God may hold the whole world in his hand, but persecuted Christians can now hold an entire seminary library on a fingertip.

Bible League International is working with the Digital Bible Society to carry the thumbnail-sized chips to Christians in countries, such as China or Saudi Arabia, where possessing unapproved religious materials can result in prosecution or even death.

“It’s like a miniature Christian bookstore,” said Robert Frank, Global CEO of Bible League International, an Illinois-based non-profit evangelical ministry dedicated to training church leaders using the Bible.

The digital ministry continues the historic work of the Bible League, which went international after World War II when Gen. Douglas MacArthur asked U.S. Christian groups to send Bible to Japan.

The Bible League’s 2011 merger with the Texas-based World Bible Translation Center expanded its abilities to get materials to Christians around the world in their own languages.

The Digital Bible compresses data for maximum storage, then copies the material to cell phone cards, thumb drives, CDs and DVDs, depending upon the country where they will be used. The advantage of the format is that a person can use them, but leave no trace on a computer of their use, unlike the trails left by accessing websites.

Publishers who made their work available for the chip have also agreed to allow the copying of the cards without a fee, Frank said. The works have been translated into Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin and other languages of areas where Christians are persecuted.

“And the content has been donated,” said Synetta Armstrong, senior director of global communications for the Bible League, who demonstrated the chip at last fall’s Religion Newswriters Association conference. “We want to spread the word of God.”

In addition to several versions of the Bible, each of the Digital Bible libraries include worship music, movies, Bible commentaries, a study library, a copy of Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” and other landmark books about discipleship, ministry and history, as well as more than 1,200 images which can be used for a pastor’s study and for teaching others.

“Pastors in these countries want to be trained, but they have no seminaries,” said Melany Ethridge, a spokeswoman for the Bible League.

God may hold the whole world in his hand, but persecuted Christians can now hold an entire seminary library on a fingertip.

Bible League International is working with the Digital Bible Society to carry the thumbnail-sized chips to Christians in countries, such as China or Saudi Arabia, where possessing unapproved religious materials can result in prosecution or even death.

“It’s like a miniature Christian bookstore,” said Robert Frank, Global CEO of Bible League International, an Illinois-based non-profit evangelical ministry dedicated to training church leaders using the Bible.

The digital ministry continues the historic work of the Bible League, which went international after World War II when Gen. Douglas MacArthur asked U.S. Christian groups to send Bible to Japan.

The Bible League’s 2011 merger with the Texas-based World Bible Translation Center expanded its abilities to get materials to Christians around the world in their own languages.

The Digital Bible compresses data for maximum storage, then copies the material to cell phone cards, thumb drives, CDs and DVDs, depending upon the country where they will be used. The advantage of the format is that a person can use them, but leave no trace on a computer of their use, unlike the trails left by accessing websites.

Publishers who made their work available for the chip have also agreed to allow the copying of the cards without a fee, Frank said. The works have been translated into Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin and other languages of areas where Christians are persecuted.

“And the content has been donated,” said Synetta Armstrong, senior director of global communications for the Bible League, who demonstrated the chip at last fall’s Religion Newswriters Association conference. “We want to spread the word of God.”

In addition to several versions of the Bible, each of the Digital Bible libraries include worship music, movies, Bible commentaries, a study library, a copy of Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” and other landmark books about discipleship, ministry and history, as well as more than 1,200 images which can be used for a pastor’s study and for teaching others.

“Pastors in these countries want to be trained, but they have no seminaries,” said Melany Ethridge, a spokeswoman for the Bible League.

Barbara Koob moved from Utica, N.Y., to nearby Syracuse in the summer of 1862, when she was 24, to enter the convent of the Sisters of St. Francis.

Twenty-one years later, the woman the world now knows as Saint Marianne Cope left Syracuse to work as a missionary among the lepers in Hawaii. Even during her lifetime, many considered her a saint for her bravery, compassion and leadership. She spent 35 years ministering to hundreds of people so feared that the Kingdom of Hawaii banished them to a remote, desolate peninsula of Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai.

“When the roll of the saints is called, Mother Marianne will be there,” Syracuse reporter Fred Dutcher wrote in The Post-Standard after Mother Marianne died Aug 9, 1918. “Fifty-six of the eighty years of her life she gave in the service of the Man of Galilee whose touch made a leper clean, and thirty-five of those she devoted in ministration to the doomed people of Molokai.”

