Chinese Christians Cry after Receiving Their First Bible

                                                             Photo courtesy: Chris Liu/Unsplash

By Michael Faust
Christian Headlines

A video showing Chinese Christians shouting for joy and even crying after receiving their first Bibles has sparked a range of emotions from believers in the United States.

International Christian Concern posted the video on its website and on social media this month as part of its new campaign to raise money for Bibles to be sent to countries where Christianity is either outlawed or severely restricted.

“In the West, we often take the Bible for granted, but I recently saw a video … of underground Chinese seminary students receiving their first Bible,” wrote Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern.

 “When the boxes were opened, they all converged on the box to make sure they got their own copy. Each one then held their Bible, kissed it, and wept. They had finally received the book that gives life!”

The video is at least five years old and shows several dozen Christians in a building opening the box. International Christian Concern said none of the Christians are in danger because of its release.

On Facebook, Christians in the U.S. said the video is convicting.

“If only we had the same zeal as these students,” Susan Elise Pearson wrote on International Christian Concern’s Facebook page.

Added another person, Charity Meyer, “How beautiful. It made me realize how much I take reading and holding my Bible for granted and that my life is so easy.”

Satan “knows well that the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world,” King said.

“Everywhere it goes, it smuggles Jesus and His Spirit into the hearts of dead and dying humanity, and exposes Satan and his schemes,” King wrote. “The Bible is, in fact, spiritual fertilizer. Everywhere it goes, life springs up.”

Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com

Video courtesy: International Christian Concern

Website: Christian Headlines

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China Tears Down Church’s Cross, Arrests Members, Raises Chinese Flag

Chinese officials have removed crosses from an estimated 4,000 churches in Henan.

                                                  Photo courtesy: Aaron Burden/Unsplash

By Michael Foust
Christian Headlines

Chinese officials arrested a pastor and three of his church members last month after they objected to the forced removal of a cross on church property.

All four are members of Zhongxin Church in the province of Henan. The action was part of a widespread crackdown on Christianity across Henan that often has included the removal of crosses, sometimes with cranes, China Aid and International Christian Concern (ICC) reported.

In recent years, Chinese officials have removed crosses from an estimated 4,000 churches in Henan.

Pastor Li Juncai, along with church members Wu Raoyun, Bai Yun and Ma Yanfang were arrested and charged with “disrupting public service” after they stood against the forced removal of the church’s cross. Government officials installed a flagpole in place of the cross to fly the Chinese flag.

The 700-member Zhongxin Church formerly was part of the Three-Self -sanctioned Protestant movement. It withdrew in 2013, according to ICC.

Four days after the pastor and church members were arrested, government officials returned to tear down the cross. They pushed away protesters, including the elderly.

“They hit people! The law enforcement hit people and drove the elderly away. They forcibly destroyed the lock and opened the gate. They are just like bandits,” one observer told International Christian Concern.

ChinaAid said the government sent “hundreds” of officials to remove the cross.

“They broke into the church via a side door, forced protesters away from the church’s main gate, and propped the gate open so that two cranes could enter,” ChinaAid said.

Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.

Website: Christian Headlines

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California May Evict 84-Year-Old for Bible Study in Veterans Home

                                                  Photo courtesy: Lucas Sankey/Unsplash

By Michael Foust
Christian Headlines

The California Department of Veterans Affairs is threatening to evict an 84-year-old widow from her California Veterans Home if she continues to hold Bible studies, according to her attorney.

The woman, Artis Breau, has volunteered as a chaplain and led Bible studies over the past decade.

The controversy began last September when one of the residents said he had trouble sleeping after having a conversation with her about heaven and hell. Officials with the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) labeled it elder abuse and emotional abuse, according to the Pacific Justice Institute.

Her volunteer status within the chaplaincy program was suspended in December. Then, on March 1, CalVet told the Pacific Justice Institute that Breau would be subjected to an “involuntary discharge” from the home if she continued leading Bible studies.

