IRAQI CHRISTIANS FORCED TO PAY "PROTECTION TAX" TO MUSLIMS

[Mission Network News (MNN) April 19, 2007] WorldNetDaily reported that Iraqi Christians are being forced to pay a "protection tax" since Muslims started enforcing an Islam law that says payment is required "in exchange for being allowed to live and practice their faith as well as being entitled to 'Muslim protection' from outside aggression," the Assyrian International News Agency reported. [Picture shows Father Adda, Assyrian Orthodox Christian] The newest report says that Christians in Dora, who are also called Chaldeans and Syrians, must pay the jizya, or poll tax, commanded by the Quran. Christians there have reported their churches bombed and men and women killed for their faith. This area is receiving no government or U.S. help despite past requests. An e-mail found by the agency from an unidentified source from the area said, "We talked to many people within the American Embassy and Iraqi Government, but it seems nobody really cares, because they have done nothing. Sometimes I wonder if they care at all." Another report from a Syriac now living in Syria said, "Today a family [name withheld] arrived from Dora/Mualimeen street, and they said some terrorists knocked on their door. When they opened the door, they were told to either pay money [jizya], support the insurgents, or convert to Islam, or leave the house within 24 hours or else be killed." Though just 5% of the population in this area is Christian, 40% of those who are leaving Iraq are Christians. Among other things in the recent months, a pastor and 14-year-old boy were decapitated. Another 14-year-old boy was crucified and stabbed in the side to mimic Jesus' death. A car was bombed killing nine people, and churches were bombed in Baghdad and Basra. WND said "at least" two cases had been reported to the government in which Christian Assyrian wives had been ordered to go to a certain mosque and make payments, which "they did out of fear." Nina Shea, who rallied in front of the White House a few months ago, said that Iraqi Christians want an autonomous district because of the "ethnic cleansing." Shea "has been raising the plight of the Iraqi Christians with the U.S. government for several years, including in a face-to-face meeting with President Bush in her role as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom," reported WND.

UP-TO-THE-MINUTE RELIGIOUS NEWS ITEMS

JWs WILL BE CHARGED WITH NOT REPORTING CHILD ABUSE

[Church Law Today, April 21, 2007] Two sisters are suing the national organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses over a policy they claim shields child molesters. The suit, filed in New Hampshire, also sparks concerns that other religious groups might face similar legal action. The women have charged three entities—their stepfather, their former Jehovah's Witness congregation in Wilton, New Hampshire, and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (wbts), the group's international headquarters in Brooklyn, New York—with failing to report sexual-abuse incidents to proper authorities. New Hampshire requires that all cases of suspected child abuse be reported to law enforcement. In a settled criminal case, Heather Berry, now 19, and her stepsister Holly Berry, now 22, accused their father, Paul Berry, of continual sexual and physical abuse during their childhood. The suit says that when the girls' mother, Sarah Poisson, reported the situation to three elders, they told her to "pray more about the situation" and "be a better wife." Paul Berry was convicted last year of 17 counts of aggravated sexual assault against Holly, between the years she was 4 and 10. Berry received a sentence of 56 to 112 years in prison. Charges related to any abuse against Heather from age 3 to age 6 were dropped. In the pending civil suit, filed in August, the Berry sisters now seek unspecified financial compensation and changes in wbts operating procedures. The suit, says Poisson, concerns a Jehovah's Witness policy that instructs members to keep suspicions of abuse within the church. In recent years, several former Witnesses have brought criminal suits against elders or members for failing to act on abuse charges. "This case is about the shared responsibility of the Watchtower organization," says Jeff Anderson, the attorney representing the Berry sisters. "They gave refuge to [Berry] and molesters like him. They are not free to disregard the law." Anderson has served as legal counsel in 500 suits against religious organizations or clergy in cases of child molestation. In September, he was part of a four-person team of attorneys who won a $3 million out-of-court settlement from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a similar case in Oregon. Some observers, though lauding the intent to catch child molesters, believe that success for the Berry sisters could bring trouble to other religious congregations. "There will be copycat cases all over the country," says Richard Hammer, editor of Church Law and Tax Report. Hammer also says a favorable ruling would impair the confidential nature of pastoral counseling sessions. Although nearly 40 states require clergy and other professionals to report suspicions of physical or sexual abuse to local authorities, 33 states excuse church leaders from reporting abuse when they receive information in privileged conversations. "It sets up a classic conflict," says Colorado Springs attorney Martin Nussbaum. "These laws create a crisis of conscience where the pastor has to decide, 'Who am I going to obey, Caesar or God?' "The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment says there are some things a government can't touch inside a church—like the church-minister relationship," says Nussbaum. "We can't have our courts telling us how to counsel other individuals. The majority rule in these cases is that church autonomy is respected." Plaintiff Heather Berry of Charlestown, New Hampshire, says she hopes the silence will end.

