Australian Kmart customers Anthony Dorsett and his wife, Marelynda, were attempting to print photographs for a church group in a kiosk at Kmart.

They found that certain Christian-related words — including "God," "church," "Jesus," "Jewish" and "Bible" — were deemed to be profanity and replaced by asterisks, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Kmart said that the ban on Christian words was not intentional and was not a targeted attempt to suppress Christian values.

"This is a system error and it will be updated overnight. It in no way reflects our views as a business," the spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.

"At Kmart, we support diversity and inclusiveness irrespective of race, religion, age, gender, ethnicity, ability, appearance or attitude and we want our teams and stores to reflect the communities in which we operate."

Journalists from the Daily Telegraph decided to investigate the supposed glitch to see if words associated with other religions were also banned.

According to News.com reporters found that words including "Islam," "Allah" and "Koran" were allowed.

7 News's Sunrise host Sam Armytage called that excuse "rubbish" and her guest, social commentator Jane Caro, said Kmart should apologise.

"They just need to say 'Wow, stupid, sorry. We've fixed it. We didn't mean to give anybody offence'."

Daisy Cousens from Sky News also condemned Kmart saying blaming it on the software is "a joke" and the word selection highlights a "huge double standard," the Christian Post reports.

She said, "It's like it's a joke. Sure, they've blamed it on a software error but isn't that what you blame everything on when something goes wrong that's somewhat controversial?

"This is just unbelievable. It's such a huge double standard."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• christianpost.com
• christianheadlines.com
• Image: morefm.co.nz

Besides demolishing a wall, the extremists manhandled staff, including nuns, in the latest incident in Madhya Pradesh state. Read more

Unless they make allowances for the religious faiths of their ever more diverse workforces, they will suffer lawsuits, official rebukes and protests from staff.

Employees increasingly expect to be able, for example, to dress in accordance with their faith while at work, and be given appropriate times and places for prayer.

The latest admonition came last month in new guidelines from America's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, pointing out the steady rise in religious-discrimination cases (3,721 last year, up from 1,709 in 1997) and setting out what that means.

For example, businesses must respect the personal styles of their staff—Rastafarian dreadlocks, say—if these are inspired by faith.

And religiously attired workers must not be hidden away to avoid upsetting customers of a different faith.

European firms are still absorbing the impact of last year's victory by a British Airways worker who won damages at the European Court of Human Rights after she was denied, temporarily, the right to wear a cross with her uniform.

In advice updated last month, Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission urges firms to meet religious needs, even if expressed by only one employee, as long as they do not infringe the rights of others. Continue reading.

Source: The Economist

Image: The Telegraph

The TV advertisement, which aired in December, included a photograph of a couple dressed as Mary and Joseph holding a dog in swaddling clothes.

In the week leading up to Christmas, TV3 broadcast the promo at 7.45pm during the United States' version of The X Factor.

A member of the public complained the depiction of Jesus as a dog was highly offensive and denigrated Christians. Read more

"In Europe, we have identified 14 laws that are likely to negatively affect the religious liberty of Christians in 15 countries," said Massimo Introvigne, of the Italian foreign affairs ministry.

"In 2012, we also reported 169 rulings made in European courts that we judged to be dangerous to the freedom of Christians," he told the conference in Tirana, Albania.

"The most dangerous areas are those which limit the conscientious objection of Christians who do not want to co-operate in abortion, the sale of abortifacient pills, or the celebration of same-sex marriage; those which limit the freedom to preach through the misuse of laws against so-called ‘hate speech'; those which restrict the freedom of religious education and parents' rights to educate their children, and those which place restrictions on the use of religious symbols," he continued.

The Italian sociologist added that 74 per cent of European Christians think they suffer greater discrimination than persons of other faiths or atheists; 71 per cent think the media generally does not respect Christians; and 61 per cent believe that Christians are discriminated against at their workplace.

The Holy See's representative at the conference, Bishop Mario Toso, SDB, denounced attempts to divide religious belief from religious practice in Europe.

"Christians are frequently reminded in public discourse (and increasingly even in the courts) that they can believe whatever they like in their own homes or heads, and largely worship as they wish in their own private churches, but they simply cannot act on those beliefs in public," he said.

"This is a deliberate twisting and limiting of what religious freedom actually means, and it is not the freedom that was enshrined in international documents."

Bishop Toso declared: "Intolerance in the name of ‘tolerance' must be named for what it is and publicly condemned."

