AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER April 2009 * THOUGHT POLICE MUSCLE UP IN BRITAIN * SETBACK FOR HOPED FOR BREAKTHROUGH IN CHINA * EMERGENCY PRAYER ALERT FOR PAKISTAN * AUSTRALIA PRESSES CHINA TO CURB ITS FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR FIJI * ADULT STEM CELLS USED SUCCESSFULLY TO CURE DIABETES AND HEAL BROKEN JAW * MUSLIM EXTREMISM ACCOUNTS FOR CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS IN UZBEKISTAN ----------------------------------------------- THOUGHT POLICE MUSCLE UP IN BRITAIN Britain appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent. The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison. The House of Lords tried to insert a free-speech amendment, but Justice Secretary Jack Straw knocked it out. Political correctness has gone mad in Britain in recent years. In 2006, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Codie Stott, asked a teacher if she could sit with another group to do a science project as all the girls with her spoke only Urdu. According to Stott, her teacher screamed at her: "It's racist, you're going to get done by the police!" Upset and terrified, the schoolgirl went outside to calm down. The teacher called the police and a few days later she was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was questioned for more than 3 hours, fingerprinted, photographed, and then released without charge. In another incident a 10-year-old child was arrested and brought before a judge, for having allegedly calling an 11-year-old boy a "Paki" and "bin Laden" during a playground argument at school (the other boy had called him a skunk and a Teletubby). The accused was so distressed that he had stopped attending school. The judge, Jonathan Finestein, said: "Have we really got to the stage where we are prosecuting 10-year-old boys because of political correctness? There are major crimes out there and the police don't bother to prosecute. This is nonsense. "A bishop was warned by the police for not having done enough to "celebrate diversity". A Christian home for retired clergy and religious workers lost a grant because it would not reveal how many of the residents were homosexual. That they had never been asked was taken as evidence of homophobia. A primary school receptionist, Jennie Cain, whose five-year-old daughter was told off for talking about Jesus in class, faces the sack for seeking support from her church. A private email from her to other members of the church asking for prayers fell into the hands of school authorities. The Royal Navy has installed a satanist chapel in a warship to accommodate the proclivities of a satanist crew member. Satanist paraphernalia is also supplied to prison inmates who need it. This campaign seems to come from unelected or quasi-governmental bodies controlling various institutions more than directly from the Government, although the Governments silence on the issue seems to indicate that it condones it. Any one of these incidents might be dismissed as an aberration, but taken together they add up to a pretty clear picture. Source: Compiled by APN from Australian media reports ----------------------------------------------- SETBACK FOR HOPED FOR BREAKTHROUGH IN CHINA It was publicized abroad as the next great break-through for house church Christianity in China. A giant celebration to be held on Easter Sunday in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. Finally, it seemed, the government would acknowledge the sacrificial work of house church Christians who came to Sichuan from across the country to help with rescue and reconstruction after last May’s earthquake. It would be an open admission that Christianity – even of the house church variety – was a positive element in Chinese society.Verbal permission had been obtained for 2,500 house church Christians throughout China to meet for the special celebration. Some 50 government officials had been invited to the event. Christians from Singapore and the United States flew in for it. But the day before Easter, police abruptly cancelled the event. Organizers hastily changed the venue to a smaller venue where only about 1,000 people could be accommodated. But even this was too much. An hour before the event, police barred the door. The foreigners left. None of the promised government officials turned up. A few hundred Christians seized the opportunity to hold an impromptu worship service in a nearby parking lot. Police intervened there, too, and arrested some local house church leaders, before releasing them later that evening. In the current economic crisis, the government seems to be in no mood to take major steps to liberalize religious policies, nor legalize house churches. Powerful reactionary forces within the CCP view with dismay the extraordinary growth of the church. Many officials still view Christianity – and especially house churches – as an ideological and political threat. Officials are struggling to control a country that threatens to become increasingly uncontrollable. Depending on how long the economic recession grips China, sources say, it seems likely that for the next two years at least, the government will err on the side of caution. Source: Intercessors Network ----------------------------------------------- EMERGENCY PRAYER ALERT FOR PAKISTAN Prayer is urgently sought for Pakistan after President Asif Ali Zardari last week signed a measure imposing Shariah law in the country’s Swat Valley as part of a deal to end two years of fighting with pro-Taliban guerrillas in the region. The fate of an estimated 500 Christians still in the area is uncertain. Violence has killed and displaced hundreds. In the past year, more than 200 girls schools in Swat were reported to have been burned down or bombed by Islamic extremists. Remaining girls schools were closed down in January, but have re-opened since the peace agreement in mid-February. Critics worry that Islamic hard-liners will be encouraged to make similar demands in other parts of the country. Militants have declared a cease-fire after the provincial government agreed to introduce Islamic law in the region which stretches north along the Afghan border for hundreds of miles. A Christian pastor said that “people don’t come to the church as they used to.” Although there have been no direct threats against Christians since the signing of the peace accord, some fear that it may only be a matter of time. “We are expecting them because Islam does not tolerate other faiths.” Concern is also being expressed about the treatment of women. They won’t be allowed to move freely or without veils. Concerns are also being expressed about their ability to continue their education. A spokesman for advocacy group Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, said he fears that militants in Swat will now be able to freely create training centres and continue to attack the rest of Pakistan. “They will become stronger, and this will be the greatest threat for Christians living in Pakistan,” he said. Please pray:* that Pakistan’s government won’t allow the Taliban and Shariah law to spread to other areas of Pakistan. Pray that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will not give in to the demands of terrorist groups and that the demonic forces that are using the Taliban terrorists like puppets will be toppled. * that Al Qaeda would not partner with the Taliban to spread their terror on the people of Pakistan and that Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders will experience conversion to Christianity. Pray The Bible, 1 Timothy 2:1–4 (NIV).