ACTION ITEMS
Ongoing - 2010
Please see Upcoming Events on the Home page and Projects for more ways that you can get involved.
Set up a literature table and display at your local mall
Earn Extra Income: Run a Booktable at Your Church (South Africa only)
What you can do about illegal abortionists
How to speak to your shop manager about offensive magazines/DVDs
How to complain about offensive advertising
What you can do to stop abortions and save lives
4 Practical Things You Can Do To Save Pre-born Babies
Start or Join an Action Group In Your City
How to Start an Action Group - Ideas for Projects
How to Start a Reformation Society
HOW TO ORGANISE YOUR OWN WOMEN'S DAY OUTREACH
Women need real protection and respect – practical action, not pious platitudes and public holidays! Why not use Women’s Day this year (10 August) as an opportunity to inform, inspire and involve people in promoting awareness and taking action against the exploitation of women through rape, pornography and abortion?
You can download our Women’s Day leaflet here:
http://www.christianaction.org.za/ACA Womens Day Leaflet.pdf
On the 10 August, Women’s Day, Africa Christian Action will be setting up literature tables in three different shopping malls in the Cape Town area – Sanlam Centre - Khayelitsha, Canal Walk and Somerset Mall. Why don’t you consider doing a similar outreach in your area?
Follow the 9 P’s and you will be on your way to successfully making a positive difference to the lives of our precious women and children.
Prayer
Before, during and after. Prayer is the foundation for action.
Planning
Recruit helpers to plan and participate.
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Decide on date, time, place and advertising strategy.
Permission
Contact the management of the Shopping Mall in your area and ask if you can set up a table in a public area of the mall, to promote awareness to combat the exploitation of women. Urge them for a prompt response for your advertising and recruitment purposes. They will probably give you some forms to fill in.
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Always take the letter of permission with you to the outreach.
Personal Invitation
Approach your pastor with a humble and teachable attitude.
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Share the vision, scriptures and give him materials on the issues
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Urge him to announce your outreach.
Participation
Advertise on radio, your own publications, church bulletins, church announcements and personal invitations.
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Actively recruit with tracts and other teaching materials.
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Appoint helpers to wear specific badges or shirts.
Press
Press releases before and after the event. Invite them and write a mini article to tell them how it went, something they can use for the publication. Send a clear, story-telling photo.
Placards – information boards and displays
Big lettering, able to read from a distance, black or red on white or black on yellow work best. Laminating signs makes them more durable.
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Keep it simple, clear and straightforward. Remember the purpose is to inform and challenge.
Proclaim
It is important to use the occasion for literature distribution to inform, inspire and involve.
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Contact Africa Christian Action for quantities of leaflets e.g. “Abortion – the Facts”, “Women are Precious and Should be Protected” and “Finding Freedom from Pornography”. We request a small donation for the postage costs. Distribute these from your table and use them as a springboard for discussions about these issues.
Prepare
Have a clipboard handy to take down the contact details of people who are interested in joining the Africa Christian Action mailing list (or your organisation) and who are interested in taking part in outreaches and demonstrations in the future.
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Have your representatives be as informed as possible.
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” 1 Peter 3:15.
Praise
Remember to praise the Lord regardless of the human outcome of the outreach. If you have been faithful, He will see to the results.
Taryn Hodgson
National Co-ordinator
Africa Christian Action
EARN EXTRA INCOME: RUN A BOOKTABLE AT YOUR CHURCH (South Africa only)
Only about 5% of churchgoers visit Christian bookshops regularly. The best way to make church members aware of the great resources available to them to be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission and being Salt and Light in their community, is to set up a book table on Sunday mornings at your church. Another idea is to obtain permission to set up a book table at a church camp or Missions Weekend.
Contact Christian Liberty Books (admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za, Tel/Fax: (021) 689-7478) to apply for a book table account and to order resources, including books, CDs, DVDs, bumper stickers, and precious feet lapel pins, on consignment (sale or return).
A reading Christian is a growing Christian.
Redeem the time by renewing minds.
Click here to download the Christian Action Resources Catalogue (many other resources are available from Christian Liberty Books, please email admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za, for a catalogue).
“The discerning heart seeks knowledge.” Proverbs 15:14
WHAT YOU CAN DO
ABOUT ILLEGAL ABORTIONISTS
Illegal abortionists have mushroomed in cities all over South Africa.
For as little as R200, illegal abortionists are touting their services quite openly.
What has shocked authorities is that these practitioners offer to provide "safe abortions" for pregnancies up to seven months. Even in the case of legal abortions, no woman who is over 12 weeks pregnant can demand to have an abortion.
