“We have two sets of Indians. One section of the people is racing ahead while the majority are limping,” Gracias said. Meeting in Bangalore, the assembly runs from 1-8 February and is being attended by 170 bishops.
Gracias, who is also archbishop of Mumbai, said the challenge before the Indian church is to be “conscience keepers to the nation,” quoting American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and he urged his colleagues to “make a difference in the life of the marginalized.”
Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, reiterated the concern over the wealth gap in India in an address on 2 February.
Quoting U.N. figures, Turkson pointed out that despite India emerging as the fourth largest economy in the world, nearly 35 per cent of the Indian population lives on less than US$1.00 a day.
Turkson, who is from Ghana, noted that 80 percent of the Indian population, more than 800 million people, are surviving on less than US$2.00 a day.
“Our ability to transcend ourselves and to anchor onto Christian values of love and service of our neighbours is the pre-eminent way to social development in India,” recommended the Vatican official.
T. K. Oommen, a prominent sociologist in India, challenged the gathering to examine “on whose sides are we — on the side of the flourishing few or the sinking many?”
Though churches in India are known for their dedicated service in the field of education and healthcare, Oommen said they should also conduct a critical assessment of the number of poor students and beneficiaries in some of the elite Christian institutions.
]]>“Christians should stand up and speak out against this barbaric practice which horrendously abuses God’s creatures,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, in a January 24 statement.
Concern about cockfighting is focused on the state of South Carolina, where critics of the practice are trying to strengthen the state’s laws against it. Though cockfighting is illegal in all 50 U.S. states, it remains a misdemeanor in 11 of them, including South Carolina.
The Humane Society of the United States describes cockfighting as “a lucrative crime, with gambling winnings offsetting even the maximum misdemeanor fines,” and is working with such groups as the South Carolina-based Palmetto Family Council, a Christian advocacy group with ties to national pro-family Christian organizations, to toughen legislation against what some describe as a “blood-sport.”
Oran Smith, the Palmetto Family Council’s executive director, said that South Carolina is increasingly attracting people interested in watching cockfighting and betting on the outcome.
“As a matter of state pride, we must strengthen our laws now,” he said. Smith’s organization has produced a video that has drawn praise from the Humane Society for its strong stance against cockfighting.
The video argues that cockfighting is antithetical to biblical principles, citing Genesis 9:9-10, in which God speaks of establishing a covenant with both humans and animals. “Wonton cruelty toward animals is frankly unbiblical and unChristian,” Smith says in the video, which can be seen at www.youtube.com/palmettofamily.
In the video, Land says humans are called to “respect every living thing…Cockfighting is a pornography of violence. People who watch it are going to be brutalized by it.”
“Religious leaders had a founding role in the humane movement in the 19th century. Today in the 21st century, they remind us of our solemn responsibilities to other creatures,” said Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society, praising the work of Christian leaders for working against cockfighting.
“Their voices can help guide the nation toward better decision-making and behavior when it comes to our treatment of animals.”
]]>Police in Shahdara, near Lahore, had arrested 23-year-old Khuram Masih on Dec. 5 and charged him with desecrating the Quran after his landlord, Zulfiqar Ali, alleged that he had burned pages of the book in order to prepare tea. Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or use of an extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment.
Masih’s previous lawyers, Muhammad Farhad Tirmizi and Liaqat John, on Jan. 3 petitioned for his bail. In their petition, they stated to Additional Sessions Judge Anjum Raza Syed that police had registered a false case against Masih based on hearsay, and that police had not found any incriminating evidence.
Judge Syed, however, refused to grant bail to Masih on grounds that the case was “very sensitive, and bail to the accused would fan religious sentiments and cause a great mishap.”
Asif Aqeel, executive director of the Community Development Initiative (CDI), an affiliate of the European Centre for Law and Justice, told Compass that the lawyers hired by Masih’s relatives should not have petitioned the trial court for Masih’s bail so soon.
“There’s no use moving for bail in the trial court, because the lower courts cannot sustain pressure in such cases,” Aqeel said. “The judges in trial court are under extreme pressure from religious quarters and simply cannot set a blasphemy accused free on bail after just a month of the incident.”
He added that, similarly, trial courts in blasphemy cases tend to deliver guilty verdicts due to the same pressures from Muslims.
CDI lawyer Niaz Amer, who has now acquired Masih’s power of attorney, would make efforts for his bail in the Lahore High Court once the proceedings begin, Aqeel added.
“It is very unfortunate for those accused of blasphemy, but this is how the legal system of Pakistan operates,” he said. ‘The accused have to spend several months, even years, in jail without bail, just because the judges are unwilling to put their own lives at risk from religious extremists.”
In their petition for bail, Masih’s lawyers stated that in First Information Report (FIR) No. 1211/2011, complainant Ali had claimed that Masih’s neighbors had tried to stop him from burning the pages of the Quran and had ignored their requests, and that the Christian ran away when Ali arrived at his home.