* for stability to come to Pakistan. Pray that the Pakistani people will be set free to worship the Lord without threats and violence. Pray for Christians to be kept safe and not be caught in the crossfire of the growing violence in Pakistan. Source: Windows International Network ----------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA PRESSES CHINA TO CURN ITS FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR FIJI Australia has been pressing China to curb its support for Fiji over concerns that Beijing is propping up the military regime by supplying hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. Diplomats in Canberra and Beijing are understood to have raised the situation in Fiji with Chinese officials. Officials are concerned that China's support for Fiji is undermining efforts to put diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime. China has become a big donor across the Pacific, mainly as part of its diplomatic offensive to prevent more states from recognising Taiwan as an independent state.China has boosted aid to Fiji since a coup by the military commander, Frank Bainimarama, which has crippled the economy and led to falls in tourism and investment. Australia has led regional efforts to pressure the regime to restore democracy, by imposing sanctions and travel bans and restricting aid. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed it has raised concerns with China after recent developments in Fiji including the dissolution of the constitution, the sacking of senior public servants, the declaration of a 30-day state of emergency and censorship of the media.A Lowy Institute analyst, Fergus Hanson, said China's "chequebook diplomacy" had resulted in a sevenfold increase in pledged aid to Fiji since the coup, from $US23 million in 2006 to $US160 million in 2007. China makes the case that it gives the aid without strings attached and without regard to domestic politics - but by coming in quite dramatically with such a big aid program, it is playing politics. Australia and New Zealand have been leading a diplomatic push across the region to isolate Fiji by suspending it from the Commonwealth and the Pacific Islands Forum.The Australian Government is understood to have written to the forum outlining its belief that Fiji should be suspended - a response to a letter by the forum chairman, Toke Talagi, requesting the views of regional leaders. Commodore Bainimarama, had said he would hold elections this year but has now put back the deadline to 2014. Source: Compiled by APN from Australian media reports ----------------------------------------------- ADULT STEM CELLS USED SUCCESSFULLY TO CURE DIABETES AND HEAL BROKEN JAW A study carried out in Brazil and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has found that most patients in a study group testing the use of adult stems cells to treat diabetes, were either partially or wholly healed of the disease after receiving injections of stem cells from their own bone marrow. The procedure, was carried out on 15 patients with type 1 diabetes. The study stated that most of the patients no longer needed insulin injections after the treatment and were still insulin free with normal levels of glycated haemoglobin 18 months later.The astonishingly positive results have received very little media coverage. "Had it been an embryonic stem cell success, the story would have reaped huge headlines" said conservative bioethicist Wesley Smith. "Successful human treatments from adult stem cells don't count as news. It doesn't fit the media narrative that embryonic stem cell research is the future. Dr. Richard Burt, one of the research team explained why the success happened in Brazil instead of the USA. "The research was done in Brazil because doctors in the United States were not interested in the approach." he said.In another report of the successful use of adult stem cells, Korean doctors have regrown a patient's jawbone using his own adult stem cells. An 18-year-old Korean boy, who had one side of his jawbone and most of his teeth removed due to a tumour, had stem cells taken from his bone marrow, which were then "multiplied and specialized to form an osteoblast which is a bone-forming cell." The results of the trial were published in the British medical journal BMC Medicine and were also presented at the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Dr. Mehmet Oz, from Columbia University, recently announced on the Oprah television program that "The stem cell debate is dead. The problem with embryonic stem cells is that embryonic stem cells are very hard to control and can easily become cancer. On the other hand adult stem cell research can now take a person's own skin cells and reprogram them into embryonic-like stem cells," Oz explained. "These cells, because they won't be as prone to cancer—and because they're the persons own genes—will be the ones that are ultimately used to cure diseases like Parkinson's." Source: LifeSiteNews.com ----------------------------------------------- MUSLIM EXTREMISM ACCOUNTS FOR CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS IN UZBEKISTAN Violence against Christians continues to rise in Uzbekistan as the government cracks down on people affiliated with any type of religious movement. Uzbekistan's long-time President Islam Karimov is known to be concerned by the growth in Islamic militancy. Joel Griffith with Slavic Gospel Association affirms that this may be part of the reason for such harsh treatment toward believers. “The government is concerned about Muslim extremism. To be able to justify a crackdown on that, then they have to crack down on everybody, whether they’re extremist or not,” says Griffith. Islamic extremism has been high in Uzbekistan. Last year Muslim radicals grew violent after being refused permission to celebrate the end of the Ramadan holiday Eid al-Fitr, whilst there are reports that other Muslim groups plan to turn Uzbekistan into an Islamic state. In an effort to put an end to this kind of activity, the government has grown severe in its punishments. Rights groups believe that the government actually does desire to exterminate all religious influence in the country. A fear of Muslim extremism therefore does not bode well for Christians. Regardless of what the government’s true motives are, Christians are still being violently persecuted. It’s hard to say whether pressure from the west would be beneficial or not. In some instances, western pressure has been well received, and in others it has backfired. What is certain to be effective, however, is prayer, says Griffith, “because prayer works where human effort doesn’t.” Pray that the government would stop directing its anxiety over other extremists toward believers. Pray also for the strength of the believers in Uzbekistan and other Slavic nations. Source: Intercessors Network
top of page