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Global News
ASIA MARRIAGE: No longer taboo, couples young and old alike are divorcing, a practice that’s become widespread across the continent. Women mainly initiate separations. Fewer social pressures exist to cause people to want to stay married. Divorce in Singapore is up by a third since 1990. In mainland China, the divorce rate has doubled in 20 years. South Korea’s divorce rate is higher than Britain and Denmark’s. In India, the divorce rate is 11 per 1,000, compared to 7.41 per 1,000 in 1991. In divorce school near Tokyo, students can learn 50 ways to leave their lovers. Some divorce as an alternative to being battered, unhappy or cheated on. In “Love and War,” a popular South Korean TV show, actors portray partners in actual marital conflicts and divorce cases. Viewers vote via Internet whether the couple should stay together.BANGLADESH: Thanks to innovative non-profit groups and committed government social workers, the nation has made big gains in slowing population growth, greatly boosting its war on poverty. But violence is besetting this Islamic southern Asia country that has a history of religious tolerance. Making the mix even more toxic is spreading Islamic fundamentalism. Hindus, who make up about a tenth of Bangladeshis, say they are increasingly intimidated by gangs of fundamentalists who attack them in their homes, warn them to flee and demand ransom. One human rights lawyer said that the condition of religious minorities has become terrible.
BRAZIL: Central Brazil’s young, poor indigenous are becoming seduced by suicide as an escape from what they view as dead-end futures of grief and pain. More than 300 of the 30,000 Kaiowa Indians in Mato Grosso do Sul state have killed themselves since 1995; 54 succeeded in 2003. That’s a suicide rate of 180 per 100,000 while the country’s death rate is 6.5 per 100,000. Experts believe the root of the epidemic lies in landlessness, displacement and unrelenting poverty.
CANADA: The Dalai Lama, the famed Tibetan Buddhist leader that his co-religionists and others around the world regard as a type of superstar god-king, has generated excitement with appearances in April and May from Vancouver to Ottawa. He shared messages of love and peace to packed audiences. More than 300,000 Buddhists live in Canada. Dozens of Buddhist temples, organizations and associations are scattered across the country. But an ex-Buddhist who now pastors a British Columbia church says he’s concerned about many westerners’ lack of discernment. The Dalai Lama’s form of Buddhism is a syncretistic mix of Bon, the indigenous occultist and shamanist religion of Tibet; Tantric Hinduism rituals; and Mahayana Buddhism. According to the Christian Research Institute, Buddhism’s goal is spiritual annihilation: “The summit of the mountain is nothingness—like the candle flame that is blown out.”
CYBER CRIME: As computers become more vital to mission agencies, agencies must make stopping viruses, hackers and cyber-attackers a top priority. Not only can attacks shut down an agency’s operations but they can also rob confidential e-mail address books, which can seriously endanger those in sensitive areas, warns Neil Glotfelty, director of information systems with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.
GERMANY: To promote Christian unity the German Evangelical Alliance launched the “Impulse Tour” April 24. Hanover is the first of eight German cities where leaders will urge Christians to stop infighting and cooperate more across denominational lines. Alliance Chairman Peter Strauch says too much self-centeredness and dogmatism exists among evangelicals. He says Christians should not publicly criticize fellow believers with differing theological views because Christians often transform personal opinions into questions of truth. Stopping infighting will not lead to tolerance of false teachings, however, because the Bible remains the only authority, Strauch says.
LATIN AMERICA: If dictatorship solves economic problems, 54 percent of Latinos prefer it to other governments, a UN study finds. When asked about personal political beliefs, 43 percent called themselves “democrats,” 30.5 percent were ambivalent and 26.5 percent were anti-democratic.
NEPAL: Some 200 churches and 16,000 Christians were taking part in an Easter celebration when authorities detained two Christians who organized the event. The two said they had gotten an official’s permission to hold the event in a public theater where political rallies are often held. The government has banned assemblies of more than five people to stop opposition protests. Though the pair was freed the same day, believers abandoned the celebration. Nepali Christians say the government views them with suspicion. The government allows churches to function, but conversion is a legally punishable offense.
RWANDA: Ten years after extremist Hutus massacred 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Rwanda has outlawed ethnicity. The government seeks to popularize the notion that all are Rwandan in an attempt to avert future genocide. Critics of this policy, however, say that denying ethnicity simply suppresses a desperately needed though painful ethnic dialogue.
SOUTH KOREA: Christianity came to the Korean Peninsula between the seventh and eighth centuries, not during the late eighteenth century through Roman Catholic missionaries as previously believed, according to the Korean Christian Museum at Seoul’s Soongsil University. In the museum’s collection is a Nestorian stone cross dated between 600 and 700 A.D. Christianity not only brought faith to Korea but also educated the people, offered medical care and promoted literacy among the illiterate public.
SPAIN: Muslims across the country are seeking what some regard as a symbolic reconciliation gesture by asking permission to pray in Cordoba’s Roman Catholic cathedral, which sits in the center of a centuries-old mosque complex. The church council doesn’t seem receptive. The Muslims have appealed to Pope John Paul II for help. The Islamic Moors conquered southern Spain in the 700s and remained until the Spanish drove them out in 1492.
