AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER APRIL 13, 2009

* BISHOP LEAVES THE CHURCH TO DEFEND THE FAITHFUL

* CHRISTIANS: THE NEW POLITICAL LEPERS

* OLD TESTAMENT COMPLETED IN ARABIC; FULL BIBLE TO BE AVAILABLE

* INDIA: GENERAL ELECTIONS START 16 APRIL

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BISHOP LEAVES THE CHURCH TO DEFEND THE FAITHFUL

(Editor’s comments: The first two articles this week tell of the strident attack against Christianity by the secular forces at work in our world. They relate to what have historically been the two strongest Christian nations in the world, Britain and America. In most matters Australia follows just a couple of years behind the USA so we must ask the question are we as Christians in Australia ready to withstand the forces already being marshalled against it. I leave that for you to decide.)

The resignation of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is a terrible blow to both the Church of England and to Britain. The bishop is resigning so that he can work for endangered Christian minorities both abroad and in the UK. What a shocking rebuke to the church, that he has to leave his post of influence and authority as a bishop in order to carry out the church’s core duty to defend its own against attack. Shocking – but hardly surprising. Across the world, millions of Christians are being persecuted at the hands of militant Islam, with forced conversions amidst widespread violence.

When Dr Nazir-Ali warned that Islamic extremists had created ‘no-go areas’ across Britain, he was disowned by his fellow churchmen who all but declared that he was a liar – even though he was telling the truth. For this act of moral courage, he and his family had to be put under police protection, while the church left him to swing in the wind of bigotry and intimidation. Dr Nazir-Ali is one of the very few inside the church to make explicit the link between Christian and British values, and to warn publicly that they are being destroyed through the prevailing doctrine of multiculturalism.

That strong voice of protest has never been needed more than it is now. For Christianity in Britain is under attack from all sides. Last month, the bishop protested that the arrival in Britain of so many from other faiths had led to the closure of chapels, the retrenchment of Christian chaplaincy and the advent of a ‘doctrinaire multi-faithism’ – not through pressure from the incoming minorities, but from British secularists who wanted to destroy Christianity. That agenda is becoming ever more oppressive.

Recently it was revealed that a Christian council worker was suspended for encouraging a terminally ill woman to turn to God. He says he was also told it was inappropriate to ‘talk about God’ with a client and that he should not even say ‘God bless’. This follows the case of the nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for an elderly patient’s recovery, the Christian who lost her role on an adoption panel because she disapproved of gay adoption, and Christian adoption agencies which lost their public funding because they had the same approach.

With multiculturalism discriminating in favour of all who challenge the established values of this country, it would appear that it is Christians who have become the oppressed minority. No wonder though that it should be the case when the church’s habitual posture towards the onslaught is to sink to its knees with its cassock over its head. Take for example the proposal by a regular churchgoer that the churches should ring their bells on St George’s Day, to proclaim that the Christian element of English identity is in robust health. Only five out of the church’s 44 bishops back the plan while the rest have scuttled for cover. The Bishop of Chester frets about the danger of such ‘public displays’ of confidence, while the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds murmurs faintly: ‘I am not sure assertiveness is a Christian value.’ Such cultural cringe would be comical were it not so tragic. For this is precisely how the church has all but destroyed itself. Instead of asserting its core beliefs against aggressive secularism, it has tried to accommodate its own destroyer.

As a result, it stopped holding the line for Biblical values and mutated instead into a branch of non-judgemental social work. The resulting moral vacuum now threatens not just the church but the nation itself. Although most people may no longer be churchgoers, Christianity infuses all this country’s institutions, traditions and values. These have been systematically attacked by a secular culture of unlimited self-indulgence and self-destructive behaviour, resulting in the collapse of the married family, rising crime, drug and alcohol abuse and a grievous erosion of the sanctity of human life.

With the church refusing to assert itself, this vacuum has allowed radical Islam to promote itself as an influential force in public life. Indeed it is rubbing its hands at the opportunity. And in the longer term that risks destroying our basic values of individual freedom and equality – and with them the identity of Britain itself. Dr Nazir-Ali understands this very clearly. This might be thought all the more remarkable since he was born not in Britain but in Pakistan. But that is precisely why he does understand what is at stake. He urges an ‘ideological battle’ against fundamentalist Islam, which he likens to the Western struggle against Marxism. But the church still isn’t listening, and is falling over itself to accommodate it instead. Dr Nazir-Ali’s outspoken opposition to such developments has made him powerful enemies within the church. Last summer, a group of influential churchmen met to work out how to sideline those ‘aggressive’ Christians who were ‘increasing the level of fear’ by talking about the threat from radical Islam. Among those in their sights was the Bishop of Rochester.

In any sane world, Michael Nazir-Ali – a church leader whose intellect is matched by his courage and insight – should be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury to defend our society at this most dangerous time. Instead, he is out. The question now arises whether he will become the effective leader of the church in the Third World. If that were to happen, he could become a formidable adversary of the current craven church leadership and the prevailing doctrine of appeasement and religious submission.

But for the meantime, his departure threatens to make the church even more irrelevant, and its capacity to prevent this country from going under, weaker than ever before. When a Bishop has to leave the Church of England to stand up for Christians, what hope is left for Britain?