Breau believes officials are skeptical of her because she is an evangelical Jewish believer in Christ.

“CalVet’s treatment of this widow is shameful,” said Pacific Justice Institute attorney Matthew McReynolds.

 “Throughout this process, we have been deeply disturbed not only by the lack of constitutional guidelines, ineptitude, and lack of due process in the investigation, but even more by the notion that discussing religious views on the eternal state of the soul is somehow elder abuse or emotional abuse."

“Our client’s husband fought for his country to preserve the freedoms now being threatened by CalVet. Our veterans deserve better.”

Breau was a civilian employee in the office of the chief of staff of the Army at the Pentagon during the Korean War. Her husband served in World War II and the Korean War.

The Pacific Justice Institute is considering a lawsuit.

“This shocking attack from the State against our client’s exercise of religious convictions is deeply disturbing,” said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute.

 “The State seeks to punish Artis based on non-existent directives, and deprive her of a personal ministry to the veterans who have benefited from her religious services for years. Artis isn’t fighting just for herself, but for the Gospel and for the residents who are unable to fight for themselves against the State’s attempted intimidation.”

Website: Christian Headlines 

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Chinese Official Vows to Eliminate Christianity in China

                                                                         Photo courtesy: Pixabay

By Amanda Casanova
Christian Headlines

A Chinese official says the country is vowing to eliminate Christianity in China, according to The Christian Post.

Xu Xiaohong, head of the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, says there are “problems” with Christianity in the country, calling the religion an “infiltration.”

“[We] must recognize that Chinese churches are surnamed ‘China,’ not ‘the West’,” Xu told delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

“The actions by anti-China forces that attempt to affect our social stability or even subvert the regime of our country are doomed to fail,” he added.

He said he is worried that Christianity is a “western” influence that isn’t best for the country.

“Therefore, people often say: "One more Christian, one less Chinese,” Xu said, according to Xinhua News Agency.

“For individual black sheep who, under the banner of Christianity, participate in subverting national security, we firmly support the country to bring them to justice,” he added.

China already has a “sinicization campaign” that works to bring religions under the country’s official atheist’s party control.

Part of that campaign includes trying to make the country’s religions more “Chinese” and even rewriting the New Testament with Buddhist and Confucian teaching.

The government must approve any Christian churches in China and religious activities are strictly monitored and regulated. Christians who do not adhere to the laws are sometimes arrested.

“Somehow, men and women of faith are viewed as a threat to the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “It is clear that China’s misguided and cruel policies in Xinjiang are creating resentment, hatred, division, poverty, and anger.”

Website: Christian Headlines  

Persecution Unveiled has been called to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to pray for, speak up and act on behalf of those who are persecuted for their faith. Follow us on Pinterest, and Google and like us on Facebook.

Kenyan pastor who ministers to ex-Muslims beaten with clubs, hospitalized

“Believers who left Islam to follow Jesus are often killed on the spot when discovered. Al-Shabab has continuously expressed its desire to eradicate Christians from the country.”

People carry wooden crosses, symbolizing the people killed by gunmen

 at the Garissa University College, as they arrive for a memorial vigil at 

the "Freedom Corner" in Kenya's capital Nairobi, April 7, 2015. |

 (Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)

By Samuel Smith

Christian Post

A pastor in Kenya who disciples former Muslims in their walks with Christ was beaten unconscious by a group of angry Muslims and hospitalized last week.

Morning Star News reports that a pastor on the outskirts of Garissa near the border of Somalia suffered a broken femur (thighbone) and other injuries last Friday night when he was attacked by a group of men while on his way home from a prayer gathering in Garissa.

The pastor, only referred to by the first name Abdul, claims to have been beaten by men with wooden clubs and essentially left for dead. Although he didn’t recognize his attackers, they are reported as being several Somali Muslims.

The pastor, who came to Christ about seven years ago, is 30 years old and is a father of three children ages 8, 5 and 3.