NON COMFORMIST CHRISTIANS JAILED IN ERITREA, AFRICA

[Compass Direct News, January 27, 2007] Police and military authorities in the East African nation of Eritrea jailed 68 more Christians in three official round-up operations conducted the first week of January. The new arrests of both Protestant evangelicals and Orthodox renewal movement church members marked the Eritrean government’s widening crackdown against Christians whose faith and freedom to worship have been outlawed for nearly five years. In an unprecedented arrest, on January 5 police officials in the northern town of Keren took into custody eight staff members working in government ministries. The jailed Christians are all members of Medhane Alem, a renewal movement within the Coptic Orthodox Church. Police interrogations reportedly have focused on attempts to force the eight detainees, five men and three women, to identify local leaders of their movement and to name everyone known to be supporting them. Three Medhane Alem priests have been jailed for nearly two years, and 10 months ago 65 of the group’s lay leaders were excommunicated from the church by government order. The Keren police station commander told families of the eight imprisoned government staff members that the arrest order had come from higher authorities. “This is a new strategy of the government,” one local Christian commented, echoing the belief of other area believers. It was the first known arrest of government ministry staff solely for their religious beliefs. The same day, security police in the southern port city of Assab arrested 25 Christians from their homes, workplaces and schools. All 25 prisoners were incarcerated at the Wi’a Military Camp and subjected to harsh pressures to recant their religious beliefs. Seven of the 25 Christian prisoners are women. Remarks from security authorities in Assab have indicated that the roundup of local Protestants was expected to continue. Military Burns Conscripts’ Bibles In another incident confirmed on January 4, military commanders at the national Sawa Military Center conducted what they termed a “random check-up on the activities of Christian extremists” among student conscripts. While searching the conscripts’ personal effects, military personnel found 250 Bibles that the Christian students were using in their personal devotional time. After burning all the Bibles before the entire military camp, the commanders arrested 35 of the teenage students and ordered them subjected to severe military punishment, including physical torture. In May 2002, Eritrea closed down all independent religious groups not operating under the umbrella of the government-sanctioned Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran or Muslim faiths. Anyone caught worshipping outside the four recognized religious institutions, even in private homes, has been subjected to arrest, torture and severe pressure to deny their faith. Independent Protestant churches have been refused legal registration, and subsequently the Orthodox Church and its flourishing renewal movement also fell out of favour. Last month the government of Eritrea wrested financial and personnel control away from the Eritrean Orthodox Church, under de facto government control since Patriarch Abune Antonios was placed under house arrest and then divested of his ecclesiastical authority 18 months ago. More than 2,000 Christians, including pastors and priests from both Protestant and Orthodox churches, are now under arrest in police stations, military camps and jails all across Eritrea because of their religious beliefs. Although many have been incarcerated for months or even years, none have been charged officially or given access to judicial process. In its 2006 religious freedom report, the U.S. State Department for the third year in a row named Eritrea a “Country of Particular Concern,” designating it one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world. ERITREA, AFRICA

Scientists and Evangelical Christians agree to work together to fight Global Warming

[Associated Press, Monday, January 15] BOSTON - Some leading scientists and evangelical Christian leaders have agreed to put aside their fierce differences over the origin of life and work together to fight global warming. Representatives met recently in Georgia and agreed on the need for urgent action. Details on the talks will be disclosed in Washington on Wednesday. "Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today," said Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 churches. Eric Chivian, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, agreed, saying: "Scientists and evangelicals have discovered that we share a deeply felt common concern and sense of urgency about threats to life on Earth and that we must speak with one voice to protect it." Chivian and Cizik, both of whom participated in the talks, declined further comment. In February 2006, 86 evangelical leaders signed a statement to fight global warming, saying that human-induced climate change is real, that its consequences will hit the poor the hardest, and that Christian moral convictions demand an urgent response. They argued that governments, businesses, churches and individuals all have a role to play. Signatories included presidents of evangelical colleges, aid groups, churches and pastors of megachurches. The powerful National Association of Evangelicals, however, did not join the initiative. It is unclear whether Cizik's involvement in the new campaign will lead the organization to adopt the environment as a central part of its agenda. Evangelicals and scientists previously failed to launch a large-scale joint initiative, partly because of differences between evolutionary science and a literal interpretation of the Bible — a rift that dates back to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Those who met in Georgia, however, are expected to argue that the threat to life on Earth is too great to let the rift prevent them from working together to combat greenhouse emissions. Speakers at the Wednesday announcement will include megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, who refused to take the leadership of Christian Coalition of America because the organization wouldn't let him expand its agenda to include the environment and poverty. Others are Harvard biologist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson and NASA scientist James E. Hansen, who came under fire from the White House after a 2005 lecture in which he called for urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming. "The evangelicals have a lot of clout on the conservative side of the political spectrum, and their voice would be a very welcome one," said Jim Presswood of the Natural Resources Defense Council