Source: By Melanie Phillips, writing in the Daily Mail

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CHRISTIANS: THE NEW POLITICAL LEPERS

Leprosy is a dreadful flesh-destroying affliction. It is highly contagious, and since Bible times it has called for separation of the afflicted from the rest of society. A leper was required to cover their themselves and loudly exclaim “unclean, unclean” as a warning to other people. The life of a leper is a lonely, isolated existence. Well, guess what? Right here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave – the nation that was founded by Christians, on Christian principles, with the intent to secure freedom of worship for all – people identified as Christians are becoming the new lepers! As I read the papers, watch and listen to the news, and read the constant stream of newsletters from conservative groups fighting to preserve the liberties we’ve always taken for granted, I can hardly believe what’s happening in what has always been referred to as “a Christian nation.” Though we Christians are still an undeniable majority, we have been undercut, seduced, litigated, misrepresented and increasingly overpowered by ultra “liberal,” secular and outright seditious special-interest groups.

Our schools, and through them our children, have been largely removed from our influence toward traditional faith by powerful secular forces. For reasons that are unmistakably obvious, all mentions or references to God are being prohibited, and any innocent expressions of Christianity by even grade-school kids forbidden. John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, which provides legal services in the defence of religious liberties, draws attention to a prophetic observation by John Leo, former editor of U.S. News and World Report, written almost 7 years ago:

History textbooks have been scrubbed clean of religious references, and holidays scrubbed of all religious references and symbols. Some intellectuals now contend that arguments by religious people should be out of bounds in public debate, unless of course, they agree with the elites. When school children are invited to write about any historical figure, they can pick Stalin or Jeffrey Dahmer, but not Jesus or Luther, because religion is reflexively considered dangerous in schools and loathsome historical villains aren’t. Similarly, a moment of silence in the schools is wildly controversial because some children might use it to pray silently on public property. Oh, the horror! The overall message is that religion is backward, dangerous and toxic. Like leprosy. Do you see it? While liberal groups and even courts protect HIV and AIDS victims from having to divulge their condition on any records, for fear they might be denied public activity and employment, innocent school kids are scrubbed, fumigated and isolated lest they spread the deadly virus of Christianity.

Whitehead tells of a young boy Wade, who was given a fourth-grade assignment to choose a “hero,” write an essay on him and portray the chosen hero as part of a “live wax museum.” He would then give an oral report in front of the class. When 9-year-old Wade chose Jesus as his hero, school officials insisted that he pick someone else. When his parents objected, the school proposed a compromise: Wade could write an essay on Jesus and even dress up like Him for the “wax museum.” However, he’d have to present his oral report to his teacher in private, with no one else present.

The message to Wade and his fellow students? Jesus is not a worthy hero, and a kid who thinks He is should be ashamed and kept away from the other kids. Like a leper. The Rutherford Institute is being approached by many other parents whose children are being oppressed the same way. In Las Vegas, a third-grader was asked to write in her journal what she liked most about December. When she predictably wrote that Jesus’ birthday made it special to her, her teacher tapped her on the shoulder and told her she was not allowed to write about “religion” in school.

And now, Alan Sears of the Alliance Defence Fund alerts us that the Freedom from Religion Foundation has filed two lawsuits to stop the National Day of Prayer. This militant anti-religion foundation has filed against Shirley Dobson, chairperson of the National Day of Prayer and wife of James Dobson, claiming that the Day of Prayer creates a “hostile environment” for non-believers and that it “violates the First Amendment” – the amendment, you may remember, that states specifically that Congress shall make no law “restricting the free exercise” of religious expression!

The blatant effort to extort and intimidate Christians into abandoning our heritage and identity is nightmarish. George Washington appointed Christian chaplains and called for prayer on the battlefield of our Revolution. Thomas Jefferson and Congress appropriated funds to pay missionaries to “preach the gospel” to the Indians. In 1863, President Lincoln called for a day of national prayer. In 1944 Roosevelt declared a national day of prayer. In 1952 Congress passed a law recognizing such a day.

In 1988, President Reagan signed amended legislation that permanently established the first Thursday in May as the annual day of national prayer. I know. I was there, in the Oval Office, looking over his shoulder as he signed the day onto our national calendar. I was co-chairman of the effort, with Vonette Bright. Only two decades later, these sordid, maniacal groups now see me as a leper, a carrier of a noxious infection. And they want me and all other Christians to be silenced. I, Pat Boone, refuse to be quarantined.

Source: By Pat Boone

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OLD TESTAMENT COMPLETED IN ARABIC; FULL BIBLE TO BE AVAILABLE

The Arabic Bible will be released this May in two Middle Eastern cities. The Arabic New Testament published by the World Bible Translation Centre’s has had good reception, and there is great anticipation for the Old Testament. Arabic Bible translator Salah Abassi says that the youth are particularly ready for the Word. “They’re eager to know more about what we believe; and they’re open to understand things that maybe older generations in the past were not ready to understand or to accept.”

There are certain obstacles for many under Islamic law in regard to the Bible. They sometimes feel they are not even allowed to touch that book because it is a corrupt book; it’s an unclean book for them. Still, with plenty of prayer for courage of the distributors and those who read the Bible, the overall impact is expected to be great. It is expected that the new translation will have a great influence all over the Arab world.”

Source: Intercessors for America

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INDIA: GENERAL ELECTIONS START 16 APRIL

India has a long election season as more than 700 million votes need to be collected. Voting starts on 16 April and goes through until 13 May, with the results due to be announced on 16 May. Displaced Christians in Orissa living under constant threat of Hindutva violence wonder if they will even get to vote, let alone be able to vote freely. The security situation for Indian Christians is most serious, particularly those in remote Hindutva strongholds like Kandhamal. It is just tragic that five years of Congress-led UPA Federal rule has permitted Hindutva to advance unchallenged across India.

Please pray for the election in India.

Source: Intercessors Network

http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/

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