EVANGELICALS CALLS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

WASHINGTON — An American evangelical Christian group is urging Congress to approve reforms to immigration laws in a resolution approved Thursday.
The National Association of Evangelicals' resolution, passed unanimously by the group's board of directors, recommends that immigration laws provide a path for the undocumented to eventually gain legal status, place a high priority on reuniting families and reduce backlogs of petitions in those areas.
"This resolution will be an important step forward in evangelical advocacy on behalf of immigrants, many of whom are members of evangelical churches across the United States," said Galen Carey, the association's government affairs director.
The association's president, Leith Anderson, said the process for legal immigration to the U.S. is antiquated, bureaucratic and needs to change.
Anderson told members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship on Thursday that Congress needs to provide those living illegally in the U.S. the means to rectify their situation.
The Washington-based National Association of Evangelicals has a 75-member board that represents 40 denominations and scores of Christian organizations. However, it does not include some of the best-known conservative Christian bodies, including the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family.
The group has taken stands in recent years that have run counter to Christian right views.
It endorsed an anti-torture statement in 2007 that renounced torture and "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees." Other evangelical leaders have either resisted that view or remained silent on the issue.
The group has also argued that evangelicals have a biblical responsibility to the environment that includes combatting global warming. More tradition-minded evangelical activists believe an environmental focus distracts attention from abortion and gay marriage, or they don't believe in global warming or that human activity causes it.

STUDY: MUSLIMS MAKE UP 25 PERCENT OF THE WORLD, NEARLY 1 IN 4 PEOPLE IS MUSLIM

The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
The arduous task of determining the Muslim populations in 232 countries and territories involved analyzing census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, the report says. In cases where the data was a few years old, researchers projected 2009 numbers.
The report also sought to pinpoint the world's Sunni-Shiite breakdown, but difficulties arose because so few countries track sectarian affiliation, said Brian Grim, the project's senior researcher.
As a result, the Shiite numbers are not as precise; the report estimates that Shiites represent between 10 and 13 percent of the Muslim population, in line with or slightly lower than other studies. As much as 80 percent of the world's Shiite population lives in four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia: More than 60 percent of the world's Muslims live in Asia.
About 20 percent live in the Middle East and North Africa, 15 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2.4 percent are in Europe and 0.3 percent are in the Americas. While the Middle East and North Africa have fewer Muslims overall than Asia, the region easily claims the most Muslim-majority countries.
While those population trends are well established, the large numbers of Muslims who live as minorities in countries aren't as scrutinized. The report identified about 317 million Muslims - or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population - living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.
About three-quarters of Muslims living as minorities are concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
In several of these countries - from India to Nigeria and China to France - divisions featuring a volatile mix of religion, class and politics have contributed to tension and bloodshed among groups.
The immense size of majority-Hindu India is underscored by the fact that it boasts the third-largest Muslim population of any nation - yet Muslims account for just 13 percent of India's population.
"Most people think of the Muslim world being Muslims living mostly in Muslim-majority countries," Grim said. "But with India ... that sort of turns that on its head a bit."

21st CENTURY MESSIAH - A FINDOUT BY MICHAEL BELK A FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

What if Jesus Christ showed up in the 21st century? What would he look like? What would he do?
Michael Belk, a Florida fashion photographer turned biblical chronicler, decided to find out. He chose some of the more intriguing events in Jesus' life, hired 100 Italians to model the parts, then brought them all to Sassi di Matera, the ancient Italian village best known as the shooting location for Mel Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."
The result is the 108-page photo book "Journeys with the Messiah."
Central to the casting was Sergio Muniz, the Italian actor who plays Jesus. He is shown in several provocative photos: going the "second mile" down a country road with a Nazi soldier, standing next to a circle of poker players, cradling the head of a devastated stockbroker in his lap, and preaching simplicity to a well-dressed Italian family in a Ferrari sports car.
Ancient and modern are juxtaposed. In one photo, a laughing Jesus in first-century robe and sandals sits at a street cafe, a cup of espresso on the table in front of him while a well-dressed man in an expensive suit sneaks away with several loaves of bread. The point of the photo comes from the Matthew 6:11 passage about trusting God for one's daily bread instead of hoarding it.
Another shows Jesus seated at a table graced with fine china and crystalware. Seated next to people in first-century garb, he appears to be telling a joke or story. Several observers in ball gowns and tuxedos listen in.
The idea of the book, along with an affiliated Web site (www.thejourneysproject.com) and DVD, is to bring home the relevance of a 2,000-year-old message.
"Image is everything," Mr. Belk says. "I want to make people stop and say, 'What is going on here?' "

AFRICA BISHOPS TALKS OF OBAMA IN RELIGIOUS TERMS

VATICAN CITY- African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms—putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts.
Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election.
"It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.
"We believe God has his own plans. God directs history," he said of the U.S. election. "We pray that it (Obama's presidency) brings blessings for Africa and the whole world."
He acknowledged that Obama has earned the wrath of many conservative American bishops because of his support for abortion rights. Earlier this year, dozens of U.S. bishops denounced the leading U.S. Catholic university, Notre Dame, for giving Obama an honorary degree.
"We are definitely aware of it," Palmer-Buckle said. "But we feel it our duty to meet him and find out what are the things that unite us more than divide us."
Earlier this week, the Ghanian prelate leading the three-week meeting on the Church in Africa, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, cited Obama's election in saying he didn't see any reason why there couldn't now be a black pope.
And the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, told the formal synod itself that it would be wise to not ignore what he called a "primordial event" in recent times.
"If the election of a black as head of the United States of America was a divine sign and a sign from the Holy Spirit for the reconciliation of races and ethnic groups for peaceful relations ... this synod and the universal church would gain from not ignoring this primordial event of contemporary history which is far from being a banal game of political alliances," he said in his speech.
Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria gave more tangible reasons for praise in meeting with reporters.
"Obama has the authority to talk straight to our bad leaders and tell them they are messing up our countries," he said. Besides, he added, "In Africa we are always happy when our brother is big."