Wrong beliefs lead to wrong actions

Hubby dumps wife and kids – on medium’s advice
By SHAUN HO
shaunho@thestar.com.my
Thursday January 6, 2011


KUALA LUMPUR: A superstitious husband stopped having sex with his wife after a temple medium convinced him she was a danger to his life.

The wife, who only wanted to be known as Loh, said her husband has now abandoned her and their two teenage children and is refusing to meet them as he fears for his life.

Self-employed Loh, 44, said her husband first started consulting the medium to solve personal problems.

She claimed her husband’s personality changed after daily meetings with him.

“The medium told my husband I had been casting spells on him for the past 15 years and that I was a demon trying to kill him.

“He refused to eat or drink at home because he thought I poisoned the food,” Loh told a press conference held at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department yesterday.

Loh also said there were no prior family problems and that her husband was very loving although he was superstitious.

“I know he misses the children and although my son calls him almost every day urging him to come back, he still refuses to see the children as he is afraid I will kill him through them,” she added.

She said her husband, a factory manager, moved out of the house on the medium’s advice in August and had been paying very little for living expenses and their children’s school fees.

He withdrew the children’s savings totalling RM37,000 before moving out and recently asked for a divorce.

Loh is worried the medium is taking advantage of her husband’s trust in him, claiming the medium is also heavily in debt.

Loh had also found a newspaper report published in 2002 about another man who had neglected his family after he was “helped” by the same medium.

Loh has lodged two police reports.

“We have known the medium and his family for 20 years. I do not know why he is doing this,” said Loh.

Department head Datuk Michael Chong said he had received three complaints this month involving victims who were duped by mediums.

25,000 children die per day due to poverty

Facts About the Worlds' Children

2.2 billion worldwide
143 million are orphans
2 million were HIV-positive at the end of 2007
25,000 die per day due to poverty
3 million have no shoes
Every three minutes in a developing nation a child dies from malnutrition
9.2 million who were born in 2007 died before age 5
One in seven have no access to health services
400 million have no access to safe water
One in three do not have adequate shelter
121 million are not educated

Sources: U.N. AIDS; U.S. DOJ; UNICEF;

Some “evil spirits” had been following him around

One of the major reasons why we need to preach the liberating gospel of Christ is because people's fears of the spirit realm. WE must proclaim the gospel before more people are being duped & deceived!



Mediums cheat ex-auditor of nearly RM200,000
By ZALINAH NOORDIN

Tuesday October 6, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: He was an auditor who kept track of people’s money. Yet, a combination of superstition and gullibility caused a retired man to be cheated out of nearly RM200,000. And he lost his wife and daughters, too.

The retiree, who only wished to be known as Ng, had consulted a medium in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, on the recommendation of his niece after he felt “something amiss” in his life.

Ng, from Subang Jaya, went to see the medium about six months ago after a string of misfortunes to cleanse himself of “negative vibes.”

There, the 60 year-old female medium told him that some “evil spirits” had been following him around, depriving him of fortune and happiness.

Desperate, he accepted the medium’s help even though she demanded RM110,000 as payment.

He was given an amulet to wear and some “blessed” water to drink.

The medium also told him his wife and two daughters aged 16 and 20 were in grave danger since the spirits were lurking around the house.

“She told me if I did not act, my wife and kids would die.

“But they left me in the end as she had also told them that the bad spirits were inside me and would harm them,” he told reporters at a press conference at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department here yesterday.

Ng was referred to another medium from the same area after the first medium claimed the evil spirits were too powerful for her.

The second medium asked for a fee of RM82,000 to help ward off the spirits.

“I just realised that not only did the two not help matters, things have actually worsened after I went to see them,” he lamented.

Deciding not to waste any more time and money, Ng sought help from MCA Public Services and Complaints Department Head Datuk Michael Chong.

Chong advised the public to be careful when consulting mediums and not to place complete trust in them.

“Since 2007, I have handled 24 cases involving bogus mediums,” Chong said.

“Police can investigate the case if a report is lodged, but cases like these are very complicated, especially with regard to evidence.”

This does not mean that I agree with every local church teaching

"Local Churches" Movement Reassessed

InfoTwo notable critics have changed their minds on the controversial "local churches" movement that follow the teachings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute, and Gretchen Passantino Coburn, director of Answers in Action, each published their new support in a November booklet by the Defense and Confirmation Project, founded to rebut criticism of Nee and Lee. Hanegraaff says the local churches fit neither the theological or sociological definition of cultic activity. (CRI published critiques in the 1970s that influenced other watchdog groups.) Passantino Coburn, who coauthored The New Cults with Walter Martin, writes passionately and personally about the reassessment. "The local churches are a legitimate, theologically orthodox, spiritually faithful involvement by means of which you offspring can develop genuine Christian commitment and maturity." Fuller Theological Seminary has issued a new statement saying its faculty and administration "unreservedly recommend that all Christian believers likewise extend to them the right hand of fellowship." Watchman Nee founded the movement in China in the 1920s which subsequently spread to the West. After Nee died in 1972, Lee became the group's most prominent teacher. The local churches claim more than 30,000 U.S. adherents and over 800,000 in China. Two of the group's traits immediately strike many evangelicals as strange—first, churches affiliated with this movement take no name except a geographical marker, such as "the local church in Chicago." Second, the group has no authority structure. Passantino Coburn says the group's remaining critics should engage in deeper research. She adds, "This does not mean that I agree with every local church teaching, nor does it mean that I do theology like the local churches. But it does mean that I can more fully understand and appreciate that theology, and can be confident that while different, it is not heretical."

Christianity Today 01/26/2009

To Bidayuhs with Love

From padi field to knowledge farm

Thursday April 2, 2009
By SHARON LING

SARAWAK’S Bidayuh community put on a colourful showcase of their culture and traditions in the inaugural Pesta Birumuh (Farming Festival) in Serian, near Kuching, recently.

The festival kicked off with the preliminary rounds of the Battle of the Bands and Bidayuh Idol singing contest and sports.

It culminated in a three-day gala at the Serian Mini Stadium which included the grand opening ceremony on March 21.

According to organising chairman Datuk Wilson Baya Dandot, birumuh means farming in Bidayuh and is usually associated with planting rice.

However, as the Bidayuhs achieved progress and modernisation over the years, it also came to mean gaining education and knowledge, he said.

This was reflected in the festival’s theme, “From the Padi Field to the Knowledge Farm”.