Dutcher’s prediction came true last month, when the Sisters of St. Francis learned that Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Cope a saint. She will be canonized next year. The designation came after an intense, 40-year-long process. The Franciscan sisters gathered thousands of pages of research about their heroine, toured the places she lived and worked and collected information about miracles, including two the Vatican ultimately ruled were healings of people whose recovery doctors could not explain.

The long journey to sainthood began with a modest life in Central New York. From 1862 to 1883, the future saint was a Franciscan leader and administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse.

Cope was born Jan. 23, 1838, in Germany. Before she was 2, her family moved to Utica and Americanized the last name from “Koob” to “Cope.” She moved to Syracuse after her father died of an illness in 1862. She took the name Marianne when she entered the convent

Cope was about 5 feet tall, with a towering personality. Accounts also hint at some unsaintly traits: a sharp tongue and perhaps a bit of impatience.

Cope lived at the hospital with the nurse-sisters she supervised while also supervising the St. Francis Convent and helping to lead the community of sisters. She made the 30-to-40-minute walk — wearing a full-length skirt and a headpiece — to fulfill work obligations.

Her order had been founded in 1860 by three sisters from Philadelphia responding to a request to work with immigrants in Utica and Syracuse, which were then part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

The Syracuse-based Franciscans are one of many men’s and women’s religious communities that take their inspiration from St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century Italian friar who cast off his family’s wealth in favor of a life serving the poor and weak.

Cope kept journals while in Hawaii, and some survived, as have some letters. Few of her writings reveal personal thoughts; instead, the majority are businesslike records. Several biographical accounts describe her as constantly busy with the administrative work of the order and the hospital.

Cope is said to have “administered the hospital from top to bottom … reverence for the patients was her main concern and she could often be found sitting by a patient’s bedside after the lights went out.”

She believed that everyone deserved to be treated respectfully, including alcoholics and lepers.

“The charity of the good knows no creed and is confined to no one place,” Cope wrote in 1870.

The Greatest Miracle, rated PG, opens today in 63 cities across the country. A list of opening cities and theaters is available now at the movie’s website.

The Most Rev. David Ricken, Bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisc., calls it a “powerful new film,” noting that the 3D animated feature “helps us better grasp the spiritual forces at play in our daily lives.”

The Greatest Miracle tells a story of hope and faith set against the backdrop of mysterious spirits and a religious service many have come to take for granted.

In the movie, three people find themselves at the same Catholic Mass because of crises they are struggling to endure. Going to Mass is not new to any of them — but they need assistance to embrace its true meaning. What they experience during that Mass changes all of their lives forever.

“The Greatest Miracle draws the viewer into the Mass by artistically portraying what we as Catholics believe to be taking place, but what we as humans are incapable of perceiving with our earthly senses,” Bishop Ricken said.

“May we take from The Greatest Miracle an exhortation to participate more fully and more regularly in the Mass — a tremendous gift to the Church and indeed, to all humanity.”

The Greatest Miracle is directed by Bruce M. Morris. He is the visual writer of the animated hitsPocahontas and Hercules, and earned an Academy Award nomination for his work on 2009′sThe Princess and the Frog.

Oscar®-nominee Mark McKenzie, who orchestrated the score for Dances with Wolves, wrote the score for the film, which earned the 2011 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score — Independent Film/Short/Documentary. McKenzie’s work also includes Men in Black, Spidermanand Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Strong themes of evil make the PG film unsuitable for all ages. Parental discretion is advised.

A former chemical plant manager turned pastor, a special education director, and Roman Catholic lobbyist briefed Congress on chemical policy reform on Thursday.

In her 20 years of work in special education, Tricia Smith of Little Rock, Arkansas has witnessed an alarming increase in the number of children she has assessed with learning disabilities. She acknowledges, “we cannot know with 100 percent certainty what causes these disabilities, but we do know there is a link to chemicals our children are exposed to both in the womb and during early infancy.

“As an educator, Director of Special Education for the Arkansas Baptist School System, President of the Learning Disabilities Association of Arkansas, Mother, Grandmother, and a Christian,” Smith says, “it is my ethical and moral responsibility to protect future generations from harm that may fall on them.  It is our responsibility to keep God’s precious gift – our children – safe.”

In his work as a lobbyist for the Roman Catholic diocese of Portland, Mr. Marc Mutty noted, “The Maine Council of Churches was an important player in winning environmental health legislation at the state level.”

