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US, October, 2014: A group of students at Indiana Wesleyan University gave a local pizza delivery driver a tip of $1,268 along with gift cards and thousands of inspirational notes as part of an illustration during the weekly prayer service after he delivered an order worth $12.50.

The generosity followed efforts by Keith Newman, the CEO of Residential Education, to illustrate a point to 3,000 students during a weekly prayer gathering at the college’s chapel: “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”

The Marion-based Indiana Wesleyan University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university.

After driver James Gilpin came to deliver the order for two pizzas, he was escorted into the main hall, greet by thousands of students during their weekly chapel service on Wednesday morning and presented with the $1,268 tip, $70 in gift cards and thousands of inspirational notes that the students had written, according to ABC News.

Gilpin was thanked for doing what he does.

“They pulled me out on stage, and the gentleman started talking to me for a couple minutes and then he announced that he had $1,248.86 for me. Everybody was cheering,” Gilpin was quoted as saying. “At the time I didn’t know what to think; it didn’t sink in until about two hours afterwards.”

For Newman, this was a practical example of showing love.

“When I do any kind of teaching, I try to use stories because that’s the way I learn. I think stories are great, but if you can show somebody a story, it’s even more powerful,” Newman was quoted as saying. “And if you can involve them in the story, it’s even more powerful. So we had the chance to act out a story.”

The needs one sees around himself or herself are overwhelming, Newman acknowledged. “So his message was a simple one; that just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you can’t do something. So do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”

Gilpin said he will use the money for Christmas presents for his children among other things.

“I thought it was very nice for an average Joe like me to get something like that. They didn’t know me from me Adam, and they just picked me out random and handed me the money. It was really nice,” he said. “It’s nice to know that there’s a lot of encouragement from Indiana Wesleyan and their students to do something like that. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m very grateful for what they’ve done for me.”

- christian post

Indian Jesuits urge govt to curb anti-minorities campaign

India, October, 2014:Indian Jesuits of the Jesa (Jesuits in Social Action) network has appealed to the central government and the governments of several Indian states to adopt urgent measures to put an end to the orchestrated campaign against religious minorities.

Motivated by hatred and violence, the anti-minorities campaign has a “negative impact on the social harmony in many towns and villages in the country,” said Jesa.

The statement recalled that the media reported more than 600 cases of violence against minorities between May and September, the period the new government led by BJP has been in power.

“The overt support from political leaders to radical groups and extremist Hindus has triggered violence in many places,” said Jesa, and also pointed out that the perpetrators go unpunished.

“Impunity further encourages the extremists who are acting outside the law,” said the Indian Jesuits.

The civil society has long called to the highest political authorities to stop “those who create disharmony and polarize society”. More than 30 organizations that defend human rights have reiterated their request to protect the rights of minorities, especially the right to live with dignity as citizens of India, with equal dignity and equality.

The situation has become so critical that even a well-known jurist – Fali Nariman – had openly expressed his concern a few weeks ago.

“The first 100 days of the new government have seen a crescendo of hate speeches against Muslims and Christians. Their identity is mocked, their citizenship questioned, their faith ridiculed. Coercion, divisions and suspicions multiply. Attacks against religious minorities have assumed alarming proportions in various parts of the country,” said the Jesuits.

Jesu stated that the hatred, violence campaign and threats “have left not only religious minorities speechless, but also civil society, lawyers and academics, while the government remains silent.”

“The Christian community has been the target of mob violence in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.” According to the Jesuits there is a change in the strategy of the extremist organisations: “A few deaths, but daily low-intensity violence that is becoming routine,” has taken the place of earlier concerted pogroms.

The Jesuits asked for immediate action against those who created tension in society and invited the Home Minister to “issue a directive so that the police are not conditioned by extremist groups”.