At the opening ceremony, visitors received a ceremonial welcome by Bidayuh folk in traditional attire while musicians played gongs, drums and other instruments.

The highlight was a multi-ethnic parade featuring Bidayuh communities from different districts as well as other communities marching around the stadium.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who launched the festival, said it should be held annually and included in the state’s tourism calendar.

In his speech, he noted that the Bidayuh community had come a long way since Sarawak achieved independence in 1963.

He said the Bidayuhs not only had a high number of graduates but were also making a mark in public service.

“This is despite the fact that they constitute only 8% of the state’s population,” he added.

In conjunction with the festival, awards were presented to outstanding Bidayuh personalities, including former state legislative assembly Speaker Datuk Jacob Robert Ridu, former assistant minister Temenggung Datuk Michael Ben and Olympic diver Pandalela Rinong.

The festival also featured an exhibition of Bidayuh handicraft and artifacts, cooking demonstrations of Bidayuh delicacies, folk games and cultural performances

High location allowances?

Expatriates prefer KL, George Town
Published: Wednesday March 11, 2009 MYT 5:00:00 PM

SINGAPORE: The Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown are among the top 10 locations in Asia where Europeans prefer to work and live in, according to a latest international location ratings survey.

Kuala Lumpur was ranked ninth and Georgetown 10th, after Singapore, Kobe, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Macau, Seoul and Taipei, said ECA International, an agency that develops and provides solutions for the management and assignment of employees around the world, in its annual Location Ratings Survey.

The survey rates living standards in more than 400 locations globally, according to categories including climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation, social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tensions.

Its overall ratings normally would be used by international human resources departments to establish allowances which compensate expatriate staff for the difficulties of adapting to living in their assignment location.

Both Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown were also ranked ninth in Asia for Asians to live in, the survey said, adding that in the world's rankings, they took 61st and 64th spots, respectively.

In that same global category, Singapore took first placing, followed by Kobe (3), Yokohama (4), Tokyo (6), Hong Kong (11), Taipei (56), Macau (56) and Bangkok (63).

"These rankings reveal a large gulf in the quality of living among Asian locations," said ECA International Regional Director Asia Lee Quane.

He said, while there were a handful of locations in Asia which offered Asian assignees a good standard of living, the majority of locations would be challenging in some shape or form and therefore, warranting high location allowances.

The survey also said Baghdad remained the least favourable location to live in, followed by Kabul, Karachi and Port-au-Prince.

"A lack of suitable facilities for expatriates, along with high personal security risk, makes these locations the least desirable," the survey said. - Bernama

Not having a place to live in retirement, he will preach until he dies,

Baptist pastors in West face decline and in South, poverty

Posted: Sunday, July 27, 2008, 8:25 (BST)

The biggest problem a pastor faces depends on where the minister is located. That was the message from speakers at the Baptist World Alliance annual conference in Prague last week.

For pastors in North America, the greatest challenge is the cultural shift away from Christianity, said David Laubach, the North American presenter at the BWA workgroup about church health and effectiveness.

Five decades ago, 80 per cent of Americans attended church regularly, Laubach said, according to the Associated Baptist Press. Now, the number has fallen between 20 and 42 per cent depending on self-reported attendance or actual Sunday seat counts.

Moreover, three-quarters of US churches report a membership plateau or decline. Out of the churches that are growing, nearly a quarter are doing so by taking members from declining churches. Only one percent of US churches are growing by attracting new members from the unchurched population.

"Shrinking resources, absence of biological growth, aging mainline denominational populations, mobility, consumerist/entertainment culture, a sometimes-hostile environment, increased pastoral expectations and role overload, dramatically shifting ecclesiology, church change and conflict" are some of the stress North American pastors face, Laubach said.

He noted that the stress faced by “emotionally drained pastors” can cause them to “succumb to moral failure and personal and family breakdown”.

But churches in east Europe and South America, in contrast, are reporting growth.

Bulgarian pastors and those in many former communist nations in east Europe are seeing rapid growth, but face the problem of not being able to keep up with the demand for trained leaders, said speaker Teodor Oprenov.

Another issue for Eastern Europe Baptists is that their growth spurt has stirred animosity among those Christian traditions with deep roots in the country, such as the Orthodox Church.

The government in Bulgaria, for example, is said to tacitly or openly discriminate against Baptist pastors in favour of Orthodox clergies.

Baptist pastors also face discrimination in Chile, but their greatest difficulty is poverty, Rachael Contraras, the Latin American representative, said. Many Chilean Baptist pastors lack education and are poor, making it difficult for them to reach out to well-educated young adults. Their lack of education and inexperience also can reflect poorly on the denomination when they are invited by the government to participate in social work, she said.

"Their income is very low compared to the people in his church and in society in general. He will live in a society in which everyone has a car, but he won't. Others will have houses, but he will not. He will live in a parsonage. Not having a place to live in retirement, he will preach until he dies," Contraras noted.

Many Baptist pastors in Chile have to work long hours at a secular job to support their families. The stress from managing two jobs has created health problems for these pastors such as ulcers, burnout and depression, she said.

Other topics discussed at the BWA meeting included an organisational restructuring proposal, human trafficking, international relief and an open letter from Muslim leaders.

A full-time minister is becoming an out-of-reach luxury

Part-time pastors juggle jobs, ministry

By Tom Breen, The Associated Press
Saturday, June 30, 2007

Bob Shaw / AP The Rev. Danny Fleming has a full-time job with the Army and ministers at two churches some Sundays and three on others.

SALEM, W.Va. — For Danny Fleming, Sunday is no day of rest.

It starts before dawn, when the United Methodist pastor rises from slumber and gets ready for services. Some Sundays, he travels to two churches. On others, it's three. Every week, he spends 20 hours preparing his sermons and logs nearly 100 miles on his truck traveling to services.

And that's all before Monday morning, when he gets up for his full-time job with the U.S. Army in Clarksburg, where he supervises the maintenance and repairs of Army Reserve vehicles and equipment in northern West Virginia.

"I decided a long time ago you get out of it what you put into it," said the soft-spoken 58-year-old, after leading a small rural congregation in worship on a recent Sunday.

For many of the millions of Americans who depend on their pastors, ministers and spiritual leaders, a full-time minister is becoming an out-of-reach luxury. To keep small churches open — and to provide individual care at big churches — religious groups are increasingly relying on part-time, or bivocational pastors.

Worship is just one of the many expectations being placed on these part-timers. There are church council meetings, Bible studies, suppers and other gatherings, and — most important — being there for believers.

