These Swedish cases are said to be part of a larger trend in Europe toward stifling religious freedom

In June a Swedish Pentecostal pastor was sentenced to a month in prison for preaching against homosexuality.

Pastor Ake Green of Borgholm Pentecostal Church in eastern Sweden told his congregation in a 2003 sermon that “abnormal sexual practices are like a cancerous growth on the body of society.” Finding Green guilty of offending homosexuals, a Swedish court sentenced him to jail in the first-ever application of a unique Swedish law passed in 2002 in the face of severe criticism not only by Christians, but also by legal experts.

Drawing on the laws adopted in many European countries after the Nazi era to protect Jews and Gypsies against hate speech, the new law defines homosexuals as a people group in need of collective safeguarding.

The government claimed that the law was targeting neo-Nazis and not churches, but Prime Minister Göran Persson said in an interview with Swedish media that he “expected” pastors branding homosexuality as a sin during church sermons to be tried under the new law.

Johan Candelin, executive director of the Religious Liberties Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance and the group’s spokesman to the United Nations, said the law placed Sweden “on level with China,” with the government deciding “which theology is permissible.”

The Slovakian Christian Democrat Party protested Green’s sentence, which the pastor planned to appeal, and two U.S. TV stations–the Christian Broadcasting Network and Progressive Vision–were to cover the case. But Christians in the nation say this is part of a more alarming trend toward stifling religious freedom in Europe.

In August prominent charismatic pastor Ulf Ekman was sued for “hate speech against homosexuals.” After only a few days, authorities decided not to prosecute the high-profile founder of Uppsala Word of Life Church, but the incident further inflamed the already heated debate on the future of religious liberties in the northern European country.

“There is a deliberate political move in all of Europe toward restricting the freedom of religion, with Sweden serving as a sort of European Union pilot project,” Ekman told Charisma. “Unless we now claim the freedom to preach the gospel in all of its facets and consequences, we soon will not be allowed to preach it at all.”

Though defending Green’s right to preach freely, most Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical church leaders in Sweden have been reluctant to take a strong stand for their elderly colleague. His sermon, many said, was “too unwisely phrased.”

Speaking to 5,000 believers at a conference in the Uppsala Word of Life Church that he founded in 1983, Ekman criticized his fellow church leaders. “I, too, would have chosen other words [than pastor Green],” Ekman told Charisma, “but that is not the issue. The freedom of religion and of speech are interrelated. We must stand up for the right of all citizens to believe and speak without government censorship.”

Willy Fautre, founding director of Human Rights Without Frontiers in Brussels, Belgium, the leading European secular nongovernmental organization focusing on religious liberties, told Charisma that since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, European governments and strong lobbies are quick to restrict religious groups.

“Governments and human-rights organizations that used to keep a watchful eye on the freedom of religion now focus exclusively on the war on terrorism and offer little resistance,” Fautre said. “Many terrorists are religiously motivated, and this has created an atmosphere in which it is easier to restrict all ‘politically incorrect’ religious groups–not only Islamists, but also Christians questioning modern-day views on homosexuality or on Islam.”

In recent years the window of religious freedom that opened up in Europe in the early part of the 20th century has started closing again. Historically the European governments always claimed a monopoly for one state church–the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe, the Catholic Church in the south and the Lutheran State Church in northern Europe.

When the revivals hit in the 19th century they were, in consequence, illegal. In Sweden the citizens were not even allowed to attend the Lutheran State Church in a parish other than their own. Gathering in private homes for worship was forbidden.

Fautre, Ekman and others say the principle of the government having the last word on religion was never totally abandoned in Europe, and it is again gaining ground.

In post-Communist Eastern Europe the Orthodox Church has been reinstalled as the “most favored” church. In the predominantly Catholic countries in southern and central Europe, Pentecostal and charismatic churches are generally “unrecognized” by the government, rendering them ineligible for the tax exemption granted to “recognized” churches, as well as other privileges. Also, because these churches are “unrecognized,” they are commonly branded as cults.

In France a recent law criminalizing the “persuading of the weak” to “change religions” can potentially be used to forbid “evangelism among the sick, the young and the elderly,” Fautre explained. He also mentioned that the French tax authority, applying a long-neglected but still valid law from 1905, has started collecting 60 percent in taxes on offerings in “unrecognized” churches.

