Religion Today Summaries – December 8, 2003
Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:
- Egypt Releases Tortured Christian Woman
- New 'Clergy Leadership Network' Targets Political Conservatives
- Central Africa, Southeast Asia Anglicans Break Ties With Episcopalians
- Operation Christmas Child Targets Sudan
Egypt Releases Tortured Christian Woman
Stefan J. Bos, ASSIST News Service
A 30-year old woman who became a symbol of suffering endured by Muslim converts to Christianity was freed after nearly two months of torture and interrogation, a human rights groups announced Thursday, Dec. 4. The Barnabas Fund, which assists persecuted Christians in mainly Muslim nations, said police decided to free Mariam Girgis Makar, the last to be released of 22 converts who were detained between Oct. 21 and Oct. 24. Makar, "who was seriously abused while in custody, "was bailed for 1000 Egyptian pounds ($162)," reported Barnabas Fund, adding that "all of those released are now on bail, but charges against them still have not been formalized." In a statement Wednesday, Dec. 3, her earlier released husband Yusef Samuel Makari, 42, said he and his wife were interrogated and beaten while in custody in Cairo. "The conditions were very bad...Sometimes we were badly treated and insulted in front of each other. She was tortured more than me," he said. One convert, Mr. Issam Abdul Fathr, who was suffering from diabetes and at least one other medical condition, died recently while being transferred from a police station to hospital, according to church sources.
New 'Clergy Leadership Network' Targets Political Conservatives
Baptist Press
A newly launched "Clergy Leadership Network" is seeking to become, as the Associated Press described it, "the Christian Coalition of the left." The Washington-based network's 24-member national committee includes a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jimmy Allen, alongside a former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, John A. Buehrens, and the National Council of Churches' former general secretary, Joan Campbell Brown. The "CLN" network is calling for "dramatically different" direction for the United States. The network’s founding CEO, Albert M. Pennybacker, in a statement of the Clergy Leadership Network's aims, stopped short of calling for President Bush's defeat in next year's election. But he said the organization will pursue "collaborative relationships with the Democratic Party, Republicans who seek change and other political groups who share these goals," such as countering "economic policies that favor the wealthy over the poor" and an "us against the world" approach to international relations. The network's activities, as reported by the Associated Press, will include issue ads - if funds permit. It will not endorse candidates, although individual CLN members may do so. "The normal avenues of citizen participation," as Pennybacker put it, "are fully open to the clergy."
Central Africa, Southeast Asia Anglicans Break Ties with Episcopalians
Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News Service
Two more Anglican provinces have severed ties with the Episcopal Church in the United States over its decision to consecrate an openly gay bishop. Archbishop Bernard Malango of Central Africa told top U.S. prelate Bishop Frank Griswold that he would no longer meet with Griswold as a fellow leader in the Anglican Communion. Griswold supported the election of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and presided at his consecration service on Nov. 2. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion. "Calling sin `righteousness' does not make it so," Malango said in a stern Nov. 12 letter. "It is leading people away from Christ. I can think of no greater betrayal for a bishop or an archbishop." Similar action has been taken by Anglicans in Nigeria and Uganda, which are the Anglican Communion's second and third-largest churches. On Nov. 24, the Anglican bishops of Southeast Asia said they will not treat Robinson's supporters as "brothers and sisters in Christ until and unless they repent of their action and return to embrace biblical truths."
Operation Christmas Child Targets Sudan
Agape Press
More than 100,000 shoe boxes filled with toys and gospel literature are headed for children in war-torn Sudan. Transport planes filled with the boxes collected by Operation Christmas Child leave this weekend for Sudan. Rev. Franklin Graham will fly to that country to help hand out the shoe boxes to children. Graham, who has been highly critical of the religion of Islam since 9-11, says he was invited to Sudan -- a Muslim nation -- by the African nation's foreign minister to meet that nation's president. After clarifying that it was indeed him they wanted to invite, Franklin was told the Sudan government desired him to bring his Christmas program there because they wanted him to "part of the peace process." Operation Christmas Child is planning to deliver seven million shoe boxes individually packed by American donors to 95 countries around the globe.
Originally published December 08, 2003.
