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Today’s Headlines:

NEW EVIDENCE UNCOVERS FRESH ATROCITIES IN SOUTHERN SUDAN VIETNAM UNVEILS LAW SAID TO ‘GUARANTEE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM’ PRESIDENT OF WORLD RELIEF ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION DANISH GOVERNMENT UPHOLDS SUSPENSION OF REBEL LUTHERAN PRIEST ZAMBIAN TEENS BRING RENEWED HOPE TO FEMALE PRISONERS

Today’s News Stories:

NEW EVIDENCE UNCOVERS FRESH ATROCITIES IN SOUTHERN SUDAN The Sudan-Persecution Project Foundation has announced the release of new photo and video evidence of atrocities against non-Muslim civilians in southern Sudan’s rich oil region. During last month’s relief mission cosponsored by Voice of the Martyrs in Bartlesville, Okla., a team led by Persecution Project Foundation President Brad Phillips encountered more than 700 Shilluk survivors of a recent government-sponsored massacre in the remote village of Payuer in Sudan’s upper Nile region. Reports had leaked out of oil-rich Renk county that from late March to mid-April, 22 Shilluk villages had been burned and hundreds of people murdered while Sudanese government troops looked on. “They did more than look on,” said Phillips. “Survivors told us that soldiers in motorboats had fired on them from the Nile while government-sponsored militia attacked from the bush. We received testimonies that between 300 and 1,000 people were killed during these attacks. More died afterward from wounds and disease. Hundreds were also abducted, and 20,000 people were driven out of their homes, their villages burned.” Phillips said evidence of the massacre has been “denied by Khartoum and ignored by the international community.” Meanwhile, the killings in Sudan continue. The country’s 20-year civil war has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2 million people. (Assist News Service)

VIETNAM UNVEILS LAW SAID TO ‘GUARANTEE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM’ Vietnam has unveiled a new law that it says guarantees religious freedom while reinforcing state management of religious activity. The Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions, made public Monday, July 12, warns that those who use religion to “undermine the state” will be punished. The law, which goes into effect Nov. 15, prohibits religious activities that affect Vietnam’s public order. Vietnam permits state-run houses of worship, but bans religious activity that is not controlled by the government. Among other things, the law would require all clergy to seek permission to speak outside of their regular church or to hold any religious meetings. The law also bans citizens from using religious freedom to “cause divisions” and outlaws any religious activities that “threaten social order or unity.” Meanwhile, a number of Vietnamese religious dissidents remain in jail or under house arrest. (WorldWide Religious News/VOA News/Voice of the Martyrs)

PRESIDENT OF WORLD RELIEF ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION Clive Calver has announced his resignation as World Relief president effective Sept. 30. He and his wife, Ruth, will then serve as ministers-at-large until March 31, 2005. Calver has been president of World Relief for the past seven years. During that time he led a restructuring of the organization and consolidation effort to a central office in Baltimore, Md. He also played a key role in strengthening the ministry’s partnerships with local churches. Board Chairman Gordon MacDonald said Calver “awakened the hearts of Christians to an often-forgotten part of the passion of Christ — to move in the direction of the weak, the poor, the suffering.” The board has named retired U.S. Navy Adm. Tim Ziemer, now serving as executive director, to be World Relief’s acting chief executive officer. World Relief, founded 60 years ago, operates in more than 20 countries and 26 U.S. cities, serving through programs such as disaster relief, refugee assistance, AIDS ministries, community health, agricultural development and community banking. (World Relief)

DANISH GOVERNMENT UPHOLDS SUSPENSION OF REBEL LUTHERAN PRIEST The Danish government has upheld a decision by the state Lutheran church to suspend a minister who publicly denied the existence of God, opening the way for him to be fined or fired. Rev. Thorkild Grosboell, a pastor in Taarbaek (north of Copenhagen), was suspended by the bishop of his diocese on June 10 following a sermon in which he said God had “abdicated.” In Denmark, where about 85 percent of people belong to the state Evangelical Lutheran Church but only 5 percent regularly attend services, Lutheran ministers are employed by the government. On Monday, July 12, Justice Minister Lene Espersen backed Grosboell’s suspension and said his case would go before a disciplinary labor court consisting of two theologians and a presiding judge who will decide on his punishment. Espersen said in a statement that Grosboell had “damaged the state church . . . and had not shown loyalty to the state church.” His hearing will begin sometime after Sept. 1. The minister has been under strict supervision since he was first suspended after a May 2003 interview in which he said “there is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection.” His suspension was lifted after he retracted his statement. But he was slapped with a new suspension after saying in a sermon on May 16 that “God had abdicated in favor of His Son, hence in our favor. Therefore, there is no longer a heavenly guarantee or an interfering might, there is only the godly kingdom [on earth] that is achieved by us and between us. So if it fails, there is nothing.” (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

ZAMBIAN TEENS BRING RENEWED HOPE TO FEMALE PRISONERS Women are coming to Christ in a Zambian prison as a result of an outreach through Teen Missions International. Zambian young people from the ministry’s Bible Missionary and Work Training Center are sharing God’s Word with these needy women in a prison near Ndola. Ministry leaders say the prison population has swollen as refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo cross the nearby border into Zambia where they are often arrested as illegal immigrants. Three women came to Christ during the team’s most recent monthly visit to the prison. The women are reportedly “very receptive” to God’s Word, and even the commanding officer of both the men’s and women’s prison attended a recent presentation. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with In Touch Ministries and a local partner, added weekly Bemba programs in 2000. The programs air on Zambia’s Radio One Network, covering the country and much of Malawi, going out via shortwave, AM and FM. In 2003, weekly half-hour programs were added in the Njanja language. * * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier HCJB World Radio U.S. Ministries Communications Director E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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