But Christians are being warned not to limit their concerns to only gay marriage and abortion
Moral values topped the list of reasons voters re-elected President Bush Nov. 2, presenting what one Christian leader called an unprecedented evangelism opportunity.

“I think it’s obvious that the church has not created a wave, we’ve struck a nerve,” said Rod Parsley, pastor of World Harvest Church in Ohio and founder of the Center for Moral Clarity. “We’ve tapped into the views of the majority of Americans. The left has done just that, they’ve left, and they no longer represent mainstream America. That gives us a tremendous evangelistic opportunity.”

Parsley traveled across his state before the election, urging Christians to vote and to support righteousness. He said many of those who cited values as their primary concern on Election Day were not all committed Christians. “Americans realize our basic common values … were under attack,” he said.

Many Christian leaders celebrated Bush’s win, crediting prayer with the decisive swing to the right. Bush gained 62 percent of the Christian vote, according to a poll by the Barna Research Group, which attributed Bush’s win to strong turnout by born-again voters. With the House, Senate and White House under Republican control, many believe an amendment banning gay marriage has a stronger chance at passage.

“The move to amend the U.S. Constitution to preserve traditional marriage will move full steam ahead,” said Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, which champions religious liberty, pro-life and traditional family issues. “Although the battle for the U.S. Supreme Court is not over … this election sets the future course.”

Gay marriage may have been the issue that gained Bush more support among Hispanic and African American voters, analysts say. Bush won 11 percent of the black vote, a 2 percent increase over 2000, and 44 percent of the Latino vote, a 9 percent increase over 2000, according to exit polls reported by CNN.

Before the election, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank that specializes in African American issues, predicted that Bush might double his percentage of the black vote, from 9 percent to 18 percent. That didn’t happen, but the group’s president and senior analyst, David Bositis, said Bush got more of Ohio’s black Christian vote than he did in 2000.

Had those votes gone to Sen. John Kerry, he said, it would have been possible for the Democratic nominee to win the state that ultimately decided the election. “Given negative black attitudes on the war and the economy and negative views on Bush, I really wasn’t expecting that kind of movement,” Bositis said, noting that Bush gained 16 percent of the black vote in Ohio, up from 9 percent in 2000.

Similarly, pre-election polls showed that Latino voters were strongly opposed to gay marriage, though a majority was still likely to vote for Kerry. A poll by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) of the University of Southern California, which studies Latino voting patterns, found that although more than 70 percent of Latino voters said religion was very important to them, many opposed the war and preferred Kerry’s policies on education and the economy. TRPI president Harry Pachon said many elected officials were blindsided by the role moral values played in the election.

“We hear that in New Mexico, evangelicals were instrumental in mobilizing Latino voters,” Pachon said. “Twenty percent of Latinos are … evangelical or Pentecostal. If you had a significant number of them mobilized to vote for Bush, that may explain [the increase in support over 2000].”

In 11 states, voters approved constitutional amendments limiting marriage to one man and one woman, most by wide margins. In an article by PlanetOut Network, gay activists called Bush’s win “a really tough defeat.”

But Matt Coles of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project told the publication that his group is vigorously pursuing gay rights-related lawsuits in several states, including California, New York, Washington, New Jersey and Florida.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Evangelicals is promoting an agenda of its own, which Richard Cizik, the group’s vice president for governmental affairs, said includes broadening the definition of moral values to include an array of issues from human rights to the environment.

“[Moral values] should impact everything from tax cuts to social security,” Cizik said, adding that evangelicals must not be seen as a single-issue special-interest group.

“The challenge is to appreciate that here in Washington, D.C., [values] is not merely about legislation,” Cizik said. “It’s about broad-based ethical renewal. By focusing on ethics, we immediately signal that changes must be directed toward institutions other than government, such as Hollywood.”

But there is one government institution that many conservative voters kept in clear view on Election Day: the Supreme Court. Bush is expected to choose as many as four new justices during his second term, which some observers say will significantly affect abortion.

“Many of the religious liberty cases we deal with are decided on a 5-4 basis,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice. “With news of [Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s] medical condition, it now appears that the issue of the Court will be front and center for the nation over the next several weeks and months.”

Still, it is well known that not all socially conservative Christians supported Bush, and talk of Justice Clarence Thomas’ replacing Rehnquist if he retires doesn’t sit well among many African American voters–Christian and non.

“We need to have a family meeting with Clarence Thomas because his stance on civil rights is illogical and insensitive,” said Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., a Washington, D.C., pastor and leader of the High Impact African-American Church Coalition. “The truth is, we haven’t made things right yet.”

Though he is a registered Democrat, Jackson announced his support for Bush in October and predicted that black Christians would decide the election. He believes that happened in Ohio. Considering the race riots that have plagued Cincinnati in recent years, Jackson said, “for that many black Christians to vote that overwhelmingly for Bush … that is nothing short of miraculous.”

His coalition is planning summits nationwide to mobilize black Christians to support a federal amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman. But he said the group also will promote “justice” issues, such as reducing poverty among African Americans, reforming the education and prison systems, helping minorities gain better health-care access and ending the Sudan conflict.