According to Morning Star News, an independent nonprofit news organization that covers Christian persecution across the globe, Abdul is the leader of an underground church made up of 30 former Muslims whom he disciples in small groups.

He explained that even though he tried to keep his missionary movements secret, Muslim extremists were still able to find out about his ministry.

The pastor claims one of the attackers told him: “We have been following your movements and your evil plans of changing Muslims to Christianity.”

“Immediately several assailants began hitting me with wooden clubs, and I became unconscious,” the pastor recalled. “I woke up and found myself surrounded by neighbors. I was rescued by the neighbors who found me in a pool of blood.”

Abdul was taken to the hospital in Garissa, the capital city of Garissa County in the eastern part of the country. Since it is near the border of Somalia, the city is predominantly ethnic Somali.

Abdul said that in addition to the pain in his thigh, he has pain in his waist, back and near the ankle of his left leg.

“I’m almost unable to bear the pain. My family is in great fear, and Christians have located us to another place,” he was quoted as saying. “Our prayer, for now, is to get a safe place for my family. My life and that of my family is at stake.”

While Kenya is ranked 40th on the Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List of countries with the greatest levels of Christian persecution, Somalia is ranked third.

An estimated 99 percent of Somalis are Muslim and the country is home to one of the world’s most brutal Islamic extremist groups: al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab has carried out a number of deadly attacks against Christians in eastern Kenya.

Continue reading article here

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Jack Phillips Vindicated as 'Overwhelming Evidence' Exposes State 'Hostility' Against Christian Baker

By Benjamin Gill

CBN News

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is reporting that the transgender cake case against Christian baker Jack Phillips is being dropped.

ADF says it was nothing more than anti-religious "harassment" that came even though Phillips had just won his previous case at the US Supreme Court.

Members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC) who had come after Phillips have now been exposed by what ADF called "overwhelming evidence" of clear hostility toward religious freedom.

Phillips' Masterpiece Cakeshop was under fire again because he said his Christian beliefs prevented him from creating a cake that celebrated a transgender transition. An attorney had targeted Phillips with that transgender cake. That same attorney later asked Phillips to also design a cake with satanic themes and images.

The US Supreme Court had already ruled in the previous case that was brought against Phillips by CCRC that governments and state officials cannot show religious hostility in their decisions. Now there's new evidence that's what CCRC was doing with their second legal attack against him.

"The state of Colorado is dismissing its case against Jack, stopping its six and a half years of hostility toward him for his beliefs," said ADF Senior Vice President of US Legal Division Kristen Waggoner, who had argued on behalf of Phillips at the US Supreme Court.

"Jack's victory is great news for everyone. Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a diverse society like ours," Waggoner continued. "But the state's demonstrated and ongoing hostility toward Jack because of his beliefs is undeniable."

One commissioner had already been exposed for calling Phillips a "hater" on Twitter. And former commissioner Diann Rice had called religious freedom "a despicable piece of rhetoric," prompting the US Supreme Court to rule against the Colorado commission for its anti-religious bigotry.

Continue reading CBN News article here

Christian Teen in Pakistan Abducted and Forcefully Converted to Islam

Olivia Miller
ICC Persecution

 According to a local Christian right organization, a Christian teenager was abducted and forcefully converted to Islam last month. The abductors are now using Pakistan’s legal system to keep the abducted Christian girl who they claim has embraced Islam.On February 6, Sadaf Maish, age 13, of Cholistan, Wichra Bangla, Bahawalpur was abducted by Maqbool Hussain, Mubashir Hussain Baloch, and Azhir Hussain Baloch. When Sadaf’s family became aware of her abduction, they reached out to the family of the abductors who told them that Sadaf would be returned to them.According to a local Christian right organization, a Christian teenager was abducted and forcefully converted to Islam last month. The abductors are now using Pakistan’s legal system to keep the abducted Christian girl who they claim has embraced Islam.

