Thursday 30 July 2009

13 MILLION ABORTION EACH YEAR IN CHINA ; SAYS REPORT

BEIJING - Some 13 million abortions are carried out in China each year, in part because there is little education about contraception or disease for the rising numbers of young people who are having sex, state media said on Thursday.
Fewer than one in three callers to a Shanghai hotline knew how to avoid pregnancy, and only one in five were informed about venereal disease, the official China Daily quoted a survey by the city's 411 Army Hospital saying.

"Sex is no longer considered taboo among young people today, and they believe they can learn everything they need from the Internet. But it doesn't mean they have developed a proper understanding or attitude toward it," the paper quoted hospital gynecologist Yu Dongyan saying.

Until the 1990s, doctors asked for women's marital status at abortion clinics, which were part of the family planning system that limited urban couples to one child.

Now, government data shows that nearly two thirds of women who have abortions are between 20 and 29, and most are single, the paper said.

Birth control information is mainly given to young couples.

Some single women may also be driven to seek abortions because under current laws unmarried mothers cannot get a "hukou" or household registration card for their child.

Without one it is extremely hard for Chinese citizens to get access to education, healthcare and other public services. China also sells about 10 million abortion pills a year, and there are many other abortions performed in unregistered clinics, the paper quoted Wu Shangchun, a division director at the National Population and Family Planning Commission, as saying.

In the United States, by contrast, which has a population less than one-quarter that of China, official figures from the Center for Disease Control show there were 820,000 abortions performed in 2005, excluding California, Louisiana and New Hampshire for which no figures were provided.

Sun Xiaohong from the education department of Shanghai's family planning authority said it was difficult to promote sex education in schools because some teachers and parents thought it would encourage teenagers to become sexually active.

Ordinary web users in China will be banned from surfing sex-related medical and research websites from July, amid an Internet crackdown on pornographic online content, that threatens to make information about sexual health even harder to access.

WORSHIP LEADER TONY LE BROWN FROM BOCA,FLA., CROWNED WINNER OF THE GOSPEL DREAM TALENT COMPETITION

A Virgin Islands-born worship and youth leader was crowned winner of the Gospel Dream talent competition Wednesday, besting the other two remaining contenders in the television series’ finale.
Tony LeBron, 33, of Boca, Fla., emerged victorious after following the advice of last year’s winner, Melinda Watts.

“Melinda just encouraged me to just to sing from my heart, to let everything out on the stage, just to give it my all to the Lord, and that’s what I did. And so she just encouraged me and so I’m grateful for her words before the show,” recalled LeBron.

Watts, in return, said Lebron has “an amazing gift, and it’s so obvious in everything that you do."

“Every step that you took, it was like I could feel your connection with God first and foremost. And it was like He was really using you,” she said. “I believe you’re going to go far.”

Wednesday’s season finale put a cap on fourth seasons of the six-week American Idol-style competition, which has been airing on Gospel Music Channel.

This year’s winner was selected by a panel of judges that included Michelle Williams from the Grammy-winning group Destiny’s Child; J. Moss, one of Gospel music’s most prolific talents; and Mitchell Solarek, one of the music industry’s most respected executives.

The theme for this season was "The Greatest Inspirational Songs of All Time."

REVEREND IKE, PREACHER OF RICHES ,DIES AT 74

The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the flamboyant minister better known as the Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to a large congregation in New York and to television and radio audiences nationwide, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 2007. He was 74.
His death was confirmed Wednesday by E. Bernard Jordan, a family spokesman. Reverend Ike had suffered a stroke in 2007 and never fully recovered, Mr. Jordan said.

“Close your eyes and see green,” Reverend Ike would tell his 5,000 parishioners from a red-carpeted stage at the former Loew’s film palace on 175th Street in Washington Heights, the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute. “Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.”

His exhortation, as quoted by The New York Times in 1972, was a vivid sampling of Reverend Ike’s philosophy, which he variously called “Prosperity Now,” “positive self-image psychology” or just plain “Thinkonomics.”

The philosophy held that St. Paul was wrong; that the root of all evil is not the love of money, but rather the lack of it. It was a message that challenged traditional Christian messages about finding salvation through love and the intercession of the divine. The way to prosper and be well, Reverend Ike preached, was to forget about pie in the sky by and by and to look instead within oneself for divine power.

“This is the do-it-yourself church,” he proclaimed. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.”

One person who benefited from this philosophy of self-empowerment was Reverend Ike himself. Along with Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson, he was one of the first evangelists to grasp the power of television. At the height of his success, in the 1970s, he reached an audience estimated at 2.5 million.

In return for spiritual inspiration, he requested cash donations from his parishioners, from his television and radio audiences, and from the recipients of his extensive mailings — preferably in paper currency, not coins. (“Change makes your minister nervous in the service,” he would tell his congregation.)

He would also, in return, mail his contributors a prayer cloth.

His critics saw the donations as the entire point of his ministry, calling him a con man misleading his flock. His defenders, while acknowledging his love of luxury, argued that his church had roots both in the traditions of African-American evangelism and in the philosophies of mind over matter.

Whether legitimately or not, the money flooded in, making him a multimillionaire and enabling him to flaunt the power of his creed with a show of sumptuous clothes, ostentatious jewelry, luxurious residences and exotic automobiles. “My garages runneth over,” he said.

Frederick Joseph Eikerenkoetter II was born on June 1, 1935, in Ridgeland, S.C. His father was a Baptist minister of Dutch-Indonesian extraction, his mother an elementary school teacher who taught her son in a one-room schoolhouse. The couple divorced when Frederick was 5.

His calling came to him early, he said. “Even when I was a young child, the other kids came to me to solve their problems,” he told the writer Clayton Riley.

At 14 he became assistant pastor for his father’s congregation, the Bible Way Baptist Church in Ridgeland. After high school, he attended the American Bible College in Chicago, receiving a bachelor’s degree in theology in 1956. After two years in the Air Force as a chaplain, he returned to Ridgeland to found the United Church of Jesus Christ for All People.

Finding the traditional Christian message constricting, he moved to Boston in 1964 to found the Miracle Temple and to practice faith-healing, which “was the big thing at the time,” he told Mr. Riley, “and I was just about the best in Boston, snatching people out of wheelchairs and off their crutches, pouring some oil over them while I commanded them to walk or see or hear.”

Two years later, still dissatisfied, he moved to New York City, setting up shop in an old Harlem movie theater, the Sunset, on 125th Street, with a marquee so narrow that it forced him to shorten his name to “Rev. Ike.” There he tinkered with his act, polishing his patter, introducing radio broadcasts and taking his show on the road.

He began to refine his message to attract a more striving, stable, middle-class audience, people who wanted to hear that their hard work should be rewarded here and now. To this end, in 1969, he paid more than half a million dollars for the old Loew’s 175th Street movie theater and made it his headquarters, calling it the Palace Cathedral. In his book “On Broadway: A Journey Uptown Over Time,” David W. Dunlap, a reporter for The New York Times, described the former theater as “Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco style.”

With the move, the Reverend Ike stretched Christian tenets, founding the doctrine he named the Science of Living and thereby relocating the idea of God to the interior of the self, calling it “God in me,” with the power to bring the believer anything he or she desired in the way of health, wealth and peace of mind. He became, as he told Mr. Riley, “the first black man in America to preach positive self-image psychology to the black masses within a church setting.”

