Pakistani Christians attacked over church construction, 1 left partially paralyzed

Pakistan ranks as the fifth worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List.

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

A Pakistani Christian man is partially paralyzed after a mob of Muslim men shot two Christians and attacked another with an ax for constructing a church in a village in Punjab province.

The Union of Catholic Asia News reports that 25-year-old Azeem Gulzar is now paralyzed from the right shoulder down after he was shot in the head on Feb. 2 in Punjab’s Sahiwal district.

Gulzar’s cousin was also shot while his uncle was attacked with an ax, according to Gulzar’s younger brother, Waseem. All three men were taken to a hospital but have since been released.

Gulzar, a tailor, had donated a 550-square-foot plot to be used as the site of a new church for the town’s 150 Christians. However, plans for the church drew the ire of area Muslims as the plot shares a wall with a property owned by a Muslim school teacher.

The attack came after months of disagreements between Gulzar’s family and the owner of the neighboring plot, Muhammad Liaqat. The attack also followed the Christian community’s winning of consent from a district coordinator for the church’s construction.

However, a Muslim villager has claimed that community members were successful in getting a court to issue an injunction against the church's construction.

Gulzar’s family built a wall and door on the construction site on Feb. 2. But later that night, about 15 Muslims descended on the property to tear down the wall. When Gulzar and his family tried to stop the destruction, they were attacked.

“It was Sunday. We spent the whole day building the wall and finished at 7 p.m.,” Waseem told UCANews.com. “We only wanted to secure our property against any forceful occupation. Three hours later, we heard a crowd chanting on our doorstep. As we tried to explain our stance, someone resorted to aerial firing. My brothers were the next targets.”

According to the U.K.-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, both the Muslim and Christian communities in the area have accused each other of launching the attack and two different police reports have been filed related to the altercation.

One Muslim villager told UCANews that some in the Christian community had “threatened to kill us” if they were stopped from constructing the church.

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Messianic Humanitarian Community Attacked in Jerusalem

The vast majority of rabbis would not support a violent attack on a Messianic Jewish center, let alone one with women and children inside.

By Michael Brown, Ph.D
Christian Post

The contrast between the two videos is stark. The first is terribly disturbing.
The second is tremendously inspiring. The first shows security camera footage of some young thugs vandalizing a building and assaulting a female worker.
The second, which is an interview I conducted, shows the female worker and her father expressing their love and concern for the thugs. That is the power of Messiah’s grace in Jerusalem. And that is the opposition faced by Messianic
Jews living there.

Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.

The community that was attacked is called Adullam. It focuses on compassionate, humanitarian outreach to hurting Israelis, including ultra-Orthodox Jews and those who have left that community. It also serves at-risk Israelis from other backgrounds.

But because of its effective outreach to religious Jews, it has come under intense fire, with a well-known radical inciting some young people to go on the attack.

As reported in Kehila News, “Members of Lehava, a violent anti-assimilation organization led by Ben-Zion Gopstein – a former disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahana – have been attacking a safe house for at-risk youth which is operated by a Messianic family.”

Michael, who manages the safe house, tells the story.

“When they came, during opening hours, we asked them to leave and said that we have three little children here. They didn’t care. They left and came back throwing bricks and stones at us. One flew right by one of our heads.”

But that was not the end. The thugs returned again, ultimately knocking out the windows with bricks and rocks as well as carrying out at least one physical assault.

Thankfully, with security cameras just installed, the last attack was captured on video. As for how the police will respond, that remains to be seen.

Does all this confirm the worst suspicions of the anti-Semites? Does it prove how evil “the rabbis” are? Does this point to the fundamentally corrupt nature of “the Jews”?

Certainly not.

There are bad apples in every religion, including Judaism.

There are corrupt leaders in every religion, including Judaism.

And there are thugs in every nation, including Israel.

The vast majority of rabbis would not support a violent attack on a Messianic Jewish center, let alone one with women and children inside.

And the vast majority of Israelis, most of whom are not religious, would be appalled at such an attack.

That being said, there is a price to pay for being a Messianic Jew in Israel, especially when reaching the ultra-Orthodox. And we certainly can expect more attacks like this, especially as the Adullam movement spreads to other locations throughout the Land. (For the origin of the term Adullam and its significance, see 1 Samuel 22:1).

It’s important, however, to reiterate that the movement provides humanitarian and compassionate help for Israelis from all backgrounds. And some of the team members have worked for years in Muslim communities in Israel.

Christian Post article continues here

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Most Evangelical Christians Live Outside North America and Europe, New Study Finds

“Most Christians in the world today are not westerners and do not speak English as their mother tongue.”

