds
that the case in Amman is challenging her brother’s custody.
In January, a court issued an order requiring Siham to be imprisoned
for 30 days unless she immediately surrendered her children
to the care of Abdullah to be raised as Muslims. Siham’s
lawyers appealed against the ruling. A deadline of February
5thwas given. However, when Siham continued to refuse to give
up her children no action was taken against her. In April she
was granted a one-month delay in implementing the order to imprison
her, while her lawyers fought a court case against her brother.
Despite this delay now having expired Siham was still free as
of mid-July.
Source: Barnabas Fund
Editing: ACPress.net
280
children found imprisoned in Islamic school
Lusaka, September 4th, 2003
(ACPress.net)
The Zambian police have
discovered 280 children - mainly aged ten - who were imprisoned
in an Islamic school and forced to learn Arabic and military
tactics.
The children were locked in cages in the discreet school located
in a popular district of the Zambian capital. A man of Asiatic
origin in charge of the school was arrested and charged with
"child abuse, imprisoning children and (being responsible
for) serious faults in their education." The children were
recruited in rural areas of Zambia by promising their parents
that they could go abroad after receving a solid education.
Seven of the children were in such a bad physical state that
they could not even walk, said a police spokesman.
Source: AFP
Editing: ACPress.net
|
|
|
