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Baptist teacher murdered in China
A Chinese Protestant said to suffer from mental problems stabbed to death Bruce Morrison, 37, a Southern Baptist teacher from New Orleans who worked for a non-denominational ministry in central China. The murder happened inside a church before services began February 3. Police have not determined a motive.

Fatwas banned; Muslim extremists angered
In Bangladesh, a pair of high court judges asked Parliament to pass a law calling for harsh punishment for anybody issuing a fatwa, or holy order all Muslims must carry out. The judges banned any fatwa or legal opinion that didn’t come from a court. The judges agreed with a lawyer’s assertion that a fatwa is unconstitutional and denies fundamental human rights. In rural Bangladesh, Muslim clerics frequently hand down fatwas based on sharia, or Islamic law. The extremist Islamic Unity Alliance immediately denounced the judges as apostates and threatened to launch a nationwide campaign against the verdict, reports the Religious Liberty Prayer List. After clashes between Islamic and human rights groups in Dhaka, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh issued a six-week stay on the High Court verdict.

Sudan’s army raids villages, enslaves scores
In the Sudanese government’s latest attacks in southern Sudan, some 2,500 troops killed 53 civilians and enslaved 72 on January 21 in Aweil East County, reports Assist Communications. Troops stole more than 1,500 cows and goats. A week earlier, troops enslaved eight children in Aweil South County. Meanwhile, the Sudanese Air Force has stepped up bombing campaigns against churches, hospitals and schools in south Sudan, which is predominantly Christian, in contrast to the mostly Muslim northern part of the country. A U.S. representative who traveled to the area says, “People live in fear of the bombing planes.” They also fear being kidnapped and forced into slavery by Arab slave masters, CBN News reports. “Other atrocities include murder, rape and deliberate starvation. Some congressmen have introduced the Sudan Peace Act, a bill that would impose sanctions on Sudan if it continues to deny outside humanitarian aid to the southern Sudanese,” CBN reports. In Touch Mission International reports that on January 7, the air force dropped 46 bombs on five communities during Sunday worship services. “In just over two months over 458 bombs had been dropped on churches, schools, medical clinics and homes-mostly in Eguatoria. Casualties have included at least 41 dead and over 100 injured. The community, which includes the Frontline Fellowship mission station and Christian Liberty High School, has now been bombed eight times in the last year, by MiGs and Antonovs of the Sudan Air Force,” states a mission press release.

Southern Baptists target China’s smaller cities
More than 200 of China’s cities have few Christians and few – or no-churches, reports Baptist Press. Individual Southern Baptist churches are adopting mid-sized Chinese cities. So far, three churches have adopted 10 cities. One church that sent a “scouting group” to one of its adopted cities is planning to send teachers, business professionals and others who can build ties and share prayer needs with the home church.

Most Russian Religious Groups Achieve Re-registration
More than 9,000 religious organizations re-registered before the December 31 deadline, but the number is only 60 percent of groups that claimed official status in the 1990s, reports Compass Direct. A Russian Ministry of Justice official tells the Russian news agency Itar-Tass that most of those still unregistered either disbanded or failed to present sufficient information to gain re-registration. Some accepted the lesser status of a religious group, a status that denies it the right to hold services in public places, own property, pass out literature, and invite foreign guests.

2000 sees Bibles in more languages
All or parts of the Bible are now available in 2,261 languages following the completion of 28 new translations last year, reports the 2000 Scripture Language Report by the United Bible Societies. Complete Bibles are now in 383 languages, 13 more than a year ago. “With an estimated 6,500 languages in the world, the number of those in which all or some part of the Bible has been published represents little more than a third of the total,” reports the UBS.

