News Update – 2/8/10

European Court Rules against Turkey's Religion ID
Compass Direct News reports that a European court on Feb. 2 ordered Turkey to remove the religious affiliation section from citizens’ identification cards, calling the practice a violation of human rights.

Religious minorities, in Turkey have faced discrimination because of the mandatory religion declaration on their identification cards, which was enforced until 2006. Since then, citizens are allowed to leave the “Religion” section of their IDs blank.

The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights “is a good thing,” said Zekai Tanyar, president of the Turkish Protestant Alliance, citing prejudices against Christian converts. “[Religion on the ID] can cost people their jobs,” he said. “It has been known to affect whether they get a job or not, how people look at them, whether they are accepted for a post or an application of some sort. Therefore I think [the ruling] is a good and appropriate thing.”

Religion Today Summaries

Attacks on Christians in India's Karnataka Frequent, Furious
Compass Direct News reports that India’s Karnataka state recorded the highest number of anti-Christian attacks in that country last year, and it is keeping pace this year. Christians in Karnataka are being attacked “at rapid regularity” and “with near impunity,” said Dr. Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.

Much of the violence occurs under the vigilante pretext of rounding up Christians supposedly involved in “forcible” or “fraudulent” conversion efforts. On Feb. 1 in Thagadur village, Kodagu district, Hindu extremists dragged 11 Christians—including four women—from their homes and colluded with police to arrest them on such false charges.

The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that all of the Christians were tortured at the Siddapur police station to pressure them to admit to the charges. Police denied torturing the Christians, but like many people in India easily confused by Hindu extremist propaganda, Inspector Ratan Singh of the Siddapur police station seemed to erroneously believe that laws against fraudulent conversion apply to any kind of proclamation of faith.

Religion Today Summaries

Haitians Keep Churches Alive Amid Tragedy
Christian Today reports that Haitian Christians have not given up their faith despite the devastating earthquake two weeks ago.

“Our missionaries tell us in Port-au-Prince [people] still put on their best clothes and walked to church this past Sunday,” Assemblies of God General Superintendent Dr. George O. Wood said. He said many churches have continued to meet in open spaces even when their houses of worship have been destroyed.

Seattle-based Pastor Mark Driscoll observed the same thing during his trip to Haiti last week. “It was so amazing in the midst of devastation to see the people that love Jesus also love the church and no matter what were committed to being the church and being mission on the church,” he told his congregation at Mars Hill Church. “If you really love Jesus, you love the church. If you don't love the church, you don't love Jesus,” he said.

Religion Today Summaries

German Homeschoolers Granted Asylum in U.S.
A couple that was persecuted in Germany because they homeschooled their children has been granted political asylum in the United States.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled to Tennessee in 2008 after German officials ordered them to send their children to school, pay fines totaling $10,000 or have their children taken away. In Germany, children are required to attend public or private schools, and those who choose homeschooling have reported a trend in prosecutions.

“During the last 10 to 20 years the curriculum in public schools has been more and more against Christian values,” Uwe Romeike said, according to the Associated Press. “We knew we had to leave the country.”

A U.S. immigration court Jan. 26 granted the family asylum, finding that the German government violated their basic human rights. The incident marks a rare case of asylum being granted to people from a nation with which the United States has strong diplomatic ties and even a military alliance, the AP noted.

“There is no safety for homeschoolers in Germany,” said Mike Donnelly of the Home School Legal Defense Association, which represented the family. “The two highest courts in Germany have ruled that it is acceptable for the German government to ‘stamp out’ homeschoolers as some kind of ‘parallel society.’” Donnelly said he hopes the ruling will influence public opinion in Germany and that the government will understand that homeschoolers are not a threat to society.

Baptist Press

10 Americans in Haiti Charged With Child Kidnapping
CNN reports that 10 American Baptists in Haiti were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association yesterday, according to their lawyer.

The 10-person team attempted to bring 33 Haitian children to a makeshift orphanage in the Dominican Republic but was turned back at the border. The group's leader, Laura Silsby, acknowledged that she had not received permission from Haitian authorities and that she knew the group's papers were not in order. She says the group was just trying to help quake victims.

The other nine members of the team did not know that the plan had not been approved, according to their lawyer, Edwin Coq. “I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out,” Coq said. That would still leave mission leader Laura Silsby facing charges. The 33 children are currently housed with another children's group in Port-au-Prince.

Religion Today Summaries

U.S. Passes 50 Million Abortion Mark
Baptist Press reports that at some point during the past two years the United States experienced its 50 millionth legal abortion.

The statistic—which spans the 37 years since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973—is based on data compiled by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute and tallied by the National Right to Life Committee. The 50 million mark was passed in 2008 and likely approached or reached 52 million in 2009, although data is not yet available for that year.

In contrast, the combined number of military deaths in all of America's wars—from the Revolutionary War to the second Iraq war—is 1.2 million. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll from September 2008 showed that 10 percent of registered voters believed abortion should always be illegal and 37 percent believed it should be legal only in cases of rape, incest and to save the mother's life.

Religion Today Summaries