Preposterousness

A couple addicted to computer games let their real baby starve to death while raising a virtual daughter online.

Police said the couple spent up to 12 hours a day at internet cafes, leaving their three-month-old daughter home alone at their apartment in Suwon, South Korea. Police said the couple became obsessed with living online and neglected their real lives. They raised an avatar baby through their profiles on a Second Life-style game called PRIUS, while their real daughter was given just one bottle of milk a day.

Father Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and mom Choi Mi-sun, 25, called the emergency services when they returned from one online session in September last year and found their daughter dead. "We found she had passed away when we woke up in the morning," they said. But cops became suspicious about how severely dehydrated the baby was. A spokesman for the National Scientific Criminal and Investigation Laboratory, which carried out an autopsy on the girl, said, "she appears to have starved to death because she was not fed for such a long period of time."

The girl was initially well cared for by her grandmother but her health deteriorated after she moved back in with her parents. Police tried to arrest the parents but they disappeared after the baby's funeral. Authorities caught up with them and charged them with child abuse and neglect. The couple told police of their guilt after their arrests. "Due to our guilt, we have not been to a PC room for five months," they said. Online games are very popular in South Korea. A man dropped dead recently after playing his favourite game for 50 hours non-stop without eating or drinking.

Source: Intercessors Network via Australian Prayer Network

Oh dear...

Poor people who are desperate have been advised to shoplift from major stores...by an Anglican priest.

The Rev Tim Jones said in a sermon that stealing from shops was better than burglary, robbery or prostitution. He told stunned parishioners at St Lawrence's in York that it would not break the eighth commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal’. But his sermon has sparked outrage. The Diocese of York says Mr Jones is guilty of giving 'very bad advice' to poor people.  

A spokesperson for the Diocese said: “That’s great that he is raising these issues because they are very real issues for people who face extraordinarily hard financial problems. But to offer shoplifting as a way out of that problem is misguided and very bad advice.”  A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police also condemned the idea, branding it irresponsible, and insisting shoplifting is a criminal offence. The father of two, whose congregation is a mix of people, said his advice to people during a time of recession is that they should not hurt anybody and do the best they can.

He said: “The strong temptation is to burgle or rob people - family, friends, neighbours, strangers. Others are tempted towards prostitution, a nightmare world of degradation and abuse for all concerned. Others are tempted towards suicide. Instead, I would rather that they shoplift.”

A spokesman from the Christian Police Association said  there has to be a better solution: “Instead of telling people who are hungry that they should go out and steal, we should be, as churches, looking for radical and innovative ways to help people who are hungry to obtain food."

Radical and innovative ways like : giving it to them. (Luke 3:11, Matt 6:3) I know that's over simplifying the matter, but...stealing food??

Source: Premier News via APN

A Christian policing group which believes that prayer can catch criminals and keep officers safe from harm has been awarded a £10,000 grant from the Home Office to widen its involvement with local church groups.

The Christian Police Association (CPA) wants members of the public to "adopt a cop" by praying for the safety of local officers as they ply their beats. The organisation which boasts 2,000 members, claims that there is "circumstantial evidence" to suggest that regular prayer can help reduce crime rates and encourage criminals to make a new start to their lives.

They are launching a new initiative called "CoAct", which is partly funded by a £10,000 Home Office grant, to improve links between local church groups and police officers and encourage congregations to act as "peacemakers" in areas where gang violence and antisocial behaviour is high. Don Axcell, a retired Metropolitan Police sergeant who heads the CPA, said "We want people to pray for the police, and to fully interact with the service." Mr Axcell said that domestic burglary had came down by 30 per cent in an area that was regularly covered in prayer."

Les Isaacs, the founder of the influential Street Pastors movement, which patrols more than 70 cities across the country helping drunken revellers and diffusing gang tensions, says church groups already play a strong role in tackling antisocial behaviour. "The approach has to be both pragmatic and spiritual," he said. "Prayer makes a tangible difference, we see it every day. If you pray for the well-being of the community around you will see people physically become less aggressive."