In northern Europe the freedom of organization has not yet been challenged, but, Fautre pointed out, some lobbies, especially the gay lobby, and the governments seek to outlaw opinions that are considered “undemocratic” or “in disagreement with human rights.” He said “human rights”–as defined by secular humanists–is about to replace Christianity as the “state religion” of northern Europe.

Candelin of the World Evangelical Alliance called these developments “alarming,” and said the Protestant churches “must wake up and realize where Europe is heading.”

Ekman urged the European church to “lay aside its timidity, its policies of silence and compromise, and raise its voice now, or [the believers] will soon be facing very dangerous times indeed. The agenda of the political left in Europe–socialists and liberals–is by no means secretive. The church must get involved politically, too, forming a counter-lobby.”

Now residing in Jerusalem and committed to international missions, Ekman added: “We must preach the gospel unashamedly. I firmly believe that revival can turn a country around, but revival does not come without our preaching a supernatural gospel.”
Tomas Dixon in Sweden

Thousands of Christians have fled Iraq in the wake of a series of church bombings Aug. 1 that left at least 11 dead and dozens more wounded.

Pascale Isho Warda, Iraq’s displacement and migration minister, was quoted in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper as saying 40,000 Christians had left Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The only Christian member of Iraq’s interim government, Warda attributed the emigration to “insecurity and the attacks on the churches in Baghdad and Mosul.”

The flight, largely to Syria, is what Christians working in Iraq feared would happen after the attack, which authorities have blamed on the al-Qaida terrorist network. The exodus “could harm Iraq’s chances of becoming a pluralistic, tolerant society,” said Middle East Concern, a coalition of Christians working to assist persecuted believers in the Middle East. “Many in Iraq believe one objective of the insurgency is to divide the population on religious lines as a means of preventing the new government from operating successfully.”

The series of car bombings that exploded outside five churches in Mosul and Baghdad was the first coordinated terrorist assault aimed at Iraqi Christians since the U.S.-led war in Iraq began. An Assyrian Catholic church, an Armenian fellowship and Chaldean Christian congregations in the two cities were targeted, Reuters news service reported.

Attackers timed some of the blasts for maximum effect, during evening services that attracted hundreds of faithful, the Los Angeles Times reported. “I was praying inside the church with all these people when all the windows shattered,” said Rafael Kutaimi, pastor of an Assyrian Catholic church in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood, where at least a dozen worshipers were wounded. “We’re all Iraqis, innocent people. I don’t know what their goal is.”

Christians are said to total about 800,000, or roughly 3 percent of Iraq’s population of 24 million, and live mainly in Baghdad. Some groups estimate the number to have been as high as 2.5 million under Saddam Hussein, who officially preached religious tolerance and allowed Christians to worship freely.

Though many of the visitors have pledged themselves to false gods, at ExWitch.org the conversations center around Jesus
Kathi Sharpe once offered incantations as a witch and her soul to false deities. Now she offers Jesus to many of her former cohorts of the occult through her Internet-based ministry, www.ExWitch.org.

The ministry’s site is comprised of a series of public and private message board forums. Since its March 2002 inception, ExWitch has processed more than 100,000 postings, Sharpe said.

“It’s amazing to me that witches come on and talk all day long about Jesus,” said Sharpe, 34, of Greensboro, N.C. “It’s just phenomenal.”

Mark Bishop of Denton, Texas, one of five site administrators, said what is different about ExWitch is that people listen to the visitors. “We don’t throw them out,” said Bishop, a former pagan. “We don’t water down the gospel. But we present it in truth and love. … I don’t know of many ministries trying to reach [witches]. There are many out there that have written them off.”

Sharpe’s evangelism efforts go beyond the Internet. She also has invited witches and pagans to her church, Calvary Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Greensboro. Her pastor, David Crabtree, said he usually counsels a new Christian not to have any contact with his or her occult past because that has caused many to be lured back into it.

But Sharpe has been the exception, he said. “Kathi had an absolute break,” Crabtree said. “She didn’t hold on to the old life. She was so radicalized.”

