Související starší zprávy: 6.9.2002, 5.12.2002

*Nejnovější zprávy v originální anglické verzi jsou vždy ZDE (klikněte).

Evangelical church leaders Kiros Meles and Abebayeh Desalegn were released from prison Friday, March 7, after being jailed without charges for 10 months in the northern Ethiopian town of Maychew. "It is a shame for them to be in prison," said the magistrate who ordered their release at a March 5 hearing. She found no evidence against the two Pentecostal elders under investigation for alleged murder and ordered the men transferred the same day from prison to the local police station, where they were discharged today. "They have been released this morning, and are at their homes, celebrating with all the believers," said a local believer. Meles, 46, and Desalegn, 35, were arrested after a two-day riot last April led by a mob of Orthodox Church extremists. When a young Orthodox man was shot dead during the last day of the rampage, local police accused the two evangelical leaders of the crime. However, the fatal shot came from the local police chief's gun, and an off-duty policeman was also jailed. (Compass)

BLIND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST COMPLETES FIRST YEAR IN CUBAN PRISON

As a blind Christian human rights activist marked his one-year anniversary inside a Cuban prison March 4 without being brought to trial, Christian Solidarity Worldwide is calling on the international community to renew pressure on Cuban authorities to release him. Juan Carlos González Leiva, who was arrested last March along with a number of human rights activists, says he is in poor health and has faced mistreatment at the hands of the prison authorities. His wife said authorities never let him out of his cell to receive visitors, claiming the key has broken. She has also been harassed by the Cuban government, forcing her to move. Although González was formally charged with "acts of disrespect towards Fidel Castro, public disorder, resisting authority and disobedience," he was never been tried for his alleged crimes. After his arrest, González was severely beaten by government security agents and suffered a blow to the head, requiring four stitches. He and a number of other human rights activists had gathered at a local hospital in an attempt to draw attention to the plight of a journalist who had been admitted there after being attacked by Cuban police. González has carried out a number of lengthy hunger strikes to protest his arrest, resulting in ill health. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

NEW UNIVERSITY DEGREE PROGRAM FOCUSES ON PERSECUTED CHURCH

Voice of the Martyrs and Oklahoma Wesleyan University have launched an unprecedented partnership combining rigorous academic study, research and service to focus on the persecuted Christian church in restricted nations. Beginning this fall, Oklahoma Wesleyan University will offer the only undergraduate degree program in North America dedicated to the experience and theology of the persecuted church. (Mission Network News)

STUDY: THOSE WITH PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD HEALTHIER, LIVE LONGER

"Scientists have recently revived the age-old discussion about the validity of faith," writes Dr. Eberhard Rieth, former director of the Ringgenhof and Höchsten clinics. Rieth refers to an extensive global study performed by epidemiologist Prof. Ronald Grossarth-Maticek, head of the European Union-funded Institute for Preventive Healthcare Research in Heidelberg. Faith is demonstrably one of the most important factors influencing a person's physical wellbeing and long-term health, significantly affecting life expectancy and the age at which the first serious chronic illness occurs, he said. The study showed that those who have a "personal emotional relationship to God" live on average 12.7 years longer than "churchgoers without a relationship to God" and 21.7 years longer than "neurotic atheists." Their first severe chronic illnesses occur 10 years later than nominal churchgoers, and about 20 years later than neurotics, whether religious or atheist. Following the outbreak of cancer, for example, those with a personal relationship to God live an average of 14.6 additional years, compared with only 7.9 years in a reference group of other forms of religiosity. "Dare healthcare providers ignore the healing potential of personal faith?" asks Rieth. "Is it not necessary that they verify Grossarth-Maticek's results by testing these claims for themselves, and drawing conclusions which can help their patients?" (Friday Fax)

INTERNET MULTIPLIES EXPOSURE OF 'JESUS' FILM WORLDWIDE

With the advent of the Internet, the goal of the Jesus Film Project to make the gospel accessible to every person on earth is quickly becoming a reality. "The Internet is definitely a global community," says Jesus Film Project spokesman Mike Waid. "Most of the content on the Internet is in languages other than English. The Internet doesn't have any geographic boundaries." Waid says the Internet is a powerful evangelistic tool. "Of the 808 languages we have available, 59 languages are available online," he says. Since the Internet has no geographic boundaries, a French version of the "Jesus" film, for example, could be viewed online "by somebody who speaks French who lives in Canada, or they could live in France," Waid said. "It really doesn't matter. The thing that is common is they both speak the same language." (Mission Network News)

DUTCH CHRISTIAN GROUP GIVES COLD SHOULDER TO 'SINFUL' ICE CREAM

A new range of ice cream bars named after the seven deadly sins has drawn the ire of a Christian group in the Netherlands. The Magnum brand ice cream bars come in seven new flavors: vanity, jealousy, gluttony, lust, revenge, greed and sloth. Devil horns and a forked tail have been added to the "M" of the word Magnum on the wrapper. "Lust," for example, offers creamy vanilla ice cream covered in pink strawberry chocolate while "gluttony" features chocolate ice cream coated with white chocolate. The protest comes from Christians for Truth, a South African organization with branches in Europe. The group is urging consumers to boycott outlets that sell ice cream produced by the Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever, the makers of Magnum. Jan de Bruin, chair of the group's Dutch branch, wrote in a letter to a Unilever subsidiary that the promotion was "blasphemous" because it "trivializes" sin. The limited-edition bars have already gone on sale in South Africa and Australia, and the company is planning to launch the product in the Netherlands later this year. In Australia, the company's ice cream sales have risen with "vanity" already sold out and "lust" close behind. (Episcopal News Service)

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