“We’ve had Watergate and all these other gates; I think now we have a Justicegate,” Jackson said. “It’s unconscionable that Americans would vote out of fear about marriage but would not vote out of responsibility for justice. That’s a matter of maturity and having a biblical worldview as Christians.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Nominated for his song ‘Jesus Walks,’ Kanye West eventually was pulled from the rap/hip-hop category of the Stellar Awards
Ever since Thomas Dorsey, the author of “Precious Lord” and the founder of gospel music, began writing sacred music against a blues backdrop, the genre he created has faced criticism that it is becoming too worldly. That debate heated up again last fall when the Stellar Gospel Music Awards nominated rapper Kanye West in its rap/hip-hop category for his mainstream hit “Jesus Walks.”

The song, edited because of some profanity, has been played generously in Christian circles and speaks mostly of West’s search for peace: “(Jesus walks.) God show me the way ’cause the devil trying to break me down. (Jesus walks with me.) The only thing that I pray is that my feet don’t fail me now. (Jesus walks.) And I don’t think there is nothing I can do to right my wrongs. (Jesus walks with me.) I want to talk to God but I’m afraid because we ain’t spoke in so long.”

But the CD on which the song appears, The College Dropout, carries a parental advisory for explicit lyrics and has been criticized by Christians for
promoting violence and fornication. Though West’s promoter Neily Dickerson, president of ND Co. and Church Howse Music, said only the single was nominated, dozens of letters poured into the offices of Central City Productions, headquarters for the Stellar Awards, demanding that West’s name be immediately removed from the ballot.

Among those protesting the song was Bobby Herring, also known as Tre9, founder and president of the Houston Holy Hip-Hop Alliance. “The leaders of Holy Hip-Hop were outraged,” Herring said. “I gave them 30 days to respond [to my letter], and then I would go further with the protest.”

Through his organization, the 29-year-old has strong relationships with retailers, pastors, media, artists and vendors in Houston. “I was going to get the whole city to protest,” he said.

But in September, the Stellar Awards, being held this month in Houston, announced the removal of West’s nomination and apologized, saying it “did not intend to offend the gospel music community with this glaring oversight. We have implemented corrective action to make sure that such an error never happens again.”

Gerard Henry, host of the popular gospel video show Lift Every Voice on Black Entertainment Television, said the Stellar Awards may not have realized the full scope of West’s CD. “I have mixed feelings about the song,” said Henry, who is also college ministries leader at Hope Christian Church in College Park, Md., pastored by Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr.

“I think it sounds great. I like the name of Jesus being put into the mainstream. It creates discussion. But I think that instead of attacking him, we should reach out to him and disciple him. He needs to be fathered and to know that there is a difference between just knowing that Jesus walks and walking with Jesus.”

But others say Jesus can use anyone, not just mature Christians. “The Bible says, ‘Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord,'” said Gerard Bonner, senior writer for . “Based on that, [West and other secular artists who have performed religious singles] are qualified to testify, to share the gospel.

“We have to remember that this gospel is not ours but belongs to the Father. Therefore, God can use whoever He’d like. He shared a message through a donkey.”

Dickerson agreed. “I think the Lord is showing that you’ll be shocked at who [He will] use. He said He would use a rock to cry out. Kanye is that rock. We have to get to a worldview of who Jesus is–outside of the Baptist or Pentecostal churches. There are young people who would have never been exposed to Jesus if it were not for this song.”

That proved true in Fort Washington, Md., recently when Ebenezer AME Church hosted West in concert. West performed “Jesus Walks” and “All Falls Down,” which talks about materialism, and fielded youth ministers’ questions about “Jesus Walks.” Ebenezer youth pastor Tony Lee told the Washington Post the event drew 3,000 youth, and that more than 300 responded to the altar call.

Even though West won’t receive a Stellar Award this year, Henry said he has been an example for Christians. Said Henry: “If believers who actually have a good knowledge of who Christ is stood up the way Kanye did–with courage and sincerity–we would have a revolution.”
Jevon Oakman Bolden

Critics say using Islam’s holy book to prove Christianity can blur the differences between the two faiths
Many Christians denounce the Quran’s teachings, but some believers have taken the controversial approach of using Islam’s holy book to bring Muslims to Jesus. They say by communicating the gospel in a manner Islamists can understand, many receive Christ. Their converts are called “Messianic Muslims,” partly because they are encouraged not to abandon some Islamic traditions

“I use their own book of precepts to validate the authenticity of Christ,” said Patricia Bailey, who has ministered in many Arabic nations. “If Muslims embrace the Quran as their holy book, then it is the ultimate tool to reach them and at least to provoke them to question what is written in their own book of the law. The Quran makes references to the Bible. The Bible never refers to the Quran for truth or authenticity.”

The founder of Georgia-based Master’s Touch Ministries, Bailey said more than 4,000 Muslims have been converted via one-on-one ministry, her TV appearances, and leadership-training centers and conferences in countries such as Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan and Turkey.

Bailey is not alone in her provocative way of reaching Muslims. John Taimoor is an itinerant preacher and founder of Crossbearers, a California-based ministry that presents Christianity within an Islamic context. Born and raised a Muslim in an area near Pakistan and southern Afghanistan, Taimoor seeks to establish new communities of Messianic Muslims throughout the Middle East.

A Messianic Muslim is an Islamist who has accepted Jesus but refuses to be referred to as a Christian and chooses to stay within the Arab community.

