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.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 30, 2009 | Comments (4)

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.

If I could give every Christian a gift it would be this: to send him/her to another country, particularly one where materialism isn't firmly entrenched. Taking ourselves from our culture, then reintroducing ourselves back into American culture is an important first step if we want to be engaged and pure within our culture. Why? Because we cannot accurately see how deeply entrenched the word "American" is connected to "American Christianity." We're Christ-followers with a consumer mindset. Until we walk dusty roads through countries where folks value community yet worry about daily bread, we will have an incomplete view of life and theology.

Last summer, my son Aidan who was 12 at the time, traveled with me to Ghana, West Africa. We went because of his God-breathed dream - to see a well dug for the village of Sankpem. While there, Aidan danced with villagers. He listened. He shared the gospel with Muslims and saw several give their hearts to Jesus. Together we heard our friend Paul say, "For ten years I never knew when my next meal was coming."

Aidan came home changed. Our family, because of France and Ghana, sees America like a Potemkin village - a series of strange and beautiful facades masking the spiritual poverty inside. We are determined, by God's grace, to understand who Jesus is and how He wants to interact with folks here. We've come to understand that love for people and broken authenticity is what this world needs to see the irresistibility of Jesus - not more programs, more clever marketing campaigns, more hype.

Living in a post-Christian culture takes the kind of spiritual sensitivity that can see beyond politics into the face of Jesus Christ - He who engaged unsavory folks, yet followed His Father perfectly. That calls for radical relationship and a determination to know Jesus profoundly today. It calls for an abandonment of the idea that true life comes from buying or acquiring a commodity. It calls for a radical re-engagement in the lives of people.

I am not afraid of the shift in our culture. Why?

? Because the majesty and capability of God is greater than my finite understanding of culture.
? Because a shift causes us all to exegete the Christian culture we're a part of, learning to see what is truly biblical and what is simply cultural.
? Because genuine transformation doesn't come from the outside in; it comes from the Holy Spirit renewing us from the inside out.
? Because any time we're shifting, we realize how unsteady the ground is, and it makes us cling all the more fiercely to the Rock.

The shift in worldview is simply another opportunity to live out the redemptive story of Jesus.

My son Aidan understands this, though he may not articulate it thus. Now thirteen, he longs to return to Ghana, and he's taken up the cause to continue to build wells there, letting go of his own slice of the American dream pie. He does this because Jesus has transformed him from the inside out, and he's opened up his mind to the vast beauty of God's needy world. He is engaged, yet striving to be pure. He's just an average teenager, but his dreams for the world have expanded and his Ameri-centric view of Christianity has shifted.

It's my prayer that you also would dare to look beyond the four walls of our nation to dream big for the Kingdom of God. Let the transformation start with you and Jesus. Dare to engage, yet do so while holding the hand of Jesus - the irresistible Savior.

Posted by Stan Guthrie at March 25, 2009 | Comments (7)

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.

Posted by Tim Morgan at March 5, 2009 | Comments (1)

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:

The issuance of an arrest warrant for President Bashir would be an extraordinary moment for the people of Sudan - and for those around the world who have come to doubt that powerful people and governments can be called to account for inhumane acts. African leaders should support this historic occasion, not work to subvert it.

In two days, the ICC expects to make its announcement on the arrest warrant for Bashire. Tomorrow, I will have an exclusive update on Christians in the capital of Sudan, Khartoum.

Posted by Tim Morgan at March 3, 2009 | Comments (3)

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.

CT: What are the root causes of these outbreaks of violence?
The root causes are numerous. I have chosen just a few to comment on: the economy, opposing leadership styles, and politics.

People are not happy about the economy. The majority of the people are extremely poor and life has not improved for them. The poor are getting poorer and the wealthy are becoming wealthier. Some claim the president may have used his position to benefit personally and financially.

The opposition leader claims that the president has become an authoritarian dictator. The president has been known on more than one occasion to dismiss high level people on the spot or at will. Yet he came into power when the country was one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

The president came into a difficult situation. Strong measures were needed to clean house. The president claims the mayor (34 years old) is starting a coup. Unfortunately at this time both parties have not met together to resolve the tension.

There are many tensions between current national government and mayor of Antananarvio. The mayor of the capital would like a transitional government and has called for days of demonstrations throughout the country.

