Update (May 10): The result of a two-day interfaith dialogue in the Tanzania capital Dar-es Salaam is a ban on all types of religious hate speech, Sabahi Online reports. Religious leaders reached the decision as a way of easing religious tensions in the country, which World Watch Monitor says is "no longer being considered 'safe,'" even though it once was a model of African peace.

Meanwhile, Sabahi also reports that courts have dismissed charges against one suspect in the bombing at an Arusha church last Sunday.
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A bomb exploded during a high-profile church service in Tanzania last Sunday, raising fears that the violence perpetrated by militant Islamists in Nigeria could be spreading to other parts of Africa.

The attack during the inaugural mass at newly built Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Arusha killed two people and injured 30 others.

Citing stagnant church attendance and an increasing number of abandoned buildings, the Sudanese government has announced that it no longer will issue licenses to Christian churches.

Two Brazilian missionaries held in a Senegal jail without charge for five months were released on bail this month, yet still face accusations they operated youth programs without permits.

The Brazilian National Organisation of Evangelical Lawyers for the Defence of Fundamental Civic Freedoms (ANAJURE) says a final judgment on their case is expected within 30 days of their April 5 release.

The latest terrorist threats to come out of Nigeria aren't being propagated by Boko Haram, the militant Islamist group bent on eradicating Christianity (and other Western influences). Instead, the threats from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) are being made "in defence of Christianity."

Christian leaders in Africa are answering God's call to care for the "least of these" in an unusual way: by protecting widows and orphans from surging accusations of witchcraft.

Update (April 16): World Watch Monitor reports that 20 people have been killed in the Central African Republic capital city of Bangui, "where an alliance of rebel groups took power last month. Seven of the victims were attending services in the Evangelical Federation of Brothers church on Sunday."
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Update (Mar. 28): HCJB Global reports that a partner radio station in Bangui has been "overrun by looters" and "stripped of equipment essential to continue operation."
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(WWM) A three-month-old rebel uprising in the Central African Republic (CAR) swept into the country’s capital Sunday, ousting the president and leaving ransacked Christian homes and churches in its wake.

Organizers of Nigeria's state-sponsored pilgrimages for Christians are patting themselves on the back for a smooth year in which not one pilgrim absconded to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Rome, or other destinations.

However, they also announced that no new slots are available for this year's Easter pilgrimages.

Update (May 2): Morning Star News reports that Sudan has begun deporting Christians to South Sudan, in spite of the president's pledge to protect religious freedom in the country. Officials deported the secretary general of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference in mid-April, and other Christian worshipers say they've been given as little as 24 hours to leave the country.
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Update (April 10): World Watch Monitor (WWM) reports that the Sudanese president's call for amnesty included the release of one Christian woman. However, the same WWM dispatch states that "over the past few weeks Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) have ordered more than 100 expatriate workers suspected of being involved with Christian activities to leave the country or face deportation."
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Update (Mar. 28): Morning Star News offers a fresh report on the aerial bombing of Christian targets, reportedly by the Sudanese government.

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Sudan's president has pledged to preserve religious freedom in his proposed "100-percent' Islamic constitution, but Christians doubt the prospect in light of increasing persecution.

Disagreement between Muslims and Christians in Tanzania over the slaughtering of animals for sale led to the beheading of a pastor earlier this month. Now, in an attempt to quell tensions, a government-convened interfaith council will review policies that govern meat intended for human consumption in the east African nation.

Following an arrest earlier this month, one of Uganda's most recognized Christian leaders could face charges as a result of his retiring early to work with the Black Monday Movement, a campaign against political corruption in the government.

The fastest-growing branch of the Lutheran World Federation has officially severed ties with its longtime American and Swedish partners.

Uganda's controversial "kill-the-gays" bill is now making waves in Canada, where the federal government is reviewing international development funds allocated to an evangelical group that opposes homosexuality.

The situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) is "precarious," according to national Baptist leaders.

The world's newest country now is now home to the world's newest Bible Society chapter—which is already out of Bibles.

Update (Feb. 4): The Angolan government has suspended church activities by the UCKG for 60 days, as well as other Pentecostal churches deemed to operate in a similar manner. Criminal charges are still pending.

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A stampede during a New Year's Eve church vigil in Angola's capital Luanda killed 16 people, including at least three children, Reuters reports.

Cote d'Ivoire has overwhelmingly adopted a new policy that allows women equal rights when it comes to household responsibilities and children; however, many citizens fear that the policy will undermine the more-traditional structure of society in the West African state.

Update (Mar. 27): Deadly attacks against Nigerian Christians continue. Two suicide bombers killed at least 40 people and injured scores more at a bus park in a Christian enclave of Kano, the largest city in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.

"The bus station is primarily used by passengers heading for the mostly Christian South of the country," noted World Watch Monitor. "Five buses were destroyed, one reported to be full of people."

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Following months of deadly attacks, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is seeking legal relief from both the Nigerian federal government and the United Nation's International Criminal Court (ICC).

Update (March 1): Morning Star News reports that Mohammed Isa, a Nigerian military commander, had prior knowledge of plans to bomb St. Andrews Chapel at the Command and Staff College in Nigeria—but failed to report the knowledge and avert the November 2012 attack that killed 20 Christians.

In addition, Morning Star reports that two Islamist extremists from the Boko Haram sect have been arrested in connection with the bombing.
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Update (Mar. 4): New noise regulations in Kigali will punish loud preaching on public buses and street corners with fines, reports East African Business Week.

The central business district of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, is also having trouble with noise from churches that meet in office buildings during the work day.

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Government officials in Rwanda and Uganda are cracking down on noise pollution, telling church leaders that they must reduce worship-related noise levels or face penalties—including the risk of being shut down.

As politicians wrangle ahead of a December deadline over the still-disputed status of the oil-rich Abyei region, straddling the border of Sudan and South Sudan, local church leaders are appealing for help in the face of a potential humanitarian crisis.

(Update: Bishop Nolbert Kunonga has launched a legal counterattack in a bid to retain the churches. Background on his "rise and fall.")

Zimbabwe's highest court has ruled in favor of the country's mainstream Anglican Church, ordering bishop Nolbert Kunonga to return Anglican worship sites he seized after being excommunicated in 2007.

The Kenyan government recently approved a law that will recognize cohabitations of more than six months as legal marriages, and the new policy on "come-we-stay" unions has Christians up in arms over the controversial clause in a larger marriage bill.

Nairobi's Capitol FM reports that "'Come-we-stay' unions usually arise where a man and a woman commence living together as husband and wife and even have children without formalising of their union." But now those unions will be formalized, if the living arrangement lasts more than six months.

A controversial Ugandan bill that strengthens criminal penalties against homosexuality—and originally, in some cases, invoked the death penalty—will soon be put to a vote and is expected to pass.