“Ethnically I am a Pushtun or Pathan who never had a church among them, and I was probably the first-known convert to Christ in the last 50 years,” Taimoor, 46, explained. “Christ visited me supernaturally while reading the Quran in a mosque, and later the New Testament changed me into a new person.”

Jeremiah Cummings, who studied Islam with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, is now on a mission to bring the gospel to Muslims. He does not use the term Messianic Muslims, but Cummings, 53, said more than 40,000 Islamists have converted to Christianity through his appearances on Christian television, including Daystar and the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

However, some leaders of Arabic missions organizations question the way Bailey, Taimoor and Cummings evangelize Muslims, especially when it comes to using the Quran.

“I teach courses on Islam in various parts of the world. I do not believe the Quran is the Word of God,” said Don McCurry, president of Colorado-based Ministries to Muslims who served for 18 years in Pakistan as a missionary. “In fact, at every cardinal point of the gospel, it contradicts the Word of God.”

David Goldmann, missions consultant with Frontiers, an organization that plants churches among Muslims in more than 40 countries, agreed.

“Using the Quran to prove Christianity can emphasize Quranic authority over the Bible,” said Goldmann, 73, who spent 24 years ministering to Muslims in North Africa.

“Emphasizing the similarities between the Bible and the Quran can confirm to Muslims that the Quran is truly the final part of progressive revelation,” he added. “Pointing out the differences between the Bible and the Quran can bolster Muslims’ belief that the Bible has been corrupted.”

McCurry, 77, said he has “a big problem” with the name Messianic Muslims. “In the dictionary, ‘Muslim’ simply means someone who is submitted,” he said. “Muslims will tell you that it means someone submitted to God. But the bottom line is that ‘Muslim,’ in a Muslim’s eyes, means someone submitted to Muhammad and his version of God.”

Goldmann concurred, noting that “a Christian who calls himself a Messianic Muslim will only confuse people.”

“The biblical approach is for a Christian to associate himself with Jesus Christ of Christianity,” he said, referring to Acts 11:26.

Taimoor admitted that some Christians do not understand his strategy. “If some do accuse me of compromise or heresy, it is because they do not understand the linguistic and cultural significance, or they expect the gospel to be Westernized before it is preached,” he said.

“Unless we become boldly creative, we will keep doing what others have done before and failed,” he added. “Muslims are desperate to find the truth. They pray to God five times a day to find it. Christians must be like Paul, who became a Roman with the Romans and a Jew with the Jews without compromising the gospel.”

Bailey echoed his point. “Though I do not condone or embrace the religion philosophy or doctrine of Islam, I do passionately love the people,” she said. “You will never aggressively reach out to a people that you don’t have an affinity toward. You cannot see all Arabic or Islamic people as your enemy.”
Eric Tiansay

Conservative Groups Oppose Arlen Specter

Despite attempts by conservatives to block the appointment of Sen. Arlen Specter as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Republican from Pennsylvania was unanimously nominated to the judiciary panel Nov. 18, the New York Times reported. Pro-life and pro-family groups had opposed Specter because of his support for abortion. Though further confirmation is still required, Specter is likely to assume the role when Congress reconvenes this month. Specter said he would not use a “litmus test” to block judges who oppose abortion from being confirmed to the Supreme Court and promised to give the president’s nominees quick consideration. Still, pro-family leaders were wary of Specter’s confirmation and said they would be watching him closely.

John Ashcroft Resigns

Attorney General John Ashcroft resigned Nov. 10, saying the “objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,” the Associated Press (AP) reported. A longtime member of the Assemblies of God, Ashcroft said he believed his “energies and talents should be directed toward other, more challenging horizons,” the AP said. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson welcomed President Bush’s nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Ashcroft’s replacement.

Jerry Falwell Launches New Organization

To maintain the momentum gained by social conservatives Nov. 2, the Rev. Jerry Falwell has launched a 21st century version of the Moral Majority, which he is calling the Faith and Values Coalition. Falwell said the group, based in Lynchburg, Va., will focus on seeing pro-life, “strict constructionist” judges–or those who interpret the Constitution based on what they believe was the authors’ original intent–confirmed to the Supreme Court and lower courts; passage of a federal amendment banning gay marriages; and the election of another “socially, fiscally and politically conservative president in 2008.” The 71-year-old will lead the organization with his son, Jonathan, and Liberty Counsel founder Mathew Staver.

Organizer Bishop John Gimenez says the call to champion righteousness did not end with the presidential election
Thousands gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., days before the November election to fast and pray that righteousness would prevail in the United States. But in the wake of President Bush’s re-election, Bishop John Gimenez said the task is still far from over.

Quoting an old Spanish proverb–“Tell me who you walk with, and I’ll tell you who you are”–Gimenez, organizer of the Oct. 22 America for Jesus (AFJ) rally in Washington, D.C., said he hopes Christians will continue to walk together as “watchmen” in prayer, and then work together to reclaim American culture.

He says in order for the nation to be healthy, prayer needs to be returned to schools, a marriage amendment must be passed and Christians must gain more influence in such secular strongholds as the media. At the AFJ rally, Gimenez gathered evangelical and charismatic leaders from across the country, as well as nationally known musicians, including pastor Donnie McClurkin, entertainer Pat Boone and the worship band Starfield.