Maine is now a leader in the nation for strong environmental health legislation. Yet, Marc notes, “as blessed as we are in Maine to have health, business, industrial, and environmental concerns work together for reasonable safeguards from toxic chemicals, we remain highly concerned about the lack of protections on the federal level.”

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 was created to offer protection from toxic chemicals, yet it neither requires that chemicals be safe before they end up in the marketplace, nor does it provides adequate information to consumers who want to protect their families and communities from dangerous chemicals.

Only a small fraction of the more than 80,000 chemicals in commerce have been fully tested for safety. Production, use, and disposal of toxic chemicals disproportionately harms children, pregnant mothers, communities of color and communities with low socio-economic status.

“I know workers and communities can pay a price when they handle dangerous chemicals or live in “fenceline” communities in industrial areas,” says the Rev. Terrence Gallagher, former engineer and chemical plant manager at BASF.

“I understand the hard decisions manufacturers have to make. Applying Christian ethics in business is not only good for God’s people and creation — it’s ultimately good for your bottom line, too.”

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 widening rift is forming in the Presbyterian Church of the USA, and threatens to render it apart, as conservative elements continue to slam its decision to ordain openly gay clergy.

The most recent indication of the split came with the National Mexican Presbyterian Church of Mexico, which determined on a 116 to 22 vote to part ways with the PCUSA.

The NMPC parted ways due to the PCUSA decision last May to allow gay clergy who are involved in same-sex relationships to be ordained. The Mexican church is traditionally more theologically conservative than the PCUSA.

The PCUSA expressed sadness at the decision of the NMPC. On its website, it said it is likely the split will affect the work of U.S. missionaries in Mexico and along the U.S. — Mexican border.

The split will further affect some 24 partnerships that have been forged between PCUSA and NMPC, as well as short-term mission trips to Mexico that were slated in the near future.

The NMPC voted that the relationship with the PCUSA could only be re-established if the decision to ordain homosexual clergy with committed relationships is revoked.

Earlier, the NMPC also voted overwhelmingly against ordaining women by a vote of 158 to 14; and decided on a 103 to 55 vote against granting a grace period to presbyteries that already ordained women priests on their own.

“We have had initial conversations with Mexican church leaders since the decision, and together we shared a hope for healing and a renewed ability to engage God’s mission together,” Hunter Farrell, U.S. head of World Mission said in the PCUSA website. “But at this moment, this is not possible and it brings me great sadness.”

“Presbyterians do mission in partnership here and around the world, so we take the voice of the Mexican church very seriously,” Farrell said on the website.

The PCUSA, whose mission work included building clinics, hospitals and academic institutions in the U.S. and overseas, has a number of missionaries in Mexico and South America.

Conservative Presbyterians

The PCUSA is also hounded by a 2,000-member group of conservatives within the church who met last Aug. 24-25 in Minneapolis to discuss how they would respond to the decision to allow ordination of openly gay clergy.

The conference was organized by the umbrella group, Presbyterians for Renewal, and convened by the newly-formed group, Fellowship of Presbyterians.

The conference became a venue to examine ways that churches who oppose the new ruling can respond. Options include the possibility of forming a conservative group within the PCUSA, or to completely break ties and form a separate denomination.

The PCUSA has been facing a decline in membership for decades. At its peak in the 1960s, it had four million members. Today, its membership has fallen to almost half, at two million.

During the convention in Minneapolis Dr. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, suggested the formation of a subset within the denomination, with the aim of returning the PCUSA to its original theological roots.

Mouw cited the example of the Catholic Church, saying, “[When] Catholics felt the church had gone astray, they didn’t leave. They formed special orders who took special vows according to their commitments. The commitment to theological orthodoxy for many of us should take the form of a special vow, to witness to the essential tenets and the power of the Reformed faith,” The New American reported.

Others, however, feel there is no longer any hope for the PCUSA. Rev. John Crosby of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minnesota, told the Huffington Post, “We have tried to create such a big tent trying to make everybody happy theologically. I fear the tent has collapsed without a center.”

A Christian rights journalist and activist in Bangladesh, who was tortured and harassed, has found refuge in Hong Kong.

William Nicholas Gomes, 27, of the Asian Human Rights Commission, endured harsh torture and interrogation from Islamic extremists and Bangladeshi police for his faith, but still says there is nothing he wants more than to glorify God.

