World News for March 18, 2009

March 18, 2009

Reading: World News for March 18, 2009
Print This Article


  • Various news sources report that an enraged public has quickly killed a proposed Connecticut law that would have taken Roman Catholic governing out out of the hands of the clergy of the denomination. Bishop William Lori and other denominational leaders urged Catholics to attend a rally that was to hear the matter. “This is a violation, a grave violation, of religious liberty,” warned Lori, who said the bill was dropped only a day before a same-sex marriage bill was heard. Lori charged that the bill was “a thinly veiled attempt to silence the church on important issues of the day, especially with regards to marriage.” Connecticut has been in the news with same-sex marriage allowance in the state. Rep. Arthur O’Neill, top House Republican noted, “There was a massive groundswell. I’ve never seen a public hearing cancelled because the bill generated controversy. Democrats grossly underestimated the public’s reaction. I understand there was such intensity that the House Democrats’ phone lines collapsed from the weight of telephone calls.” Proponents of the bill thought the bill would help prevent future cases of financial embezzlement, after a Catholic priest in Darien, Conn., embezzled $1.4 million from his parish.
  • Evangelist David Wilkerson, known for his work among youth in the inner city and author of books such as The Cross and the Switchblade, has posted on his blog what he sees as an urgent message to Americans. He said the Lord revealed to him that soon fires will engulf New York City, as well as New Jersey and Connecticut. Riots and looters will run amok in major cities across the country. “What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath.” Wilkerson said he personally is laying in store a 30-day supply of nonperishable foods, toiletries, and other essentials, and urged others to do so, noting that “in major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.”
  • Pope Benedict XVI announced during his traditional Sunday mass in St. Peter’s Square on March 8 that he will make his first papal visit to the Holy Land in May, at the invitation of the president of Israel, reported the Israel Government Tourist Office. The pope’s itinerary includes visits to holy sites in Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. A mass will be said in the Kidron Valley of Jerusalem.
  • FBI agents arrested a District of Columbia government worker and another man as they searched the offices of the city’s chief technology officer, reported Yahoo News. Vivek Kundra formerly held that post and is now the White House chief information officer, having been named by President Obama to oversee technology that could enable computer systems to speak to each other and security for vast federal information data banks. An investigation is reportedly ongoing.
  • Words of Hope President Lee DeYoung says that a great spiritual hunger in Iran has caused many to turn away from traditional Islam, resulting in an ever-increasing number of conversions. DeYoung noted that the government of Iran is “very vigilant and concerned” about the turning of many to Christianity, and it hunts those suspected. Conversion in Iran can result in punishment by death, but DeYoung says that many Iranians are tired of the disillusionment associated with Islam and Iran’s government. Iranians can tune in to Christian broadcasting in their native tongue, sponsored by WOH.
  • A Baptist missionary responsible for planting churches across Canada has become vocal about the great spiritual need of the country, especially in eastern regions, according to a story in BP News. “If you’re under 40 years old and in Quebec, you don’t probably know who Jesus Christ is. I’ve had some people literally tell me, ‘Oh, that’s a curse word.’ That’s all they know about Jesus.” But Gary Smith also notes the incredible opportunity for evangelism, as he relates that only 8 percent of all Canadians are connected with an evangelical church. In places like Montreal, only half of 1 percent are evangelical Christians. Catholicism has been the religion of Quebec, but only 5 percent attend services. Similar statistics are true for the generally Protestant maritime provinces. Smith also pointed out that Toronto is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. By 2016, more than a million Mandarin-speaking Chinese from mainland China are projected to be living in the greater Toronto area. But 95 percent will be unchurched.
  • An American Religious Identification Survey study finds that Baptists are getting older, perhaps the grayest of any major religious group in the country. About 21 percent of the people who identified themselves as Baptists are 70 and older. That compares with 12 percent of the general population and 10 percent of Mormons. Forty percent of the national population is 50 and older, while 58 percent of Baptists fall into that category. The survey defined “Baptist” broadly, including a number of Baptist groups. Baptists lost ground among Hispanics and Asians, according to the survey.
  • A new news service has been launched by Stephen and Laura Larson, who both grew up on the mission field. The endeavor is called The International Faith Telegraph: World Christian News & Missions News.  
  • Atheists have been making news by calling for “debaptisms” on grounds that as children they were too young to decide whether they wanted Christianity. A local Anglican diocese in Britain refused to amend a baptismal roll because it was deemed a historical record. “You can’t remove from the record something that actually happened,” said the Bishop of Croydon, the Right Reverend Nick Baines. The diocese suggested to one atheist that the best way for him to renounce his baptism was to advertise it in the London Gazette. The National Secular Society would like the Church of England to devise a formal procedure for cancelling baptisms. The Society has come up with a document called “Certificate of Debaptism” for those who want one. The online certificate is said to have been downloaded more than 60,000 times. The Church, meanwhile, is said to be wondering aloud why, if atheists and secularists believe baptism is so meaningless, they are letting it upset them.
