'Exodus in the Middle East Unrivalled Since the Days of Moses': Vice President Mike Pence Blasts Christian Persecution in 8 Quotes

 'This administration calls these vicious actions by ISIS what they truly are -- they are genocide and they are crimes against humanity.'

Staff Writer
Christian Today 

Vice President Mike Pence used his speech at the In Defense of Christians solidarity dinner to announce the US would bypass the United Nations in aid to the Middle East, giving directly to faith-based groups on the ground.

Aside from a snub to which the UN has yet to respond, the speech also revealed Pence's deep passion for persecuted Christians in the region and a deep hatred for the perpetrators.

Here are six quotes from Mike Pence's speech that show just how he feels about the Middle East:

1. 'Sadly today, Christianity is under unprecedented assault in those ancient lands where it first grew.'

2. 'Now that garden of faith, generations in the making, is under threat. It's under threat of persecution and mistreatment. Many of the Christian communities that first embraced the message of Christ are today the targets of unspeakable acts of violence and atrocity.'

3. 'Let me assure you tonight, President Trump and I see these crimes for what they are -- vile acts of persecution animated by hatred for Christians and the Gospel of Christ. And so too does this President know who and what has perpetrated these crimes, and he calls them by name -- radical Islamic terrorists.'

4. 'These barbarians harbor a special hatred for the followers of Christ. And under the unwavering attacks, Christianity now faces an exodus in the Middle East unrivalled since the days of Moses.'

5. 'Across the wider Middle East, we can now see a future in many areas without the Christian faith. But tonight, I came to tell you: Help is on the way.'

6. 'The truth is radical Islamic terrorism is a hydra with many heads, but no matter what name they go by, or where they try to hide, our administration is fully resolved to destroy them root and branch.'

7. 'This administration calls these vicious actions by ISIS what they truly are -- they are genocide and they are crimes against humanity.'

8. 'Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, I can assure you: The United States of America will always stand with those who suffer for their faith, and we will always support them in the hour of their need.'

Christian Today report continues

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Atheists Demand Texas High School Remove Christian Flag So Students Respond by Flying Their Own

Christian flags fly on the back of students' pickup trucks at 

LaPoynor High School in Larue, Texas, in this photo posted 

to Facebook on October 18, 2017

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

Students at an East Texas high school have responded to an atheist group's demands that the school remove a Christian flag by bringing their own Christian flags to fly on school grounds.

Many in the community of Larue, Texas, are speaking out against the nation's leading secularist legal organization, Freedom From Religion Foundation, after it sent a letter to the Superintendent James Young of LaPoynor Independent School District on Oct. 11 to demand that LaPoynor High School stop flying a Christian flag alongside the United States and Texas flags in front of the school.

FFRF attorney Sam Grover wrote in the letter that FFRF was contacted by a former student following the school's participation in the annual "See You at the Pole" event on Sept. 27.

Grover argued that the flying of a Christian flag could be considered a school endorsement of Christianity and a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Local news station KETK reported that a small group of students responded to FFRF's demands by flying three large Christian flags from the back of pickup trucks parked in the school's parking lot on Wednesday.

A photo was posted to Facebook by community member Danielle Reichert-Davis.

"So you didn't like the one flag we had flying, how about three more," Reichert-Davis wrote in her Facebook post. "We have a great group of kids I tell you what."

One student told the local NBC affiliate that he even drilled a hole in his truck's tailgate to be able to fly the flag.

"This is our way of life for me and everybody around here," high school junior Gunner Gracey told KETK.

Student Dawson Turner told KETK she doesn't believe the Christian flag should be taken down. Fellow junior Jared Sanchez told the local NBC affiliate that although FFRF is going to try to remove the Christian flag, "we're going to fight for it."

Holley Franklin, a LaPoynor High School parent and former student, told KETK that she went to school at LaPoynor from kindergarten through 12th grade and asserted that "Jesus has always been alive and well here."

"If God is challenged, He is up for the challenge and God is going to win," parent Shaine Snyder told the news outlet.

Christian Post report continues

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South African Pastor 'Burned Beyond Recognition' With Hands Tied Behind Back

"RIP Pastor Martin K. Beneke. You will be sadly missed by everyone you have touched and everyone's lives you changed in amazing ways and your inspiration you brought, especially mine, helping me with addiction."

