Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world.
In today's edition:
- Pakistan: Christian Colony Faces House Razing Order
- Atheists Launch Ads on D.C. Buses
- Catholics Bishops Vow to Confront Obama on Abortion
- Bible Translator Receives $50M Donation
Pakistan: Christian Colony Faces House Razing Order
The Christian Post reports that a Christian community in Pakistan is under orders to vacate their homes within 48 hours so that the community can be razed to make way for a road expansion project. The government has not offered the 48 families any compensation for their removal, in violation of the country's eminent domain law. “We will never allow the administration to demolish our homes, since the local government does not treat us as equal citizens, and we are not provided the basic civic facilities as well,” said Mansha Bhagat, 67, the chairman of Pakistan Masih Itehad (Pakistan Christian Unity) to Washington-based International Christian Concern. Families received the initial notice from the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on Oct. 28, 2008.
Atheists Launch Ads on D.C. Buses
Religion News Service reports that a new holiday ad from the American Humanist Association (AHA) declaring "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake" will be featured on buses in Washington, D.C., beginning Nov. 18. "We are declaring loudly and clearly an important part of the humanist ethical message," said Fred Edwords, director of communications for AHA. "All of us can have moral values as a natural result of who we are as a species and who we have become as a civilization." Other organizations have been running similar campaigns in other cities. Jan Meshon, president and founder of FreeThoughtAction, has helped launch billboard ads in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Kansas City, Mo., with several on the way in Denver and Colorado Springs.
Catholics Bishops Vow to Confront Obama on Abortion
The Associated Press reports that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Tuesday said that they will view the new presidential administration's passage of no-limits abortion rights "an attack on the church." Many present on Tuesday condemned the Catholic theologians and politicians who showed their support for Obama in spite of his abortion stance. "I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he's learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church," Martino said. The Obama-Biden press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas said of such politicians, "They cannot call themselves Catholic when they violate such a core belief as the dignity of the unborn."
Bible Translator Receives $50M Donation
Wycliffe USA, a Bible translating organization, received an anonymous gift of $50 million this week, marking the largest donation in the ministry's history. According to a press release, the funds will be used to accelerate the rate of scripture translation and bring language development and - in most cases - first-time literacy to more than 200 million people by 2025. Using cutting-edge translation techniques developed by Wycliffe personnel, the Last Languages Campaign will accelerate the pace of language development and Bible translation for the world’s remaining language groups from 125 years to 17 years. According to Wycliffe, one in five adults worldwide is illiterate, and more than one-third of the world's language groups have no Bible translation program underway.
