Young Laos Christian Tied Up, Savagely Beaten by Family but Still Chooses to Follow Jesus

A Dao woman walks past a church in Sapa town 

in northern Lao Cai province (217 miles) from Hanoi 

By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian Post

A young Christian man in the Buddhist-majority nation of Laos said he was severely beaten by members of his own family because of his decision to choose to follow Jesus Christ.

Open Doors USA shared on Monday the story of Cheu, a 20-something who had to escape the "tyranny" brought by his own family because of his conversion to Christianity.

"One day, my brother and uncle came to me and lied to me. They invited me to go to their house which I agreed to without hesitation. Little did I know that when we arrived at my uncle's house, they would beat me and tie me up with a rope. They told me that I need to return to my old faith, they would continue to beat me," Cheu shared.

"They bound me with a rope with my hands behind my back. My brother, an average-sized man but with a solid build, used the side of his palms to hit my neck and face over and over again. I was tied from seven in the morning until seven at nigh."

The young man explained that his uncle and brother warned him that they will hit him until he is dead unless he renounced his Christian faith.

Cheu turned to God in prayer, asking Him to forgive his family and himself.

"After praying, I lied to my brother and uncle and other people and told them that I would return to my old faith. So they untied me. After they took off my ties, I slept at my house. I went to my wife very early the next morning to pick her up since my in-law's house is very far from my house," he explained.

"We hopped on a bus to escape and came here. Until now, my uncle and brother and my family still don't know where I am, and I heard that they are looking for me. I also heard that the village chief, my brother and uncle said that if I come back to our home in our village, they would hit me over and over again until I die."

Cheu and his wife have since been assisted by an evangelical church that is providing them and other persecuted Christians food, shelter, love and comfort.

"Though I miss my mother and despite what happened to me, I am still very happy that I believe in Jesus. I can worship Him and I can believe and I have peace in my heart. For me, I will stay here in this village and I will live here because I can worship and nurture my faith freely," Cheu said.

Open Doors, which reports on and helps persecuted believers around the world, lists Laos as 24th on its World Watch List of worst Christian persecutors. "Christians refusing to participate in Buddhist practices are perceived as foreign and a threat to traditional culture," Open Doors notes.

Christian Post continues

State Department Lawyers Removing References to ISIS ‘Genocide’ Against Christians, Other Religious Minorities

Obama Holdovers in State Department's Legal Office Are Responsible, Critics Say

By Susan Crabtree
Washington Free Beacon

The State Department's top lawyers are systematically removing the word "genocide" to describe the Islamic State's mass slaughter of Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria from speeches before they are delivered and other official documents, according to human rights activists and attorneys familiar with the policies.

Additionally, Democratic senators are delaying confirmation of Mark Green, Trump's pick to head the U.S. Agency for International Development who has broad bipartisan support.

These efforts guarantee that Obama-era policies that worked to exclude Iraq's Christian and other minority religious populations from key U.S. aid programs remain in place, the activists said.

Richard Visek, who was appointed by President Obama as head the State Department's Office of Legal Adviser in October 2016, is behind the decision to remove the word "genocide" from official documents, according to Nina Shea, an international human rights lawyer who directs the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.

"I don't think for a minute it's a bureaucratic decision—it's ideological," said Shea, who also spent 12 years as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or CIRF, from 1999 to 2012.

A State Department spokesman on Monday said he would look into the matter and respond.

The latest moves from the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser appear aimed at rolling back then-Secretary of State John Kerry's March 2016 genocide determination. Kerry's much-anticipated genocide designation came after months of equivocation and detailed documentation by interested parties that the Islamic State is responsible for genocide against Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.

It was one of the few times in history that the United States designated ongoing mass murders against ethnic or religious minorities as meeting the legal definition of genocide laid out in a 1948 treaty. That agreement requires signatories, including the United States, to take steps to "prevent and punish" genocide.

A bipartisan group of Capitol Hill lawmakers and activists, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Robert Aderholt (R., Ala.) were hoping the designation would help direct millions of dollars in U.S. relief funds to Christian, Yazidi, and other persecuted religious minority communities.

ISIS murders and kidnappings have decimated the Christian population in Iraq, which numbered between 800,000 and 1.4 million in 2002, reducing it to fewer than 250,000 now. Without action, activists and charities say, Christians could disappear completely from Iraq in the near future.

