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France
has expelled 15 Muslim clerics in crackdown
Paris, June 4th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The arrival of Islamic
terrorism in Europe has led the French government to tighten
its control over the 1,500 or so mosques and Muslim prayer centres
in France, and it has already expelled 15 imams from the country.
Two centres near Paris have been closed down for supporting
the concept of ‘holy war’, while 15 imams have been deported
due to their radical views or connections to extremist groups.
The Interior Minister, Dominique de Villepin, is determined
to do whatever is necessary to bring the situation under control
and three imams have gone since the Madrid bombings. The latest
is Midhat Guler, arrested by chance and immediately detained
in Paris Airport. Guler, 45, has lived in France for more than
20 years and leads the Aya Sofia mosque as well as chairing
the French Islamic Association. The French authorities accuse
him of being the spokesman for a radical group, Kaplanci, that
has already been banned in Turkey and Germany. It is considered
to be an extremist salafist group and one which is expanding
in France.
Another expulsion order has been overturned by the courts. Algerian
imam Abdelkader Bouziane received the order after stating that
adulterous women should be stoned to death. The expulsions are
usually based on the dubious legal situation in which many immigrants
live, and on their inflammatory statements which may be interpreted
as promoting racial hatred or sexual discrimination, or inciting
violence. The government is considering strengthening the law
on expulsions. Guler is currently still in France, having had
recourse to asylum law which allows him to appeal against the
expulsion order, while Bouzaine – a polygamist with 16 children
– has apparently already been granted a visa to return to France.
Source: Agencias. Editing: ACPress.net
Swiss Guard
heading for 500th anniversary
Rome, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Vatican Army, the
world’s smallest at just 110-strong, also has some of the most
stringent entry requirements. To become a member of the papal
Swiss Guard one must be Swiss (!), a practising Catholic, aged
between 19 and 30, at least 1.74 metres tall and have an untarnished
reputation. And of course, one must be a man.
Almost 500 years after its establishment, Colonel Elmar Mader,
the Army’s current Commanding Officer, reiterated that only
men may form part of the Guard. The Guard was set up in 1506
at the request of Pope Julius II, who asked for 200 Swiss men
to protect him. Nowadays, Mader says “we operate in an ecclesiastical
environment, which would make it very difficult it the force
were mixed.”
Yet this is not the only reason why women are not allowed to
wear the distinctive blue-and-yellow-striped uniform which,
legend has it, was designed for the Swiss Guard by Michelangelo.
As Mader points out: “Recruits are rarely over the age of 25
and having men and women of that age together in barracks causes
problems.” A discreet way of saying that untoward relationships
could develop. Thus, at the traditional annual May 6th ceremony
this year, 33 new male Guards were sworn in. The date recalls
the day when 147 Swiss Guards lost their lives – on May 6th.
1527 – protecting the then Pope from the troops of Charles V,
who had sacked Rome.
A gesture which the current troop, paid around 1,200 euros a
month, would repeat if necessary, if the current incumbent were
threatened by external forces. Yet quite why any woman would
actually want to be part of the Swiss Guard, apart from waving
the flag of feminism, is hard to fathom.
Source: EL MUNDO. Editing: ACPress.net
Cyber-demons hit the Internet
‘Church of Fools’
Madrid, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The first Internet church,
known – perhaps aptly – as the ‘Church of Fools’, has fallen
victim to a plague of cyber-demons who have managed to sneak
swear words into the sermons.
The ‘Church of Fools’, just launched, offers worshippers the
chance to choose a 3-D character which can kneel, sing hymns,
speak to other people, listen to a sermon or shout ‘Hallelujah’.
The site attracts between 5,000 and 10,000 people a day, showing
that there are an awful lot of ‘fools’ out there. As befits
a church for the modern era, one may also give the ‘church’
money via one’s mobile phone. However, as much in tune with
human nature is the temptation, seemingly too hard for some
to resist, to behave badly.