The “doctors”, who advertise on lampposts and building walls, or whose employees hand out flyers to people on the streets, mostly operate under the guise of ‘professional herbalists’.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) said the fact that the names of the “doctors” were only written as “Dr Cure” or “Dr Liezel” was a clear indication they were not registered with any organisation as the full details were not given – including their registration numbers or the premises from where they operated.
Only qualified medical practitioners are allowed to carry out abortions. Women are risking their lives by going to these unsanitary, unqualified "doctors".
The HPCSA said it had no jurisdiction over "bogus practitioners" and anyone "masquerading" as a medical practitioner must be reported to the police.
The council added that operating without the registration of the relevant regulatory authority was a criminal act.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Report these abortionists to the Department of Health and to your local police. Take along a copy of one of their adverts. Fax copies of the advertisements to the National Department of Health and to your provincial health department.
National Department of Health: 012 - 312 0000
Western Cape: 021 483 3245
Eastern Cape: 040- 609 3776 or 0800 0323 64
Kwazulunatal: 0800 005133Freestate:051 - 4081273
Northern Cape: 053 – 830 2000
Limpopo: 015 – 293 6000
North West: 101 777
If the doctor is not registered with the Health Professions Council and if the facilities do not meet the requirements of the Abortion Amendment Act (section 2 - i.e. they have to have emergency resuscitation equipment, be able to call ambulances, meet sanitary requirements) then they are illegal. It is unlikely that the “doctor” is registered, but you can phone the Health Professions Council on 012-3389441 to check.
2. Tear the posters down. Unless these abortionists have municipal clearance, they are advertising illegally.
3. If you can’t tear them down, stick one of our pro-life bumper stickers over the contact details.
4. Order our Crisis Pregnancy poster (R2 each), which can be placed on hospital, school, church and community notice boards. This poster is designed for women facing unplanned pregnancies and contains contact details of Africa Cares for Life - the umbrella body of Crisis Pregnancy Centres in South Africa.
5. Urge your local community newspaper and radio station to expose these abortionists, interview pro-life groups and to provide the contact numbers of Crisis Pregnancy Centres.
6. Obtain pro-life DVDs such as God’s Miracle of Life or Abortion: The Real Story to educate your congregation or school on the right to life.
7. Begin now to mobilise your congregation to observe Sanctity Life Sunday and the National Day of Repentance (1 February 2010).
Click here for pro-life sermons, articles, DVDs, literature and posters to mobilise your congregation in the Fight for Life.
Bumper stickers, posters, pro-life DVDs, books and CDs can be ordered from: Christian Liberty Books: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za, Tel/Fax: (021) 689-7478, www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
Cleaning Up Your Community of Pornographic Magazines, DVDs and Tabloid Newspapers
Porn magazines include Hustler and Loslyf. There may also be other imported titles (such as Nuts). They are often sold from CNA, Exclusive Books and Seven-11 shops (and some other corner cafes). Check if the shops in your neighbourhood stock these magazines. These magazines regularly include material that should be rated X18 – i.e. they should only be allowed to be sold from “sex shops” such as Adult World. The covers of these magazines, let alone the content, contravene Section 19 of the Sexual Offences Amendment Act- "displaying or exposing or causing the display or exposure of pornography to children" - new provisions which came into effect in December 2007.
Other sexually explicit magazines such as Heat, FHM, GQ, Cleo, Cosmo, Gay Pages and Mate should be in an opaque plastic cover and should be out of reach of children.
The sexually explicit “page 3 girl” in tabloids such as Die Son and The Voice, should also be rated 18. Complain to the manager of shops that sell these tabloids and pressure him to not sell these smutty tabloids.
Your local DVD Hire store often stocks offensive DVDs. The covers are often explicit. As with magazines, you can pressure the store to stop hiring these out or at the very least that these be placed out of reach of children.
How To Speak To Your Local Shop Manager About Pornographic Magazines, DVDs or Tabloid Newspapers
1) Courteously speak to the shop manager and tell him that his display and sale of pornographic materials is offensive to you. Ask him to: (1) put these out of sight, and out of reach of children (2) seek a change in business policy which will discontinue the sale of this material. (3) Turn the offensive magazines upside down and conceal under other magazines and put Christian magazines in front, at eye-level.
