The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes:

INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT PROTECTING CHRISTIANS FROM MUSLIM ATTACKS. Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Last week we reported on a massive Muslim attack against Christians in Indonesia. Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee from their homes in the face of a vicious "jihad" against them by Muslims from Indonesia and elsewhere. They have burned churches, murdered people, and threatened the thousands of Christians who have fled to the town of Tentena with a "bloody Christmas." Some are supporters of Osama bin Laden and have displayed his picture with the text "This is our Leader." We have prayed about this situation and we know that many others have, as well, and we were pleased to read the following report in Religion Today for December 6: "A report from Compass Direct says that five truckloads of army troops arrived in Tentena to thwart the efforts of some 2000 jihad terrorists, and some of the Indonesian troops have moved on to Poso to guard villages there. Two pastors representing the Synod of the Christian Church of Central Sulawesi in Tentena had faxed an emergency appeal to the Minister of Defense and Security on Nov. 29. The very next day, the Cabinet had ordered the army to defend Tentena, and by 4:30 that same day, they had arrived. The security minister in Jakarta subsequently ordered 4000 more troops sent to Poso with the order to expel anyone that does not have a valid reason for being there. It is thought that this might be a move to rid the area of Laskar Jihad militants, who are not made up of local Muslims." We don't know how long this protection will last or how effective it will be in the long run, but we need to continue to pray for these people. I do not know what type of "Christians" most of these Indonesian villagers are, but I have been told by a friend in Singapore that some of them are Bible believers.

MUSLIMS, LIKE CATHOLICS, HONOR MARY AS SINLESS. Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) In an interview published by Zenit.org (a news service that focuses on the Roman Catholic Church), Islamic theologian Sherazade Hushmand quoted from the Koran to prove that Muslims revere Mary as sinless. "Question: 'Of what significance is the figure of Mary to Muslims?' Hushmand: 'She is very present in the Koran, which presents her, specifically, as Mary Immaculate. In the third sura, beginning with verse 34 and subsequent ones, the Koran speaks about this aspect of Mary, about her total purity. Speaking of Mary, one of the verses talks about freedom. The woman of Hemram, who is Mary's mother, prays to God saying: "God, I dedicate to you the one I have in the womb, and I dedicate her so that she will be free, absolutely free." This word is used only once in the Koran, and only for Mary. This freedom is an absolute freedom from all what might be seen as sin, evil, failure, weakness. Mary is pure of all this. Then comes God's affirmation: "I accept her"' (Rome, Zenit.org, Dec. 10, 2001).

BLASPHEMOUS ARTICLE IN A BAPTIST JOURNAL. Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The current issue of the Review and Expositor, a quarterly produced by a group of liberal Baptist schools, contains an article by a feminist who conceives of God as a woman and who blasphemously claims that sex acts produce revelations from God. The author of the vile article, titled "Embodiment Versus Dualism: A Theology of Sexuality from a Holistic Perspective," is Leslie Kendrick Townsend (Baptist Press, Dec. 7, 2001). She approvingly quotes a poem which says, "I found god in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely." She further quotes from a hymn by feminist Brian Wren titled "Mother God," which depicts God as "strong Mother" and "old aching God." This song was sung at the annual meeting of Baptist Women in Ministry at the 2001 General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. God's Word warned about this type of thing long ago: "Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities" (Jude 1:8). Review and Expositor is published by a group of theological schools including McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Virginia, and George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. The latter is supported by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which is a part of the Southern Baptist Convention at the state level. Though there are many conservative men within the Southern Baptist Convention, as a group it is a mixed multitude of modernists and New Evangelicals.

CHRISTIAN IN PAKISTAN STILL AWAITING DEATH SENTENCE. Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Ayub Masih, a Pakistani Christian, was arrested in October 1996 in his home village of Arifwala and charged with shouting insults against the name of Mohamed, the founder of Islam. In April 1998 he was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Ayub's appeal was turned down by the provincial High Court in July of this year, and he has now appealed to the Supreme Court. If that court also rejects his appeal, he will have one final option of appealing to the president of Pakistan. The Barnabas Fund report for Nov. 30 stated that the false charges against Ayub were "planned by influential landlords who wanted to take the small plots of land which Christians had been able to buy at cheap rates from the government." Immediately after Ayub's arrest, 14 or more Christian families were driven out of the village under threat of violence. We do not know Ayub's denominational affiliation.

PROTESTANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS APPROVE HOMOSEXUAL "MARRIAGES." Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) At a meeting in late November, the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands approved "the blessing of same-sex partnerships." This ecumenical body is an ongoing merger of three Reformed and Lutheran denominations representing 2.7 million "Christians." The Dutch government has recognized homosexual marriages on equal status with man-woman marriages since April 1998, and some 1,900 homosexual couples have subsequently been "married." The proposed decision by the Uniting Protestant Churches was opposed by some, but the final vote was 113 in favor and only 45 opposed or abstaining. The denominations merging into the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands are members of the World Council of Churches. Other denominations that accept homosexual partnerships in the Netherlands include the Society of Mennonites.

PERSECUTION IN TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN, TAJIKISTAN, KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN. Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan are former satellites of the Soviet Union that neighbor Afghanistan to the north. The first three actually border Afghanistan. All have large Muslim populations and all persecute Christians. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were listed on the U.S. State Department's 2001 religious freedom report as among the worst countries for religious intolerance. In Turkmenistan, four Baptists were tortured this year for having religious literature in their car. In November, a Protestant church was raided in Ashgabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, and the members were fined the equivalent of twice the average monthly wage. Turkmenistan's government restrictions against Christianity are called "draconian." The secret service monitors every Christian and photographs religious gatherings. This September, a letter by a religious affairs agency head in Tajikistan's southern region raised concern about "increased activity" by Christian churches and called for "the most stringent control." In late November, a pastor in Kazakhstan was beaten, tortured and imprisoned. A little earlier, a church was raided, Christian literature seized, and a church member was tortured, viciously threatened, and imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital. In September, the village of Chon-Tash in Kyrgyzstan banned Christianity. The village elders threatened that the Christians "would not escape the people's wrath" if they refused to stop sharing their faith. Kyrgyzstan's deputy Islamic mufti, who attended the village meeting, called Christians "dogs." (Information for this article came from reports from the Barnabas Fund, the Keston Institute, and other news agencies.)

HEAD OF ANGLICAN CHURCH SEEKS PAPAL BLESSING FOR UNITY. Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, sought the blessing of the Pope during the November meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission. Carey sent his message to Rome via his representative, Anglican Bishop David Beetge. The Anglican Communion News Service stated that Beetge "sought the Pope's blessing on this new phase of work." The Anglican News Service blasphemously called the Pope "Holy Father" and "His Holiness." The Pope urged the Commission to continue the journey toward "full visible unity."