The bill, first proposed in 2009, has been widely attributed to the influence of American evangelicals; however, CT has reported how American evangelical leaders condemned the bill but Ugandan Christian leaders dismissed this as cultural imperialism.

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — A “miracle herbal cure” recently attracted more than 4 million pilgrims to the home of retired Tanzanian pastor Ambilikile Mwasapile.

Now church leaders in neighboring Kenya are pressing their government to scientifically test herbal medicines that are used by millions to manage and treat diseases, saying the nontraditional therapies could be putting patients' health at risk.

(Editor's note: Open Doors research has confirmed that Christians were targeted in the killings.)

Nigerian police have arrested the "masterminds of the gruesome massacre" at a state university in Mubi, Adamawa state. The shooting killed 46 students, many of whom were Christians.

Just two weeks after Kenyan churches filed suit against their government for failing to protect them from religiously motivated violence by al Shabaab, the rebel group is suspected of attacking a church in Nairobi with grenades.

Protestant churches in Kenya are suing the country's federal government, alleging a lack of help and protection following recent attacks.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) filed suit over riots that shook Mombasa in August and destroyed four local churches. The NCCK is seeking greater protection from the East African government, claiming that it is failing in its constitutional obligation to protect all citizens.

Violence continues to plague South Africa's platinum mines, where a clash between police and miners recently killed 34 people.

The incident is part of a long-fought battle for higher wages, but the most recent violence may be fueled by religion as well. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), a breakaway union at odds with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), describes the conflict "in terms of Christian compassion for the poor and a sense that Africans have been excluded from the prosperity that mineral wealth should provide."

The leader of Ethiopia’s largest Orthodox church died Thursday after receiving treatment for an illness in recent weeks.

The pope of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Paulos, was 76 years old and had served as the Fifth Patriarch of the Ethiopian Tewahdo Orthodox Church since 1992. Paulos previously led Ethiopia’s 40 million Orthodox Christians, who constitute half of the country’s population.

Masked gunmen attacked two churches in the Kenyan city of Garissa during worship services Sunday, killing 17. The terrorist attack -- which used grenades and guns -- is the nation's worst since October, when Kenyan military forces entered Somalia to push back al-Shabaab militias.

Some analysts suggest that al-Shabaab's Islamist extremists are seeking to copy Boko Haram's terrorism campaign against Nigerian churches, and worry that it might provoke similar retaliatory violence from Christians.

Garissa is the headquarters of the eastern Kenyan province that borders Somalia, and hosts one of the world's largest refugee camps near Dadaab.

Four pastors in central Nigeria have been arrested for faking "deliverances" at a revival in order to raise money for the book launch of one of the pastors, according to Koji state police.

"This is not robbery, it is pure professionalism," said arrested pastor Chuks Ingalis Kelvin, according to the Daily Trust. "Every profession has its own method. The police have their own, lawyers have their own, even journalists have their own way. What I did is pure business and survival instinct."

Fake pastors have caused problems in many African nations such as Ghana, where a church planting boom has left denominations struggling to keep opportunists out of pulpits. "The phenomenon is serious," said Isaac Mills Owoo, South/West Sector Head of the Ghana Baptist Conference, to CT. "People with ulterior motives are entering the ministry … as a way to get rich quickly." And religious freedom protections prevent church leadership from stopping such pastors unless their activities are proven to be criminal.

Today militant Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings of three churches Sunday that killed 50 Christians and Muslims and left hundreds wounded. The bombings provoked retaliatory violence that contributed to the death toll.

This is the third weekend in a row that Nigerian churches have been attacked during Sunday morning services. Reuters FaithWorld offers a helpful roundup of recent incidents.

Reuters reported that the Christian Association of Kano, northern Nigeria’s main city, called the bombings “a clear invitation to religious war.”

CT has reported whether Nigerian Christians will fight back or keep turning the other cheek, as well as a theological middle ground proposed by Nigerian theologian Sunday Agang.

Update: The Bauchi chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria has alleged that the Nigierian military killed 8 civilians and wounded 20 while attempting to pacify crowds at the scene of the bombing.

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A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a row of Nigerian churches during Sunday morning services yesterday, killing at least 10 and wounding more than 30. The attack at Living Faith Church in Bauchi, which also damaged neighboring Harvest Field Church, is the latest in a steady stream of church bombings and shootings this year. Boko Haram claimed responsibility, according to the Associated Press and Reuters.

CT has reported how Nigerian Christians this year are debating whether to fight back or turn the other cheek. CT contributor Sunday Agang, a seminary president in Kaduna state, offers theological reflections on a third way.

The attack follows an April attack against a Christian college that killed more than 20, an Easter attack that killed more than 30, and a February attack at a denominational headquarters that killed one and injured more than 30. CT has chronicled the surge in violence since Christmas, as well as previous seasons of sectarian violence.

Pastors in Cape Town, South Africa, want the city to take a second look at a moratorium on building new churches that both parties signed two years ago.

The moratorium ended a crackdown on churches illegally built on city land; city administrators agreed to stop demolishing illegal churches as long as no more churches were built without approval.

But now the Western Cape Christian Ministers Forum (WCCMF) alleges that many of the 2,000 churches it represents are using houses for church services because the city is not providing land agreements for new churches in a timely manner, The West Cape News reported.

“There is land available,” WCCMF coordinator Derrick Mtsolo told the newspaper. “[But] the city takes too long to give the land to our churches.”

However, the City of Cape Town Property Management Directorate says it has worked regularly with the WCCMF to identify viable sites for church structures.

In yet another round of violence by gunmen suspected to be members of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, attacks on two church services in northern Nigeria left at least two dozen dead.

Sunday’s deadliest attack took place in Kano at an older section of Bayero University. Worship services held on campus were disrupted after small explosives were tossed into services, forcing the Christians to flee. Witnesses told Vanguard that gunmen waiting at the exits opened fire and killed at least 20.

A second attack in Maiduguri left five people dead. Gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a Church of Christ in Nigeria chapel.

Christianity Today reported in December that hundreds of Christians were killed last year in a surge of violence by Boko Haram. Since then, attacks have continued; the Associated Press estimates that Boko Haram has been blamed for killing more than 450 people since January.

Today, CT posted a report from contributor Sunday Agang, a provost of ECWA Theological Seminary in Kagoro, about how Christians and Muslims can work together to end Nigeria’s fatal deadlock.

As war looms between Sudan and South Sudan, Christians of southern origin living in Sudan fear retribution from its Islamic government.

As of April 8, at least half a million ethnic southerners (the majority of whom are Christian) living in Sudan are now considered foreigners if they have not registered for citizenship. Officials in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, gave southerners another 30 days to register or leave the country.

Most of those affected were refugees that fled north during the long civil war between the mostly Islamic north and the largely Christian south. The war, which ran from 1983 until the signing of a peace deal in 2005, killed nearly 2 million people. Most ethnically southern Sudanese living in Sudan have no strong ties to South Sudan, AllAfrica reported.

