Headlines:
[1] New Presbytery Formed in Wisconsin
[2] Van Marter Will Head NCC Communications Commission
[3] Ten Commandments Display Can Stay in Kentucky Courtrooms
[4] General Social Survey, 2006
[5] Chinese House Church Leader Cai Zhuohua Released
[6] Turkish Judge Pressured to Withdraw from Christians' Trial
[7] Agencies Sued for Firing Case Worker
[8] Church Vigilantes Raid Hostels
[1] New Presbytery Formed in Wisconsin
Reflecting a trend toward decentralization, a new regional church court, Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest, held its inaugural meeting in Oostburg, Wisconsin, on 14-15 September 2007. Elected Moderator was Pastor Marty Waltho, one of the world’s leading experts on desalination equipment.
The new judicatory is committed to classic Christianity, as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, the historic standard for Presbyterianism. The court adopted the original version of the Westminster Standards, formulated at an international assembly in London in the 1640s.
Among the actions taken the first day was the adoption of an Address to the Christian World from the Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest. The document declares the presbytery’s “intention of affiliating with and ultimately joining with other believers, so as to heal some of the brokenness of the visible church in a broken world.” It continues: “At the same time, we announce our desire to cultivate the portion of the Lord’s vineyard in which we have been planted. We will seek to do so not with an arrogant spirit, but with love for the brethren and with respect for what the Lord is doing in and through our fellow believers around the world; not in a standoffish fashion, but with cooperation so long as such does not entail compromise of the doctrine of Scripture or of the gospel.”
The Presbytery also adopted an agreement with the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly (RPCGA) for the handling of appeals and complaints, and approved exploring the possibility of merger with the RPCGA.
+ Rev. Dr. Frank J. Smith, Stated Clerk, Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest W2941 County Highway A South, Oostburg, Wisconsin 53070 (920)564-6501
[2] Van Marter Will Head NCC Communications Commission
The Rev. Jerry Van Marter, coordinator for news services for the PC(USA), has been elected chair of the Communications Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) effective January 2008.
The NCC’s Communications Commission brings together communications professionals of the council’s 36 member communions to address issues such as news and media relations, Web design and content, electronic media production and distribution, and media education and advocacy. As well as sharing “best practices,” the commission seeks to coordinate the member churches’ efforts in those areas.
+ Presbyterian Church (USA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202
[3] Ten Commandments Display Can Stay in Kentucky Courtrooms
Federal District Court Judge Karl Forrester of the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled 18 August that a display of the Ten Commandments, together with other historical documents in the Rowan County Fiscal Courtroom, is constitutional. Liberty Counsel represents Rowan County, Kentucky, in a lawsuit that was filed in 2001 by the ACLU of Kentucky, claiming that the display violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
The display that Judge Forrester upheld is a "Foundations of American Law and Government" display including the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Charta, the Star-Spangled Banner, the National Motto, the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, and a picture of Lady Justice.
Public displays of the Ten Commandments have enjoyed unprecedented favor in both the courts and the legislatures since Mathew Staver argued the McCreary County, Kentucky, case at the US Supreme Court in 2005. McCreary County involved the exact display that was upheld by Judge Forrester yesterday. The McCreary County case is back at the district court for another ruling but is likely to return to the Supreme Court, where a majority is expected to uphold the display.
These displays are spreading throughout the Nation. In 2006 the Georgia legislature passed a law allowing a similar display in government buildings.
+ Liberty Counsel, Box 540774, Orlando, FL 32854 (800) 671-1776
[4] General Social Survey, 2006
The General Social Surveys (GSS) have been conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) annually since 1972 except for the years 1979, 1981, and 1992 (a supplement was added in 1992), and biennially beginning in 1994. The GSS are designed as part of a program of social indicator research, replicating questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. The 2006 GSS includes a topical module for mental health. Items in the 2006 GSS include questions on religious self-identification, denominational affiliation, personal beliefs, and religious upbringing.
+ Association of Religion Data Archives, 211 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA 16802
[5] Chinese House Church Leader Cai Zhuohua Released
Chinese house church leader Cai Zhuohua, jailed since 2004 for “illegal business practices” by distributing Christian literature, has been released with stern warnings to stop practicing his faith outside of the government-sanctioned church. Bob Fu of China Aid Association told Compass that on 13 September, three days after Cai’s release, officials of the Public Security Bureau took the well-known Beijing pastor to their offices and tried to intimidate him with threats. “They warned him to be careful – not to be interviewed, to obey the law and not attend religious activities,” Fu said.
Officials from the National Security Bureau – China’s equivalent of the US Central Intelligence Agency – on two occasions gave Cai similar warnings before he was released, Fu said. As an ex-convict whom the government is especially interested to control, Fu said, Cai must report to the PSB once a month.
