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'Jews for Jesus' win advertising right
London, March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
In a landmark ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld the right of 'Jews for Jesus' to "advertise" its belief that they are Jews who believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and that it is important that other British Jews be allowed to think for themselves on this issue.
The ASA ruled on 'Jews for Jesus' ads that appeared last summer in The Independent and The Times as well as a similar version on billboards in which the reader is asked to "Think for yourself" when it comes to Jews believing in Jesus. They also ruled on a recent advert which showed the photo of a holocaust survivor who believes in Jesus and challenged readers to hear her story in the form of a video offered free to seekers entitled 'Survivor Stories'.
In all these instances, the ASA concluded that 'Jews for Jesus' did not violate the British Code of Advertising. Furthermore, they included in their ruling, clause 1.4 of the Code, which states: "The rules make due allowance for public sensitivities but will not be used by the ASA to diminish freedom of speech unjustifiably." Joseph Steinberg, UK Director of 'Jews for Jesus' was elated by the ruling: "Perhaps this ASA ruling will send a strong signal to the Board of Deputies of British Jews that despite their loud complaints and inflammatory and untrue statements about us, reasonable people will come to proper conclusions when the facts are evaluated. We recognise that ours is a minority viewpoint; however, it still needs to be heard in our free society. Namely, that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and Saviour of the world, and that British Jews should have the option to consider the truth of his claims."
Source: EA. Editing: ACPress.net
Mothers' Union targets family breakdown in churches
London, March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A new advertising campaign that aims to reduce family breakdown in churches in the UK, will be launched by the Mothers' Union (MU) for Mothering Sunday.
The campaign, which has been designed by advertising agency McCutcheon Norveil Consultancy, will appear first in the Christian press. It is aimed at clergy and churchgoers, who often struggle to cope with family breakdown in their churches. The hard-hitting advert will highlight the Mothers' Union's specialist resources that can help families stay together.
Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe and more than one child in three is now brought up in a single parent family - known to be one of the most stressful situations for any family. Over 40% of marriages end in divorce, and every week 5,000 children in Britain experience their home being broken up. By way of response, the Mothers' Union has produced a number of specialist resources for families and parents, including parenting groups and various projects in child contact centres and prisons.
The first of these, 'Relationships Matter', has been designed to help people improve their communication skills and strengthen the relationships around them. It will also provide resources to help people improve tensions at home, negotiate in difficult situations and broach them with sensitivity and care. In addition, the Mothers' Union is renewing its commitment to its Parenting Groups which run throughout the country.
The MU hopes the campaign might change the perception churches have of it, and says its organisation exists to support families. Spokesman Clare Berry commented: "By using our resources we hope churches can provide help and support to those most in need, both in their local congregations and in the local community."
Source: EA Editing: ACPress.net
Operation Mobilisation to launch another ship
Bonn, March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
After trawling through a list of 180 suggestions, Operation Mobilisation has announced, at its German offices, the name of its new ship. It is rather unimaginative and linguistically dubious, but right in line with its 'Hope for Europe' campaign, the boat is to be called 'Logos Hope'. The idea is to combine the concepts of 'living Word' and 'hope'.
OM boats have distributed 47,000 Bibles and almost 3 million Christian books in all sorts of languages over the last 15 years. In total, the Doulos, Logos (sank in 1988) and Logos II have visited 135 ports in 30 years of ministry. The 'Logos Hope' will replace 'Logos II' at the end of this year, as the latter has proved too small for ministry requirements.
Source: MILAMEX. Editing: ACPress.net
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Bolivian villagers blame Christians for hailstorm and destroy church
La Paz, March 24th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
An angry mob of Quechua-speaking Indians destroyed the only evangelical church in the remote village of Chucarasi in the Bolivian Andes on February 28th because they blamed them for a hail storm that damaged local crops.
Trouble began in this indigenous community - located 100 miles south-east of the city of Oruro in the province of Bustillos - during the annual Carnival festival celebrated to mark the beginning of Lent. Chucarasi observes the holiday with the veneration of Christo-pagan icons, ritual dances and the excessive consumption of alcohol, believing such activities are essential to appease local deities and avoid natural disasters.