Matt Baggott, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and president of the Christian Police Association, said CoAct would be a "great way of giving police officers the support, care and encouragement that they need and value". A Home Office spokesman added: "We have given the Christian Police Association a one-off grant of £10,000 to support its ongoing work to improve community safety, tackle antisocial behaviour and reduce violence." 

Source: UK Independent via Australian Prayer Network

UK Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg says his party (the third largest in the UK) would legislate to legally oblige faith schools to teach that homosexuality is normal and without risk to health.

In a magazine interview, Clegg outlined  proposals to advance '"gay rights", including forcing all schools to implement anti-homophobia bullying policies and to teach that homosexuality is "normal and harmless."  He also proposed to end the ban on homosexual men being allowed to give blood, and to allow same-sex couples to marry with the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. 

Clegg's proposals were quickly condemned by church leaders. One Anglican bishop said “I think this will go down badly even among those not overtly evangelical. Instituting something that must be taught, come what may, is frighteningly fascist.”  Janina Ainsworth, chief education officer for the Church of England, said "Further upheaval of the guidance for sex education would not be welcomed by many schools, church or otherwise.”

Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust, said, ''Nick Clegg is totally disregarding the deeply-held views of parents.  The vast majority of parents do not want their children’s schools to promote positive images of homosexual relationships. It is a fundamental principle of education law that children must be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents."  Wells further charged that "Nick Clegg is pushing a radical social agenda which would only cause confusion among vulnerable young people and expose them to increased risks to their physical and emotional health."

Source: LifeSiteNews.com via Australian Prayer Network

I think the sentence I highlighted in the middle is the real issue here.

What do you think about "legislated teaching" ?

The Minister for Community Services Linda Burney has announced that the NSW Government will not change the law to allow same sex couples to adopt children because of a lack of community support.

Christians who fought hard to preserve the status quo have expressed delight with the decision. There were a significant number of submissions as well as thousands of signatures on petitions opposing a change in the law. The committee was divided on the issue, but the minority report took into account the best interests of the child in opposing the proposed law change.

Dr Gordon Moyes, who represents Family First in the NSW Legislative Council said, "Most of the people promoting same sex adoption speak about the right of gay and lesbian couples to have a child to satisfy their own instinct for parenting. The concern of Family First however is for the child to have the right role modelling and contributions that are given throughout a child's life by a mother and a father." 

Dr Moyes went on to say "Two men cannot give a child the benefits a mother is able to give nor are they able to provide the correct contribution to a child's gender development that a mother and father gives.  No matter how he dresses and how competent in the kitchen he may be, a man can never be the same as the children's own mother. Dr Moyes concluded, "Children need both a mum and dad to help them develop their own sense of being like other families, and their own understanding of how marriages work.  The child's whole of life welfare must come before the personal satisfaction of two adults."  

After a lengthy committee inquiry which recommended adoption be legal for gay couples, Linda Burney said the law would not be changed.  In justifying her decision Burney said "The committee members could not reach a consensus in favour of a law change and the NSW Government is not satisfied there is broad enough community support to justify new state legislation at this stage."

Source: Compiled by APN from media reports

The World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary Rev. Dr Olav Tveit has called on the international community to cancel Haiti's foreign debt as an initial step in a broader plan to support recovery, poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Such a plan "must be developed with the full ownership of the people of Haiti and with the support of the international community under the coordination of the United Nations", Tveit said. In addition to debt cancellation and emergency relief, Haiti needs "reconstruction assistance in the medium and long term."   

Financial assistance should come in the form of grants, not loans that would burden the country with more debt", the WCC statement says. Tveit's statement coincided with a one-day conference attended by foreign ministers, representatives from international banks and non-governmental organizations hosted by the Canadian government to discuss Haiti's reconstruction.

Haiti is the most impoverished and indebted nation in the western hemisphere. "Exacting payment during this time of incredible hardship and destruction is morally untenable", said Tveit.  

