Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works with Bashar Assad's regime or has anything to do with it.

     "But what we heard from (the protesters) at the beginning of this revolution saying, 'Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin,' started us thinking about the real aim of this revolution," he said. "So from this point of view, fearing for my life, I declared my support for President Assad."

     Muslims dominate this nation of 22 million people, but Christians can be found at all levels of Syrian government, business and military, reports Religion News Service via USA Today. The two million Christians here trace their roots to ancient communities and have survived under many rulers as Christian enclaves in other Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, have withered.

     The rebellion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims against Assad that began in March 2011 has not seen Christians abandon their support for the Alawites, the Muslim sect to which Assad belongs and that has controlled Syria for decades. Christians have largely remained quiet as Assad's forces pummeled rebel cities and towns with artillery, killing close to 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

     In a report from ENInews/RNS, STEPHEN STARR and S AKMINAS look at the situation for Christians amidst the unrest in Syria...  | more...|

FOLLOWING THE TORCH: 17th May, 2012 UK-based Olympic outreach organisation More than Gold is spear-heading a 70 day "prayer relay" to run in conjunction with the Olympic Torch relay. This kicks off in Britain on Saturday after a ceremony to light the Olympic Flame was held in Greece last week (pictured). Jane Holloway, chair of More Than Gold’s prayer team, says the Olympic Torch will pass through over 1,000 communities on its journey in the UK. "We would like it to inspire a cascade of prayer and praise – with individuals and churches taking time to pray, alone and together, as it travels through their area." For a prayer guide, follow this link... PICTURE: LOCOG

THE STATISTIC:

Proportion of children aged under 12 years cared for by their grandparents in Australia:

26 per cent

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

| more... |

LIVE AND MODERATED 'YOUR SAY' ON THE ISSUE (BELOW) AND WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT - 9.30am-1pm (AEST) EVERY WEDNESDAY...

THE ISSUE: ARE CHRISTIANS SUFFERING 'PERSECUTION' IN WESTERN NATIONS?

24th February, 2012

The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales - Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster - has said Christians in the UK are not being persecuted and shouldn't claim they are. What do you think? Can Christians living in the West face 'persecution'? ...  | more...|

FOR PREVIOUS THE ISSUE/YOUR SAY... | more...|

This weekend Real Choices Australia is holding its second annual conference in Melbourne. This year’s theme of ‘Setting the Standard’ is fulfilled by the calibre of national and international speakers, addressing vital topics. Dr Priscilla Coleman, is the world’s most published researcher on the impact of abortion on women, particularly the negative impact on mental health.

     According to a study by Dr Coleman published in the highly regarded British Journal of Psychiatry, women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 per cent increased risk of mental health problems. This study was a meta-analysis of 22 studies published between 1995 and 2009 involving almost 900,000 women across six countries.

     The results of these combined studies reveal higher rates of anxiety related disorders (34 per cent), depression (37 per cent), alcohol use/abuse (110 per cent), marijuana use (230 per cent), and higher rates of suicidal behaviour (155 per cent).

     DEBBIE GARRATT, executive director of Real Choices Australia, writes about the need for more information over the effects of abortion...  | more...| 

Niger has replaced Afghanistan as the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to Save the Children's annual Mothers' Index.

     The drought-ravaged West African nation of Niger, where the lives of a million children are currently threatened by the worsening hunger situation, is ranked last out of the 165 countries for which data is provided while Afghanistan has moved up one to 164th place.

     A typical girl in Niger only receives four years of education and only lives to be 56-years-old. One in seven children die before their fifth birthday meaning that every mother in Niger is likely to suffer the loss of a child.

     On the positive side, the situation for mothers in Afghanistan - which has been at the bottom of the list for the last two years - has been improving. While Save the Children still rank it close to the bottom of the table in their Mothers' Index, research shows that while in 2006, one of five children died before reaching their fifth birthday, this number had dropped to one in 10 by 2010.

     DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...| 

Christian and humanitarian organisations have expressed disappointment at the Federal Government's decision not to increase foreign aid in line with promises made at the last election.

     In a decision announced as part of the Federal Budget on Tuesday night, the Federal Government made clear it will not be lifting its foreign aid commitment to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) - which equates to 50 cents in every $100 - by 2015 but would do so in 2016-17, a year later than promised. Australia currently gives 0.35 per cent of its gross national income towards foreign aid.

     Foreign Minister Bob Carr said that while funding for overseas aid would continue to grow each year, "(i)t will, however, grow at a slightly slower rate so that 0.5 per cent of GNI is reached in 2016-17."

     The move will save the government $2.9 billion over the next four years.

