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Written by support@ifghosting.com
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008 |
Why many Americans Prefer their Sundays Segregated
 | The Rev. Paul Earl Sheppard had recently become the senior pastor of a suburban church in California when a group of parishioners came to him with a disturbing personal question. They were worried because the racial makeup of their small church was changing. They warned Sheppard that the church's newest members would try to seize control because members of their race were inherently aggressive. What was he was going to do if more of "them" tried to join their church? "One man asked me if I was prepared for a hostile takeover," says Sheppard, pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California. |
The nervous parishioners were African-American, and the church's newcomers were white. Sheppard says the experience demonstrated why racially integrated churches are difficult to create and even harder to sustain. Some blacks as well as whites prefer segregated Sundays, religious scholars and members of interracial churches say.
Americans may be poised to nominate a black man to run for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 August 2008 )
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Written by support@ifghosting.com
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008 |
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Start of Olympics on 8.8.08 Hardly 'Lucky' for Suffering Christians SANTA ANA, Calif., Aug. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- 8.8.08 will signal the start of the long-awaited 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Friday with the elaborate opening ceremonies.
The Chinese consider eight a lucky number because in Cantonese it sounds like the word for "get rich" or "prosper."
Many Chinese will celebrate Aug. 8, 2008 as one of the most important dates in Chinese history - the launching of a prestigious event for the entire world to see the "new, open China."
But many Christians are hardly "lucky" this year. The fact is that many Christians have suffered even harsher persecution by the Chinese government due to the glare of the Olympic spotlight. As a result, many have been thrown into prison or transported to areas far away from Beijing and the Games venues. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reported last week that nearly 700 Protestant leaders who are not registered with the government have been placed in custody in the past year.
Those prisoners include Shi Weihan, who was re- arrested earlier this year for publishing Bibles and Christian literature. Shi ran a Christian bookstore, a printing press and travel agency. The bookstore is located near the Olympic Village. Weihan's health has deteriorated since his imprisonment due to poor prison conditions and refusal of prison officials to give him medicine for his diabetes, according to China Aid Association. CAA recently reported Shi was coerced to sign and recognize a confession convicting him of "engaging in the printing and distribution of a large number of illegal publications."
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