BANGKOK, Thailand, March 28 (CDN) — Officials in a village in southern Laos on Sunday arrested and detained five Christians during worship and charged them with leading a religious movement without official approval, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

The five Christians from Palansai district were attending a worship service in nearby Boukham village in Ad-Sapangthong district. HRWLRF identified the five by their single names, as is customary in Laos: Phosee (male), Viengsai (male) and Alee (female) from Phosai village; Poon (female) from Pone village and Narm (also female) from Natoo village.

Previously they had attended many services in Boukham, Savannakhet Province, without interference from authorities.

“This is typical of Laos now,” a pastor from the capital, Vientiane, told Compass on condition of anonymity. “In Vientiane we see things opening up a little. But the law is fluid. Things can change from day to day, and the situation is still very difficult in the provinces.”

Boukham church members meet in a private home, as do Christians in most other provincial villages. Officials strongly oppose small groups meeting outside the umbrella of the government-approved Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), but many Christians prefer meeting as house churches, citing strict controls over LEC activities.

Following the arrest at 2 p.m. on Sunday, officials detained the five at the Boukham village headquarters, also used in December 2011 to hold eight church leaders arrested for gathering some 200 Christians together for a Christmas celebration.

The eight leaders arrested in December said they had sought and received permission for the event; they had even invited the village chief to attend. The chief joined them for the celebratory meal but left before the sermon. Village security forces arrived not long afterwards. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials Arrest Eight Christian Leaders,” Dec. 19, 2011.)

At that time, LEC representatives paid a fine for the release of one detainee but pleaded unsuccessfully for the release of the other seven.

One week later, on Dec. 21, officials warned 47 Christians from Natoo village church in nearby Palansai district that they must give up their faith or face eviction from the village (See www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials: Give Up Your Faith or Face Eviction,” Dec. 23, 2011.)

“We urge the government to respect the freedom of religion or belief as guaranteed by the Lao constitution,” HRWLRF officials said in a statement issued Sunday (March 25).

The Vientiane pastor said that while conditions have slightly improved in the capital, churches are starting to face problems typical of Western churches.

“Now we have many groups coming into Laos offering money,” he said. “Until now, all the pastors shared one broken-down car. Now they all have their own car, their own computer, and nobody shares their resources anymore. They all want a good house and money to send their children to school – and who can blame them?”

Previously, he said, churches experienced greater unity.

“Before this, they looked to God as their only source,” he added. “Now they look to others. Our greatest need is to get back to our first love, and to live in unity.”

END

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Cuba Monday.  His first stop will be near the eastern city of Santiago to mark the 400th anniversary of a religious icon there.  The Virgin of Charity of El Cobre is venerated by many Cubans, regardless of their faith.  But it is central to the Roman Catholic Church’s strategy for a country where religious restrictions recently have been easing.

A constant stream of pilgrims dressed in bright yellow bring sunflowers and other offerings in the color associated with the Our Lady of Charity.  Four hundred years ago, the statue was found at sea.  And legend has it that her rescue calmed the stormy waters.

The cathedral that houses the icon was built just outside Santiago in the 1920s.  A collection of world championship sports medals and baseball jerseys attests to the credit she gets for spurring her devotees on to great achievements.  Even Ernest Hemingway offered her his 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

After lighting a few yellow candles, Jeanette Galdeano says the Virgin of Charity helps her have faith.  “I pray for peace, for my family, my children and all Cubans.  And I’m thinking about the hope that every day things will get better and we can move forward,” she says.

Few Cubans attend church regularly.  Many more blend Catholic saint veneration with voodoo and other traditions that came to Cuba from Africa hundreds of years ago.

The Rev. Dionisio García Ibáñez is the archbishop of Santiago.  He says the pope is aware that the 400-year-old national patron is a symbol for non-Catholics as well.  “The pope chose to come at this time to celebrate the jubilee year.  And there’s not even the slightest doubt that he understands the spiritual reality of our people,” the archbishop says.

