| More than 100 foreign Christians in China have been accused of being involved in illegal activities and have been expelled in just a 90-day period, the biggest assault on the presence of Christianity in China since 1954, according to a new report from the Voice of the Martyrs.
Most of those who have been expelled are from the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia or Israel, and had been working in or visiting Zinjiang, Beijing, Tibet and Shandong, according to the VOM report. A Christian who had worked in Xinjiang for 10 years told a VOM source that more than 60 foreign religious workers, many who had served people in the area for more than 15 years, were expelled from Zinjiang alone. As WND reported a week earlier, officials also are reporting an increase in arrests of Chinese house-church pastors and leaders, who have been accused of being “suspects using evil cults to obstruct the enforcement of the law.” VOM reported that the campaign against Christians is called Typhoon No. 5, and “is part of the Chinese government’s efforts to prevent foreign Christians from engaging in mission activities before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.” Earlier, WND documented reports from VOM, which monitors and publicizes instances of persecution of Christians worldwide, that a Christian was jailed in China for no more than walking near the construction site of a hotel being prepared for the 2008 events. “This is the largest expulsion of foreign missionaries since 1954 when the Chinese Communist government expelled all foreign religious workers after taking power in 1949,” reported a VOM source. “At least five different mission agencies and sources within the Chinese government report that in February, the government launched a massive expulsion campaign against foreign Christians.” |
Month: July 2007
So I’m an African-American?
| An analysis of thousands of skulls shows modern humans originated from a single point in Africa and finally lays to rest the idea of multiple origins, British scientists said on Wednesday.
Most researchers agree that mankind spread out of Africa starting about 50,000 years ago, quickly establishing Stone Age cultures throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. |
Not This Anabaptist
Ekklesia is reporting: US Anabaptists come out against depleted uranium weapons
| A resolution against the use of depleted uranium weapons has been issued by the Church of the Brethren General Board. The action from the US Anabaptist came at a meeting held in conjunction with the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
Declaring the use of depleted uranium weapons to be “a specific and compelling example of the sinfulness of war,” the resolution appeals for a halt to their manufacture…. |
Their headline would be more accurate with Some at the beginning.
I’ve not come out against depleted uranium weapons.
Just like I haven’t come out against any other specific weapon or weapons system.
That doesn’t mean I’m in favor of them.
It just means I don’t take that kind of stance.
I qualify as a US Anabaptist. In fact, I was one of the pioneering conservative Anabaptists on the Web with Anabaptists which I launched in June 1995, as I recall.
Good News: Pakistan
Passage of Bill on “Apostates” Called Unlikely:
| Christian and government leaders yesterday said they are hopeful that Pakistan’s parliament is unlikely to support the death penalty for Muslims who abandon their faith.
Critics have worried that the Apostasy Act 2006, proposed in May, signaled further reduction of religious freedom in Pakistan, where vigilante enforcement of strict sharia law has been on the rise. In the most high-profile example of such vigilante activity, burqa-clad members of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid or Red Mosque and religious schools had kidnapped people they accused of being prostitutes and harassed police and music/video-shop owners in recent months. The activities prompted a government siege and raid of the heavily-armed mosque members this week in which at least 102 people died. The bill likely will not be approved in its original form by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice, where it is being revised, a member of the committee said. […] Proposed by the Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, the bill states that the testimony of two Muslim male witnesses would be sufficient to sentence to death a male “apostate†or man who changes his religion from Islam. A female “apostate†would receive life imprisonment. According to article 5 of the draft, a convicted “apostate†would have up to 30 days to revert to Islam and avoid punishment. But repeat male offenders who committed “apostasy†a fourth time would not be given a chance to repent. […] Besides the storming of the Lal Masjid mosque this week, the government is countering extremism in madrassas (Islamic schools) and brooking protests from lawyers across Pakistan over President Pervez Musharraf’s dismissal of the Supreme Court Chief Justice in March. […] At the same time, calm returned to two Pakistani villages where death threats against Christians who refused to convert to Islam have not been carried out. Christians in the villages of Shanti Nagar and Charsadda had feared for their lives after receiving letters threatening death if they refused to become Muslim in June and May. Despite rising popular enforcement of strict sharia, the Christians in the two towns have concluded that the unfulfilled ultimatums to convert to Islam in recent months were isolated incidents and not cause for concern over a systematic campaign of violence. |
Hopefully this hopeful optimism becomes some sort of good reality.
NK-PRP Underground Railroad
The Underground railroad lives
| The story of Pastor Son, who became a Christian while working in China and returned to North Korea to spread his faith, gives us a glimpse into a rarely reported story: the large number of North Koreans who live and work in China, the porous border that allows the smuggling of Kareoke machines and South Korean DVD’s into North Korea, and the smuggling of the thousands of North Korean refugees into China, and the presence of an “underground railroad†composed of Christian believers that is helping to smuggle out some of these refugees.
Many, some estimate 200 to 300 thousand, North Koreans are living in China illegally, knowing that if they are caught they will be deported back to North Korea and placed into prisons where conditions are terrible. |
HT: persecution.org
Use Caution…
…with digital communication.
Never consider email or text messages as private.
Also beware of personal photos and information you post online, especially if you’re a blogger.
I thought of that (again) when I read this:
Pew Internet: Cyberbullying and Teens
| About one third (32%) of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online. |
Here are some books whose titles look interesting. I have read none of them, so this does not constitute a recommendation.
Christianity 103
Church of England says calling God ‘He’ or ‘Lord’ encourages wife-beating
| Church of England leaders warned yesterday that calling God ‘He’ encourages men to beat their wives.
They told churchgoers they must think twice before they refer to God as ‘He’ or ‘Lord’ because of the dangers that it will lead to domestic abuse. In new guidelines for bishops and priests on such abuse, they blamed “uncritical use of masculine imagery” for encouraging men to behave violently towards women. They also warned that clergy must reconsider the language they use in sermons and check the hymns they sing to remove signs of male oppression. The recommendation – fully endorsed by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams – puts a question mark over huge swathes of Christian teaching and practice. […] The guidelines also claim that abuse is common within marriage and says this is because marriage heightens a sense among husbands that they own their wives. |
Attention, Mr. Williams & Company:
| Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. (Ephesians 5:25-29) |
Now, please, make your case from the Scriptures, Mr. Williams and Co.