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In the crackdown on the Kabul office, 59 children who were there for schooling have been sent to a separate facility, Reuters reported, where they "would remain until all traces of Christianity were removed."

Afghan authorities say they are holding the workers until the investigation is completed and they will face Shari'ah law, which dictates a punishment of death for conversion of Muslims.

The Catholic Church backs molestation bill
The New York Times reports today that the Roman Catholic Church has announced its support for a bill that will "add priests and other members of the clergy to the list of people who must report suspected child sexual abuse to the authorities."

The bill is currently in the Massachusetts Legislature. The Associated Press reports this is a critical endorsement. According to the Times:

The move came after the disclosure that Cardinal Bernard F. Law had transferred a priest accused of child molestation to other parishes, where the priest was charged with molesting dozens more.

Lawmakers described the announcement as a significant change that would increase the chance for passage of the bill, which still exempts priests if they learn in the confessional about incidents of child abuse. The Archdiocese of Boston had earlier opposed the bill, saying it would violate the confidentiality between priest and parishioner.

Old warnings still needed
According to the Associated Press, Deborah Bortner, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), has "seen more money stolen in the name of God than in any other way."

In a statement released this week she said investors must use caution because of "proliferating and increasingly sophisticated investment schemes that play on religious loyalties." According to Reuters:

Classified by regulators as "affinity fraud," the process involves using someone's religion to gain their trust and, ultimately, their money.

Over the past three years, officials in 27 states have taken legal action against hundreds of companies and individuals that used religious or spiritual beliefs to gain the trust of more than 90,000 investors across the nation before taking their money, NASAA said.

The warning is timed to coincide with the sentencing of Gerald Payne, who was convicted in relation to the $448 million Ponzi scheme of Greater Ministries International Church in Tampa, Florida. A Ponzi scheme is built so that investments from new members go to pay off previous investors. On Aug. 6, he received 27 years in prison on fraud charges.

Bortner's warning also cited the case of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, in which approximately 13,000 people invested $590 million before it declared bankruptcy. Arizona regulators shut down the foundation and three officials confessed in May to defrauding investors.

Christianity Today warned readers of these "Christian" scams in 1998:

Two factors lie at the heart of all these tragedies: first is the level of trust we Christians exercise as we deal with one another. … While we need to trust each other in our congregational lives, a dose of skepticism is always warranted whenever anyone stands to profit from our trust.

The second factor is the enticing promise of something for nothing, or at least something big for something little. … But in investments as in gambling, those who are foolish in small things often get caught being foolish in big things. Contentment is the cure for the gotta-have-it itch. Saint Paul preached contentment in material things (1 Tim. 6:8) and Jesus preached trust in Divine providence for what we eat and what we wear (Matt: 625f).

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August (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45