The Vatican hopes that the pope’s visit to the shrine will help revive faith in Cuba.  A glimpse of the future of Catholicism can be seen at the Sagrada Familia Church in Santiago.  Every Saturday, dozens of children receive catechism from a small group of parents and former students.

University student Virgen Angelica Ladron de Guevarra is one of the teachers.  She says Catholic faith is growing in Cuba.  “And with this pope’s visit, I think that both the government and nonbelievers are beginning to show a little more trust in Catholics and in the Church,” she says.

The Roman Catholic Church is the only institution with authority that is not part of the communist system here.  Many Cubans are grateful for its efforts to advance economic liberalization.

Rev. Luis del Castillo came to help the Cuban church after retiring from his bishop’s duties in his native Uruguay.  He says secularism does not have deep roots in Cuba, as it does in some countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America that emerged from communist or authoritarian rule.

“We’re stepping on a very fertile ground, because the people here are very religious, more than in my own country in Uruguay,” Castillo says.  “And I think this good turf will help, that the seeds of the Gospel will give good fruit in the future.”

As they head out into the almost blinding light of Santiago, the children pass a poster welcoming Pope Benedict.  He, too, apparently is hoping that these children will help revive Catholicism in a country that was once an atheist state.

Open contempt for head of church of more than 40 years bodes ill for Christians.

CAIRO, Egypt, March 23 (CDN) — As Christians across Egypt continued to mourn the loss of Pope Shenouda III this week, Islamist leaders of the Salafist movement issued a litany of insults, calling the late leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church the “head of the infidels” and thanking God for his death.

The vitriol indicated the level of hostility the Salafists, who now make up 20 percent of Egypt’s parliament, have toward Christians. In a recorded message released on the Facebook page of one leading Salafi teacher, Sheik Wagdy Ghoneim, the sheik celebrated the pontiff’s death.

“We rejoice that he is destroyed. He has perished,” Ghoneim said on Sunday (March 18), the day after Shenouda died at the age of 88. “May God have His revenge on him in the fire of hell – he and all who walk his path.”

After the cleric issued his statement, several others followed suit, releasing insults throughout the week. On Monday (March 19) in the lower house of Egypt’s parliament, the People’s Assembly, several Salafi members refused to stand in remembrance of Shenouda during an official moment of silence. Others left before the moment of silence took place.

Bishop Mouneer Anis, head of the Episcopal and Anglican Diocese of Egypt, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, said that insulting people after their death is considered one of the rudest things someone can do in the Middle East. Anis, a close friend of the pontiff, told Compass the comments and actions were “very sad.”

“I see this as being moved by hatred,” Anis said. “To be honest, I feel sorry for members of the Salafi – to criticize such a remarkable man.”

The provocative comments are not a good sign for Egypt’s Christians. Adherents of the Salafist movement, which obtained that one-fifth of the People’s Assembly through the Nour Party, have led most of the recent attacks against Christians in Egypt. The comments were thought to reveal the utter disdain the Salafists have toward Egypt’s Christian minority.

The Salafist movement claims it patterns its beliefs and practices on the first three generations of Muslims.

Shenouda, formerly know as Nazeer Gayed Roufail, died due to complications from kidney disease and other health issues. A former theology teacher, Shenouda was enthroned on Nov. 14, 1971 as the 117th Pope of Alexandria and head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

He led the church through some of its most challenging times, often coming into conflict with the government. In 1981, he criticized then-President Anwar Sadat for what Shenouda characterized as an inadequate response to the rise of what is now called “political Islam” in Egypt. For this and the Coptic protests against Sadat that followed, Sadat banished Shenouda to a monastery in the desert.

Shenouda was released three years later, after Islamic militants assassinated Sadat, and after his successor, Hosni Mubarak, granted the pope amnesty. Last year, Mubarak was deposed after a series of pro-democracy protests roiled the country.

