AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* FEMINISM BLAMED FOR EROSION OF MANHOOD

* SOLOMON ISLANDS FACING THREAT FROM MILITANT ISLAM

* CHURCH LEADERS URGE UNITY AS SRI LANKAN CIVIL WAR ENDS

* EGYPT USES SWINE FLU TO PERSECUTE COPTS

* WHATS IN A NAME - DEPENDS ON HOW LONG IT IS RULES GERMAN COURT

* BEAUTY CONTESTANT CHOOSES BIBLICAL CORRECTNESS OVER POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

FEMINISM BLAMED FOR EROSION OF MANHOOD A high-ranking Vatican official has warned that the erosion of manhood and a “crisis in fatherhood” have resulted in millions of children worldwide either being left without a father or enjoying less than emotionally healthy relations with one. German Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council on charity, aid and relief, blamed “gender mainstreaming” and “radical feminism” for attacking biological manhood and insisting that “sexual roles are learned.” He said men are demeaned and what is held up as an ideal is a man who is feminized and emasculated.

“Is male identity nothing other than a product of a special culture and the consequences of social circumstances?” Cordes asked. Cordes said statistics around the world “confirm that today the self-understanding of manhood and especially fatherhood is in crisis.” He said a Catholic Charities survey in the United States showed that 24 million children are living in homes without a father. He said “fatherless boys are twice as likely to be in prison; they are more likely to drop out or be expelled from school; they account for 63 percent of suicides, and 90 percent of those who run away from home.”

Cordes blamed the loss of manhood and fatherhood on liberal and secularistic legislations designed to invent “the new man. We have grown accustomed to legislation that undermines the role of the father, such as adoption by homosexual so-called ‘parents,’” Cordes said. “A bill passed recently in Britain allows two lesbians or single mothers to conceive a child without a father; all that is needed is ‘supportive parents.’ Some newspapers hailed this as ‘the end of fatherhood.’”

He said a survey of German universities recently showed that while there were 98 university chairs “for deepening questions on womanhood,” only one existed for men. Cordes said the erosion of manhood and fatherhood has a negative impact on “boys’ self-understanding,” adding that even girls form their self-understanding by their relationship with fathers and men. Fathers are “an anchor for us in cases of loss and danger,” said the German prelate.

When children try to carve out their own autonomous existence from their parents, it is the father they look up to. “From the presence of the male body, something is transmitted to the ‘I’ that makes the child blossom,” Cordes said. Cordes said the loss of masculinity and the crisis in fatherhood have a bearing on Christianity, which calls God as Father. “The lack of a human father makes it difficult to grasp Jesus' teaching on the heavenly Father,” he said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

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SOLOMON ISLANDS FACING THREAT FROM MILITANT ISLAM According to the Anglican Bishop of Malaita Sam Sahu, militant Islam poses a threat to social stability in the Solomon Islands Muslim missionaries funded by Malaysian and Saudi Islamist groups have led to heightened tensions in the South Pacific nation, which erupted in violence in December after a Muslim leader attacked an Anglican priest. The attack was allegedly in retaliation for Anglican youths having throne stones at a Muslim League truck, police said.

Subsequently Bishop Sam Sahu met with Muslim leaders and urged them to turn the attacker over to the police to forestall retaliation or communal violence. Muslim community leaders agreed and turned the attacker over to the police and discussed the rising tensions between the Muslim and Christian communities. The bishop said although the meeting was productive, there were disagreements on certain issues that were discussed, such as “Who is Jesus?”

Bishop Sahu said that “at the moment relations between the Muslim followers and the Anglican community on Malaita are fine” in the wake of the interfaith talks. “We agreed to respect each other and to ask our members to remain calm while we deal with the situation on the ground.” However, “the form of Muslim religion we are experiencing on Malaita tends to be aggressive and militant, in nature,” Bishop Sahu said.

“The Christian churches and the Government must be quick to realise that Islam in the Solomon Islands has a capacity for thinking strategically, and working towards ‘conversion’ of Christians and non-Christians to Allah and the Muslim faith. They have entered this country in the name of business and development, using money from the rich Arab world, only to spread Islam. As a church leader I can speak for many people of the Solomon Islands. We want to remain as a Christian country; we can accommodate moderate Muslims but not militant Muslims,” Bishop Sahu said.

Editors note: The Australian Prayer Network currently has a sub network focusing prayer on the Solomon Islands as they establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the violence that has plagued the Islands in the recent past. If you are not already a member of that sub network and have a God given heart to pray for our Island neighbours please send your email address to Gordon Griffiths at and ask to be added to the prayer team. Those joining that sub network will receive regular updates on the situation in the Solomons to assist in your prayers for that nation.

Source: ReligionIntelligence.com

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CHURCH LEADERS URGE UNITY AS SRI LANKAN CIVIL WAR ENDS Sri Lankan church leaders say the end of the country's 26-year civil war announced by the government is a signal to address grievances and to ensure citizens from all ethnic and religious groups can feel proud of their nation. The island nation's President Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 19 declared the end of the bloody and protracted civil war, in which fighters have been seeking autonomy for the country's minority Tamil population.

Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera said, "We must become a nation in which every woman, man and child, regardless of religion or ethnicity is made to feel equal, free and proud to call themselves Sri Lankan. Now is the time to take prayerful, purposeful and collective steps towards an integrated, united and just Sri Lanka that has eluded us for decades." The process, Chickera said, "must begin with our children, and in our schools, temples, mosques and churches."

