Myanmar Cyclone Aid Caught in Red Tape

Military junta limiting ability of relief groups to deliver and distribute food, medicine, shelter.

Prayer for Burma

Pioneer American missionary Adoniram Judson arrived in Burma in
1813. He was 24 years old and Burma was a hostile place. Judson
laboured for six years before seeing even one convert. In 1828 a
former slave and hardened criminal named Ko Tha Byu became the
first ethnic Karen to receive Christ. By God's grace Ko Tha Byu
became a mighty evangelist. After 18 years of ministry Judson
observed in 1831 that a 'spirit of inquiry' was spreading across
the whole land. Operation World (2000) estimates that Burma is now
8.7 percent Christian. The 70 percent Burmese majority is strongly
Buddhist, whilst the ethnic minorities are predominantly Christian.

In 1962 the Marxist-influenced military seized power in a coup.
Foreign missionaries were then expelled and all private (mostly
Christian mission) schools and hospitals were nationalised.
Political repression and isolation escalated further after the
major crackdown of 1988, and again after the junta received an
influx of arms and military hardware in 2005. The junta is no
longer defined by ideology but by its addiction to the perks of
totalitarian power. Its violent, corrupt, discriminatory and self-
serving regime fuels resistance to its rule, which the military
then violently represses. Thus goes the perpetual cycle of
conflict.

A genocidal conflict is presently being waged against the ethnic
Karen. (See 'Burmese Darfur: The Silent Genocide of Myanmar',
Spiegel online, 6 Sep 2007.) This has created around 540,000 IDPs
(internally displaced people) in eastern Burma and forced some
200,000 Karen into refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. Most of
these refugees are Christians.

The United States 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)
decrees that the US Commission of International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) designate as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) those
countries whose governments engage in or tolerate systematic and
egregious violations of religious liberty. Burma has always been on
the USCIRF's CPC list, being re-designated a CPC most recently on 2
May 2008. Over recent years the increasingly desperate and paranoid
junta has escalated its efforts -- as its official policy states --
to 'destroy the Christian religion in Burma'.

On 3 May 2008 the 190 km/hr (120 miles/hour) winds of Cyclone
Nargis ripped through Burma's Irrawaddy delta. The toll of injured,
dead and missing is spiralling upwards at a horrendous rate. On
Tuesday 6 May Burma's state television reported that 10,000
perished in the town of Bogalay alone. Rescue operations will be
difficult due to the remoteness of the disaster region which is a
major rice-producing area and home to 24 million people. The risk
of disease is high. However, Cyclone Nargis has blown open a door.
The junta that has kept Burma closed, isolated and violently
repressed for decades has now issued an appeal for international
assistance.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO --

* work through the affliction caused by Cyclone Nargis, to deliver
Burma from its affliction of violent, repressive, totalitarian
rule; may he open the ears of multitudes of Burmese to the
gospel of Jesus Christ.

'He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears
by their adversity' (Elihu, Job 36:15 ESV).

* bless all Burmese pastors, Christian leaders and teachers: inside
Burma; in the refugee camps; in the Burmese diaspora; and
especially those who are presently fleeing or suffering in
terror. May the Holy Spirit fill the leaders with the wisdom,
faith, grace and strength to shepherd the Lord's flock through
these difficult times.

--Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | No. 477 | Wed 07 May 2008

Good News for Embryos

The end may be in sight for the debate over "harvesting" human embryos for their stem-cells in the pursuit of possible medical cures. Apparently adult stem cells--those cells gotten from human body tissues and not embryos--have the potential to be just as versatile for medical research as ESCs--but without the need to kill nascent human life. An article in Newsweek:

In June 2006, a Japanese group led by Shinya Yamanaka reported the first successful result with mouse skin cells, and between November 2007 and January 2008, Yamanaka's group and two American groups led by James Thomson and George Daley at Harvard University all reported the successful reprogramming of human skin cells into a state that is indistinguishable from human embryonic cells. Over the last several months, progress made along this new scientific path has been breathtaking. The laboratory of Rudolf Jaenisch at MIT has taken in the lead in developing therapies with this new technique in mice, demonstrating a cure for a mouse version of sickle cell anemia and alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mice.

What these scientists can now do is essentially to take any type of cell and turn it into the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell—without needing embryos or egg cells. So what exactly are these new cells? Cells are fundamentally defined not by where they come from, but by their program of gene activity. In this sense, the new cells should be called embryonic stem cells. And since they are genetically identical to the person who provided the original sample, they are technically embryonic cell clones of that person. But scientists have discovered the power of words to elicit positive or negative emotional responses. "Clone" and "embryo" are words to be avoided. And so by consensus, the new cells are being called induced pluripotent stem cells.

Researchers say more work must be done on the promising technique.

Obama Breaks Ties with Wright

Controversial remarks provoked Obama's denunciation.
By Sarah Pulliam

A Friendship Tested by Faith

Stan Guthrie and Rabbi Yehiel Poupko on National Public Radio.

Food Crisis: No Free Lunch

With gasoline flowing toward $4 a gallon in the U.S., some Americans are trying to figure out what they can cut from their budget to remain behind the wheel. In other parts of the world, high prices for basic items are causing more trouble.

The prices of wheat and rice this year will have doubled since 2004, according to World Bank projections. Soybeans, sugar, soybean oil and corn are expected to be 56% to 79% costlier than in 2004. The bulk of the increases have come in the past year and can be attributed to the West's push to turn these crops into fossil-fuel replacements like ethanol. Food prices will likely remain overinflated until at least 2015, the Bank says.

The result of these rising prices is that 100 million people could slip back into poverty, erasing seven years' worth of gains, Bank President Robert Zoellick warned earlier this month. Food inflation and shortages have sparked riots from Egypt to the Philippines, and six people were killed in Haiti alone during nine days of related unrest there this month.

Soaring oil prices have made it more expensive to transport food products, though the World Bank estimates this and costlier fertilizer account for only 15% of the rise in food prices. Improved eating habits in developing nations are also increasing demand for grains – both for human consumption and to feed livestock, since rapid economic growth in places like China means more people have enough money to buy meat. But the Bank notes that "almost all" of the increased growing of one of the key crops, corn, "went for biofuels production in the U.S."

For a look at what the World Bank says about the food crisis, click here.

While the science of whether ethanol is an efficient use of corn, given its proportional removal from the world's food supply, is beyond me, the current world food crisis points out the fact that there are economic costs and drawbacks with every government mandate and subsidy. There is no such thing as a free lunch. When corn is turned into fuel, it cannot be used for food, and some who would eat that corn will have to buy other food (presumably at a higher price) or go hungry.

Christian Evangelism and Judaism

An exchange of views between a rabbi and a columnist.
Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko and Stan Guthrie