Shenouda’s passing leaves many questions unanswered as to how the leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church will direct its followers to deal with the persecution leveled against them. Mubarak’s removal from power brought heretofore unfulfilled promises of change by the transitional military-run government, but it has also unleashed a tide of violence against Copts unheard of in recent history.

In his statement, Ghoneim made a long list of accusations against Shenouda that, put together, portray the former pope as waging a war against Muslims in Egypt. The accusations were considered either twisted by lack of context or were blatantly false, such as the claim that Shenouda was holding two female Coptic converts to Islam against their will in a monastery. Ghoneim characterized Shenouda’s well-known desire to see Egyptian society protect the human rights of Christians as impudence.

Most surprising was the claim that the former pope was somehow orchestrating the religiously motivated violence against Christians in Egypt.

“He wanted the sectarian strife,” Ghoneim said. “He wanted to burn Egypt.”

The irony of the comments has not been lost on most Copts. In May, Salafist leaders publicly threatened to kill Shenouda over the rumors about hiding the two women against their will. This was after groups of Muslims, led by members of the Salafist movement, held massive protests in April and blocked rail and road ways because the transitional military government appointed a Copt to be governor over the province. The rioting stopped only after the appointment was withdrawn.

Though it all, Anis said, Shenouda remained ardent in trying to engage Muslims in a peaceful way.

“He was a friend of many Muslim leaders. He was a peacemaker,” Anis said. “He was even criticized by Christians for making peace with those who persecuted the church.”

The last public meeting Shenouda had was with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a little more than a week before he died.

“Pope Shenouda met members of the Muslim Brotherhood even when he was in pain,” Anis said.

Most Muslims in Egypt did not share Ghoneim’s sentiments. The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamic group in the country, issued a statement expressing his condolences over the Coptic pope’s death.

Shenouda was buried on Tuesday (March 20) in the Monastery of St. Bishoy in Wadi el-Natrun, with several thousand followers attending. Before Shenouda was buried, Naguib Ghobrial, lawyer and head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights, filed suit on Monday (March 19) against Ghoneim for contempt of a revealed religion.

Undeterred, Ghoneim released a statement the next day denying any wrongdoing and issued a challenge to all Christians.

“You believe in your Bible and say its words are holy,” he concluded. [Your Bible teaches] ‘Love your enemies and bless all who curse you.’ Your enemies – you love them and those who curse you – you bless them. So I say, God curse you! Bless me now. Bless me. Isn’t this your religion? I am going to say it again – I am your enemy, and I say, God curse you. Now, say it, ‘We love you Wagdy. And God bless you Wagdy.’”

END

Catholic troubled by Muslim college instructor disappears in volatile northeast.

BAUCHI, Nigeria, March 22 (CDN) — Nearly seven months after their 24-year-old daughter disappeared during a wave of Islamic extremist violence here, Helen and Dakim Gyang Bot can only assume that the voice on the other end of her cell phone that told them “we have killed her” was telling the truth.

The body of Simi Maltida Kim has not been found, and those who answered the active Catholic’s cell phone shortly after she disappeared on Sept. 1, 2011 did not indicate why they killed her. But there are signs that she was one of the hundreds of victims of Islamic extremist violence in northern Nigeria last year that has driven thousands of Christians to flee.

The Bots live in an undisclosed town near Jos, in Plateau state, but their daughter was a final-year student of Science Laboratory Technology at the Federal Polytechnic, in northeastern Nigeria’s Bauchi state. She had told them of an instructor there who humiliated her because of her Christian faith, they said.

“She told us that this Muslim teacher would summon her and then question her faith, or even bring in some Muslim students to confront her over her Christian faith,” said her mother, Helen Bot. “When she told us this, we advised her to keep away from the Muslim teacher as much as possible.”

The problem came to a head when the instructor failed her on a written exam without even looking at it, she said.
 

