:: Friday, June 21, 2002 ::
No one wants to kill Christians? Oh, really? (The following is toned down a bit from the initial post.) I've been troubled by the recent sighting on Christian weblogs of a certain Soren Kierkegaard quote: Christianity has been made so completely devoid of character that there is really nothing to persecute. The chief trouble with Christians, therefore, is that no one wants to kill them any more!
Hmmm. Kierkegaard's quote may have held true in 19th-century Europe, and no doubt holds true for many in the West today who claim to follow Christ. But in a global context, Kierkegaard's quotation is dead wrong. There are plenty of people who still want to kill Christians. (Rachel Cunliffe, who posted her thoughts about the quote way back on June 11, also pointed out its irrelevance in a global context.) A new book, The New Persecuted, Inquiries into Anti-Christian Intolerance in the New Century of Martyrs, by Antonio Socci, claims that some 45 million Christians have been killed in the 20th century alone, mostly at the hands of Islamic and communist regimes. Socci's book has drawn both criticism and praise. Some call Socci a right-wing, anti-Muslim revisionist, while others hail his book as a wake-up call to the slumbering church in the West. But regardless of whether his numbers are accurate, information about the persecution of Christians is easily accessible online. While the story of Martin and Gracia Burnham are well known and well documented by the Western media (probably because they were American missionaries), their story of persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists was just the tip of the iceberg. Consider the following:
The global situation. Christians face persecution in more than 40 nations around the world.
Hounded, beaten, shot. Last August in India, Hindu militants in the village of Mehndikheda, Madhya Pradesh state, chased Christians from a Pentecostal prayer service and destroyed their meeting place. Two weeks later, near Calcutta, Hindu extremists burned Christian books they had seized from schoolchildren. A week later in Gujarat state, Hindus severely beat Methodist pastor Paul Christian and four of his church members for showing a film about Jesus.
Australian missionary killed in India. The missionary and his two sons were burned to death in their vehicle.
Flogged and deported. Saudi Arabian authorities on January 28 lashed three Ethiopian Christians 80 times each with a flexible metal cable in front of more than 1,000 detainees. The three Christians (whom authorities were about to deport because of their faith) smuggled a letter out of the Bremen Deportation Prison in Jeddah to describe their treatment. Officials beat and kicked them before suspending them with chains and flogging them, and Saudi authorities denied them medical care for back wounds.
Trends in Christian persecution. Fundamentalist Islam's growth in Africa and Asia, Hindu militancy in India, government oppression in China, North Korea and Laos all contribute to the persecution of the church.
The suffering church. Increasingly, Christians are harassed, arrested, interrogated, imprisoned, fined, or killed because of their religious beliefs and practices.
:: Andrew 12:48 + ::
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:: Thursday, June 20, 2002 ::
Listen up! This quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer is as relevant today as it was during his lifetime:
Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God, either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God, too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there will be nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words... never really speaking to others.
From Christian Quotation of the Day.
:: Andrew 07:46 + ::
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:: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 ::
An in-depth tribute to Jack Buck from St. Louis Today.
Christian rock riding a wave, from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gone are the days when, as Third Day bassist Tai Anderson puts it, "If you were doing a concert, you'd say, 'Free concert. Please come. Free hot dogs. Free trampoline. It was like you were apologizing for the event."
Crossover photos, as promised, but a day late.
Tela (left) and Brandon model the latest in Mountain Dew fashion
:: Andrew 08:08 + ::
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:: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 ::
Jack Buck: 1924-2002. My favorite baseball broadcaster, the legendary Jack Buck, is dead at age 77. A Hall-of-Famer, Buck called games for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1954 through 2001, working first with Harry Caray, then becoming the Cardinals' main radio guy. When Major League Baseball resumed play last fall after the Sept. 11 attacks, it was Jack Buck who gave a moving patriotic speech at Busch Stadium in St. Louis (link to the video available at this wonderful tribute to Jack Buck). Sports Illustrated lists some of Buck's more memorable calls. My favorite is his call of Ozzie Smith's home run in the 1985 NLCS (RealAudio clip of the call available from this site).
For many country kids growing up in the Midwest in the 1960s, Jack Buck was the voice of big-league baseball, and he was our link to the St. Louis Cardinals. I remember sitting on the front porch on many humid Missouri nights listening to Buck call the plays on KMOX radio out of St. Louis. Baseball, the Cardinals, and Jack Buck were a big part of my childhood. Thank you, Jack, for sharing your passion for baseball with the world.
Sport's great voices grow silent, by Bob Cohn of The Washington Times
In passing, a nice tribute to Buck from Stephen Green's VodkaPundit
Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck dies, from The Sporting News
Buck known for effortless style, class, from ESPN
Microphone binds the Bucks (link no longer available), a nice Father's Day story about Jack Buck and his broadcaster son Joe, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Linked from Boston Sports Media Watch. (For more about Atlanta, visit this site.)
:: Andrew 08:15 + ::
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Happy (belated) Birthday to my very first newsletter, which turned 3 on June 17, 2002. Woo.
:: Andrew 14:09 + ::
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Scenes from the Agape Home. Below are some images from our youth group's work week at a local homeless shelter, the Agape Home.
The group in front of the shelter, early on in the paint-scraping process. Aren't they full of energy and vigor?
Brandi and Ayla
Brandon painting; Dan admiring the long strip of paint he scraped from the porch
Getting tired, Vera?
See Ruth paint. Paint, Ruth, paint!
Hard at work scraping the steps
Tomorrow: A few photos from Crossover.
:: Andrew 10:12 + ::
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Divine secrets of The Bourne Identity and other movies. David Bruce's movie site, Hollywood Jesus, offers movie reviews from a spiritual perspective. I logged on to read what he had to say about The Bourne Identity. His thumbs-up review and other thoughts are posted here. He's also got a contest going for the "best original mini-review" of the flick. So all you who long to become the next Pauline Kael, or who just want to win a cool hat, go to Hollywood Jesus for further instructions.
Blogger's good Fortune. Congratulations to Pyra Labs, the company that gives us Blogger, for making Fortune magazine's list of cool companies.
Getting gay with kids? Nickelodeon's show about gay parents will go on, despite 100,000 e-mails and phone calls in protest, CNN reports. The show, which airs tonight, "is a cover for promoting homosexuality for kids," said Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, which is up in arms about the broadcast.
Who needs TV anyway? We've got Jordon Cooper's summer reading recommendations. Glad to see my lists of comedies inspired other bloggers to create lists of their own.
When graphic artists go bad... this is the result. Link swiped from MetaFilter.
:: Andrew 08:11 + ::
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Simon Dawes, 