Sharpe said some of the witches and pagans that attend services try to go unnoticed, showing no problem talking about Christ and reading a Bible. Those individuals, according to another former occultist known simply as Lottie, are strong-willed and are not seeking Christ.

Then there are some who can’t sit through a service, leaving frantically when they encounter the reality of God. “Most people do not cope well when their view of the world is tipped over,” said Lottie, another of ExWitch’s site administrators.

She went on to describe a personal experience that occurred in England, where she lives. She said the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation was so strong in Coventry Cathedral–out of which an international reconciliation ministry is based–that it repelled her from the place.

“I got only 100 yards into the place before I felt I would be crushed to the floor if I did not leave,” she said. “Me, the occultist, found myself forced right back out of that building by the presence of God. … It was one of the unnerving experiences of my life, and [it] took a lot of coffee to recover from.”

Sharpe, a former Web designer, said her conversion to Christianity was initiated by a dream she had of Jesus, but she remained hesitant to acknowledge it.

Curious, she asked God to prove to her that she wasn’t hallucinating. One week, she asked God to work out a software problem for her. She posted a question on a Web site, and the next day she received an e-mail with the answer. The sender was “[email protected].”

Sharpe said she sent “Rich” an e-mail expressing her gratitude. Early on, she told him that she was a witch, and that she had questions about Christianity. By the end of that week, Sharpe was convinced that Christianity was for real, and she prayed the sinner’s prayer at her desk.

“The transformation was like God flipped a light switch in my personality,” she said. “It was incredible. My husband noticed. My kids noticed it.”

Sharpe went on to say her departure from the occult came with some resistance. As a witch, Sharpe said, she invoked many deities within her. She thought they were her gods and that they were benevolent. She quickly realized just how much she had been deceived.

“I ended up extremely ill [and] hallucinating. I was being told I needed to throw myself into the ocean. … [The deities] were not the loving, benevolent beings I had come to know,” she said. “I felt betrayed.”

Although she did not have much Bible knowledge, Sharpe said Someone even more powerful than the deities intervened. “I asked them, I begged them, and then something spoke to me again, the Holy Spirit, telling me if [I] have a problem and [I] can’t get rid of it in another way, tell [them] in the name of Jesus they have to leave,” she said.

“They couldn’t stay in spite of my having given my life to them. This isn’t the kind of thing that happens on your church pew on any Sunday morning. I have absolutely no doubt that I was delivered that day.”
Cedric Harmon

Christian ministries are offering humanitarian assistance for the victims of what many believers say is a Muslim-led holy war
Like the eye of a storm, an uneasy calm has settled over northern Nigeria in the wake of religious violence that has claimed thousands of lives. But Christian observers fear that without intervention, Nigeria could become another Sudan, where 2 million Christians died in a religious conflict that spanned two decades.

Christians comprise nearly half of Nigeria’s 139 million people. Many of the country’s 36 states, including the recently troubled Plateau state, are predominantly Christian though others, such as Kaduna state, have large Muslim populations.

Though Nigerian Christians and Muslims have lived in peace for decades, the communities recently have become more polarized. In 2000, for example, 12 northern states imposed Sharia law, the Islamic legal code.

Moreover, religious violence has steadily increased in the last few years. According to Compass Direct, a Christian news service that highlights religious persecution, violence in the last three years has claimed at least 10,000 lives. More than 300 churches have been destroyed and at least 10 pastors and their families killed.

Nigeria has sustained millions of dollars in property damage, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. In May President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Plateau state after nearly 1,000 people died in interreligious violence. But the fighting has continued.

A May 11 rally in Kano state–protesting violence against Muslims– turned into a riot. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), based in Kano, put the death toll at 3,000 believers, including three pastors.

Meanwhile, coordinated attacks by Muslim militia in the Quanpan area and in Langtang have left dozens dead and thousands displaced. On June 9, violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in Numan killed at least nine people and destroyed several places of worship.

Some reports attribute the violence to land disputes between Christian farmers and Muslim herders. Others speculate that opportunistic leaders are instigating the violence in order to cement a power base within their respective communities.