“This Muslim teacher did this to force our daughter into submitting to recanting her Christian faith, but this did not deter her from remaining firm as a Christian,” Helen Bot said.

Kim retook the exam. Right after turning it in, again the Muslim teacher took her answer sheet and followed her out of the examination hall, telling her that he would never allow her to pass his course.

“The Muslim teacher tore her answer sheet in the presence of other students,” Helen Bot said. “And, disturbed about this sad threat to her, Simi reported the matter to her school supervisor and the head of the Department of Science Laboratory Technology. She also phoned us to inform us about her plight in the school. We asked her to report the issue to appropriate authorities in the school and then return home.”

Officials at the Federal Polytechnic in Bauchi declined to comment on the matter.
 

On Sept. 1, Simi told her friends in school that she was returning to the Jos area. Her mother phoned her that day and was surprised that she did not answer. She told Compass that it was the first time her daughter had never picked up the call.

“We communicated on the phone almost on a daily basis, and whenever I called her, even if she was sleeping, she would wake up and call me back,” she said. “So it was unusual that day when I phoned her several times and she did not respond.”

Dakim Gyang Bot, Kim’s 59-year-old father, told Compass that when she did not return home the next day, the family was all the more anxious because news had filtered into town that Christians were being killed in Bauchi city.

“We phoned her, and instead, someone answered the phone,” he said. “The voice was that of a male Muslim – we were able to know this from his accent; the man spoke to us in Hausa language, confirming our fears that he must be a Muslim. He refused to tell us where our daughter was.”

The family immediately contacted two of her Christian friends in Bauchi, who searched for her without success, he said. They sent back word, however, that Muslim extremists had killed some Christians there on the day Kim was to leave for the Jos area.

“Her friends were told at the Bauchi motor park that some Christians who had got to the motor park on that day were killed by some militant Muslims,” Bot said.

The family reported the disappearance to police and the State Security Service and continued to call her mobile phone, in hopes that someone would answer again. Someone did. This time, a female with a similar Hausa accent said, “Don’t ever call this phone number again – we have killed her, so stop wasting your time looking for her,” her father said.

The priest at the family’s Catholic church told Compass that Kim might well have been killed by Muslim extremists in Bauchi.

“We learned that many Christians were killed in Bauchi at that time, so we are convinced that she must have been killed, too,” he said.

He described Kim and her parents as faithful and prayerful.

“In fact, in the past six months, her parents have been on their knees praying for her even with the knowledge that she must have been killed by Muslim militants,” he said.

Born Feb. 12, 1987, Kim was active in the Legion of Mary and the fellowship of Catholic students while at Bauchi Federal Polytechnic. A membership certificate from Christ the King Catholic Chaplaincy in Bauchi commends her as a distinguished member of the Catholic fellowship who was actively involved in the activities of the Legion of Mary.

Attacks on Christians in Bauchi state date back to 1958, but the recent incursion of Boko Haram has resulted in the killings of a dozen pastors and hundreds of Christians, sources said. Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro local government areas, which are mainly inhabited by Christians, have become the targets of attacks by Boko Haram sect members and Muslim Fulani herdsmen.

Boko Haram seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on Nigeria. The name Boko Haram translates loosely as “Western education is forbidden.”

On Jan. 22, two church buildings were bombed by Boko Haram in Bauchi city. The two churches, Evangelical Church Winning All 2 and St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, are located in the Fadaman Mada area near the town’s railway station. On the same day, Boko Haram members attacked Tafawa Balewa town, killing six Christians.

Other major towns and local government areas where Christians have been attacked and their church buildings destroyed are Bauchi, Alkaleri, Toro, Bulkachuwa, Misau, Darazo, and Azare.

In October and November 2011, 25 Boko Haram sect members were arrested in a training camp in Bauchi, where they were preparing to attack Christians. Security agencies recovered 435 rounds of ammunitions, 26 pistols, a pump action machine gun, and many explosive devices from the Islamists.