AFJ leaders reported some 25,000 attendees, but said thousands more in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia joined in prayer while watching satellite broadcasts.

“We were few, but we were committed,” Gimenez told Charisma. “We prayed in dozens of languages and we prayed: ‘Lord, save our nation. Bring righteousness back to the forefront.'”

Gimenez said the focus of the event was not on promoting a particular candidate but on encouraging Christians to seek righteousness and to pray that God would “exalt [His] name and the one [He] wants to rule.” He’s already looking toward the 2008 presidential election, when he may organize another rally urging Christians to cross denominational and racial lines to support the candidate who promotes righteousness.

“We have a problem in the church, and that is division, but little by little we are coming together,” said Gimenez, who founded The Rock Church in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife, Anne, and organized three previous prayer rallies. The couple’s 1988 Washington for Jesus rally is said to have drawn more than 1 million participants.

“If we can be one, we can bring healing to the nation, we can turn things around, we can have a bright future for our children,” he added.

It is a point that was echoed by nearly everyone in attendance. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a speaker at the AFJ rally, said the church is more united than it has been in several years.

“Evangelicals are more united than ever before,” he said. “We fragmented with the Protestant Reformation and continue to fragment … which gives us different flavors in the body. Now there is a high degree of relational camaraderie between the leaders of evangelicalism, and so you look at the platform here at America for Jesus you see every ethnic group imaginable here praying together, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Emphasizing the importance of unity, McClurkin gave a stirring rendition of songwriter Rich Mullins’ classic “Awesome God,” singing its popular chorus in German and Russian.

“Our nation was built on godly principles, godly intention–that’s how our founders structured the framework of this country,” McClurkin said.

“My prayer for this nation is that [we] would go back to God, the true and living God, and that we would come to grips with the fact that you cannot extract God from the very fabric of the society that He built. Stop running from the very one that calls us into being as a nation. Turn back to God and allow Him to bring about change.”
Chris Pettit in Washington, D.C.

Pastor Wesley Campbell says personal revival should motivate believers to reach out to the world’s poor and needy
A Canadian pastor is calling for Christians touched by renewal to translate their passion into activism for children worldwide who are plagued by poverty, exploitation and war.

Wesley Campbell, who co-founded New Life Church in Kelowna, British Columbia, with his wife, Stacey, has focused his international renewal ministry on teaching Christians how to pray for and rescue children at risk, particularly the fatherless and the poor.

“After experiencing the Toronto renewal, while people were being touched and blessed and bearing fruit, I saw little being harvested for the poorest of the poor–specifically the children,” Campbell told Charisma.

In Be a Hero: The Battle for Mercy and Social Justice, Campbell and co-author Stephen Court, a captain in The Salvation Army who lives and ministers with his family in the poorest neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, reveal simple strategies to transform personal revival into public action.

Campbell says heroes don’t need a superhuman gift or a flashy uniform. They simply must take action by praying for the poor, investing in the life of a child through child sponsorship, starting or supporting a project working with children, advocating for the “invisible” people so that they become visible to others, or participating in short-term missions trips.

“The whole thrust for mercy and justice for children rose out of the prophetic renewal my church experienced in 1988 when the Holy Spirit came on the leadership in great power, and people started prophesying specific themes about where God would take us in ministry,” Campbell told Charisma. “That experience resulted in a burst of salvations in Kelowna and pushed us into the prayer movement.”

That prayer movement led Campbell to delve deep into Scripture to discover the power of praying biblical prayers aloud daily. With his wife, Campbell compiled what he learned into a book titled Praying the Bible: The Book of Prayers. The manual guides readers into praying some 88 prayers, including the prayers of Jesus, the psalms, prayers of the apostles and prophets, and others.

“David’s psalms talk about the mercy of God for the refugee, widow and orphan, about God’s heart for the poor,” Campbell said. “He became passionate about what God loves as a result of meditating on Scripture and ended up writing many psalms expressing the heart of God for the poor. As we continued to pray the Bible, stare at God, look at attributes of God, those attributes came into our spirit and moved us out into ministry.”

Campbell says the natural outgrowth of revival is faith that changes societies. Past Christian heroes established hospitals and universities, provided literacy and education for the masses, spearheaded the abolition of slavery, fought for the dignity of women and children, and built organizations focusing on charity and the sanctity of life.

After being dramatically touched by the Holy Spirit, Campbell and several other leaders in New Life Church launched ministries that take the power of the Holy Spirit into the streets. New Life founded the Society of Hope, which has built 350 subsidized housing units, assisted single-parent families and offered progressive employment opportunities.

Church leader Ralph Bromley later launched Hope for the Nations and built more than 50 homes in 20 countries to care for orphans. Worship leader David Ruis, once a leader at New Life, uses his music and Los Angeles-based ministry to share his own expression of prophetic mercy and justice.

Daniel Germain, who was discipled by Campbell during that time, started a ministry called Quebec Kid’s Breakfast Club, which feeds thousands of children and is currently expanding internationally.

Today, Campbell’s ministry is focused on raising up heroes who will pray and minister to the world’s poor and needy children. In their book, Campbell and Court explain the “seven deadly sins” facing children in the most need–extreme poverty, slave labor, orphanage, sexual trafficking, war, religious persecution, and AIDS and other diseases. It also lists groups reaching out to them in hopes that readers will support their work.
Julia C. Loren

Dr. Alton A. Williams says children with ADHD are being ‘healed’ through treatment known as vision therapy
Dr. Alton A. Williams made history in 1974 when he became the first African American optometrist in Delaware. Last year he was recognized as one of the state’s 100 most influential African Americans. But these days, Williams doesn’t boast about those things.