After meeting with Pope Francis in May, President Trump vowed to do everything in his power to defend and protect the "historic Christian communities of the Middle East."

Washington Free Beacon continues

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Americans Say Persecution of Christians in the US is on the Rise

"Exclusion of Christians in America 'will get worse' but becoming part of the counterculture can free the church to pursue the tenants of the faith more honestly."

By Bradford Richardson
The Washington Times

A poll finds that, in just two years, the number of Americans who think Christians are facing growing intolerance in the U.S. has drastically increased.

Sixty-three percent of respondents in the LifeWay Research survey said they agree or strongly agree that Christians are facing growing levels of persecution, up from 50 percent in 2013. The bulk of that surge comes from respondents who said they “strongly agree” with the statement, a number that increased from 28 percent to 38 percent.

A similar number, 60 percent, said religious liberty is on the decline in America, up from 54 percent in 2013.

Although the poll shows higher rates of anxiety about the state of religious freedom, it also indicates that the issue is increasingly becoming polarized. A growing number of people in the survey said Christians “complain too much about how they are treated,” up from 34 percent in 2013 to 43 percent in 2015.

The poll was published March 30 and has an error margin of 3.6 percentage points. It was conducted shortly after the Supreme Court decision in June striking down state laws defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

That decision has intensified the debate about where religious liberty ends and discrimination begins. Gay couples contend that their rights are violated when religious wedding vendors decline to service same-sex wedding ceremonies, while religious bakers and Several states have moved to enact legislation to protect the free exercise of religion, but liberals say such laws are discriminatory and businesses have made severe backlash threats in some states.

Greg Jao, director of campus engagement and vice president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said heightened media attention on those sorts of issues could be skewing the numbers in the short run.

“Because of the high media attention on a couple of key cases, I think Christians are more aware and feel more persecuted or less tolerated than they did before,” Mr. Jao said.

What has not helped their plight, he said, are reactions that at times are perceived as “histrionic.”

But Mr. Jao said the poll is not just perception. He said the nation is “re-evaluating the privileged place that religion had in its past.”

“A couple of decades ago, for instance, universities were delighted when we started a chapter, because we were considered a moral and calming influence on campus excess,” he said. “They thought it was excellent — they needed help leavening the party culture. Now, of course, Christians are no longer considered to be morally virtuous additions to a community. I think Christians are actually considered moral problems to solve, particularly because of human sexuality issues.”

Chris Stone, founder of Faith Driven Consumer, said the poll reflects an increasingly influential progressive movement that champions diversity but hypocritically works to exclude Christians from the mainstream culture.

“As the diversity-inclusion movement grows, and more and more companies become diversity-centric, what you really begin to see is a glaring gap that exists,” Mr. Stone said. “As a Christian, you begin to see that you’re being excluded from the culture, excluded from the conversation.”

“We’re seeing language that changes ‘free exercise,’ which is the Constitution, to ‘freedom of religion,’ which means you can do what you want within the four walls of your church, but you can’t bring it out,” he said.florists believe their right to religious freedom is the one being trammeled.

 Washington Times article continues

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Islamist Militants in Kenya went House to House Killing Christians

Kenya's army is fighting the Somalia-based al-Shabaab group. 

Displayed are weapons captured in a successful 

operation.  Reuters

By Mark Woods
Christian Today

Seven Christians have been killed in Kenya by al-Shabaab militants, according to International Christian Concern.

The killings took place earlier this month in three separate villages. Three policemen were killed in the first raid, when 200 militants attacked Pandanguo village in Lamu county. Three days later 15 of them returned and attacked the villages of Jima and Poromoko.

Locals contacted by ICC said they went from door to door and killed the Christian men. The Christian families have been evacuated and are staying at a church in the nearby Witu town.

The church's head pastor, Henry Divayo, said the attackers had been targeting Christians living in Lamu County especially farmers in the interior areas where small-scale agriculture thrives.

The militants had been asking the villagers to produce their identification cards. 

'If you were found to be a Christian you would be shot or slaughtered,' he said.

He explained that victims had been evacuated to camps where food and security is provided by government and the Kenya Red Cross. 'We are hosting more than 200 people in our church and we expect the number to increase as more families are evacuated from Boni Forest,' he said.