By the mid-1970s, Reverend Ike was touring the country and preaching over some 1,770 radio stations. Television stations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other major markets were telecasting his videotaped sermons. A magazine he founded, Action!, reached more than a million readers.

In 1962, he married Eula May Dent. They had a son, Xavier F. Eikerenkoetter, who also became an ordained minister at the United Church and took over the ministry when his father retired. They both survive him.

Because of his emphasis on material self-fulfillment, Reverend Ike alienated many traditional Christian ministers as well as leaders of the civil rights movement, who believed black churches should further social reform.

His huge income also provoked suspicion. Detractors accused him of preying on the poor, and the Internal Revenue Service and Postal Service investigated his businesses. Though its fortunes have waxed and waned in the last 20 years, the church continues to operate from the former Loew’s theater, which maintains tax-exempt status as a religious property and is occasionally rented to outside promoters to present concerts.

Reverend Ike could be an electric preacher, whether at the old theater or on the road appearing before standing-room-only audiences. And he could make his congregations laugh, drawing on the Bible to drive home his message about the virtues of material rewards. “If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven,” he would often say, citing Matthew, “think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.”

ANGER AFTER BIBLE DEFACED IN BRITISH GALLERY

Christians voiced anger and dismay Tuesday after a Bible, which was part of an exhibition inviting viewers to add their reflections, was defaced with offensive and foul-mouthed scrawl.
Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art has decided to put the Bible in a glass case after the exhibit, called Untitled 2009 and part of a show entitled Made In God's Image, was vandalised.

Artist Jane Clarke, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, asked visitors to annotate the Bible with stories and reflections, as a way of making it more inclusive.

But visitors to the gallery took the invitation a bit further than she had anticipated.

"This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all," wrote one person, while another described the Bible as "the biggest lie in human history" and a third wrote: "Mick Jagger and David Bowie belong in here."

On the first page of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, someone had written: "I am Bi, Female and Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this."

Clarke said: "I had hoped that people would show respect for the Bible, for Christianity and indeed for the Gallery of Modern Art. I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages.

"Writing our names in the margins of a Bible was to show how we have been marginalised by many Christian churches, and also our desire to be included in God's love.

"As a young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the margins of the Bible I used for my daily devotions -- this was an extension of that idea."

On Tuesday over 100 people gathered outside the gallery to protest at what they said was vandalism.

Letitia Reid, a housewife from Glasgow, said the Bible should not be desecrated.

"As a Christian I am offended by this because Christians hold the Bible to be sacred. For it to be publicly defiled in this way is very offensive," she said.

As well as a glass case, the gallery now has paper and pens, with which they can write down their thoughts, to be inserted into the Bible later by members of staff.

TEXAS WOMAN SPREADS BIBLE LESSONS WORLDWIDE

Spread the Word.

That's simply what she does — and has done for 40 years.

Dorothy Hilton, who will soon be 92, spread Bible-related materials wherever she could after making her first audio recording on a seven-inch reel of tape in 1969.

Some of the Bible teaching tapes, sent around the world, became a perpetual-motion generator for her ministry.

"I would just pick up the phone and it would be England, someone saying, 'I found a reel tape in the attic, and it's fascinating. Do you have more?'"

Hilton primarily published the lessons taught at Lubbock Bible Church by the Rev. Charles Clough in the 1970s, under her ministry of Alpha Omega Tapes. There were 1,550 of the lessons, and she had the entire collection.

For the past 17 years, though, she has become a part of the correspondence work done by the Lubbock-based Exodus Prison Ministry, which sends its study books to thousands of inmates.

She sometimes needs a walker to move to the copy machine after suffering a fall three years ago, but that doesn't seem to limit her portion of the work in producing 55,000 books a year.

The volunteers who staff Exodus get no pay for publishing the Bible lessons, but no one complains, least of all Hilton: "It means putting out God's word, and what a privilege. How much greater privilege could you have than to share his word?"

She said her philosophy is based on the Bible, and recommends it to others.

"It's really sad to be an atheist and not have a hope," she said.

Carla Hilton remembers watching her mother's ministry while growing up.

"She lives for sharing Christ with whoever will hear — that's been her whole goal in life. And her passion is how the prophecies in the Bible are now playing out in history," said Hilton, a nursing teacher in Lubbock.

She added, "Another of her passions is Israel. She knows that history circles around Israel, and that it will culminate with what God is going to do with Israel."

Joyce Hargis, director of Exodus, said Dorothy is the most evangelistic person she has ever met.

"She keeps us busy. When Dorothy gets to heaven, they will no longer call it a 'land of rest,' because she will put everyone to work."

Carla remembers that other work involved Child Evangelism and teaching Sunday School.

"But after the tape ministry was established, she would spend hours and hours counseling people in the tape shop when she wasn't running tapes. She would counsel people who were down and out or discouraged, or were just wanting to know about Christ."

Dorothy thinks the prison ministry is proving effective.

"We get notes that tell us that it's changed their lives," she said. "They always wind up, 'Pray for my family.' They also want their family won to Christ."

She sums up her faith this way: "It means eternal life. It means the only hope that anyone has — to hope for heaven, and to honor and glorify the Lord while you are here."

LEGENDARY CHRISTIAN WRESTLING COACH CANNED AFTER STUDENT CONVERTS : PRINCIPAL ALLEGEDLY IRATE THAT HE LEFT ISLAM TO BE BAPTIZED

A high school hall-of-fame and Christian wrestling coach in Dearborn, Mich., claims he was muscled out of his long-tenured coaching job by the school's principal, a devout Muslim, because the administrator was furious over a student wrestler who had converted to Christianity from Islam.

Gerald Marsazalek has coached wrestling for 35 years at Dearborn Public Schools, amassing more than 450 wins and, in addition to being added to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, was named "Sportsman of the Year" by the All-American Athletic Association.

Despite Marsazalek's success, however, Principal Imad Fadlallah of Dearborn's Fordson High School ordered the administration not to renew the coach's contract, allegedly in retaliation over the student's conversion and to continue a campaign of flushing Christianity out of the school.

"We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Marsazalek. "Failure to renew coach Marszalek's contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion."

Marsazalek is suing both the principal and the school in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan, seeking back pay, injunctive and declaratory relief, damages, and to be reinstated as coach of the wrestling team.

According to lawsuit documents, Principal Fadlallah's retribution against the Christian coaches serving Fordson High began in 2005, after Marsazalek's volunteer assistant coach, Trey Hancock, led a non-school sanctioned and independent summer wrestling camp. Hancock, who is also pastor of the Dearborn Assembly of God and parent to one of the wrestlers, reportedly shared his beliefs at the camp and baptized a Muslim Fordson student into the Christian faith.

That fall, Fadlallah fired Hancock and ordered the volunteer coach not to have further contact with the student wrestlers.

"Subsequently, in full view of students and faculty," the lawsuit states, "Fadlallah approached the young Fordson student who had chosen to be baptized a Christian at Hancock's summer wrestling camp, punched the student and advised the student he had 'disgraced his family' by converting to Christianity from Islam."

According to a statement from the Thomas More Law Center, Dearborn is one of the most densely populated Muslim communities in the United States. An estimated 30,000 of its 98,000 residents are Muslims, and roughly 80 percent of the student population of Fordson High School is Arabic, many of whom are also Muslims.