CHRISTIANS RAPED, OSTRACISED IN INDIAN VILLAGES

[crosswalk.com, December 19, 2006] NEW DELHI– The rape of a pastor’s wife in Elha village, Bihar state on November 29 was one sign of the increased persecution striking rural Christians in India. Kamlesh Singh Yadav, a resident of Elha who was apparently encouraged by Hindu extremists to disrupt Christian activity in the village, raped 28-year-old Neelam Paswan in a field near her home. In a similar incident, residents of Nadia village in Madhya Pradesh state on May 28 gang-raped two Christian women after the husband of one of the victims, Gokharya Barela, refused to deny Christ. Pandya Patel, the head of 12 villages including Nadia, then asked Christians to renounce their faith or leave the village. Patel warned other villagers that if anyone spoke to the police about himself or about the rapists, they would be expelled from the village – regardless of their religious background. In Ranchi district of Jharkhand state, two Christian families were severely beaten and expelled from their village for refusing to give up their faith. The Hindu residents of Dublia village in Kanke Block drove out the families of Raju Toppo and Santosh Karmali in June after repeatedly assaulting them. These families are now living in rented accommodations in the suburbs of Ranchi city. Rural Vulnerability Persecution affects both rural and urban populations, but Christians living in villages suffer more due to the practice of sharing common facilities and the presence of hierarchical religious and caste communities within the isolated settlements. Most of India’s Christians live in rural areas. According to India’s 2001 Census, Christians make up 2.3 percent of the 1 billion-plus population, or 24 million people. Of these, almost 16 million live in rural areas. Most of the rural Christians are Dalits (the lowest level of the Hindu caste system, formerly known as “untouchables”), or from tribal backgrounds. In addition to violent attacks launched and incited by Hindu extremists, rural Christians face denial of the use of common facilities like ponds, wells, grazing ground for cattle, schools and cremation grounds. At times they are also treated as social outcasts because of their faith in Christ. Villagers sometimes rape Christian women as a means of intimidation, but because of the shame associated with rape, few of these incidents are reported. Villages in India are governed by village headmen, or mukhiyas, who preside over village courts known as panchayats. The panchayats are locally elected bodies supported by the Indian government and generally consist of “high caste” men. As an unwritten code of conduct, villagers are expected to approach panchayats rather than the police or a court of law to resolve disputes or report criminal acts. When Christians approach such a body, they do not get justice due to their relatively lower economic and social status. In fact, panchayats often pressure families that convert to forsake Christianity. If they refuse to do so, Hindu villagers ostracize and sometimes forcibly expel them from the village. Most Indian villages choose collective deities from the pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses and see these deities as their protectors. They fear disaster if the village fails to worship them adequately. When a Christian family abstains from these rituals, fellow villagers grow hostile, fearing the anger of the gods may fall on the village as a whole. Villagers also gather together for Hindu festivals such as Holi (during which people play water games and consume home-brewed alcohol) and Diwali (celebrated with lights and firecrackers and worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of money). The village as a whole is offended when Christians do not participate in these festivals. Social alienation also affects the economic condition of Christian families. Rural villages have limited resources and are often self-sufficient. Villagers depend on each other for assistance in raising and harvesting crops or taking care of livestock; without this help, families struggle to survive financially. Economic Exposure Rural Christians are often landless and poorly educated, depending on unskilled labor – frequently working the land of high caste Hindus – to survive, according to Dr. John Dayal, general secretary of the All India Christian Council (AICC). A Dalit or tribal male doing unskilled manual labor or seasonal agricultural work often earns less than a dollar per day. Jobs in the service sector are hard to come by. Dayal feels that government intervention is required to address the social isolation and economic condition of rural Christians. “The organized and independent churches are not geared to accept this challenge, and this is an issue that the state has to address in consultation with experts and activists,” he said. The government recently announced plans to improve the social and economic standing of the Muslim minority in India, following a Rajinder Sachar Commission report on the issue presented to Parliament on November 30. In response to this announcement, Dayal issued a press statement on Monday (December 11) urging the government to carry out similar projects to assist the minority Christian community. “This development process must not be confined only to politically powerful minorities, but must also focus on the Christian community, which is as poor and underdeveloped as Muslims, but has no electoral clout,” Dayal stated. In the meantime, Christian organizations such as the AICC and Global Council of Indian Christians provide legal aid to victims of persecution wherever possible, and educate them regarding their legal rights. “Due to a lack of legal awareness among rural Christians, most incidents of persecution are not reported to the police at all,” said Tehmina Arora, general secretary of the Christian Legal Association of India (CLAI). Even if these Christians do approach local police stations, police often refuse to register their complaints. Most victims are not aware of legal provisions allowing them to report incidents directly to a court of law if the police refuse to assist them. CLAI conducts occasional legal awareness workshops for rural Christians and hopes to increase the number of workshops held in the coming year.