Nigeria’s population of more than 158.2 million is divided between Christians, who make up 51.3 percent of the population and live mainly in the south, and Muslims, who account for 45 percent of the population and live mainly in the north. The percentages may be less, however, as those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World.

END

A popular music teacher at a Catholic Church was fired after church officials learned that he planned to marry his male partner of 20 years in New York, where same-sex marriage is legal.

The teacher, Al Fischer, confirmed that he was fired Feb. 17 from his job of four years at St. Ann Catholic School. When asked to comment on his firing, Fischer declined and referred to a letter emailed to his students’ parents shortly after his termination.

In the letter, Fischer tells parents of “my joyful news, and my sad news” — the former being his plans to marry his longtime partner in New York City, and the latter, “that I can’t be your music teacher anymore.”

Fischer’s partner, Charlie Robin, told the Post-Dispatch that the couple’s relationship was not a secret at St. Ann, and that Fischer was fired after a representative of the St. Louis Archdiocese overheard him talking to co-workers about his wedding plans.

Soon after, according to Robin, Fischer was told he would be fired March 9, the couple’s 20th anniversary and the day of their planned nuptials. But after Robin posted the news of Fischer’s imminent firing on Facebook on Feb. 16, Fischer was fired the next day, Robin said.

Asked about the Archdiocese’s role in the firing, a spokeswoman replied in an email that the Archdiocese “fully supports the action taken at St. Ann Parish School as it is in full compliance with the Christian Witness Statement signed by every educator in the Catholic school system.”

The Christian Witness Statement, which educators sign when applying for work in the archdiocese, says all who serve in Catholic education should, among other requirements, “not take a public position contrary to the Catholic Church” and “demonstrate a public life consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

The spokeswoman did not offer any other details about the decision.

The Rev. Bill Kempf, St. Ann’s pastor, said in a statement that the parish was “recently informed by one of its teachers of his plan to unite in marriage with an individual of the same sex. With full respect of this individual’s basic human dignity, this same-sex union opposes Roman Catholic teaching as it cannot realize the full potential a marital relationship is meant to express.

“As a violation of the Christian Witness Statement that all Catholic educators in the Archdiocese of St. Louis are obliged to uphold, we relieved this teacher of his duties.”

The Roman Catholic Church does not condemn homosexuals who remain “chaste,” but it takes a strong stance against same-sex marriage and homosexual acts.

Robin confirmed that his partner had signed a witness statement.

“We just didn’t realize we were making a ‘public’ stand,” Robin said. “There’s nothing that’s been hidden about our relationship at any point. I go to the staff parties. I show up at the school concerts. … It doesn’t matter until somebody with the archdiocese is sitting in the room.”

Fischer’s firing comes on the heels of a Jan. 11 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that gives churches and their schools broad powers over employees. In its opinion, the court upheld the “ministerial exception” that essentially says churches can’t be sued over employment decisions regarding those the church hires to “preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission.”

In his letter to parents, Fischer wrote: “I think the word has been well spread that this is not the fault of St. Ann School or its leadership, and I want to emphasize that I get that, too.” It added that the school’s principal and the parish priest “are still there for me in a big way.”

The letter encouraged parents to talk to their children.

“A family conversation about whether or not justice was served here could be a great thing,” it read. “I do not want the lesson from this for the kids to be, ‘Keep your mouth shut, hide who you are or what you think if it will get you in trouble.’”

(Elizabethe Holland writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in St. Louis.)

Pope Benedict XVI praised new communications technologies like Twitter on Tuesday (Jan. 24), saying that even “concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible,” can convey “profound thoughts.”

Benedict did not explicitly refer to Twitter in his yearly message for World Communications Day, but Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, told reporters that “it’s safe to say that a reference to ‘tweets’ is there.”

Benedict wrote that in today’s world, “various types of websites, applications and social networks” can help people “find time for reflection and authentic questioning.”

