Lausanne World Pulse – World Pulse Archives – World Pulse Archives

AFRICA: In some cases, attacks on churches have had less to do with religious persecution than with neighbors wanting peace and quiet, especially during all-night worship. Noise-related tensions have led to two attacks on an Assembly of God in Senegal by neighbors angry that music and praise during the church’s late-night programs kept them awake. Senegal, which is more than 90 percent Muslim, has a solid history of religious tolerance. The pastor of an Assembly of God near Accra, Ghana, suggests building soundproof auditoriums and even constructing underground worship places to hold down noise. In Nigeria, at least one Pentecostal church has brought peace back to its neighborhood by soundproofing. In recent years, non-Christian Ga have threatened noisy churches during times when, according to Ga traditional religion, the spirits require silence to ensure a good harvest. Nigerian lawmakers more than a year ago announced plans for a law against noise pollution caused by churches, mosques and other private sources.

CHINA: Dangdang.com, China’s equivalent of the American online bookseller, Amazon.com, receives 4,000 orders a day and sales are doubling annually. Prospects look good because China has only 77,000 or so bookstores with annual sales of $5.2 billion, compared to $40 billion a year in US bookstores. Compared to Borders, China’s bookstores are dark and uninviting. In rural and remote places they are hard to find. China boasts an 86 percent literacy rate with a population five times that of the US.

ECUADOR: President Lucio Gutierrez, concerned about the nation’s lackadaisical attitude toward time, has announced his government will set an example by being punctual. Gutierrez, however, showed up late to make the announcement. The move was prompted by a private group called Citizen Participation, which in September launched a national campaign to promote punctuality.

HAWAII: “Da Jesus Book,” the Hawaiian Pidgin New Testament, took 12 years for a linguistics professor to translate and was published by Wycliffe. An excerpt: “Jesus tell dem, Da stuff I teach, no come from me. Come from da One who wen send me. If anybody like do wat God like um fo do, dey goin know if da stuff I teaching come from God, o if ony come from my own head” (John Tell Bout Jesus 7:16-17).

ISRAEL: Times are hard for Christians living in the area ruled by the Palestinian Authority. The area, heavily reliant on tourist income, suffers from high unemployment because of the calamitous drop in tourism, and many are emigrating in search of work and hope. The Christian population there has dwindled from 110,000 in 1948 to 50,000 today. A peace accord, which ostensibly could stop violence, also seems hopeless. The Red Cross feeds some families. Radical Islam is spreading, and Muslims are said to be pushing illegal land seizures. Among hard-hit communities are Bethlehem and its surrounding villages. One Christian university teacher says that Muslims are bent on Islamicizing Bethlehem.

LIBERIA: Devastated by 20 years of civil war, peace may return with the departure of Charles Taylor, its most recent corrupt president. But Liberian society—including its judicial and legal system—must be rebuilt. Advocates International reports that Christian lawyer Othello Payman has organized the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Liberia, which links 20 Christian lawyers and judges to help rebuild the country.

MEXICO: The mayor of Ecatepec’s first act in office was abolishing parking and traffic fines in a radical try to stop police from demanding bribes. His theory is that if police have no power to threaten drivers with tickets, they can’t exact money from them. Fed-up citizens welcome the move. Mexico’s anti-corruption czar estimates that corruption costs as much as nine percent of the gross domestic product.

NEPAL: Maoist rebels have moved their war into Kathmandu, where they engaging the army and police daily in shoot-outs and targeting government and military leaders. In early September, the guerrillas released a list of 217 VIPs they plan to assassinate. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is the core of the rebellion that began in 1996. Guerrillas seek to overthrow the monarchy and isolate the country. Among their tactics: torture, execution, maiming of educated people, and destroying infrastructure—including bridges, irrigation channels, post offices and schools.

NORWAY: A European Commission survey found that Norwegians are Europe’s least religious people. Only four percent regularly attend church services, though most Norwegians are state church members because they’re automatically born into it. Europe’s most religious are the Greeks, Irish and Portuguese.

SARS: Officials in Singapore where a 27-year-old student tested positive in September for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) say the case may have been caused in the disease-research lab where he worked. But the country’s stock market fell 2.6 percent in a day. Airports began temperature checks again, and many fear SARS could make a comeback. Earlier this year, the highly contagious disease greatly hampered life in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. It killed some prominent Christians. Health authorities believe SARS is poised to resurface this winter.

SUDAN: A mystery epidemic the UN considers 100 percent fatal stands poised to devastate the war-ravaged south. Missionaries spotted “nodding disease” in 1997. Its victims, usually children, nod deeply and involuntarily when presented with food. So far, however, it affects only a small part of Sudan. Other diseases afflicting the country include river blindness and sleeping sickness.

ZAMBIA: Princess Kasune Zulu, 27, is a Christian who lost her parents and two siblings to AIDS. Princess (her name, not her title) became head of her household at age 14. Now she and her husband are infected. Going public with an AIDS diagnosis is rare in Zambia, where sufferers often are discriminated against and rejected by their families. To those suffering from AIDS, she testifies of the abundant life that Christ offers. If Zambia’s death rates continue, HIV/AIDS likely will kill half of the country’s 10 million people.