Gomes, who is staying in a packed hostel in Hong Kong, told BosNewsLife, “I have received a visa for six months,” but adds that he misses and is worried about his wife, Annie Jhumur Halder, and two young sons, Lalon Mark and Felix Eugene.

Gomes told BosNewsLife, “I am afraid that Muslim fundamentalists will do something bad to her and kill my young sons. They already attacked our house.” Although a Bangladesh high court allegedly ordered local police to stop the harassment, Gomes has little faith in the legal system.

Kidnapped, tortured

Gomes culls this from his own experience. Last May 21, while walking home, someone approached him and asked him for help, motioning to a waiting car. When Gomes went with him, he was forcibly shoved into the car, blindfolded and brought to the country’s infamous Rapid Action Battalion building.

In the car, according to the AHRC website, guns were shoved at both of his sides and he was told, “You will see how your fathers [referring to the AHRC] and other international human rights organizations and international community – save you.”

The RAB is an elite police force that was formed by the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Amnesty International has linked it to human rights abuses and some 200 deaths since 2009.

Gomes was led, still blindfolded, outside of the car after a 40-minute drive. A statement by Gomes, posted on the AHRC website, related how he was stripped of clothing and made to bow down to the ground. He was told, “If you raise your head, hot eggs will be pushed into your anus.”

Through a cruel and hours-long interrogation that he endured entirely blindfolded and naked, he was beaten and intimidated. He was asked many confusing and seeming conflicting questions. Some of the questions he was asked are, “How much did the AHRC give you as source money? How many people do you have inside the RAB and the police?”

Gomes was also told by his kidnappers, “Your fathers have been shouting crazily all over the world to disband the RAB. We will ban your fathers; let us first ban you today.”

Other questions he was asked are, “Who are the countries that are providing funds to you?” and “Why are [you] interested about the Bangladeshi nationals in Indian jails?” The organization he is with, Christian Development Alternative, sent letters to Indian authorities on behalf of Bangladeshis in Indian jails. He was also asked, “Why are [you] defaming a good government having good relationships with India?”

Gomes was so intimidated that he promised to cease work for the AHRC. He was told, “You better not leave the work! Behave well until … are in the country. Do not tell them anything about our meeting. Go and behave like a normal man. You better listen to us. Otherwise, we know better how to make you listen.”

After that, Gomes was brought to another room where he was dressed up, then dragged into another car. When he was let off the car and his blindfold was removed, he saw the same man who had initially approached him for help.

This time, the man had Gomes’ bag, mobile phone and wallet. He threatened Gomes and said that the latter would be killed if he told anyone of his experience that day. He was also told that he had to leave Bangladesh immediately. Gomes told BosNewsLife, “The only place where I could go within a day was Nepal.”

With help from AHRC, Gomes was able to go to Hong Kong. He told BosNewsLIfe, “I am currently also receiving medical attention for post-traumatic stress disorder and take many medicines because of my experience.”

Gomes doesn’t know whether he will be allowed to return toBangladesh and finish his law studies. “I am afraid that they will abduct me even at the airport. They have detained many Christians, including evangelists. Bangladesh is a country where we cannot openly evangelize.”

Gomes, aside from his work with the AHRC, has also worked as a reporter for AsiaNews, a Catholic news agency, writing about issues of religious rights.

Although born a Muslim, Gomes began to attend a Catholic church where he met his wife. In 2003 he was baptized. He told BosNewsLife, “I am sure I was targeted for my Christian faith.” He adds that while initially his parents were angry, they “soon saw how my wife and I changed because of our faith in Christ.”

While in Hong Kong, Gomes is writing his life story. He is also looking for a church he can go to, “where I can sing the songs of David, and be glad in the Lord,” he told BosNewsLife.

Of his ordeal, he told BosNewsLife that no matter how cruel and frightening it was, “I realized that Jesus was naked when he was put to the cross,” when he died for the sins of the world.

A Russian court determined recently that a painting that depicted the Sermon on the Mount, but with Mickey Mouse in place of Jesus Christ, is unacceptable.

The painting, which was shown in Aidan Gallery in Moscow, is the work of artist Alexander Savko. The Exhibition series was entitled, Mickey Mouse’s Travels Through Art History.

A lawsuit was filed upon a local complaint that was made to authorities. The Kaluga Region court decided to ban the painting from being shown in exhibitions, magazines, newspapers and television.

The Kaluga Region court determined that the painting is extremist. However, the court ruling can still be appealed.