However, Compass Direct News reported Thursday that the Sudanese government has cut off all flights and land routes to South Sudan, trapping southerners in the north. Those attempting to board planes bound for Juba, capital of South Sudan, were turned away after officials said they required documents from Juba in order to leave.

Tensions have been escalating over the control of oil fields located along the disputed border between the two countries. South Sudan seceded peacefully last July, taking 80 percent of Sudan’s oil in the split. But now the two countries have resumed fighting.

The BBC reported last week that both sides have ceased negotiations. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir declared Sudan would give South Sudan a “final lesson by force. We will not give them an inch of our country, and whoever extends his hand over Sudan, we will cut it.”

Compass reported that Christians in Khartoum have already faced threats by Muslims in the area and that many Islamic groups are calling for the deportation of ethnic southerners. On April 9, an Islamic mob threatened to demolish a Bible school with a bulldozer, but police managed to send them away.

Christianity Today has previously covered the religious violence in Sudan, including a report on South Sudan’s vote for independence in early 2011 and a report on the signing of the peace agreement in 2005.

CT’s recent dispatch from Nigeria on how Christian leaders are debating responses to increased violence from Muslim extremists is proving to be unfortunately timely.

Today’s reported killing of up to 20 Christian mourners shows that tensions are mounting in the wake of deadly church bombings on Christmas Day, followed soon after by the bombing of an Islamic school.

In the aftermath, the Christian Association in Nigeria (CAN) called the bombings “a declaration of war on Christians and Nigeria as an entity,” adding that Christians are losing faith in the government’s ability to protect them. The youth wing of CAN warned it would retaliate against any further attacks, though older leaders are emphasizing the difference between self-defense and revenge.

Christian president Goodluck Jonathan called for Christian and Muslim leaders “to work together, because terrorism is like a cancer to the body -- it starts from somewhere and spread to all the organs of the body.” He also declared a state of emergency in parts of northern Nigeria on New Year’s Eve.

On January 3, Boko Haram issued an ultimatum and gave Christians in northern Nigeria three days to leave; CAN dismissed the threat. However, on Thursday at least eight people attending a prayer service in Gombe were killed after gunmen opened fire, and 20 more were wounded. And today gunmen opened fire on friends and family mourning the three Christians killed the day before, killing up to 20 more and injuring 15.

Nigeria is unofficially divided into the Muslim north and the Christian south, with towns like Jos, known as a regular flashpoint for violence between the two groups, in the middle. Boko Haram militants have been associated with many bombings in recent months, and are estimated to have killed at least 500 people in 2011. However, some have warned that militants claiming to be Boko Haram may not actually be affiliated with the group at all; instead, criminal groups may have adopted the name to claim responsibility for the attacks.

Southern Sudan's long-awaited day of political independence will arrive on Saturday, July 9. But the suffering of its people persists.

In the UK media, The Independent, reports, today:

The UN mission in Sudan stands accused of serious failures in its duty to protect civilians who have been killed in their hundreds during a month-long campaign of violence by the Khartoum government on its restive southern border. Eyewitnesses described to The Independent how they saw peacekeepers standing by while unarmed civilians were shot dead outside the gates of a UN base before being dragged away "like slaughtered sheep." They also said that local leaders have been handed over to government forces after seeking shelter with UN officials. The violence has driven tens of thousands of civilians into hiding in the Nuba Mountains, which are controlled by rebel fighters and where public anger at the UN has left peacekeepers afraid to leave their bases, according to officers from the mission's Egyptian contingent.

Two days ago (July 6), Kimberly Smith of Make Way Partners, which is active in southern Sudan with a variety of programs for trafficked, abandoned, or orphaned children, posted on her blog an account (and very graphic images) of recent violence and killing of children in southern Sudan.

During most of June, church and missions leaders spoke out for assistance. According to missionary Fran Boyle, tens of thousands of people are currently displaced in the South, fleeing the border city of Abyei, where the Government of Sudan has taken over. Boyle’s ministry, Connecting Lives International Mission (CLIM) is based in Western Aweil along the Darfur border.

In the Nuba Mountains, troops have attacked civilians specifically targeting churches and pastors. “They have burned the churches,” said Boyle. “Pastors have fled and the flock is scattered.” Pastor Santino Akook of CLIM sent photos of Darfurian refugees who had recently fled to Jorbich in the hope of finding survival supplies. The UN estimates that the recent violence and bombardment has displaced more than 60,000 people.

“The pastors are the most wanted because they are the leaders of the church and at the same time, the leaders of the community,” said Anglican Bishop Abraham Nhial, whose Episcopal Diocese of Western Aweil includes the city of Abyei.

“The whole city was destroyed by the Islamic Government in the North. It was put under fire,” said Nhial. “All my Christian and community people have been displaced.” Right now is the rainy season, and “they are today living on the streets and they have nothing to [use to] cover their heads—no tents or homes to stay in. There is no food or water oraccess to medical care,” said Nhial. “Some of them are still missing. Maybe they are somewhere in the bush.”

Boyle said that supply routes to Khartoum are now closed, preventing food and emergency supplies from reaching their ministry’s location where more than 360 new families arrived in May following renewed violence in Darfur. Joining them are new refugees from Khartoum, who are fleeing the northern capital in anticipation of southern Sudan’s declaration of independence.

While her team had food for June, Boyle said the cost is 50 percent more and “we are not sure if there will even be any food next month.” In a recent email to supporters Boyle wrote, “Please keep praying and give as you areable.”

Military aggression in recent weeks by Sudan against southern Sudan is costing more lives almost daily. After northern Sudanese forces recently occupied the North-South, oil-rich border town of Abyei, many analysts feared the worst: that more bloodshed would occur, killing many innocent people and placing great stress on the fragile peace between North and South. Sometimes nightmares come true.

CT senior writer Sheryl Blunt earlier today wrote this dispatch about how desperate things have become in remote areas of southern Sudan, just in the past week to ten days:

Peace activists and Southern Sudanese officials are calling for rapid foreign intervention in Southern Sudan as well as in the contested border region where reports of mass killings and ethnic cleansing are on the rise in the Nuba Mountainsand elsewhere.

In January Southern Sudan voted for independence. It is scheduled to secede on July 9. But reports of recent fighting in Abyei, located in the oil-producing border region, and Equitoria, is threatening the new nation’s future.

On Thursday the Sudan Tribune reported that Southern Sudan was calling for “foreign militaryintervention” in the border state of South Kordofanin order to stop the escalating fighting.

Joseph Ukel, a Southern Sudanese education official told the Tribune military intervention was necessary since Sudan’s Northern government had officially announced it would be driving Southern Sudan’s SPLA forces (Sudan People's Liberation Army) from the region.