"A bivocational minister can be a lot of things, but he can't be lazy," said Ray Gilder, national coordinator of the Southern Baptist Bivocational Ministers Association.

When such a hectic schedule is added to the demands of work and family, the results can tax even the hardiest person.

"Sometimes it means I don't sleep," said the Rev. Alton Dillard, "but I make myself available."

Dillard, the married father of two teenagers, is the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church's Allen Chapel in Charleston's east side. He also works 12-hour shifts at Columbia Gas Works, sometimes sandwiching Sunday worship and a brief nap in between. On top of that, he presides over Wednesday night Bible classes and always has his cell phone in case his congregants need him.

"It's not easy, but it works about 90 percent of the time," Dillard said.

A growing trend

One expert says about a third of the pastors serving large Protestant denominations are part time, with some — such as the Southern Baptist Convention — nearing 40 percent.

"It's a growing form of ministry, and I believe it's going to grow even faster and larger," said the Rev. Dennis Bickers, a former part-time pastor and now an area minister for the American Baptist Church in Indiana and Kentucky.

In many denominations, bivocational ministers were more common than full-timers up until the middle of the 20th century. Rising prosperity plus a push toward professionalism and seminary graduates meant more congregations employed full-time pastors, but that trend has crested.

The phenomenon also isn't limited to Christianity. Part-time rabbis are common, and a study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations reports that most American mosques have volunteer leaders with other jobs.

But the centrality of the pastor in most Christian traditions, and the financial support many congregations generally provide to their ministers, means that for many religious Americans, the resurgence of the part-timer requires some adjustments.

In the Roman Catholic Church, only a priest can perform the majority of the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, the centerpiece of Catholic worship. But, as a shortage of ordained clergy strains priests' schedules, a corps of full-and part-time lay ministers has sprung up to lend assistance.

About 500 parishes in the United States don't have an assigned priest, but stay open through the efforts of lay ministers and occasional visits by priests for Mass, said Christopher Anderson, executive director of the National Association for Lay Ministry.

Parishioners also help

Even in parishes with one or two full-time priests it's common to see dozens of volunteers who oversee everything from religious education to marriage preparation, Anderson said.

"It's really a case of empowering people to keep the parishes open," he said.

In financial terms, part-time pastors may be the only way for some churches to stay open.

A 2006 study by the Southern Baptist Convention found that the pay and benefits package for a full-time minister in that denomination costs $59,995 a year. A part-time minister costs $17,385. For smaller churches with worshippers living on fixed incomes, the advantages of part-time pastors are obvious.

But financial concerns aren't the only considerations driving churches to decide that a part-time minister is better than no minister at all.

For the 80 or so people who attend the five churches that Fleming pastors, his presence is a blessing.

In one church, where 21 people gathered on a recent Sunday to hear him preach, some remember what it was like before Fleming arrived, when as few as nine people made it to a service.

By contrast, on this Sunday, as Fleming preaches his sermon, heads nod attentively and yellow pens highlight Bible passages he touches upon. When the service is over, the congregation — from children to grandparents — lines up to shake its pastor's hand.

We have got to read our Bibles more closely than we have done and engage more fiercely than we have done

Jim Wallis: Faith succeeding where politics has failed

by Maria Mackay

Posted: Monday, May 26, 2008, 10:24 (BST)

In an era of broken politics and bad religion, faith is making a serious comeback as a force for social change, believes prolific Christian author and speaker Jim Wallis.

Speaking at the UK launch of his new book, ‘Seven Ways to Change the World’ in central London last night, he said that Christianity was reviving and that it was time for Christians to answer the two great spiritual hungers of the world today: the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice.

“The connection between the two is the one the world is waiting for,” he said.

Wallis admitted that Christianity’s reputation as hypocritical, judgemental and otherworldly indicated “some image problems”, and that the likes of televangelists and paedophile priests had created “baggage”.

“People are confused about what we think and what we believe,” he said.

Wallis painted a positive picture, however, of Christianity coming back from the margins as the answer to some of the world’s biggest challenges, including poverty, human trafficking, environmental degradation and amoral culture.

“Politics is broken. Politics is failing to address the great moral issues of the time. When that happens social movements rise up to change politics and the best social movements always have spiritual foundations,” he said.

Wallis pointed to the great changes that movements rooted in Christianity had already made in history, including the abolition of the slave trade, child labour law reform, and women’s suffrage.

He told the audience, “Things no one thought could change became possible to change because of movements and every single self reform movement…didn’t succeed without the significant involvement of people of faith.”

Today’s generation of believers could make the same difference, he insisted.

“Your generation is applying your faith to the biggest challenges we face in our time – and that’s the good news.”

Wallis, who also heads up the US Christian network Sojourners, acknowledged that the challenges in today’s world are huge, but encouraged believers to rely on their faith to make the difference.

“What [these issues] feel like is mountains but you know what, that’s why we call it faith. That’s the whole point,” he said. “The Bible says if you’ve got faith the size of a mustard seed, what can you move? Mountains. Movements are in the mountain-moving business.”

Wallis pointed to his new book, which calls Christians to make seven commitments that he believes will dramatically change the world.

“These big seven challenges require commitments from people of faith and if we make these commitments maybe this will be one of those moments of great awakening of revival when faith comes alive.”

He spoke of a “tipping point” when “the problem yields to solutions”, but stressed that the commitment to social engagement had to first begin on the individual level and within the home.

“If you are not doing it on the home front, forget it,” said Wallis.

“It’s millions of commitments from people to the movement that make the big change possible.”

He urged churches to “lead by example” and not bend to fit politicians’ agendas, but compel the politicians to fit the church’s agenda.

“[Martin Luther] King and Ghandi knew you have to change the wind,” he said. “But change the wind and it’s remarkable how quickly they [politicians] respond. They have an agenda. We can’t just fit into their agenda. We have to have an agenda that they respond to. That’s what movements have done…that’s the big possibility.”

Wallis also appealed to Christians not to fall into cynicism but to continue to have hope in change.

“The big choice is the choice between hope and cynicism,” he said.

“[Cynics] are against all the bad stuff but you don’t think it could ever change. And so your cynicism becomes a buffer against commitment.

“Hope on the other hand isn’t a feeling or a personality type. Hope is a choice people make, a decision they make, because of the thing we call faith. Hebrews says faith is the substance of things hoped for…hope means believing in spite of the evidence and then watching the evidence change.”