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges, Fadlallah then banned Hancock from entering the school, ordered Marszalek to "keep Hancock out of the building" and even banned the Hancock family from helping out at school concession stands, even though Hancock's son was an All-State wrestler on Fordson's team.

On or about Thanksgiving Day 2007, Hancock came to the school to register his son for an activity, an offense against Fadlallah's orders, the lawsuit claims, which led to a vocal confrontation between the principal and Marszalek, who was allegedly accused of failing to enforce Hancock's banishment.

When the 2007-2008 wrestling season concluded, the lawsuit states, Fadlallah instructed the school's athletic director to be rid of Marszalek too, by refusing to even process the Christian's yearly renewal application for the coaching position, saying, "Gone. I want him gone. No appeal."

Another assistant coach, who had made no application for the head coaching position, was chosen by the school to take Marszalek's place.

According to the lawsuit, however, Marszalek's treatment by Fadlallah isn't isolated, but part of an intentional eradication of Christianity from the school.

"Fadlallah, since assuming duties as Fordsons' principal in 2005, has systematically weeded out Christian teachers, coaches and employees and has terminated, demoted or reassigned them because of their Christian beliefs," the lawsuit continues. "Fadlallah has publicly stated 'he sees Dearborn Fordson High School as a Muslim school, both in students and faculty, and is working to that end.'"

David Mustonen, a spokesman for Dearborn Public Schools, told the Detroit Free Press earlier today that the district had not yet seen the lawsuit and would therefore have to review it before making any comment.

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Tuesday 28 July 2009

SIKH GUARDS FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH

They're ready to lay down their lives for Crown and Country. And in doing so, Signaler Simranjit Singh, 26, and Lance Corporal Sarvjit Singh, 28 have become the first Sikh soldiers to protect Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
So, visitors to Buckingham Palace, the queen's London residence, shouldn't be surprised to see the two blue-turbaned soldiers going about their duties.
In fact, Signaler Singh is the first Sikh ever to wear his turban on public duties protecting the queen and the crown jewels, says UK paper The Daily Mail.
He was posted at Buckingham Palace in May and was later joined by the lance corporal.
The soldiers serve with 21st Signal Regiment based in Wiltshire, while Lance Corporal serves with 3rd Regiment Army Air Corps based in Suffolk, respectively.

DHAKA SEE'S HEAVIEST RAIN IN 53 YEARS..PRAY & MAKE A DIFFERENCE

DHAKA, BANGLADESH: The heaviest rain in 53 years battered Bangladesh's capital on Tuesday, leaving at least six people dead and stranding thousands People cross a waterlogged street after heavy rainfall in Dhaka.
The national weather office said 13 inches (33.3 centimetres) of rain fell in 12 hours in Dhaka, an overcrowded city of about 10 million people - the most in a single day since 1956.
Live power lines snapped and killed at least six people, including two children, in central Dhaka, hospital authorities said. They gave no further details.
Huge snarls of traffic inched along, with people waist-deep in water. Commuters waded their way home or waited for hours to get transport.
"I've been waiting here for three hours for a bus to come," said Halima Khatoon, a garment worker in the city's Badda district.
The private television station reported that residents in low-lying areas were stranded in their homes. Trading on the Dhaka stock exchange was delayed for half the day, and schools in flooded areas were closed.
Floods caused by monsoon rains are common in Bangladesh, a delta nation of 150 million people.

Monday 27 July 2009

HBO LEADS IN TV IN SHOWING HOMOSEXUAL CHARACTERS

NEW YORK – HBO scored highest among 15 networks for its representation of homosexual characters last season, according to a report released Monday.
In its third annual Network Responsibility Index, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of HBO's 14 original prime-time series, 10 included content reflecting the lives of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people. That totaled 42 percent of the network's programming hours, in series such as True Blood, Entourage and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. By contrast, on NBC and CBS only 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of prime-time hours included them, the report said.
For the report, GLAAD reviewed all prime-time programming — totaling 4,901 hours — for inclusion of such characters or issues on the five major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW) from June 1, 2008, to May 31, 2009. The study also examined all original prime-time programming — 1,213 hours — on 10 prominent cable networks. The programming included dramas, comedies, unscripted fare and newsmagazines.
Cable's Showtime ranked second, with 26 percent of its programming hours featuring homosexual characters or themes. Series included The L Word, Weeds and The United States of Tara, a new comedy about a family whose teenage son is homosexual.
ABC got the highest ranking of the five broadcast networks, with 24 percent. It was the second year in a row that ABC led the broadcasters.
Among ABC series, the report cited newlyweds Kevin and Scotty on Brothers & Sisters, the engagement of Andrew to Dr. Alex Cominis on Desperate Housewives and bisexual Dr. Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
The CW logged 20 percent, and the Fox network 11 percent, the report said.
Among the sampling of cable networks evaluated, TNT showed the largest growth, jumping to 19 percent last season from 1 percent the year before. This was largely due to its new drama series, Raising the Bar, which features homosexual law clerk Charlie Sagansky as a regular character, GLAAD said.
"Television shows that weave our stories into the fabric of the series present richer, more diverse representations," said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD's senior director of media programs.
In September, GLAAD will release its annual report evaluating homosexual, bisexual and transgender inclusion, and other diversity, among scripted characters scheduled to appear during the 2009-10 season.
Monday's report said TV characters in general are predominantly white, regardless of sexual orientation.

Saturday 25 July 2009

INDIAN CHRISTIANS CALLS AUGUST 23 ' PEACE DAY ' TO FORGET THE VIOLENT PAST

NEW DELHI, India – August 23 must be remembered as "Peace Day" to mark the murder of a Hindu fundamentalist leader and the ensuing violence that targeted the Christian community, says Archbishop of Orissa Raphael Cheenath.
Addressing reporters, the archbishop along with other like-minded people, called for a peace day in which the Indian people would "forget the past and build a harmonious society."
"The gruesome murder of [Swami Laxmananda Saraswati] destroyed peace and harmony. Let us unite and build a cohesive society," Archbishop Cheenath said.
The 84-year-old Saraswati was murdered on August 23, 2008, when Maoists allegedly opened fire at the Hindu monk and four of his aides at his Jalespata ashram. In retaliation, Hindu extremists blamed the Christian community and attacked the minority group, forcing thousands to flee their homes and churches.
To commemorate the day and express solidarity, Cheenath says Christians will take part in peace marches in different parts of the state. Fasting and prayers will also be conducted in churches.
“Orissa, known as the land of peace and harmony, was divided by criminals on religious lines. Their efforts must be thwarted and the minorities in India must be protected,” he said.
The violence last year against the Christian community left hundreds of houses were burnt, churches razed down and families injured. Dozens were murdered and thousands were forced out of their homes to the forests during the four month-long violence.
For the Christian community and the minority leadership, it’s not just the state and central governments that must declare Aug. 23 as peace day, but also the United Nations.

Indians Christians even called on the United Nations to declare the day as a “Global Day for Peace and Harmony” to ensure that such violence is not perpetuated on any community or individuals in any part of the world.
The Archbishop, meanwhile, told reporters that the situation was still tense in the riot-hit district and Christians were still feeling insecure considering the lack of arrests made during the anti-Christian violence.
He demanded that the government arrest the culprits and offer security and protection to religious minorities, their lives, property, institutions and places of worship.
Cheenath's plea was made not only on behalf of Christians but also for Hindu monks. Any violence against Swamijis and their disciples are misused to attack minorities and therefore the government must provide them adequate security, he demanded.