A number of high-ranking churchmen already use Twitter. Cardinals Sean O’Malley of Boston; Odilo Scherer of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, have thousands of followers. According to Celli, most of the visitors to the Vatican’s online news portal, www.news.va, arrive from social networks.

In his message, the pope also focused on the value of silence in communication, saying that without it, meaningful messages “cannot exist.”

“When messages and information are plentiful,” he wrote, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary.”

My children started a new school in a new community this fall. On the first day of classes, climbing on the bus with all their Number Two pencils and three-ring binders, they also carried with them enough anxiety to fill a mama’s boy’s backpack. It wasn’t just the reality of a new school that put them on edge; it was middle school, and that is scary enough all on its own.

For the record, I wouldn’t go back and repeat those few years of middle school (we called it “junior high” back in the day) even if you promised me a war pension. It was, without a doubt, one of the more miserable seasons of my life. My body was awkward and out of control, hair began growing in strange places, my hormones and emotions were stampeding like angry cattle, and my face broke out like a pimpled topography map.

To make matters and passions worse, as my twin sister and I began climbing the escalating mountains of puberty, my mother entered the refining fires of menopause (It was no wonder my father was working 80 hours a week!). I fear the same thing is now happening in my own home, but I digress.

Yes, middle school is hard – very hard – on my children, and not just because of growth spurts and the new neighborhood in which we live. It is hard because at this age children become acutely aware of their social status and standing. They will do most anything to “fit in” or to win the coveted prize of acceptance from their classmates.

Acceptance is a good and healthy thing. It is incredibly validating to be welcomed by a group of people or to gain the respect and admiration of your peers. But it doesn’t take long for this normal and valid need for acceptance to slide into some very dark territory. I so readily recognize this tendency in my children because I recognize this in myself.

Adults, not just pimpled teenagers, want the approval of others. In short, they/we desperately want to be loved, and will do anything to get it. That’s what makes forty-year-olds behave as adolescents. You can have a house in the burbs, a nearly four-figure car payment, three kids in soccer and still act like a 7th grader trying to make it with the “in” crowd.

Splintered, needy, and anxious, we spend the lion’s share of our energy and years of our lives chasing after the validation of others, a validation that we think will make us whole. We become slaves to the expectations of others while simultaneously manipulating those expectations to get what we feel we need. It is exhausting, for we do and say things we don’t mean, to hold on to approval we don’t need, wasting time and energy we don’t have.

And for what? A few emotional strokes, the fleeting approval of someone who is as fractured as we are, approval that lasts for about five minutes, and then the grueling exercise must begin all over again. Here’s some good news, good news for my children and for the rest of us: When you are deeply, madly, unconditionally, and fiercely loved – as God loves us – you can let the foolish exercise of chasing the approval of others go.

If we could get it through our thick skulls, our variegated defense mechanisms, and down into the basement of our hearts that we are always loved; that that our sins and failures cannot change God’s untiring affection for us; that our acne scars and awkwardness do not forfeit his acceptance, then we might enjoy a degree of confidence and freedom that we never thought possible.

We can – yes we really can – reach that point in life where we no longer need the love and validation of people, because we have come to know and experience the unconditional love of God. Then we can be free from the ruthless, unmerciful demands of uncertain and provisional affections. Now that is a lesson for middle school and for life.

After grenade attacks on a church in northern Kenya blamed on Islamic extremists, religious leaders said they were redoubling inter-faith peace efforts. At the same time, about 100 kilometers away, Christian relief agencies were carrying out humanitarian work in Dadaab, the world’s biggest refugee camp, despite security threats.

Two grenades were lobbed into the East Africa Pentecostal Church compound in the town of Garissa on 5 November, killing two people and injuring five others. The attack has been blamed on al-Shabab militants who are facing a Kenyan military operation in southern Somalia.