The website, funded by the Methodist Church but run by inter-denominational
group ‘Ship of Fools’, has removed the facility to ‘shout out’
during the services, as some were misusing the function to introduce
blasphemous insults. The pulpit and altar areas are now off-limits
to worshippers after some people took their characters there
during the sermons. Yet stronger church discipline awaits, as
the ‘Church of Fools’ is considering excommunicating (read,
disconnecting) the worst offenders.
One of the project’s founders, Mr Goddard, says (with a straight
face?), “In one way, we face the same problems endured by the
first preachers who met opposition when they went to new places.
But the Church has always grown in these communities and some
of them are now found in cyberspace, so we are determined to
press ahead.”
Source: Reuters. Editing: ACPress.netSwiss
scientist says Turín Shroud is genuine
Geneva, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A well-known Swiss scientist
and expert on the history of cloth, Mechthild Flury-Lemberg,
says the so-called ‘Turin Shroud’ is genuine, even though the
Catholic Church no longer holds this position officially.
Lemberg asserts that the shroud is made from what would have
been very expensive material at that time. Having studied the
shroud for 6 weeks, the scientist said: “The image shows a man
being crucified exactly as the Gospels describe it; nailed to
a cross by the wrist and not by the hands as most medieval Passion
pictures depict it. Thanks to the bloodstains which come from
the man’s back, I can assure you this man was flogged more times
than the Bible says.”
The Federal Polytechnic of Zurich carried out Carbon 14 testing
on the shroud in 1988 and concluded that it dated from between
1260 and 1390. Lemberg is sceptical saying such results should
be taken with great caution, given that they are based on the
study of a mere fragment from the edge of the garment. She says
the fragment has encrusted carbon dating from the fire in 1532
in Chambéry, which the shroud survived.
Lemberg believes the image which appears on the cloth is due
to a very superficial oxidation of the material. “We have not
found any trace of colour pigment, and the diffuse outline confirms
our view that it is not a drawing or a painting. Noone knows
where this negative of a crucifixion comes from.”
After the fire, nuns patched up the shroud and this accelerated
the process of oxidation which has only been halted recently,
by placing the shroud in a chamber filled with argon gas. The
folds in the cloth and damp patches on the edges similar to
those found on the Dead Sea Scrolls suggest to Lemberg that
the shroud was stored in an amphora, which was usual at that
time. “In any case, the shroud will always retain an element
of mystery, and we will never be 100% certain as to its authenticity.
At the end of the day, it is a question of faith, and that is
how it should be.”
It is a pity the scientist has not been a little more rigorous
with the sources, as the Bible neither says that Jesus was nailed
through the wrist (though He may well have been) nor does it
say how many times He was flogged. As for faith, it is belief
in His name that leads to salvation, not that a piece of cloth
might just be the one placed round Him by Joseph of Arimathea.
What is indisputable is that the piece of linen kept in Turín
Catedral measures 4.36m by 1.10m, that the man wrapped in it
stood 1.80m tall, and that his blood group was AB.
Source: El Mundo. Editing: ACPress.net
Religious symbols finally
banned in France
Paris, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
After much hullabaloo
but absolute determination on the part of French politicians,
the law banning the ‘ostentatious wearing of religious symbols’
in public buildings such as schools, has been passed.
The Higher Education Council passed the motion by 26 votes to
8, with 6 abstentions and 25 people refusing to vote. Evangelical
Christians – who do not agree with any such display of religious
icons – will be able to travel to France in future and enjoy
an iconoclastic paradise. Oliver Cromwell will be smiling too.
It is curious that many Protestants have been vocal in their
opposition to such a move when their own churches, by and large,
are utterly devoid – on theological grounds – of the ‘ostentatious
display of religious symbols’.
Source: El Correo. Editing: ACPress.net
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Church
growth in Latin America
Santiago, June 8th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Gospel defies sociological
analysis, but does not surprise Christian observers. Latin America
has the second-highest proportion of evangelical Christians
of any region in the world, and is an example of how the Gospel
has enabled many people to break out of poverty.