Deprived of his Bible while in prison, Cai was forced to make soccer balls for the 2008 Beijing Olympics for 10 to 12 hours a day, according to the CAA.
+ Compass Direct, PO Box 27250, Santa Ana CA 92799-7250
[6] Turkish Judge Pressured to Withdraw from Christians' Trial
A Turkish judge announced his withdrawal this week from the case of two Christians charged with “insulting Turkishness.” Judge Neset Eren said at a hearing on 12 September that he was quitting to “distance the court’s decision from any form of indecision or doubt.” Eren’s announcement came after the plaintiffs’ ultranationalist lawyer submitted a written request that he resign; Kemal Kerincsiz accused Eren of failing to deal impartially with the case. Eren had been expected to deliver a ruling at the hearing on 19 September.
Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal have been charged with insulting Turkish identity, but at a previous hearing, State Prosecutor Ahmet Demirhuyuk said there was “not a single piece of credible evidence” against the two converts from Islam.
A new state prosecutor, Adnan Ozcan, replaced Demirhuyuk at Wednesday’s hearing. “If [Tastan and Topal] had been acquitted, there would have been a large protest,” said the Christians’ lawyer, Gursel Meric.
Scores of Turkish academics and writers have been charged in the past two years under article 301 of Turkey’s penal code for insulting the Turkish Republic, institutions of state or “Turkishness.”
A recent European Commission report said that indictments related to non-violent expressions of opinion had doubled in Turkey in 2006, the Turkish Daily News (TDN) newspaper reported today. The report noted that more than half the incidents were raised under article 301.
+ Compass Direct, PO Box 27250, Santa Ana CA 92799-7250
[7] Agencies Sued for Firing Case Worker
Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit 18 September in federal court on behalf of Dennis Hughes against a youth services agency that terminated him when he refused to stop allowing troubled teens in its program to attend his church and church-sponsored activities. Also named in the lawsuit is the agency that manages the program and orchestrated his dismissal, the University Area Community Development Corporation (UACDC).
Hughes was a case manager for Bay Area Youth Service (BAYS) in the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program, a program which provides case management services to juvenile offenders. If a juvenile enrolls in and completes the program, the State's criminal charges are dropped. BAYS receives virtually all of its annual revenue from the State of Florida. The program essentially operates as an arm of the State, but Florida has no law forbidding church leaders from attending functions with juvenile offenders in state programs.
For several years BAYS accommodated Hughes' religious activities during his free time, while he served first as youth pastor then as assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel of Tampa. During that time, some of the juveniles under his supervision voluntarily attended church services and sports activities sponsored by Calvary Chapel. One of the activities was held at the University Area Community Center Complex. UACDC, which also manages the Community Center, objected to the religious content of the Calvary Chapel youth activities, banned the activities from the Center and insisted Hughes end his participation.
Since UACDC also funds and manages the Prodigy program, BAYS adopted a policy that juveniles in the program could not attend any event where Hughes was present, even though no problems had ever arisen with the juveniles because of the church events. BAYS terminated Hughes, although he had excellent performance reviews, only because he would not agree to either stop attending his church or prohibit juveniles in the program from attending.
After Hughes was terminated, BAYS sent him its newly adopted policy, stating that staff members are not allowed to "oversee, supervise, coach, mentor, counsel, or recreate with any active program youth or families as part of any outside activity or organization." The policy is so broad that it prevents any church leader or youth activities volunteer from working in the juvenile program, because the leader would have to either leave a church meeting or make a juvenile and their family leave. It even prevents church leaders from attending the same church or participating in any church-related activity with a family member.
+ Liberty Counsel, Box 540774, Orlando, FL 32854 (800) 671-1776
[8] Church Vigilantes Raid Hostels
Instead of attending church on Sunday 16 September, a congregation of about 900 people rampaged through Nyanga hostels, businesses and informal settlements in search of articles stripped from their church at the weekend.
The congregation had been shocked to find their church, the WPT Ndibongo branch of the Presbyterian Church, stripped of doors, chairs, tables, electrical wiring and other movable items by thieves who seemed to have gained entrance through the roof. The toilets and basins had also been maliciously broken.
So, instead of holding their church service, the congregants, many of them pensioners, dressed in white jackets, and with the ward councilor David Tshambula in tow, went looking for the stolen items.
Church member Noluntu Mda said that during their search in the area, congregation members had seen people selling the church's chairs, doors and tables on the streets.
+ Ntomboxolo Makoba, St Georges Street Chambers, 118 St Georges Street, 1st Floor (IOL), PO Box 4116, Cape Town, 8001 South Africa
