Photo from New Zealand gives new meaning to "the lease of these":

Updated: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Bob Fu, head of China Aid, an agency that advocates for religious freedom and human rights inside China, has confirmed that he believes that Gao Zhisheng is alive and not in prison.

From the China Aid website:

ChinaAid President Bob Fu confirmed the reports. "After examining Gao's voice in the interview, I too am convinced that it is Gao." ChinaAid has waged an international campaign to Free Gao for more than a year, circulating petitions and calling on the international community to raise awareness for Gao's cause. Last week, prominent human rights attorney Dr. Li Baiguang joined President Fu in meeting with high-ranking members of the British and European Parliaments in London and Brussels, calling awareness to Gao's cause.

Gao's wife Geng He and two children were overwhelmed with emotion and relief as they spoke with him on Sunday morning. Tthe children could not stop crying. Earlier today, Geng He released a statement, appealing to the Chinese Government to allow Gao Zhisheng to reunite with his family in the United States. According to reliable sources, the pressure on Geng He and the family has increased during Gao's absence. Reports indicate Geng He's parents have been severely harassed in recent months, due to their relationship to son-in-law Gao Zhisheng.

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Today [March 29, 2010], CT readers will be surprised to discover reliable reports that dissident Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng is alive and apparently residing in northern China at the moment. But exactly how free he is remains an open question.

The Associated Press late Sunday night reports:

BEIJING — The wife of a dissident Chinese lawyer missing for more than a year confirmed Monday that he is alive and appealed to the government to allow him to go to the United States.
Gao Zhisheng resurfaced suddenly Sunday, saying he is now living in northern China, but it was not clear under what conditions. Since he went missing on Feb. 4, 2009, from his hometown in central China, the government has given vague explanations about Gao's whereabouts, heightening worries he had been jailed or tortured as he was previously. "I am tremendously relieved that my husband is alive," Gao's wife Geng He said in a statement issued by Freedom Now, a non-governmental organization that represents prisoners of conscience. "I am so happy that my children were able to speak to him. My children and I have not seen their father since January 2009. We urge the Chinese government to allow Zhisheng to leave the country and be reunited with us in the United States." Geng and her two children fled China a month before Gao was detained and now [live] in the United States.

Gao has been the focal point of an intense campaign for his release. Gao's wife and two children were granted asylum in the United States. In the New York Times article for Monday's edition, Gao in a short cell phone interview made these remarks about his family:

Reached on his cellphone, Mr. Gao sounded upbeat but guarded, suggesting that he had been instructed not to speak to the news media. He said that he was going to spend time with his extended family in Shanxi Province and that he had no plans to return to his work as a rights defender. “Right now I just need to calm down and lead a quiet life,” he said.

Then he turned melancholy and made an allusion to his wife and children in the United States. “They are like kites that have had their strings cut, and now they are floating far off into the sky,” he said before hanging up.

CT online will update this story later on Monday with comments from Christian groups that have been advocating for Gao's release.

Tokunboh Adeyemo, retired general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa, died today.

Adeyemo oversaw the African Bible Commentary, a commentary with contributions from 70 African scholars. He was also the executive director of the Centre for Biblical Transformation in Kenya.

Moses Owojaiye has written a tribute on his blog on African Christianity.

Adeyemo was an African Christian statesman of high repute. He was a detribalized Christian and a true son of Africa. Adeyemo was a very brilliant, level-headed and one of the true African-Christian leaders with exemplary virtues.

... According to him, “Africa’s problem can be summarized in one word: ‘leadership’ – inept leadership, corrupt leadership, selfish leadership. We need leaders who do not focus on greed, but see themselves as servants of the people.

Less than two weeks after an attack in Nigeria that killed 500 Christians, Muslim Fulani herdsmen today unleashed more horrific violence on two Christian villages in Plateau state, killing 13 persons, including a pregnant woman and children.

In attacks presumably over disputed property but with a level of violence characteristic of jihadist method and motive, men in military camouflage and others in customary clothing also burned 20 houses in Byei and Baten villages, in the Riyom Local Government Area of the state, about 45 kilometers (29 miles) from the state capital, Jos.

Christians in neighboring villages are living in fear of possible attacks by the herdsmen, who have not been deterred by the joint military and police security team enforcing curfew in the state. The ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, have long faced off with Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land.