     Rev Paul Perini, chairperson for the Australian arm of Micah Challenge - a global movement of Christians formed to lobby against poverty and injustice in support of the Millennium Development Goals, said the group was "deeply disappointed" at the decision.

     DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...| 

UPDATE: The Coalition has said Labor's decision to defer increasing foreign aid meant it would be impossible for a future Coalition government to raise aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015... | more...| 

THE INTERVIEW: MARTIN THOMAS, WORLD VISION

What’s all the fuss – after all, hasn’t the aid just been delayed a year?

“It has been delayed by a year and I think we’re trying to acknowledge that there has been an increase – and that’s important – but when you look at the actual difference, over four years there’ll be $2.9 billion that essentially won’t be available for the aid budget. And that means…programs that in some cases save lives, in other cases put kids in schools, vaccinations, food, agriculture – all these programs that really make a massive difference in people’s lives and what we’re so proud of in the aid budget - just won’t be able to happen because that money won’t be there in the next four years.”

How do you calculate the impact the delay of foreign aid will have on the world’s poor?

“There is one calculation which we have been using, which is to say: if you look at this $2.9 billion…(and) if we say that on average 20 per cent of that money would go towards just health outcomes – and that seems a reasonable kind of rule of thumb – we’re saying that it basically could have saved about 290,000 lives through health programs.”

    DAVID ADAMS asks Martin Thomas, head of public affairs at World Vision Australia, some of the questions you want answered about Tuesday's budget and foreign aid...  | more...| 

ESSAY: AID PROMISE SACRIFICED TO BUDGET SURPLUS

So, let's get the headline out of the way. The Government broke its promise. It will not increase aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2015. Instead, it has decided to defer that commitment by one year.

     The Government will not increase aid to 0.38 per cent of gross national income (GNI) in the coming year as previously indicated. Instead, a much smaller increase of around $300 million will see aid remain static at 0.35 per cent of GNI.

     In order to save $2.9 billion over four years, the Government has chosen to break a promise it made to the Australian public and to the world's poor. Our aid will continue to do good (and more on this below), but we will be saving fewer lives, helping fewer children receive basic education, helping fewer communities recover from disaster, than we had committed to.

     The child who can't attend school today will just have to wait another year. The community that is afflicted by hunger today will just have to wait. The woman who goes through the trials of pregnancy and childbirth without skilled assistance today, well – you know – she can wait because Australia needs a surplus.

     BEN THURLEY, political engagement co-ordinator at Micah Challenge Australia, gives his take on Tuesday night's Federal Budget...  | more...| 

YOUR SAY: What do you think of the Federal Government's decision to delay lifting Australia's foreign aid? Have your say here...  | more...|

We all need hope. That’s the premise behind a new album, Hope: Songs of Faith and Inspiration, which aims to provide a positive alternative to the often negative music landscape in Australia.

     The album, which is being produced as a partnership between ABC Music, Universal Music Australia and World Vision Australia, features artists including world renowned stars like Olivia Newton-John and Darlene Zschech as well as recent chart toppers Mark Vincent and Stan Walker, and was produced by Chong Lim. It debuted at number 46 on the ARIA top 50 best selling albums chart in mid-April.

     The vision for its creation came from banker Andrew Hagger. Mr Hagger, currently group executive, people, marketing and communications at the NAB, says the idea for the album partly came out of time he was spending with cancer sufferers as part of his involvement on the appeal committee of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre. He first approached Rev Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, in 2005 about the possibility of making the album.

     DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...| 

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SIGHT-SEEING: CREATING A COMMUNITY OF LOVE AND MUTUALITY

For more than six years I worked in a relief and development organisation. My job was to help Christians to understand poverty and injustice issues. My sense is that Australian Christians are sincere about their faith. They have experienced the amazing grace of God, and they want to respond to his love by showing compassion to the poor. But I find it hard to explain to them what it means to be poor. It is because to some degree poverty has to be experienced. Australia is such an affluent country that it is not easy for middle or high income earners to understand poverty.

     I was born in a relatively poor urban neighbourhood in Asia. As a child I had to work to earn money so that we could have enough to make ends meet. Everyone in the family worked long hours in order to survive. We didn’t have a bedroom and the whole family slept in one bed. I find that people can understand these facts intellectually. But most don’t understand the anxiety and fear that are associated with these living conditions.

     SIU FUNG WU looks at how the Bible has explained what true community is all about...  | more... |

POSTCARDS: FRANCE HEARS THE GOSPEL - OR, AT LEAST, THE MUSIC

As pedestrians walked along the river Seine in Paris on a recent balmy Sunday, they could hear soaring music coming from a boat moored quayside in the Bercy neighborhood.