In spite of having had 1.2 billion US dollars of foreign debt written off last June, the country still owes some 641 million US dollars to banks and countries. This year Haiti is scheduled to pay some 10 million US dollars to the International Monetary Fund. "The bulk of the debt accumulated by Haiti stems from loans extended to the brutal dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier. Obliging Haiti to make debt payments at the expense of health care, education and other critical social programmes is illegitimate", Tveit said.

Source: Press release World Council of Churches via Australian Prayer Network

What do you think? Yes? No? Something entirely different?

Today is Compassion's Help Haiti Day.

How are they doing this?

Go here to find out.

"Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world."   James 1:27, HCSB

The (Australian) Rudd Government has struck a blow to pornographers with its announcement that it will introduce mandatory filtering of the internet at Internet Service Provider (ISP) level to block material rated Refused Classification (RC). RC is the worst of the worst in child, animal and rape pornography. The government will also provide incentives to ISPs to offer optional ISP level filtering of so-called mainstream porn rated X and R. 

The mandatory filter is only bringing into effect existing laws which make it illegal to distribute RC material in Australia and will begin to catch material hosted on overseas websites. While parents will still need to remain vigilant about harmful material online, the announcement is an important step in the protection of children. The announcement has been greeted with a violent outcry from apologists for the sex trade and extreme internet civil libertarians with much misinformation being put into the media.

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) which has fought a long battle to encourage the Government to take this course of action has welcomed the announcement saying it is an important step forward in making the Internet a safer place for children. ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said the success of the 'real-life' ISP filtering trials in showing that a level of ISP filtering is achievable with negligible impact on Internet speeds has disproved the scare-mongering of the sex industry and Internet civil libertarians who claimed filtering would slow down the Internet by up to 87%.

"The success of the ISP trials in showing that blocking Refused Classification material is entirely feasible has highlighted the misleading nature of the campaign against Internet filtering," Mr Wallace said. "It has also proven the technological principle that can be extended to deal with other harmful X and R-rated material on the Internet.  This is now clearly feasible and we need a review in three years that might test this in practice, particularly using third party providers of URLs," said Mr Wallace.

"In the meantime we welcome the clear establishment of the principle that the Internet should not be 'a law unto itself' when it comes to putting safeguards in place to protect children, Wallace said. "We also welcome the Government's provision of financial incentives to ISPs to provide their customers with optional filtering of other harmful materials not covered under the Government's scheme."  Mr Wallace said that with children now growing up using the internet for both education and entertainment it is crucial that Internet safeguards are put in place to provide better protection.

"Parents are deeply concerned about the pornographic and abusive material children can too easily access on the Internet," Mr Wallace said. "A Newspoll commissioned by the Australia Institute in 2003 found that 93 per cent of parents of 12 to 17 year olds were in favour of automatically filtering out internet pornography at ISP level unless adult users asked otherwise. This shows the depth of concern on this issue - something which is only likely to have increased with the growing usage of the Internet over the past six years."

Source: Compiled by APN from information supplied by ACL

The Karen people in Burma, half of whom are reported to be believers, are constantly harassed by Buddhist and Burmese armies. In Karen refugee camps, horrific stories of persecution are told, coupled with reports of steadfast faith.

The Burmese army captures Karen men and boys, forcing them to become slaves and porters. Karen women are raped and burned to death.

Despite traumatic attacks and persecution, the Karen persevere in God. Orphans wake up at 4 a.m. to have devotions for two hours. They also have nightly worship.  

With elections in 2010, attacks on the Karen have increased exponentially. Attempts are now underway to save these Karen refugees. Land farther away from the Burma border (ie: land in Thailand) has been provided for a refugee camp, and almost all funding has been raised. Construction is ready to begin, but Thai government approval is still pending. 

• Pray for (Thai) government officials to approve the land for a Karen refugee camp.
• Pray for sufficient food supplies to ensure the survival of starving Karen.
• Pray for ministry opportunities for Karen believers to share their faith with others.

Source: Vision Beyond Borders via Australian Prayer Network

Source: Press Release from the Suicide Prevention Authority