AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER * MILITANTS ATTACK CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN PREVIOUSLY SAFE INDIAN STATES * LESS CHRISTIANS READING THEIR BIBLE IN NEW ZEALAND * BURMA CRACKDOWN CONTINUES ON KAREN MINORITY * NEWSWEEK POLL REVEALS 91% OF AMERICANS BELIEVE IN GOD * INDIA: PERSECUTION AT ALL TIME HIGH * CANADIANS ISSUE WORLD APOLOGY FOR SOCIAL ENGINEERING LEGISLATION ----------------------------------------------- MILITANTS ATTACK CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN PREVIOUSLY SAFE INDIAN STATES Three Churches have been attacked in Kerala, previously considered a safe-haven for Christians. That this sort of violence would occur in the normally peaceful Kerala reveals the extent to which the xenophobic "Hindutva" ideology has infiltrated India, as well as a growing radicalization of India's Muslims. Those who follow "Hindutva" seek to make India a country with only one religion: Hinduism. The New Testament Pentecost Church was established 35 years ago. However, 12 years ago a Muslim family living nearby started making life difficult for the church. The father of this family tried many different ways to get rid of the church, first by attempting to buy it. When that did not work, he and his son would disturb their worship by shouting loudly over their singing.Then four months ago the neighbour and other Muslims joined together and sued the church. Recently, a notice came from the municipality showing that the church's worship was causing a disturbance to the neighbourhood. Police stopped Sunday services 22 times, verbally abusing the church members and attempting to arrest the Pastor. The police gained a court order against the church, prohibiting their use of a sound system because the sound was more than 55 decibels, the volume of a normal conversation. Four weeks ago the church received a notice from the municipality showing that the church hall would be sealed if they sang songs or did any preaching. The next day the building was sealed without an order from the high court. For the last four weeks they have been worshipping in a house. In two other instances, the perpetrators were Hindu. Unidentified Hindu extremists came on motorcycles and started throwing stones through the windows of Carmel Gospel Centre near Kottayam town. After a prayer meeting members of the congregation heard the sound of stoning coming from the room where a five-year-old boy and his two-year-old sister were sleeping. They rushed to the room to protect them. When the attackers heard their voices, they stopped stoning and fled. The attackers had also drawn Hindu symbols, such as "Om" and the Nazi Swastika on the walls opposite the compound of the Centre. In the third incident, a radical Hindu mob vandalized another Pentecostal church. Extremists interrupted the Sunday worship service and started physically assaulting the congregation preventing the church from continuing with their worship service. According to the government figures, Christians comprise 19 percent of the 31.8-million population of Kerala. At the national level, only 2.3 percent of India's population is Christian. The fact that attacks are now occurring in Kerala will only embolden anti-Christian extremists elsewhere to attack the even more vulnerable Christians in their states. Source: International Christian Concern ----------------------------------------------- LESS CHRISTIANS READING THEIR BIBLE IN NEW ZEALAND The Church is facing a crisis through the devaluation of its primary text, the new head of the Bible Society in New Zealand says. Mark Brown says most Christians would be comfortable stating that they consider the Bible to be an important text. Yet recent research from the Bible Society suggests that the number of people regularly reading it is low. Of the 2048 church-attending people who were questioned, only 21 per cent read their Bible daily, 22 per cent said they read it at least weekly, while the remainder said they either read it occasionally or hardly ever. The church with the highest incidence of Bible reading was the Brethren. A similar study in the United States revealed that only 12 per cent of respondents reported reading the Bible once a day or more often. "My discussions with others in Bible ministry in Europe and Australia have also revealed the same alarming trend," Mr Brown says. A lecturer in religious studies at Victoria University, Chris Marshall, points out that what is being lost is an awareness of the Bible's central role in shaping Christian identity and forming Christian character. The less we listen to scripture, the more we will accept the world as we know it as our default setting, and the less we will have to offer the world that is fresh and powerful and redemptive. "When we read the Bible we are not just undertaking an exercise in learning facts, but engaging in the process of being transformed," Mr Brown says. "If I ask a group of Christian leaders, 'Do you think the Bible is important?', no-one - not even the liberal Christians - says it's not important. They all recognise that it's a primary text, whatever language they use. "But then I ask, 'Are you reading it, are you engaging it? Is it a focus of your church?' And then I get the shifting of the seats, and the eyes avoiding contact." Mr Brown says