2) After a short time, if he still continues to display and sell these products, again speak to the store manager and tell him of your concern. Ask whether he has communicated your concerns to headquarters and sought a change in corporate policy so as to discontinue selling the material; if he has not, repeat your request that he do so. Leave him a copy of a courteous letter stating your concerns, requests, and prior conversations with him on this issue. You could include a leaflet like “Finding Freedom From Pornography” with your letter. This tract is downloadable from the www.christianaction.org.za website. Tell him you will stop patronising his store if he does not comply.
3) If the merchant persists in openly promoting and selling these materials, write a letter to the headquarters office of the store telling them of your concern; send a copy of your letter to the shop manager. Enlist other friends to focus a stream of "Friendly Complaint" letters at the local store, with copies to the corporate headquarters. Please see below for contact details of CNA, 7-11 and Exclusive Books headquarters. Contact us for a sample letter to the Executive Marketing Manger of CNA – you can adapt this for your own use. Copy your complaint to the Film and Publications Board: Fax: 021 761 6926 , bormanc@fpb.gov.za.
4) If there is no change in the store's practices, stop buying at this store. Write to the local store and headquarters office and tell them you will no longer patronize their business. As a “sermon illustration” you can staple all your till slips from the past months to your letter to indicate the volume of trade they are about to lose. Get others to write similar letters.
Head Offices:
Exclusive Books:
PO Box 605, Rivonia, 2128
Tel: 011-798 0000
Fax: 0866794720
Email: edemf@exclusivebooks.co.za
7-Eleven
Owner: Mr Fernando Batista
P.O. Box 3251, Rivonia, 2128
Tel: 011 - 807 – 8992
Fax: 011 -807 – 7638
Email: Fernando@711.co.za
CNA
Gerard Augustine, Executive Marketing Manager -
PO Box 100, Crown Mines, 2025
Tel: 011 - 495 1895
Fax: 086 522 7726
Email: GAugustine@edcon.co.za
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
2 Timothy 1:7
How To Complain About Offensive Advertising
Complain to the Advertising Standards Authority if you see any advert on TV/radio, in print or on a billboard that transgresses the bounds of sexual morality, uses under 18s or people portrayed as under 18 (for example, wearing a school uniform) in sexually suggestive ways or demeans women. Key clauses in the Advertisers’ Code to mention are:
- Clause 1.2 of Section 1 – Responsibility to the consumer
- Clause 1 of Section 2 – Offensive advertising
- Clause 3.5 of Section 2 – States that gender stereotyping or negative portrayal is not permitted unless reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society.
- Clause 14 of Section 2 – Children
- Section 4.19 of Section1 defines gender stereotyping as “advertising that portrays a person or persons of a certain gender in a manner that exploits, objectifies or demeans”.
The Advertisers’ Code of Practice can be viewed at: www.asasa.org.za. Send your complaints to: The Advertising Standards Authority:complaint@asasa.org.za, or fax: 011-781 1616. Please include your name, ID number and contact details.
In a 2004 judgement, the Advertising Standards Committee ruled that, “In the context of the abuse of women, it is imperative that advertisers are sensitive to this reality and do not find themselves as promoting that a woman’s body is a playground.” In another important judgement, the ASC ruled that “where a woman’s breasts were compared to an edible object, namely fried eggs, the image of two fried eggs on the bikini top suggested that women’s breasts are food. Women and food are thus consumable objects. In this manner the billboard objectified and exploited the female body.”
Christians were able to get a billboard removed depicting a coconut that resembled a woman’s thighs and pelvic area, with the Teazer’s strip club slogan: “The teaze without the sleaze.” The ASA ruled that, “the focus of the advert is on an object very closely resembling a woman’s genital area …and disembodies the woman to only represent her groin area. In effect, the image communicates that the only part of a woman that is of relevance is her genitals…”
In 2008, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the offensive Sexpo adverts placed around Durban had to be removed as the advert "reinforces a stereotype that women, especially provocatively dressed women, primarily serve as 'eye-candy' and should only be regarded as valuable for their sexual potential" and that "the only area of her body focussed on effectively reduces her to a sexual object."
Another victory was won against an offensive billboard showing a half-naked woman performing a lap dance. In it’s ruling the ASA said the billboard depicted “activities reserved for adults only” and that it is situated on a busy public road. Another favourable ruling, ruled against a similar billboard located near a school.
These judgements reveal that the most successful judgements are those that have ruled on images depicting disembodied women’s body parts, a focus on the genitals or objects resembling a woman’s genitals and where a woman is depicted as a consumable object such as food. Complaints against obvious depictions of sexually orientated activities (such as lap dancing) are also ruled in favour of the complainant.
Start or Join an Action Group in Your City!