“It is further alleged in the FIR that the petitioner [Masih] was arrested later from the same spot when the police arrived,” the bail application states, adding that the charges against Masih were concocted and baseless because the complainant had not witnessed the alleged incident. No other person is mentioned in the FIR to substantiate the allegations.
At the same time, Napoleon Qayyum, a Christian rights advocate and field officer of CDI, denied reports that Masih has been tortured or mistreated by prison authorities.
“Someone has misreported that Masih has been tortured at the District Camp Jail, where he is currently being held,” Qayyum said. ‘I am in regular contact with Masih and his family, and he has not been harmed by anyone in jail.”
Masih has said that he was falsely accused in the case because he had had an argument with his landlord, Ali, earlier in the day over the rent of the house in which he and his wife, Bano, a convert from Hinduism, lived along with five other families.
A Christian rights activist in Shahdara, Khalid Shahzad, had earlier told Compass that police had shown unnecessary haste in registering the case (see “Christian Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ after Argument,” Dec. 26, 2011).
]]>That’s the message that will reverberate across nine Judson 200 commemorative events, running Feb. 5-20 in and around Salem. Speakers — evangelicals, mainline Protestants and scholars — will recall how the course of history changed with Adoniram Judson and four other missionaries.
Religious liberals and conservatives, who both lay claim to Judson’s legacy, will hold separate events. One, on Feb. 6, will include the unveiling of a new name to reflect the recent merger of two evangelical mission societies, CrossGlobal Link and The Mission Exchange, representing some 35,000 missionaries.
But participants will embrace a shared heritage as exporters of American ideas and weigh its modern-day implications.
“The essential idea (in foreign missions) is that a person born in Pakistan is every bit as human and to be valued as much as a person born in North America or England,” said Rodney Petersen, executive director of the Boston Theological Institute, a consortium of nine area theological schools.
“That was the message carried around the world.”
Judson’s 1812 departure with his wife, Ann Hasseltine, marked the start of a new era of American and Christian influence.
To support them, the first of many missionary-sending agencies was born: the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Similar organizations soon took root, sending thousands of missionaries to all corners of the globe. By the mid-20th century, America was sending more missionaries than any other country.
America still sends the most: 127,000 of the 400,000 foreign missionaries sent in 2010 came from America, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christian at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which is based outside of Boston.
The Judsons left a giant mark. Denied admission to British India, they continued on to Burma (modern-day Myanmar), where they created a grammar system, translated the Bible into Burmese and won converts to the faith. Christian communities survive to this day in Myanmar; Judson Sunday is commemorated by Burmese churches every July.
Yet it was local Burmese, not missionaries, who most effectively spread Christianity among the villages, according to Todd Johnson, who directs the center at Gordon-Conwell. That history resonates today, he said, as mission agencies debate whether Western missionaries are still needed in developing nations.
“Some mission groups are saying there’s no reason missionaries should ever go (abroad from America anymore),” Johnson said. “They say you can support hundreds of indigenous missionaries for the same price as a single Western missionary. That argument has gained a lot of traction among donors and other people.”
Events kick off Feb. 5 at Tabernacle Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ congregation that was the site of the original commissioning. On hand will be officials representing the UCC’s Wider Church Ministries division, which traces its roots to the ABCFM.
The schedule reflects just how many strains of Protestantism claim the Judson heritage. The Judsons started out as Congregationalists, but they became Baptists en route to Asia. On Feb. 6, heads of the National Association of Evangelicals and the World Evangelical Alliance will be at Tabernacle. American Baptists, including Burmese pastors, will also lead other services.
Organizers plan to emphasize virtues associated with the early missionaries, such as courage and self-sacrifice for a higher purpose. Attendees can expect to hear challenges to follow in the Judsons’ footsteps, if not literally then at least spiritually.
Churches can begin by welcoming refugees and immigrant congregations, according to Maung Maung Htwe, pastor of Overseas Burmese Christian Fellowship, an American Baptist congregation in Allston, Mass.
“We’re still reluctant to receive those people as our brothers and sisters,” said Htwe, who will co-lead a worship service in Judson’s hometown of Malden, Mass. “We’re afraid our property will get damaged. (But) Judson gave us the example that without a sacrificial spirit, the gospel that we talk is nothing.”
Scholars, meanwhile, are recalling missionaries’ impact on American culture and foreign policy. Missionaries who went abroad to start schools and establish hospitals laid the groundwork for a modern America that sends billions abroad each year in U.S. foreign aid, Petersen said.
“It’s part of the American character to go out and help people,” said Clifford Putney, assistant professor of American religious history at Bentley University. “We go (out) saying we have all these great ideas and (people abroad) would be better off following them.”