INDIA'S PM MOVES TO COMBAT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LOWER CASTES

[BBC News, December 27, 2006] Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says his government must do more to combat discrimination against lower castes and minorities. He told an international conference in Delhi the steps were necessary for the disadvantaged to benefit from the country's economic growth. A move by the government to extend affirmative action policies has sharply divided the country. Many argue that it could hurt India's rapid economic rise. Nearly 60 years after India's independence, the Prime Minister said that those at the lowest rung of Indian society continued to face widespread discrimination. That was why his government was committed to removing inequities so that everyone could enjoy the fruit of India's economic growth, he said. Mr Singh was speaking at an international conference of minorities and Dalits - formerly known as untouchables who are at the bottom of India's complex caste system. The government has recently pushed a bill through parliament in which places at some of the country's best-known professional colleges are set aside for students from lower caste and disadvantaged communities. And it is considering asking the private sector to institute some kind of affirmative action and also extend the benefit to the country's Muslim minority. A recent study suggested that India's Muslims were economically and socially worse off than Dalits. But the move is being opposed by many who feel that it will lower standards and endanger India's economic growth.

FEMALE BISHOP APPOINTED HEAD OF EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH

[Baptist Press, June 23, 2006] Controversy has escalated in the Episcopal Church after the denomination that three years ago ordained an openly homosexual bishop chose a woman as its national leader -- a move that observers predict could signal a major global split within the larger Anglican Communion. Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, is the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church after a vote by delegates to the Episcopal General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, June 18. Schori said she voted to confirm Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003, and she has said she does not believe homosexuality is a sin. “Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender,” Schori told CNN. Schori, 52, is married and has a daughter. Raised a Roman Catholic, the new presiding bishop is also a marine biologist with a doctorate specializing in squids and oysters, Reuters news service reported. She has been ordained for a decade. The Bible was written in a very different historical context by people asking different questions, Schori said in response to a question about how she reconciles her position on homosexuality with God’s Word. “The Bible has a great deal to teach us about how to live as human beings,” she said, according to Reuters. “The Bible does not have so much to teach us about what sorts of food to eat, what sorts of clothes to wear -- there are rules in the Bible about those that we don’t observe today. The Bible tells us about how to treat other human beings, and that’s certainly the great message of Jesus -- to include the unincluded.” Some Anglicans now are predicting a split. The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. “I think this fully shows a noncompliance of spirit with the rest of the communion,” Andrew Carey, son of a former archbishop of Canterbury and a commentator on Anglican affairs, told the Associated Press. He added that Schori was “the most liberal of the lot” of candidates for the post, which also included six men. Already since Schori’s election, the Fort Worth, Texas, diocese, which opposes women bishops, has asked permission to leave the liberal Episcopal Church, which has seen declining membership for years and has experienced particular internal turmoil since Robinson’s ordination. Other dioceses are expected to depart the denomination in response to the latest leadership decision, observers say. “Sometimes you have to recognize that there are two irreconcilable positions and you have to choose between them,” Michael Nazir-Ali, the bishop of Rochester in England, told The Daily Telegraph. “The right choice is the line with the Bible and the church’s teachings down the ages, not some new-fangled religion we have invented to respond to the 21st century.”

BIBLE TRANSLATIONS NEEDED FOR AFRICA

[Crosswalk.com, December 6, 2006] AUCKLAND, NZ (ANS) -- If Christians are effectively to spread the Gospel to people in the unreached areas of the world, then they need a Bible they can understand. That was the message from the Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL) group from Kenya who visited a number of churches in New Zealand to spread awareness about the work of their organisation. Peter Muguti, the Rev David Lebarleyia, Caroline Kamau and Charles Kilonzo performed African dances and dramas and shared their testimonies about the power of the translated scriptures. They spoke to Challenge Weekly about the huge amount of work involved in translating the Bible, especially when they have to start from scratch with groups of people who do not have a written language. In Kenya there are some 50 language groups, 30 of which are considered “unreached peoples” groups because they do not have a language in a written form and because there is either no church or just a small one. Most of the Bibles in the country are in the official language (English) or the national language (Swahili). BTL is working with 14 language groups and have completed a New Testament for five of them. Mr Muguti, finance and administration manager for BTL, said it was time-consuming to get the New Testament, let alone the Old, translated for people who did not have any written language. “We begin by developing their phonetics and alphabet. We bring the language to a written form and from there translate the scriptures.” Mr Muguti said it did not end there because most of the communities they worked with had low adult literacy rates. “For some it is only 4 per cent, so out of 100 only four can read and write,” he said. “Therefore we go a step further. We carry out literacy classes as a parallel ministry with the translation of the scriptures. It takes 10 years to complete a New Testament and some of them have even taken us 15 years. And that’s just for one language group.” BTL is also carrying out linguistic research on the other language groups to determine whether they can understand or access their neighbouring community’s scriptures. “If research shows they cannot, then we will begin translation,” Mr Muguti said. The organisation gets a lot of its support from Wycliffe Bible translators in New Zealand and around the world, but also needs the churches to come alongside it. “The main source of funding is from Christians and the Church. We are looking to the Church because we know the great commission was left to the Church,” he said. “We want to encourage the Church to support this kind of work so that the scriptures can become available to all the unreached people groups.” Mr Kilonzo, the group’s church relations officer, said however that initiating relations with churches was not always easy, especially if the church was not aware of what they did. It was important to assure church leaders and pastors that they were not their competitors but rather there to complement their work. “They cannot raise disciples, do church planting or evangelise if the scriptures are not in the language of the people they are trying to reach.” Mr Muguti said the ministry also needed a lot of prayer and was looking for people with other skills in various other areas such as technical, medical or anything else. “They could come over for a few months just to help us. We are also willing to receive short-term mission groups of young people.” John Rentz, of Wycliffe NZ, said most people assumed that organisations such as his were only interested in linguistic scholars, but they had more than 200 openings for different occupations including teachers, mechanics and pilots. A team led by Mr Muguti to New Zealand to raise awareness in 2002 resulted in a positive response from a few Christians and one church. They hope that this time round they will get even more support.

