Religion Today Summaries – June 25, 2003
Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:
- Christian Groups Hail Upholding of Anti-Porn Filters
- Minnesota Family Awaits Word on Hmong Pastor Jailed in Laos
- Archbishop of Canterbury Seeks to Calm Storm over Gay Bishop
- Photographs Depict Physical Abuse in China
Christian Groups Hail Upholding of Anti-Porn Filters
Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service
WASHINGTON -- Christian groups hailed the Supreme Court decision Monday (June 23) that upholds a law requiring public libraries to include anti-pornography filters in their computers. In a 6-3 ruling, the justices upheld the Children's Internet Protection Act. "Libraries should be safe-zones of quiet and learning for children," said Family Research Council President Ken Connor. `No filtering software is going to work 100 percent of the time, and when necessary, sites that are mistakenly blocked can be unblocked. On the other hand, it may take a lifetime to undo the damage suffered by a child exposed to an obscene image." The American Center for Law and Justice also welcomed the decision. "We're delighted that the Supreme Court determined that the government does have a compelling interest to protect children from pornography on the Internet," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ. The American Library Association, which was concerned that the law amounted to censorship and some filters would block valuable information, stated its disappointment in the decision. "In light of this, we expect libraries that decide they must accept filters to inform their patrons how easily the filters can be turned off," said Judith Krug, director of the association's intellectual freedom office.
Minnesota Family Awaits Word on Hmong Pastor Jailed in Laos
Michael Ireland, ASSIST News Service
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA -- Ever since a St. Paul, Minnesota, pastor's arrest in his native Laos earlier this month, social activists have turned him into a living emblem of the need to address human-rights issues in that country. They have called for the release of the Rev. Naw-Karl Mua through letters, protests and news reports, demanding that the Bush administration suspend efforts to normalize trade relations with Laos. U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., urged President Bush Friday to halt further talks of trade reform with Laos in light of reported human-rights abuses and the pastor's arrest. "U.S. citizens are said to go missing in Laos without any cooperation from the government there to find them," Coleman wrote in a letter. Mua’s wife, Sue Mua, said she finds it difficult to believe that her husband went into the jungle of northeastern Laos to gather evidence of abuses as some human-rights advocates have asserted publicly. "He doesn't talk about all that," she said. (http://www.assistnews.net/)
Archbishop of Canterbury Seeks to Calm Storm over Gay Bishop
Robert Nowell, Religion News Service
LONDON -- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Monday (June 23) tried to calm the storm created by the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as suffragan Bishop of Reading in the diocese of Oxford, England. In a letter to the Church of England's diocesan and suffragan bishops, Williams said the appointment would not short-circuit the current debate within the church over what its stance should be on homosexual relationships. Williams said he did not believe the appointment weakened the commitment of the Church of England's bishops to the common mind they expressed in the 1991 report "Issues in Human Sexuality." "Nor do I believe that Canon John's appointment either subverts current discipline or forecloses future discussion," Williams said. "It would certainly be deplorable if it were assumed that the existing approach has been abandoned by stealth." Concerns over the appointment raised by evangelicals in the diocese of Oxford, Williams said, were "theologically serious, intelligible and by no means based on narrow party allegiance or on prejudice" and must be considered fully. "To consider these with prayerfulness and maturity needs time and a measure of calm. It is not for anyone outside the diocese to override or pre-empt what is obviously a painful and complex process."
Photographs Depict Physical Abuse in China
Charisma News Service
Photos smuggled out of the country have chillingly documented some of the physical abuse endured by members of the underground church at the hands of security police. Pictures handed to the Voice of the Martyrs (VM) show one woman being jabbed in the face with an electric prod, another having a shoe-cleaning rag stuffed into her mouth, and a man being forced to drink water to make his stomach swell. The harrowing photographs have been published in VM's magazine, which names both the Christians being abused and their assailants. The photographer, who told the officers that the pictures would be sent to their superiors to show their "conscientious work," has since gone into hiding, said VM. Another photograph shows one of those arrested suspended from a pole held by two police officers. After several hours hanging by his legs and wrists, the man's wrists were bleeding, said the magazine. The arrests and torture took place in Hunan province, which VM says has the heaviest concentration of Christians in China. The ministry's report also tells of a female house church leader who was beaten to death while in custody, and others burned with cigarettes. The photographs have also been reproduced by The Rutherford Institute (RI), which said that the pictures indicate "increasing persecution" in China. (http://www.charismanews.com/)
Originally published June 25, 2003.