The government shut down the opposition radio station (owned by the mayor) when the station broadcast a speech recording of former President Ratsiraka, who lives in exile in France. Then, there was retaliation by destroying the government TV and communications center, along with a majority of the president's personal business storehouses.

CT: How are local Malagasy Christian churches and leaders responding?
As of last Monday, the Anglican church has been appointed as head of the ecumenical consortium (Lutherans, Anglicans, Reform and Roman Catholic) in Toliara and all the leaders gathered on Wednesday as well as meeting this afternoon.

We have decided to have an ecumenical prayer service on Sunday afternoon. We encouraged each church leader to respond pastorally (in a godly way to all those involved) to this situation. We continue to meet to discuss what our actions will be. The looting, vandalism and violence have been condemned by the leaders.

CT: Are missions personnel staying inside Madagascar for now or are they evacuating?
To my knowledge, no one has been evacuated at this time. But the mission community has been encouraged to look at and prepare for emergency plans.

CT: In addition prayer support, what could American Christians be doing to help churches in Madagascar?
Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. People can hardly afford basic necessities such as shoes and nutritious food, much less education, access to medicines and doctors and decent housing.

American Christians can be informed and help achieve acceptable standards such as the Millinnieum Development Goals. Through our organization called People Reaching People, we have several projects which can be sponsored in evangelism, education, and economic development.

CT: What will the role of church leaders be in bringing about positive change in Madagascar society, culture, and politics?
When I was consecrated as a Bishop in Madagascar in Dec. 2006, the Prime Minister said to me, "You are now not only a leader in the church, you are now a leader in the country."

The role of the church leaders in Madagascar is very important. Unfortunately, they sometimes have been seen as politically motivated. We want to make sure that what we do and say is not politically motivated but God- oriented and promotes the values and morals of the Kingdom of God.

* * *

If you are in Madagascar and have news updates, you can email me here.

(Photo by George Conger)

Posted by Tim Morgan at January 30, 2009 | Comments (5)

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.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at December 1, 2008 | Comments (4)

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.

In a Nov. 18, 2008, press briefing, World Vision reports that child malnutrition is growing much worse:

Goma, Eastern DRC, November 18, 2008 - The number of children suffering from severe malnutrition in eastern Congo is rising dramatically as a result of the increased conflict, warns humanitarian agency World Vision. In one hard-hit area, World Vision estimates the number of children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition has increased ten-fold.

Before the conflict, nutrition experts were admitting one or two malnourished children per day at the World Vision nutrition center in Rwanguba, east of Rutshuru. Since fighting devastated the rebel-held territory near Rutshuru, between eight and ten children have been arriving every day.

"The cause of malnutrition used to be poverty," said Suzanne Kahamba, a local nurse working at the clinic. "But now so many people are displaced, they don't have land to grow crops. The conflict has intensified the effects of poverty ten times over and the situation has become dire."

Posted by Tim Morgan at November 22, 2008 | Comments (0)

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.

Consider using World Relief's resources (http://community.wr.org/Page.aspx?pid=1274) to publicize the crisis in your church. There is even an downloadable full-color bulletin insert.

News junkies will want to visit the page where the International Rescue Committee posts regular news updates on the DRC conflict. Two IRC staff were the victims of armed attack in the past week, and a World Relief staff member was killed.

Past CT coverage of the DRC violence includes this 2006 extended report by African correspondent Isaac Phiri.

Posted by David Neff at November 11, 2008 | Comments (0)

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

Familes from the Goma region flee renewed violence this week. (World Vision, 2008)

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:

"China is hungry for minerals and Africa has rich reserves of cobalt and copper," says Li Xiao Dong, who runs the factory. "Africa is full of opportunities - it's just like China when we started opening up a few years ago." Africa's minerals are vital for China. For the Communist Party the bags of minerals stacked up in the Huayou factory warehouse mean social stability. China has a billion people who want a better life. They want to buy TVs, cars and fridges. China simply does not have enough natural resources of its own to meet their needs. So, in order to keep its people happy and stable, it has to get its raw materials - oil, copper, zinc, cobalt - from abroad. And Africa has what China needs.

The bottom line is that the struggle in eastern Congo is far from over. If it reignites the simmering tensions between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority throughout this region of Africa, even Hotel Rwanda itself would not be 100 percent safe place.

There are Christian missions and churches throughout this region. Click here for the 2006 CT cover story on Congo.

