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by mcarl | August 8, 2009 | In Uncategorized | Comments Off
The Church in Africa
By Rev. Michael Carl
Africa, the “dark continent” to which American Christians shipped missionary after missionary during the 20th Century, now features 40 percent of the Nigerian population among the rolls of Christians, according to the CIA Factbook.
Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk’s Operation World reports Uganda is 88 percent Christian and Kenya is about 78 percent Christian.
Missions analysts at the Free Methodist Church of North America say their African churches are the fastest growing in their denomination and the largest Anglican province in the world is in Nigeria.
But Jonathan Bonk, director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Conn., says the key is how Christian is defined.
“Self-definition as Christian has a long history, and conversion does not always result in ‘fruit in keeping with repentance.’ As extraordinarily dynamic as churches in Africa appear to be, the acid test is still the outcome of it all,” he said.
He said there are some serious questions that should be asked.
“What relational, social, ethical difference does it make, in a continent filled with the savagery of wars, rape, corruption, despotic leaders (many of whom call themselves ‘Christian’)? Is there any evidence that Christian conversion is making a difference? Such questions need to be asked, in view of what Jesus himself describes in his judgment day scenario when he separates the sheep from the goats,” he said.
Andrew Strom is an evangelist and author who leads the Revival School Ministry. Strom has extensive experience working in Africa and he says the problems in the churches depend on which country.
“There are different problems in different countries. I was in Uganda a couple of months ago and the AIDS epidemic has seriously impacted the population there. There’s many AIDS orphans, so you have a huge problem with promiscuity there,” Strom said.
“There are reasons why Africa has always been the ‘dark continent’ spiritually and there’s ingrained patterns of sin that go back probably thousands of years and generation upon generation of repeating these patterns. Christianity should be breaking up those patterns, but the church is not strong enough,” Strom said.
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121454
Recent Survey Shows Mississippians are the most ‘religious’
By Aaron Leichman
Mississippi is home to the most “religious” population, according to an analysis of polling data from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Not only does the Magnolia state have the largest percent of people who say religion is very important in their lives (82 percent), it also has the highest percentage of people who say they attend religious services at least once a week (60 percent), who say they pray at least once a day (77 percent), and who say they believe in God with absolutely certainty (91 percent), the Pew Forum reported Monday.
The people of the state’s closest competitors, meanwhile, are a little more scattered when it comes to the importance of religion in their lives, their frequency of attendance at worship services, their frequency of prayer and their absolute certainty of belief in God – four measures that Pew ranked each state on based on polling data.
Utah, for example, was found to have the second highest percentage of people who say they attend religious services at least once a week (57 percent). But when it came to frequency of prayer and belief in God, the Beehive state was ranked tenth in both.
“Mississippi stands out on all four,” commented the Pew Forum.
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Report Exposes Forced Conversions of Egyptian Christian Women
By Jennifer Riley
A new pioneer report, released Tuesday, sheds light on the often deliberately ignored problem of Christian women in Egypt being abducted, forced into Muslim marriages and coerced into converting to Islam.
Released by Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights, “The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages of Coptic Christian Women in Egypt” report documents dozens of real cases of Christian women who were lured and then violently forced into marriage, often after being raped.
Report research was done in Egypt by American anti-trafficking specialist Michele Clark and Egyptian women’s rights activist Nadia Ghaly. Based on research findings, the report contends that the violence against Egypt’s Christian women corresponds to the internationally recognized definitions of human trafficking.
“The findings of Ms. Ghaly and Ms. Clark are deeply disturbing, and should challenge human rights activists and institutions, especially those whose mandate includes women’s rights and trafficking in persons, to undertake, as a matter of urgency, further research into this form of gender and religious based violence against Coptic women and girls in Egypt,” said CSI CEO Dr. John Eibner, in the preface of the report.
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World Missions Summit Aims to Develop Master Plan
By Jennifer Riley
Top mission leaders attending an invitation-only conference in Tennessee on Tuesday began exchanging ideas and discussing how to complete the Great Commission.
The Finish Line summit is being hosted by the Billion Soul Network in partnership with the Church of God World Headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn., and the Island Wave Missions in Fiji. It aims to get key mission leaders to decide which unreached people groups they should focus efforts on first, and then how they will most effectively reach these groups.
“In the world, there are thousands of unreached people groups,” said James O. Davis, co-founder of Billion Soul Network, to The Christian Post. “When you look at that it almost seems overwhelming.”
There are a total of 6,639 unreached people groups remaining in the world, according to the Joshua Project.
But the unfinished task becomes less overwhelming when mission leaders pool ideas and resources together to reach several groups at one time, Davis said.
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Iranian Judge Rules Christian Converts are Apostate
By International Christian Concern
| Washington, D.C: October 9, 2009. International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on October 7 an Iranian judge charged Maryam and Marzieh with ‘crimes’ of apostasy and propagation of the Christian faith. They could face life imprisonment if convicted. |
| They could face life imprisonment if convicted of apostasy.