Local Christians, meanwhile, say the true motive behind the violence is jihad, or a Muslim holy war. With the recent 200th anniversary of the Sokoto caliphate, established by a Muslim leader who Islamized much of northern Nigeria, they are concerned that militant Muslims are using violence to restore Islamic rule to a nation that has received international attention for a Christian revival.

“The ultimate aim … is to Islamize the entire country,” said a CAN leader and pastor in Kano state who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal. “They are trying everything to take over the Plateau state in the form of jihad.”

Nigeria’s desperate situation has not gone unnoticed by international leaders. David Alton, an independent member of the House of Lords and co-founder of the human-rights group Jubilee Campaign, recently contacted President Obasanjo. Alton said the president told him that his government “has zero tolerance for any acts that have the potential of threatening the nation’s peace and stability.”

Obasanjo, a Christian who in 1998 became the nation’s first democratically elected president after 15 years of military rule, also called for international help in dealing with what he called “the consequences of decades of misrule and structural as well as systematic dislocation.”

“We should do all we can to support this … approach,” Alton said. “If we fail, then Nigeria could easily suffer the same fate as Sudan, where 2 million died in two decades and where Christian communities have led terrorized lives.”

Christian leaders in Nigeria reiterate the call for support. “We need to speak out and warn people that terrorism is everywhere, not only in the Middle East,” the CAN leader told Charisma. “We have people ready to pay the price [for evangelism] and are not afraid, but we need international support.”

Many Christian groups are already responding to the crisis. Texas-based Gospel Revival Ministries (GRM) has long supported indigenous pastors. Now, in addition to the support it sends for pastoral salaries and training, the ministry has begun coordinating relief efforts. Area churches provide humanitarian aid and religious materials.

“We feel blessed to be able to aid the church in Nigeria,” said John Musser, president of GRM (www.gogoodnews.com). “Their response to the daily threat of violence has been humbling. This is a people who understands that the only way to achieve reconciliation is to reach out with the gospel, in love.”
David Mundy

As Living Water Teaching prepares for its 25th anniversary this month, co-founder Marion Zirkle says the best is yet to come
A Central American charismatic ministry is flourishing six years after a tragic accident killed its founder and leaders.

This month, Living Water Teaching (LWT) celebrates its 25th anniversary of ministry in Guatemala. Jim and Marion Zirkle relocated to Guatemala from the United States in October 1979 to start LWT (www.lwtusa.org), focusing on Bible schools and medical and evangelistic campaigns in Central America.

But on Nov. 1, 1998, in thick fog and torrential downpours, an LWT plane crashed in southwestern Guatemala, killing 11, including Marion’s 56-year-old husband.

The crash also claimed the lives of the couple’s son, James L. Zirkle II, who was LWT director in Guatemala; Chris Hamberger, the Zirkles’ son-in-law; LWT staff members and six American medical-team members. Seven passengers survived.

“For two to three years, I had to fight the good fight of faith so that this ministry would not fall,” said Marion Zirkle, LWT president and co-founder. “The devil fought me in every way through my emotions and my mind. …

“The Word of God brought me through and told me that, ‘I was more than a conqueror through Him,'” the 60-year-old ordained minister added. “I dared to believe it. God is a restorer, and He can make it better than it has ever been.”

This year, the ministry had its largest Bible-school enrollment, with 92 students studying to be ministers at LWT’s 22-acre campus in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

LWT has Bible schools in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua and Paraguay, as well as Guatemalan Bible graduates teaching in Cuba. The ministry also has worked in Mexico, Africa, Germany and Japan.

Through its various ministries, LWT has recorded more than 600,000 salvations and 20,000 graduates from its Bible schools.

LWT has also provided more than 250,000 people with medical and dental care and distributed more than 500 tons of medical supplies. In addition, Zirkle launched Operation Shoebox, an annual Christmas outreach that is similar to Samaritan’s Purse’s shoebox ministry. Last December LWT helped more than 15,000 children through the outreach.

LWT is still a Zirkle family affair. Zirkle’s youngest daughter, Debbie, and her husband, Keith Spanberger, are the executive directors of the ministry, working at LWT’s U.S. headquarters in Caddo Mills, Texas.

Zirkle’s daughter-in-law, Laura Zirkle Sarti, is a missionary in Guatemala, along with her husband, Manuel. Zirkle’s oldest daughter, Kimberly Hamberger, whose husband died in the plane crash, is also a Guatemalan missionary.