Instead, the 55-year-old talks about the 4,000 patients who he says have come to Christ in the 12 years since he prayed the sinner’s prayer himself, and about the children who he claims have been “healed” of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after receiving vision therapy at his Newark clinic.

Vision therapy, an eye-focusing technique that Williams first learned about 30 years ago at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, is designed to improve the brain’s ability to control eye alignment, movement, teamwork and focusing ability. Williams said the therapy remained dormant in his practice until 2003, when he says the Holy Spirit impressed him to use it as a tool to reverse the effects of ADHD in youngsters.

“Many children who have the signs and symptoms of [attention deficit disorder] actually have undiagnosed vision problems,” said Dr. Stephen Miller, executive director of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, which offers board certification in vision therapy. “If the vision problem is … treated, many of these symptoms [go away].”

Williams views the therapy as an alternative to drugs and their harmful side effects. He said he felt the Lord telling him, “Bring the children to Me, and I will use what is in your hand.”

Williams claims the therapy works on other conditions, from learning disabilities to bipolarity. “From my perspective, these conditions all have spiritual roots to them,” he said. Before he begins treatment he asks parents, “What traumatic event has this child experienced that has caused their life and eyes and every aspect of their being to go out of focus?” He said some children were born addicted to crack, others witnessed their parents’ divorce, others experienced abuse.

An ordained minister and pastor of All Nations Christian Center (ANCC) in Wilmington, Del., Williams said a traumatic experience in his own life brought him to Christ in 1992. After 20 years of marriage, his wife, Bonita, suddenly announced that she was leaving him and taking their two sons with her. Williams faced his cozy family, affluent lifestyle and social prestige being blown apart. “All I could see was me sliding into a deep, dark hole,” he said.

He said God intervened through his sister’s testimony and her badgering him to read Romans 10:9-10. Sitting at his desk, he prayed Romans 10:9. “In the twinkling of an eye I was saved,” he said. “I never had that level of peace.”

His wife, an attorney, still moved to Virginia and divorced him. But two years later she yielded her life to Jesus. They remarried in February 1995 and have been serving the Lord together ever since.

Williams said the vision-therapy program is based on test results following a rigorous eye examination and an assessment of the patient’s needs. He said most suffer from convergence insufficiency, which is the inability to focus on a target at close range.

A typical treatment regimen consists of visual exercises lasting from several weeks to several months. With parental permission, Bible verses are integrated into the exercises. Williams said this is where spiritual healing begins. Many patients receive scholarships to make the therapy affordable.

Mildred Muñoz has four children in the program. “It’s helping my boys tremendously,” she said, adding that it also helps her stay focused spiritually.

Julianne Lin, an ophthalmologist and associate of Williams’, was initially skeptical of the treatment. But she has witnessed the results firsthand and supports him. “The spiritual aspects incorporated into the treatment help the whole family,” she said.

Officials from the Christiana school district in New Castle, Del., have expressed interest in vision therapy for the special-education program. “The Lord is going to use this technique to bring His Word back into the schools,” Williams said.

Williams is working to increase awareness of the effectiveness of vision therapy in treating learning and reading disorders. He also is raising funds to establish five regional vision-therapy centers through the Vision Plus Foundation ( ), a subsidiary of ANCC.
Peter K. Johnson in Newark, Del.

Christian Leader Beheaded in Sulawesi

The head of a Christian chief of the Pinedapa village was found Nov. 5 near a gas station in Poso City, Jubilee Campaign reported. Bystanders saw someone throw the head of Sarminalis Ndele, 48, from a dark vehicle. His body was found later that day. The United Kingdom-based human-rights group said the murder is the latest violence against Christians in central Sulawesi. Two pastors were shot dead in their churches, and a Christian woman was stabbed to death in front of her home. “Islamic extremists in central Sulawesi have long been trying to provoke a renewed round of Muslim-Christian conflict by repeatedly attacking Christians,” said Wilfred Wong, Jubilee Campaign’s researcher and parliamentary officer. He said Ndele’s beheading may have been inspired by the killings in Iraq.

Churches Ordered to Close in Indonesia

Authorities recently ordered 12 churches in Rancaekek, Indonesia, to close their doors. The order came after Muslim leaders in the Bandung region protested that the churches were meeting illegally, Compass Direct reported. The congregations had applied as early as 1993 for permits for church buildings, but were refused because officials said the land was reserved for a housing development. Christians have since been meeting in private homes, but a local Muslim group complained that this also was illegal.

Christian Worker Freed In Saudi Arabia

A Christian worker from India who had been jailed in Saudi Arabia for seven months for his faith was released Nov. 1 because of advocacy efforts by a human-rights group. Brian O’Connor was convicted of possession and sale of alcohol in the strictly Muslim kingdom. Without explanation, an Islamic court in Riyadh ignored the previous charge of spreading Christianity against him, and sentenced him on Oct. 20 to three more months in jail along with a punishment of 300 lashes for the liquor accusations, Compass Direct reported. He refused to accept the verdict, declaring that he was not guilty of any crime. He was released after dozens of Christians worldwide contacted the Saudi Embassy, Assist News Service reported.