On February 6, Sadaf Maish, age 13, of Cholistan, Wichra Bangla, Bahawalpur was abducted by Maqbool Hussain, Mubashir Hussain Baloch, and Azhir Hussain Baloch. When Sadaf’s family became aware of her abduction, they reached out to the family of the abductors who told them that Sadaf would be returned to them.

After eight days, the abductors told the Christian family that Sadaf was married and had converted to Islam. They then showed the family a marriage certificate which falsely claimed Sadaf was 18, an age old enough to get legally married in Pakistan. The abductors then threatened Sadaf’s family saying that if they tried to contact Sadaf there would be “consequences of the law”.

Abductions and forced conversions to Islam are unfortunately common for religious minorities in Pakistan. The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that nearly 1,000 women from Pakistan’s Christian and Hindu communities are abducted, raped, and forcefully converted to Islam each year.
Website: ICC Persecution

Persecution Unveiled has been called to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to pray for, speak up and act on behalf of those who are persecuted for their faith. Follow us on Pinterest, and Google and like us on Facebook.

Federal Court Rules Christian Student Group Cannot be Removed from University for Biblical View on Marriage

                                                           Photo courtesy: Mercedes Mehling/Unsplash

By Amanda Casanova
Christian Headlines

The University of Iowa cannot remove a Christian student group’s registered status after the group prohibited a gay student from a leadership role, a federal court has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie M. Rose approved a permanent injunction that forces the University of Iowa to reverse its decision and recognize Business Leaders in Christ as a registered student organization.

She said in her opinion that the school applies its human rights policy “unevenly.”

"The Constitution does not tolerate the way defendants chose to enforce the human rights policy," she said. "Particularly when free speech is involved, the uneven application of any policy risks the most exacting standard of judicial scrutiny, which the defendants have failed to withstand."

The university had threatened to strip the group of its registered status after the group barred a gay student from taking on a leadership role. The university said that action violated the school’s human rights policy.

Senior counsel Eric Baxter, of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the group representing the student organization, called the judge’s ruling a “win for basic fairness.”

The group released a statement after the court ruling, saying “universities can’t target religious student groups for being religious.”

“We are grateful the court protected our rights today—to let us have the same right as all student groups to express our viewpoints freely on campus, and to be who we are,” Business Leaders in Christ group member Jake Estell said.

The group requires leaders to sign a “statement of faith” that says sexual relationships are only between a married husband and wife.

Website: Christian Headlines

Group Wants to Ban WWII POW's Bible from Veterans Memorial

A Bible donated by a World War II veteran on display in a Manchester VA
Medical Center memorial is being targeted by the Military Religious Freedom
Foundation. Office of Public Affairs, Manchester VA Medical Center via AP

By Caleb Parke
Fox News

A Bible at the center of a Manchester VA Medical Center display has been targeted by an outside group for being "intolerable" and "unconstitutional."

The Bible, carried by a prisoner of war in World War II, was donated and displayed on the Missing Man Table memorial honoring missing veterans and POWs. But it was removed when the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) complained about its presence.

The VA then moved it to a display case, but Mikey Weinstein, the founder of MRFF, complained again, calling it even more objectionable.

But veterans in the area say the Bible is a historical symbol, not an attempt to stuff religion down anyone's throat.

"That Bible is not just a religious artifact," Paul Martin of the Northeast POW-MIA Network told WMUR. "What it means is this guy held on to love, faith, and hope, family, and trust in this nation -- that they would do everything they possibly could to bring him home."

The POW-MIA network said it is doing all it can to move the Bible back to the memorial that was set up last year.

VA officials said in a statement that they "consulted with appropriate legal counsel before placing this treasured WWII artifact, which happens to be a Bible, with the display and is confident that this does not impinge on Constitutional protections."

But Weinstein disagrees.

"That is still a Christian Bible," Weinstein said. "It is still promoting -- particularly in the surrounding aspect of the POW-MIA remembrance, one of the most sacred things you could do in the military -- one faith over another faith."

Website: Fox News