Egypt
After a judge in February acquitted most of those accused of the January 2000 massacre of Christians in Egypt’s town of El-Kosheh, the town’s Coptic bishop charges that the verdict in fact encourages Muslims to kill Christians. A court sentenced four Muslims to jail terms ranging from one to 10 years and acquitted 92 others. A dispute between a Muslim and Christian over a piece of cloth sparked the days-long massacre and looting that began December 31, 1999, and left 20 Christians and one Muslim dead. The judge blamed Coptic clergy for not stopping the riots. Prosecutors plan to appeal.

Tanzania
Armed men broke into Gaetan Zimulinda’s home in Dar Es Salaam and hacked him with knives then shot him in front of his wife and children. His wife, Evelyn, was also beaten. Zimulinda, whose ministry was supported by Christian Aid Mission, ministered to several ethnic groups in Congo and Rwanda. While neither Zimulanda’s attackers nor a motive have been identified, a Christian Aid press release notes that he spoke against the activity of Islamic fundamentalists, who he said were plotting to impose sharia on Tanzania, and who had broken into a Roman Catholic church and stolen property worth more than $4,000 in 1998 and burned two other church buildings. Robbery has been ruled out as a motive because no valuables were taken.

Nigeria, Gambia
Christians in Nigeria’s northern Zamfara state are not able to build churches or teach religion in school, so they’re leaving, reports the BBC. Zamfara was Nigeria’s first state to adopt sharia, a Koran-based legal code. Muslims there claim fear of the code has already improved society. Although Muslims in government promised that Christians would not be forced to abide by sharia, that has not been the case. Men and women may no longer travel together, and harsh punishments for breaking laws include stoning, flogging, amputation and death. Meanwhile, Compass Direct reports that Gambia’s president has announced a plan to impose sharia. Christians fear losing gains they’ve made in this small West African country and that Gambia’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, will be replaced with one that promotes Islamic fundamentalism.

World’s Largest religion
At the dawn and close of the 20th century, Christianity was the world’s largest religion, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia’s second edition, which reports that 100 years ago, Christians comprised 32 percent of the population-or 588 million. Now they account for 31 percent of the world, or 2 billion believers. Second-place Islam has grown to 1.2 billion. In that same time span, Hinduism made small gains, and Judaism and Buddhism declined. Described as an “exhaustive survey of global Christianity,” the encyclopedia notes a shift in the church’s racial composition from 81 percent white in 1900 to 55 percent non-white in 2000. But the book bears bad news: $16 billion is embezzled annually from the church (in contrast, $15 billion is given to foreign missions), and 180 million Bibles or New Testaments are lost annually because of bad planning, poor production, or “hostility.” The 1,800-page encyclopedia, produced by the World Evangelization Research Center (WERC) at the Global Evangelization Movement in Richmond, Va., weighs more than 13 pounds and costs about $300.

Human trafficking profitable
Modern-day slavery exists in the form of smuggling women and children for black-market labor and prostitution, according to the Moscow Times. Italy’s anti-mafia police are investigating trafficking of internal organs of poor immigrants. The paper reports that human trafficking is the second-biggest source of income for organized crime, after narcotrafficking.

Diverse religion in Iran
Muslims account for 98.5 percent of Iran’s 69 million people, but among the remaining 1.5 percent are 800,000 Christians. Of them are 50,000 Catholics, 25,000 Anglicans, and 220,000 Armenians, which comprise the country’s largest Christian denomination, reports The Irish Times. Jews account for three-tenths of a percent of the population. Jews, Zoroastrians and Christians have one seat each reserved for them in Iran’s 270-member parliament, and the Sunni Muslims have two. But Christians there are shut out of government jobs and are forced to keep to themselves and look to one another for work. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, increasing numbers of them are leaving the country.

Brazil’s corruption impossible to fix
A commission of Brazilian lawmakers looking in to corruption and organized crime found that it permeates society and accused 824 people of a plethora of crimes, including narcotrafficking, arms trafficking and tax evasion. The Christian Science Monitor reports the commission’s conclusion that drug-related corruption is so widespread there that it defies a fix short of calling in the military and restructuring and rearming the country’s police. One commission member warned that society cannot put up with the problem much longer. Commissioners uncovered the roles played in money laundering and other crimes by politicians, the police and other prominent people. One human rights advocate says of the findings, “There is a high degree of infiltration of corruption among authorities who should be fighting drug trafficking but are instead facilitating” it. On the brighter side, the report names many who previously had been immune from scrutiny.