     The curious who crossed the metal gangplank to peek inside the vessel saw an energetic singer and a pianist, both dressed in white, and a bass player and saxophonist dressed in black. The quartet were performers at a "Gospel brunch", the latest example of the popularity of gospel music in France.

     "Gospel used to be king here in the 1990s and it's growing again," said Ricki Stevenson, an African-American businesswoman who is director of company called Black Paris Tours.

     Ms Stevenson has lived in Paris for 14 years, and takes local and international travelers on expeditions that show the roots of black culture in the city. The stops include restaurants that showcase gospel music after dinner, and any number of concerts in churches or other venues.

    AD McKENZIE, of ENInews, reports...  | more... |

THIS LIFE: THE GOSPEL OF PROSPERITY?

A teacher at school today was asking me if I was sponsored to come to Ghana. I told him I wasn’t, that it was out of my own money. He was very impressed, and said that God will bless me and give everything back to me (and more)! We talked a bit more, but his thought and belief stayed with me. And it made me think about what I actually believe, in terms of blessings, and receiving money back?

     There is a name for it: the 'Gospel of Prosperity'. I have hated it since I became aware of it. The belief, that if you give $10 to God then God will probably give you $20 back. Whatever you give, God will give back and multiply. There are certainly some verses that point to this, but I don’t think that it is the overall picture.

   JOSHUA ZANKER looks at what it means to talk about a 'Gospel of Prosperity'... | more... |

POSTCARD: ISRAELI STUDENTS TALK ABOUT HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

It is 10am on 19th April and sirens are sounding all over Israel. It's not an air raid drill, but the nation-wide commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day.
      For two minutes, the country comes to a standstill as people interrupt their activities and stand in silence while the sirens wail. It's an eerie sight to see the traffic completely stopped on the roads and highways, with drivers coming out of their cars and standing in silent reverence to remember the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

    ARIEL BEN AMI, writer for Travelujah, talks to Israeli students about what Holocaust Memorial Day means to them...  | more... |

LIFESTORY: THEY ESCAPED STARVATION IN NORTH KOREA, THEN JESUS FILLED THEIR SOULS

One by one her family members fell, either by starvation or at the hands of a brutal regime. In their arduous journey to freedom, they found a “filling” on levels they could not have imagined.

     “We grew up as atheists,” says Jin Hye Jo, 24, now living in northern Virginia with her sister, Eun and her mother Han. They are the only known survivors of a family of eight people. Her grandmother died from starvation before her eyes, her last wish to eat one steamed potato.

     In the 1990s, extended drought and the fall of the Soviet Union meant the family no longer received food rations from the government. They were forced to forage for food wherever they could find it. They stripped the bark off pine trees, grazed for grass, and ate corn cobs, which they ground into bland cakes. They stalked anything that moved or slithered on the ground.

     Incredibly, they were taught to believe the communist party kept them alive. Their leaders said it was the fault of the United States and South Korea that they faced such privation and hardship.

    MARK ELLIS, founder of Godreports.com, tells a remarkable story of escape and new life... | more... |

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ON THE SCREEN: BLOCKBUSTER THE AVENGERS EXCEEDS EVEN THIS FANBOY'S EXPECTATIONS

The Avengers is now the template for superhero films, and more specifically superhero team films. It embraces the wonder of world ending danger, cool costumes and memorable characters with unabashed fervour. Ah, to think how far we’ve come since the first X-Men film, with their black leather outfits.

     I saw this at a midnight premiere and the place was packed, including audience members resembling a female Loki, Captain America, Thor, Wasp, Black Widow and an Iron Man with a cardboard helmet. The last time I experienced such united enthusiasm in a cinema was when I saw Star Wars Episode 1. At least The Avengers deserves it, and exceeds the hype.

     Writer and director Joss Whedon was made for this 140 minute film, having written Marvel comics Astonishing X-Men, and Runaways over the years and as a unabashed fanboy, he knows what us comics readers are after (although The Avengers isn’t steeped in in-jokes to make it inaccessible to those who aren’t comics enthusiasts). But if you are curious about these characters, check out the first two awesome volumes of The Ultimates comics by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch.

       Self-confessed 'fanboy' KRIS BATHER joins in the enthusiastic reception for The Avengers...  | more...|

ON THE SCREEN: THE LORAX DELIVERS A STRONG ENVIRONMENTAL MESSAGE CLOTHED IN IMAGINATIVE FUN

There have been some hits and misses with Dr Seuss on the big screen – Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat was a miss, for example, while Horton Hears a Who!, a hit.

     The Lorax is in the latter company – a funny and entertaining film that yes, carries a message not dissimilar to that of Happy Feet but unlike that film, one which never takes itself too seriously.