“We are alarmed by this blatant attempt by evil forces to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims,” Sheikh Adan Wachu, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims told a news conference on 10 November in Nairobi.

Speaking under the auspices of the Interreligious Council of Kenya, he said the militants had hoped to ignite Christians-Muslims violence, but had failed. He said the faiths were united against groups that misuse religion to cause anarchy and would be preaching that message in churches, mosques and temples.

“We have lived peacefully with one another for long. Therefore we choose not to interpret this as religious war,” the Rev. Joseph Mwasya, a clergyman from Garissa said on 8 November at a news conference.

At Dadaab, many agencies have scaled down since October when threats escalated, but the Rev. Eberhard Hitzler, the director of the Department for World Service of the Lutheran World Federation said on 8 November the organization will continue to deliver humanitarian relief at the camp.

“We have not yet the impression that the current situation in Dadaab constitutes a serious crisis, despite the security risks increasing for the organization; so we should set up a team to respond to it,” said Hitzler whose organization is responsible for housing and security in the camp. The 20-year-old settlement now contains more than 460,000 refugees who have fled war, famine and disease in Somalia.

“A perverse person stirs up conflict and a gossip separates close friends,” states Proverbs 16:28.

That biblical statement is so true, that even atheists agree. What used to be passed around in class on small notes of paper or overheard on community phone lines are now broadcasted through text messages or tweeted through Twitter.

Whether you call it cyber bullying or spreading an urban legend, gossiping is still trendy.

One website in particular taking heat for its part is Topix. The site links news from 67,000 sources to 450,000 new topics. It is a privately held company tied with Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune.

According to the site, “Topix is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and city….By giving everyone access to the tools to talk – and an audience to listen – Topix redefines what it means to make the news.”

Topix was one of the topics of the Today Show on September 28, 2011. In a segment called “Talk of the Town,” reporter Kevin Tibbles did a story on a small community in Mountain Grove, Mo where 4,000 residents have gotten into the habit of airing their grievances on the website. One resident calls those who post, “cyber terrorists.”

In the new story, Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, says “It is really important, especially in civic discourse in a small town, to be able to put your point of view across without getting punished for it.”

He also says that when a complaint is lodged about someone “talking smack” about another, that they “take care of it.”

The Topix website does explain how to get posts removed from the site by sending a direct link to the content through their feedback system.

There, the moderators will review the content for violations of the Terms of Service.

However, the Terms of Service, also clearly states, “We have no duty to pre-screen your content or the content of others, but we have the right to refuse to post or to edit submitted content. You understand and acknowledge that by using Topix, you may be exposed to content that may be offensive, indecent or objectionable.” It even goes as far to say, “If it upsets you that the free expression of ideas is often headed and offensive, please do not use Topix.”

In the September 19, 2011 edition of The New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger featured Topix in a cover story.

In the article, Sulzberger also interviewed Tolles where he admitted that the site at one point tried to remove all negative posts, but stopped after noticing that the commentators had stopped visiting the site.

He also went on to say that the site received about 125,000 posts a day in forum for about 5,000 cities and towns. About nine percent are screened out for offensive content (like racial slurs), and another three percent (mostly threat and libel) are removed AFTER people complain.

To add insult to injury, the site even charged for the expedited removal of offensive comments but stopped after being challenged by more than 30 state attorneys.

Sulzberger also says in his article “Despite the screening efforts, the site is full of posts that seem to cross lines. Topix, as an Internet forum, is immune from libel suits under federal law, but those who post could be sued, if they are found. The company receives about one subpoena a day for the computer addresses of anonymous commenters as part of law enforcement investigations or civil suits, some of which have resulted in cash verdicts or settlements.”

But what about the innocent bystander who hasn’t posted anything to the site, but is talked about by others? Unless you actually read every post, you may not event know that others are talking about you. To get an idea of the kinds of post commenters are making on the site, the New York Times article gives a few examples where people are called out by name and sin.

Originally here.