Martin Beneke, Senior Pastor at Life in Christ Network 

in Johannesburg, South Africa, was burned to death 

on October 16, 2017, in Magaliesburg, South Africa. 

(Photo: Facebook/Sonja Lowe Vermaak)

By Samuel Smith

Christian Post

The body of a South African pastor has been found "burned beyond recognition" with his hands tied behind his back in a small farming town about 50 miles outside of Johannesburg.

The body of 45-year-old Martin Beneke, the senior pastor and founder of the Johannesburg-based Life in Christ Network, was discovered in Magaliesburg on Monday. The Life in Christ Network confirmed the pastor's death in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

"It is with heavy sadness and sorrow that we have to inform everyone that the founder and head pastor of LICN, Pastor Martin, has passed away on Monday, Oct. 16, 2017," the statement reads. "There are still so many questions we have and answers we need but we trust the process. Thank you to each and everyone who are supporting his wife, two daughters and family. We appreciate it."

Police spokesperson Sergeant Mpho More told media that the discovery of Beneke's body was made by a local farmer who noticed smoke as he traveled a gravel road on his farm.

The Roodepoort Record reports that when the farmer went to investigate the smoke, he found Beneke's Nissan pickup truck on fire and a body burned beyond recognition.

Gauteng police announced that Beneke's body was found with his hands tied behind his back and believe that he was kidnapped.

"He was kidnapped and found dead at a farm in Magaliesburg yesterday," Gauteng police spokesperson Kay Makhubela said in a statement, according to Times Live. 

"The man's hands were tied behind his back and his body was burnt beyond recognition. He and his car were found by a farmer in the area and his car was burning. The motive is unknown and at the moment no arrests have been made. He was reported missing on Monday this week by his family after he did not come back home that night."

Christian Post article continues

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Christians Face Worse Persecution Than at Any Time in History, New Report Claims

A woman holds a cross during a rally organised by Iraqi Christians in Germany
denouncing persecution by the Islamic State terror group against Christians living in Iraq.

By Harry Farley

Christian Today

Persecution against Christians is the worst it has ever been in history, a new report from a Catholic charity is claiming.

Looking at 13 countries where Christians face the worst abuses the study by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), released on Thursday, found the outlook has worsened in all of them with the one exception being Saudi Arabia 'where the situation was already so bad it could scarcely get any worse', the report says.

Persecuted and Forgotten? warns Christians in many countries will not survive if violence against them continues and highlighted 'unspeakable atrocities' around the world including in North Korea where believers face 'enforced starvation, abortion, and reports of faithful being hung on crosses over a fire and others being crushed under a steamroller'.

It issues a scathing attack on Western governments as speakers lined up to criticise their response at an event in the House of Lords on Thursday night to launch the research.

Lord Alton of Liverpool, a cross-bench peer and religious freedom campaigner, said there was a need 'to separate propaganda from the reality' when hearing about money governments have donated as ministers said UK had promised £169.5 million of support to Iraq since 2014

Father Salar Kajo, a priest on the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq where many Christians used to live, said: 'We Christians see very little of this aid. In reality there is nothing.

'I am there, I am working there, I know there is nothing. It is the church that has rebuilt the houses. UNICEF come just to paint the walls,' he told the audience of MPs, officials and journalists.

The ACN report says: 'Governments in the West and the UN failed to offer Christians in countries such as Iraq and Syria the emergency help they needed as genocide got underway.'

John Pontifex, spokesman for the charity and editor of the report said: 'In terms of the numbers of people involved, the gravity of the crimes committed and their impact, it is clear that the persecution of Christians is today worse than at any time in history.

'Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith group, but ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of persecution.'

Christian Today continues 

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Two Russians Who Refused to Reject Jesus on Camera 'Almost Certainly' Killed by ISIS

By Stoyan Zaimov 
Christian Post

Two Russian mercenaries and Orthodox Christians captured by the Islamic State terror group in Syria have most likely been killed after they refused to reject their faith and embrace Islam on camera.

Senior Russian MP Viktor Vodolatsky said it is unlikely that Roman Zabolotny, 39, and Grigory Tsurkanu, 38, survived. 