Colombo's Roman Catholic Archbishop Oswald Gomis said "The war will only end when we realize that we are one people in one country with equal rights. As a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural community we are now left with the great task of nation-building, forgetting our ethnic, political and religious differences. We must find a political formula that will inspire confidence and promote a sense of belonging among the minority groups in the country. We must all share the blame for our division and have the humility and wisdom to forgive each other."

The rebel movement was widely seen as the product of discrimination meted out to the Tamil-speaking minority who account for about 18 percent of Sri Lanka's 21 million people. Many among the Sinhala-speaking majority accounting for 74 percent of the population of Sri Lanka are said to staunchly believe that Buddhism should enjoy supremacy in the island.of Sri Lanka's people. Buddhists make up 79.1% of the population whilst 7.6 percent are Muslims, 7.1% Hindu's and 6.2 percent are Christians.

Source: Ecumenical News International

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EGYPT USES SWINE FLU TO PERSECUTE COPTS In Egypt, a largely Muslim country, pigs are farmed in small quantities by poor Coptic Christians (Copts). In Cairo there is an area known as "Garbage City" where those Copts known as "zabaleen" (Arabic for garbage man) are living together with the garbage that they collect from the city and recycle for a living. In order for the "zabaleen" to generate extra income, they began to raise pigs. Pork is consumed only by Christians in Egypt. In spite of the fact that there was no case of influenza among Egyptians, the ruling regime made the decision to conduct a mass killing of all the local pigs.

Various international organizations together with scientists from Egypt and elsewhere are curious about this fast and drastic decision. The ruling regime has never in the past shown care about the health of its population. The main reason for the action was to damage part of the Coptic Christians source of life. The "Zabaleen" have been systematically discriminated against and oppressed for decades. The plan to remove pigs from Egypt has been pending for over three years in the parliament. When the regime found the right opportunity they were able to kill two birds with one stone.

Firstly according to Islam the pig is an insane animal. Killing them allowed the Government to appease the Muslim leaders repeated requests to rid the nation of swine. Secondly oppressing that trade would result in making the Coptic Christians poorer this increasing the pressure on them to leave Egypt for a better life or alternatively convert to Islam.

Voice of the Copts is committed to strengthening the voice of those who are suffering in Egypt and to expose the actions taken by the Egyptian regime against Coptic Christians. They contend that Copts in Egypt have the right to live their life with dignity and respect and fight to achieve that goal no matter the cost.

Source: Voice of the Copts

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WHATS IN A NAME - DEPENDS ON HOW LONG IT IS RULES GERMAN COURT Germany's highest court has ruled that a Munich dentist could not call herself Frieda Rosemarie Thalheim-Kunz-Hallstein. Ms Thalheim wanted to combine her own name with her husband's double-barrelled name to create a triple-barrelled moniker and argued that failure to allow her to do so infringed her personal rights. But the Constitutional Court ruled 5-3 against, referring to a 1993 law passed to curb a trend in "name chains". The court said a triple-barrelled name "lessened the impact of a name to do what it was supposed to do, namely to identify".

The couple's lawyer said his clients had no comment on the ruling, but added, "Germans are old-fashioned." Germany takes a highly regimented approach to naming. Children's names must be approved by local authorities and there is a reference work, the International Handbook of Forenames, to guide them. The head of the centre at Leipzig University that provides certificates of approval for names that have not yet made the official list, Professor Juergen Udolph, said: "The state has a responsibility to protect people from idiotic forenames."

That responsibility is often tested in court. In 2003, a court ruled that a boy could not be named "Anderson" because it was a surname in Germany. And the Constitutional Court ruled in 2004 to limit the number of forenames a child could have, capping at five the number a mother could give her son to protect the child. She had attempted to bequeath the 12-part name "Chenekwahow Tecumseh Migiskau Kioma Ernesto Inti Prithibi Pathar Chajara Majim Henriko Alessandro" to the child.

Source: Intercessors Network

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BEAUTY CONTESTANT CHOOSES BIBLICAL CORRECTNESS OVER POLITICAL CORRECTNESS The Miss USA runner-up has told Fox News that she may have lost her chance at the crown because of her answer to a question about same-sex "marriage." However, she says she had to stand on biblical truth. Miss California Carrie Prejean, 21, was asked by Perez Hilton, an open homosexual and one of the pageant's judges, about her stance on same-sex marriage. Responding, Prejean said she personally believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. Prior to the interview segment of the pageant, Prejean reportedly was the hands-down favourite to win.

Appearing on television Prejean said she had "no regrets" about her answer. The pageant contestant says she knew afterwards that she was not going to win because of her answer because she "had spoken from my heart, for my beliefs, and for my God." Prejean has shared that she is praying for Perez Hilton and has no animosity toward him -- despite his profanity-laced rant against her that he posted on his website following the pageant.

"I can only say to him that I will be praying for him," she said. "I feel sorry for him, I really do. I think he's angry, I think he's hurt. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. He asked me specifically what my opinion was on that subject, and I gave him an honest answer. I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything. By having to answer that question in front of a national audience, God was testing my character and faith. I'm glad I stayed true to myself."

Source: Christian Post

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