Something profound is occurring in north India, where the Holy Spirit is moving among the ‘untouchables.’
Muni was 18 years old, a dark beauty among her friends. One evening last summer she was dragged away from her work in the mustard fields by three men who raped her several times. When they finished, they beat her up for fun, dusted off their clothes and walked away laughing.

Muni dragged herself, bloodied and crying, through the dark to her home and collapsed. The next day her parents walked five miles to the police station to seek justice, unaware how much this act of courage would cost them.

Nine days later the same band of men came with a few of their friends to the family’s hut. They took hold of Muni, wrung her neck until she was dead and threw her body into a field.

Again they laughed loudly as they walked away. They laughed because they could. They had no fear of legal reprisal. Muni was a Dalit, an “untouchable”–as insignificant as an insect, according to India’s caste system.

To the uninitiated, the caste in India can be perplexing. It has been in place for more than 3,000 years. It was conceived by the upper-class Hindus–called Brahmins, or “priest class”–to establish their superiority over the rest of the society. Eventually, the system became formalized, and people were split into four distinct classes.

Brahmins are on top. They claim to have come from the head of Hindu god Vishnu. Next are the Kshatriyas, the “warriors,” who believe they popped out of Vishnu’s arms; then the Vaisyas, the “traders,” derived from his thigh; and, finally, the Sudras, the “laborers,” who originated from the divine feet.

Beneath them all is a fifth group, the “fallen ones.” They belong to no caste. Most of the oppressed, downtrodden and exploited are pushed into this abyss. Muni and the Dalits belong here.

“It’s a well-oiled machine of exploitation,” says V.T. Rajshekar, a Dalit scholar who advocates converting Dalits to Christianity, an action hotly debated in India because it defies the social caste. “Christian missions have understood this baffling phenomena. Yet why is the Western world turning away from this?”

Many Brahmins believe Dalits cannot be part of society because they are subhuman. Indeed Dalits once were treated like beasts. The rich could exploit them as they pleased. They could send them to clean their filthiest sewers, to skin their dead cows, to cobble their shoes, to sweep their roads, to cremate their dead.

Today thousands of them work as scavengers amid human waste. They clean latrines and carry buckets of waste on their heads.

They don’t choose these jobs. It is the only work available to many of them. Paid nothing or paltry wages, these men, women and children are made to believe they are polluted, less-than-human and unworthy of touch.

The Dalits make up about 15 percent of India’s population, or some 160 million people. Only one in every 10 of them will ever rise above these deplorable conditions. The other 90 percent will remain poor and deprived, living and dying in a form of complete apartheid.

Being poor means they do not get enough food, that they die without medicine, that they live under shacks, that they take any form of cast-off clothing to cover themselves. They are given no health care and no education. They have no access to drinking fountains or water taps. They can neither sit nor eat with people in other castes.

Their women are easy victims of rape. If they are killed, their bodies are dumped or burned like firewood, and nobody asks questions. It is part of the Dalit life, each moment of every day.

“It’s nothing but religious fascism,” says Joseph D’Souza, president of All India Christian Council (AICC). “Political solutions won’t help–or our constitution would have been enough. Dalits need a socio-spiritual alternative that will eventually evolve into a different political solution. Christianity has the potential to do that.”

A Coming Awakening?

Conversion is a touchy topic in India these days. But those who sit and debate it are not carrying dung on their heads for their daily bread. Nor are their women being raped. For Dalits, conversion is not a topic to be argued over tea but a means of saving themselves for generations to come.

“All they want is a better life,” says Moses Pramar, leader of AICC in northern India. “They are facing a spiritual vacuum created by upper-caste Hindus. Dalits are not allowed in the temple.”

Mass conversions, which have occurred in the north, are in effect a declaration of unity, transformation and rebellion against the caste. It is an Indian way of breaking chains, Christian leaders believe. Hence, an increasing number of charismatic and Pentecostal missionaries are devoting their time and energy to the spiritual needs of the Dalits.

According to AICC leaders, a spiritual awakening is occurring throughout the villages of Punjab, a northern state. Truckloads of people are turning up at public meetings, where preachers are seeing miracles taking place.

“The pastors I sent tell me that people asked them to pray, and they prayed and miracles happened–mostly healings,” D’Souza says. “It’s amazing. Even patients given up by doctors get healed.”

Such meetings go on until 11 o’clock at night. Sikh and Hindu villagers also attend and arrive in big numbers at public meeting grounds in regions such as Firozpur, close to Pakistan. Villagers attend prayer services that last up to four hours. Many are baptized.

When the Punjab state legislature took a stance against the issue of Christian conversions recently, a New Delhi TV team went to the northern villages to interview residents. Many reported that praying to Jesus fulfilled their needs.

“My mother was sick,” one said. “Jesus did something and she was healed. Now I’m a believer.”

Yearning for Love

On a Sunday morning near Mohanlal Ganj, a village about 25 miles from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, poor villagers streamed toward the Yesu Durbar meeting grounds, where mass prayer gatherings are held each week. Many of them belong to a community of Dalits. Most are leatherworkers.

