Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:
Australian Ministers Charged with ‘Blasphemy’
Baptists Resume Aid to Iraq
Bill Introduced to Protect Military Academy Mealtime Prayers
Baptist Pastor Not Amused by America's 'Addiction'
Australian Ministers Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ by Islamic Group
Charisma News Service
Two pastors could receive significant fines if they are found guilty of committing blasphemy against Islam. According to The Barnabas Fund (BF), Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot were taken to court by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) and three Australian Muslims after making critical statements about Islam on a Web site and at a Christian seminar held in March 2002. The case is due to be heard by a court in the state of Victoria, located in the country's southeast region, later this month. Nalliah and Scot are accused of violating the Victorian Racial and Religious Vilification Act, which was passed in 2001 to promote intercultural and interfaith harmony in Victoria. The result of the case could have ramifications in other parts of Australia. Many Christians in Victoria fear that the ICV is using the case to stifle all criticism of Islam or Muslims, BF said. "This has clearly caused pain, confusion and disbelief in many parts of the church, and a sense of rightness in other parts." (www.charismanews.com)
Baptists Resume Aid to Iraq
Agape Press
Efforts by Southern Baptists to deliver food supplies to families in Iraq are set to resume. The outreach had been stalled since August because of intelligence reports that humanitarian workers might become targets. Mark Kelly of the SBC's International Mission Board tells Family News In Focus that more than 20,000 boxes of food were being held up, each with enough supplies to feed a family for a month. "It is a little bit safer now, and the threat has diminished, so they're going to move cautiously toward resuming the food projects," Kelly says. The food will be delivered by small teams of lay-people from the United States.
Bill Introduced to `Protect' Mealtime Prayers at Military Academies
Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News service
A North Carolina congressman has introduced a bill that would allow students at the nation's three military academies to conduct voluntary prayer before meals. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said his bill will "ensure the protection of our future military heroes' First Amendment rights" for students at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy. "I find it incredibly ironic that liberal organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union are attempting to take away the very freedoms that these students are willing to go to war to protect," Jones said when he introduced the bill on Sept. 4. Jones said the traditional student-led dinner prayers are "under attack" after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that similar prayers at the Virginia Military Institute are unconstitutional. The ACLU has notified the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., that it is "monitoring" its mealtime prayers, but has not filed formal legal action. "If a student wants to give thanks before a meal, he or she should be allowed to do so without the ACLU coming after them," said Jones, who has also introduced a bill that would allow tax-exempt churches to endorse political candidates.
Baptist Pastor Not Amused by America's 'Addiction'
Fred Jackson, Agape Press
A Southern Baptist preacher says America has developed an addiction to entertainment -- and that addiction has even found its way into churches. Kelly Boggs says there is little in American society that has not been tainted by what he calls "the insatiable desire to be amused." Besides television and the Internet, the demand to be entertained has also found its way into political campaigns, the presentation of professional sports -- and now the church. Boggs, a pastor in Oregon, tells Baptist Press there was a time when a church was evaluated by its commitment to biblical truth, but not anymore. Now, he contends, the audience demands services with flawless musical presentations and sermons "peppered with humor." Conviction, Boggs says, is forced to compete with amusement. According to Pastor Boggs, the danger in all this is a lost desire to think critically -- where emotion rather than fact becomes the supreme barometer, and where the "sensational trumps the substantive." The preacher concludes with an ominous warning, stating that a society addicted to entertainment is made up of people who are obsessed with their own pleasure.
Originally published October 08, 2003.