Since converting to evangelical Christianity several years ago, the 30 families belonging to the Church of God in Chucarasi have declined to take part in Carnival celebrations. Two days after Carnival ended, a severe hail storm struck Chucarasi, damaging fields of potatoes and grain and fuelling fears that evil spirits were punishing the community for the evangelicals' refusal to participate in Carnival. Witnesses say that, around midnight, an irate mob carrying picks, axes and metal bars arrived at the church, and proceeded to destroy Bibles and hymnals, smash the pulpit and pews and dismantle the windows, doors, roof and walls of the building. Chucarasi community leaders are insisting that the Christians renounce their faith or leave the village.
Source: Religion today. Editing: ACPress.net
Another Christian family expelled from their home in Mexico
San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Is there no end to the persecution of Christians at the hands of Catholic fanatics in Chiapas province, Mexico? Evangelicals have condemned the latest episode, the expulsion of a Protestant family from Chempil, in the Huixtan area, by Catholic traditionalists.
The legal representative of 'Eagle Vision 2000', Esdras Alonso, called for those responsible to be punished and for religious liberty to be guaranteed. "As an evangelical leader, I call for the order of law to be re-established. If not, perhaps all evangelicals will be thrown out of that community." There are about 30 evangelicals in Chempil, and all are the object of hostility and threats from the local Catholic population, who do not respect the right to worship freely but seem immune from prosecution.
Alonso warned that the fact that the authorities do nothing about the expulsions is encouraging other communities to act in a similar way. He mentioned several other villages where Christians face the same threats and problems. Meanwhile, the Catholic bishop of the region, Felipe Arizmendi, called on everyone to respect the religious beliefs of others.
Source: Mural. Editing: ACPress.net
Inter-religious Council set up in Chiapas
Chiapas, March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Thirty evangelical groups and the Roman Catholic diocese in Chiapas province in Mexico have formed an Inter-Religious Council, whose main aim is to solve the conflicts caused in the area by religious intolerance and help towards a peaceful settlement of grievances.
The Council, known as CIACh for short, is focusing its attention on the village of Mitzitón, near San Cristóbal, where traditionalist Catholics closed several roads with chains to prevent Protestants entering the area. State police have been patrolling the area for two years.
Source: PE. Editing: ACPress.net
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Khmer Rouge turning to Christ
Anlong Veng, Cambodia. March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The final report on child
abuse by priests in the American Catholic Church As a member of the feared 'Khmer Rouge' for 30 years, Ung Khorn placed landmines, installed death traps and led hundreds of soldiers to massacre countless victims in the reign of terror which plagued this Asian country in the 1970s and afterwards.
Yet in the amazing goodness of God, many ex-Khmer Rouge guerrillas are finding Christ. Khorn, and thousands like him, once fought for the agrarian, communist movement led by Pol Pot, but have now become Christians. "My life was awful when I lived with the Khmer Rouge...I caused much pain and committed terrible cruelty," admitted Khorn, who is now an evangelical missionary who has helped baptise dozens of his ex-comrades.
The Khmer Rouge is reckoned to have killed around 1,700,000 Cambodians, when direct and indirect causes are taken together - disease, hunger and executions. It was an atheistic movement and tried to eradicate all vestiges of religion. They turned Buddhist pagodas into prisons and arsenals, they destroyed the Catholic cathedral and killed Muslim leaders. Now many of them are turning to Christ, although some critics say this is only because of the material aid they receive from the missionaries.
Pastor Setan Lee, who runs 'Kampuchea for Christ' (KFC), disagrees. "They are looking for forgiveness because they are full of guilt. They have found true forgiveness in the message of Christ, something no other religion can offer." This group, which started as a tiny outfit, has grown considerably, and includes among its pastors around 20 ex-members of Khmer Rouge. Lee himself survived the genocide under Pol Pot. In the town of Anlong Veng, the last bastion of the movement where Pol Pot died in 1998, KFC has the only Christian church there, with 400 members.
In Pailin, another ex-centre of Khmer Rouge activity, in north-west Cambodia, there are four evangelical churches and one of them has almost 200 ex-members of the movement. Christianity has grown since the arrival of the United Nations peacekeeping force, and the end of years of civil war. The Khmer Rouge were ousted by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979 but waged a guerrilla war from the jungle for years afterwards. Figures released by the Ministry for Religious Affairs says the number of Christians has grown from 30,400 in 1998 to around 50,000 today. This includes Kaing Khek Iev, once the man in charge of the brutal regime at Tuol Sleng prison where 16,000 Cambodians were executed.
Source: A.P. Editing: ACPress.net
Christians facing increased persecution from Hindus in India
New Delhi, March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
For years, Hindus, Muslims and Christians lived peaceably side by side in India, but Hindu fundamentalism over the last 10 years or so has changed the situation radically.