"It is very sad but 99 percent Roman Zabolotny is not alive, nor is the second prisoner," Vodolatsky said.

While the fate of the two men is not yet confirmed, the Russian Orthodox Church has reportedly already declared them martyrs for their faith in a short video posted on YouTube last week.

MailOnline reported on Monday that the two Christians were captured earlier this month at the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, one of the last remaining IS strongholds in Syria.

The men, who appear to have been wounded, have their limbs tied in the short IS video.

Vodolatsky explained that the prisoners were given a statement which they had to read before a camera.

"In this text they would reject their Orthodox religion, reject their motherland, become Muslim and join ISIS," the politician shared.

"They stayed loyal to the Orthodox faith and their motherland until the very end, and this is what they were killed by those gangsters for."

Anatoly Kotlyarov, an MP in Zabolotny's home city of Rostov-on-Don, further said that it does appear that the Christians have been executed.

Kotlyarov told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that his "trustworthy" source "has never been mistaken in four years of our cooperation, especially when informing about the dead."

Zabolotny is believed to have traveled to Syria to help protect Christians from IS radicals, MailOnline noted. He previously served as a paratrooper in the intelligence section of Russia's air assault forces.

Ruslan Leviev, founder of Conflict Intelligence, an independent investigation group, said that the pair were likely fighters for the Wagner private army.

"We think it is a strategy of the Defense Ministry of Russia: sending mercenaries to the hottest places, we avoid losses among official soldiers and keep the image of a successful combat operation," Leviev suggested.

IS militants have captured and executed Christian prisoners on a number of occasions. The remains of 21 Copts beheaded by IS in 2015 were finally discovered last week in Libya, to the relief of the families.

Christian Post continues

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Members of Christian Pro-Life Group Kicked Out of Gay-Owned Coffee Shop

By Micaiah Bilger
Life News

A group of Christians witnessing to the truth about abortion were kicked out of a Washington state coffee shop Oct. 1 after the owner said he was offended by their message.

A video of the Seattle coffee shop owner berating advocates with Abolish Human Abortion has more than half a million views on Facebook (Warning: Graphic language). It serves as strong evidence of the intolerance and hostility that pro-life advocates face in today’s society.

The shop owner, Ben Borgman, who is gay, insisted that the Christian group had to leave his shop on Oct. 1, Christian Daily reports. Borgman claimed the group had brought graphic materials into his shop, but Abolish Human Abortion advocates said they did not.

The confrontation quickly deteriorated into a profanity-laced tirade with Borgman suggesting that he perform a sex act in front of the group.

“I’m gay. You have to leave,” Borgman told the group. Later, he continued: “Are you going to tolerate [watching a sex act]? Answer my f— question! No, you’re going to sit right here and f— watch it! … Leave! All of you. Tell all your f— friends, don’t f— come here.”

Here’s more from the report:

Caleb Head, Caytie Davis, and other members of Abolish Human Abortion entered the Bedlam coffee shop in Seattle after giving out pro-life pamphlets in the area. When they were identified as pro-lifers, owner Ben Borgman told them to leave and engaged in a heated conversation with them, The Washington Times detailed.

Davis said they were not distributing anything inside the shop, but the barista told the owner about their presence, and the latter suddenly came and demanded that they leave. She added that Borgman showed them a pro-life pamphlet he found outside and asked if it was the one they were handing out around the area, The Liberator reported.

The pamphlet in question showed a photo of an aborted child. It also featured a rainbow and an explanation of the Biblical origin of the figure, something that Borgman said offended him.

After the video began attracting wide-spread attention, the Bedlam coffee shop and Borgman issued a statement in response, the Washington Times reports.

Borgman said he was not actually going to perform a sex act in front of the pro-life group.

“It’s delivery in this case was meant to shock and repulse the audience,” he said. “Out of context it could be labeled a perversion, or a kink depending how you personally couch the subject. … A revenge you could even call it, a weakness demonstrated in the typical, they hurt me, I will hurt them fashion.”

Borgman said he was upset by the graphic materials that the group was distributing. He said he was baptized Roman Catholic and has read the Bible. He also claimed the pro-life advocates are “working for Satan.”