Some young women, pondering their plight, were driven to despair. They cried, yet others danced. A mixed crowd of between 2,000 and 3,000 squatted on the ground to listen to the gospel.

Leo D’Souza, a former Catholic priest and no relation to Joseph D’Souza, led the meeting. Rajendra Prasad, or “Baba” as he’s called, moved among the sick to pray for them and see them healed.

“A woman from Kisanpur came here with skin disease and was cured overnight,” Leo D’Souza says. “She then asked us for house meetings. Now we have three fellowships in her village because of this miracle.”

Another miracle–love–arguably is doing a much deeper healing among these people than the physical cures are.

“People come here looking for solutions,” Parmar explains. “They come here praying for jobs, for food and even to pray and find their lost buffaloes. They believe Jesus can fulfill their needs, spiritual and mundane.”

Bhuvaji, a cobbler who walked 12 miles to reach the meeting, is one such person. “I’ve seen many things in life at my age of 60,” he says. “But here we get loved, cared for and even touched. I like that. We all like that very much.”

Because the Dalits believe they are untouchables, they become jubilant at the charismatic meetings when men of God touch them and pray for them.

“Normally Brahmin priests pray, but they won’t get near them,” Parmar points out. “They’d rather touch their money, but not them. Here, it’s the other way.”

Dalits are yearning for a social change that will do away with their status as society’s evil refuse.

“The Great Commission is about real transformation, not about numbers,” Joseph D’Souza says. “Jesus never said, ‘Go and make more numbers of disciples.’ There are mission groups that say, ‘Oh, we’ve got a hundred-thousand converted.’ But have their social, economic and spiritual lives been transformed?”

It is a vital question that missions workers in India will increasingly have to deal with.

“It’s not just saving your soul–‘Just convert, but I’m not worried if you are a slave or not,'” D’Souza continues. “Now, that’s not Christianity. That’s cruelty. Dalits need to be changed. How can we segregate the social and spiritual?”

Introducing Jesus into this culture does not mean proselytizing, but loving, as Parmar found out. A team that he headed held a Dalit women’s meeting in a village of central India. They had gone to teach the women social empowerment, not the gospel.

Some 30 women attended with their children. The team talked to them about laws that help women and about their rights and the means to achieve them. “We asked them about their lives. We listened,” Parmar recalls. “This was something amazing for them.”

As the missions team was about to finish, two women stood and declared: “We want to become Christians.” One of them added: “Never in life have we received such love. No one has helped us, not even our men. If we tripped while carrying large pots of water, none would come to help.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke.

“Nobody has asked about our problems,” she continued. “We are beaten, abused and ridiculed–even by our own men. And here you taught us our rights, looked after our children, poured love on us and gave us food. You held our hands … played with our children. You treated us as precious. Your God must be very good.”

The room became quiet. Parmar still cherishes the sweetness of that moment. Eight women attending the meeting embraced Christian faith on their own.

Elsewhere in India, however, the prevailing caste system manages to blunt expressions of Christian compassion. In some places believers actually practice elements of the Hindu caste belief. Churches in Tamil Nadu and Kerala are facing allegations of caste prejudice against the converted Dalit Christians.

A study conducted by Dalit Jesuit and sociologist Antony Raj revealed that “untouchability” was still practiced within Christian folds, principally among the Roman Catholics in Tamil Nadu.

A majority of the 9,000 respondents reported the construction of a separate chapel for Dalits. In some parishes services are conducted separately. Dalits have been seated on the floor during parish services despite benches being empty.

“For some, Christianity has become a Hinduized idea which has imbibed all caste rules of the Hindu community,” Raj says. Indian Christian leaders are concerned about the practices and are trying to change them from the inside out.

“This is a challenge we are facing,” D’Souza adds. “You cannot do mission with prejudice.”

For missions leaders committed to Christian values, presenting the gospel to the Dalits is not a quest to increase the number of converts. It is a question of facing human need realistically and making a firm commitment to work toward a socio-spiritual transformation. Within that context, it’s all about the love of Jesus–touching, loving and saving millions of people from the pit of despair.

---

Joshua Newton is an independent writer-photojournalist based in India. He runs a Web log at .

Sri Lankan Christians face mounting opposition from the Buddhist majority, but their peaceful response to adversity is drawing others to the faith.
We pulled up outside the Kitulgala “Rock” church in darkness, after eight hours of rattling along gravel roads through Sri Lanka’s breathtaking hill country. The church-cum-house is built into the side of a cliff and decorated with a beaming neon cross.

At the door of the house, a small boy welcomed us with a 1,000-watt smile.

“He’s the junior pastor,” his proud father told us, patting 6-year-old Ranil* on his head. Our guide and interpreter explained that Ranil prays for people during church services, and they are healed.

People from distant villages came to the church after rumors of healing miracles spread. One man Ranil prayed for was healed of cancer. Because of the healings, new people arrive every Sunday, curious to learn more about Jesus.

The church was planted by an evangelist only a few years ago but already has a thriving membership–a remarkable feat, considering its location at the foot of Adam’s Peak, a key pilgrimage site for Sri Lanka’s 70 percent Buddhist majority.

As we talked, Pastor Rajendra handed us a fluorescent orange handbill. “This was given to every house in the village today,” he explained, “inviting people to a demonstration tomorrow.”

