News Update-7/12/2010

Hollywood Light Crew Burns Pro-Life Teen, Producers Apologize
A light crew working for ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel drew the fury of pro-lifers in Los Angeles after the crew burned a pro-life teenage protester with a stage light.

The conflict began on June 25 when the light crew encountered members of the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, who were displaying graphic abortion signs and handing out literature outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

The pro-lifers claim that the Survivors were not interfering with the filming, which was being carried out on the other side of the street (though a source from the light crew said that the scene involved set up on both sides of the street).

A video posted by the Survivors of LA shows a high-intensity stage light being directed upon teenager Ryan Bueler, who was standing with a pro-life sign only a few feet away from the light. A scuffle ensued and police were summoned after one of the pro-life witnesses, after repeatedly asking the crew to move the light, attempted to move it himself. According to the Survivors, Bueler suffered minor burns from the heat of the light, which partially melted a plastic bracelet he was wearing.

According to the Survivors’ press release: “After much negotiation between Survivors and one of the producers for Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel’s producers promised…that Jimmy Kimmel Live would never hire the assaulting light crew again.”

“The Survivors defend life and liberty for preborn children in the womb, and will continue to do so despite the pressure to be silent,” said Timmerie Millington, Survivors’ spokesperson, in a July 4 press release. The group thanked Kimmel for promising not to rehire the crew.

LifeSiteNews

India: Extremists Use Anti-Conversion Laws to Victimize Pastors
ASSIST News Service reports that Hindu extremists continue to victimize pastors in India, using anti-conversion laws as an excuse to attack Christians and limit church activities.

According to U.K.-based Release International, two pastors were seriously injured on June 23 when they were attacked by men wielding iron bars in Chandapura, Karnataka state. The men accused them of converting people to Christianity by force. Before that attack, some extremists reported to be from the Bajrang Dal organization burnt at least seven vehicles belonging to the Jesus with Us Pentecostal Church.

The attack followed efforts by Hindu extremists to prevent the church from holding a four-day convention. The gathering went ahead in a different location under police protection.

Religion Today Summaries

Eight Christians Killed in Nigerian Muslim Attacks
Nigeria’s religious communities continue to strike each other with sporadic violence, Worthy News reports. Christians in two states of Nigeria are mourning the killings of at least eight Christian believers.

“On the night of July 3, several Muslims attacked Kizachi village in Kaduna State and killed five Christians, including a primary school teacher and mother of six children. The Muslims also burned down five Christian homes,” said International Christian Concern (ICC).

According to ICC, police stopped protecting the village on July 2 as the government failed to pay their salaries. There was no immediate comment from Nigerian police. The second attack on July 4 happened near the violence-riddled city of Jos, when 200 Muslims armed with guns and machetes stormed Ganawuri community, allegedly killing three Christians.

Religion Today Summaries

Afghan Christians Detained Amid Execution Threats
Worthy News reports that more than 20 Afghan Christians have been detained in Afghanistan after leaked video footage led to official demands for the execution of Christian converts. Conversion and proselytizing are illegal in the Islamic nation.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide said the Christians were detained since last week and added that non-Christians with ties to Westerners have also been targeted for interrogation. The crackdown began early this month after an Afghan TV station showed Afghan men praying in Farsi and being baptized.

One member of the Afghan parliament, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, called for immediate action. “Those Afghans that appeared in this video film should be executed in public, the House should order the attorney general and the NDS (intelligence agency) to arrest these Afghans and execute them,” Khawasi said.

Religion Today Summaries

Caner Sacked as Seminary Dean after Background Probe
After a seven-week probe into whether seminary dean Ergun Caner exaggerated his dramatic conversion from militant Islam to evangelical Christianity, Liberty University has concluded its investigation. According to Religion News Service, the school announced Caner will remain on faculty, but no longer as dean of its seminary.

The investigation, prompted by a growing coalition of skeptical Muslim and Christian bloggers, concluded Caner, 43, had converted from Islam as a teenager, but had fabricated or embellished “matters such as dates, names and places of residence” in public statements.

His critics, bolstered by a May 3 report in Christianity Today, found major contradictions in his claims of growing up in Turkey, rather than Ohio, and involvement in “Islamic youth jihad” to commit terrorism.

Since Caner became the first ex-Muslim to lead an evangelical seminary in 2005, enrollment at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary has tripled.

Religion Today Summaries