we are seeing a fragmenting of the scriptures. "It's the practice of selectively choosing scripture to suit. Once you start getting into that dangerous territory, it's all about what I feel comfortable with. Churches treat the Bible rather poorly as only one of the many tools available to achieve their aims. And so it can be easily relegated in favour of more 'acceptable' tools such as inspirational worship or entertainment-driven preaching. Source: Assist News Service ----------------------------------------------- BURMA CRACKDOWN CONTINUES ON KAREN MINORITY While the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Burma has grabbed the world's attention in recent weeks, the country's military government is continuing its often forgotten war against ethnic minorities in the country. A missionary working with refugees from the Karen minority group says the Burmese army is killing and raping villagers and forcing them to flee their homes. While some ethnic-rebel groups in Burma have signed cease-fire agreements with the military, the Karen National Liberation Army continues an armed insurgency that started six decades ago. Shane Abrahams is a missionary working with Karen refugees at the Thai-Burmese border. He says their fight has little chance of success. "There are less than 4,000 Karen soldiers against the Burmese army which is now 500,000. All that military force is basically used against the ethnic minorities." Abrahams says many have no choice but to flee from government-controlled areas and live in jungle camps without access to sanitation, clean water or education for children. He says there are an estimated one million internally displaced people in eastern Burma. Other Karen refugees live in camps in Thailand along the border with Burma. Abrahams says while the camps are relatively safe, limited employment opportunities and boredom drive some refugees to alcohol abuse and even suicide. Abrahams is not sure if the situation for the Karen and other ethnic minorities in Burma would improve should the military government collapse."Right now in Iraq we have an excellent example of what happens when a totalitarian regime collapses overnight and there are ethnic tensions in the country" he said. "That could just as easily happen here." Abrahams says all ethnic minorities, including the Karen, and some opposition politicians hope for a future Burma that is a federalized country in which minorities have their own, autonomous homelands. Source: Intercessors Network ----------------------------------------------- NEWSWEEK POLL REVEALS 91% OF AMERICANS BELIEVE IN GOD A Newsweek poll has found that a whopping 91 percent of Americans say they believe in God. Eighty-two percent of adult Americans claim to be Christian, with just 5 percent identifying themselves as a "religious non-Christian." The Newsweek poll also revealed that 10 percent of Americans say they have"no religion," and just 3 percent claim to be atheist. Similar numbers were found by Time magazine, in a poll conducted months earlier, when results showed 85 percent of Americans claiming to follow a Christian faith, and 66 percent saying they "have no doubt God exists". Source: Christian Post ----------------------------------------------- INDIA: PERSECUTION AT ALL TIME HIGH Voice of the Martyrs' Todd Nettleton says nine years ago India was a peaceful place for Christians. "We thought of it as the world's largest functioning democracy - a free country - a place where Christians could worship freely. In the past year, Voice of the Martyrs staff have documented more than 200 significant incidents of persecution where Christians were beaten or killed. But Nettleton says it's not stopping conversions. He says Christians are taking a martyrs oath, which is producing a dedicated church. "Nobody enters into that lightly. And so, when you have a church full of on-fire, committed, deeply rooted believers, that church cannot help but affect society around it and change people's lives". Source: Intercessors Network ----------------------------------------------- CANADIANS ISSUE WORLD APOLOGY FOR SOCIAL ENGINEERING LEGISLATION Canadians who recognize the destruction to the traditional family which Canada has abetted throughout the world, have issued an apology on behalf of all Canadians to world leaders and peoples. The apology which expresses regret for the negative effects that Canada's same-sex 'marriage' legalization has been having on other nations, was delivered to world leaders and taken to the World Congress of the Family in Warsaw, Poland, Canada Family Action Coalition's (CFAC) Executive Director Brian Rushfeldt said, "In today's global village it has become apparent that certain people will use or misuse one country's legislation for their own purpose in another country...this is not acceptable." In part, the letter states: "It is essential that the people of the world understand that our government and courts only considered adult 'rights,' failing to consider the "impact on children's rights, children's education, parental rights, religious rights, adoption, the economy and family law. Our warning to you, the people of the world, is to learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them in your own countries." Source: LifeSiteNews
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