Social scientists like to believe
and postulate that evangelicalism’s and especially Pentecostalism’s
extraordinary growth in Latin America in recent decades is inextricably
linked to poverty and marginalized groups. How else to account
for the fact that 15% of the population of Chile is now evangelical?
Yet the social and economic success generated by the conversion
of hundreds of thousands across the continent is unparalleled
in any other field.
Jorge Méndez, Chairman of the Philadelphia Pentecostal Church
in Chile, attributes it to evangelistic zeal. “We teach new
converts from day one that they must preach, that they must
give thanks for the grace they have received. The Chilean church
visits hospitals, goes where there is pain, helps the needy.
It is a church which shows concern for those who suffer and
looks for sinners. When a family converts to Christ, it opens
its home and holds services there, and then looks to start a
church in its neighbourhood.”
Another Pentecostal minister, Ricardo Mella, also mentions the
importance of young people in the church. He says many of them
feel abandoned at home, or come from difficult situations where
their parents are out of work, and find refuge and a place for
them in the church. “They feel at home, they are treated as
people…and they hear for the first time that God loves them,
that their brothers love them, something which has never happened
to them at home.”
Others come fleeing from the materialism in society. Chile is
better off than many countries in Latin America but there is
a spiritual emptiness, says Pastor Albornoz. “This helps church
growth, because people are searching for something to satisfy
their soul.”
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Christian
rap festival in Cuba
Havana, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A Christian rap festival
held in the Cuban town of San José de las Lajas drew more than
700 young people to the local cinema to hear God praised in
a modern idiom.
Nine groups including soloists, from different parts of Cuba,
performed at the festival. Twelve local churches supported the
event which was the brainchild of a quartet called ‘Emmanuel’.
They ‘persuaded’ their pastor to promote the festival, despite
the fact that rap is considered a fairly marginal type of music
in Cuba. Yet the audience, made up of Christians and non-Christians,
loved it. ‘Emmanuel’ kicked off with a presentation of their
first CD. Among the guests was Ariel Fernández, Editor of ‘Movement’
magazine, a publication devoted to Cuban hip-hop, who was interested
to see rap out of its traditional urban context, being played
and sung by church members.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Independent library opens
in Cuba under police surveillance
Havana, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Baptist minister Ariel
Arteaga has opened a private library in his flat in the Cuban
capital, calling it ‘Mercedes Medina Library.’
Arteaga, 27, inaugurated the library recently in the presence
of ten guests and obvious police vigilance. The minister is
also a member of an opposition political grouping, the Young
Cuban Popular Party. He said the library is an alternative centre
of reflection and culture, with workshops and topical discussions
planned alongside the more traditional book-lending service.
The library specialises in Theology, and has many study Bibles
and other biblical aids, such as an atlas and an encyclopaedia.
The Library is named after Mercedes Medina, a Cuban exile who
was once a political prisoner under Castro and who died in April
in the USA, having lived there for 13 years.
Source: Cubanet. Editing:
ACPress.net
Justice-seeking Jesus presented
in Peru
Lima, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A multimedia presentation
entitled ‘Someone called Jesus’, which was banned in many church
circles in the 1980s, has been presented in the Peruvian capital.
Produced by a Cuban brother-and-sister duo, José Ignacio and
María López, it takes its name from a radio series broadcast
25 years ago, and presents a passionate, provocative, ingenious,
joking and extraordinary story-teller type of Jesus. He does
not conform to the patterns of his day, and he identifies with
the poor. The cassette version was rejected by many churches
in the 1980s, who did not like the simple Palestinian who loves
people and life, who laughs and cries, and who dances at the
wedding in Cana.
There are clear political overtones for Latin America, as the
Jesus of this presentation addresses those who are excluded
from political and religious power. He gives them hope, a feeling
of self-worth as well as ideas on how to change their consciences
and their circumstances. The presentation also talks openly
about women in a society which does not always afford them many
rights. It is big on justice, solidarity and inclusiveness.