Posted by Tim Morgan at October 30, 2008 | Comments (1)

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.

Posted by David Neff at June 13, 2008 | Comments (10)

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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Posted by Tim Morgan at April 17, 2008 | Comments (1)

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.

The Zimbabwean pre-reported Mugabe's declaration of victory, which now seems very unlikely.

IWPR could not get the exact percentage by which Mugabe will be said to have won but the sources said there would not be a run-off, as ZANU-PF will claim Mugabe has clinched more than 50 per cent of the total number of voters cast.

Sources within the ZEC centre - newly christened the National Collation Centre - say Mugabe clearly lost the election to his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai, polling only 20 per cent of the vote. He is also said to trail Simba Makoni who garnered 28 per cent.

But commentators say it would be something of a miracle if Mugabe and his party had secured the victory, given more than 85 per cent unemployment, serious food shortages and a collapsed health delivery system.

Not to mention the 100,000% inflation rate.

However, Mugabe hasn't declared defeat, either. Although polling stations post results on their doors, the government has not released official results, "heightening fears that it is trying to massage the vote in the face of a crushing defeat," The Guardian reports. Churches are going public with concerns about rigging.

A runoff vote may be the next step.

NPR aired what was practically a post-mortem of Mugabe, detailing his shyness and resentment of Mandela. Mugabe's life is one of the saddest examples of heroism degraded.

Christianity Today's past coverage of Zimbabwe includes articles on Mugabe tampering with churches and accusing Pius Ncube.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 2, 2008 | Comments (0)

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.

Eliza Griswold - daughter of the former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church - writes from the town of Yelwa, where an attack that killed Christians in church in 2004 brought on a more gruesome response against Muslims killing hundreds. Yelwa is in Nigeria's Middle Belt, which, Griswold writes,

marks the fault line between Christianity and Islam not only in Nigeria, but across the entire continent. A satellite image from Google Earth shows the Middle Belt as a gray-green strip between the equator and the 10th parallel, dividing the fawn-colored dry land from the vibrant sub-Saharan jungle canopy. It also separates most of the continents 67 million Muslims to the north from 417 million Christians to the south.

Because of the 20th century explosion of Christianity in Africa, by the year 2050, Griswold writes, the demographic and geographic center of Christianity will be in northern Nigeria, where the country's Muslims live. This fact makes any tensions in the country religious ones. With 140 million people, oil revenues that never seem to help the people (half of whom live on less than a dollar a day) thanks to government corruption, and a changing regional climate that has wiped out many traditional livelihoods, the country has plenty of tensions.

"Every crisis is automatically interpreted as a religious crisis," an Anglican archbishop says. "But we all know that, scratch the surface and it's got nothing to do with religion. It's power."

Power, in this democracy (despite massive corruption) is a numbers game. Christians and Muslims compete for numbers - converts. And to do that, they not only use intimidation (Griswold quotes Archbishop Peter Akinola saying that Muslims do not have a monopoly on violence), Christians and Muslims appeal to want what Nigerians need most - prosperity.

Pentecostalism has brought along American prosperity theology. (Griswold doesn't seem able to separate Pentecostalism from prosperity theology.) And, in the competition for souls, Nigeria's Muslims have come up with an Islamic approach to making people wealthy.

Griswold suggests that, while violence between Christians and Muslims is still a threat, this sort of competition - non-violent pursuit of winning hearts and minds - is growing.

Hopefully she's right. The stories of murder, rape, and intimidation (all justified by either side's scripture) are horrifying. Yet, Griswold doesn't offer much to hang that hope on other than the story of an imam and a pastor who gave up leading militias to work together for peace. It's inspiring, but she gives little evidence of their effectiveness. And Griswold, despite her father's Christian leadership, doesn't seem to fully understand the Christianity she's reporting on, much less Islam. For example, she says Pentecostals "share an experience of the Holy Spirit, or the numinous, that offers the gift of salvation and success in everyday life." (italics are mine. At least she didn't spell it like Rob Bell.) And Muslims have yet to show that they can treat minorities as equals, instead of "protected" classes or worse.

Still, the article, and it's companions by Alan Wolfe (on how religiosity really is decreasing with modernization) and Walter Russell Mead (on American evangelical political moderation) are worth reading.

Posted by Rob Moll at February 10, 2008 | Comments (2)

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 their press statement, these conservatives said:

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.

