Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world.
In today's edition:
'Institue of Campus Revival and Awakening' Set for Yale University
Nationalist Hindus Urge State: Fight “Terrorism” of Christian Evangelization
Ministry Work Remains Strong in Iraq despite Violence
Resurrecting the Spirit of Easter to Help the Homeless
'Institue of Campus Revival and Awakening' Set for Yale University
An institute to help college campus ministry leaders understand revival and awakening - and to help bring revival to their own campuses - has been scheduled for June 21-28 at Yale University. "The Institute of Campus Revival and Awakening" is sponsored by Collegiate Impact, Campus Renewal Ministries and The Center for World Revival and Awakening. "The institute will focus on spiritual breakthroughs of the past, as well as current issues, to prepare and equip participants for campus transformation in the present," said Dave Warn, founder and director of Collegiate Impact. The institute, limited to 70 participants, is designed for full-time leaders of denominational and parachurch campus ministries, such as Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, The Navigators, The Christian Union, Baptist Student Union, Reformed University Fellowship and Chi Alpha. Campus ministry leaders of Christian universities and colleges also are among likely attendees. Topics to be explored include America's four "Great Awakenings;” the theological, historical and practical underpinnings of revival and awakening; campus revival in relation to intellectualism and anti-intellectual; postmodernism: help or hindrance; and more. The institute is being held at Yale because many Ivy League schools were founded on Christian principles, with an expressed Christian mission.
Nationalist
Hindus Urge State: Fight “Terrorism” of Christian Evangelization
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary movement of nationalist, Hindu youth is “worried” about the “terrorism and anti-national activities” taking place in Kerala, which “are on the increase because of policies to protect minorities.” The accusation is leveled at the Christian minority: the southern state of Kerala has the highest percentage of Christians in India and its chief minister is a Christian despite the fact that the provincial government has a Hindu majority. The RSS statement was made by Mohan Bhagwat, RSS secretary-general, as he was presenting the annual report of the movement’s activities for the year 2005-2006. While presenting the report to the press, the secretary called on the government to stop “appeasement measures which make the burden of minorities in India heavier.” He reiterated his accusations against Christian missionaries, “who must give an account of the money they have and which is supplied them by overseas groups who want the fragmentation of the country.” Interviewed by AsiaNews, John Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Union, said: “The vocabulary of these leaders is simplistic -- every opponent of their cultural ideology of hindutva hegemony and their political ideology of myopic hyper-nationalism is either a terrorist or a conspirator… Year, after year, the RSS annual report never ceases to amaze me… Their annual report is no other than a series of proclamations by a group of powerful caste leaders, who control a paramilitary group and its organization with a system of religious allegiance, coercion and pure terror.”