Barry Tubbs, an associate minister with Kenneth Copeland Ministries, which has supported LWT for 20 years, noted that “the anointing and calling on Jim Zirkle’s life is definitely on [Marion Zirkle’s] life.”

“The thing that impresses me the most is her tenacity,” Tubbs said. “Despite going through the tragedy, the ministry is just as strong if not stronger.”

Zirkle said she began praying about remarrying more than three years after Jim’s death. “I asked the Lord to bring the right man into my life who would be willing to move to Guatemala and walk this vision with me, a man that would have to recognize that I was in leadership,” she said.

Mr. Right turned out to be Clarence Wright, a 64-year-old former Baptist minister who went on three LWT missions trips starting in 2001 after attending Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Okla. The two were married in July 2003.

“God is a God of new beginnings,” said Wright, who serves as LWT’s vice president and teaches in its Bible school. “This is so true in my life here at Living Water Teaching.”

Zirkle said future plans include expanding LWT’s aviation department in order to better serve and oversee the ministry’s work in other countries. “I have no doubt that the best days are right ahead of us,” Zirkle said. “There is an expectation and an excitement in my spirit that I can’t explain but know that it is of God.”
Eric Tiansay

Canon Andrew White is a quintessential English clergyman who plays a central role in the Middle East peace process

He’s either the antichrist or the “vicar of Baghdad,” depending on your point of view. But one thing is for sure: Canon Andrew White is a husband and father who’s been charged with quelling the biggest family feud in history.

White spearheads the religious track of the Middle East peace process, aiming to bridge the age-old chasm between Abraham’s warring “children” in the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities.

He has negotiated in many areas of conflict, including the 2002 siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He is now working with other religious leaders to rebuild Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein–“the biggest weapon of mass destruction,” as he calls him.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Representative to the Alexandria Process, the official name for the religious track of the peace process, White assisted in the recent launch of the Iraqi Centre for Reconciliation, Dialogue and Peace in Baghdad.

It was a most bizarre opening for a peace center–as tanks and troops oversaw the proceedings. “There again, this is Baghdad,” White said, “where making peace is dangerous business.”

Just after his interview with Charisma, his security guards intercepted armed intruders at his Baghdad base. A few days later he was worshiping near the churches that were bombed Aug. 1.

So far his ministry has been through the International Centre for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral in England. But he is about to set up his own foundation to support his work in the Middle East.

Brought up in the Assemblies of God, White became an Anglican while training as an operating department practitioner at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“I got involved with St. Mark’s Church [in] Kennington, which was the great charismatic hothouse of the Church of England in those days,” he explained.

His pursuit of theology and Jewish and Islamic studies prepared him well for his present role. “In the early days of visiting Iraq I was really frowned upon,” he said. But that changed as war loomed–and governments realized that White had knowledge and experience of the country.

Despite being tall and quintessentially English, White has the ability to blend into the regional culture–thanks to his Anglo-Indian looks. His family has roots in India that go back to the 19th century.

Locals in Iraq and Israel will often refer to him as “Father Andrew.” They include a homeless Iraqi teenager named David who has been fostered by this Anglican priest since the Iraq war.

Back home in England, White has two sons of his own–Josiah, 7, and Jacob, 5. His wife, Caroline, is a lawyer. “It’s not easy being away so much of the time,” he said. “They make sacrifices, too.”

He said it’s most challenging for the boys, who will say things such as, “Why aren’t you like other daddies?” But they still join in. Jacob chats with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the phone. “My other son sees himself more identified with the Jews–he will talk to the rabbis.”

Another religious leader who has shown an interest in White’s work is Benny Hinn. The healing evangelist interviewed him recently on his TV program–and was clearly impressed with the gently spoken Anglican clergyman.

He also prayed for his guest, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. But their meeting resulted in a strong backlash. “I was called the antichrist,” White said. “All sorts of people started saying I was a Mason and other untrue things. I was accused of being part of a one-world movement trying to take over the world.”

How did he feel about that? “I haven’t thought about taking over the world yet,” he joked. “I haven’t had time.” However, the TV appearance also produced “hundreds of positive e-mails.”

