Faith Digest: Persecution in Africa

Africa rises on Christian persecution list. The persecution of Christians “vastly rose” in 2012 as radical Islamists consolidated power in Africa, according to Open Doors, a Christian missionary organization that publishes an annual list of offending nations. Increasing threats to African Christians can be seen in focused attacks, such as the killings of Christians in Nigerian churches by the radical Muslim group Boko Haram, but also in the greater prevalence of radical Muslims in government, according to the California-based Open Doors. In Mali, for example, which made the biggest leap on the “World Watch List,” from unranked in 2011 to No. 7 in 2012, a coup in the north brought fundamentalist Muslims to power. North Korea topped Open Doors’ list for the 11th year in a row and was followed by Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. In China, the picture for Christians continues to improve, as that country slid from No. 21 in 2011 to No. 37 in 2012—a stark difference from its Top 10 ranking five years ago. Syria, now in the throes of a bloody revolution, became a country of particular concern for the group, which pegged it at No. 11 in 2012 and No. 36 the previous year, the report’s second-biggest jump.

Fewer view homosexuality as sin. Just over a third of Americans—37 percent—view homosexuality as a sin, down from 44 percent a little more than a year ago, a survey by LifeWay Research shows.

LifeWay Research Survey

The percentage of Americans who do not believe homosexuality is a sin remained nearly the same, at 43 percent in September 2011 and 45 percent in November 2012. The percentage of respondents who said they were unsure of what they believe increased. The LifeWay survey found Americans who identify as “born-again, evangelical, or fundamentalist Christian” are the most likely to say homosexual behavior is a sin (73 percent). Conversely, people who never attend religious services are most likely to say they do not believe homosexual behavior is a sin (71 percent). The survey of nearly 1,200 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percent.

Virtual vices show shift in American morality. The seven deadly sins have company. Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride still corrupt souls. But as the Internet and other media invade American life, vices have gone virtual, according to a new study. Nearly half of Americans say they are tempted to idle the hours away on the Internet, video games and television, according to Barna Group, a California-based Christian research organization. And more than one in four American men admit to struggling with Internet pornography or other sexually inappropriate material online. Millennials—Americans born between the early 1980s and 2000s—are most likely to seek forbidden fruits online, according to Barna. The most commonly admitted temptation—by Barna’s definition—is worrying or anxiety, which 66 percent confess. That’s followed by procrastination (60 percent), eating too much (55 percent) spending too much time on media (44 percent) and being lazy (41 percent). Relatively few Americans admitted to being envious (24 percent), lying or cheating (12 percent), or engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior (9 percent). The Barna survey included 1,021 online interviews conducted among a sample of adults in all 50 states. The sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points, at the 95 percent confidence level.

Lawmakers receive Jefferson Bible. The American Humanist Association has delivered electronic and paperback copies of Thomas Jefferson’s highly edited version of the Gospels to all incoming members of Congress and to President Obama. The second president handcrafted the so-called “Jefferson Bible” with a razor blade and a paste pot. He cut supernatural events such as the virgin birth, miracles and healings from the story of Jesus’ life, and pasted together what remained. A new version published by Humanist Press also includes what its editors consider the best and worst of the sacred texts of other world religions—the Hebrew Tanakh, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhist Sutras and the Book of Mormon. It also includes the Humanist Manifesto declaration of principles.

Europeans launch pro-life campaign. Anti-abortion groups from 20 countries have launched a petition to ask the European Parliament to recognize life begins at conception. The “One of Us” initiative is the first of its kind in Europe and represents a larger effort to forge a cohesive continental anti-abortion movement. The petition aims to collect 1 million signatures in at least seven of the 27 countries of the European Union by November, forcing the Strasbourg, France-based European Parliament to schedule a debate on the issue. The “One of Us” petition, even if successful and passed into law by the European Parliament, would not lead to the outright ban of abortion across Europe. It would, however, block funding from the European Union for activities that entail the destruction of embryos, such as stem cell research.