The producers believe that it is based on the historical Jesus,
and that those who seek Him will find the Christ of faith.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Brazil issues stamp to commemorate
300th anniversary of Wesley
Sao Paulo, June 10th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
The Brazilian Post Office
has issued a commemorative stamp on the occasion of the 300th
anniversary of the birth of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
The stamp was officially launched at a ceremony within the framework
of the 53rd ‘Wesleyan Week’, organised by the Theology Department
of Sao Paulo Methodist University. Wesley’s efforts to strengthen
public life were recognised.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
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Pakistani
Christian student tortured to death in Muslim seminary
Rawalpindi, June 10th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
Pakistani police reluctantly
detained a Muslim cleric last week after a Christian university
student savagely tortured inside an Islamic madrasseh (seminary)
died of his injuries.
Maulvi Ghulam Rasool was taken into detention at Toba Tek Singh
police station at midday on May 2nd, about 10 hours after 19-year-old
Javed Anjum died in a Faisalabad hospital. Rasool has been identified
as a prayer leader and watchman at the Jamia Hassan Bin Murtaza
Madrasseh, where Anjum was tortured for five days last month.
In testimony videotaped by his family as he lay on his deathbed,
the third-year student in commerce at Quetta’s Government College
said he was seized by people from the madrasseh when he stopped
there to get a drink of water. They put pressure on the young
man to convert to Islam.
When Anjum resisted, his captors broke his right arm and fingers,
pulled out some of his fingernails and severely beat him. The
injuries caused Anjum’s death from kidney failure, despite repeated
dialysis treatments. Today, Judge Qamar Zaman Khoker ordered
Rasool be kept under custody for another two days to give police
time to recover further evidence and arrest two more suspects
in the crime.
Source: Compass direct. Editing:
ACPress.net
Catholics forced to consider
excommunication of political leaders
Washington DC, USA. June 10th,
2004 (ACPress.net).
Evangelical Christian
ethics are forcing the Roman Catholic Church, past masters at
keeping in with politicians, to consider using the expedient
of excommunication politically.
Christians will not keep quiet about the two issues of abortion
on demand and the recognition of homosexual unions. This has
led a handful of Catholic bishops – so far only 4 out of a total
of around 300 – to consider denying communion to Catholic politicians
who refuse to condemn both practices. 48 Catholic legislators
have written back to their Archbishop in Washington, Theodore
McCarrick, ‘warning’ him of the dangers of mixing politics and
religion, which is a bit thick coming from anyone connected
to Rome, but still.
John Kerry is the first Catholic presidential candidate in the
USA since J.F.Kennedy in the 1960s, and about 27% of the electorate
there is Catholic. The Roman Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput,
said: “Candidates who say they are Catholics but ignore Catholic
teaching on the sanctity of human life publicly are being dishonest.”
Most of the ‘Catholics’ who signed the letter to McCarrick are
pro-abortion, though a few are not but signed because they oppose
the Church’s meddling in politics. Kerry’s camp have tried to
make out that the recalcitrant bishops are really weakening
the Catholic Church, rather than Kerry’s campaign.
Most Catholics in the USA are in the liberal camp, and the moral
high ground is occupied by evangelical Christians and, at a
political level, by President George Bush.
Source: Efe. Editing: ACPress.net
Chinese pastor beaten to
death by police
Peking, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A 28-year-old Protestant
pastor died in police custody in Harbin, in the northern Chinese
province of Heilongjian, and another 90 people were arrested
for belonging to a clandestine Christian church, according to
the "South China Morning Post".
Li Shixiong, Chairman of the US-based Investigating Committee
on Religious Persecution in China, said “government agents are
trying to suppress the ‘Three grades of servant’ Church, considered
by the authorities their next religious target after Falun Gong.”
According to his sister, Pastor Gu Xianggao died on April 26th
after being arrested by police and accused of robbery and murder.