Christians need to invest their time, money, talents and faith into making change happen, Wallis stressed.

“If you don’t put everything into it there won’t be any movements that change much of anything, but if you do there is no telling what this generation will accomplish.”

He concluded: “We’ve seen a lot of bad religion. Bad religion pulls up the worst stuff. But good religion brings out our best stuff, the compassion of Christ, a hunger for justice…good religion is the answer to bad religion. That time is coming again.”

Wallis was joined on the platform by Steve Chalke, the founder of Christian movement Faithworks, which hosted the evening.

He echoed Wallis’ sentiments: “Jim is right, politics is broken. Politics isn’t working.”

Chalke admitted however that as Christians “our theology is broken a lot of the time” and spoke of the need for a move away from “disembodied and spiritual good news” towards a more socially engaged and holistic theology.

“We have got to read our Bibles more closely than we have done and engage more fiercely than we have done,” he told the audience, adding, “Faith isn’t about an escape and materialism.”

Chalke also told Christians that they have nothing to fear from new atheists like Richard Dawkins, author of the God Delusion, saying the fact that Dawkins recently identified himself as a ‘cultural Christian’ was tantamount to an admission that atheism is morally bankrupt.

“Secular humanism is going to produce a moral desert,” he said.

In an age where Christians no longer hold power in society, he continued, Christians “are going to have to demonstrate faith”.

“What actually matters is who delivers something down on the ground. That’s the challenge to us.”

I really wish that Christians would stop watering down their faith

Church of England told to stop watering down faith

by Ethan Cole, Christian Post

Posted: Monday, May 26, 2008, 17:27 (BST)

The Church of England is divided over a proposed motion urging it to proclaim Christianity as the only way to salvation and offer strategies on how to evangelise Muslims.

Senior church leaders as well as some Muslim figures have voiced anger at the motion proposed by Paul Eddy – a lay member of the church’s General Synod, according to the BBC. Eddy, along with traditionalist Anglicans, argues that the Church should stop avoiding hard questions about its beliefs.

The Church of England must make it clear that it believes in what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to salvation, he said. Currently training to become a priest, Eddy believes that being upfront about the Church’s beliefs will be helpful to Muslim-Christian relations.

“Most Muslims that I’ve talked to say, ‘I really wish that Christians would stop watering down their faith and expecting us to do the same,’” Eddy said on BBC Radio Four on Sunday. “Until we start really saying what we really believe in our faith, there will be no respect.”

Eddy went on to note that Muslims expect Christians to believe that Jesus is the only way to God.

“They will expect us – if we’re true Christians – to try to evangelise them, in the same way they will expect us, if they’re true Muslims, to adopt their faith,” he said.

But the problem is that the Church, in an effort to be inclusive and to avoid offending people of other faiths, has “lost its nerve” and is “not doing what the Bible says”, he claims.

"Both Christianity and Islam are missionary faiths," Eddy pointed out. "For years, we have sent missionaries throughout the whole world, but when we have the privilege of people of all nations on our doorstep, we have a responsibility as the state church to share the gospel of Jesus Christ."

He urges Anglican bishops to give Church members advice on how to evangelise, and how to better support Muslims who have converted to Christianity and who are now ostracised by their communities.

The proposal is expected to be discussed at the General Synod summer meeting, being held from July 4 to 8 in York.

Has lost its evangelistic passion? must refocus on the Divine Obsession !

So. Baptists Now a 'Declining Denomination'

For the first time, Southern Baptists can say membership has reached a tipping point and the nation's largest Protestant denomination is now declining, says one long-time Southern Baptist.

Thu, Apr. 24, 2008 Posted: 14:42:18 PM EST

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For the first time, Southern Baptists can say membership has reached a tipping point and the nation's largest Protestant denomination is now declining, says one long-time Southern Baptist.

"The decline that many of us have already believed is there is now becoming real," said Ed Stetzer, director for LifeWay Research, in an interview featured on MondayMorningInsight.com, a Web site for pastors and church leaders.

Baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention fell for the third straight year in 2007 to the denomination's lowest level since 1987, dropping nearly 5.5 percent to 345,941, according to LifeWay Christian Resources' Annual Church Profile (ACP), which was released this week.

Total membership also declined by 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.

"This report is truly disheartening," said LifeWay president Thom S. Rainer, according to Baptist Press. "Total membership showed a slight decline. Baptisms have now declined for three consecutive years and for seven of the last eight years, and are at their lowest level since 1987. Indeed, the total baptisms are among the lowest reported since 1970. We are a denomination that, for the most part, has lost its evangelistic passion."

While technically membership has only dropped for one year, Stetzer cautioned fellow Baptists from dismissing the data.

"We don't want people to say 'it's not a big deal.' It is a big deal," he said.

"Southern Baptists have always said 'We're growing. We're growing slow.' You can't say it anymore."

Total membership dipped once before, and then grew in the following years. But this time, Stetzer believes the growth over the past five decades has plateaued.

"Many have predicted that membership (an inflated statistic anyway) would soon begin to decline, but the statement, 'Southern Baptists are a declining denomination' was not 'officially' accurate.

"Until today," he said in his blog on Wednesday.

And while the Southern Baptist Convention added 473 new churches in 2007, gave more than $1.3 billion to support mission activities around the world, and saw a 0.16 percent increase in worship attendance, Stetzer believes the denomination cannot ignore the trend moving toward decline.

"Some might want to point to the good news (attendance up slightly, more churches, etc.). However, you cannot miss the fact that a dubious historical milestone has been reached – and it needs to be noted in denominational and church offices across the country," he said.

"My hope is this will cause people to wake up and change," he commented.

Offering a few suggestions for change, Stetzer said the Southern Baptist Convention needs ethnic and generational diversity in its leadership. Also, the "infighting" has to stop. Debates over theological differences and boundaries at every denominational meeting would only accelerate the trend toward decline, he said.

Most importantly, the recovery of the Gospel in Southern Baptist life is key, he said.

"We must recover a Gospel centrality and cooperate in proclaiming that gospel locally and globally," Stetzer stressed, as he expressed hope for a Great Commission Resurgence.

"It is time for us to once again rise to a new day," he stated. "The temptation will be that the news of the day will result in a new denominational obsession to fix the problem with a new plan. It won’t work. Instead we must refocus on the Divine Obsession (Luke 15), the obsession with lost people."

Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter

Thailand has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth anywhere on the planet, despite some recent improvements

Thailand's wealthy untouchables

By Jonathan Head BBC News, Bangkok

Sometimes a single incident manages to shine a spotlight deep into the soul of a society.

There was just such an incident in Thailand last year, which has just gone to court, and which speaks volumes about the dislocating impact of more than four decades of break-neck economic growth.

It was a seemingly routine accident along Sukhumvit Road, one of Bangkok's busiest and most traffic-clogged thoroughfares.

A Mercedes-Benz was pulled up alongside a city bus, and a young man was having an angry exchange with the bus driver, whom he accused of scraping against his car.

The passengers started shouting at the man, who got back into his car and appeared to be about to leave.

But instead he accelerated forwards onto the pavement and into the crowd of passengers, crushing several of them under his vehicle.

One woman later died, and several other passengers were seriously injured.

A fit of road rage perhaps? The police charged the young man, Kanpitak Pachimsawas, with murder.

But the case very quickly turned into one about class differences, about the perceived arrogance of Thailand's rich, towards the poor.

'Bad attitude'

Kanpitak, it turned out, was the 20-year-old son of a former Miss Thailand beauty queen and a wealthy businessman.

Many parts of the Thai bureaucratic system favour rich people - if you are not one of them, you will always be left at the back of the queue Suchira Insawan

He was also the nephew of a powerful police officer.

The bus driver reported that his father had arrived at the scene and threatened to use his police connections against the passengers.

"He thinks he has money and a big family name, so he can do things like this to poor people," the bus conductor told reporters at the scene.

Kanpitak's father was unrepentant. Speaking on a TV chat show two days later, he showed more concern for his son than his victims.

Responding to the bus conductor's comments he said: "They are uneducated. That's how they are.

"They think they are abused, that rich people are bad, that the police are bad. Lower class people have a bad attitude towards police officers and rich people. They hate us and curse us."

Suddenly we were witnessing something you do not see much in Thailand - open class conflict.

Inequality

Thailand has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth anywhere on the planet, despite some recent improvements.

And that yawning gap between rich and poor is most openly on view in Bangkok, where ostentatious displays of wealth are commonplace alongside the grinding poverty experienced by millions of migrant workers who have come from the countryside.

Luxury cars costing more than the entire annual income of a village rub up against the battered carts of street vendors.

New shopping centres and apartment blocks are crowding out what little open space remains in the city, projects that help the rich get even richer.

It should come as no surprise that it is in Bangkok that a five-star hotel is offering its 50 highest-spending guests what it calls the meal of a lifetime, prepared by a team of Michelin-starred chefs and preceded by the guests being flown by executive jet to a village in eastern Thailand to witness a little poverty before tucking into their 10-course feast.

Total cost: around US$300,000 (£150,000). The event has barely raised an eyebrow in Thailand, but caused such an uproar elsewhere over its questionable taste that many top chefs in France have decided to boycott it.

What is so striking about Thailand's inequality is how little visible social tension there is.

For the most part people appear to accept their lot without resentment. Some put this down to Buddhist concepts of fate and karma, others, to Thailand's deep-rooted sense of hierarchy, with the king at its apex.

Social activist and former Senator Jon Ungpakorn sees more prosaic causes.

"Because of the high growth rates in Thailand there is a sort of buffer," he says.

"Even the poor feel they are doing better than they would have done many years ago. They still see that they have opportunities ahead."

'Damage is done'

The case of Kanpitak Pachimsawas has struck a raw nerve.

Websites in Thailand are filled with comments demanding that the young man face the full force of the law, regardless of his family connections.

Some poke fun at his father's claim that it was mental stress that caused him to drive his car into the crowd.

But there is little of the blistering anger that erupted in China after a similar case four years ago, when a woman who drove her BMW at a farmer she had been arguing with, killing his wife, was given only a suspended jail sentence.

It forced the Chinese authorities to reopen the case, and to close down websites carrying the online debate over the case.

In Thailand, Kanpitak Pachimsawas was released on bail and, amazingly, even allowed to continue driving.

On his first day in court he was apparently overcome by nerves and said he was unable to answer any questions. The judge adjourned the case until November. He may never go to prison.

Suchira Insawan, the daughter of the woman he killed, says she feels no anger towards him.

She has yet to receive any compensation from the Pachimsawas family - she has asked for 7m baht ($222,000; £111,000) but is likely to get less, perhaps even less than the list price of the Mercedes-Benz that crushed her mother.

"The damage is done," she told me. "I forgive him. I don't want to destroy his future, I don't want him to be jailed. I don't want bad karma."

She also had little faith that the courts would find against such a privileged young man.

"Many parts of the Thai bureaucratic system favour rich people. If you are not one of them, you will always be left at the back of the queue."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7328054.stm

Published: 2008/04/07 01:42:37 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Expose these mediums and their cheating ways

Ex-hawker loses RM150,000 to mediums

Saturday April 5, 2008

A WOMAN lost RM150,000 to three mediums over the past 20 years, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The 55-year-old retired hawker, identified only as Madam Chong, sought the mediums’ advice on almost everything, from her children’s education, career, friends to visa application status.

She only realised that she had fallen into their trap when she ran out of money and could not pay for their “services” recently.

Chong decided to tell her story to the public to advise them not to follow her footsteps in a press conference arranged by MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau chief Datuk Michael Chong on Thursday.

She said she began thanksgiving rituals after befriending the mediums 20 years ago.

“I paid over RM1,000 for the mediums to perform prayers yearly. For additional services and advice, I had to pay extra,” she said.

Chong said when her son was arrested for selling pirated discs in 1994, she spent over RM30,000 for the mediums prayers' to “protect” him but he was still charged in court.

She added that she had also paid more than RM10,000 for her daughter’s safety but she was detained by police for a week.

“My most stupid moment was last year when I failed to get a visa to visit the United States.

“I paid several hundred ringgit for a talisman but my application was still rejected,” she said.

Michael Chong said the mediums’ acts have ruined the good name of other temples.

He urged other victims to come forward and expose these mediums and their cheating ways.

The celebration of non-Muslim holidays is forbidden, as is the wearing of crucifixes and other religious symbols

A Church in Saudi Arabia?

Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2008
By Jeff Israely/Vatican City

Interfaith dialogue has become an important exercise in finding the right words to overcome both extreme violence and ordinary misunderstanding. True progress, however, is best measured in deeds. The inauguration last week of Qatar's first Christian church — a small Catholic chapel bearing neither bells nor visible crosses — has been hailed as a welcome step forward in relations between Catholicism and Islam. But an even more dramatic development is under discussion just across the border: The Vatican has confirmed that it is negotiating for permission to build the first church in Saudi Arabia.