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Aleteia

Image: National Secular Society

Allen offers these statistics on anti-Christian discrimination:

+ According to the Germany-based International Society for Human Rights, 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians.

+ According to the Pew Forum in the United States, Christians face either de jure or de facto discrimination in 139 nations, roughly two-thirds of all countries on earth.

+ The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the US estimates that an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed for the faith each year over the last decade, which works out to 11 new martyrs every hour.

Allen reports several events since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation on February 11.

On February 17, a 55-year-old Catholic priest, Father Evarist Mushi, was shot to death in Tanzania, in front of Zanzibar's Catholic cathedral. An Islamic group claimed responsibility, saying: "We thank our young men, trained in Somalia, for killing an infidel. Many more will die. We will burn homes and churches. We have not finished: At Easter, be prepared for disaster."

On February 18, Italian missionaries in Syria launched an emergency fundraising appeal called "Ransom a Christian" to help fund the release of Christians kidnapped by Islamist-inspired rebels.

The going price for a kidnapped Catholic priest was given as around $US200,000.

On February 21, Saudi Arabia's religious police swooped on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians, shutting down their private prayer and arresting foreign workers for practising their faith.

Also on February 21, police in India arrested four Protestant pastors while they were having dinner, after Hindu extremists accused them of forceful conversion.

Source:

National Catholic Reporter

Image: CNEWA

Christian outreach to untouchables in India is well over one hundred years old. Christianity, like Islam, places no special value on the circumstances of birth. The government of India sets aside certain benefits for Dalits, a form of welfare for a still-despised group. Yet the same government programs deny benefits to Dalits who become Christian or become Moslem, because — the argument goes — their denial of the Hindu caste system means that they no longer consider themselves in the sub-caste (or "casteless") position of "untouchables." This does not apply, however, to Dalits who become Buddhists or Sikhs, although those conversions also would mean a rejection of the caste system.

Christianity also grants women a higher status than Hinduism (which historically does not regard a woman as possessing a soul until she marries) or Islam (which creates a distinctly inferior status for women). As a consequence, Christianity has a profound appeal for the most hopeless Indians, "untouchable" women. The message of Christian love finds an eager ear among the "untouchables" of India.

Simon Hawthorne of the Life Association, who has worked for 20 years ago among the Dalits, explains what this means to these "untouchables" of India: "As a Dalit, you start off living life thinking you are not made by God. It's such an oppressive system and, because of the sheer numbers of people, it's the biggest human rights issue today. But in the message of Christianity you were made in the image of God. There is nothing more opposite to the message of Christianity than the Hindu caste system."

The Papal message against anti-Christian violence has grown stronger in recent years. In October 2008, Pope Benedict called on Hindus, in recognition of the message of Gandhi, to refrain from violence against Christians.

Read Full Story: The New American

Image: BosNewsLife

Fides details the significant level of anti-Christian violence in Orissa

• 230 damaged or demolished churches and chapels
• 100 deaths
• 54,000 people in 415 villages were made homeless
• at least 6,000 cases of houses burned and destroyed
• out of 3,232 cases of violence reported to the police, 828 were officially registered
• 327 of the 828 registered cases ended with a court case
• the lower courts acquitted 639
• only 19 trials for murder ended in a conviction
• 1,597 militants were well identified and then cleared
• thousand's of other attackers have not even been contacted by the police.

The court also criticised the Orissa government for its poor handling of relief and rehabilitation efforts, comments echoed by Orissa's leading bishop, Archbishop John Barawa.

"The government has failed miserably in all the rehabilitation activities," Barawa said.

Bipra Charan Nayak, convener of the Survivors Association of Kandhamal Violence however welcomed the court order as a way to help restore things to the way it was before the violence broke.

Father Manoj Kumar Nayak, who directs the archdiocese's social service centre, said the Church has petitioned the government several times about property destroyed in the violence, but has yet to receive any compensation, however hopes the NHRC report would address the Church's concerns.

"We hope the NHRC will look into our case as well as all the other Kandhamal victims," he said.

Lan Singh Rongmei, a Supreme Court lawyer assisting the victims, said they expect the NHRC would submit a fair and independent assessment.

The Indian Bishops recently concluded their 'ad limina' visit, briefing the Pope on the level of anti-christian persecution in their country.

Sources

• ucanews.com
• CNA
• Fides
• Image: Anglican Mainstream