In addition to members of Congress, Saddleback church's senior pastor Rick Warren and author Chuck Colson attended the press event. A transcript of remarks are not available. But most if not all of these conservatives will speak out in favor of the controversial program designations that:

* 33 percent of prevention funding go toward programming that promotes sexual abstinence before marriage and sexual fidelity within marriage; and,

* The grant ban should be maintained on groups that do not have a policy statement opposing sex trafficking and prostitution.

The 33 percent represents tens of millions of dollars available for such programs, which liberals and others brand as basically a waste of money.

Critics of PEPFAR's existing prevention programs are turning up the heat rhetorically. Pamela Barnes, head of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation said on Thursday:

Proposals to maintain partisan, ideologically-driven mandates that constrain countries' abilities to respond to their own epidemics threaten the continued success of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

One sympathetic blogger notes:

The bottom line is that not providing people with what they need to protect themselves is a sin. The abstinence earmark skews the programs and gives short shrift to all the other prevention efforts that need to be undertaken as well.

Somewhat caught in the middle are organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights, which has laudably held out hope that a strong consensus can emerge involving evangelicals, health groups, and liberals for reauthorization for PEPFAR.

And, they are aiming for $50 billion, not the $30 billion that the Bush administration has asked for. This afternoon, PHR media coordinator/AIDS Campaign Katie Krauss released an exclusive statement to CT via email, which in part says:

We were surprised to see a great deal of controversy regarding PEPFAR reauthorization recently, and wanted to explain what we are after. We want PEPFAR to be a bigger program so that it can save more lives. It's already started at least a million people on HIV treatment.

Women
African women are especially vulnerable to HIV--more than 60% of adults in subSaharan Africa are women, and as many as 75% of young people with HIV there are women and girls. We want PEPFAR to really go after this problem and develop science-based programs (with local authorities and local NGOs that understand the culture) to solve it.

Integrating AIDS Services with Reproductive Health Services and basic health care
There is some money now to treat AIDS in parts of Africa, but no money for basic health care or for reproductive health services (NOT including abortion; it's illegal to use US tax dollars for abortion). So now there are clinics where women are dying in childbirth, when right next door women with AIDS get much better medical care. Our field nurses and doctors have seen this first hand and find it very frustrating. What is needed is one place where women can get regular health care and AIDS care - integrated health care. This would also help the many women who are too embarrassed to walk into an AIDS clinic, fearful they will be abandoned by their families if people find out they are HIV-positive.

Programs that prevent mother-to-child transmission and treat both mom and dad for HIV after baby is born. These are called Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Plus programs. They keep both mom and dad alive (instead of just baby, as regular prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs inadvertently do), stabilize communities, and prevent untold misery.

Africa's health worker shortage
There is also a desperate need for more health workers - according to the World Health Organization at least a million more are needed. Many clinics operate with one or two health workers, who may be on call around the clock, every day and see 100 patients per day. Or there may be no health care at all because of the shortage. We want PEPFAR to train and retain at least 140,000 more health workers, and help build long-lasting solutions to this crisis.

Abstinence
In prevention, as always, we've supported lifting the abstinence earmark because the overwhelming evidence is that abstinence-only programs (for adults) don't work; see the 2006 report from the General Accounting Office that showed that they impeded effective AIDS prevention. Of course we support abstinence for kids.

For adults, we support a comprehensive approach where education about condoms, abstinence, communication, fidelity, etc. is available. In other words, provide all the information, and let the adult decide what will work best for them. [Much more research is needed to better understand what is driving the very high infection rates in subSaharan Africa.]

Saving lives by keeping up with the epidemic. If funded at $30 billion over five years, the US would be treating only 100,000 new patients per year, when millions of people will die without treatment. We want more money to expand HIV treatment (and prevention) to keep up with the pandemic.

The PEPFAR reauthorization is under active consideration at the committee level in the House and Senate. Billions of aid dollars and many lives hang in the balance within this bill -- which is likely to be among the few major pieces of legislation to move through Congress in this election year.

tmorgan@christianitytoday.com

Posted by Tim Morgan at February 8, 2008 | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at January 15, 2008 | Comments (0)

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."

Posted by Katelyn Beaty at January 7, 2008 | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by Tim Morgan at December 13, 2007 | Comments (0)