OLD CHURCH ' ALTERED ' FOR THEATRES IN NORTH TONAWANDA IN U.S

Old churches make great stages. Which is why you’ll find theater companies like Starry Night Theatre Inc. and Niagara University’s theater department performing in renovated 19th- and 20th-century churches
In 2001, Frieden’s United Church of Christ gifted Starry Night Theatre Inc. with their former church, on the corner of Schenck and Vandervoort streets in North Tonawanda, after they couldn’t find a buyer. The congregation moved to Amherst in 2000 because of declining membership.
Don Swartz, executive director, said it cost $100,000 in renovations to convert the church into Ghostlight Theatre. Swartz emphasized the importance of keeping the theatre “church-like” and preserving the original architecture amidst ongoing renovations.
“We tried to keep the integrity of the building,” he said. “Our building is still a church and looks like a church and that was something that was very important to us.”

CULT-LIKE GANG GAINS POWER IN MEXICO DRUGS WAR : USES BIBLE SCRIPTURES TO INSPIRE IT'S TRAFFICKERS

MORELIA, Mexico - A cult-like drug cartel is defying President Felipe Calderon in his home state in western Mexico by taking on security forces with a menacing mix of violence, pseudo-religion and gifts for the poor.
"La Familia" (The Family) uses Bible scriptures to inspire its traffickers and has taken over smuggling in the state of Michoacan, gaining power despite Calderon's near three-year assault on cartels in the state and across the country.After the group killed 16 police in a series of brazen attacks last week, Calderon sent some 5,500 troops, elite police and navy officers to the mountainous marijuana-producing state in one of the biggest surges of the drug war.

Helicopters whirred overhead on Wednesday and convoys of army trucks patrolled the colonial state capital of Morelia as tourists sat at cafes in the pink stone-colored city.

La Familia, whose leaders say they are proud natives of the state, has become one of Calderon's most formidable challenges as it goes beyond smuggling to seek political influence and social standing.

Led by evangelical Christian Nazario Moreno who calls himself "The Craziest One" and who has a $2 million bounty on his head in Mexico, the group preaches scripture mixed with self-help slogans to its members.Handing out toys to children and money to build schools, the cartel tries to promote a mystique unique among Mexican gangs by claiming openly to protect the local population.

La Familia bans its members from drinking alcohol or taking narcotics, holds prayer and indoctrination sessions and finances rural evangelical churches and drug rehabilitation centers across Michoacan, the army says."I ask God for strength and he gives me challenges that make me strong," says one slogan signed "The Craziest One" and found by soldiers on a raid last year on a cartel safe house.

Formed in the 1980s, La Familia has vowed to stop sales of the party methamphetamine drug "Ice" in the state, saying it is destroying local communities. Instead, it exports all meth production to the United StatesIn a call to a local TV station last week, a cartel member said its main aim was to bring order to Michoacan, help the poor with cash handouts and protect working families."They want to see themselves as Robin Hood figures," said Julian Gudino, a security consultant in Mexico City.

"Obviously this is false, but if they have that local support, they can run their trafficking business much more easily."INTENSELY VIOLENTAs La Familia has grown to develop distribution networks in U.S. states such as Georgia, California and Illinois, it has also taken on the Gulf cartel's armed wing, the Zetas, a group from northeastern Mexico that has tried to take control of Michoacan.

In a full-page newspaper advertisement in 2006, La Familia said it was fighting back the "destructive power" of the Zetas and offering a cartel that "helps families."Some residents in Morelia say La Familia may be the lesser of two evils. "If the army can't stop drug traffickers, I'd rather they had an interest in our communities even if it is only to benefit their business," said Ana Tinoco, an off-duty waitress sitting by Morelia's majestic cathedral.But La Familia is by no means a soft touch.

A fight with the Zetas for Michoacan just five hours drive from Mexico City has killed almost 300 people this year, mirroring the growing violence across Mexico. The drugs war has claimed 12,800 lives since late 2006, worrying tourists and investors.Intensely violent, the cartel dumped the blood-smeared bodies of 12 federal police in a heap by a remote highway last week in revenge for the capture of a gang leader by police.U.S. anti-drug experts say members of La Familia must complete a three-to-six month training camp in Michoacan run by former Mexican and Guatemalan elite soldiers, and the group may may have linked up with Mexico's top drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman to share smuggling routes over the U.S. border."The criminals have a very clear objective and they're not afraid of the military," state police chief Minerva Bautista said.

La Familia also wields great power in local politics, making the organization harder to confront.Troops earlier this year rounded up 10 mayors and a string of police chiefs accused of working for the cartel in one of the biggest single corruption sweeps of the drugs war.The half-brother of state governor Leonel Godoy, himself a politician, is accused of providing protection for La Familia. Godoy denies any wrongdoing and says he will help any investigation involving his brother, who is on the run.

ACTIVISTS CLAIM CHRISTIAN WOMAN BEEN EXECUTED IN NORTH KOREA ; LAST MONTH A CHRISTIAN WOMAN WAS EXECUTED FOR DISTRIBUTING BIBLE

Seoul, South Korea - North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman last month for distributing the Bible, which is banned in the communist nation, South Korean activists said Friday.
Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korea groups.

Ri's parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, the report said, citing unidentified documents it says were obtained from North Korea. It showed a copy of Ri's North Korean government-issued photo ID. It is virtually impossible to verify such reports about secretive North Korea, where the government tightly controls the lives of its citizens and does not allow dissent.

On Thursday, an annual report from a state-run South Korean think tank on human rights in the North said that public executions, though dropping in number in recent years, were still carried out for crimes ranging from murder to circulating foreign movies. North Korea claims to guarantee freedom of religion for its 24 million people but in reality severely restricts religious observances.

The cult of personality surrounding national founder Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, is a virtual state religion. The government has authorized four state churches, one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox, but they cater to foreigners and ordinary North Koreans cannot attend. However, defectors and activists say more than 30,000 North Koreans are believed to practice Christianity secretly.

The U.S. State Department reported last year that "genuine religious freedom does not exist" in North Korea. "North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime," Do Hee-youn, a leading activist, told reporters, claiming public executions, arrest and detention of North Koreans are prevalent. The Investigative Commission On Crime Against Humanity also alleged in its report that in March, North Korean security agents arrested Seo Kum Ok, 30, another Christian, in a city near Ryongchon and tortured her.

The agents alleged she was attempting to spy on a nuclear site and hand over the evidence to South Korea and the U.S. The report said it remains unclear whether she survived. Her husband was also arrested and their two children disappeared, it said. The commission said it was seeking to try to take North Korean leader Kim to the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity

Activists claim that such atrocities -- including murder, kidnap, rape, extermination of individuals in prison camps -- cannot take place in North Korea without Kim's knowledge or direction as he wields absolute power. "Let's file a suit against Kim Jong Il to the International Criminal Court," the activists chanted.

