AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN PAPUANS UNDER THREAT BY INDONESIAN MILITARY

* FATHERS OF ABORTED BABIES SUFFER EMOTIONAL TRAUMA TOO, SAY EXPERTS

* US ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCES PROGRAM TO PROTECT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AMERICA

* PROMINENT HOMOSEXUAL WALKS AWAY FROM LIFESTYLE AND EMBRACES CHRIST

* FRENCH MOUNTAINEERING PASTOR BURIES BIBLE AT SUMMIT OF EVEREST

* STUDY OF TOP MOVIES IN 2006 SHOW MOVIEGOERS PREFER MORALLY UPLIFTING MOVIES

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THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN PAPUANS UNDER THREAT BY INDONESIAN MILITARY

In 1961 Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, invaded the sparsely populated, resource-rich, former Dutch New Guinea colony, now renamed Papua. In 1969 Western states with political and economic agendas facilitated its annexation by Indonesia. To ‘Javanise’ and Islamise Papua, Jakarta promotes the mass migration of Javanese Muslims into Papua. It has also strategically divided Papua into three provinces so that today Javanese Muslims are the majority in the majority of provinces. Jakarta maintains an enormous military presence in Papua under the pretext of a ‘separatist and terrorist threat’.

The Indonesian military (TNI) invests in Papuan assets such as the Freeport mine and the sandalwood industry. That means the TNI has financial reasons – as distinct from any genuine security concerns – for wanting to stay engaged in Papua. Conflict and unrest work to the TNI’s advantage because it wants to retain its role in domestic security and also it earns extra cash through private deals to secure ‘protection’. Furthermore the military is mostly Javanese Muslim and strong overtones of racial and religious hatred towards the Melanesian and mostly Christian Papuans is clearly evident. For at least a decade the TNI has been known to create fake OPM forces. (The OPM is the primitive, not greatly threatening Papuan resistance movement.) TNI soldiers entice illiterate, uneducated village men to be proud ‘OPM’ warriors! They arm these fake OPM and send them off to commit crimes and provocation that then give grounds for the military to retaliate against the ‘separatist and terrorist threat’.

Since this military offensive started an estimated 5000 Papuan villagers have been forced to flee their homes, gardens and livestock. The military has since occupied some twenty vacated villages. The displaced, terrorised Papuan families are walking over mountainous terrain and through jungles without food, shelter or medical care. Some are reported to have died. There is great concern another TNI-engineeredhumanitarian crisis is unfolding in the highlands of Papua.

The authorities are engaged in a covert genocide of the indigenous, predominantly Christian Melanesian Papuans. Meanwhile, countries that could have influence and leverage with Jakarta won’t interfere as they have signed agreements not to involve themselves in Indonesia’s ‘domestic’ affairs.

* sustain, protect and build his Church and hear the cries of the afflicted in Papua as the tides of Islam and racist, cultural imperialism threaten to sweep over them.

* act on behalf of his Church and the oppressed Papuans in the face of the immoral indifference and expediency of the world’s earthly powers.

AND ESPECIALLY PRAY that the tension, pain, fear and mistrust that have become part of the Javanese-Papuan relationship will have no hold over the Indonesian Church. May the Holy Spirit fill all the followers of Jesus Christ with an overwhelming sense of their oneness and give them a divine sensitivity, empathy and understanding so they may extend brotherly love across racial lines.

Source: by Elizabeth Kendall World Evangelical Alliance

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FATHERS OF ABORTED BABIES SUFFER EMOTIONAL TRAUMA TOO, SAY EXPERTS

Dr. Arthur Shostak, a campus psychiatrist at UCLA who experienced first-hand the emotional consequences of being an unmarried parent who chose abortion, has completed the only study done on the responses of young men to abortion – a group who have purportedly been invisible until now.

The report found that 80 percent of the men, whose lives had been tracked for years, indicated that their experience with abortion had been “the longest and darkest day” of their lives. Shostak believes mental health professionals, need to stop ignoring the reality that abortion leaves emotional scars.

Dr. Miriam Grossman, a psychiatrist at UCLA’s student health service, notes that as time went on, the feelings did not subside, but deepened. “The number of men who reported that day feeling some guilt and some ambivalence about what they were doing; the number of men who were asked ‘Do you think that in the future you might have some troubling thoughts about this?’ – the percentages went up. So a few years afterwards, they were reporting that it was worse than they had anticipated.”

Grossman was also quoted as saying men’s reactions to abortion have been ignored by her colleagues in the mental health field. “There are a significant number of people who do have those scars and that painfulness, and if we are going to be open to victims of every sort, then we in mental health need to be acknowledging them even if they don’t advance a particular ideology.”

One of Dr. Shostak’s recommendations is that the professional counselling community adopt what he calls a “pro-couple approach to the abortion challenge that can help those who have abortions recover from an experience from which they are never quite the same.”

Source: One News Now

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US ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCES PROGRAM TO PROTECT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AMERICA

The Department of Justice is enacting a program called the First Freedom Project that will increase education about religious discrimination through training seminars held throughout the country. The Attorney General is charged by the president with “protecting and preserving not only the safety and security of all Americans, but also their rights, liberties and freedoms.” Said the Attorney General: “Why should it be permissible for an employee standing around the water cooler to declare that ‘Tiger Woods is God,’ but a firing offence for him to say ‘Jesus is Lord’? These are the kinds of contradictions we are trying to address.”