Britain’s aged leaving the church
No longer are the elderly counted as pillars of shrinking church congregations, reports The Guardian. According to a 20-year study, less than half call religion important, in contrast to 75 percent in 1980. “The findings contradict the assumption that people turn to religion more actively as they confront approaching death,” the publication writes. Also at play is the aging of the 1960s generation. A researcher says, “This appears to be part of a general questioning of authority in society.” One retiree told The Guardian, “Roman Catholic and (Church of England) faiths are increasingly irrelevant to many people. It’s not death, but dying that most people now fear.”

Kenya’s woes
Government and aid agencies have paid little attention to the Northeastern Province in Kenya, which is inhabited by nomadic pastoralists. Livestock trade is the area’s main economy. Kenya is listed among the world’s poorest countries, and those in the Northeastern Province fare even worse, with adult literacy less than 40 percent. A three-year drought has claimed animals on which the people relied for survival, so thievery is up.

Cyberchurch gaining popularity
Religious websites and e-mail are helping church and synagogue members in their spiritual walks, the Miami Herald reports. They use the Internet to make prayer requests, read sermons, visit with their fellow faithful and find places of worship.

New rudeness in Japan
Mobile phones are becoming a threat to Japan’s tradition of politeness. Solemn “Coming of Age Day” ceremonies for 20-year-olds were disrupted by people talking loudly on their phones. “What they lack is self-discipline,” laments a university professor who complains that his students refuse to comply with his requests not to talk on their phones during class.

Egypt buckles up
Egypt’s cars must have seat belts, says a law that took effect January 1. Many jalopies had no seat belts, so to comply with the law, car owners are having the safety features installed. Seat belts that cost $5 in December now cost six times that, while imported belts cost around $90. Many homemade belts are unsafe for use, but the law did not set quality standards.

Cruising the info superhighway in Africa
Excluding South Africa, only 25,000 computers in sub-Saharan Africa are connected to the Internet, even though 780 million live there. Few in Kenya can afford to buy a computer, but hundreds of public cybercafes are opening shop. E-mail is a popular feature, but many are checking Websites for visa and scholarship information and ways to leave the country. “It’s sad, but they see it as the only way to move on,” says one cybercafe worker.

North Korea’s potential burden
Uniting the two Koreas won’t be like the former East and West Germany, diplomatic observers tell Newsweek. Bearing North Korea’s economic burden would prove “catastrophic” for South Korea because of the income disparity between the two countries. Rescuing North Korea could cost $1 trillion.

Suffering in Sudan
Civil war and worsening of drought are causing serious food and water shortages that threaten more than 3.2 million people in this embattled African country. The United Nation’s World Food Program is seeking to double the food given to relief efforts that target twice the number of people it served there in 2000. WFP is airlifting food to those in the hardest-hit areas.

Malaria still kills
More than 400 million people around the world get malaria each year. Most of the 3 million who die of the mosquito-borne illness are children. Some drugs formerly used to fight malaria are no longer effective against strains found in Asia, Africa and South America.

Drug-resistant TB threatens world
Mycobacterium tuberculosis threatens Russia’s prison population, 10 percent of which have active cases of the deadly disease spread by coughs and sneezes of its carriers, reports Time Magazine. Twenty percent of the cases involve drug-resistant strains of the disease, which has moved from prisons into Russia’s general population. Health care workers fear that the disease will soon spread outside Russia.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law
Christians and some Muslim sects united to demonstrate against a law that calls for immediate arrest of anybody accused of defaming Islam. Police responded with tear gas and batons. Christians complain that the law is unfairly aimed at them. Pakistan’s military ruler attempted to force officials to investigate blasphemy charges levied against alleged violators before reporting them to the police, but hardline religious groups that favor the law forced him to back down, the BBC reports.