SERVING IN THE ARMY, ' FOR THE SAKE OF GOD AND JESUS '

Jesus supports the IDF and he wants his believers to be the best soldiers they can be.
That was the message conveyed by members of the local Messianic Jewish community via sacred texts, prayer and talks, to a group of 18-year-olds who took part this week in a premilitary program called Netsor.
"I am a soldier of God," said Boris, an intense redhead accepted to an elite combat unit, who is one of the 28 young men and women who participated in Netsor.
"I will do my best during my service in the IDF to serve God spiritually and physically. Not for the sake of state authorities but for the sake of God and Jesus," added Boris, as we sat in the dining room of a guest house that overlooks Lake Kinneret on Wednesday.
Not far from here, according to Christian tradition, Jesus walked on water, healed the sick and preached. Now, nearly two millennia later, young "believers," as they call themselves, convinced they are walking in Jesus's footsteps, hope to become the next fighter pilots, reconnaissance soldiers, paratroopers, tank commanders and sailors.
Some 150 highly motivated believers will join the IDF this year. Many of them will serve in combat units. Some of them have been through Netsor's week of mental and spiritual preparation offered by the Messianic community. Netsor is a Hebrew word that means "to guard" or "to stand vigilant."
The return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel with the establishment of the State of Israel brought with it a small but growing group of Messianic Jews, numbering today between 10,000 and 15,000. These Christians celebrate their own version of Jewish holidays such as Pessah and Succot and set aside Friday night and Saturday as a day of rest.
But they also believe that Jesus is the messiah and that he is the only path to redemption. Messianic Jews, who distance themselves from the more in-your-face proselytizing tactics of Jews for Jesus, are nevertheless very open about their beliefs, including their conviction that traditional Jewish faith is not sufficient for redemption.
Due to their religious beliefs, Messianic Jews have been subjected over the years to physical attacks and discrimination, including in the IDF.
M., a platoon commander in an elite demolition unit who is one of the founders of Netsor, asked The Jerusalem Post to leave out identifiable personal details of individuals who agreed to be interviewed out of concern that they would be singled out and blackballed by antagonistic elements with connections in the army.
"In the end, we believe that God opens and closes doors," said M. "And if he does not want someone to advance in the IDF it won't happen. But we don't want to make any mistakes that will hurt someone's IDF career."
For Messianic Jews, military service in the IDF is not only a mandatory civil duty, it is a religious obligation. Lacking an exegetical tradition but serious about the sacredness and relevance of the biblical text, "believers" learn this obligation to serve in the army right out of the New Testament.
Romans (13:1-7) warns not to resist political authority, because it is "the ordinance of God."
Colossians (3:22,23) teaches that one must excel as a faithful servant of one's superiors, not for personal aggrandizement but to serve God.
The group's interpretation of these texts, combined with a strong religious faith, transform them into soldiers of God determined to do his will during their stint in the army of the Jewish state.
Other verses, such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, 5-7), which some Christians interpret as Jesus's support for pacifism, are seen by Messianic Jews as an obligation to love one's enemies while fighting and killing them.
"I hate what Palestinian terrorists do, therefore I will do anything, including kill, if necessary, to stop them," said Tzvi, an educator and counselor at Netsor. "But I do not allow that to prevent me from loving them as human beings."
Many Messianic Jews see their obligation to serve in the IDF as no different from the obligation of other Christians in the US, Britain or even Jordan and Egypt to serve their respective countries.
"If I lived in Jordan I would have the same feelings for the Jordanian army," said Tzvi.
But for some, serving in the IDF has special theological meaning. Yoel, who was an officer in an IDF combat unit, believes the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel is part of God's plans.
"The IDF is an instrument in the hands of God because it facilitates his plan," said Yoel. "But I would not call it a holy army or the army of God."
The Netsor program, which began three years ago, has quadrupled the number of students from seven in 2007 to 28 this year.
Yoel, one of Netsor's founders, hopes one day to create a premilitary academy for Messianic Jews modeled after existing academies for religious and secular Israelis.
"We pray that sometime in the future we will succeed in establishing a full-fledged premilitary academy that will offer a one-year program; with God's help."

Friday 24 July 2009

ANOTHER PART IN THE CALL2ALL BEGINS - YOUNG LEADERS CONFERENCE IN NEWZEALAND

The Call2All movement has grown over the last 2 years to include thousands of different ministries and organizations around the world. Top Christian leaders have met on all continents strategizing together to complete the Great Commission. It’s now time to include the next generation.
There’s a growing move of God among the young in the world. Much of the energy is coming from the global surge of prayer. God is preparing a new breed that will do great exploits in the coming years. It’s time to launch Call2All Next Generation . . . January 19 – 22, 2010 we will assemble thousands of emerging leaders from the next generation. They will come from most of the nations of the world.
This ground-breaking event will be held in Tauranga, New Zealand on the Bethlehem University campus. As Call2All it will focus on key elements in completing the Great Commission, but the forum will be dynamically different. It will be built with the supernaturally hungry young emerging leaders of the world in mind. The next generation wants an encounter, not a conference. They want to take the message of Jesus to a new level experiencing deep intimacy and unusual power. While the format will be focused on the emerging generation, those of us 30 to 60 years of age and above will play a key role. As part of this New Zealand event we will strategize with the next generation, partner and point them to the best missions opportunities.
Children will be included in this event. Five to eleven year olds, twelve to fifteen year olds and sixteen to eighteen, will all have their own equipping tracks. Some of the finest workers with children in the world are organizing these life-changing activities.
Tauranga, New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places in the Southern hemisphere. In January it will be mid-summer. Besides the usual housing options will be the opportunity to camp on the campus property. The main meetings will be held in a tent that facilitates 10,000. There will be dozens of exhibits, workshops, and hundreds of opportunities to move into missions.
Tauranga has a 24-7 house of prayer that is fully involved with the preparation of this gathering. Just like Hong Kong, prayer leaders all around the world will be involved. Included in these 4 days will be a half a day of prayer and worship to encounter God together and intercede over the nations.
The emerging generation is deeply concerned with injustice around the globe - the millions of orphans, sexual trafficking, abortion, rampant disease, and poverty. They believe the gospel should transform cultures to bring a new way of life. Because of this experts in these areas will play a major role in this event.
The next generation of Christians want to see God’s principles lived out in family life, government, education, media, science, business and the arts. They don’t operate in a limited religious framework but want to be relevant in every area of society. This is what makes them perhaps the most exciting generation in history.
To take advantage of early registration discounts, go to http://www.call2all.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000053966and click on the Tauranga, New Zealand dates. To find out more about call2all media go to www.call2allmedia.org.
There is a tremendous amount of interest in this next generation gathering in January. It would be wise to register early. Housing options will soon be posted on our website and must be secured separately from registration. Something powerful is going to be unleashed January 2010 in New Zealand.

Mark Anderson
President GPN/Call2All

Thursday 23 July 2009

10 HELD AFTER VIOLENCE AT BOMBED VIETNAM CATHOLIC CHURCH

HANOI — More than ten people remained in Vietnamese police custody Wednesday after a violent dispute at the site of a church bombed during the Vietnam War, a local official said.
The unrest happened on Monday after about 200 people arrived at the remains of Tam Toa Catholic church in central Quang Binh province, said local government official Tran Cong Thuat, vice chairman of the provincial People's Committee.
He said the group tried to "illegally" build a structure on the site, which is listed as a historical war relic. But others, whom he identified as local residents, sought to dismantle it, leading to conflict between the two groups.
"Some extremists resorted to violence, using stones and sticks to beat each other, and forcing police to intervene. Police arrested more than 10 people," who are still being held for investigation, Thuat said.
"We don't know whether they are Catholics or not."
A priest, Pham Dinh Phung, told AFP on Tuesday night that 20 Catholics were detained by police.
Phung said about 100 police officers wanted to dismantle the newly-built structure and when the Catholics intervened "police started beating them," adding some victims were left bleeding.
He said Catholics had asked authorities' permission to rebuild the church -- bombed by US forces during the war -- because they had no place for worship and had held prayers outdoors.
The dispute over the land, which Catholics say belongs to them and the communist state says is national property, is the latest development in a long-running battle between the church and the government.
In the capital Hanoi in March, about 1,000 Catholics protested outside a Hanoi court that upheld the conviction of eight fellow believers for property damage and disturbing public order.
All had admitted taking part in rallies that peaked last August calling for the return of church property seized -- along with many other buildings and farms -- more than 50 years earlier when communists took power in what was then North Vietnam.
Vietnam has Southeast Asia's second largest Catholic community after the Philippines, with at least six million followers.