Presiding over the cradle of Islam and home to its holiest sites, the Saudi monarchy has long banned the open worship of other faiths, even as the number of Catholics resident in Saudi Arabia has risen to 800,000 thanks to an influx of immigrant workers from places like the Philippines and India. Mosques are the only houses of prayer in a country where the strict Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam dominates. But Archbishop Paul-Mounged El-Hachem, the papal envoy to the smaller countries on the Arabian peninsula, such as Kuwait and Qatar, has confirmed that talks are under way to establish formal diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia, and to eventually allow for Catholic churches to be built there. Pope Benedict XVI is believed to have personally appealed to King Abdullah on the topic during the Saudi monarch's first ever visit to the Vatican last November.

Top Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that a Catholic parish in this key Islamic country would be "a historic achievement" in the push to expand religious freedom and foster a positive interfaith rapport. Under Benedict, the Catholic hierarchy has stepped up calls from its Muslim counterparts for "reciprocity," demanding that the same religious freedom enjoyed by Muslims in the West should be granted to Christian minorities in the Islamic world. They note that Europe's biggest mosque, built with Saudi funds, was opened in 1995 in Rome, just across the river from the Vatican.

Pope Benedict passionately condemned last week's death of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped on Feb. 29 in the northern Iraqi city. As many as 350,000 of the 800,000 Christians in Iraq before the war have since fled the country, while smaller but similar exoduses have occurred in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and other parts of the Arab world.

While Christians in those areas trace their roots to the earliest centuries of the faith, the Catholics in Saudi Arabia are mostly migrant workers. And the restrictions on any outward manifestation of their religious beliefs have been particularly severe. The celebration of non-Muslim holidays is forbidden, as is the wearing of crucifixes and other religious symbols.

Benedict has been seen as both stumbling block and catalyst in the search to improve relations between Christians and Muslims. His Septempber 2006 lecture at Regensberg University in Germany on the relationship between faith and reason, and how it might explain religiously inspired violence, included an offensive historical reference to the Prophet Muhammed. But after initial Muslim anger at his remarks cooled — and the Pope made a conciliatory visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul — there have been signs of a productive Catholic-Islam dialogue taking shape. Prominent Muslim and Christian clerics have exchanged messages expressing a mutual desire for better understanding, and Vatican officials last month announced the first in a series of high-level meetings with Muslims next November, which will include an appearance by Benedict.

In little-reported remarks just three months after his controversial speech in Germany, the Pope spoke of the challenge posed to Islam by a violent minority within its ranks. "The Muslim world today is finding itself faced with an urgent task. This task is very similar to the one that has been imposed upon Christians since the Enlightenment," Benedict said in a speech to officials of the Roman Curia. "On the one hand, one must counter a dictatorship of positivist reason that excludes God from the life of the community and from public organizations, thereby depriving man of his specific criteria of judgment. On the other, one must welcome the true conquests of the Enlightenment, human rights and especially the freedom of faith and its practice, and recognize these also as being essential elements for the authenticity of religion."

After Easter week, Benedict will no doubt be focusing on his next big speech, where some of the same themes may very well recur. On April 18, the pontiff arrives in New York to address the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Disillusioned with organized religion?

Americans are switching denominations

By Jane Lampman
Christian Science Monitor
Thursday, February 28, 2008

A panoramic snapshot of American religious life in 2008 reveals an extraordinary dynamism that is reshaping the country's major traditions in historic ways.

Almost half of Americans have moved to a different religious denomination from that in which they were raised, and 28 percent have switched to a different major tradition or to no religion (i.e., from Roman Catholic to Protestant, Jewish to unaffiliated).

The fluidity is combining with immigration to spur dramatic changes in the religious landscape. Protestantism appears on the verge of losing its majority status. The number of "unaffiliated" Americans has doubled, to 16 percent. One-third of Catholics are now Latino, and the religion is depending on immigration to maintain its share of the population.

These shifts are captured in a survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

"The extent of change in the American religious marketplace is remarkable," says Luis Lugo, the Pew Forum's director, in an interview. "Everyone is losing and has difficulty retaining childhood members, but everyone is also gaining."

The report is the first of three Pew will release this year from a path breaking survey of the U.S. religious landscape. Based on interviews in English or Spanish with a representative sample of 35,000 adults, it describes America's religious composition and the changes under way. Later this spring, the second report will analyze Americans' beliefs and practices, and the third, their social and political values.

The movement between churches and denominations is not new, but the report documents its remarkable scope.

"Religious fluidity is part of a larger picture of fluidity in American life generally," says Wade Clark Roof, author of "Spiritual Marketplace" and professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "You can read this as 'It's what America is about -- we choose' ... The downside is enormous instability, lack of grounding, wandering in the wilderness."

Observers point to many reasons for the shifts. People may change churches because they relocate to a part of the country where different denominations predominate, or they may prefer another style of worship. Whatever the reasons, the survey reveals some clear winners and losers.

Protestantism, which has shaped American identity for generations, may soon become a minority faith. In the 1980s, 65 percent of Americans called themselves Protestants; today that number is down to 51 percent. Only 43 percent of those aged 18-29 say they are Protestant.

Much has been written about the declines in mainline churches. But in comparing the current religious affiliation of adults with their childhood affiliations, the survey found a net loss of 3.7 percent for Baptists (Baptists account for one-third of all Protestants and nearly two-thirds of black Protestant churches.)

Perhaps the big surprise, though, relates to Roman Catholicism, which experienced the greatest net loss. While 31.4 percent of adults say they were raised Catholic, today only 23.9 percent identify as Catholic, a net loss of 7.5 percent.

"The Catholic numbers are eye-popping," Lugo said. "One out of every 10 people you meet on the street is a former Catholic."

Fortunately for the Catholic Church, however, its share of the religious pie has remained steady in recent decades, due partly to conversions but largely to immigration. Catholics account for 24 percent of the adult population, but immigration could well boost its future share.

"Within our society, Protestants basically outnumber Catholics 2 to 1," Lugo says. "Among immigrants, it's the reverse: Catholics outnumber Protestants by more than 2 to 1."

The big winner on the shifting religious scene is the group of "unaffiliated" Americans. Today 16.1 percent of adults fit that category. Among young people 18 to 29, one-quarter are unaffiliated.