“One of our most cherished freedoms, one we’ve sacrificed greatly to defend, is our religious liberty,” he noted. “Nothing defines us more as a nation and differentiates us more from the extremists who are our enemies than our respect for religious freedom. Our great country was founded on these principles, and many of us today believe it continues to thrive because of, not despite, them.”

The Department of Justice has released a “Report on Enforcement of Laws Protecting Religious Freedom: Fiscal Years 2001-2006, which describes the importance of religious freedom historically in America and the role assigned to the justice department. The report also summarizes the department’s accomplishments during the Bush administration to protect religious liberty through the enforcement of civil rights laws.”

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, is quoted as applauding the Department’s action, saying, “This initiative is needed and should make a real difference. When individuals find themselves in a confrontation concerning their free exercise rights, it helps to have the attorney general and the Department of Justice on your side.”

In conclusion, the Attorney General said: “In the First Amendment to the Constitution, at the top of the Bill of Rights, the founders declared that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Before free speech, before freedom of the press, before all of these other crucial rights, we put freedom of religion. This area of law has not always been given sufficient attention by the federal government, but from its earliest days this administration has worked to increase enforcement of religious freedom laws, including those against religious discrimination.”

Source: Baptist Press

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PROMINENT HOMOSEXUAL WALKS AWAY FROM LIFESTYLE AND EMBRACES CHRIST

Charlene Cothran was a black lesbian in the forefront of the fight for equal rights for gays and lesbians, and publisher of a successful magazine geared to black homosexuals.

Due to the inspiration of a pastor who counselled her Cothran has left her homosexual lifestyle and is making it her mission to offer help to other homosexuals who want to do the same.

Cothran said, “I must come out of the closet again. I have recently experienced the power of change that came over me once I completely surrendered to the teachings of Jesus Christ.” Cothran offered hope to her “gay and lesbian brothers and sisters who want real peace” saying, “It is simpler than you think to acquire real peace and there is no condemnation once you’ve entered it. Jesus will cleanse and forgive all confessed sin from a willing heart. Homosexuality is only one of them. It is no greater sin than any of the others, but it is sin.”

Since her conversion Cothran has changed her VENUS website mission statement to read: “The new mission of Venus Magazine is to encourage, educate and assist those who desire to leave a life of homosexuality. Our ultimate mission is to win souls for Christ, and to do so by showing love to all God’s people. We believe that homosexuality is outside of the will of God. We know that many new and long-time VENUS readers have been instilled with a belief system that is in line with this teaching but are still living ‘in the life’. Many desire change and wonder if they can be accepted into the family of God ‘just as they are’. The answer is YES! These readers will find the new Venusan anointed and refreshing tool for kingdom work.” Concludes Cothran: “I intend to be just as ‘out’ about my transformation as I was about my lesbian life.”

Source: LifeSiteNews

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FRENCH MOUNTAINEERING PASTOR BURIES BIBLE AT SUMMIT OF EVEREST

At 52 years of age, with a wife and four children, Frenchman Philippe Martinez was uncertain whether he should accept an offer to guide a French expedition to the summit of Everest. He had been a mountain guide since 1981, but had later become a Christian and subsequently a pastor and was no longer as reckless as he had been in his youth.

Resisting the call at first, through prayer he gradually came to believe that God was indeed calling him back to Mt. Everest, a mountain that the people of the Himalayas call “The Earth Goddess.” Ultimately, however, it was his wife Brigitte, who had just finished treatment for cancer, who convinced him to follow God’s call. After spending a year in rigorous training, Martinez and the team set off to scale the mountain. As they neared the summit Martinez said “The weather conditions were favourable and I knew that God was leading the way. Indeed, I was so strong, both physically and spiritually, that I arrived at the summit 20 minutes ahead of the others. Taking off the oxygen mask, I began singing a hymn of praise. After being joined by the rest of the team, I made a symbolic gesture that, for me was the sole purpose of the expedition. I buried my small Bible in the snow. In this way I wanted to show that God’s Word must be proclaimed to the furthest reaches of the world. I also added a personal touch in the form of photos of my wife and children and a message: “Thank you, Lord, that You have protected me so far. I place into Your care those whom I love and I ask that my children will serve You one day.”

Source: American Bible Society

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STUDY OF TOP MOVIES IN 2006 SHOW MOVIEGOERS PREFER MORALLY UPLIFTING MOVIES

An annual study of the Top 10 and Top 25 movies at the box office, as determined by Nielsen EDI, reveals that moviegoers prefer family-friendly movies with traditional values reflecting Judeo-Christian worldviews. “Family friendly movies with strong moral messages are more likely to please moviegoers,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman and founder of the Christian Film & Television Commission which sponsored the study of the top movies.

For example 90 percent, of the Top 10 Movies had strong or very strong moral, Biblical or even Christian content. Furthermore, none of the Top 10 movies, and only three of the Top 25, were rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). “We don’t just look at the MPAA ratings, however,” Baehr said. “We also examine the sexual content and kinds of values presented in the top movies, as well as the amount of nudity and foul language. Thus, not only were none of the Top 10 movies in 2006 rated R, we found that only two of those movies are completely unacceptable viewing for families with traditional moral values, especially people with a Biblical faith in God or Jesus Christ.”

Baehr’s group rated 80 percent of the Top 10 as acceptable for either older teenagers and adults or families with younger children. It rated 19 of the Top 25, or 76 percent, in that category, sometimes with a caution for children age 2-7, a caution for children age 8-13, or an extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Source: Assist News Service

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