A Canadian viewer wrote to say he became a Christian as a result of watching the interview. “He thought the church was totally irrelevant–then suddenly realized it was relevant.”

So much of White’s ministry sounds like an Old Testament prophet’s life–stories of angelic protection, meetings with kings and princes, working on the edge of danger–the list goes on.

Even when he relaxes, the biblical trappings are there. “I had my 40th birthday in Baghdad the other day,” he said. “We killed a sheep and ate it in a tent in Saddam’s garden.”
Clive Price in London

Three years after the prayer meeting, the Wiyot Tribe was given 40 acres of land on the site of a 144-year-old Indian massacre
A leader of California’s Wiyot Tribe credits a 2001 prayer and reconciliation meeting with paving the way for the historic transfer of a sacred land site where scores of Native Americans were massacred nearly 150 years ago.

On May 18, the Eureka, Calif., city council voted unanimously to return to the Wiyot Tribe 40 acres of Indian Island, located off the coast of northern California. Nearly 500 people attended the official deed-signing ceremony June 25.

Amid cheers, Eureka Mayor Peter La Vallee signed over the deed to the Indian Island property to Cheryl A. Seidner, chairwoman of the Wiyot Tribe. Then they exchanged gifts in a gesture of goodwill.

“I think what we are doing is reinventing history,” La Vallee said, the Associated Press (AP) reported. “You can’t say you’re sorry, but 144 years later, we can say it wasn’t right and honor the culture of the tribe and its roots.”

Historical documents show that on Feb. 22, 1860, a band of white men invaded the Wiyot village at night, killing scores of elders, women and children as they slept. Seidner said more Indians were killed in two other massacres on nearby South Spit and at the mouth of the Eel River.

“We lost our regalia, our elders, our weavers and our dreamers–all the things that make a community,” Seidner said, the AP reported. “We have not danced since that day. We have to relearn. I can’t wait for that first dance.”

The tribal leader credits a reconciliation conference in 2001 with creating an atmosphere that made the deed-signing ceremony possible. In May of that year, a group of pastors with the Humboldt Evangelical Alliance (HEAL) invited the Native American ministry Wiconi International, based in Vancouver, Wash., to facilitate a time of healing and reconciliation between evangelical churches in Humboldt County, the Wiyot and other First Nations people in the region. Wiconi led a three-day event at Arcata First Baptist Church.

During this event more than 75 people came together to pray over the Indian Island site. Fern Noble, a Cree and Native Representative for the International Reconciliation Coalition in Los Angeles, told participants: “We must allow the Holy Spirit to heal the wound so we can all come together as one, as God the Creator intended.”

During the 2001 conference, members of HEAL honored the Wiyot Tribal Council of Table Bluff Reservation with gifts and a commitment in writing to work with the tribe to get back this sacred site.

First Baptist’s pastor, Clay Ford, said that when he first heard about the massacre, he and some colleagues wanted to apologize to the tribal leaders.

“It’s dawning on more and more Christians to see the need … for us to repent for the sins of the past,” Ford said, the AP reported. “I wrote a proclamation of repentance acknowledging that though we personally weren’t there when the massacre happened, we represented Christian people and churches who did nothing, as far as we could tell, to make things right. And we apologized and asked for forgiveness.”

When Ford’s proclamation was presented to the Wiyot during the reconciliation meeting, the tribe also was given $1,000. Many churches and individuals continued to pray for the Wiyot and to raise funds to help them purchase the land on Indian Island, a goal they had been working toward since the 1970s. They had purchased 1-1/2 acres before the city voted to give them 40 acres.

“As I have been told, this has not happened in any city in the state of California, and I’m hearing that this might be something really new across the nation,” Seidner said. “I don’t know … for sure.”

Richard Twiss, president of Wiconi International and keynote speaker at the 2001 conference, said the land restitution is “the fruit of following traditional indigenous protocol in presenting the redemptive message of faith and hope in Jesus Christ as Healer, Great Spirit and Chief Shepherd of all tribes and nations.”
Jim Uttley Jr.