Weather cripples Moldova
Moldova, among the poorest countries of the former Soviet bloc, suffered a devastating December ice storm that toppled 36,000 electrical poles and cut power to 574 towns and villages. In January, more than 170 of those communities were still without power, which was not expected to be restored until last month. A severe drought had already depleted Moldova’s food supplies. Says Victor Pavlovski, leader of the Pentecostal Union of Moldova and president of the Pentecostal seminary in Moldova, in an Assemblies of God press release: “People are fighting for survival. High unemployment, low salaries, high prices and many other negative factors are forcing people to think of going elsewhere in search of a better life.” Already, one in five Moldovans is employed outside the country. “Such conditions have a negative effect on family life,” Pavlovski says. “How can a family be strong if someone is working outside the country and lives for three to five years without seeing his or her spouse and children?”

Farm animals endangered
As many as a third of domesticated animals may become extinct, warns the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. A decade-long U.N. study found that breeds of cattle, goats, sheep, buffalo, yaks, pigs, horses and rabbits are in peril, and for birds such as chickens, ducks and geese, the endangered breeds have risen from 51 percent in 1995 to 63 percent in 1999, reports Time Magazine. The reason: the developed world has exported well-fed, fast-growing breeds to the underdeveloped world, and the centuries-old local breeds that have adapted to harsh local conditions are interbred with the new breeds, or replaced by them. But the new breeds can’t cope with poorer food and water and simply don’t thrive. An FAO official says, “We are learning that, over time, it is more productive, sustainable and environmentally relevant to encourage the further development of locally adapted livestock genetics.”

Muslim morality patrol in Kenya
Members of the Muslim Mungiki sect in Kenya have been jailed for beating women who wear pants, which they deem “un-African.” Mungikis in September tried to burn a Freemason hall in Nairobi. Mungikis are growing in popularity among poor Kenyans, and police are cracking down on them, reports the British newspaper The Independent. A national Mungiki leader says the aim of its 4 million members is to “spearhead African socialism.”

Japan’s schools loosen up
Only 3 percent of Japanese children don’t stay in school until age 18. More than a third go to college. As a nation, they number in the top five worldwide in math and science. But Japanese schools traditionally focus on rote learning and uniformity, not free thought and individualism. And in recent years, truancy and violence have increased. But starting next year, reports The Economist, about a third of primary-school guidelines dictated by government bureaucrats will be done away with in favor of looser curriculums that let local schools-and students-guide part of their own studies. And, Saturday morning classes will end in hopes of students becoming involved in extracurricular activities. Some fear, however, that the West is sabotaging Japanese tradition and bringing in lower moral and educational standards.

Living together punishable in China
China is making good on its promise to get tough on bigamy and adultery, evidenced by a Shanghai court’s sentence of a man to eight months in prison and his live-in to three months for bigamy, although the man had never married a girlfriend he previously lived with. The court ordered the pair-who had been living together 4 years and have a child-to stop living together, reports the BBC. China’s government says the family is the key to social stability. Observers speculate that parliament nixed a call by China’s Women’s Federation to criminalize adultery. Jilted first wives’ complaints have led to the government getting involved. In one province, mistresses are demanding inheritance rights. Adulterous affairs are blamed for Shanghai’s high murder rate, says the BBC. Russian president lauds Christian values
The celebration of 2,000 years of Christianity has united those who cherish Christian values, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his message on Orthodox Christmas, Radio Free Europe reports. In the new era, he said he hopes friendship, tolerance and mutual understanding will grow and flourish. These traditions “have always been inherent in our multinational and multi-confessional country,” he says.

Europe needs values
Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, shared with German Protestant leaders his concerns about the lack of common binding values on the continent. As the European Union expands, values, including religious values, are needed, reports Idea Evangelical News Agency.

March 26, 2001