On the website of the prosecutor in the case, a statement said, “During the court hearing, it was established that Savko’s technique of uniting the image of Jesus Christ, which is sacred for Christians, and the comical image of Mickey Mouse, which in this situation is vulgar, has turned the graphic work into a caricature of Jesus Christ,” Ria Novosti reported.

“The Gospel story is therefore presented by the artist in the form of a comic,” the statement said on the website adding that it is “an extremely cynical and mocking insult to the religious beliefs and feelings of Orthodox Christian believers,” according to Ria Novosti.

Forbidden Art

The painting was initially shown in 2007 in a controversial exhibition called Forbidden Art. That exhibition was held at the Sakharov Museum and had two controversial paintings—the Mickey Mouse Sermon on the Mount painting, and another showing a crucifix but with a medal from the Order of Lenin covering the face of Christ.

The Order of Lenin was the highest award of the former Soviet Union. The curators of that controversial show, namely Sakharov Museum and Andrei Yerofeyev were convicted last year by a Moscow court, on charges of inciting ethnic and religious hatred, and were fined for the exhibition.

The ruling comes within days after another exhibit defacing a crucifix was closed down in the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The display also included another painting showing the image of Jesus Christ with Mickey Mouse ears.

The exhibit was closed down early after government leaders echoed the sentiments of the people in this majority Catholic nation. President Benigno S. Aquino Jr. told The New York Times, “I was in contact with several board members yesterday and I told them I am a Christian, and our country is composed of at least 85 percent Christians. Depicting Christ in an unflattering manner by anyone is wrong,” The Christian Post reported.

Aquino noted to The New York Times that the center, which is supported by public funds, “should be in the service of the people. When you insult the beliefs of most of the people, I don’t see where that is of service,” according to The Christian Post.

Hundreds of Christian writers will congregate at Langhorne, Penn to attend the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference from Wednesday to Saturday  to learn from the experts about Christian writing.

The conference will cover a wide range of aspects of Christian writing, from faith and the writer to writing that can spell a real difference in the world, including writing about the persecuted church.

Included, too, will be a one-on-one opportunity for all fully registered participants to pitch their work to agents, editors and representatives of publishers.

Many of the sessions in the conference, which is themed Write His Answer (culled from Habakkuk 2:2), will also be open, free of charge, to the general public.

“We live in a time when we need to be both encouraged and challenged,” Marlene Bagnull, conference director, told ASSIST News Service. “The sessions open to the public address issues of transforming our culture for the better, reaching out to impact the world for the better, and sobering reports of Christian persecution worldwide.”

Over 65 professional agents, editors and authors will be participating at GPCWC 2011. The conference will strengthen the writing and marketing abilities of participants, provide a means for them to get constructive feedback on their writing, enable them to talk individually about their work with professionals in the industry, and deepen their faith walk.

Speakers in the conference include MOVIEGUIDE magazine publisher Dr. Ted Baehr, who will give the keynote address, You Can Help Transform the Culture, on its opening day.

Other speakers are Liz Babbs of the U.K., who will discuss new ways to impact one’s culture through writing; Cec Murphey, bestselling author of some 100 books including 90 Minutes in Heaven; and Dan Wooding, ASSIST News Service founder, who will talk about Christian persecution and writing.

Steven Lawson, senior editor, Regal Publishing Group, will lead the seminar Who Is My Neighbor?, which will deal with issues such as abortion, human trafficking, orphans, racism, the poor, the learning impaired, the hungry and the handicapped.

Rick Marschall, author/editor of some 60 books and ANS columnist will give a seminar entitled Help Save Our Nation which will challenge and equip participants to defend the country’s spiritual and cultural heritage.

There will also be an interview by Wooding of C. Hope Flinchbaugh for Front Page Radio on the subject of North Korea, the country that ranks No. 1 in Christian persecution by Open Doors in its World Watch List.

GPCWC has, for 28 years, been giving intensive Christian writers workshops. This year, attendees will have choices on various aspects of Christian writing including skills building, getting published, marketing, fiction writing and nonfiction for children and adults.

There are also Earlybird Workshops on how to create a website (attendees will leave the session with a ready-to-use website of their own), earning through blogging, ethics in writing nonfiction, E-publishing and tips on how to maximize on a meeting with editors and publishers in the conference.

For full details, go to www.writehisanswer.com/Philadelphia.