Life News continues

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French Police Called in After Student, 10, Beaten at School ‘for Being Jewish’

40,000 French Jews Have Emigrated Since 2006

By Simon Kent
Breitbart News, Jerusalem

A French schoolgirl was beaten so badly over consecutive days she needed hospitalization after being attacked by classmates “for being Jewish.”

The 10-year-old studies at a school in Paris’s 18th arrondissement, where she was insulted and beaten so severely by anti-Semitic bullies it was confirmed at hospital that she had suffered injuries to her ribs and abdomen and a 10-day period of convalesence was needed.

The mother reported the incident to France’s anti-Semitism watchdog, the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA). It published details of the incident on October 3rd.

The watchdog has now called on police to investigate the alleged anti-Semitic incident.

The BNVCA has also alerted the Paris Local Education Authority. They confirmed that they would take the incident seriously and would transfer the child to a school of her choice after the mother alleged the school failed to take appropriate measures to protect her child, or to punish the bullies.

France is currently being convulsed by a string of violent anti-Semitic attacks that have prompted Jews to call on government authorities to tackle what they say is an epidemic of “societal anti-Semitism.”

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) made the call days after an attack on a French Jewish leader and his family in their home outside Paris. As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, France’s Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said “the motivation for this cowardly act appears to be directly linked to their religion.”

That assault followed reports that a former principal at a preparatory school for teenagers in Marseille said Jews were told not to attend his institution for fear of harassment by other students.

The level of harassment has become so bad that more and more French Jews are deciding to leave the country as they feel safer in Israel than in France.

In January it was reported that another 5,000 French Jews emigrated to Israel in 2016, continuing a trend that has seen tens of thousands quit the country after a series of attacks targeting the community.

Breitbart Jerusalem continues

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Sudanese Government Arrests Church's Leaders in Attempt to Take Over Denomination

Christian Church in Sudan

By Florence Gildea

Christian Today

Observers fear a campaign is being made by the Sudanese government to take control of the country's churches as Sudanese police detain eight church leaders in the last six weeks.

Mahjob Abotrin, a senior leader within the Sudan Church of Christ (SCOC), was arrested on 22 September. He was interrogated and has since been released. But it is not known whether he has been charged with any offence.

According to World Watch Monitor, he was arrested because he refused let government-appointed officials take over leadership of the denomination. The Sudanese government has been trying to manage the affairs of several denominations in the country by removing the church-appointed leadership.

Last month security officials told four other members of SCOC's leadership committee that charges would be brought against them after they refused to let government officials take over the premises of the Church's office.

In August, seven senior SCOC leaders were arrested and interrogated before being released on bail. Included among these was Kuwa Shamal, the Church's head of missions. He was previously detained in December 2015 until January this year when he was released because of a lack of evidence. Two others arrested with him were released in May.

Christians in Sudan are facing a prolonged campaign of intimidation waged by the government, which has included the confiscation of their properties.

The persecution of Christians in the country has increased since the Christian-majority south seceded from the Muslim-majority north in 2011.

Website: Christian Today

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Church Bombing Survivor Is Now Helping Christians Persecuted in Pakistan Find Refuge in Australia

Kashmala Munawar holds her left leg after suffering an injury to her right leg in a
bomb blast at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan on September 22, 2013.

By Samuel Smith

Christian Post

A young Pakistani Christian woman who lost her leg in a 2013 church bombing and is learning to live her life without her family in Australia is now trying to help persecuted Christians from her home country gain access to the refuge she has found.

In an interview with The Christian Post, 21-year-old Kashmala Munawar recalled the day her life changed forever. It was Sept. 22, 2013, when she was 17 years old. Twin suicide bombers killed 127 innocent people and injured over 250 others who were walking out of All Saints Church in Peshawar following a Sunday service.

"I was just putting on my slippers and suddenly this big explosion happened. I got blind for a few minutes and after that, I saw my mom and I saw the people. They were crying and they were bleeding. So I started to cry," Munawar told CP via WhatsApp.

 "One of my sisters, she was inside the church, she was telling me to get up. But I couldn't. I told her, 'I don't have strength in my legs.' She started to cry as well. Someone came and he was trying to pick me up to take me to the hospital. But he couldn't, so he called someone else and they took me to the hospital."

