People and Events

Salvador Collazo and Marcelino Perez of San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico were assassinated by five gunmen Nov. 12, shortly after negotiating an agreement allowing the children of evangelical families to attend a public school. Collazo and his brother Manuel founded the Organization of Evangelical Peoples of the Chiapas Highland, which seeks to protect persecuted evangelical aboriginal people. The San Juan Chamula area is governed by traditional political leaders called "caciques" who operate largely independently of Mexican government authorities (the result of a stalemated civil war in the 1870s--it is alleged the government now allows the caciques to rule in exchange for votes for the ruling Revolutionary Institutional Party). The caciques also try to enforce adherence to "traditionalist Catholicism", which mixes ancient Mayan religion with Roman Catholicism (the local Catholic bishop has only nominal control of the Catholic churches). The caciques have opposed the planting of evangelical Protestant churches, often driving evangelicals out of their homes. Since 1967, at least 15 Protestants have been murdered. Nevertheless, Protestants (Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals and Adventists) have grown to 38% of the population, and many of those dispossessed are now returning home.--

Ayub Masih, 31, was shot at outside a courthouse in Sahiwal, Pakistan Nov. 6, narrowly escaping death. Masih was awaiting a hearing after having been accused of blaspheming Mohammed in October, 1996. His family identified the shooter as Mohammed Akram, the neighbour who brought the charge in 1996. Nevertheless, police have not laid charges against Akram. A policeman at the scene had loudly identified Masih just before the shooting and then claimed he could not defend Masih because his gun was not loaded. Masih's family say the blasphemy charge was really brought because of a land dispute between the two families; all 14 Christian families in Masih's hometown have fled the area. After the shooting, the judge adjourned the case until the government would guarantee the safety of everyone involved in the case. Another Christian, Anwar Masih, has been awaiting trial for blasphemy for five years, but his case is now being transferred back and forth between various courts. Evidently, judges are frightened to hear such cases after Arif Iqbal Bhatti, a judge who acquitted two blasphemy defendants two years ago, was assassinated Oct. 10. Since Pakistan added a mandatory death penalty to its blasphemy laws in 1993, more than a dozen Christians have been charged. None have been convicted, several have been acquitted, and four were murdered after acquittal.--

The state of Oaxaca, Mexico lost 30%-50% of its coffee crop after the area was struck by Hurricane Pauline Oct. 10. Mennonite Central Committee has decided to focus its relief efforts on the town of Pluma Hidalgo. MCC Mexico co-director Marlin Yoder traveled to Pluma Hidalgo with Guillermo Zuniga (a Mennonite doctor from Mexico City) and his wife Eva to investigate the damage. The result of their trip is "Oaxaca '98," a plan under which work teams of 3-10 people will be sent to the area for one week every month in 1998. The teams will help with cleaning up, harvesting and replanting shade trees for the coffee bushes. The teams will come from among the 750 Mennonites in Mexico City. MCC will supply some funding. Mennonites in Mexico City had already donated $2100 in relief supplies for the region.--

A new Russian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organization has already caused trouble for a number of churches, which have been either evicted or banned from further activities. Complaints against the new law are abundant. Over 20 religious and human rights groups have formed an All-Russian Movement for Freedom of Conscience and a Secular State. They are preparing appeals against the religion law to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.--

John Wimber, 63, died Nov. 17 after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage Nov. 16, caused by a brain growth. He had been a keyboardist with the rock group The Righteous Brothers before becoming a Christian. He broke with the Calvary Chapel movement (where had had been a pastor) and Fuller Theological Seminary (where he had been a controversial part-time instructor) because of his emphasis on "signs and wonders". He founded Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, Calif. in 1977, which has now grown into a denomination of 700 churches, including 450 in the US. One of these, the Toronto Airport Vineyard (home of the "Toronto Blessing") was later expelled by Wimber.

The British Columbia College of Teachers filed notice Sept. 28 that it will appeal a decision favourable to Trinity Western University's teacher education program. TWU currently offers four years of the five-year program, but its students must take their fifth year at Simon Fraser University. Overruling its own evaluation committee, the BCCT had earlier refused to grant TWU permission to offer the full program, arguing that TWU's Christian standards mean that TWU grads would be likely to discriminate against homosexual students. A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Sept. 11 that there is no evidence that TWU-trained teachers discriminate and ordered the BCCT to recognize TWU's program. The BCCT, however, argues that it is the fifth year of exposure to Simon Fraser that helps to ensure that TWU graduates will be tolerant. It could be six months to a year for the appeal to be back in court.--

Germantown Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, Pa. has been expelled from the Franconia Mennonite Conference, a regional conference of the Mennonite Church, following a mail-in vote by delegates in October. The congregation was censured for accepting as members "homosexual persons who live in covenanted relationships". The vote, 178 to 40 in favour of the recommendation that the conference no longer recognize, Germantown as a member congregation, follows a three-year discussion, including two years in which Germantown was reduced to associate member status without voting rights. The Conference was to vote on the matter at its convention last April, but no vote was held. This prompted 10 other congregations to threaten to leave the Conference if no vote was taken. Hence the mail-in vote. Germantown is the oldest Mennonite congregation in North America, dating back to 1683. It is the second congregation to be expelled from a Mennonite Church Conference over homosexuality. The Ames, Iowa church was censured in the late 1980s. However, both Germantown and Ames continue as members of the General Conference Mennonite Church, with which the Mennonite Church will soon merge. A vote on whether to expel a third congregation, Rainbow Mennonite Church in Kansas City, for accepting homosexual members will take place in 1998.--

Billy Graham's Bay Area Crusade San Jose/San Francisco/Oakland, Calif. in September and October realized the highest percentage response among young people in Graham's 50-year ministry. An average of 4l,200 people attended the Oakland meetings Oct. 25-26, and more than 10,200 came forward to make a commitment to Christ. Young people aged 12-18 made up more than 50% of the attendance at four youth events and accounted for over 60% of the total commitments. This was the first time in North America that Graham has held one crusade in three cities: San Jose Sept. 26-28, San Francisco Oct. 9-11 and Oakland-Alameda County Oct. 25-26.--

A survey conducted by the Conference of Mennonites in Canada found that 52% of its congregations open communion to unbaptized adult believers, and 25% to unbaptized children.--

Since World War II, the US has spent $15 trillion to arm itself and its allies--more than 1,000 times the total dollars needed to: provide primary health care for the 1 billion people worldwide who never see a health professional; immunize the more than 2 million children who die annually of preventable infectious diseases; secure safe drinking water for the 1.3 billion people who lack it; and eliminate severe malnutrition.--