Kimberly Smith, president of Make Way Partners, which finances the only indigenous-run orphanages in the country, said she believes the terror tactics being employed against civilians throughout the South are intended to stop the new nation from claiming its independence.

Last June, I blogged about the staggering difficulty that some Muslim converts to Christianity have in seeking asylum in the United States.

But here's some good news on that front: Hussein Wario, who came to Christ from a Muslim background, informed me today that recent court action will grant him a new hearing on his asylum application; and, that he is no longer in immediate danger of being deported back to Kenya.

Earlier today, he emailed me a press statement saying:

A year ago the Associated Press broke the news federal court of appeals had declined to overturn a lower court’s decision to deny Hussein Wario—the author of Cracks in the Crescent—asylum and refused to reverse the order to send him back to Kenya where he fears persecution. He learned of the court’s decision from the media. Since then, Wario filed a motion pro se to reopen his asylum case with the Board of Immigration Appeals and it has been granted.

The decision in part reads: Considering the totality of circumstances presented in the respondent’s motion, which has not been opposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the proceedings are reopened under the provisions of 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(a), and the record will be remanded to the Immigration Judge to provide the respondent a further opportunity to establish his eligibility for relief from removal…

FURTHER ORDER (sic): The record is remanded to the Immigration Judge for further proceedings not inconsistent with this order and for the entry of a new decision.
The motion showed new evidence of change in country conditions in Kenya. Wario cited cases of severe persecutions of Muslim converts to Christianity with at least one of them killed since Wario’s petition was denied in 2006.

The leaders of Egypt’s Christian minority increasingly are joining the calls for historic change and reform as protests in Cairo and other major cities this week demand the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

Until recently, many Christian leaders were guarded in their comments if not supportive of Mubarak. But in the past three days with Internet and mobile phone service restored, more are speaking out against injustice in Egypt and demanding political reform, though few are openly calling for Mubarak to resign right away.

Today by email, one prominent Protestant pastor said to his overseas supporters, “We stand united with our courageous young people who broke the barrier of fear and started to demand their basic human rights for a dignified life, freedom and social justice.”

Continued...

As South Sudanese voters crowded into polling locations all over the world--including eight cities in the United States--a Sudanese congregation which meets at the Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, Illinois gathered to pray for their homeland and its future.

The pastor, Durmomo Gary, himself a refugee from South Sudan, spoke with CT.

Almost two years ago, we featured Kendall Ciesemier as one of two U.S. teen activists who had raised millions of dollars in their quests to join the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa.

Ciesemier's work had caught the eye of Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, and now it's got the attention of the readers of Glamour magazine, who voted Ciesemier their Readers' Choice winner in the publication's annual Women of Year issue. The brief article notes that Kendall's organization, Kids Caring 4 Kids, has raised over $840,000, funding a girls’ dormitory in Kenya and meals for AIDS patients and orphans in Zambia. She has a goal of raising $1 million before she heads to college next fall.

One of the most interesting religion stories to watch right now in Africa is how Kenya's Maina Njenga, former leader of the notorious Mungiki, is regrouping and rebranding his claimed 6 million followers from a youth gang known for violence and extortion into a church movement.

In a rare interview, Njenga explains the intention behind his recent actions here. In September he made a public departure from high-profile Jesus Is Alive Ministries after its leader, Margaret Wanjiru, opposed Kenya’s new constitution. From Nairobi, CT covered the violence, accusations, and aftermath of the recent constitution debate.

CT covered Njenga's December 2009 conversion in this dispatch from Nairobi. Previous CT coverage of religion in Kenya can be found here.

A landslide referendum victory gave Kenyans a new constitution that had proven controversial among Christian leaders during the campaign phase.

Preliminary results show that nearly 70 percent of Kenyan voters approved the draft constitution. Many Christian leaders, who had objected to sections that loosened restrictions on abortion and gave legitimacy to Islamic courts on certain matters of family law, were unhappy with the decision but urged Kenyans to react peacefully.

“Thanks for the peace, and we ask you to continue living in peace,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Cornelius Korir according to CatholicCulture.org.

The referendum substantially revises the constitution which Kenya adopted when it broke off from Britain in 1963. The referendum, which in part reforms the electoral system and limits the power of the president, was prompted by the contested 2007 presidential election which sparked tribal violence resulting in more than 1,000 deaths.

While church leaders have vowed to accept the democratic will of the people, some have alleged that the election was not entirely fair. According to the Kenyan Daily Nation, church leaders said that the run-up to the referendum “was marred by malpractices and irregularities which continued right into the balloting and tallying phases."

“We know that in some places, they were going door to door giving people money to vote for the Constitution,” said Rev. Canon Peter Karanja of the National Council of Churches of Kenya. “We even know of places where there was intimidation against some communities.”

Several major players in the “No” campaign are now refocusing their energies on amending the new constitution.

“The process continues,” says Karanja.

Read CT's previous coverage of Kenya here.

A radical Islamic group which claimed responsibility for the late Sunday terrorist attacks in Uganda's capital city of Kampala bragged about having “killed many Christians,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

So far 74 people have died after Sunday’s three synchronized explosions. The attack injured at least five American missionaries. The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabaab (“The Youth”) released a statement claiming they had carried out the attacks.

The explosions hit an Ethiopian restaurant and a rugby club where crowds of people, including many expatriates, were watching the Spain-Netherlands World Cup soccer final.

"We will carry out attacks against our enemy wherever they are," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, speaking for Al-Shabaab.

"We have reached our objective," said another al-Shabaab representative, who declined to be named, the Journal reports. "We killed many Christians in the enemy capital."

Various news sources are reporting that the blasts injured five or six American missionaries, according to Kathleen Kind, pastor of Christ Community United Methodist Church in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, which sent the missionaries.

"We got [to the restaurant] early so we could be near the screen," said Lori Ssebulime, who regularly hosts mission groups as an American married to a Ugandan, said to the Associated Press. "The blast happened. It was total chaos. I fell over backwards. Everything was gray."

According to the Birmingham News, another group of missionaries from Asbury United
Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama had come to the restaurant to watch the game.

The Birmingham group says they were only a few feet away from people who died in the attack.

"There was blood everywhere. There was blood on us," said Allen Nunnally, 23. "At first we didn't know if it was ours. But we were literally untouched. We are so blessed and so in awe of God's protection of us."

Others were not so fortunate. Nate Henn, an American worker for the nonprofit group Invisible Children, was killed at the rugby club. Henn's former youth pastor and others eulogized him. Invisible Children said: "He sacrificed his comfort to live in the humble service of God and of a better world, and his is a life to be emulated."

This is not the first time al-Shabaab has made headlines during the World Cup. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the group has killed at least five people in Somalia for watching the Cup, which they call “a Satanic act.”

According to ABC News, al-Shabaab has mainly confined their activities to Somalia before now, though Somali officials have believed them able and willing to strike elsewhere.

