An itinerant evangelist, pastor and father of four children was brutally murdered in southern Laos in the days leading up to Christmas. The body of Aroun Voraphorn was found abandoned in a creek, his throat slashed and stab wounds in his chest, near his home village of Huaysiat in the Phaksan district Thursday, Dec. 22. His wife, Metta, last heard from him on Sunday, Dec. 18, when he called to say he would arrive late for his youngest daughter’s birthday party as he was buying a birthday cake. Although government officials discount religion as a motivating factor in the murder, claiming it was robbery, members of the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) believe that his Christian faith was the reason for the attack. In 1996 the evangelist had been imprisoned for his faith. At a funeral service on Christmas Eve, his wife pleaded with Christians in Laos to continue preaching the gospel fearlessly as her husband had done. (Compass/Voice of the Martyrs)

POLICE HARASS CHINESE BELIEVERS DURING CHRISTMAS SEASON

Chinese authorities arrested 12 house church leaders attending a Christmas Day celebration at an unregistered house church in Ma Na Si county northwestern China’s Xinjiang territory. Officers of the Religious Affairs Bureau also confiscated Christmas food, 80 Bibles, a rented minivan, a car and a piano. One of the female pastors said the police called the meeting an “illegal religious gathering.” An eyewitness reported that police also beat the church’s pastor, Guo Zianyao. All those arrested were fined and fingerprinted. In a separate incident on Christmas Eve, police forcibly ended a house church meeting and directed about 100 Christians who were meeting at Korla City in Xinjiang to go to the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement church. Police also beat one of the members, accused him of belonging to cult and chained him to a radiator for two days before releasing him. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

HINDU EXTREMISTS IN INDIA ATTACK 4 CHRISTIANS AT HOUSE CHURCH

Hindu extremists in Umarkote, India, attacked four Christians who were worshiping in a house church near their Hindu temple Friday, Dec. 30. When three Christian women arrived at the house to attend a prayer meeting, the extremists slapped them and pulled their hair, warning them not to attend any more services. They also beat church member Samraj Rai and damaged his motorbike. Church members went to police the following day, but the police refused to register an official complaint. Inspector Narayan Chand Barik said he had “received a complaint from the villagers saying that people in the house church were disturbing the temple. But I have not received a complaint from the Christians.” Barik also said he had discovered that some of the church members had not informed district authorities before they converted to Christianity which is required by law. (Compass)

* Radio programs in 12 languages (English, Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Chattisgarhi, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telegu, Marwari, Marathi and Santhali) air to India from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra. The programs are produced at the ministry’s studios in New Delhi, India.

CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ENROLMENT IN U.S. INCREASES 70% SINCE 1990

Enrollment at the 102 evangelical schools belonging to the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities has increased 70 percent since 1990, moving to 230,000 from 135,000, reported USA Today. During the same period, enrollments at public colleges increased by 12.8 percent and private colleges by 28 percent. Alexander Astin, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, said the growth marks a turnaround from the 1960s and 1970s when religious colleges struggled to attract students with about 120 religious colleges closing between 1960 and 1979. Today’s students are drawn to the smaller Christian schools because they provide opportunities to develop deep, meaningful relationships with peers, and religious students often prefer to study in an environment where their beliefs will be respected rather than criticized or challenged, he said. There is also a sense that faculties at secular universities have an “antipathy toward traditional religion,” said Naomi Schaefer Riley, author of “God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America.” (Religion Today/Baptist Press)

ASTROLOGERS, CLAIRVOYANTS AGAIN MISSED THE MARK IN 2005

Astrologers and clairvoyants had another poor year in 2005 in terms of predictions coming true. Mathematician Klaus Kunkel of the Society for Scientific Research of Para-Sciences in Rossdorf, Germany, examined the predictions of 27 astrologers and clairvoyants. Almost none of them came true. Astrologer Monika Transier of Berlin, for example, erroneously predicted the deaths of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, actress Doris Day and Prince Philip and claimed there would be an assassination attempt on U.S. President George W. Bush. Clairvoyant Martin Schmid accurately foretold the death of Pope John Paul II, but the pontiff was already weak and couldn’t speak when he made the prediction in February. The pope died in April -- one month earlier than Schmid predicted. German astrologer Patricia Bahrani predicted a landslide victory for the Christian Democrats in Germany. Elke Regendoerp, on the other hand, saw an alliance of Social Democrats and Post-Communists take over in Berlin. In truth, the close election outcome resulted in a coalition of Christian and Social Democrats. (Assist News Service)

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