Judge Orders Bible Moved From Courthouse

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled Aug. 10 that a Bible displayed in a monument outside a county courthouse in Houston must be removed, United Press International (UPI) reported. Real estate broker and lawyer Kay Staley filed a lawsuit against the county, arguing that the display violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The 4-foot monument, which contains the King James Bible under glass, was constructed with private funds during the 1950s as a memorial to Houston philanthropist William Mosher, the Washington Times reported. Harris County argued the display primarily honored Mosher, the Times reported, but the plaintiffs said it promotes a specific religion at a government building. County Judge Robert Eckels planned to appeal the decision.

Pastors Asked to Make Invocations Generic

Pastors who give the invocation at Tampa, Fla., city council meetings can no longer use the name “Jesus,” the St. Petersburg Times reported. Saying she was following the “nonsectarian rule that we must follow as a governing agency,” council chairwoman Gwen Miller issued a memo telling council members that all invocations must be nonsectarian, the Times said. She also asked that council members send guest ministers a brochure from the National Conference on Community and Justice that explains how to prepare interfaith invocations.

Florida Court Refuses to Recognize Gay Marriage

In July, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion that voided the marriage between Linda Kantaras and “Michael” Kantaras, who was born a woman. The appeals court said it “must adhere to the common meaning of the statutory terms and invalidate any marriage that is not between persons of the opposite sex determined by their biological sex at birth.” Represented by Liberty Counsel (LC), a Christian law firm that seeks to advance religious freedom, Linda said she knew of Michael’s sex-change operation when they married, but after becoming a Christian believed their relationship was improper. LC chief counsel Mathew Staver called the decision “a victory for traditional marriage and common sense.”

French Christians and French-Canadian Christians met in Quebec City in hopes of healing long-held resentment
Ministry leaders and intercessors from across Canada gathered in Quebec City in July to witness a dramatic, teary reconciliation between French-Canadian Christians and Christians from France after 245 years of estrangement.

Dubbed The Homecoming by its organizers, the reconciliation quickly became a love-in between the two French groups following a visit to France by leader David Demian just one month earlier.

“I had to visit France for other ministry work, but the Lord told me then to invite French church leaders over here for our reconciliation meetings,” said Demian, director of Watchmen for the Nations, a group of 500 Canadian church leaders committed to prayer and reconciliation in Canada and around the globe.

“They readily agreed, having forgotten all about France’s history of abandoning the French-Canadians. The French-Canadian church leaders who were with me thought it was a wonderful idea and agreed to welcome them with open arms,”

Quebec is one of the largest of 10 Canadian provinces and three territories, and French-Canadians make up 22.9 percent of the country’s population. Quebec has held several votes to separate from the rest of Canada and was the site of much civil unrest and some violence during the 1960s and 1970s.

French-Canadians in Quebec have the lowest church attendance of any group in the country, despite a rich history of Catholicism and a wealth of Christian place names. Although the second ethnic group to populate Canada, following the First Nations people, the French were eventually defeated by the British during the 1700s, and the country became a British colony.

After winning a battle with the French in 1759, the British occupied Quebec City, the capital of the province. The following year, the French sent six frigates filled with soldiers and supplies to bolster the French-Canadians, but the British heard of the plan and blocked their entrance to Quebec City’s harbor. The French sunk some of their own boats and returned to France, never to be heard from again.

The reconciliation included a reconstruction of historical events; French church leaders arrived on a ferry boat to symbolically represent a return to Quebec City’s harbor, where French-Canadians welcomed them with open arms. After a teary reunion, they traveled to the Plains of Abraham, site of the 1759 French-British battle. There the French repented for abandoning the French-Canadians and made a commitment to stand with the French-Canadian church.

The French-Canadians then expressed their forgiveness toward France. Church leaders from English Canada also committed to stand with France to see the growth of the church in French Canada. Seed was planted in the ground to symbolize healing and growth in relationships, and communion was later held.

The Homecoming was part of an ongoing series of reconciliation gatherings that Watchmen for the Nations has held since 1995. Demian said the goal is to mend Canada’s spiritual rifts and regional strife so the nation can reflect the glory of God and help other nations find healing.