But both mission groups say they plan to continue working in Uganda.

“This church is very mission minded,” Rev. Kind told CNN. “Many people have a strong heart for the people of Africa. Every other year we send a mission to our sister congregation in Uganda.”

"We have big plans for this city," Nunnally says. "Right now, we're giving all glory and honor to God.”

Update (7/13/10): Archbishop Henry Orombi of the Anglican Communion's Church of Uganda has released a statement in which he urged Uganda to be a "good neighbor" to Somalia despite the recent attacks.

"I call upon each one of us to desist from anger and revenge; this will only perpetuate the pain we already feel," Orombi said. "Revenge is not a solution and neither is a sectarian approach to this problem helpful.

"Let us instead now focus our energies on being a part of the fight against terrorism in our country....It may cost this nation a lot to try and be a good neighbor to the Somalis who are struggling to have a governable nation."

Researchers say they've found the most religious place on Earth -- between the southern border of the Sahara Desert and the tip of South Africa.

Religion is "very important" to more than three-quarters of the population in 17 of 19 sub-Saharan nations, according to a new survey.

In contrast, in the United States, the world's most religious industrialized nation, 57 percent of people say religion is very important.

"On a continent-wide basis, sub-Saharan Africa comes out as the most religious place on Earth," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which released the study Thursday.

According to the survey, 98 percent of respondents in Senegal say religion is very important, following by 93 percent in Mali. The lowest percentage was reported in Botswana, 69 percent, which is still a healthy majority.

"That begins to paint a picture of how religious sub-Saharan Africans are," Lugo said.

The study is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project. More than 25,000 sub-Saharan Africans responded in face-to-face interviews in more than 60 languages.

While the study confirms that Africans are, indeed, morally conservative and religiously pious, researchers explored a variety of topics, including religious tolerance, polygamy, the role of women in society, and political and economic satisfaction.

Islam and Christianity dominate as the most popular religions in the region -- a stark reversal from a century ago when Muslims and Christians were outnumbered by followers of traditional indigenous religions.

But for the past 100 years, indigenous spirituality has been diluted as missionaries carried Islam and Christianity throughout the African continent.

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.

"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)

Updated breaking news:

Compass Direct this afternoon provides a full report on the Christmas eve shooting in Upper Egypt. The death toll is now 7, including 6 Christians and 1 Muslim security guard.

By Edward Ross

LOS ANGELES, January 7 (Compass Direct News) – In spite of threats of violence from Muslims in an area of Egypt wracked by sectarian violence, police declined to increase security for a Coptic Christmas Eve service on Jan. 6, and six Christians were shot to death after leaving the church.

Three men suspected to be Muslims, including one with a criminal record sought by police, were in a moving car from which automatic gunfire hit Coptic Christians who had attended services at St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi, 455 kilometers (282 miles) south of Cairo. A Muslim security guard was also killed, and nine other Coptic Christians were wounded, with three of them in critical condition, according to news reports.

Copts, along with many Orthodox communities, celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.

Think the churches in your neighborhood don't get along? Then, this should put things in perspective: The pastor of Rubaga Miracle Centre in Kampala, Uganda, has accused the pastor of Omega Healing Centre of trying to destroy his reputation by 1) kidnapping and torturing his personal aide and 2) bribing the aide to accuse him of sexually abusing boys.

Omega Healing Centre's pastor, Michael Kyazze, denies he was involved in kidnapping:

I have never been engaged in as nefarious and criminal an act of kidnapping. My struggle has been and will continue to be the fight for the increasing number of victims of sodomy in our society. If it has been interpreted as an effort to discredit Pastor Kayanja, then it is both unfortunate and a dangerous insinuation.

This comes soon after an assistant pastor of Omega Healing Centre was arrested while trespassing at Rubaga Miracle Centre, allegedly while trying to investigate Kayanja .

The aide is currently recovering in a Kampala hospital.

Uganda’s New Vision reported the story and says it highlights growing tension among competing Pentecostal churches. The Daily Monitor says "Cases of alleged homosexuality in churches have now become common." New Vision says rival pastors also accuse each other of witchcraft.

Mary DeMuth was a panelist at the CT-sponsored panel discussion, "Living Christianly in a Post-Christian Culture," held this past weekend at the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Mary, an author and former missionary to France, gave an internationally informed perspective to the discussion, which also included Don Miller, Andy Crouch, Ruth Haley Barton, and Randy Frazee. The interaction was interesting and wide-ranging, and we'll provide a video when it becomes available.

DeMuth had planned to provide a closing statement, but time did not allow this. So she has agreed to let me post her thoughts below for your consideration. They're well worth your time.

The Sudan story has been in the headlines all week with the issuance of an arrest warrant by ICC (International Criminal Court) for President Bashir.

I was talking with a broadcast journalist yesterday and commented that Bashir is a political survivor and would likely out-maneuver the ICC. Sure enough, Bashir has turned the warrant into a domestic political gain for himself by holding a rally, rebuking the US. This is a bit nutty since the US has not even signed the ICC charter!

In the meantime, Bashir alleges aid agencies have been feeding evidence against him to the ICC. So what does he do? Kick the agencies out.

Here's a report from CNN:

Sudan told as many as 10 humanitarian groups to leave Darfur, and seized the agencies' assets, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. The aid groups include Oxfam, Solidarities and Mercy Corps, she said. The exact number of groups involved was not given and some groups were not identified, both to protect their people on the ground in Sudan and because they are hoping to reverse the decision. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is "concerned" about the reported expulsions, a spokeswoman said. "He notes that this represents a serious setback to lifesaving operations in Darfur, and urges the government of Sudan to act urgently to restore these NGOs to their full operational status," spokeswoman Michelle Montas said. Sudanese government officials "have insisted on accompanying some (international non-governmental organization) staff members into their offices and taking lists of assets and staff," Montas said. She called the aid agencies who had been kicked out "the main providers of life-saving humanitarian services, such, as water, food, health, and sanitation. Their departure will have an immediate and serious impact on the humanitarian and security situation in North Sudan, (and) especially in Darfur."

So this debate between Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse and retired Archbishop Tutu over the wisdom of the arrest warrant is hardly academic. Real lives hang in the balance. Pray for the Sudanese church.

In today's edition of The New York Times, Franklin Graham and Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, do a point-counterpoint exchange on Sudan, often labeled as the world's "most failed state."

In the Darfur region of western Sudan, genocidal killing has been taking place for nearly 7 years. In southern Sudan, the prospects for a lasting peace are beginning to slip away due to upticks in violence, associated with the political process of reconciling the Islamic North and the Christian/animist South.

On Thursday, the ICC (International Criminal Court) says it will announce whether it will issue an arrest warrant for Bashir in connection with the estimated 300,000 killled in violence and genocide in Darfur.