A wave of violence has affected religious minorities in large cities and small villages. Hindu radicals consider every Muslim a terrorist, and every Christian a threat. Regional governments insist there are 'forced conversions' and strengthen the hand of Hindu fundamentalism at a social and institutional level. The fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party passed a series of anti-conversion laws last year which deny constitutional rights to dalit (untouchable) Christians and Muslims, and force those who want to change religion to apply in writing to their local magistrate.
Hindu propaganda accuses Christian missionaries of using social work to make forced conversions and these laws seek to prevent this, according to the authorities. Bishop Macwan, in Gujarat, says they have asked the government to show them just one instance of a 'forced conversion', but none are forthcoming. He says: "It is a practice which goes against Christianity and against Jesus Christ."
Last month a Christian missionary, Anson Thomas, who has rescued dozens of children from prostitution, was arrested. Brothel owners accused him of 'converting' prostitutes illegally to Christianity. The authorities banned Thomas from distributing Bibles to Hindu children. He says: "By giving a false, religious dimension to my work, they prevent me from organising searches to rescue under-age girls and people forced into this business (prostitution)."
The most recent case of aggression against Christians was in Orissa state, where seven women who had converted to Christianity were dragged from their homes by a group of Hindu fundamentalists, maltreated and shaved in an attempt to 're-convert' them to Hinduism. Is this not a case of 'forced conversion'?
Source: LA RAZÓN. Editing: ACPress.net
Muslim businessman arrested on suspicion of financing attacks on Christians
Lagos, March 25th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
Government security agents in Nigeria have reported the arrest of a Sudanese Muslim businessman who heads a Saudi Arabia-funded charity, suspected of financing Islamic attacks on Christians.
Sheik Muhiddeen Abdullahi, director of Al-Muntada Al-Islami Trust, was arrested on February 20th in the northern city of Kano following "the discovery of financial transactions running into millions of dollars between him and an Islamic fundamentalist cleric, Alhaji Sharu, in Kano," an official of the State Security Service said. Trust funds have reportedly gone to propagate the Wahhabi sect of Islam in Nigeria and to finance a fundamentalist Muslim uprising in December 2003 which left two policemen and a dozen militants dead and thousands of Christians displaced. When authorities released Abdullahi 10 days after his arrest, more than 5,000 Sufi Muslims protested, calling for the immediate closure of Al-Muntada Al-Islami Trust offices and demanding that the Wahhabi sect be banned from the country. Recent atrocities, including the axeing to death of nearly 50 Christians in the northern city of Yelma, are attributed to followers of the Wahhabi sect.
Source: Voice of the Martyrs. Editing: ACPress.net
Christians in Iraq worried at curtailment of rights
Baghdad, March 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Christians in Iraq are worried that they may enjoy less religious freedom in future than under Saddam Hussein. They are concerned that the recently ratified interim constitution does not give sufficient protection for individual religious expression and does not allow a change of religion.
Christian and human rights organisations are concerned about the role of Islam in the so-called Transitional Administrative Law. It will remain in force at least until 2005 and probably serve as a model for the future constitution. US chief administrator Paul Bremer had hinted that he would not accept any attempt to establish an Islamic Republic. Muslim representatives wanted Islam to be the sole source of law. That was replaced by a more moderate phrase making Islam "a" source of law. This means that while not every aspect of the rule of law is determined by Islam, no law may go against the tenets of Islam. The one million Christians in Iraq are also concerned that the constitution makes no mention of their rights, although it does take into consideration the Kurdish and Shi'ite minorities. The mainly Eastern Catholic and Orthodox but also evangelical Christians are worried that their freedom of religious expression may be more reduced than under Saddam Hussein. While a brutal dictatorship, Hussein's secular regime had no preference for Islam.
Source: Assist News Service- Editing: ACPress.net
Religious freedom is key to national economic success
Mexico City, March 25th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
A recent Harvard University report which studied 59 countries, concluded that where there is religious freedom, the economy flourishes. Values such as honesty, a work ethic and savings had an influence on the success of the society, but only if there was religious freedom too.
"In countries where there is a state religion and religion is regulated, attendance at services is very poor," said Dr McCleary, of the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs. Long-suffering Christians in Chiapas province in southern Mexico will echo their support for the findings of this report.
Source: MILAMEX. Editing: ACPress.net
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