The injury to Munawar's right leg was so severe that gangrene formed in one of her toes about a week after the blast and she had to have her leg amputated below the knee.

"They cut half of my leg," she explained.

It wasn't until February of 2014 that Munawar received the opportunity to travel to Australia and receive a prosthetic leg that was paid for by the Melbourne-based nonprofit Children First Foundation.

"The thing was, I went to the biggest hospital [in Pakistan]. They took me there and doctors they can't fix my legs there. They don't have the facilities," she recalled. "But someone in the Pakistani community contacted the Pakistani community in Australia."

Munawar and her mother traveled to Melbourne so that she could receive a prosthetic leg and learn to walk again. After four months in Australia, Munawar's mother was pressured to return home and leave Munawar all by herself in a foreign land.

"I haven't seen my family since I came to Australia," Munawar told CP.

While she was learning to walk again, Munawar lived in farm house with other children sponsored by the charity. She explained that it took her about 10 to 11 months to learn how to walk again.

"There were other kids from other countries. Kids come from other countries to get treated if they can't get treated in their own country," she explained. "I don't know about now but when I was living there, it used to be kids come and go. Sometimes there are like maybe six kids, sometimes 11, sometimes 15."

In 2015, Munawar started going to school in Australia. She is now in her last year of high school and plans to attend university next year to pursue her interests in humanitarian work, social work and business administration.

Although she is looking forward to her life in Australia, Munawar would like nothing more than for her family members back in Pakistan to join her in Australia, as she continues to struggle with loneliness and getting used to life in that country.

Christian Post continues

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Religious Freedom Cases Stacking Up

By John Stonestreet
Christian Post

Court cases across the country continue to point to the big showdown coming soon at the Supreme Court.

In the ongoing legal battles over religious freedom, there are advances and setback. One win happened last month. When Amy Larson, a Christian photographer in Wisconsin who declines to photograph so-called same-sex weddings, saw what was happening to similar photographers across the country, she was concerned that her decision would violate local and state law. So, she decided she wasn't going to shoot any weddings.

But she also decided to challenge a local ordinance and the state law. And she won! But on somewhat of a technicality. The court ruled that the ordinance didn't apply to her because her business didn't have a storefront.

On the other hand, last week, there was a serious setback.

Minnesotans and videographers Carl and Angel Larsen serve all people, but, as the Alliance Defending Freedom states, they "draw the line at creating videos celebrating same-sex weddings because of the biblical teaching on marriage."

The Larsens knew that by declining to use their artistic talents to participate in something they believed to be wrong, they could face penalties. What kind of penalties? Well, triple compensatory damages, punitive damages of up to $25,000, and as much as 90 days in jail. Yes, you heard that right.

So, like Amy Larsen, they filed what's called a "pre-enforcement" challenge. It's a common way of preventing the sort of damage that a bad law can cause. Shockingly, the U. S. judge in their case compared their refusal to participate in gay weddings to "conduct akin to a 'White Applicants Only' sign."

As ADF stated, this ruling was "probably the worst language we've seen to date" in one of these cases.

Then there's the case of Kentucky T-shirt maker Blaine Adamson. He has long refused business if it meant creating t-shirt designs that contradict either his faith or his moral convictions. For example, he once refused to design a shirt that showed Jesus sitting on a bucket of fried chicken. And he refused business that promoted an "adult film." Whenever he feels that he can't design a shirt, he points customers to other t-shirt shops.

But it wasn't until he refused to design a shirt for a gay-pride parade that he was sued. Never mind he regularly serves gay customers, has employed gay employees, and that two lesbian printers have supported his case because "they didn't want to be forced to print messages that would violate their consciences."

Thankfully, the Kentucky Court of Appeals has sided with Adamson.

Of course, all of these developments point to the enormous importance of the pending Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. I've said it before on BreakPoint and I'll say it again, this case might very well be the religious freedom equivalent of Roe v Wade.

In the end, the Court will either find a balance between the rights of religious believers and the public-accommodation rights of gays, or, it will rule that the price of citizenship is nothing less than the forfeiture of faith.

Christina Post continues


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