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

EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP OF INDIA JOINS IN WITH ECUMENICAL CELEBRATION. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - On the weekend of November 16-17 in New Delhi, the Evangelical Fellowship of India joined hands with the National Council of Churches of India and the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference for a Christian Festival to celebrate unity. More than 3,000 participated. It is the first time that the evangelical alliance participated in the event, and it illustrates the rapid slide of apostasy within evangelicalism or Protestantism in general.

PERSECUTION IN VIETNAM. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The communist government in Vietnam is persecuting churches among the Montagnards (meaning "mountain people") who live in the Central Highlands. By the end of September, 354 of 412 of the Protestant churches had been forced to disband in one province alone. About 50 pastors in that province have been arrested or have disappeared. Pastors have been forbidden to conduct worship, teach, pray for the sick, baptize, or perform weddings and funerals and are required to sign a statement of compliance under threat of arrest. Bibles and songbooks have been burned. Hmong Christians are also being persecuted in the northwest of Vietnam. In September, the United States Commission on International Religion Freedom named Vietnam as among the worst for abuse of religious liberty.

"CHRISTIAN" ROCK GROUP IN ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The rock group P.O.D., which is very popular among some professing Christians, was honored at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, by having their lyrics installed in the lyric room, which features songs by vile anti-christ rockers such as Jim Morrison of the Doors. P.O.D. boasts about this in their official newsletter. CCM Magazine Online observed, "These are great honors for P.O.D. and a testimony to their unwavering commitment and growth into one of the great rock bands of our time." In truth, Jesus said to His disciples, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). He also said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Lk. 6:22, 26).

AMERICAN BAPTIST CONVENTION AND FEMALE GOD. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is from Calvary Contender for December 2002: "An article in the American Baptist Convention's WATCHword (11/93) tells of a woman who felt worse after praying to God over guilt from an abortion. The writer said: 'Then a friend suggested that she pray to God as a mother. Being desperate she tried that and called on God, the Mother of us all, and immediately she felt whole. Now she was identifying with a God who was not masculine and approaching her problem as all the other males. This God understood her situation, had experienced her circumstance, knew her feelings, her plight, and yes the options placed upon her. And this God she could not only approach, but confidently bare her soul and receive full acceptance. ... What a shame we can only know the God of judgment, authority, legalistic, strong and hierarchical, when the real God is like a shepherd, or a mother hen. But God in her own mysterious way...' An earlier article warned: 'But for many victims of child abuse or incest, insistence upon their calling God "Father" can result in their rejecting God." [The liberal ABC is a member of the apostate Baptist World Alliance. The SBC is also a member and is its largest donor.]

HOMOSEXUAL MAN KILLS WOMAN WHO TRIED TO PERSUADE HIM TO CHANGE. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - On November 13, Nicholas Gutierrez killed 51-year-old Mary Stachowicz because she was trying to convince him that his homosexuality is wrong and that he should turn from it (The Washington Times, Nov. 26). Mrs. Stachowicz, a mother of four, was a Roman Catholic and she had just returned from Mass when she spoke with Gutierrez. The murder occurred in Chicago. The liberal national news media have ignored the murder, even though they give massive coverage to any attacks upon homosexuals. The 19-year-old Gutierrez told police that the argument with Mrs. Stachowicz reminded him of discussions he had with his mother and that he became enraged. Mrs. Stachowicz's neighbor, Mary Coleman said, "Those of us who knew her immediately hear her soft voice saying something like, 'God wouldn't approve of the way you're living your life. That's how Mary did things."

COMMUNIST CHINA'S OPPRESSIVE INTERNET POLICY. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Communist China has about 60 million Internet users, but they operate under severe government restrictions. The Communist Party is attempting to keep the Internet from becoming an organ for free speech for its oppressed citizens. E-mail accounts and web usage is monitored by some 30,000 Internet police. Internet cafes are required to install blocking and monitoring software, and the service providers are accountable to the government for all activity on their sites. Webmasters are supposed to monitor and cut off "subversive talk" on Internet chat rooms. Amnesty International claims that 33 people have been imprisoned for "online subversion" ("Amnesty International demands release of Chinese jailed for getting political online," AP, Nov. 26). Qi Yanchen, for example, a freelance writer, was sentenced for four years in prison for posting articles on the Internet calling for political reform. Li Dawei, former police officer, was sentenced to 11 years for downloading articles from overseas-based Chinese democracy web sites.

FATSOES SUING MCDONALDS. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - A class-action lawsuit was filed against McDonald's on November 20 on behalf of New York children "who have suffered health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity" (AP, Nov. 21). A lawyer involved with the lawsuit stated that McDonald's has created a national epidemic of fat children. One of the child plaintiffs ate every meal at McDonald's for three years while living in a homeless shelter. Psychology and 1960s "me firstology" has created a society in which multitudes refuse to take responsibility for their actions. The American justice system has become so perverted that it allows these frivolous suits to move forward and for lawyers to be enriched by them.

AMERICAN MISSIONARY KILLED IN LEBANON. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - On November 21, American missionary nurse Bonnie Whiterall was killed when she was shot four times at point blank range by unidentified attackers. The motive of the shooting has not yet been determined, but anti-American sentiment by Lebanese Muslims has risen sharply during the past two years.

UZBEKISTAN: TEN DAYS IN PRISON FOR BAPTIST HOUSE CHURCH LEADER. Friday Church News Notes, November 29, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is from Keston News Service, Nov. 21, 2002: "A Baptist who hosted a small church in his home in the central Uzbek town of Navoi, Nikolai Nikulin, has been sentenced to ten days' imprisonment after being found guilty of 'illegally' gathering people in his flat without registration. He was led away directly from the courtroom to serve his sentence. The church that met in Nikulin's home consisted of just seven people. Under Uzbek law, unregistered religious activity is illegal. Police had raided Nikulin's flat, threatening the Baptists and taking away religious books 'for expertise,' saying that the books would be destroyed. The Baptists called for prayer and appeals on behalf of the 'illegally sentenced Nikulin' and called on the authorities to return the confiscated literature, and also 'not to obstruct the meeting of this small group.'"