GOVERNMENT THREATENS AMISH TRADITION OF TEENAGE LABOR

[crosswalk.com, December 15, 2006] The executive director of a New York-based constitutional rights advocacy group says he will be talking with the senator who chairs the state's Labor Committee today during a special session of the State Legislature. At issue is the attempt to resolve a growing problem for some western New York Amish families whom state labor officials say are violating labor laws. Amish families in Lyndonville have been told the businesses they run in which their minor children, ages 14 to 17, work -- including sawmilling, metalwork, and construction -- have to cease using the children. The Amherst Record newspaper reports labor officials began placing the businesses on notice earlier this summer. Christian activist and lobbyist Duane Motley of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom (NYCF) says it is vital to stop the erosion of the Amish families' constitutional rights before it goes any further. The violation of these families' freedoms by New York State labor officials must be checked, he contends, "because, if they can limit the Amish in just this one area, what's going to prohibit them from expanding it into other areas affecting the Amish? "And, of course," Motley adds, "if you limit the Amish, you've got to limit everybody else." That includes New York's home schooling families, he notes, as home school students often intern with someone in the world of work instead of going to trade school. The Christian lobbyist says any proposals to help the Amish families through labor law changes have to come through the Labor Committee, which is why he is looking to speak with State Senator George Maziarz. Unfortunately, the NYCF spokesman points out, that committee is also lobbied strongly and regularly by labor unions in the state. Motley believes the New York unions lobbying the Labor Committee may fear unregulated competition from Amish businesses and therefore may have an interest in blocking any changes to state law that would provide an exception for Amish families or others using minor children as apprentices or workers in particular occupations. Challenges to the old order cultural tradition of the Amish, which starts young people working with their parents after eighth grade, are causing some families to consider moves as drastic as leaving the state if area lawmakers cannot help them work out a legislative solution. State lawmakers have been quoted as saying they will investigate the issue of whether state labor laws can be modified to accommodate the Amish community's traditional religious practices with regard to their family businesses. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy, believes constitutional law is on the Amish families' side. He notes that a 1972 Supreme Court ruling in Wisconsin v. Yoder, which provided a precedent establishing Amish families right to keep their children out of public schools, would be in the New York families' favor if they end up having to take the labor matter to court. Also, the pro-family attorney observes, "The fact that they have so faithfully adhered to their principles and their deeply-held beliefs over a period of centuries really puts them in an unusual ... and a strong factual sort of position to challenge the likes of the New York labor laws." In other words, the Amish community tradition of introducing its young people early to the world of work has a lengthy history, Crampton explains. So, he says, decades of practice on record that this tradition has not proven hazardous to the children should help the families if the matter has to be resolved in court.

Dr Richard Leakey

CHURCHES SEEK TO "HIDE" HUMANOID BONES

[Telegraph.co.uk, December 8, 2006] Powerful evangelical churches are pressing Kenya's national museum to sideline its world-famous collection of hominid bones pointing to man's evolution from ape to human. Leaders of the country's six-million-strong Pentecostal congregation want Dr Richard Leakey's ground-breaking finds relegated to a back room instead of being given their usual prime billing. The collection includes the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, the 1.7 million-year-old Turkana Boy unearthed by Dr Leakey's team in 1984 at Nariokotome, near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. The museum also holds bones from several specimens of Australopithecus anamensis, believed to be the first hominid to walk upright, four million years ago. Together the artefacts amount to the clearest record yet discovered of the origins of Homo sapiens. They have cemented the global reputation of Kenya's Great Rift Valley as the cradle of mankind, and draw in tourists and locals to the museum's sprawling compound on a hill above Nairobi. Permanent exhibitions cover Kenya's cultural and scientific history from pre-history to independence. A snake park was added in the early 1960s. As part of an ongoing expansion funded by the EU, the National Museums of Kenya, which manages the country's cultural sites, is conducting a survey to determine what visitors to its Nairobi headquarters most want to see. Church leaders aim to hijack that process. "The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact," said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, the head of Christ is the Answer Ministries, the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya. "Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory." Bishop Adoyo said all the country's churches would unite to force the museum to change its focus when it reopens after 18 months of renovations in June next year. "We will write to them, we will call them, we will make sure our people know about this and we will see what we can do to make our voice known," he said. Dr Leakey said the churches' plans were "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard." He told The Daily Telegraph: "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind. The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science." Calling the Pentecostal church fundamentalists, Dr Leakey added: "Their theories are far, far from the mainstream on this. They cannot be allowed to meddle with what is the world's leading collection of these types of fossils." The museum said it was in a "tricky situation" as it tried to redesign its exhibition space to accommodate the expectations of all its visitors. "We have a responsibility to present all our artefacts in the best way that we can so that everyone who sees them can gain a full understanding of their significance," said Ali Chege, public relations manager for the National Museums of Kenya. "But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists or researchers on the other, saying the opposite."