“When God called me to this ministry, I believed the reconciliation was to happen first between the white man and the First Nations, but He said no, it was to happen between French and English first,” Demian said. “So we started off two years ago at Charlottetown, the birthplace of Canadian confederation, where we read what Canada’s first prime minister declared when he wrote that there would be holy matrimony between French and English. Using that as our theme, we moved across the land … gathering history and praying.”

Demian said Watchmen for the Nations also is acting as a spiritual mentor and supporting several other nations that are repenting for former conflicts in hopes of finding spiritual wholeness. Among them are Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Denmark.
Josie Newman in Quebec City

First on the list of upcoming projects is Gifted, a talent show patterned after Fox’s popular program American Idol Inspirational Speaker

A music-industry veteran and the son of Christian TV pioneers are teaming up to produce Christian-themed entertainment that will reach secular audiences.

The partnership will fuse Johnny Wright’s experience in the music industry as president and CEO of Wright Entertainment Group (WEG) with Matt Crouch’s background in the Christian entertainment industry as the founder of Gener8Xion Entertainment. Together they plan to create entertainment that will enjoy large crossover appeal.

“It is our goal to wrap God’s message–His love–in acceptance, and in a way that blends seamlessly into ‘pop’ culture while still upholding the values we, as Christians, value most,” says the mission statement of the partnership, tentatively called Wright Generation.

As a first step, Wright, a Christian who heads the management group for Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, and Crouch, son of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) founders Paul and Jan Crouch, are creating a TV show titled Gifted, a Christian talent show similar to American Idol.

Scheduled to air Thanksgiving evening on TBN, Gifted will feature 12 solo artists, aged 18-24, who will compete by singing gospel and contemporary Christian songs in front of a live studio audience and an experienced panel of judges.

A cross-country audition tour was to begin in September. Finalists were to be chosen from such cities as Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mobile, Ala., and Nashville, Tenn.

The TV audience will select the winner, who will receive a record deal and future management in both the secular and Christian markets under Johnny Wright. This fall the show will be a two-hour special, but Wright Generation is planning a full 10-episode second season.

The similarities between Gifted and American Idol are obvious, and Freemantle Media, the producer of Fox’s hit show, has noticed. Freemantle recently sent Wright Generation a letter stating that it is infringing on American Idol’s copyright trademark and requesting that it stop production of Gifted.

“We’re not going to be bullied,” Wright told Charisma. “Our show is completely different than theirs.”

In addition to being a two-hour special, Wright said, Gifted will have a number of features different from American Idol. He also noted that in his time working on Fame, an NBC talent show of similar mold, there was never any talk about accusations of copyright infringement from American Idol.

“Is this just a veiled attempt to shut us down so they can move forward with the same kind of idea?” Wright said. “The Christian community, as well as the secular community, deserves to have a show delivered to them like this, and it deserves to come to them from people that are in the Christian community.”

The statement is interesting coming from Wright, who until this point has not worked in Christian entertainment but now says that it is what he is going to move into in the future.

“I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve had people come up to me and say: ‘I have a great daughter that can sing, but I really don’t want them to be in that pop world because I don’t want them singing about those subjects. I would really like them to be singing about church and faith,'” Wright said. “How many times are people going to say that to me before it clicks?”

When Wright’s assistant, Philip McIntyre, met Crouch, he saw an opportunity for the two to work together. He said the chemistry between Wright and Crouch was apparent from the start.

Now a producer for Gifted, McIntyre said the whole project came together in less than six months–which is rare in the entertainment industry. “It absolutely happened fast, like it was definitely meant to be,” McIntyre said. “In our industry, it normally takes a lot longer.”

Crouch said that in their first conversation, Wright told him he wanted to “reshape pop culture that [he] was in part responsible for creating.” At that point Crouch says he knew God had orchestrated Wright’s career through the mainstream communications world and his career through Christian media so they could each bring a unique perspective to this venture.

“What burns inside of me … is to really put a new face on what the world thinks Christians are and what they think a life of faith in Christ is and does, and what it accomplishes,” Crouch said.

Wright Entertainment is currently making plans past Gifted for future TV and music projects, which they hope will help reinvent the cultures that each of them have come out of.

Crouch said they want to help people understand that “we, as people of faith, can blend seamlessly into the world because that was really what Christ said for us to do.”

Chris Glazier