ANGLICANS ALTER COMMUNION RITUAL DUE TO FLU SCARE IN BRITAIN

LONDON — Two Anglican dioceses in Britain are changing how they handle Communion in an attempt to reduce the spread of swine flu.
Church of England parishes in Blackburn, northern England, and in Southwell and Nottingham, central England, made the switch in recent days, officials said Wednesday — as many houses of worship around the world have cut back on activities requiring close contact because of swine flu.
"Particularly where vulnerable groups are involved, we think it's important that reasonable steps are taken to minimize the risk of church worship activity facilitating the spread of the disease," church spokesman Ben Wilson said. He said the measures were precautionary, though he noted a high number of swine flu cases have been recorded in Nottingham.
Anglican worshippers in the two English dioceses will no longer drink from a communal cup of wine that is wiped with a cloth after each person sips during the Communion service. Anglicans believe the wine is consecrated as the blood of Jesus Christ.
Instead, the faithful will participate in Communion only by eating wafers consecrated during the service.
The changes, which are temporary, are allowed under the Sacrament Act of 1547, which gave the church discretion to change the service in cases of emergency. The act was created 200 years after bubonic plague swept through Europe to assuage concerns over sharing the communion cup.
The change does not represent the national church's position, however, and bishops in each diocese are making their own decisions on how best to handle the service, Wilson said.
Britain is the hardest-hit nation in Europe amid the swine flu pandemic — or global outbreak — with thousands estimated to be sickened and at least 30 deaths reported. Still, most people recover without needing medical treatment.
The decision follows similar changes made to religious services in New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.
In New Zealand, the Roman Catholic Church has halted the sharing of Communion wine and banned priests from placing Communion wafers on the tongues of worshippers.
Church leaders in U.S. cities including Milwaukee, Washington, Miami and Austin, Texas, have advised that pastors and priests to use discretion in serving Communion wine, and that churches provide hand sanitizer and tissues for worshippers.
In Chile, authorities canceled a religious festival that typically draws tens of thousands to the northern town of La Tirana.

FIJI POLICE HOLD 7 METHODIST CHURCH LEADERS FOR QUESTIONING

The Methodist Church in Fiji has said that seven of its senior members are being held by police for questioning.
All those being held have been involved in discussions about the church's planned annual conference.
Fiji's military government has already banned the meeting once, accusing the church of being too political and setting conditions for future talks.
The Methodist Church is the largest in Fiji and hopes to hold its annual meeting next month regardless.
The church had hoped its leaders would have been released after a few hours, Radio New Zealand reported.
Instead, police, many of whom are themselves Methodists, were treating the churchmen well in detention, Radio Australia reported, with afternoon tea and a prayer.
But the interim military-led regime has banned the gathering unless the church hierarchy agrees to exclude two former presidents and remove any political discussion from the agenda.

Continuing crackdown
Among those arrested was former president of the Fiji Methodist Church, Reverend Manasa Lasaro; General Secretary, Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, the Secretary for Pastoral Ministry, Tomasi Kanailagi and the Church's Finance Secretary Viliame Gonelevu. The general secretary was taken in on Tuesday night and others were detained the next morning.
The Chief of Rewa, Rotemumu Kepa, who was to host the conference, has also been arrested and detained.
The interim government authorities have not explained the detentions, but Reverend Waqairatu had earlier said that it was in relation to conference.
The church said it was planning to go ahead with the conference regardless of the interim government's stand.
Separately, Fijian police are reported to be holding on to the wands, compasses and a skull confiscated from a Freemasons' meeting in Denarau last week.
The police said all the 14 masons detained had been released but that investigations into their activities were continuing.
Fiji is currently ruled by Commodore Frank Bainimarama who took power in a coup in 2006.
Since then Fiji has suspended the constitution, detained opponents and suppressed freedom of speech.

IRATE JAFFA CHRISTIANS GET JESUS PLAY CANCELLED: PLAY POTRAYS MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS AS A PROSTITUTE

The perfomance of Amos Kenan's play "Friends Talk about Jesus," scheduled for next week at the Arab-Hebrew Theater of Jaffa, have been canceled due to opposition from Jaffa residents.
The play was rejected by the state censorship board in 1972, when it was written, but was staged in February by the Tel Aviv University Department of Theater Arts, under the direction of Ro'i Hertz Russo.

Some Christian Arabs living in Jaffa claim the play portrays Jesus in a negaKenan's satirical play deals with the nature of being Israeli and with the occupation. In it, Jesus dies, returns to life and dies again, and is shown in various ways: as a child whose home is destroyed by the army, as a young man who is concerned about the security situation and as a reserve duty soldier who is sent to war.

After the play was banned by the censor it was also banned by the High Court of Justice. Igal Ezrati, one of the Arab-Hebrew Theater's two artistic directors, related that when the news of the play's production became public, it set off protests, and he was asked not to stage it. "I got phone calls saying, 'You should be ashamed of yourselves,' because the play hurts the feelings of Christians in Jaffa and throughout the world," the theater's head, Mohammed Desouki, related. "I talked to Igal Ezrati and together with the theater management we decided to cancel the show so as not to hurt anyone's feelings." tive light, as well as depicting Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a prostitute.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

CHRISTIAN AGENCY APPEARS ON MTV'S PREGNANT TEEN SERIES

A Christian adoption agency appeared on an MTV series last week that chronicles the lives of several pregnant 16-year-old girls.
“16 and Pregnant,” the new MTV documentary show, aired an episode this past Thursday night that followed a Detroit-area pregnant teen who goes through Bethany Christian Services to give her child up for adoption to a North Carolina family.
Bethany explains that it agreed to be part of the program on MTV, which is “notorious for morally questionable programs,” because it felt the show was “a great opportunity to educate pregnant teenagers to its services” so that young women viewers would consider “adoption as an option over abortion.” The agency also hopes the show will increase awareness about the many children who need loving parents.
Bethany Christian Services is the nation’s largest private adoption agency. In addition to adoption services, it also offers foster care and counseling to children and families. With over 75 locations nationwide and international ministries in over a dozen countries, Bethany affects the lives of more than 30,000 people each year.
In Thursday’s episode, high school junior Catelynn and her boyfriend of three years, Tyler, decide to give their baby up for adoption. The episode chronicles the different reactions of their family members to the idea of adoption – from anger to support – and the couple’s difficult process in deciding to give up their baby.
Through the help of Bethany Christian Services, the teen parents find a couple they think would be the perfect match for their child. The episode ends with the adoptive parents giving Catelynn a bracelet and telling her that the baby has the same one. Catelynn and the adoptive parents agree that the biological mother and baby will wear the bracelet forever.
Bethany acknowledges that working with MTV to get the word out about adoption is a “progressive approach” for a “generally conservative organization." But it sees the cooperation as a beneficial opportunity to the ministry’s mission.
In addition to Bethany Christian Services, several other Christian organizations in the United States are working to care for orphans and helping with the process of adoption. Among these Christian orphan care ministries is Show Hope, founded by award-winning CCM artist Steven Curtis Chapman who has adopted three girls from China.
Show Hope, originally founded under the name of Shoahannah's Hope, seeks to reduce the financial barriers to adoption, among other objectives. It has helped over 2,000 orphans from 40 countries find homes since its founding in 2003. The non-profit organization was recognized this year at a banquet organized by Children’s Hunger Fund.
In America, half a million children are in foster care, and approximately 120,000 of these children are waiting to be adopted. There are more than 130 million orphans and fatherless children in the world who have lost one or both parents, according to UNICEF.