LARGEST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN USA LEAVES THE DENOMINATION

[AgapePress, July 6, 2006] The largest congregation in the Episcopal Church USA is leaving the denomination over its support of homosexual ordination and its general disregard for scripture. Christ Church in Plano, Texas, says it will "disassociate with ECUSA as soon as possible." Following decisions made during the ECUSA's General Convention last month, the leadership of Christ Church issued a statement explaining its decision. "The direction of the leadership of the Episcopal Church is different and we regret their departure from biblical truth and the historic faith of the Anglican Communion," it reads. "As the vestry of Christ Church, we declare our intention to disassociate from ECUSA as soon as possible." Writing to his church members, Rector Canon David Roseberry said "the Episcopal Church has not only broken the faith and apostolic witness but appears determined to continue in that path. We cannot go with them." Roseberry says it took two steps to see the Episcopal Church was out of touch with its heritage and biblical teaching. "The first step was what it did three years ago," he says, referring to the consecration of Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire. "The Anglican Communion reacted: they proposed a series of recommendations that would show the [Episcopal Church USA] that they were stepping outside the family. Those recommendations were taken seriously, but they were never acted on in such a way that the Episcopal Church is pulling back from its step -- so it's effectively taken another step." And says Roseberry, two steps indicates a walking away -- and the Episcopal Church, he says, is now walking away from the "proud heritage" of the Anglican Communion. The rector of Christ Church estimates ECUSA will be allowed to remain in the Anglican Communion for anywhere between three days and ten years. "It's very clear that there are Episcopal congregations and dioceses that are packing their bags, getting ready to move out of ECUSA or create the energy and the effort to do it," he says. "And it's also clear from the most recent statements of the Archbishop of Canterbury that he doesn't see how the whole Communion can hold together." Archbishop Rowan Williams has floated the idea of churches in the Anglican Communion having either a "constituent" membership or simply an "associated" membership, which denotes a familial rather than legal relationship. Among other things, Roseberry has stated his opposition to the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop during the General Convention. "What has most distressed me is her revisionist theology," he wrote in one of his daily postings from the meeting. "She has strongly untraditional beliefs; she voted in favor of the election of a gay bishop three years ago; and she has allowed and encouraged the blessing of same-gender unions within her diocese." He referred to Schori's election as "another seismic event" in the denomination. According to Roseberry, his bishop, the Rt. Rev. M. James Stanton, is aware of Christ Church's decision to leave the Episcopal Church USA and is "very supportive" of it. The church was founded in 1985, and with about 1,900 worshippers every weekend has become the most-attended Episcopal Church in the U.S. Roseberry is the founding pastor.

55,000 CHRISTIANS KILLED EACH YEAR FOR RELIGIOUS REASONS

[Crosswalk.com, June 30, 2006] DRESDEN, GERMANY -- The number of persecuted Christians is on the rise worldwide, according to Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the German Evangelical Alliance. Three in four cases of severe persecution are targeted at Christians, said Schirrmacher in a lecture at a gathering of the Protestant Association of the Christian Democratic Union in Dresden. According to Schirrmacher at least 55,000 Christians are killed each year for religious reasons. Christians in India, Indonesia and Pakistan run the highest risk of losing their lives. He encouraged politicians to increase their efforts for religious freedom. They were often reluctant to address the persecution and discrimination of Christians in Islamic countries in case this may jeopardize religious dialogue. Schirrmacher is convinced that interest in religion is rising worldwide: “The Communist atheistic realm has shrunk to small countries like North Korea”. Christianity is experiencing phenomenal growth outside the Western world. Many Chinese intellectuals, for instance, regard the Christian faith as “trendy”, he said. The number of worshippers in China exceeds the Sunday service attendance in Europe. Since 1970 the number of Christians has tripled in Africa and Asia and doubled in Latin America. Because of the decreasing numbers in Europe these developments are not very noticeable on a world scale. Christianity grows annually by 1.25 percent, roughly in line with the population growth of 1.22 percent.