'The government has been in the forefront in giving security to churches but a lot more needs to be done,' Divayo continued. 'We need more well equipped police officers in churches, schools and hospitals.'

Al-Shabaab is based in Somalia but has raided Kenyan villages across the border. It was also responsible for the attack on Garissa University in April 2015 where 148 Christian students were killed.

Christian Today continues 

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Christian School Appeals Ruling Barring Prayer Before Championship Game

By Joshua Gill
The Daily Caller

A Christian school is fighting a court ruling that barred it from praying before a football game, arguing the ruling violated the school’s religious rights.

Cambridge Christian School, a private school in Tampa, Fla., announced Tuesday it is filing to appeal the June 7 ruling of a federal judge that upheld the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) decision to bar the school from using a loudspeaker to pray before a 2015 championship football game. The school will file their case to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The school filed their lawsuit against FHSAA in September 2016, alleging the organization, which governs student athletics in Florida, violated federal law and the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The FHSAA refused to let representatives from either school involved in the game use the loudspeaker for prayer. 

This was despite the fact that the schools notified the FHSAA a week in advance that they wished to use the stadium loudspeaker, which was used for private messages throughout the game, for their traditional pregame prayer. The school’s arguments found no favor with U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, who ruled against them in line with a magistrate’s recommendation.

The Daily Caller continues

Rabbis ‘Taking Seriously’ California Imam’s Calls for ‘Violence Against Jews’

By Adelle Nazarian
Breitbart

Leaders of California’s Jewish community say they are “taking seriously” what they see as a threat after the imam at a mosque in Davis called for the destruction of Jews.

Rabbi Shmary Brownstein of the Chabad of Davis, which is only a few blocks away from the Islamic Center of Davis, where Imam Ammar Shahin made his antisemitic sermon last Friday told Algemeiner this week that Shahin “unacceptably advocated and incited hatred and violence against Jews. As Jews, we are sensitive to this sort of rhetoric because we know what’s come of such talk in past times.”

Brownstein has reportedly contacted the authorities and told Algemeiner that he is considering increased security measures.

Algemeiner also noted that the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) had contacted the United States Attorney’s office about Shahin and called on Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly to launch an investigation into him. SWC Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Interfaith Affairs Director Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein wrote in a joint letter:

Secretary Kelly, as you know, Imam Ammar Shahin has deployed a tried and true script that has been used by Islamist extremists to incite murder and mayhem around the world. By explicitly urging Muslims to annihilate all Jews by their own hands, Shahin has crossed the line beyond protected speech.

Homeland Security knows better than anyone else that Islamist terrorism — fueled by religious fanatics — constitutes the number one threat to the safety and security of the American people. In addition, American Jews are the number one target of religious-based hate crimes in our nation.

 As such we believe that US authorities, led by Homeland Security, have an obligation to fully investigate and take all appropriate actions in response to this explicit call to murder Jews.

During his Friday sermon, Imam Shahin quoted an antisemitic text, prayed for Allah to “annihilate” Jews “down to the very last one,” and referred to “a war of faith” against Jews.

Breitbart News continues

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Persecution of Christians Isn't Rare: Franklin Graham

By Franklin Graham
USA Today

It’s shocking to our Western eyes.

As I walked through the burned-out shell of a churchnear Mosul, Iraq, just a few weeks ago, our translator told me that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria graffiti scrawled on the walls read, “You love life, we love death.” Members of ISIS had painted their flag and written, “We have come to drink your blood.”

It’s one thing to destroy a building, but Christians are dying for their faith. And it’s not just in Iraq.

On Palm Sunday, a week before my Iraq visit and nearly 1,000 miles to the west, bloodied pews, sobbing parishioners and crime-scene tape wrapped around churches in Egypt where bombs had exploded in the middle of Sunday services. What should have been a joyous time of worship as followers of Jesus prepared for Easter turned into a murder scene for families who were assaulted because of their Christian faith.

These heinous acts by ISIS captured headlines around the world, but if you think this kind of persecution is rare, perpetrated almost exclusively by extremists and terrorists — and in few areas of the world — 215 million Christian victims will tell you nothing could be further from the truth.

For years I have traveled in Sudan, where we rebuilt hundreds of churches destroyed by Muslims. We opened a Bible school there to train new pastors to carry on the work of those who were killed.