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION IN THE MOON

First Communion on the Moon
As we remember the first men on the moon, let's not forget the first supper on the moon -- the Lord's Supper, served and received by an elder in the Presbyterian Church, Apollo 11 astronaut Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin.
"This is the (lunar module) pilot," Aldrin said on July 20, 1969. "I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way." Aldrin's way was to serve himself communion, using a kit provided by the pastor of Houston's Webster Presbyterian Church.
Aldrin's brief and private Christian service never caused a flap, but it could have. Aldrin has said that he planned to broadcast the service, but NASA at the last minute asked him not to because of concerns about a lawsuit filed (later dismissed) by atheist Madelyn Murray O'Hare after Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas.
Did NASA do the right thing by making Aldrin keep his religious beliefs to himself?
As an elder in the Presbyterian church, Aldrin had the authority to conduct what is called an "extended serving" of the Lord's Supper. But Aldrin was representing the United States of America that day, and in many ways, all of his fellow earthlings. Should he have even conducted a private religious service?
"In the radio blackout," Aldrin wrote in Guideposts magazine in 1970, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.'
"I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."
One small sip for man, one giant leap of faith for mankind.
The small chalice Aldrin used for the wine went back to Webster Church. Each year on the Sunday closest to July 20, the congregation celebrates Lunar Communion. "Communion can be celebrated anywhere," senior pastor Mark Cooper said Sunday. "Even cramped up in a lunar module on the moon."
Aldrin wasn't the only person to bring his faith to the moon that day. The astronauts left behind a tiny silicon chip containing a message of peace from four U.S. presidents and 73 other world leaders. Seven of them made references to God -- the presidents of Brazil, Ireland, South Vietnam and Malagasy, the king of Belgium, Pope Paul VI -- and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who wrote:
"On this occasion when Mr. Neil Armstrong and Colonel Edwin Aldrin set foot for the first time on the surface of the Moon from the Earth, we pray the Almighty God to guide mankind towards ever increasing success in the establishment of peace and the progress of culture, knowledge and human civilisation."
UPDATE: I asked On Faith panelist Richard Mouw about provisions for self-serve communion. Mouw is president of Fuller Theological Seminary. He also is representing the Presbyterian Church-USA as co-chair of the official Reformed-Catholic Dialogue. Mouw's response:
"For our Reformed theology, communion is something that necessarily takes place in a congregational context, with two requirements. It is tied to--accompanied by-- the preaching of the Word and it requires at least one elder assisting the minister. Two exceptions: chaplains in military and other settings are given a blanket approval to conduct a communion rite without an elder. And a minister and elder may bring the elements to a sick or shut-in person--with the understanding that this is an extension of the congregational rite that has recently taken place. There is simply no provision for a solitary self-serving of communion. It is difficult to think of a theological rationale even as an unusual event."

Monday 20 July 2009

GOD TV TOPS THE 20 MILLION HOMES IN USA

More and more American families are switching on to GOD TV as they discover this unique mix of Christian programming in their channel line-up. In fact 20.7 million homes throughout the USA now have access to GOD TV via satellite and cable television with many more watching via the Internet.

Reaching this milestone follows increased satellite viewership on DIRECTV, where GOD TV first launched into the USA on October 1st, 2006. It also includes the network's recent launch on several cable outlets in various US cities. The largest of these is San Francisco where since July 2nd one million homes have been able to access GOD TV on Comcast Cable Communications channel 103. GOD TV has also just launched on Comcast in Fresno, California.

Since March this year GOD TV has been available on Cox Communications in Manchester, Connecticut; and Buckeye Cable in Toledo. Also, in April the network launched in three cities in Missouri, namely Springfield, Jefferson City and Columbia, where GOD TV can be seen on channel 89 of Mediacom Communications.

"The GOD TV family around the world celebrate with us in exceeding the 20 million homes threshold," said GOD TV co-founder and chief executive, Rory Alec. "This is an important milestone for us as we seek to make our programming more available to viewers from coast to coast and of course it also increases our global distribution as we seek to reach one billion viewers."

Founded in the UK in 1995 by Christian media pioneers, Rory & Wendy Alec, GOD TV's worldwide distribution has grown exponentially over the past 14 years and today almost half billion people have GOD TV in their home. GOD TV is also the only Christian broadcaster to transmit from Jerusalem, the birthplace of Christianity, where eight separate GOD TV feeds are beamed across the world from its global transmission center, including GOD TV USA.

GOD TV also reports a major increase of Internet viewers who are registering to watch online at www.god.tv/stream. Many of GOD TV's programs are also available for video on demand viewing at www.god.tv/god.

About GOD TV: GOD TV was founded in the UK in 1995 by Christian media pioneers Rory & Wendy Alec and in 13 short years has become a global phenomenon. Today the network beams a broad cross section of cutting-edge programs, including many life-changing LIVE broadcasts, into millions of homes worldwide. The only Christian broadcaster to transmit globally from Jerusalem, GOD TV's powerful signal is carried via multiple satellites providing free viewing to almost half a billion people 24-hours-a-day. In the USA, GOD TV can be viewed on DIRECTV channel 365 as well as on select cable channels. It can also be viewed online at www.god.tv/stream and via VOD at www.god.tv/god. The network has offices in Washington, DC and Orlando, Florida and Kansas City, Missouri. Other offices are situated in Europe, Africa and Asia. In addition to its vast media outreach, GOD TV also helps people in charitable ways by supporting feeding schemes, orphanages, water drilling projects and disaster relief funds.

GOD TV USA: Suite 1008, 375 Douglas Avenue, Altamonte Springs, Florida, 32714
Telephone: +1 407 862 5084, Fax +1 407 682 2407
Broadcast HQ: Jerusalem, Israel
International offices: Africa, Asia & Middle East, Europe, Scandinavia, UK & Ireland

CALL2ALL WORLWIDE MOVEMENT

Call2All is a worldwide movement calling the church to a renewed, focused collaborative effort to fulfill the Great Commission.
Jesus' heart that "all be saved" still reverberates through every syllable of the Great Commission, just as it did over 2000 years ago when he spoke them on that dusty Jerusalem day to his disciples: "...All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matthew 28 v 18-20Call2All is about all nations, all spheres of society and every unreached person everywhere in the world. It is a strategy-centered, action-oriented movement focusing on where the Church is NOT, rather than where it is. It's purpose is not to replace existing ministry but to network, train and focus the body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission.