     The story, available in 3D, follows the life of Ted (voiced by Zac Efron), a 12-year-old boy, who lives in Thneed-Ville, a town where manufactured nature has replaced the real thing – the grass is concrete and even the trees are made of plastic (just pump it up with some air if it goes down). No-one in Thneed-Ville dares to question this nor their reliance on the nefarious entrepreneur Aloysius O’Hare (Rob Riggle), who has a monopoly on selling people bottled air.

       DAVID ADAMS enjoys The Lorax...  | more...|

CASTING THE NET: GOOGLE ART PROJECT

Would you love to explore the art collection of the Palace of Versailles in France but can't get there? What about that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The National Gallery in London or South Africa's Rock Art Gallery? The Google Art Project is an initiative between Google and more than 150 'art partners' located in 40 countries around the world including six in Australia - the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Museum and Griffith University's Rock Art Research Centre. Under the scheme selected artworks held by the partners - which include galleries and historic sites - are available to view on the web.

     DAVID ADAMS on an initiative which brings some of the world's best artworks to your home... | more... |

FILM: LIVE TO FORGIVE THE INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF ONE MAN'S JOURNEY WITH GOD

US pastor Dean Eric Smith has been on an amazing journey of forgiveness. Live to Forgive, a documentary about that journey, explains why.

     The story starts with the murder of Smith's mother, beaten to death with a baseball bat by her then husband and Smith's step-father, Bob, when Smith was just aged 12.

     Following her death, Smith tells how he tried to deal with what happened, burying himself for a time in 'partying' with drugs and alcohol before realising that only through God-inspired forgiveness will he find the freedom he seeks.

     Now living in Enumclaw, Washington (where he runs Live to Forgive Ministries), Smith was challenged by God to meet with Bob and the documentary crew are present when in 2008, he travels to Tennessee and there meets his step-dad, the man who killed his mother, for the first time since the murder.

       DAVID ADAMS is challenged by Live to Forgive...  | more...|

FOR THIS AND MORE OF WEBSITES, FILMS, BOOKS, COMICS AND MUSIC, GO TO OUR REVIEWS PAGE here

SIGHT HELPDESK: KEEPING DATA LOSS DOWN

In my younger years I worked on an IT helpdesk. Sometimes there’d be no calls. Then it was like a switch was thrown. The phones would go crazy and there’d be people waiting in the queue for ages.

     One of the most recurring phone calls was about lost work while creating or editing a document. The reasons were various and included: “We just had a blackout”; “I accidently kicked the power plug out of wall”; “My son played his game. The screen went blue and I hadn’t saved my work”; and, “It’s a really hot day and the computer turned itself off.”

     Fortunately this issue is easy to prevent. Here are some tips to keep data loss minimal:

     • Save your document as soon as you open the program. Before you type anything. Most programs these days have an ‘autosave’ function that will periodically save your document in the background. Although this is handy to have, it shouldn’t replace saving your document in the first place.

      The Sight Helpdesk is back. And the in first of the new series, ALAN TAYLOR looks at how to keep your data loss to a minimum when things go wrong... | more...|

ORIGINS: A DAY FOR CELBRATING MOTHERS

In Australia and many other countries around the world, Mother’s Day is about to come around again; the day in which we celebrate our mothers and their mothers and (if you’re kids aren’t intending doing anything for her) our wives. But where did Mother’s Day all start? 

     Setting aside a day or time for the celebration of mothers and all things maternal goes back to ancient times – both the Romans and Greeks set aside periods for the celebration of motherhood – while the English have celebrated a Mothering Sunday for centuries.

     The idea of this day, celebrated since at least the 17^th century, was to honor Mary, the mother of Jesus, and it’s always celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. This day was also apparently a time when servants who had gone off to work were allowed to return to their home – or ‘mother’ – church and when doing so would bring back gifts for their mothers.  A special cake, called a Simnel Cake, is often associated with the day.

    DAVID ADAMS at where the idea for Mother's Day came from...  | more...|

TRENDSPOTTER: 'LIVING WALLS' MAKE FOR GREENER CITIES

Amid the push for greener buildings and urban spaces in recent years has come an accompanying trend for buildings incorporating living features such as vertical gardens. Sometimes featuring edible plants, 'living walls' - named one of Time magazine's 50 best inventions of 2009 - have become a feature in private homes in both Australia and overseas as well as in public buildings such as office blocks, hotels and restaurants. Examples include French architectural botanist Patrick Blanc's design for the Athenaeum Hotel in Mayfair, London (pictured) which features 12,000 plants spread over eight stories.

     DAVID ADAMS takes a quick look at the concept of vertical gardens... | more...|

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