                   Photo courtesy:©Getty Images/Kilav

By Will Maule
Christian Headlines

A new study has concluded that most evangelical Christians do not live in North America or Europe. According to French researcher Sebastian Fath, most actually reside across Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Of the roughly 660 million evangelicals in the world, roughly 215 million are thought to live in Asia, while 66 million are based in China, 28 million in India, 16 million in Indonesia, 13 million in the Philippines and 9 million in South Korea.

It is estimated that around 123 million live in South America, mostly across Brazil, Argentina and Guatemala. North America is thought to boast around 107 million evangelicals – 93 in the United States, ten million in Mexico and 4 million in Canada. Shockingly, Europe is host to just 23 million.

Fath’s study aligns with a previous report released by the Pew Research Center which highlighted the same explosion of faith across regions outside of the United States. “Christianity has grown enormously in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, where there were relatively few Christians at the beginning of the 20th century,” the report reads.

Indeed, many believe that China – where Christian persecution is at extreme levels – will contain the most believers of any country in the world by the year 2035.

One thing is clear: evangelical Christianity is spreading far beyond North America, and this trend looks set to continue indefinitely.

“Most Christians in the world today are not westerners and do not speak English as their mother tongue,” Biblical scholar N.T. Wright noted in an interview with The Christian Post.

“Christianity is flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia, in Latin America, in all sorts of ways. And I think we in the West need to not say, ‘Oh well, they're a bit behind and they need to catch up with us.’ We need to say, ‘Maybe it's we who've gone a bit over the hill and we need to be reminded of where the action really is.”

Christian Headlines article continues here

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Christian Postal Service Worker Sues USPS Over Religious Discrimination

                                                        Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Image

By Tre' Goins-Phillips
Faithwire

A Christian postal worker from Pennsylvania is suing the U.S. Postal Service after he was forced to quit over a requirement to work Sundays, a mandate that didn’t come until the USPS began partnering with Amazon for delivery.

Gerald Groff filed the lawsuit several weeks ago, according to the Associated Press, arguing he was let go from his position after refusing to work on Sundays for religious reasons. Groff explained in his filing that he made himself available for work on holidays and evening hours to accommodate his religious convictions.

He was never mandated to work Sundays until the partnership with Amazon.

Soon after the partnership developed between the USPS and Amazon, the government agency began implementing a no-exceptions policy against taking off work on Sundays. The seven-year veteran postal worker was “needlessly disciplined” over the matter, Groff’s filing stated.

He ultimately resigned in January 2019.

“In a free and respectful society, government should recognize those differences among us that make us great, rather than punishing those differences, particularly when those differences result from our sincerely held religious beliefs,” said David Crossett, one of the attorneys representing Groff.

Groff’s lawsuit is seeking the reinstatement of the postal worker’s position with his religious accommodation, back pay for the time since he was forced to resign from the job, and an unspecified amount of money for emotional damages.

While the USPS is a federal agency, it operates independently and does not draw on taxpayer dollars to fund its services. Nevertheless, Groff is requesting in his suit that the USPS create policies to provide equal employment opportunities for applicants and workers who observe the Sabbath on Sundays.

Jeremy Samek, an attorney for Independence Law Center, one of the firms representing Groff, told WHTM-TV that his client’s request “is not uncommon.”

“Employers are actually required to provide reasonable accommodations. It’s something that happens every single day,” he said. “[A]t the end of the day, Mr. Groff wants his job back.”

“It’s important for him,” Samek continued, “but it’s also important for lots of other people who work for the federal government or the post office that they be able to continue their employment and to continue to observe their religious beliefs.”

Faithwire article continues here

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Disney Launches New TV Show Featuring Demons and Witches

“Disney has gone farther and farther into the darkness of the spiritual world that opposes the living God.” 

By Mikaela Mathews

Christian Headlines

Disney has released a new TV show, “The Owl House” that has concerned some parents with its emphasis on witchcraft and demons.

The show focuses on a teenage girl named Luz who discovers a demon world and lives with a powerful witch named Eda the Owl Lady. Luz disguises her identity as a human in order to survive in the demon world and attend witch school. Her greatest ambition is to become like Eda.

“The original pitch [for the show] was ‘girl hangs out with witch in hell,’” said voice actor Alex Hirsch, according to Newsweek.

And, the show’s art director, Ricky Cometa, shared, “We really wanted to make this demon realm feel like home, and just had to figure out how to do it.”

“The Owl House” premiered on Friday, January 10 and has already been handed a second season from Disney. The show’s creator, Dana Terrace, anticipated push back when pitching the idea to Disney for a darker show, but the media conglomerate was willing to take the risk.