Call2All is a worldwide movement calling the church to a renewed, focused collaborative effort to complete the Great Commission.
Call2All is about all nations, all spheres of society and every unreached person everywhere in the world. It is a strategy-centered, action-oriented movement focusing on where the Church is NOT, rather than where it is.

Its purpose is not to replace existing ministry but to network, train and focus the body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission.Call2All is about engaging Christian leaders in new and more comprehensive strategies.

Call2All is drawing together the Global Church in an unprecedented way to reach the least, the last and the lost.Call2All convenes Christian leaders in Strategy Congresses and provides new avenues for training to foster a global move of God.


Saturday 18 July 2009

LAOS - OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE BAN ON CHRISTIANITY IN A VILLAGE


Chief warns Christians to worship only local spirits or lose

Following the confiscation of livestock from Christian families earlier this month, officials in a village in Laos on Saturday (July 11) called a special meeting for all residents and announced that they had “banned the Christian faith in our village.”
The chief of Katin village, along with village security, social and religious affairs officials, warned all 53 Christian residents that they should revert to worshiping local spirits in accordance with Lao tradition or risk losing all village rights and privileges – including their livestock and homes, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).
The Katin village leader also declared that spirit worship was the only acceptable form of worship in the community, HRWLRF reported. Katin village is in Ta Oih district, Saravan Province.
The previous Sunday (July 5), officials and residents confiscated one pig each from nine Christian families and slaughtered the animals in an effort to force them to renounce their faith. Officials said the seizure of the pigs – each worth the equivalent of six weeks’ salary for an average laborer in the area – was punishment for ignoring the order to abandon Christianity. (See "Officials Seize, Slaughter Christians’ Livestock,” July 10.)
According to HRWLRF, the chief’s order clearly contravened Article 6 and Article 30 of the Lao Constitution, which guarantees the right of Christians and other religious minorities to practice the religion of their choice without discrimination or penalty.
In addition, HRWLRF stated that Katin officials had violated Article 53 of the 2003 Law on Local Administration, which requires them to abide by the constitution and other laws and to provide for the safety and well-being of all people living under their care.
Officials in Katin have a history of ignoring constitutional religious freedoms. On July 21, 2008, officials detained 80 Christians in the village after residents seized a Christian identified only as Pew and poured rice wine down his throat, killing him by asphyxiation.
When family members buried Pew and placed a wooden cross on his grave, officials accused them of “practicing the rituals of the enemy of the state” and seized a buffalo and pig from them as a fine.
On July 25, 2008, officials rounded up 17 of the 20 Christian families then living in the village – a total of 80 men, women and children – and detained them in a school compound, denying them food in an effort to force the adults to sign documents renouncing their faith. The other three Christian families in the village at that time had already signed the documents under duress.
As their children grew weaker, 10 families signed the documents and were permitted to return home. The remaining seven families were evicted from the village and settled in an open field nearby, surviving on whatever food sources they could find in the jungle.
Suffering from the loss of their property and livelihoods, however, the seven families eventually recanted their faith and moved back into the village. But over time, some of the Christians began gathering again for prayer and worship.
On Sept. 8, 2008, provincial and district authorities called a meeting in Katin village and asked local officials and residents to respect the religious laws of the nation.
Four days later, however, village officials seized a buffalo worth approximately US$350 from a Christian resident identified only as Bounchu, telling him the animal would be returned only if he renounced his faith. When he refused, they slaughtered the animal in the village square and distributed the meat to non-Christian residents.

VIETNAMESE CATHOLICS HEAVILY FINED UNDER REVIVED COMMUNIST TWO CHILD POLICY

THUA THIEN-HUE province, Viet Nam - The communist government of Viet Nam is punishing couples with more than two children, a local Catholic news agency reports. Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province told the Union of Catholic Asian News they are being fined for having more than two children under a revived government two-child policy.
Catherine Pham Thi Thanh, 44, told the service that since 1996, she has been fined a total of 3,800 kilograms of rice for having six children. This represents a significant loss for the family which makes an annual profit of only 700 kilograms of rice from their 1,000 square-meter farm.
Despite the fact that Viet Nam now has a below-replacement rate of fertility - 1.83 children born per woman - the communist government in the early 1960s imposed a 2-child limit for couples. The UN's leading population control group, the UNFPA, has been active in contraception and abortion campaigns in the country since 1997.
In 2000, the BBC lauded the policy for having reduced the overall fertility rate from 3.8 children per woman to 2.3, but admitted that a "degree of coercion" was used to ensure compliance. This included fines, expulsion from the communist party and confiscation of land. The original policy was scrapped in 2003 but revived in 2008 after a 10 percent spike in the birth rate alarmed officials who never stopped "encouraging" couples to have only small families.
But even the UNFPA was reportedly "puzzled" by the revival. "In Vietnam now life expectancy is rising, the fertility rate is decreasing and in the next 20 years many people will be in the senior group," said Tran Thi Van, of UNFPA. "If there's not a sufficient labor force as the population is ageing, the country will face a lot of problems."
Viet Nam is following China and India on the path of demographic imbalance. The combination of ultrasound tests to determine the sex of the child plus abortion to favor boys, has forced the male to female ratio of the population to climb to 112-100 in 2007.
The Union of Catholic Asian News spoke to the local parish priest, Fr Joseph Nguyen Van Chanh, who confirmed that 90 percent of his 1,200 parishioners have agreed to pay fines as a way to be faithful to Church teaching and said that Catholics are taught natural family planning methods during marriage preparation courses.
Some local Catholics, said Father Chanh, are asking for donations from benefactors to support local people with large families.
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HARRYPOTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE PRAISED BY THE VATICAN




The Vatican's official newspaper lauded Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for its "clear" depiction of the eternal battle between good and evil represented by the struggle between Harry and his nemesis, the evil sorcerer Lord Voldemort.
L'Osservatore Romano said the movie was the best adaptation yet of the JK Rowling books, describing it as "a mixture of supernatural suspense and romance which reaches the right balance".

"There is a clear line of demarcation between good and evil and [the film] makes clear that good is right. One understands as well that sometimes this requires hard work and sacrifice," the newspaper judged.
The broadsheet paper also praised the film's clear message that "the search for immortality epitomised by Lord Voldemort" was wrong. It even approved of the film's treatment of adolescent romance amid the halls and corridors of Hogwart's, saying that it achieved the "correct balance" and made the teenage stars more credible.
The favourable review is an apparent cahnge of heart from the Vatican's previous assessment of the best-selling series.
Last year an article in L'Osservatore Romano condemned the books for encouraging an interest in the occult among children.
The newspaper wrote: "Despite the values that we come across in the narration, at the base of this story, witchcraft is proposed as a positive ideal.
"The characterisation of common men who do not know magic as 'Muggles' who know nothing other than bad and wicked things is a truly diabolical attitude."
The newspaper called the teenage boy wizard "the wrong kind of hero", comparing the books unfavourably with two other British children's classics, the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
The Vatican's attitude to the books has taken a harder line under the papacy of Benedict XVI in comparison with that of his predecessor John Paul II.
Two years before he was elected Pope, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, as he then was, wrote a letter to a German critic of the books calling the series "a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly".
Earlier this year an ultraconservative Austrian priest, the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner, accused the Harry Potter novels of encouraging Satanism.