HOMOSEXUALITY ISSUE CausesTwo US Episcopalian Churches To Choose Nigeria

[BBC, December 18, 2006] Two church congregations in the US have voted to break away from the Episcopal Church because of its decision three years ago to consecrate a gay bishop. The Truro Church and the Falls Church voted to place themselves instead under the authority of the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola. He has called for the Episcopal Church to be expelled from the worldwide Anglican Communion. He is a fierce critic of the ordination of gay priests. The parishes of Truro and Falls Church in Virginia -- founded in British colonial times -- are two of the oldest and largest church congregations in the US. They were once part of the Church of England but now they have voted to sever ties with their diocese and turn instead to the 17 million member church in Nigeria. The consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire led to a global dispute in the worldwide Anglican Communion which has turned bitter and highly political. Several other congregations in the US have already left the national church but none so high profile as these, reports the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Jane Little. However, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia has warned the two parishes that they do not own their church property. It is worth millions of dollars and our correspondent says the split could lead to years of litigation. It will also add further pressure to an embattled Archbishop of Canterbury as he struggles to hold the world's third largest Christian denomination together, our correspondent says. There are an estimated 77 million Anglicans across the world.

US SENATOR CALLS ON FELLOW DEMOCRATS TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD

[Yahoo ! News, June 28, 2006] US Senator Barack Obama chastised fellow Democrats on Wednesday for failing to "acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people," and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoing Americans. "Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," the Illinois Democrat said in remarks prepared for delivery to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty. "It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God,'" he said. "Having voluntary student prayer groups using school property to meet should not be a threat, any more than its use by the High School Republicans should threaten Democrats." Obama, the only black in the Senate, drew national notice even before arriving in Congress last year, and has occasionally used his visibility to scold members of his own party. Widely sought as a fundraiser for other Democrats, Obama responded with a noncommittal laugh this spring when asked whether he wants a spot on the national ticket in 2008. His speech included unusually personal references to religion, the type of remarks that usually come more readily from Republicans than Democrats. "Kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me," he said of his walk down the aisle of the Trinity United Church of Christ. "I submitted myself to his will and dedicated myself to discovering his truth." Obama said millions of Christians, Muslims and Jews have traveled similar religious paths, and that is why "we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse. ... In other words, if we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons will continue to hold sway." Obama coupled his advice with a warning. "Nothing is more transparent than inauthentic expressions of faith: the politicians who shows up at a black church around election time and claps — off rhythm — to the gospel choir." At the same time, he said, "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square." As a result, "I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people and join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy." Obama mentioned leaders of the religious right briefly, saying they must "accept some ground rules for collaboration" and recognize the importance of the separation of church and state.