The slaughter comes after a similar attack on March 7 on Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat, three villages in Jos South and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas where hundreds of villagers were struck with machetes and burned to death.

“The assailants armed with dangerous weapons attacked the two communities simultaneously at about 1 a.m. on Wednesday, March 17,” Brig. Gen. Donald Oji said in a press statement, adding that timely deployment of troops averted further carnage. “Seven of the assailants have been arrested, while troops are still on the trail of more of them. Items recovered from the assailants include three locally made short guns with cartridges, bow and arrows, machetes, knives and cutlasses.”

State Gov. Jonah Jang condemned the killings, alleging that some unnamed persons were fueling misunderstanding among communities in conflict. Because the style of killing is typical of jihadist fundamentalists, Christian leaders suspect Islamic extremists are encouraging the attacks, throwing religious gas on low-burning land and ethnic conflicts.

Gao Zhisheng, the Christian human rights activists, has gone missing since February 4 of last year. CT reported on his story in detail here. China has refused to let anyone make contact with him, so the fear has been that he has been killed--a threat prison officials made during his last imprisonment if he revealed how they had tortured him.

The New York Times reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's comments on Gao, though rare, were opaque at best.

Now, the BBC reports that Gao's brother in China says he spoke by phone with his brother on Feb. 28 or March 1. Read the BBC story for a complete update.

If you’ve ever read an article about St. Patrick’s Day, it probably talked about how little the celebration has to do with the actual Patrick.

I, for one, have grown tired of the annual rehashing of how he didn’t really drive the snakes from Ireland and didn’t really use the shamrock to explain the Trinity.

Still, it’s worth pondering for a moment why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day far more than, say, St. Augustine’s Day or St. Athanasius’s Day, even though those two men probably had more influence in shaping Christianity across the world. Put simply, it’s because Patrick didn’t shape Christianity across the world—at least directly. (Though one can argue that his work in shaping Irish Christianity later bore fruit that would affect the faith through the ages.) He’s a large but local figure. And, to over-simplify a bit, it was mostly Irish Americans rather than Irish Irish who made the day a festival of national pride.

Ironically, the socio-political meanings of St. Patrick’s Day—a pushback against anti-immigrant sentiment and a protest of British rule—have now been as lost in the bacchanal as the historical Patrick, if not more so.

Imagine for a moment that we “took back” St. Patrick’s Day. The groups that launch “Defend Christmas” campaigns every year could have a second market here. The question is, What would St. Patrick’s Day be about, if not nationalism and booze? Some ideas:

This article has been posted on Christianity Today's main site.

"Neighbors," shot on location in Jos, Nigeria, examines what happens when segments of a community oppose one another in a standoff that appears to have no solution. This is a story not only of Jos, but of places throughout the world where historical differences of tribe, race, and religion lead to violent conflicts.

Related Elsewhere:
Previous Christianity Today coverage of the January Jos riots includes:

• More Human Smoke Rises in Jos | This week's deadly riots struck home for the academic dean of ECWA Theological Seminary. By Sunday B. Agang (January 21, 2010)
• The Truth About the Religious Violence in Jos, Nigeria | It's not easy to state who started it or how many died. But the horror for those affected is clear. By Craig S. Keener (January 21, 2010)
• 'In Jos We Are Coming Face to Face in Confrontation with Satan' | The Anglican Archbishop of Jos speaks out on last week's deadly attacks and the media coverage that followed. By Benjamin A. Kwashi (January 26, 2010)

Previous Christianity Today coverage of the 2008 Jos riots includes:

• Fault Line of Faith | Six pastors killed, 40 churches razed in Jos's most recent violence (Jan. 15, 2009)
• Diagnosing Jos | Political problems don't always have political solutions. (December 23, 2008)
• Violence Smothers Jos in Smoke | Peace eludes us. (December 3, 2008)

Coverage of earlier violence includes:

• Mutual Mayhem | A plea for peace and truth in the madness of Nigeria. (Nov. 3, 2004)
• Religious Riots in Nigeria Leave Hundreds Dead | Leaders condemn the use of religion as a tool for violence. (Oct. 2, 2001)
• Nigeria On the Brink of Religious War | Northern states adopt Islamic law, increasing Christian-Muslim tensions. (Dec. 16, 1999)