Judson 200 ends with a Feb. 20 re-enactment of the Judsons’ launch from the port of Salem. More events marking the Judsons’ 1813 arrival in Burma will be scheduled for next year.
]]>A large truck smashed through the gates of the St. Josephine Bakhita’s Catholic Church compound in Rabak, 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of Khartoum, on Jan. 15 at 10 p.m., and the assailants broke down the rectory door, the sources said. The Rev. Joseph Makwey and the Rev. Sylvester Mogga were kidnapped at gunpoint.
Four days later, on Jan. 19, the kidnappers forced the two priests to call their bishop with a ransom demand of 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US$185,530), 250,000 Sudanese pounds each.
Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok told Compass by phone that there was no direct communication between the bishop and the kidnappers, though the priests managed to convey that they were being mistreated.
“We are worried about the two priests,” he said. “They are not treating them well.”
The kidnappers have attempted no communication with church leaders since then, Adwok said. Neither Makwey, in his 40s, nor Mogga, in his mid-30s, are supporters of southern Sudan military forces in territorial conflict with Sudan over border areas, added.
Eyewitnesses told Compass that they saw the assailants severely beating the priests while abducting them. The kidnappers also looted the priests’ living quarters, stealing two vehicles, two laptops and a safe.
The incident caused panic and terror among Christians in Rabak, with church leaders saying they fear for their lives as they become targets of the Islamic government and its allied militias.
Sudan has seen a steep increase in persecution against Christians, according to an annual ranking by Christian support organization Open Doors. Sudan – where northern Christians experienced greater vulnerability after southern Sudan seceded in a July referendum, and where Christians were targeted amid isolated military conflicts – jumped 19 places last year from its 2010 ranking, from 35th to 16th, according to Open Doors’ 2012 World Watch List.
Sudanese law prohibits missionaries from evangelizing, and converting from Islam to another religion is punishable by imprisonment or death in Sudan, though previously such laws were not strictly enforced. The government has never carried out a death sentence for apostasy, according to the U.S. State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report.
Christians are facing growing threats from both Muslim communities and Islamist government officials who have long wanted to rid Sudan of Christianity, Christian leaders told Compass. They said Christianity is now regarded as a foreign religion following the departure of 350,000 people, most of them Christians, to South Sudan following the July 9, 2011 secession.
Sudan’s Interim National Constitution holds up sharia (Islamic law) as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to the state department report. Christian leaders said they fear the government is tightening controls on churches in Sudan and planning to force compliance with Islamic law as part of a strategy to eliminate Christianity.
As he has several times in the past year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Jan. 3 once again warned that Sudan’s constitution will be more firmly entrenched in sharia.
“We are an Islamic nation with sharia as the basis of our constitution,” he told crowds in Kosti, south of Khartoum. “We will base our constitution on Islamic laws.”
His government subsequently issued a decree ordering church leaders to provide names and contact information of church leaders in Sudan, sources said. Christian leaders said the government is retaliating for churches’ perceived pro-West position.
Muslim scholars have urged heavy-handed measures against Christians to Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
]]>The attack on the Evangelical Church Winning All Church 2, residents of Tafawa Balewa said, was carried out by area Islamic extremists alongside members of the Boko Haram sect, with the church building and surrounding houses bombed.
Yunnana Yusufu, a pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Tafawa Balewa, told Compass that the assailants arrived in the early morning hours and began shooting at Christians in the town, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Bauchi City.
“I saw seven dead bodies of some of the Christians killed,” Yusufu told Compass by phone. “The situation is terrible, and I am about to go out to other parts of the town, to see the extent of the damage caused by the attackers.”
Yusufu said that many other Christians were injured.
“Some of them have been taken to the General Hospital here, while others are being treated at home by medical personnel who are Christians,” he said.
All churches have cancelled services.
“The situation we are in calls for attention to the injured and taking appropriate steps to calm frayed nerves over the attack,” he said.
Bauchi Police Commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba reportedly confirmed the attack on Tafawa Balewa, saying two soldiers and a policeman, as well as eight civilians were later killed in a gunfight. He added that six suspects had been arrested.
Police also reported that bombs were thrown at a Catholic church building and an evangelical church building in Bauchi City, causing little damage and no deaths or injuries.
Bukata Zhadi, secretary of the Christian Elders Council in Tafawa Balewa, said attacks on Christian communities in the area have been incessant, with Sunday’s attack bringing to 10 the number of Christians killed in the past two weeks in Tafawa Balewa.
A fortnight ago, gunmen believed to be Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked three Christian farmers on their farms in Pyakman village, near Tafawa Balewa, killing the three of them. Corpses recovered from the farms had bullet wounds and machete cuts, Zhadi said.
Boko Haram, the name given to the Islamic extremist group officially called Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad – “The People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad” – seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on Nigeria. The name Boko Haram translates loosely as “Western education is forbidden.
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