Elam ministries told ICC that Maryam and Marzieh were unexpectedly taken to appear before the court yesterday morning. In a positive development, their case has now been transferred from the revolutionary court to the regular courts after the judge dropped the earlier charge of anti-state activities. Maryam, Marzieh and their lawyer are pleased with this development. Maryam and Marzieh were detained on March 5, 2009. The Iranian officials accused them of ‘anti-state activities’ following their conversion from Islam to Christianity. During their appearance before the revolutionary court on August 9, they told the court that they would not recant their faith in Christ. For the report on their court appearance, see: http://www.persecution.org/suffering/pressdetail.php?presscode=325 For more, click here… http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/viewnews.php?newsid=1511 |
Christians falsely accused in Indian clan murder
By Compass Direct
NEW DELHI, August 31 (Compass Direct News) – Hindus opposed to a pastor in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India have falsely charged him and three other Christians in the murder of a young man killed in a gang fight between two clans, according to area Christians.
Pastor Kamlesh Tahed, 32, of Mehendi Kheda village, Jhabua district, told Compass he was not even in the village on Aug. 8, the day 22-year-old Roop Singh Baria was killed. Pastor Tahed, who spent 20 days in jail on false charges of “forcible conversion” in 2001 before a court declared him innocent, is in hiding.
“I was away in another village to pray for a sick person the day the murder took place,” Pastor Tahed told Compass.
Three other Christians from his clan – Kasna Tahed, 25, Ramesh Tahed, 26, and Vasna Tahed, 36 – are in police custody, also charged in the murder of Baria, of nearby Negadia village, even though they were not present at the site of the melee either, Pastor Tahed said.
“We four had nothing to do with the fight and murder,” Pastor Tahed told Compass. “The report that was filed in the police station had not only the names of the 13 suspects involved in the fight, but also the four Christians who were not even present at the site of the fight.”
He added that 10 of the 13 Hindus charged are in custody, and three are on “the run.”
All 17 men are booked under all the same charges – murder, rioting, rioting with a deadly weapon and unlawful assembly – with the courts to determine which charges actually apply to which suspects.
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When the ordinary becomes extraordinary
By Jeremy Reynalds
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ANS) – Having a relationship with the Lord turns ordinary days into extraordinary ones.
That’s what Joy Junction Homeless Shelter Resident Services Supervisor Joseph Taylor found, when a few days ago he was sitting on his back porch spending some precious quiet time with the Lord.
Joseph said the Lord gave him the words, “A Call to Prayer,” and a vision of a cross full of people in need.
Scheduled to teach the Wednesday evening service at Joy Junction that day, Joseph immediately realized that the Lord wanted to do something very special. With that in mind, he began to further pray and meditate on what the Lord had given him. A few minutes later he saw a cross filled with ribbons and bookmarks containing the names of loved ones around the world in need of prayer.
Joseph was very excited as he saw the evening service begin to take a form he hadn’t ever envisioned.
A little while later, Joseph called Joy Junction Senior Resident Services Supervisor Lisa Woodward and asked her to have the 10 foot cross we have stationed outside the doors of our main building brought inside to the area where we held services. The reason being, Joseph explained, was because the Lord wanted to give a special gift to those who would be attending the upcoming evening service.
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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09080098.htm
Evangelical preachers challenged to be bold in preaching
By Lillian Kwon
In a climate where dogmatism is the new heresy, many evangelicals have backed away from bold preaching while “freely imbibing” the spirit of the postmodern age, says one well-known minister.
“It seems that zeal for the essential doctrines of biblical Christianity has become virtually as unacceptable among evangelicals and post-evangelicals as it always has been in the world at large,” John MacArthur writes in his newly released book, The Jesus You Can’t Ignore.
The evangelical movement used to be known for two nonnegotiable theological convictions – one of them being the absolute accuracy and authority of Scripture, and the other being Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.
But today, evangelicalism has become an “amorphous monstrosity” where practically every idea is brought to the evangelical table for discussion, MacArthur says.
“As a result, today’s evangelicals seem unable to put their finger on anything that makes them truly distinctive,” he laments.
Before writing his book, MacArthur – pastor of the nondenominational megachurch Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif. – read through literature representing “postevangelical” points of view. What he found was a common theme in all the books that suggested Christians need to be less militant, less aggressive, less preachy and less sure of their own convictions in order to reach unbelieving people in a postmodern culture.
But that’s not the way Jesus proclaimed the Gospel message, MacArthur points out.
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North Korean government planned trap to capture US journalists
By Michael Sheridan, Times of London
CHRISTIAN activists who work on the North Korean border believe two American television reporters may have blundered into a trap when they were detained in March and say their arrests led to a crack-down on refugees.
The pair, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, were freed last week after Bill Clinton, the former president, flew to Pyongyang to secure a pardon from Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator.