Graham, who favors waiting on the arrest, writes:

In 16 years of relief work in Sudan, I have witnessed much of the violence that his government has inflicted. An estimated 300,000 people in Darfur have died and 2.5 million people have fled their homes in the wake of fighting among rebels, government forces and their allied Janjaweed militias. Nor does the destruction stop there: Our organization has identified nearly 500 churches that were destroyed by Mr. Bashir's forces. But arresting Mr. Bashir now threatens to undo the progress his country has made. In 2005, Sudan's government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement signed an accord ending the civil war in the south. The agreement paved the way for elections in the south later this year, as well as for a referendum on southern independence scheduled for 2011. The accord has brought benefits to Sudan, but it isn't clear that they will last. Mr. Bashir, who fought members of his own party to approve the deal, is critical to the peace process. I want to see justice served, but my desire for peace in Sudan is stronger. Mr. Bashir, accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, is hardly an ideal peacemaker. But given all the warring factions in Sudan, there is no guarantee that his replacement would be better.

But Tutu, who asks the question, "Will Africa Let Sudan Off the Hook?" says in his op-ed piece:

On a map, Madagascar's capital city of Antananarvio is 8,800 miles from Washington, DC. But in reality, Madagascar may be as close as that can of Coca-Cola you had at lunch today. Madagascar is one of the world's largest exporters of vanilla, a key ingredient in Coke classic.

Tragically, life in the Republic of Madagascar, one of the world's poorest nations, is not living up to the animated fantasy that Dreamworks cooked up in hit feature films, "Madagascar" and "Madagascar 2." (These two films grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.)

In late January, Marc Ravalomanana, the president of Madagascar, closed the opposition radio station that Andry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarvio, operated. Broadcasters were airing comments highly critical of the government. The station closure touched off protests, rioting and looting. So far, the death toll is more than 30 lives lost. A number of the fatalities were due to electrocution from contact with security fences set up around food storage buildings, according to unofficial reports.

Madagascar has a population of 20 million. Christians are the largest organized religious group, representing some 40 percent of the population. Fewer than 10 percent are Muslim.

This week, CT via email asked Todd MacGregor (inset photo), an American serving as the Anglican Bishop of Tulear, a city in southeast Madagascar, to provide an on-the-scene perspective on the current situation. Here's an edited version of this email interview:

CT: Has the political violence stopped for the time being, and what is the extent of the damage where you are based?
Looting began here [Toliara/Tulear] when people began striking on Tuesday morning. All day Tuesday people were looting two local food companies (a warehouse and a wholesale outlet) owned by the president, and then they continued looting two other storehouses of rice/grain (23,000 tons total).

People where carrying 100 pounds of rice on their backs, on bicycles, in rickshaws, on motorcycles, cars and trucks. They also broke into the brand new anti-corruption house and looted everything. The police stepped in on Wednesday late afternoon to stop the looting, which had been going on for nearly 30 hours straight. Today [Friday] we are in a lull. There is another opposition strike called for at 3 p.m. in Toliara and Saturday in the capital.

Nigerians in Jos are collecting bodies after a weekend of fighting. Several hundred are dead so far in violence that began on Friday, November 28 - a day after polls closed on a local council election and one day before the incumbent People's Democratic Party was announced the winner.

Compass Direct reports that Muslims began attacking Christians, accusing them of tampering with the votes, after officials reportedly refused to post results.

Emmanuel Itapson, an assistant professor at Palmer Theological Seminary, is from Jos. He says, "Everyone I spoke with said the level of destruction is unprecedented. Christians were caught unawares at 2am and most of the pastors that were killed died because they live within the church area. I am in pain! My beloved city is filled with the blood of the innocent."

BBC published an eyewitness account:

I have a telescope and through it I watched what was happening from my home in the Christian quarters, high up on Shaka Hill overlooking Jos.

I could see the burning houses, all the smoke and hear the gunshots. Women were running away carrying their children, clothes, foodstuffs and water. Men were using petrol to douse the grass-roofed houses and then lighting with a match.

I could hear shouts of "Allahu Akbar".

Some of the Christians came running to safety at our place.

I saw all this on Friday and again on Saturday but on Saturday there was even more shooting and a lot of shouting.

One of my neighbours is a doctor and he could not reach work alone and so they came and picked him up so he could attend to casualties. He told me most of the wounded had had their hands and legs cut off with long sharp knives.

Police have been ordered to shoot on sight after the evening curfew.

Jos, a city of over 800,000, lies midway between the mostly Muslim northern half of Nigeria and the Christian and animist south. The Associated Press adds that "The structure of Nigeria's government also exacerbates ethnic tensions, since local governments control enormous budgets in Africa's biggest oil producer, making the spoils of an election a coveted prize."

Christian Solidarity Worldwide sent a press release saying a corrective to international coverage of the violence was necessary: the timing of the attacks showed that they were not primarily because of election results. Of even greater concern, CSW says,

Are reports that appeared to suggest that Christians had killed 300 Muslims over the weekend, whose bodies were deposited at a central mosque. In reality, the men died while obeying orders from a mosque in the Dilimi area, which was using its loudspeakers to instruct all Muslims to defy the authorities, participate in the "jihad", loot properties for money and then burn them. Local security sources insist the rioters were shot while defying a night-time curfew and launching fresh attacks, including an unsuccessful large-scale assault on police barracks. Commenting on these deaths the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Engineer Salifu said: "It was not Christians who killed them; it was their own unfortunate attitude". He also articulated local concern that such inaccurate reporting could fuel further violence against Christians elsewhere.

Sectarian violence previously rocked Jos in 2004 and 2001 with thousands of casualties. The Associated Press reports the total deaths from sectarian violence in Nigeria since 1999 are 10,000.

In eastern DR Congo, the situation continues to get worse week by week. Yes, the hot side of the conflict has cooled a bit, but the humanitarian side of this political conflict grows more deadly day by day.

Congo's top Anglican leader has called the global church to pray for Congo tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 23. Here's what the UK Church Times had to say:

THE Primate of the Anglican Church of the Province of Congo, Dr Fid?le Dirokpa, has called for this Sunday to be observed as a day of prayer for peace in the war-torn country, amid reports of continued clashes between rebel forces and government troops this week.

Government forces fought near the city of Goma with Tutsi rebels, who are under the leadership of General Laurent Nkunda, despite a ceasefire having been called.

Aid agencies estimate that about 250,000 people have been forced from their homes as a result of the escalation of violence in the past few weeks. They have warned of a humanitarian disaster. A letter from 44 community groups in the Dem?ocratic Republic of Congo has called for European troops to intervene, and accused the UN peacekeepers of being ineffective and powerless.

Dr Dirokpa's call for a day of prayer was echoed by the Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, the Rt Revd Pierre Whalon, who said on Tuesday that many of "our Anglican sisters and brothers . . . have been deeply affected, and are in the fore?front of relief efforts and peace?keeping". He described the situation as "underreported".