However, when members of his family travelled to Harbin in May,
they were told he had been arrested for belonging to a Protestant
church. He was a leader of a house church estimated to have
around 500,000 members.
The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) said that Gu Xianggao "was
beaten to death on April 27th while in the custody of Chinese
Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers." VOM said he was
killed after the PSB conducted major raids on the group in April.
Parents of the murdered teacher were summoned to see their son's
body on April 27th, after a PSB official told local police in
his hometown to deliver his parents to PSB offices. "There
they were shown their son's body, which was then immediately
cremated. The parents were paid around 25,000 euros - a fortune
to a Chinese family - then ordered not to tell anyone what had
happened. It is time for the world to stand up and take notice
of China's treatment of unregistered religious groups."
Although the Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist,
the Constitution allows the existence of five official churches
which are directly controlled by the Party.
Sources: EFE, ASSIST. Editing:
ACPress.net
Anglican Bishop kidnapped in Uganda
Kampala, June 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Guerrillas from the ill-named
‘Lord’s Resistance Army’ (unless that be understood to mean
those who resist the Lord) attacked the house of Anglican Bishop,
Benjamin Ojwang, near Kitgum, about 300 miles north of Kampala,
kidnapping him and 12 other members of his family.
Troops sent to rescue them clashed with insurgents. A witness
said when the rebels were leaving the area, the Army shot one
of them. The bishop’s wife was not kidnapped and is obviously
distressed at the situation. LRA rebels have been fighting the
government for 17 years. The kidnapping came 2 days after the
Ugandan Army killed 50 LRA guerrillas in an air attack on rebel
positions in southern Sudan. The LRA is mainly made up of boy
soldiers they kidnap and force into their ranks.
Source: DPA. Editing: ACPress.net
Bush speech ‘sounded like
a revival meeting’
Washington DC, June 10th,
2004 (ACPress.net).
The American President,
George Bush, delivered an emotional address to a gathering of
2,000 religious leaders and social service workers in the American
capital, in which he pledged to increase the money available
to faith-based organisations.
In 40 minutes of mostly off-the-cuff and impassioned remarks
to a White House Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,
Bush said the government gave nearly a billion euros in grants
last year to social projects operated by churches, synagogues
and mosques, but that "governments cannot put love in a
person's heart or a sense of purpose in a person's life."
On the same day, Bush signed an order establishing faith-based
offices in three more areas of government life - the Department
of Commerce, the Small Business Administration and the Department
of Veterans’ Affairs - bringing to 10 the federal agencies that
house offices devoted entirely to helping religious organisations
tap into government grants. "I told ... the people in my
government, rather than fear faith projects, welcome them,"
Bush said. "They're changing America. They do a better
job than government can do." Parts of his speech "sounded
like a revival meeting," the New York Times observed.
Bush, who has in the past credited Christ with helping him to
recover from alcoholism, stopped short of mentioning his own
experiences to the group.
Source: Religion today. Editing::
ACPress.net
Practising Christian appointed to the Indian Cabinet
New Delhi, June 10th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
In an unprecedented move,
India's first ever non-Hindu Prime Minister has asked a Christian
to join his Cabinet.
P.R. Kyndiah has been appointed Minister for Tribal Affairs,
and Christians hope this will help end the persecution of Christians
and allow them to extend their ministries, such as setting up
schools and distributing Bibles.
An official of global Bible distributor ‘Bibles For the World’
commented that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed P.R.
Kyndiah from northeast India to become his Minister for Tribal
Affairs, with a brief covering the whole country. "My dear
friend P.R. Kyndiah from northeast India, was not only elected
by an overwhelming majority to become a member of parliament,
but the Prime Minister of India inducted him as one of his Cabinet
members," said Rochunga Pudaite, who personally led Kyndiah
to Christ: He also suggested the Minister may support plans
to distribute Bibles among over 40 million people.
Source: Religion today. Editing:
ACPress.net
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