“Nor is it any use to say: Let other cultures alone. Contacts between people must inevitably increase and mere contact is itself a form of action. A people is altered by the mere knowledge that others are different from themselves. The important thing is that whatever is done shall be appropriate, shall bear some meaningful relation to the cultural values and expectations of both sides.” Kluckhohn, Mirror for Man, p.189
“32 % of the paper used at committee meetings is filled with scribble.”
Gerald Hawkins, Beyond Stonehenge, p.118
The RC had it right, and we should agree. Then the question: “Why do missions need missionaries sent and supported by the US church?”
Pius XI wrote: “We are convinced that, unless you provide to the very best of your ability for native priests, your apostolate will remain crippled and the establishment of a fully organized Church in your territories will encounter still further delay… you should not conclude that the role of the local clergy is merely to help the foreign missionary in lesser matters or in some minor fashion to supplement their work.” RERUM ECCLESIAE, 22, 24. Found in Luzbetak, Church and Culture, p.104.
FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
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Tuesday 8 May 2012
KAZAKHSTAN: HOW MANY RELIGIOUS BOOKS AWAIT COMPULSORY STATE CENSORSHIP?
With new state Censorship Regulations for almost all religious literature
and objects produced in or imported into Kazakhstan now in force, only some
religious books – all Muslim – have so far successfully undergone the
censorship process, Forum 18 News Service notes. As of 8 May, 182 Muslim
works had gained the Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA) approval required
before they can be distributed. Those distributing uncensored religious
literature risk fines. Although the maximum period the ARA has to conduct
its censorship is 60 days, some religious communities complain they have
had no response to applications “for months”. No ARA official was
immediately available to say how many books or religious items are awaiting
approval, if any have so far been refused, why no non-Muslim books have yet
been approved and whether religious books already in use are legal or not.
Officials have already confiscated religious books – including children’s
books on the lives of Russian Orthodox saints – from libraries for
checking.
I am wondering about the old missionary term “rice Christians.” Defined by Wikipedia as “Rice Christian is a term used, usually pejoratively, to describe someone who has formally declared himself/herself a Christian for material benefits rather than for religious reasons.”
Now I hear about “Julia”. A person who from cradle to grave is dependent on the government for the important aspects of her life. Would we call Julia a “Rice Citizen of the USA” or “Rice CUSA”? Has Julia formally declared herself a Citizen of the USA for material benefits rather than for higher and more noble reasons, such as integrity and personal freedom?
I support and encourage the “indigenous method” of mission, encouraging non-dependence on the “rice” from outside resources. This meshes with my political opinion of those who laud Julia’s lifestyle. Heritage Foundation has it correct: “The conservative vision for Julia’s future is one that empowers her as an individual — not one that pegs her successes to the expansion of the federal government.” From: Heritage Foundation.
Much of mission today is pure expansion and causes dependence, rice Christians. Show me examples of where I am right, and where I am wrong.
Yesterday I made an amateur radio contact with a fellow in St. Petersburg. Pretty good for my limited equipment and antenna.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.
“In philosophy, a small error in the beginning, becomes a great and destructive error in the end. So in theology, one little error overthrows the whole doctrine. Therefore we must
separate life and doctrine far apart. The doctrine is not ours, but God’s. Therefore, we cannot drop or change a single tittle of it.”
It might be interesting, and important, to know how the supposed founder of your faith system lived. Here I try to list all the wives of M. This is not an easy task, since many of the supposed historical sources contradict or obscure what actually happened.
M’s Wives:
Depending on where one gets the information, here is a list of M’s wives, more or less in historical order.
Khadija Bint Khuwailid: M’s first wife. He married her in 595 A.D.
Sawda Bint Zam`a: M married her in the month of Ramadan ten years after he claimed prophethood.
`A´isha Bint Abu Bakr: M married her in the month of Shawwal, three years before the Migration, ten years after he claimed prophethood.
Hafsa Bint `Umar: M married her in the month of Sha`ban, 31 months after the Migration.
Zainab Bint Khuzaima: Her husband died in the battle of Uhud, so M married her.
Ummu Salama: M married her three years before the Khandaq raid, in the sixth year after the Migration.
Zainab Bint Jahsh: When M married her is not certain.
Juwairiyya Bint al-Harith: M took her captive during the raid of Banu al-Mustaliq and was his part of the spoils of battle.
Safiyya Bint Huyay: M married her because she was his part of the spoils of Khaibar.
Ummu Habiba: Rumor has it that the Negus of Ethiopia gave her to M as a wife.
Maria, the Copt: She was one of four female slaves send to M by al-Muqawqas, king of Egypt.
Maimuna Bint al-Harith: This woman was supposedly the last one M.
Found at: forum18
Monday 30 April 2012
KAZAKHSTAN: RESTRICTIONS ON AND PUNISHMENT FOR SPREADING RELIGIOUS
LITERATURE AND FAITH
In separate cases in three of Kazakhstan’s Regions since February, police have stopped Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists and Hare Krishna devotees from distributing their faith, questioned them and threatened them with punishment. Two of the five Baptists detained in Akmola Region in March were treated “as though they were criminals”, another of the five told Forum 18 News Service. They were questioned and entered into police records, with their personal data, shoe size, and photographs in profile and full face taken. Police accused the Hare Krishna devotees of handing out “extremist literature”. Baptist and Hare Krishna literature was sent to the Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA), which conducts the compulsory state censorship of all religious literature. “The Religion Law necessitates the ARA to authorise all religious literature before it is used or distributed by religious communities,” ARA spokesperson Svetlana Penkova told Forum 18. Several religious communities – some anonymously – complained not only about the censorship itself, but that literature sent to the ARA for approval has languished there “for months”. Continue reading
“…electric lights, a color TV, and a toilet are considered so elementary and primary today that we outfit jail cells with this minimum technology. Yet three generations ago, this technology would have been officially classified as outright luxurious, if not frivolous. In the government’s eyes 93% of Americans officially classified as living in poverty have a color TV, and 60% have a VCR and a microwave. Poverty is not what it used to be. Technological knowledge constantly ups the ante. Most Americans today would find living without a refrigerator and telephone to be primitive, indeed. These items were luxuries only 60 years ago. At this point an automobile of one’s own is considered a primary survival need of any adult. ”
Found at: New Rules.