"In addition to the crisis in the Goma region, there are two areas of rebel activity in Congo which have not hit the news: the Dungu area in the north, where the Lord's Resist?ance Army has attacked villages and abducted adults and children . . . [and] close to Bunia, where a new militia group emerged in late Sep?tember, and displaced many people from their homes."

The Congolese Catholic Bishops' Conference issued a plea to the Vatican, talking of the "silent geno?cide" taking place. It also criticised the lack of action by the UN peace?keepers.

"The great massacres of the popula?tion, the planned extermina?tion of the youth, the systematic robberies used as a weapon of war . . . a cruelty and exceptional viol?ence is once again being unleashed upon the local people, who only ask that they can live in a decent manner in their homeland. Who is willing to take an interest in this situation?"

I checked with a few other sources, such as World Vision. Keep reading for more about the situation on the ground.

Earlier today, an e-mail from National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson called our attention to renewed conflict and an exacerbated humanitarian crisis in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire).

The situation there "in dire need of our attention," wrote Anderson. "Violence has forced more than 250,000 to flee their homes in the last two months alone." In the past decade, approximately 5 million have died as a result of the violence.

Similar appeals have appeared from a variety of NGOs, including Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee.

Anderson's message focused on the resources provided by World Relief (a subsidiary of the National Association of Evangelicals and - full disclosure - the employer of Barbara Galli, wife of CT Senior Managing Editor Mark Galli). World Relief has posted a video appeal from Lynne Hybels, advocate for global engagement at Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, Illinois.

Anderson is urging evangelical churches to show Hybels's passionate video over the next few weeks and to encourage their members to respond to the crisis in the DRC.

Update: Thursday, 30 October, 2008; 13:00 cdt

Americans love their new cellphones and laptop computers, and I'm no different. But few of us can truly appreciate our piece of the puzzle in the bigger picture of what we see unfolding in eastern Congo, one of the world's most dysfunctional places.

While Americans have been worrying about their investments, the weak economy, and global economics, the city of Goma, DR Congo, has been sliding toward renewed violence for weeks. Goma is critical in this region of Africa because it has evolved into a staging ground for the United Nations' huge peace-keeping force and for much humanitarian work.

Here's the latest off the news wire:

The rebel general besieging Congo's eastern provincial capital Goma said Thursday he wants direct talks with the government about ending fighting in the region and his objections to a $5 billion deal that gives China access to the country's vast mineral riches in exchange for a railway and highway. Laurent Nkunda told The Associated Press in a telephone interview he also wants the urgent disarmament of a Rwandan Hutu militia that he accuses of preying on his minority Tutsi people.

Granted, Nkunda casts himself in a positive light here. That is but one part of a complex story. This new conflict in eastern Congo has a deeply economic element. Global demand for scarce minerals means certain raw materials that don't require huge mining operations lend themselves toward smuggling.

The concept of "blood diamonds" has captured the imagination of film-makers. It's much harder to address the same issue with coltan and cobalt. But it's true. Coltan is used in cell phones and laptops. Cobalt is extensively used in batteries. In some cases, the products of small-scale, illicit mining operations in eastern Congo and elsewhere end up in manufacturing plants in Asia and the West.

If you are doubtful about this new reality, consider the following development. China has cash in hand seeking trade agreements in an amazing number of African states, in search of oil, minerals, and other natural resources to supply its plants in the manufacture of consumer electronics and many other goods.

Here's what the BBC had to say recently:

An overnight e-mail from a friend in Wales informed us that Ghanian theologian Kwame Bediako passed away this week. Bediako was a brilliant scholar with doctorates in French literature and in theology. He fostered the development of a genuinely African theology (distinct from the Black liberation theology that developed in South Africa). Bediako used the models of Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria to argue that just as they used the Greco-Roman cultural categories of their time to contextualize the Gospel and create a Christian identity, so should African Christians use their own cultural heritage in forming their Christian identity.

Chris Wright, International Director of the Langham Partnership International (John Stott Ministries in the US), has written a brief tribute to Bediako that is posted on the Zondervan blog. The blog features a video clip of Bediako preaching at Zondervan's chapel just last month, and a link to the Africa Bible Commentary, for which Bediako was one of the three theological advisers.

News reports of the recent tragic plane crash in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, are just beginning to trickle out. One story getting much attention is focused on the heroic action of 14-year-old April Mosier.

In this Mosier family photo, April Mosier is on the far left.

Adventist Review news editor, Mark A. Kellner, reports:

The young woman, was traveling with her mother, father, and 3-year-old brother from Goma to Kisangani, Congo, where her older brother Keith, 24, has begun a mission project. The Mosiers are all serving with Outpost Centers International, a lay ministry that supports the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The flight did not clear the runway ? media reports indicate a tire may have blown out ? and the plane crashed into a nearby open-air market. At least 40 people were reported killed; more than 100 survived, reports indicate. April "probably was one of the first ones to get to the opening," Barry Mosier, her father, said in a telephone interview from Goma two days after the crash. "She was right there, knowing what to do; none of the exit doors were open. She told a man, in Swahili, that ?We've got to get out of there or we'll die,'" he added. Young April pushed at a panel until a passage large enough for her to get through was found; she then made a run for it. Her father said that April had feared her family had died in the crash; they were later reunited at a local hospital.

Click here for the CNN version.
The Mosier family, originally from Minnesota, has been focused on missions work in southwestern Tanzania. For the full story from Adventist news, click here.

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The answer, apparently, is no.

Everybody has been a bit overeager about Zimbabwe's future - but there truly are some hopeful signs as Zimbabweans wait for the results of last Saturday's elections. The opposition party claims its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Robert Mugabe. They've also won a majority in parliament. And no one is contradicting them yet.

Rumor has it Mugabe may concede that he has not won. Some are suggesting his party's not declaring victory may lead to an actual handing over of power - and that Zimbabwe, in which church-state intrigue is practically an art form, might fare better with the democratic process than Kenya did this winter. "The mere possibility of a transfer of power is a stunning development in Zimbabwe," Greg Winter says in a New York Times video on the election.

Religion coverage in The Atlantic is typically well done. The magazine's coverage of the neutering of religion from The Golden Compass was interesting for the way it treated both Hollywood and the anti-religious themes of the book on which the movie was based. Though the magazine retains the secular, above the fray, attitude toward faith of its New England founding, it also put Philip Jenkin's article on the New Christendom on the cover in October, 2002, when his book describing the phenomenal growth of non-Western Christianity debuted.

So, the magazine's March cover story (not yet online) on the literal battle between Christianity and Islam in Nigeria is equally well done, despite some mistakes.

In Washington this week, conservatives held a press conference on Thursday to call public attention to efforts in Congress to "radically" rewrite PEPFAR, President Bush's signature program to fight HIV/AIDS globally.