  • WRAL.com reports that a North Carolina judge has ordered three homeschooled children to attend public schools, saying that the root of the problem was the mother’s having a religious slant. The ruling came about in the divorce proceedings between the parents. The father said he was “concerned about the children’s religious-based science curriculum” and wanted “the children to be exposed to mainstream science, even if they eventually choose to believe creationism over evolution.” All sides agreed that the children have thrived with homeschooling, the schooling choice for every family of the parents’ church. Home school students and their parents plan to come to Raleigh on March 24 to lobby at the state legislature, hoping to demonstrate that they have a strong voice regarding education.
  • Boom-years borrowing is hitting churches hard, especially megachurches, according to a story carried in Yahoo News. A Pentecostal church near Washington, D.C., fell short of a million dollars to finish its new $19-million complex. Construction stopped last spring when its lender said it would make no new loans to the church. “We now have children who don’t have classrooms to get into, adults who have to go to an overflow room,” said a church spokesman. Some churches have gone bankrupt. Tight credit has had a chilling effect on loans to houses of worship.
  • A Christian minister in Britain who has had heated arguments with Muslims on TV has been brutally attacked by three men who pulled him by his hair and tried to smash his head against the steering wheel, reports MailOnline. Other men took his laptop and Bible and pulled off a cross the minister was wearing. Metropolitan police are treating the incident as a “faith hate” assault and are hunting for the men. In spite of the attack, the minister went ahead with his hour-long gospel program.
  • OneNewsNow reports that Christian historian David Barton, also founder and president of WallBuilders, is advising parents to examine their children’s textbooks for, among other things, “whitewashing” Islamic extremism. Joining Barton’s concern is Gilbert T. Sewall, who has written a report, “Islam in the Classroom: What the textbooks tell us.” Sewall poses questions that parents should be asking as he assesses the books. “From what they read in history textbooks, students and teachers are not likely to grasp why the United States and its allies consider militant Islam an enemy. Students will not learn that broadly based Islamic factions sanction violence in countries all over the world.”
  • OneNewsNow also reports that conservative Christian activist Gary Bauer has come out expressing concern that President Obama is sending early signals that he is taking the United States in a different direction in its policy toward the nation of Israel, both from a geopolitical standpoint as well as a Biblical standpoint.
  • International Christian Concern, a Christian human rights group, says it learned that Libyan intelligence officials have detained and tortured four Christians for converting from Islam, and that the Christians have been imprisoned for the past seven weeks in Tripoli, Libya’s capital.
  • Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom has just filed a lawsuit against Community Colleges of Spokane and Spokane Falls Community College officials for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of pro-life students. Early this year members of a Christian student group were threatened with disciplinary measures, including expulsion, if they chose to hold a pro-life event on campus during the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Behind the discrimination was a committee known as “Stop the Hate.” ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Heather Gebelin Hacker said of the threats, “Christian students shouldn’t be threatened, silenced, and discriminated against for attempting to share their beliefs on public college campuses.” In other news, an appeals court in Colorado has been asked to acknowledge the free speech rights of students by overturning a lower court approval of a penalty imposed by a school district for a testimony of a high school valedictorian who was forced to publicly apologize for sharing her Christian faith during a 30-second message at graduation. The girl’s diploma was withheld until she apologized, and the school reportedly continues to portray her as a student who engaged in improper conduct just because she mentioned Jesus Christ during her message.
  • The man charged with fatally shooting a pastor at a Baptist church in Maryville, Ill., had marked the day of the shooting as “Death Day” in a planner found in his home. He had also carried enough ammunition to kill 30 people. The man’s behavior was attributed by the family to an earlier bout with Lyme disease.
  • Catholics in Connecticut are working to get lawmakers to expand the category of those who do not have to comply with the state’s new same-sex marriage law if their religion holds that such unions are wrong. Included are florists, wedding photographers, and justices of the peace. David Reynolds, Catholic lobbyist, said “Same-sex couples have their liberties protected fully. Religious people are wondering, ‘How is this going to affect me?’ “
  • A judge in Washington, D.C., has dismissed a case brought by atheist Michael Newdow and the American Humanist Association seeking to ban prayer and the phrase “So help me, God” from presidential inaugurations.
  • Britain is now deporting Christians under new immigration rules that require religious workers to be sponsored by a licensed organization and obtain visas to enter the country. A Colorado-based singer was denied entrance into London and a Master’s Commission team from Arkansas was deported from Scotland. “One of the things that has been said to me over the last few days is that Christians have to operate under the radar all over the world,” commented Judy Littler Manners, a Christian leader based in London.
  • The Telegraph reports that Hampshire schools in England have been given a green light to hold discussions in class on creationism and intelligent design alongside evolution.