It's common for young adults completing education or starting careers to become detached from their faith connection. Other people may become disillusioned with organized religion.

"Scandals and conflicts lead some to distance themselves, even though they still hold Christian beliefs," says Darren Sherkat, a sociologist at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, who has studied the unaffiliated. "A perhaps growing percentage are disaffiliated because they don't hold Christian beliefs."

The survey found that 1.6 percent of adults call themselves atheists and 2.4 percent are agnostics (who consider God to be unknowable). The remaining 12 percent in "unaffiliated" split almost evenly between the secular and the religious, who may practice their faith on their own.

Although this category is growing the fastest, the survey shows that about half of the unaffiliated end up returning to a faith connection. Other research, however, indicates that many young people today are disaffected from Christianity, and religious leaders worry that they won't follow the usual return pattern.

Currently Christianity retains the allegiance of 78 percent of Americans. Nondenominational churches are growing and attracting about 5 percent of adults.

Other world faiths also now account for 5 percent of the population. Their net losses or gains in affiliation were relatively small: Jews dropped by 0.2 percent, Muslims gained by 0.1 percent, Buddhists gained by 0.3 percent and Hindus showed no change.

© 2007 Abilene Reporter-News

Report: More than Half of Britons Have No Religion

More than half the British people admitted they have no religious adherence, revealed a new U.N. report published this week.

Sat, Feb. 23, 2008 Posted: 13:04:27 PM EST

---

More than half the British people admitted they have no religious adherence, revealed a new U.N. report published this week.

Unlike the 2001 National Census conducted by the United Kingdom – which said nearly 72 percent of the population is Christian – the 23-page U.N. report, published Thursday, showed that two-thirds of the population claims no religious affiliation, according to UK newspaper The Times.

The report by U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, called for the disestablishment of the Church of England because it no longer reflected “the religious demography of the country and the rising proportion of other Christian denominations.” Jahangir contends the role and privileges of the Church of England should be challenged given the new statistics on the state of religion in the United Kingdom.

The treatment of Muslims living in Britain and the government’s battle against terrorism was another topic of focus in the report.

According to the report, there is an “overall respect for human rights and their value,” but it cited research that shows 80 percent of Muslims in Britain feel they have been discriminated against. In particular, the report criticized a terrorism act that allows police in some areas to stop and search people without having to show reasonable suspicion, according to The Times.

From 2004 to 2006, there has been an 84 percent increase in searches of people with “Asian appearance” under this act, compared to an increase of 24 percent for white people, the report noted.

U.N. special rapporteur Jahangir, although a strong proponent in the belief that religion should not be given a lower priority than other rights, acknowledged in the report that some religious laws are “unacceptable.” She said the argument by some Muslim leaders that their religious tradition should override the rights of women is “unacceptable.”

Just a day before the report was published, the Archbishop of Canterbury also said some of the ways that Sharia laws were practiced were “appalling.”

“What I was trying to say the other day is that Sharia law is a very, very wide-ranging scheme of legal understanding within historic Islam,” the Archbishop said at a public lecture in Great St Mary’s Church after being criticized for saying that some parts of Sharia could be integrated into the British legal system.

“It is rooted in the sense of doing God’s will in the ordinary things of life,” Williams said. “[But] in some of the ways it has been codified and practiced across the world, it has been appalling.”

Williams specifically criticized the way the system applied to women in countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Jahangir, 55, was twice the chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and was released from house arrest in Lahore in November. She has faced punishment under her own government for her outspoken human rights advocacy and for criticizing the government’s human rights violations. Jahangir has been attacked by Islamic radicals for what they consider her liberal stance on religion.

Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter

Is Evangelical Christianity growing?

Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons fastest-growing 'churches' in US

by Lillian Kwon, US Correspondent

Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008, 13:08 (GMT)

The two fastest-growing church bodies in the United States and Canada, according to a newly published report, are ones whose beliefs are known to conflict with traditional Christian teaching.

Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, regarded by many Christians as cults, reported the largest membership increases in a year, according to the National Council of Churches' 2008 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches.

Although Jehovah's Witnesses currently rank 25th in size with over 1.06 million members, they reported a 2.25 per cent increase in membership since the publication of the 2007 Yearbook. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – also known as the Mormon church – grew 1.56 per cent and is listed by the NCC as the fourth largest 'church'.

Notably, however, both Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormon church are not accepted within many Christian circles as part of the larger Body of Christ over a number of controversial beliefs that the two religions hold.

The identification of Jehovah's Witnesses as Christian is debated largely due to their rejection of the Trinity, which most Christians regard as a fundamental doctrine. Latter-day Saints, meanwhile, are often criticised for their belief in “divine” books of scripture, aside from the Bible, including the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

Mormonism was formally listed under “cults and sects” by the Southern Baptist Convention – the largest Protestant denomination in the nation – but was more recently categorised among “newly developed religions” on the North American Mission Board apologetics page.

Other bodies in the newly published top 25 largest churches list that reported membership increases include the Catholic Church with a 0.87 per cent increase; the Southern Baptist Convention with a 0.22 per cent increase; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church with a 0.21 per cent rise; and the Assemblies of God with a 0.19 per cent growth.

The greatest losses in membership were reported by the Episcopal Church, which dropped 4.15 per cent in members, and the Presbyterian Church (USA), which decreased by 2.36 per cent. Both denominations are currently wracked by theological differences and the issue of homosexuality.

American Baptist Churches in the USA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also experienced large losses in membership, dropping 1.82 per cent and 1.58 per cent, respectively.

"Some will wish to argue that the slowing growth rate is evidence of an increasing secularisation of American postmodern society," said the Rev Dr Eileen W Lindner, editor of the Yearbook. "While such an explanation will satisfy some, caution in drawing such a conclusion is warranted."

Lindner also observed that churches are feeling the impact of the lifestyles of Millenials – people in their 20s and 30s – who attend church but resist becoming members.

The United Methodist Church saw a 0.99 per cent decrease but the mainline group remains the third largest church body with nearly 8 million members.

Only three of the top 10 largest churches are mainline Protestant churches; three of the top 25 are Pentecostal churches; and six of the top 15 are historic African American churches.