"BORN AGAIN" CHRISTIANS FLOURISH IN AMERIA

[crosswalk.com, October 4, 2006] While Christianity seems to be flourishing in Africa, Asia and Latin America, many believe it is dying in the U.S. and is already on life support in Europe and Canada. What is the actual condition of the Christian faith in America? Although cultural trends often do shift unexpectedly, there is some reason for optimism, as well as significant challenge facing the church in the U.S. At first glance, there does seem to be a vigorous and growing Christian community in America. According to The Barna Group, a polling firm that focuses on religious faith in the U.S., the number of "born again Christians" (see definitions below) is growing. The "proportion of adults who can be classified as 'born again Christians' ... was the highest ever measured in the quarter century that Barna has been tracking that measure," it said in a recent report. Barna Group Definitions Born again Christians: People who say they've made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and who believe they will go to heaven when they die because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Evangelicals: Born again Christians who also meet seven other conditions, including the belief that they have a personal responsibility to share their faith with others; that salvation is possible only by grace through faith, and not works; and that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches. Barna reported that 45% of all adults claimed to be born again -- up from 31% in 1983. "The current figure represents the largest single-year increase since 1991-1992," the group said. When the subject turns to the narrower category of evangelicals, the percentage is smaller: 9% of all adults fit into that category. Moreover, the notion that America is awash in non-Christian religions, pagan faiths and hordes of atheists does not appear to be true. "Adults who are aligned with faiths other than Christianity, and those who consider themselves to be atheist or agnostic, each comprise less than 10% of the population," Barna said. Generally speaking then, the American people still seem interested in the Christian faith. George Barna said research reveals "that people's faith is not at all deep, but at least more people are becoming attuned to the importance of the life, death, resurrection and message of Jesus Christ." Religious Behaviours Increasing Barna's research presents an even brighter picture when religious activity is considered. The Barna Group reported that "there has been a significant increase in religious activity related to five of the seven core religious behaviours studied by the company." In 2006, 47% of adults said they read the Bible during a typical week, up dramatically from 1995, when the number hit a 20-year low of just 31%. Increases were also registered in four more areas: church attendance, involvement in small groups that meet for Bible reading and other spiritual practices, church volunteerism, and Sunday School attendance. The only two areas out of the seven that did not see an increase were prayer and evangelism. In the survey, 84% said they had prayed during the preceding week -- a high percentage that has not changed since 1993, when Barna said it first began tracking the practice of prayer. As for personal evangelism, 60% of born again Christians said they had shared their faith with someone they knew was not a Christian. As with prayer, this was a percentage that had not changed during the last decade, Barna said. "It is typical for us to see one or maybe two measures surge forward in a given year, only to stabilize or perhaps retreat to prior levels in subsequent years," he said. "The intriguing possibility is that with most of our key behavioral measures showing increases at the same time, there is the possibility that this may herald a holistic, lasting commitment to engagement with God and the Christian faith. “If these increases in religious activity stabilize or even grow in minimal fashion, "then we can confidently suggest that the U.S. is genuinely experiencing meaningful change in people's religious habits." A religious shift occurring Despite these hopeful signs, however, research reveals the rumblings of a possible radical shift in the way many Americans think about religion and the Christian life. More and more adults -- even Christians -- believe that church involvement is unnecessary for an individual's spiritual development. "Only 17% of adults said that 'a person's faith is meant to be developed mainly by involvement in a local church,'" said a Barna report. "Even the most devoted church-going groups -- such as evangelicals and born again Christians -- generally dismiss that notion: only one-third of all evangelicals and one out of five non-evangelical born again adults endorsed the concept." In a 2005 Newsweek cover story, writer Jerry Adler found "a flowering of spirituality" in America that seemed to be occurring outside church walls. "Whatever is going on here, it's not an explosion of people going to church," he said. "Spirituality," or "the impulse to seek communion with the Divine is thriving." Adler cited a Newsweek/Beliefnet Poll which found that "more Americans, especially younger than 60, described themselves as 'spiritual' (79%) than 'religious' (64%)." In the wake of America's rich heritage of political, economic and, over the last 40 years, sexual freedom, a spirit of religious individualism seems to be flourishing. Harvey Cox, professor at Harvard Divinity School, wrote in Foreign Policy: "More and more people view the world's religious traditions as a buffet from which they can pick and choose." The trend has tremendous ramifications for religious hierarchy, which Cox said is "crumbling fast." He said, "The notions of consumer choice and local control have stormed the religious realm, and decentralization of faith is now the order of the day. Religious leaders who once could command, instruct, and expel now must cajole, persuade, and compete." When it comes to denominations, Cox added that "'brand loyalty' is a thing of the past." Religion an Individual Pursuit? What's going on? George Barna thinks many people are looking for an authenticity, passion and sense of community they find lacking in many churches. "Americans remain unconvinced of the necessity of the collective faith experience," he said. "This is partially because the typical church model esteems attendance rather than interaction and immersion, partially due to the superficial experiences most believers have had in cell groups or Christian education classes, and partially attributable to our cultural bias toward independence and fluid relationships." But is a Lone-Ranger pursuit of spirituality the answer? Many church leaders see a danger in this approach. In 1983, well before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed "the relation between personal experience and the common faith of the Church." He wrote: "Both factors are important: a dogmatic faith unsupported by personal experience remains empty; mere personal experience unrelated to the faith of the Church remains blind." In other words, for Christianity, at least, the Christian life must be lived out in the context of the community of believers. Barna states emphatically that "the Bible is unambiguous about the importance of experiencing God through a shared faith journey, and Jesus' example leaves no room for doubt about the significance of involvement in a faith community ...." Although he seems to applaud the individualistic spirit growing in America's religious communities, Cox also sees potential dangers lurking behind the trend. "Religions without unassailable leaders and with hungry competitors may find themselves marketing as much as ministering," he said. "Meeting buyer preferences may seem essential in business, but it can eviscerate the integrity of the religious 'product.' Imagine what the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount might have been if Moses or Christ had poll-tested them." Challenges for the Church It's not all bad news. Barna said a significant number of people appear to be leaving the organized church flock, but not for pagan or otherwise non-Christian religious pastures. Instead, they appear to be opting for a more informal pursuit of the Christian life through home churches. In the last decade, according to Barna, the percentage of adults who attend a house church during a typical week grew from just 1% to 9%. If monthly attendance is considered, Barna said "one out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month." Where do those who identify themselves as Christian go to experience their religious faith traditions? According to a 2006 Barna Group report: 74% attend only a conventional church; 19% attend both a house church and a conventional church; 5% attend only a house church; 2% small group, but not considered a house church. If extrapolated to the national population, Barna's figures mean that more than 20 million adults in the U.S. attend a house church during the week, while 43 million do so once a month. And that does not even include the number of regular, traditional church goers who also participate in small group meetings. It's a trend Barna thinks will accelerate. He believes that "by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current 'market share' and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack," home churches among them. If the growing popularity of house churches is an indication that the institutional church model is not meeting the basic spiritual needs of Christians, perhaps some honest soul-searching on the part of church leaders is in order. "Developing a biblical understanding of the preeminence of community life will take intentional leadership, strategic action and time," Barna said. In considering how to meet such needs, Barna's recommendations on another subject -- getting the unchurched back into church -- are relevant. "These people tend to be less turned on by the music or preaching than by a sense of God's presence -- even though they don't quite know how to explain or understand it -- and by the feeling that they are visiting a group of people who are a genuine community of loving and accepting individuals," Barna said about the unchurched. It may not be clear just yet if there is a genuine shift occurring in the religious life of America. But what is clear is that, if institutional churches want to remain relevant, they can no longer conduct business as usual.

FOR A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW ....