Magic Statistics

Secret police in Uzbekistan raided Full Gospel Church in Andijan during a Sunday service on 21 January and took Pastor Dmitry Shestakov, 37, into custody.  He is still in detention and will apparently be charged with “incitement of national, racial and religious enmity” under Article 156 of Uzbekistan’s penal code.  If convicted, he could be sentenced to five years in prison.

In June 2006 a state prosecutor verbally accused him of high treason.  No formal charges were filed at that time, but his wife and three daughters have been in hiding ever since.

According to a lawyer who gave Shestakov legal advice last year, the pastor has also been charged under Article 244-1 for the “illegal manufacture and spread of literature which rouses dissension between religions.”
. . .
In an October 2006 interview obtained by Compass, Pastor Shestakov described how authorities began to harass him in May 2006, apparently in reaction to the conversion to Christianity of some ethnic Uzbeks.

“Uzbeks started coming to faith [in his church], and this was not good news to the authorities,” one Tashkent source told Compass.

In June 2006, police raided the pastor’s house, temporarily detaining Shestakov and confiscating videos of his sermons. Although the pastor was ordered to list all of his church members, he refused to do so.

“It was clear that the National State Security were going to find something to charge me with and remove me from my position as a Christian pastor,” Shestakov said in the interview.

This courageous man, his family, and his congregation need prayer. 

Last November, the United States added Uzbekistan to its list of Countries of Particular Concern for its “abysmal record on religious freedom and other human rights.”  Uzbekistan was also named one of four focus countries for last year’s International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

h/t: Voice of the Martyrs Canada

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• Uzbekistan court orders Bibles burned, Baptists fined
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Agape Protestant Church in Samsun, Turkey, was severely vandalised and its pastor threatened last weekend.  Samsun is on the Black Sea, in the same region whence originated the extremists who murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.  Last July in nearby Trabzon, a Catholic priest was knifed to death.  (See map at bottom of post.)

Assailants on Turkey's Black Sea coast vandalized a Protestant church this weekend, days after nationalists from the region murdered a well-known Armenian journalist.

Attackers shattered the Agape Protestant Church's windows and spray-painted its street sign early Sunday morning (January 28) in the city of Samsun, Pastor Orhan Picaklar told Compass.
. . .
"I was shocked, because, though we've been stoned before, it was never this big of an attack," Picaklar said. "When I arrived at 5 a.m., there were about 20 police on the premises, including Samsun's deputy police chief."

According to Picaklar, approximately 30 heavy rocks had been thrown through church windows, some of them smashing interior windows and denting walls.

During the past two years, the church has received death threats by e-mail every week and has been a regular target of stoning attacks.  The harassment started in November 2004 when the mayor of the municipality stated that he would never allow a church to be built there.

Picaklar received two death threats by e-mail on the day of the attack, one signed by the Turkish Vengeance Brigade.

"I will kill you Orhan, you have very little time left," read one e-mail, which cursed the congregation as "Christian pigs" who would "burn in Hell."

The congregation moved into the vandalised building only three weeks ago, but the landlord has now decided that Christian worship poses a danger to his property, so he has told them to move on.  The pastor and his flock must find another place to meet for corporate worship.

Previous related posts:

• Turks mourn Hrant Dink: "We are all Armenians"
• Hagia Sophia occupied to protest Pope's visit to Turkey
• Europe denounces pillage of churches in northern Cyprus

Lawyers and social service workers in North America and the UK are hearing more frequent reports of elders being robbed and abused by their adult children.

Toronto lawyer Jan Goddard, who has worked on elder-abuse issues for 17 years, says financial exploitation of seniors is now "endemic across the country." This can range from snatching a few dollars from grandma's purse to transferring property.

Brenda Hill, the director of the Kerby Rotary House Shelter in Calgary, agrees. "We've had people who have had their homes sold, who have been virtually on the street with no food and no money because their children have taken all their assets," she says. "It happens quite often."

And the problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. People 65-plus are the fastest-growing segment of the Canadian population — but cuts to health services in the 1990s have meant that fewer seniors are living in public institutions.
. . .
South of the border, taking money from mom and dad is also seen as a serious issue. So much so, that the Elder Financial Protection Network predicts that it will become the "crime of the century."

Elderly parents who have given children power of attorney only to find themselves neglected and their bank accounts being pillaged are often intimidated into acquiescence.  Even when elderly parents are able to regain control of their finances and flee to a seniors’ home, they are often unwilling to take their children to court for redress.  They don’t want to spend their final years paying lawyers and fighting their children in public.  In such cases, abusive children go unpunished.

Corroboration of the widespread nature of this development comes from the release in England today of a report that the elderly are mostly to be victimised or taken advantage of by their own grown children.

Greedy middle-aged children are more likely to rob their elderly parents of their valuables, money, and even their homes than anyone else, a report revealed today.

In what Action on Elder Abuse described as "a horrendous state of affairs," the charity discovered that 53% of theft, fraud and deception cases reported to its helpline last year were blamed on the victims’ own sons or daughters.

In my view, this disturbing trend arises in part from the decline of Christian faith and practice.  Some biblical passages interpreting and applying the fifth commandment, “Honour your father and your mother”, indicate that the commandment is directed in the first instance, not to young children, but to adults.  Two examples from the Book of Proverbs:

• He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach.
• Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, "That is no transgression," is a companion to a man who destroys.

The latter passage is particularly applicable to the issue at hand.  Adult children who steal from an elderly widowed mother are treating her as if she were already dead and her money already at their disposal.  Theft from parents is practically equivalent to murder.

Also, Jesus had a row with the Pharisees over proper treatment of parents in financial matters.

Certainly, abuse of the elderly has occurred in all societies.  It occurred in ancient Israel; else there would have been no need to condemn it in the Old Testament.  Nevertheless, the reports quoted above say it’s becoming much more frequent.  I think a big part of an explanation is a drop of belief in and obedience to God.

Christian discipleship demands proper care and respect for the elderly. 

Previous related post: Canadian population rapidly aging

A British minister with the Unification Church (better known as “Moonies”) has been sentenced to a year in jail and fined $100,000 for poaching leopard sharks and selling them to aquaria and fish aficionados in the United States and Europe.

Kevin Thompson, 48, from Jarrow, South Tyneside, has been pastor at the Bay Area Family Church in San Leandro, which is part of the Rev Sun Myung Moon's Unification movement, since 1992.
. . .
Mr Thompson's gang is estimated to have netted $1.2m (£600,000) which would make it the biggest baby leopard shark poaching ring in the US.
. . .
The scam, which involved using lowly-paid teenagers to poach baby leopard sharks from San Francisco Bay, is understood to have netted Thompson and his followers up to £600,000 after they charged buyers £10 and £18 per fish.

The sharks, which are about 10 inches in length as pups, but can grow to 7ft as adults and need to swim in a tank with at least 500 gallons of water.

The theft ring, which was operating for about ten years, paid the teenage poachers between £1 and £1.50 per shark, sold the fish for between £10 and £18 each, and netted total proceeds of £600,000.  They must have pilfered tens of thousands of baby sharks out of the bay.

Why did Mr Thompson get involved in this illicit trade?

It is believed Thompson may have been trying to impress the founder of the Unification Church Mr Moon, who has reportedly proclaimed himself "King of the Ocean".

He would have done far better to heed the words of Jesus, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”.

h/t: Religion News Blog

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Judging by the intensity of the rhetoric, the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) are even more contentious in Scotland than in England.  The Catholic Church in Scotland last night accused the Blair government of criminalising objectionable thought.  A spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Media Office was quoted:

"This is UK-wide regulation that will impact on anyone who provides goods and services, from the priest who refuses to hire the parish hall to a same-sex couple, to the editor of a Catholic newspaper who refuses to carry a Gay Pride advert, or a printer who refuses to print those adverts - they will all be criminalised by this Draconian measure. This is as close as you can get to a thought crime," he said, in a reference to the George Orwell novel 1984.

"It isn't just Catholics - anyone whose faith means they do not believe there is a moral equivalence between single-sex couples and heterosexual couples will find themselves affected.

"There are also large numbers of people of no faith at all who happen to believe that there is no such moral equivalence who stand to be criminalised because of that belief."

It is being suggested that Labour will pay a price for the SORs in the May election to the Scottish Parliament.  Labour’s main opponent, the Scottish National Party, apparently favours the SORs and so can expect no gain from the controversy, but many voters may turn to smaller Christian parties to express their displeasure.

Stephen Pound, a Catholic Labour back-bencher who holds a London seat, said the adoption row had become a "massive issue" in the Scottish election.

Yet Mr Blair continues to claim that a 20-month “adjustment period” before faith-based agencies are obligated to accept homosexuals as adoptive parents is a meaningful compromise.  Perhaps he’s only saying that because he will have left office by then.  If he really believes that his proposal is at all helpful or conciliatory, he has his head in the sand.

h/t: Big News Network.com - Breaking Religious News

Previous related posts:

• Tom Wright denounces Labour government over gay adoption rules
• Catholic agencies to defy homosexual adoption regulations
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Medical studies have linked heavy use of cannabis with an increased risk of schizophrenia.

Recent research by Yale University School of Medicine suggests the drug may induce psychosis by its action on receptors in the brain.

The use of cannabis is not thought to be a primary cause of schizophrenia, although there is strong evidence to suggest that the drug can trigger the onset of mental illness in some people with a prior disposition.

The UK government lowered cannabis from a category B substance to category C in 2003, despite warnings from scientists.

At the time of the reclassification Prof John Henry, a toxicologist at Imperial College, London, warned: "We know that for those who take the drug there is a fourfold increase in schizophrenia and a fourfold increase in the chances of suffering major depressive illness."

In a tragic drug-related case, a former soldier who killed members of his family has admitted four counts of manslaughter.  It is believed that his heavy cannabis usage contributed to schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder.

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Tony Blair has announced that Catholic adoption agencies will not be granted an exemption from new laws requiring them to consider homosexuals as adoptive parents.  The new rules will not become effective until the end of 2008 but, in the meantime, faith-based agencies will be required to refer homosexual applicants to other agencies.

Ruth Gledhill, intrepid religion correspondent for The Times of London, reports Bishop of Durham Tom Wright’s scathing attack on the government for its decision.  While talking to him about another matter, she took the opportunity to ask him his opinion.  Bishop Tom then took the opportunity to unload.

Dr Wright, in his car on his way to address a conference at Swanwick, was furious with the Government. "There is no way that the Catholic Church is going to change its mind on this one given 18 months or so." he said.  "This completely fails to take into account the views and beliefs of all those involved. The idea that New Labour - which has got every second thing wrong and is backtracking on extended drinking hours, is in a mess over this cash-for-peerages business, cannot keep all its prisons under control - the idea that New Labour can come up with a new morality which it forces on the Catholic Church after 2,000 years - I am sorry - this is amazing arrogance on the part of the Government.

"Legislation for a nouveau morality is deeply unwise. That is not how morality works. At a time when the Government is foundering with so many of its policies - and I haven't even mentioned Iraq - the thought that this Government has the moral credibility to be able tell [sic] the Roman Catholic Church how to order one area of its episcopal teaching is frankly laughable. When you think about it like that, it is quite extraordinary. I suppose the hope is that in 18 months time there will be a different Prime Minister who might take a different view, and this will kick it into the long grass until then."

I do hope he’s right about a new PM trashing the regulations but, at this juncture, it’s hard to see any of the prospective candidates doing that.  The entire Labour cabinet, with the sole exception of Ruth Kelly, backs the regs.   As well, David Cameron, the man who will lead the Tories into the next election, has now come out in favour.

Previous related posts:

• Catholic agencies to defy homosexual adoption regulations
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Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has been waging a combative campaign against the so-called "fiscal imbalance".  According to Mr McGuinty, the amount Ontario taxpayers pony up for equalisation transfers has jumped 30% in the past three years, to $4.9 billion in the 2006-07 fiscal year—over 40% of the program's total disbursements.  Also, Ontario's Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Marie Bountrogianni recently mentioned that Ontario's contribution is about equal to Quebec's equalisation revenue, yet Quebec maintains lower charges for university tuition and a heavily subsidised universal daycare program.

That was too much for Ms Bountrogianni's Quebec counterpart, who has warned Ontario to put a lid on it or else Canada's "political stability" may be jeopardised.

The Ontario government, which has launched an aggressive Internet ad campaign pushing for a fair deal on reforming the country's equalization program, needs to be reminded of its responsibilities toward Canadian unity, Quebec's Intergovernmental Affairs Minister said.

Benoit Pelletier said in an interview with CanWest News Service that the McGuinty government needs to recall the economic benefits Ontario, as the country's financial engine, gains from achieving political stability in the country.

"The fact is [Ontario's government] has a responsibility in regards to their other partners and that responsibility is, I would say, mainly represented by the principle of equalization," said Mr. Pelletier, who quickly added he supports Ontario's "legitimate" campaign on boosting transfer payments to the province.

Let's bury the hatchet and gang up on Ottawa for a bigger cut of federal tax revenues.  There's something we can all agree on.

Mr Pelletier spins keeping Quebec on the dole as sound statecraft.

"Every province is reacting strongly on this issue because of everything that is involved — all the money that is at issue … every province is defending its point of view very strongly and it is normal, but at some point we will have to come to something that is good for Canada and not only looking to our own self-interest."

Giving Quebec billions in welfare equalisation payments is "good for Canada" but suggesting that Quebec get its hand out of Ontario's pocket is "looking to our own self-interest"—not to mention putting our political stability at risk.  Truly an unbiased and dispassionate perspective on national unity.

h/t: National News Watch

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The Saskatchewan government has rolled out a new advertising promotion to make the province appear even more exciting than it already is.  The campaign centres around a new logo, showing the province's name followed by an exclamation point.

The plan is to use the "wordmark" on advertising, highway signs and other displays, the documents said, to get the message across that "Saskatchewan is the best place in Canada for young people to live, work and raise a family."

The province is warning employees, however, that the exciting new logo is not appropriate for all government releases.

[A]ccording to a 29-page book of guidelines being circulated to government departments, the logo is for "optimistic" messages and not for announcements concerning coroners' inquests, forest fires or West Nile virus outbreaks.

But those sound so exciting.

The campaign also features a new website, topped by a spiffy picture, the exciting new logo, and these inspirational words.

Why Saskatchewan?

The question is no longer why Saskatchewan: it's why aren't you here?

Well, sorry, but based on Saskatchewan's population statistics, the question is not "Why aren't you here?"; it's "Why are you still here?"

According to Statistics Canada's latest demographic estimates, the province's population totalled 985,859 on 1 October 2006, compared to 1,000,134 on 1 July 2001 (see page 31 of this pdf document), a loss of 14,275 in just over five years.

Far more people leave Saskatchewan for another province or territory than move in from elsewhere in Canada.  Between July 2001 and October 2006, the province saw a net loss of 37,852 residents due to inter-provincial migration, more than offsetting natural increase (surplus of births over deaths) of 15,750 and a net gain of 7827 international migrants.  (See page 45 of the same pdf document.)  Apparently, people that already live in Saskatchewan don’t find it exciting enough to stay there.

Be that as it may, if the brains trust at the Government of Saskatchewan can turn that around by tacking an exclamation point on to the province's name, more power to ‘em.

h/t: Diocese of Saskatchewan, which is pondering a name change to either "Diocese of Saskatchewan!" or "Diocese! of Saskatchewan".

Sources:

Statistics Canada, 2006. "Canada's population". The Daily, 21 December.  Statistics Canada catalogue no. 11-001-XIE. http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/061221/d061221d.htm (accessed 21 December 2006).

Statistics Canada, 2006.  Quarterly Demographic Estimates, July-September 2006, preliminary.  Statistics Canada catalogue no. 91-002-XIE.  http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/91-002-XIE/91-002-XIE2006003.pdf  (accessed 29 January 2007).

Previous related post: Saskatchewan loses Grey Cup