Three researchers asked 820 speakers of Chinese, English and Semitic languages to listen to the program produced by Cru. Jesus film in 228 different languages and rate the attractiveness of these languages.
Tok Pisin, an English Creole spoken in Papua New Guinea, ranks first, while Chechen takes last place. But the difference between them, on a scale of 1 to 100, was only a few points. Scholars could not find any inherent phonetic feature, such as dummy consonants or sliding vowels, which were always considered beautiful. People preferred female voices and ranked languages they thought they recognized about 12% higher on average than those they didn’t know.
THE Jesus The film, whose text is taken from the Gospel of Luke, holds the world record for the most translated film. In 2023, it was translated into Waorani, a language spoken by a few thousand indigenous people in the Amazon.
Spain: Evangelicals criticize misogyny in Eurovision song
Evangelicals are upset that the song that will represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 uses a derogatory word for women. The word zorra is sung a total of 45 times in the song, also titled “Zorra.” Literally, it is the feminine form of the word fox and was translated for English-speaking audiences as “vixen”, but it more commonly means “b-” or “whore”.
“The song touts a term that is a cause of violence and humiliation for women and repeats it ad nauseam,” said Asun Quintana, an evangelical pastor in Madrid and leader of the evangelical feminist group Seneca Falls.
Ghana: Assemblies of God plans aggressive evangelism
The General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Ghana announced plans to plant 12,000 new churches and build a convention center that can hold centennial celebrations in 2031, when the Pentecostal denomination will celebrate 100 years in the West African country.
Israel: Coin weights call into question the history of the Temple Mount
Three archeology experts say ancient coin weights, found then sieving through earth removed from the Temple Mount in 1999, indicate that Christians occupied this highly contested religious site before it was taken over by Muslims in the 7th century. Muslim records say that before their arrival, Christians threw trash on the Temple Mount.
Many historians believe that Church leaders highlighted the desolation as the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies regarding the destruction of the temple and only built a church after seizing the mosque in the First Crusade . But new evidence suggests that Byzantine Christians had an earlier church there, calling into question historical claims that Muslims were prioritized. However, at least one researcher think the weights could have been left later.
Uzbekistan: Baptist church awaits new home
Officials from the city of Bukhara (southwest) insist they “have already begun renovation work” on a building for local Baptists three years after broken pipes flooded the old building, making it structurally unsafe. Members of the Baptist Union Church were not allowed to rebuild the building in which they had met since 1971, nor to rent another space; Religious groups are only allowed to meet in government-approved locations. The congregation went from 70 to 30 people.
China: Communist government imposes harsher sentences on Christians
House church pastor Kan Xiaoyong was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Authorities accused him, his wife and four other church members of “illegal business practices” and using “heterodox teachings” to “undermine law enforcement.” According to outside observers, the communist government is trying to stigmatize house churches by calling them “sects” and imposing increasingly harsh penalties on their leaders.
United States: Church of God in Christ to plant trees
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave $1 million to the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) to plant trees in cities and expand green spaces in urban areas. The money comes from a billion-dollar fund created by the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. Individual congregations will propose local projects.
“Faith-based organizations…are often critical in helping USDA programs reach communities that need them most,” said Cabinet Secretary Tom Vilsack.
United States: SBC settles abuse lawsuit
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) ruler a lawsuit accusing Paul Pressler, a Texas judge and one of the architects of the conservative resurgence, of raping a 14-year-old boy in the 1970s. The amount of the settlement is not disclosed. Seven other men also accused Pressler of sexual abuse.
THE evidence shows that leaders at First Baptist of Houston were aware of allegations that Pressler pressured a young man to undress and pray with him at his home. They deemed Pressler’s behavior “morally and spiritually inappropriate” but took no further action.
The lawsuit, filed in 2017, led to a Houston Chronicle investigation that found find 263 Southern Baptist pastors and church workers who sexually abused at least 700 boys and girls over a 20-year period.
Mexico: statue destroyed in viral video
Baptist man’s viral video tackle a ceramic statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with an ax in its church has sparked outrage among Spanish-speaking Catholics. Kevin T. Wynne, an American pastor at an independent fundamentalist Baptist church in Mexico City, denounced the ceramic statue as idolatrous and smashed it with a statue of Santa Muerte on stage during a service. The congregation applauded.
Up to 10 million people each year journey at the Sanctuary of Guadalupe where Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to have appeared to an Aztec man in 1531.
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