Buddhist monks at the local temple had called all the villagers to a meeting at 3 p.m. the next day to “chase out Christian missionaries and churches.” They castigated local shop owners for allowing Christians to set up a church at the foot of the venerated Adam’s Peak.

“It was from Adam’s Peak that Buddhism flowed into the country,” the handbill read, “but now there are two strong Christian churches in this town. … Buddhist people, think about it and oppose this kind of activity and chase them out.”

These words are typical of the monks’ reaction to a quiet but growing revival in Sri Lanka. Between January 2003 and December 2004, mobs led by Buddhist monks attacked, looted or demolished more than 160 churches. Evangelists sent to unreached areas face incredible opposition and isolation, but they press on with the goal of sharing the gospel.

Buddhist monks, who in many areas have lost their traditional influence because of charges of corruption and social neglect, accuse Christians of engaging in “forced” or “unethical” conversions. Their complaints stem back to a time when Sri Lanka was settled by European colonialists. Though it may be true that the early missionaries used financial enticement to attract new converts, today’s Christians–including those in Kitulgala–vehemently deny such practices.

The church is built into a hillside and opens onto a main road. It has no back door and very few windows–in other words, no way of escape.

“Don’t you plan to move out before the demonstration?” we asked Rajendra.

“No,” he replied. “God will look after us.”

This phrase seems to be the recurring anthem of the Sri Lankan church. Christians throughout the tiny island –vastly outnumbered by sometimes militant Buddhist neighbors–are simply not afraid.

On a gentle slope in another hillside town, a Methodist pastor stood in front of his 2-year-old church, a converted building once owned by a local bank. Two weeks earlier, a crowd of Buddhist monks had rushed up the hillside to attack the church during a service but suddenly, inexplicably, had stopped.

“Aren’t you afraid they’ll come back?” we asked.

“Afraid?” he replied. “Why should we be afraid? Our God is powerful!”

A senior Methodist minister shared another story about a church in eastern Sri Lanka. Buddhist monks objected to Christians gathering for worship in the town. Setting themselves up outside the church gates, they announced a sit-in fast until the church closed its doors.

Undeterred, church members gathered for a prayer meeting. This region had been without rain for weeks, but half an hour after the prayer meeting began the heavens opened with such a downpour that the monks had to abandon their post.

Irritated and embarrassed, the monks tacked posters to trees, billboards and shop-fronts, warning people not to attend the church.

On the following Sunday, two new faces appeared at the morning service. This couple had moved to the town several weeks previously–but until the posters went up, they had no idea there was a Christian church nearby.

In May 2004, the Buddhists pulled a new weapon from their arsenal–a nationwide anti-conversion law to stem “forced conversions.” Leaders of Catholic, Protestant and evangelical groups quickly released public statements denouncing the use of bribes to win new converts.

On August 17, the Supreme Court ruled that two articles in the proposed Act for the Prohibition of Forcible Conversions were unconstitutional. The monks then turned their attention to the constitution itself.

The Sri Lankan Constitution guarantees a “foremost place” to Buddhism and holds the government responsible for nurturing the Buddhist way of life. Not content with the foremost place, the monks proposed an amendment last September to make Buddhism the official state religion. This move was designed to create further restrictions for Sri Lanka’s 8 percent Christian minority.

At ground level, Christians seem unfazed by these political developments. At a community church in Wadduwa, rocks thrown at windows during church services are kept in a small pile near the pulpit to remind people of the cost of following Jesus.

The church was initially forced to close its doors in January 2004. When they risked a public service on Easter Sunday, a small crowd led by a senior Buddhist monk interrupted the meeting, slapping and beating congregants. On June 20, a crowd of 200 Buddhist villagers threw bricks, stones and petrol bombs at the church during a morning service.

Authorities finally forced Pastor Sarath to stop all public meetings, but members continued to meet in small house groups in Wadduwa and surrounding villages.

Sarath, a former Buddhist, once argued with Christians about their beliefs. “But when I was arguing with those people I realized who Jesus was,” he says.

“Buddhism won’t really answer those questions about how the world began or about sin,” he adds. “That’s why we have to keep preaching the gospel.”

A young couple pioneering a church in Hikkaduwa would agree. Hounded from one rental property to another, the couple finally settled in an abandoned house owned by a foreigner who had used it for illicit sexual affairs with young boys.

Hikkaduwa, a town on the southern coast, once heralded itself as the only town in Sri Lanka with “no Hindu temple and no Christian church.” When Harim and Susila moved here, a mob of 1,000 Buddhist villagers, spurred on by monks from the local temple, surrounded them and threatened to kill them, halted only by the intervention of the landlord.

Despite ongoing harassment, a small group of believers now meets in the couple’s home. Harim and Susila showed us into a tiny room where a group of young people, all of them relatively new converts, were practicing for street outreach. Their equipment–a guitar, drum set and percussion instruments–was fashioned out of garbage salvaged from the local dump.

“People are beginning to listen,” the bandleader told us. “They want to know what makes us different.”

“This is what ministry is all about,” Harim nodded, taking his wife’s hand. “Everything comes against us, but we’re willing to face it for the sake of His kingdom.”

---

Sarah Page is a former missionary kid turned missions journalist. She lived in and reported from three continents before joining Compass Direct as Asia Bureau Chief in February 2003. She spent three weeks in Sri Lanka in 2004.