There are Action Groups that already exist all over Southern Africa. You may decide that you simply want to inform, involve and inspire your Cell Group or Bible Study to prayer and action from the materials that we provide. There are active groups in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Port Alfred, Mossel Bay, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town.
Contact: Africa Christian Action: info@christianaction.org.za or 021-689 4480 for the contact details of Action Group leaders.
What is an Action Group?
An Action Group is a group of informed and inspired Christians who are willing to pray and take action on issues that effect their community. The issues can be as focused or as varied as the group feels they have the capacity to handle. Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.
Newsletters are a great start. They are the foundations from which we can launch our projects. The Bible says that “My people perish for a lack of knowledge" Hosea 4.6. That is why the first step must be information distribution.
It is when people are informed that they can be inspired to prayer and action. When they read the material mailed out, many times they are outraged and are motivated at that given moment to do something about it, yet seldom are they given direction. Once we have an established, informed community, we must activate our resources. Otherwise we have too many heads and not enough feet. We need to put feet to our faith and translate the information into involvement.
Each person who receives a Christian Action magazine or E-update is a potential leader in his or her community or local church. They are the ones being informed, they know their pastors, and they know the people in their area. This is what we call grassroots mobilisation, when the people get organised from the ground up.
When grassroots groups are informed, organised and active then the whole Christian community can be called into action in a matter of a few days. Then when a crisis or opportunity comes we can mobilise God's army. Our network has already been in many battles, and our local groups need to be prepared, prayed up, and ready to go.
Once your group is started, it would be ideal if you could meet once a week, or at least once a month. The meetings should preferably last approximately two hours. The first hour would be dedicated to informed prayer and hearing from the Lord. Pray for the nation, for our leaders, for the church, for revival and for the project your group is working on at that time. This time of prayer is essential for group focus and motivation. Nothing will happen without prayer.
The second hour would be strategy and action time. As the groups are formed and established then we can begin to deal with the projects. For example, one month may focus on ridding our streets of sleazy billboards that advertise strip clubs. The next month we might do a mass Pro-life literature distribution in schools, hospitals and churches. The purpose of these projects is to put feet to the newsletters and information. It is to train our people for war so to speak (Judges 12). While doing this, it would also establish a Christian army from which to launch our offensives the moment the devil tries to attack any area. This is Grassroots Mobilisation: organising and training a Christian army for service.
You can start an action group. One person can make a difference. For over sixteen years Africa Christian Action has been equipping and mobilising Christians to be salt and light in their communities. Our training seminars, radio programmes, rallies and literature have helped many thousands of concerned Christians make a difference for Christ in their communities.
*Subscribe to the Christian Action magazine, P O Box 23632, Claremont, 7735, Cape Town. Or e-mail: mail@christianaction.org.za.
*Sign up for the ACA E-updates: info@christianaction.org.za and for Christian News from CFT: mail@cft.org.za.
*Obtain a copy of Make A Difference: A Christian Action Handbook for Southern Africa.
*Contact Africa Christian Action for a Starter Pack.
* Request a catalogue of other Resources for Reformation, including CDs,videos, DVDs, MP3s and books that will help you transform your community for Christ.
* Attend the Biblical Worldview Summit, 1-8 January 2010, Cape Town. Click here for more details.
4 Practical Things You Can Do to Save Pre-born Babies
1. Order the Pro-life DVD God's Miracle of Life and offer to show it at your church or in school Life Skills/Sex Education classes. R35, inlcuding postage. Click here for more info.
2. Request quantities of our Pro-life leaflets, Abortion - the facts or Milestones of Early Life and place them in public areas in hospitals or clinics. For private doctors' waiting rooms we have a glossy,colour booklet called "Undecided? Exploring your options for a unplanned pregnancy". Click here to see the text of this booklet. We ask only that you pay for postage.
3. Order our CD, Fight for Life and donate it to a church or school library. Click here to find out more.
4. Order our Crisis Pregnancy poster, which can be placed on hospital, school, church and community notice boards. This poster is designed for women facing unplanned pregnancies and contains contact details of Africa Cares for Life - the umbrella body of Crisis Pregnancy Centres in South Africa. Click here to see the poster.
Africa Christian Action now has even more pro-life resources available including T-shirts, posters, placards and DVDs from Heritage House USA. All pro-life reosurces can be ordered from: Christian Liberty Books: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za, Tel/Fax: (021) 689-7478, www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
“If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those who are led away to death; hold back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say, but we knew nothing about this, does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?” Proverbs 24:10-12