In his 2008 State of the Union, President Bush said:
"Our Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is treating 1.4 million people. We can bring healing and hope to many more. So I ask you to maintain the principles that have changed behavior and made this program a success." Instead, the Democrats have decided to radically change or abandon the principles of this widely successful program. Their radical rewrite will pour billions into the hands of abortion providers with little or no regard for the pro-life, pro-family cultures of recipient countries. It also strips provisions that ensure priority funding for the highly effective abstinence and fidelity programs, which have reduced HIV rates in African nations that have implemented it. The Democrat proposal also strips the provision that forbids grants to groups that do not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking--a provision designed to combat exploitation of women in recipient countries.

Believing that the casualties and violence in Kenya were being grossly underreported, the Kenyan blogging community put together Ushahidi.com. Ushahidi means "witness" in Swahili. The website is mapping out occurrences of violence throughout Kenya, asking witnesses to submit incidents on a detailed form on a computer or by SMS. Kenyan NGOs verify the reports before they are shown on the map.

Erik Hersman, who blogs at WhiteAfrican.com, is trying to get the word out, "In hopes that by reaching out and talking to a broad selection of media more people will hear about it and that the news of Ushahidi will trickle down to the Kenyans who need it most."

Could this be the future of crisis aid? Through this site, people are not only able to set the record straight about what's really happening ("There is still a ban in place on live broadcasts related to the election here and this seems to be one way of ensuring that information is not being choked off by the government," writes one blogger), they're also able to communicate with those who have the resources to help them. Some recent posts include:

Some displaced families are going hungry. Rowdy mobs are stopping villagers from taking food to the starving women and children whose property has been looted from the tea estates where they were working. These are third generation workers being evicted in retaliatory attacks. Someone should provide enough security so that the villagers can feed these people without fear.

* * *
Yes there is a lot of need specially food, Mosquito nets for those i saw in Oyugis, they dont have food and i was thinking that if we could get some money we can buy some flour and then we transport them there and give them. I used my own tranport money just to look if things have come back to normal in those places and at least there is movements of vehicles although fares is double due to fuel cost which is very high at the moment. . . I want to thank you all for doing this for Kenyans specially when people are really in need. May God bless you all.

Public radio's The World yesterday reported on the website, which went live last Wednesday.

As the explosive violence following Kenya's disputed elections appears to be cooling, a humanitarian crisis is left in its wake. About 250,000 Kenyans have fled their homes to escape violence. In the country's western Rift Valley region alone, the scene of some of the country's most horrific bloodshed, about 100,000 people need immediate assistance, including food and clean water.

"People are being forced to drink unsafe water, risking diarrhoeal diseases, infection and severe dehydration," said Wubeshet Woldermariam, country director for the U.K.-based aid organization Merlin. "The longer the crisis continues, the greater the risk to people's health. If peace isn't restored within the next few days, disease and severe dehydration are very real threats."

Woldermariam's warning comes amid today's hopeful news that there will be negotiation talks this Friday between Kenya's incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, and opposition leader, Raila Odinga, who claims the Dec. 27 election was rigged.

Over the weekend, the two men were urged toward negotiation by Ghanaian president John Kufuor, top U.S. official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others. Today, Kibaki invited Odinga to his residence to discuss ways to solve the election standoff and quell violence. His invitation came only hours after Odinga cancelled nationwide protest rallies slated for Tuesday, which were expected to exacerbate violence.

"The only way to restore the Kenyan people's rights and confidence in the system is that the political leaders have to stop the violence, because innocent people are dying," said Ms. Frazer, according to the BBC. "They've been cheated by their political leadership and their institutions."

A statement released today by Kenya's Ministry of Special Programs puts the election-related death toll at 486.

Yesterday, January 6, trucks deployed by the U.N. World Food Program carried 670 tons of food to the capital city of Nairobi, and to Eldoret, a Rift Valley town near Kiambaa, where last week 30 people were burned to death inside the Kenya Assemblies of God Church after it was set ablaze by rioters. Only miles away from last week's blaze, some 9,000 Kenyans have found shelter from gang-related violence in Eldoret's Sacred Heart Cathedral. Hundreds are being added to their ranks daily.

In a letter reprinted in U.K.'s Daily Mail, Sacred Heart Bishop Cornelius Corir reported on the scene:

"These are not poor famine victims looking for food or refugees fleeing a war zone. They are ordinary, hard-working people who have, overnight, lost everything they had. Among them are teachers, farmers, taxi drivers, and other people with small businesses. All are now destitute - burned out of their homes and told by machete-wielding youths either to leave or be killed. . . . Of course, the wounds will take a very long time to heal. Yet I am still hopeful. My faith and belief in my countrymen makes me very confident we shall overcome the darkness that has fallen over this land."

I've rarely been a big fan of Hollywood-style, lefty social activism. But two cheers for activist-actress Mia Farrow for taking on the continuing genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The situation in Darfur could be resolved in a matter of days and weeks if the Bashir regime in Khartoum was willing to abide by its commitments. A nation-state loses its legitimacy when it permits its own citizens to be slaughtered at will with no consequences locally, nationally, or internationally.

Here's a recent comment about Darfur from the highly credible International Crisis Group:

The Darfur conflict has changed radically in the past year and not for the better. While there are many fewer deaths than during the high period of fighting in 2003-2004, it has mutated, the parties have splintered, and the confrontations have multiplied. Violence is again increasing, access for humanitarian agencies is decreasing, international peacekeeping is not yet effective and a political settlement remains far off.

The bottom line is that the innocent still die daily inside Darfur as the interagency wrangling and political realities prevent the peace-keeping forces from moving into position with the necessary resources.

There is a student organization in Canada, Dream for Darfur. It's doing good work in raising funds for advocacy and care.

But other organization, Olympic Dream for Darfur with support from Mia Farrow, is upping the stakes for corporate America and the Beijing Olypics. ODD is pressing China and American corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics '08 to influence the Islamicist regime in Sudan to end the genocide.

Farrow's recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal states more of the staggering facts of how the killing is crossing borders and hitting even the relief worker population in the region:

This week, Oxfam's director in Sudan, Alun MacDonald said, "Our staff are being targeted on a daily basis. They are being shot, robbed, beaten and abducted." The security situation, he insisted, "is the worse since the entire conflict began." Seven aid workers were killed in October, according to Mr. Macdonald. "These aren't conditions we can keep working in."

For Christians, the Save Darfur Coalition is an faith-friendly and evangelical-supported organization that draws in local churches and community organizations.

They have a zip code-friendly database that provides ready access to like-minded folks who are burdened to stop this killing. I put in my local zip code in the western suburbs of Chicagoland and found about 10 groups.

This is the kind of grassroots effort that in time will bear fruit.

Pray for Darfur.