There is still confusion about the exact events on March 17, when soldiers stopped the two women on the frozen Tumen River, which divides North Korea and China.
The reporters, who were sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour, were on assignment for Current TV, a venture set up by Al Gore, Clinton’s former vice-president, which aims to spe-cialise in “cutting edge” news.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6788608.ece
Pakistani Christians protest Gojra killings
By UCAN
GOJRA, Pakistan (UCAN) – More than 500 people packed the Sacred Heart Church in Gojra recently to remember those who died in anti-Christian rioting.
A nun looks at photos of Gojra martyrs. UCAN photo.
Banners with phrases such as “We salute the dignity of Christian martyrs” and “Martyrs’ blood is the seed of the Church,” fluttered in the Catholic Church compound during the Aug. 6 memorial Mass.
Photos of the Christians who died in the Aug 1. violence were also placed in front of the altar.
The Mass, celebrated by parish priest Father Shafique Hadayat, saw Church of Pakistan Bishop John Samuel of Faisalabad, sharing his thoughts on the tragedy with the congregation.
He noted that “we live in a world with conflicting beliefs.”
“While we believe those killed for their faith go to heaven, there are those who kill others for the promise of heaven. Only the Word of God can bring comfort to our heavy hearts,” he said.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minster for Minorities, also attended the Mass.
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http://www.ucanews.com/2009/08/10/christians-remember-victims-of-gojra-violence/
Texas schools to have Bible requirement this fall
By Kate Alexander
The Wichita Falls school district last fall jumped at the opportunity to offer its students a new high school elective course on the Bible after the Legislature created the course in 2007.
That is, until the school leaders learned they would be jumping without a net.
Educators from around Texas were at the St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church in Austin this week to receive training on how to teach the Bible as literature and Western Civilisation. Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman photo.
Legislators had built safeguards into the law that were meant to ensure the class on the Bible’s impact on history and literature of Western civilization would be taught in an “objective, academic manner that neither promotes nor disparages religion,” and not “from a particular sectarian point of view,” according to the law.
Those protections included mandated teacher training, state-approved training materials and curriculum standards deemed constitutional by the state attorney general.
The Texas Education Agency told school districts that it would not provide the training and materials because the Legislature did not budget the $750,000 to do so.
And the curriculum standards approved by the State Board of Education, though constitutional, were vague and provided districts little direction for crafting a course on such a legally and culturally touchy topic.
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http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/2009/08/08/0808bible.html
The Most Religious College Students are…
By Joshua Goldberg
The Catholic students of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., are the “most religious” among students from the nation’s top schools, according to The Princeton Review’s latest college ratings.
The students of Bennington College in Bennington, Vt., meanwhile, are the least, revealed the recently published findings.
Based on a survey of 122,000 students at 371 of the “best” colleges in the country, the new lists report the top 20 colleges in 62 categories ranging from those related to academics and demographics to those related to politics and the quality of life. Among the most notable are “Most Conservative Students,” “Most Liberal Students,” “Gay Community Most Accepted,” “Top Stone-Cold Sober Schools,” and “Happiest Students,” among others.
“Each of our 371 ‘best’ colleges offers great academics,” says Robert Franek, vice president and publisher of The Princeton Review. “However, we don’t rank schools academically because our goal is to help students find and get into the best school for them. Instead, we tally 62 ranking lists based how students at these schools rated their campus experiences, plus ratings based on institutional data we collect on issues important to applicants. It’s all about the fit.”
This year, the data collected boosted Thomas Aquinas above last year’s “Most Religious” leader, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, which dropped to No. 2 this year. Following the Catholic school and the Mormon school was Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., the alma mater of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, which also came in No. 3 last year.
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Nigerian Christians bothered by lack of Christian concern for their plight
By Christian Today
Christians in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri are expressing increasing dismay at what they perceive as a lack of international concern for the suffering of their communities, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
During last week’s violence, Islamist Boko Haram militants attacked both Government and Christian targets, killing individuals and taking many civilians captive for possible use as human shields against government forces besieging their compound in Maiduguri’s Railway District.
Once in the camp, male captives were given a choice between conversion to Islam or death, while women and girls were kept on as hostages. Survivors of the siege informed CSW sources that the Boko Haram leader, Yusuf Mohammed, personally oversaw the forcible Islamisation of hostages, and the execution of anyone who refused to convert.
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What NOT to study to keep the faith
By Audrey Barrick
Results from a recent study on the impact of a college student’s major on their religiosity have led researchers to conclude that postmodernism, rather than science, is the greatest antagonist of religiosity.
Researchers at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor drew the conclusion after finding that majoring in Humanities or Social Sciences has a significant negative effect on religious attendance and self-assessed importance of religion in one’s life.
“Because we consider both the Humanities and many of the Social Sciences particularly strongly imbued with Postmodernism, we take this as evidence for a negative effect of Postmodernism on religiosity,” they state in their report, which was released last month.
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http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090803/study-humanities-major/index.html