- agenzia fides

Love Jihad ‘victim’ makes statement before magistrate

Lucknow, October, 2014: In a fresh and dramatic twist to the ‘Love Jihad’ case involving a girl in Meerut, the victim Monday alleged that she was forced by her family to make false accusations that she was first gang raped by Muslim men and then forcibly converted to Islam.

The girl from Khakhrauda made the statement before a magistrate, making it a legally binding document.

Officials said she had approached the Senior Superintendent of Police of Meerut Saturday claiming that her parents were beating her after money stopped coming from certain Hindu leaders. This, she told the district police chief, had been happening over the past one month until she fled the house for fear of being killed. She has also lodged a complaint with the police alleging a threat to her life from her family.

A teacher by profession, she had earlier alleged that she was gang raped by Muslim youth and then forced to convert to Islam. In a U-turn now she has denied this and has in the written statement claimed that certain Hindu groups and leaders had coerced her family into making these allegations.

Reacting to the developments, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had raked up the Love Jihad issue during the state assembly by-polls, said the whole issue was now turning murkier and demanded a CBI probe.

“A CBI probe will clear the matter,” Laxmikant Bajpayi, state BJP president, told IANS.

Other political parties, including the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), however slammed the BJP for raking up a non-issue and alleged the party’s complicity in the whole matter. “The BJP owes an explanation to the people on why it raked up the matter which was unsubstantiated,” said Rajendra Chowdhary, state cabinet minister and party spokesman.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari has sought a detailed probe into the whole episode and said the role of everyone should be scrutinised.

- ians

Maoists killed catholic nun, confesses arrested leader

Ranchi, October, 2014: A senior Maoist leader arrested last month in Dumka district has told the police that his party killed Catholic nun Valsa John because her presence was an obstacle to the growth of the CPI-Maoist in the Santhal Pargana.

Sukhlal Murmu (39), known as Prabir, was the Zonal Commander of Santhal Pargana for the CPI-Maoist when sister Valsa (53), who hailed from Kerala, was murdered in November 2011.

He was elevated to being a member of the Purvi Bihar Purvothar Jharkhand Special Area Committee created earlier this year on his request.

The BBC had quoted a Maoist spokesperson after sister Valsa’s murder claiming responsibility for the killing.

The spokesperson alleged that the nun was working on behalf of mining interests. Prabir has repeated the charge, telling his interrogators that sister Valsa used to do “dalali” work for the PANEM Coal Mines Ltd., which was trying to operate in Pakur district.

However, Prabir has also said that Valsa’s death was premeditated, with the CPI-Maoist deciding about a year-and-a-half ahead to kill her.

“There was a meeting of the Jharkhand Regional Committee held at Pirtand [of Giridih district] about a year and a half before the murder. Senior leaders Kishan [Politburo member] and Prayaag were at that meeting. Kishan was apparently not for murdering a woman who was religious, too,” said Dumka SP Anoop Mathew. However in the end, the JRC resolved to kill sister Valsa.

Prabir has told police officers that Valsa was averse to an alliance with his party even though their interests aligned when it came to mining. Known for her paranoia, the nun even had her people follow Prabir once when he tried to get in touch with people in the PANEM area, trying to influence them. The Maoists, who were trying to use the popular anger against PANEM as a foothold to enter the region, were being pegged back by Valsa’s influence.

However, Prabir has said the Maoists saw a way in when Valsa dropped her blanket objection to the PANEM project, allowing the company to construct a road in the area. She later agreed to allow the project to go forward if adequate compensation was paid. The Maoists told people that Valsa was becoming a broker for the company.

The Maoists are understood to have used Valsa’s support to a rape survivor and the distribution of PANEM-related contracts as the reasons the murder on the night of November 15, 2011, though Prabir has said the date was merely the culmination of about a year and a half of planning.

Prabir has told his interrogators that his party sent two cadres to be part of the lynch mob: Dawood, who has since been arrested and Karamchand, who passed away since. Prabir has claimed Karamchand was tasked with organizing