Religion Today Summaries – June 4, 2003
Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:
- Court in India Rules Against Forced Government Religious Survey
- Study Finds Two-Thirds of Immigrants are Christian
- Jordanian Christian Killed in Attack in Lebanon
- In Lake Placid, CP Missions Boost Local Ministry, Incoming Volunteers
Court in India Rules Against Forced Government Religious Survey
Vishal Arora, Baptist Press News
The High Court in India's Ghujarat state issued a desist notice May 29 to the government and police officials who were conducting a census among Christians. The state government had restarted gathering information in villages, heightening concerns among Christians: that census information will be used by militant Hindu organizations to cause trouble in an area that suffered 443 major clashes between religious groups in the recent past. Earlier, the state carried out a similar survey, and Christians saw it as a build-up to the anti-conversion bill, stirring controversy across India. Officers, often in civilian dress, asked about the background of some students living in a retreat center, the kind of food and facilities provided and whether any of the residents are converts from Hinduism. The All India Christian Council filed a petition challenging the census. The head of the Catholic retreat center told the news service that the officials were "not interested in gathering genuine information…Rather, the officials plied domestic servants with peculiar questions about the functioning of Christian institutions in the region…[some] were even asked if they have been converted to Christianity and if the institution forces villagers to convert." This is the fourth attempt, despite three High Court orders, by the Gujarat government to gather information that is not even available to census officials. (www.bpnews.net)
Study Finds Two-Thirds of Immigrants are Christian
Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News Service
Nearly two-thirds of new immigrants to the United States are Christian, fueled mostly by Catholics coming from Latin America, according to research sponsored by several government agencies. Forty-two percent of immigrants are Catholic, 19 percent are Protestant and 4 percent are Eastern Orthodox, according to a study of almost 1,000 adult immigrants in 1996. Eight percent are Muslim, 4 percent are Buddhist, 3 percent are Jewish, 3 percent are Hindu, and 1 percent claim other religions. While the percentage of immigrants who are Christian is lower than in the general U.S. population (82 percent), the percentage of immigrants who are Catholic is nearly twice the national percentage of Catholics. The 16 percent of immigrants from non-Judeo-Christian faiths is four times higher than the national average of about 4 percent. Fifteen percent of immigrants claimed no religion. The National Institutes of Health, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the National Science Foundation funded the research.
Jordanian Christian Killed in Attack in Lebanon
Compass Direct
An Arab convert to Christianity was killed in a bomb blast on May 6 outside his Tripoli apartment, adjacent to the home of a European missionary family thought to have been targeted in the attack. Jamil Ahmed al-Rifai, 28, died instantly when a 4.5-pound bomb exploded just before midnight in a suburb of Tripoli, Lebanon’s northern port city. The Jordanian Christian was an innocent victim of the attack which Dutch missionary Gerrit Griffioen, who survived the attack, said was "almost 100 percent certain" to be religiously motivated. Griffioen told the Dutch Associated Press on May 7 that he had been "repeatedly threatened" during his 20 years of ministry in Lebanon. Al-Rifai, who had left Jordan in 1997 because of pressure from authorities over his conversion to Christianity, had lived and studied in Lebanon for six years. This is the second attack against Christian missionaries in Lebanon during the past six months. Tripoli is a known center of Sunni Muslim militancy in Lebanon, still recovering from a 16-year civil war that left the populace heavily armed. Although the Beirut central government has regained control of two-thirds of the country, security forces have been unable to curtail ongoing acts of violence. (http://www.compassdirect.org/)
In Lake Placid, CP Missions Boost Local Ministry, Incoming Volunteers
Karen L. Willoughby, Baptist Press News
In this international sports venue, volunteers in Lake Placid are drawing athletes to an awareness of their hunger for God. North Country Ministries exemplifies some of the creative ways Southern Baptists are using the Cooperative Program -- CP Missions -- to reach people with the good news that they are loved by God. "We mobilize Christians to reach out to the lost in places they never expect us to be," said Derek Spain, director of North Country Ministries "We meet them at sporting events, along hiking trails, in coffeehouses. We find ways to serve them, to meet a need…A simple friendly greeting many times is all it takes to open up the door to share the Gospel." Spain works with secular agencies to place volunteers at strategic locations during the region's frequent international events -- "strategic" meaning where volunteers will be noted for their helpfulness. For example, two-person teams of volunteers shuttle athletes from the airport to the games. One drives; the other establishes camaraderie. The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists' longstanding channel for funding global missions. Lake Placid Baptist Church gives 10 percent of its offerings to CP Missions, in addition to the major contribution it makes financially and with volunteers. "CP gifts allow us to witness to the world without ever leaving Lake Placid," Spain said. (www.bpnews.net)
Originally published June 04, 2003.
