Latvian churches reiterate condemnation of homosexuality

June 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

Christian churches in Latvia have criticized a new social science school textbook that describes gay and lesbian life as a “normal aspect of sexuality.”

“The church isn’t alone in its traditional view of the family in Latvia,” said Ivars Kubcis, spokesman for the country’s Evangelical Lutheran church.

“Our church’s attitude to homosexuality is strongly linked to our understanding of Bible teaching and the authority of God’s Word; in brief, we regard homosexuality as a sin. At the same time, we welcome different kinds of sinners in our churches, who admit they are sinners.” Read more of this post

Filed under Asia, Latvia

Conference to address issues faced by Christians in the Middle East

June 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

The volatile situation facing Christians in the Middle East is a key topic of concern for members of the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and will be highlighted at an upcoming conference on Christians in the Middle East to be held in Volos, Greece from 20 to 22 June, according to a news release.

With the diminishing presence of Christians in the region, the central committee said in a statement in February, the “conviviality among peoples from different faiths, cultures, civilizations, which is a sign of God’s love for all humanity, will be endangered.” The conference in Greece will explore the issue from a theological, ecumenical, cultural, and political perspective. Read more of this post

Filed under Middle East

Vietnam: CSW calls for release of Christian activists convicted of subversion

June 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

Seven Vietnamese activists, including three Christians, have been convicted of subversion and given prison sentences of between two and eight years. Mennonites, Pastor Duong Kim Khai, Tran Thi Thuy and Nguyen Thanh Tam were active in peaceful campaigning for land rights and were convicted along with four others.

Tran Thi Thuy received eight years, Pastor Duong Kim Khai six years and Nguyen Thanh Tam a two-year sentence. The seven were denied access to legal representation at the trial, which took place under heavy security, and the outcome of which is thought to have been pre-determined. They were charged under Article 79 of the Criminal Law. Read more of this post

Filed under Asia, Vietnam

Salafi Muslims’ Agenda behind Christian Persecution in Egypt

June 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

A recent spate of violence in Egypt, mostly incited by conservative Salafi Muslims after President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall, has left over 24 killed, more than 200 wounded and three churches destroyed.

According to a report by the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission (WEA-RLC), the perception of threat to Christians is so severe that many of them are reportedly seeking to move out of the country.

WEA-RLC said while for the youth and moderate Muslims of the country the Jan. 25 uprising was about democratic freedoms, the Salafis who had been inactive for decades quickly saw it as an opportunity to push an Islamist agenda. Read more of this post

Filed under Africa, Egypt

India Expels Three American Christian Women for “Proselytizing”

June 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Indian authorities asked three American Christian women, including a 15-year-old, to leave India after Hindu organizations accused them of attempting to convert non-Christians by offering them incentives in Alappuzha district, Kerala State.

According to the report by the Times of India, although Indian police admitted that they do not have any evidence indicating that the women participated in proselytizing, they still asked them to leave because the Christian women were about to attend prayer sessions. Read more of this post

Filed under Asia, India

Cybermissions: Using computer and internet technologies to impact lives for Christ

June 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Imagine packing 500 hours of Bible college training on a $13 chip that plays from a cell phone. Add speakers to the cell phone for only $20 and a group of pastors can be trained in places far-removed or unreachable by conventional means.

Cybermissions training in the Amazon River basin

“I don’t need a visa to get into these countries,” says John Edmiston, founder of Cybermissions. (www.cybermissions.org) “We tunnel in and then we blast away.”

Edmiston started Cybermissions in 2001 to serve the church in Southeast Asia, especially pastors who had no training. Now their reach is global, with more than a million people each year making use of training materials they provide.

Through one of their contacts in Bhutan –- a country governed by a Buddhist-dominated monarchy hostile to the Gospel, Cybermissions materials are training dozens of pastors. “We’re reaching underground Christians,” Edmiston notes. “Through one man we’ve reached Bhutan.” Read more of this post

Filed under Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Oceania, South America

China’s Official Church Members “Admonish” Shouwang Group

June 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Police recently detained a further 16 members of Beijing’s Shouwang house church and placed several more under house arrest. That while members of China’s government-approved churches have gone to police stations to “admonish” detained house church members, according to a statement issued by church leaders.

According to a story by Compass Direct News, of those detained, police held two in protective custody in hotels, beginning on June 10, while another 14 who turned up at Shouwang’s designated outdoor worship site on June 12 were taken away and sent to 10 different police stations. Of those detained Sunday morning, 13 were released by midnight while the last was released the next day.

Compass reported the statement said police at Haidian station also locked into a basement three Christians who had come to visit detained church members. Read more of this post

Filed under Asia, China

Japanese churches must become more active, warns theologian

June 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Japanese Christianity has “spinelessly gone along with the government,” mostly shunning social activism and becoming “excessively theoretical,” according to a leading theologian.

“What Christianity needs here is orthopraxy [right practice],” said Yasuo Furuya, professor of modern Christian systematic theology at Seigakuin University, north of Tokyo. The 85-year-old theologian made his comments in a new book, “Is Christianity Real in Japan?” released on 1 June by Kyo Bun Kwan, a Tokyo-based Christian publishing company.

He said Christian evangelism had long been overshadowed by the churches’ “compromise with militarism” in World War II, during which only Methodist groups had opposed government policy and faced oppression as a consequence. Read more of this post

Filed under Asia, Japan

Refugees: Christians take flight

June 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

According to the angel, the birth of Jesus — ‘a Saviour who is Christ the Lord’ — was an event of ‘good news of great joy that will be for all the people’ (Luke 2:8-14). Despite this, it would not be long before ‘an angel of the Lord’ would appear to Joseph to warn him of the threat to the child’s life, and instruct him to gather up his family and flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13,14). And so Jesus became a refugee.

This Jesus, however, has become our great high priest, and ‘[not] a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin’. And so the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us, ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV excerpts)

The number of Christians fleeing for their lives is skyrocketing. Those with financial means may emigrate or fly out and apply for refugee status in the West, an arduous enough process. However, poorer Christians must risk death traversing deserts, oceans and dangerous cities, while dodging bandits and people-traffickers just to seek refuge in a neighbouring state. Lately, finding refuge is becoming increasingly difficult. Read more of this post

Filed under Asia

Christian council will return torture documents to Brazil

June 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

On 14 June, three boxes containing records of brutal torture and repression suffered under two decades of Brazilian military rule will be returned to the South American country from peaceful Switzerland, where the material has resided at the World Council of Churches (WCC) archives.

Religious and political leaders, including WCC general secretary the Rev. Olav Fyske Tveit and Brazilian Senator Pedro Taques, will hand over the documents in a ceremony in São Paulo at the Public Prosecution Office. The information was collected by dissident lawyers and church leaders from 1979 to 1985, surreptitiously copied and sent to the WCC. Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

In an interview at WCC’s headquarters in Geneva on 10 June, Tveit said the delivery of the material will add more documentation for people seeking compensation for their sufferings. It also manifests, he said, the role of the WCC, supported by denominations, in documentation of the abuses and torture that happened under military rule. Read more of this post

Filed under Brazil, South America

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