The persecution of Christians is not just happening in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and other hotbeds of extremist ideology. It may come as a surprise that some of our neighbors and allies are on the list of perpetrators.

For example, did you know that not only is Mexico among the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution, but 23 Christians were recently killed by drug cartels there, specifically because of their faith? And just a couple of years ago, local authorities in Chiapas drove more than 150 Protestants from their community, effectively stealing their land and leaving them without food.

Also consider the Christian refugees across Europe, including 88% of those surveyed in German shelters, who have experienced religiously motivated persecution — 32% of whom have received death threats. In the United Kingdom, some Christian converts from Islam are even under armed police protection because of death threats, according to Barnabas Aid.

That is in Europe, which serves as a predictor for much of what we can expect to happen across the rest of the West.

In Egypt, the problem is not the result of terrorists alone. Coptic Christians, the largest Christian community in the Middle East, are subject to government-enacted blasphemy laws, bureaucratic roadblocks to erecting churches, and routine rejection from well-deserved advancement in careers and even sports.

Some countries use anti-terrorism laws to broaden police powers which, in turn, have brought about the persecution of Christians. Some countries have used blasphemy laws.

Indeed, more than 75% of the world’s population live in areas with severe religious restrictions, and 215 million believers suffer “high, very high or extreme persecution” in the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, according to Open Doors USA and the Pew Research Center

USA Today continues

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Three Iranian Christians Get 10 Years in Jail for 'Illegal' Church Activity

 

Women worship as part of Iran's Christian community, which is growing despite persecution

By Joseph Hartropp
Christian Today

Three Iranian Christians have been sentenced to at least ten years in jail, charged with blasphemy and 'acting against national security' for their church-related activity.

The Iranian Christian community are appealing for prayer as the faith community continues to suffer under repeated threats of imprisonment from the government. Persian-speaking churches in the Muslim country are illegal, forcing many 'underground'.

The latest case has seen three Christian men sentenced to upwards of ten years in jail each for 'illegal' Christian activities, according to BosNewsLife.

The lawyer for Pastor Victor Bet Tamraz, Amin Afshar Naderi, and Hadi Asgari planned to challenge the court's decision this week.

The decision by Ahmadpour was announced earlier this week: sentencing Tamraz and Asagri to ten years in prison and Naderi to 15 years. Ahmadpour reportedly also raised the cost of bail for the men to 200 million Tomans (about $60,000) each.

Tamraz's crimes included 'conducting evangelism', the printing and distribution of Bibles and 'illegal house church activities'. His son and wife are also awaiting court hearings for their Christian activity.

Naderi was charged with an oft-cited crime in Iran, 'acting against national security'. As a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, he was also charged with blasphemy. Asgari, another Muslim convert, was charged similarly alongside an accusation of 'organizing and creating house churches'.

The news comes as four other Iranian Christians were sentenced to ten years in jail each in June, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

In published remarks, Iranian Christians prayed for those detained, and asked 'that those responsible for the persecution of Christians in Iran will love mercy, act justly, learn about Jesus and choose to follow Him.'

Website: Christian Today

Christian School Defunded Over Bible Verses

By Scotty Robinson
The News Blaster

A Christian school in Alberta, Canada, is learning the perils of depending on public funding for its operation.

Cornerstone Christian Academy and Battle River School Division have enjoyed a nine-year cooperative arrangement where the Christian school is operated as an alternative public school, providing nondenominational Christian instruction. 

BRSD leased facilities to the school and provided instructional resources available to other public schools. Thanks to the partnership, student tuition was lower than private Christian schooling, with fees going primarily to cover facility costs and bus transportation.

But that has come to an end in a dispute over the school’s use of two biblical passages that BRSD board members contend “denigrate” and “vilify” LGBT individuals.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

'Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.' – Galatians 5:19-24

Cornerstone Chairwoman Deanna Margel said school staff were told by email the passages from the letters of St. Paul “should not be read or studied.” She called the directive “shocking,” reported the London Express.

“We’re talking about freedom of religion, but we’re also talking about freedom of expression. We need every single word there [from the Bible] to challenge us, to call us to greater understanding. It’s just so important.”

A spokesman with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom, a legal group representing Cornerstone, said BRSD’s funding-body members “have no right to impose their own ideology on schools they disagree with.”

The News Blaster article continues