“There is sometimes a concern with family networks for what is considered family friendly…because Disney is such a big company that in certain corners, they say that maybe they don’t want to take those risks,” said Hirsch. “Walt Disney took those risks, and that’s why we are sitting in this building. You have to remind yourself that Disney is the full spectrum of emotions, creatures and scary things.”

Terrace also hopes to create an inclusive environment for kids with the show.

“I hope that people are entertained and learn that if you are a little weird, if you don’t feel at home somewhere, then there is a place for you somewhere. You just have to look a little,” she said.

But several parents have voiced concern of the show, including Deborah Bunting, an opinion writer for Faithwire.com. “Disney has gone farther and farther into the darkness of the spiritual world that opposes the living God,” Bunting asserted.

In the past several years, witchcraft has made a steady return to mainstream culture. As previously reported by Christian Headlines, thousands of witches gathered in October to cast a “binding” spell on President Donald Trump in an effort to stop “his malignant works.” Wiccans have grown in number from 8,000 followers in 1990 to an estimated 1.5 million in 2014.

According to Lifesite News, “The Owl House” joined the controversy stirred last month when major retailers debated offering a book called “A Children’s Book of Demons” which teaches children how to summon fiends.

“As ridiculous as the ‘demons’ contained in the book may be, there is nothing innocent or fun about even pretending to summon evil spirits,” said blogger Elizabeth Johnson on Activist Mommy. “But who is to say it is pretend? The spirit world is real and is no laughing matter.”

Website: Christian Headlines

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US Navy Rejects Atheist Group’s Complaints To Remove Bible From POW/MIA Display

"Strength through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God..."

By Rhoda Gayle
GodTV.com


Missing Man

The traditional display at the “Missing Man” table honors prisoners of war and those missing in action. It was recently a hot topic of controversy. It is housed at the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa in Nakagami District, Okinawa, Japan.

Earlier this month, the MRFF and two families in Okinawa sent a letter of complaint. The atheist group is complaining about the Bible in the Missing Man table display. They are claiming that the US Navy is violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They also stated that the inclusion of the Bible in the display is an attempt to convert Japanese citizens to Christianity.
U.S. Navy

After a thorough investigation of the issue, Rear Adm. Pearigen decided to keep the Bible on the POW/MIA display.

“You also expressed concern that the presence of the Bible, and the explanation in both English and Japanese that it represents ‘strength through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God,’ is improper,” Pearigen wrote in a letter. “I assure you that the Bible and the description of the POW/MIA remembrance table are consistent with DoD and DoN guidance and with the Constitution.”

The Bible

Rear Adm. Pearigen further explained that the Bible on the display does not promote religion.

“The ceremony originated with the National League of Families and has been adopted by civic organizations and the DoD. When depicted with the other eight ceremonial items, the book is not the focal point of the table,” Pearigen added.

“As one of nine symbolic references on the table, the purpose of the book and accompanying description is not to promote religion, but to commemorate the strength and resolve required of POWs and MIA personnel in the most difficult of times.”

Read also: Hobby Lobby President Opens Up About Deep Commitment To The Bible 

Website: GodTV.com

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Judge Rules in Favor of Wheaton College Sudents Barred from Evangelizing at Park

Attorney John Mauck speaks during a press conference about a legal

complaint filed on behalf of four Wheaton College students at Millennium 

Park in Chicago, Illinois on Sept. 18, 2019. | Mauck & Baker, LLC

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Wheaton College students who were barred from evangelizing in a downtown Chicago park must be allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights until the legal dispute is resolved.

Judge John Robert Blakey, an Obama appointee, ruled in favor of four students who attend the evangelical higher education institution. Blakey granted a preliminary injunction against a set of rules that govern the city’s 24-acre Millenium Park.

The student plaintiffs are part of the Chicago Evangelism Team sponsored by the Wheaton College Office of Christian Outreach with the mission of proclaiming the Gospel “in the city of Chicago to whomever we find there.” The group often meets on Friday nights to travel downtown to share the Gospel.

In September, the students filed a lawsuit, stating that they were barred by security from evangelizing at Millennium Park, which hosts a range of activities from concerts, dance performances, theater and other shows throughout the year.

The students sought an injunction against the park’s stated rules. Among other things, the park bans “disruptive conduct” and “passing out of written communications.”

In his order, Blakey argued that the city prohibits “reasonable forms of expression in large areas of the park” and that the city’s defense of the park policy “rests upon its misapplication of the government speech doctrine.”

“The City contends that, by curating art and programming, it exercises permissible government speech making its restrictions immune to First Amendment attack because the rules further such government speech,” the judge wrote. “This Court rejects the City’s flawed reading of this important doctrine.”