Largest 25 Churches (ranked by membership)

1. The Catholic Church – 67,515,016
2. Southern Baptist Convention – 16,306,246
3. The United Methodist Church – 7,995,456
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 5,779,316
5. The Church of God in Christ – 5,499,875
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. – 5,000,000
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – 4,774,203
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. – 3,500,000
9. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – 3,025,740
10. Assemblies of God – 2,836,174
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church – 2,500,000
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America – 2,500,000
13. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. – 2,500,000
14. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) – 2,417,997
15. Episcopal Church – 2,154,572
16. Churches of Christ – 1,639,495
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America – 1,500,000
18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. – 1,500,000
19. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church – 1,443,405
20. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. – 1,371,278
21. United Church of Christ – 1,218,541
22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International – 1,200,000
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ – 1,071,616
24. The Orthodox Church in America – 1,064,000
25. Jehovah’s Witnesses – 1,069,530

Crimes against humanity! Lord, may YOU intervene

New report exposes abuse of Burmese refugees in Malaysia

by Michelle A Vu

Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 21:02 (GMT)

Burmese refugees in Malaysia live in “severe and desperate poverty and deprivation” and face exploitation, abuse and other mistreatment, stated a new report by a Christian human rights group Monday.

The report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) documents the group’s fact-finding mission to Malaysia and the Thailand-Burma border from 4 to 17 February. CSW representatives heard first-hand testimonies of forced labour, rape, torture, land confiscation and religious persecution from Burmese refugees in Malaysia.

“This report documents yet more evidence of the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the military regime in Burma against its own people,” CSW Advocacy Officer for South Asia Benedict Rogers said in a statement.

“It also draws much-needed attention to the long-forgotten desperate plight of Burmese refugees who have fled to Malaysia in search of sanctuary and freedom, and have found yet more abuse, poverty and misery.”

In addition to testimonies from refugees, CSW also interviewed civil society groups and Burmese Buddhist monks.

Tens of thousands of Burmese have fled their homeland to take refuge in refugee camps in neighbouring Thailand and, to a lesser degree, in Malaysia.

The notorious Burma junta has led a campaign of persecution against ethnic minorities, wiping out entire villages. Armed military often attack villages of the Karen, Karenni, and Chin people – who are mostly Christians – and systematically rape the women.

The US State Department has labelled Burma a “country of particular concern” – the worst religious freedom violation label.

“The situation in Burma remains deplorable. The regime has rejected calls from its own people and the international community to begin a genuine dialogue with the opposition and ethnic minority groups,” said US President George W Bush, in a statement Monday.

“Severe human rights abuses by the Burmese Army, including burning down homes and killing civilians, continue in ethnic minority areas in eastern Burma,” he acknowledged.

The CSW report, meanwhile, calls on the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Burma “as a matter of urgency”, and echoed calls made by nine Nobel Peace Prize Recipients last week for a universal arms embargo on Burma.

Specifically addressing the situation in Malaysia, the human rights group called on the Malaysian Government to improve the situation for Burmese refugees within their borders by stopping authorities from detaining and deporting Burmese asylum-seekers and refugees, and disbanding RELA – the officially-sponsored vigilante force often used to raid refugees’ camps, homes and workplaces.

It also urged the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to register all Burmese asylum-seekers in Malaysia, in order to provide better protection for them, and further called on more countries to offer opportunities for resettlement for Burmese refugees in Malaysia.

“The international community cannot continue to allow the terrible suffering of Burmese people to go on,” Rogers said. “How many more cries for help do we need before the world unites in meaningful action to end the reign of terror in Burma?”

The Chinese way of counting a person's age

How old are you actually?



89, 90 or 93?
Expert sheds light on tycoon’s age

Thursday October 25, 2007

PETALING JAYA: The different ages of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong used by family members and newspapers have generated curiosity and interest among the public but a Chinese culture expert has an answer for that.

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Assoc Prof Dr Lim Chooi Kwa said 89 was the biological age of the founder of the Genting Group and one of the world’s richest men.

“The Chinese consider themselves one year old when they are born as they count the period in the womb as well.

“That is why Goh Tong celebrated his 90th birthday early this year. That is his traditional Chinese age,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Family members have asked newspapers to use 90 as his age, said to be a more auspicious for a senior citizen. Goh Tong’s age was reported in various newspapers as either 89 or 90, and in the obituary advertisements states his age as 93.

Chooi Kwa said the Chinese would hold a big birthday celebration when someone turned 70, 80 or 90 because the zero denoted completion.

“In Goh Tong’s obituary, the age stated is 93 because the Chinese add three years to the age – each comes from tian (heaven), di (earth) and ren (people) – when someone dies.

“The community believes that good people have a long life. So by adding three years after the death, the life of the deceased seems longer that it was,” he said.

And I thot only Anglicans had this problem!

Couple in same sex marriage ordered to part
2007/09/04
Cynthia Lee

The marriage of Mohd Sufian Mohamad (right) and Zaiton Aziz was not legitimate.

MALACCA: Three months short of their fifth wedding anniversary, a couple has been ordered to part as the husband was actually a woman.

Syariah judge Che Saufi Che Husin yesterday ordered a farak (part forever) between Mohd Sufian Mohamad, 40, and Zaiton Aziz, 43, as the marriage was not legitimate under syariah.

The couple arrived in court together in a Perodua Kancil, wearing matching yellow attire, and looked calm when the judgment was read to them.

They walked out of court together and left in the same car.

Sufian, 40, whose birth certificate bears the name Mazinah Mohamad, married Zaiton Aziz, 43, in December 2002.

They were alleged to have committed same-sex marriage and were charged under section 11 of the Malacca Islamic Family Enactment 2002.

The marriage, solemnised by imam Ishak Juki from the Bukit Cina mosque, had been deemed legal as all procedures had been adhered to.

However, problems surfaced a few months later when the Malacca Religious Affairs Department refused to register the marriage after becoming suspicious of the bridegroom’s gender.

Sufian was also ordered to amend his gender status and name in the National Registration Department according to the original birth certificate.

In announcing his ruling, Che Saufi said: "According to the first respondent’s (Zaiton) statement, she had never seen or touched her husband’s private parts and had taken him to be a man all along and that she felt good and satisfied together.

"This is astounding and illogical. It is abnormal to go through life as husband and wife as such."

He said the couple had also failed to prove the "husband" to be a hermaphrodite as claimed by Syariah lawyer Mohd Mokhtar Karim.

Malacca Hospital gynaecologist Dr Nor Hasinah Mohd Said had said a physical examination carried out with two other specialists revealed that Sufian was not a man.

Chromosome and blood tests also confirmed that Sufian was a woman.