According to the judge, the government speech doctrine recognizes that “the government may also engage in speech and that the First Amendment does not regulate government speech as it does private speech.”

Blakey explained that courts apply the government speech doctrine in two limited contexts. One context, the judge wrote, is when the government itself speaks. The second, he added, is when the government appropriates public funds to transmit a message through private speakers.

“Neither of those situations are present here,” the judge noted in the order. “This case does not involve the appropriation of public funds to transmit a message through private speakers. Nor do movants challenge the government’s own speech.”

The plaintiffs’ argued that the government’s ban limits their ability to engage in “protected activity.”

“The government speech doctrine is inapplicable where, as here, the relevant question concerns whether the City’s rules unconstitutionally restrict private speech on public property,” Blakey wrote.

He set a status hearing for March 4.

Plaintiff Gabriel Emerson said the Wheaton student group is “thankful” to have their speech protected at Millennium Park.

“[We] look forward to preaching the Gospel there in the days to come,” Emerson stated.

John Mauck, an attorney representing the students, said in a statement that the ruling “benefits anyone who wishes to exercise their First Amendment rights in a traditional public forum, regardless of the political, religious, or ideological content of their message.”

“We are thankful to God for this legal protection and our request to Mayor [Lori] Lightfoot is to desist the City’s misguided efforts to prevent people from freely expressing and exchanging ideas in Millennium Park,” Mauck said. 

Christian Post article continues here

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Pastor Among 2 Dozen Killed After Gunmen Storm Church Service in Burkina Faso

Deacon, Pastor and Pastor's Family Murdered in Separate Incidents

A church in Burkina Faso. | Khym54 via Flickr

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

A pastor and at least 23 others were killed and 18 others injured after gunmen attacked a church in northeast Burkina Faso on Sunday. In a neighboring community, a deacon, a pastor, and the pastor’s family were killed by abductors over the weekend.

Col. Salfo Kabore, the regional governor, told AFP that a group of “armed terrorists” attacked a Protestant church in the border village of Pansi in the Yagha province during worship services on Sunday.

Kabore said that gunmen “attacked the peaceful local population, after having identified them and separated them from non-residents.”

The mayor of Boundore commune, Sihanri Osangola Brigadie, told ABC News that about 20 gunmen had attacked the church. Brigadie visited some of the victims at a hospital located about 110 miles from the attack.

"It hurt me when I saw the people," Brigadie was quoted as saying.

A government official who spoke with ABC News on the condition of anonymity said that both Muslims and Christians were killed in the attack and the church was set on fire.

Additionally, the gunmen were said to have kidnapped three minors and forced the youth to help transport oil and rice raided from the town shops.

A resident of Sebba, a nearby town to Pansi, told AFP that fleeing villagers fled to Sebba for safety.

The attack comes as over 4,000 were killed by Islamic extremist attacks in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali in 2019, according to the United Nations envoy for West Africa and the Sahel Mohamed Ibn Chambas.

Since 2016, Islamic extremist groups including the Islamic State West Africa Province and Ansaroul Islam have carried out attacks throughout the Sahel region of West Africa.

But attacks increased fivefold in 2019. Burkina Faso has been at the center of the deadly trend. Chambas told the U.N. Security Council in January that deaths rose in Burkina Faso from 80 in 2016 to 1,800 in 2019.

"Most significantly, the geographic focus of terrorist attacks has shifted eastwards from Mali to Burkina Faso and is increasingly threatening West African coastal states," Chambas warned at the time.

According to the U.N., the number of people displaced in Burkina Faso rose 1,200 percent in 2019. There are about 600,000 internally displaced people in the country as it is becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crises.

According to Open Doors, a leading Christian persecution watchdog operating in over 60 countries, the attack on the church in Pansi comes just days after an attack on a Christian community in the nearby town of Sebba.

Gunmen reportedly murdered Lankoande Babilibile, a deacon of the Evangelical SIM Church in Sebba, last Tuesday. The gunmen also reportedly used Babilibile’s car to abduct the church’s pastor, Omar Tindano, two of Tindano’s daughters, Tindano’s son and Tindano’s two nephews, according to Open Doors.

On Thursday, Open Doors was informed that that Tindano along with his son and nephews were reportedly executed while his daughters were released.

The attack in Pansi on Sunday was the third attack on a Protestant church in Burkina Faso in addition to a number of attacks on Catholic communities.

Christian Post article continues here

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Egypt Extends Detention of Coptic Christian Activist, Delays Court Hearing

“Egyptian Christians are often victims of social exclusion and face constant discrimination in areas such as justice, education and basic social services,” Open Doors USA

Coptic activist Rami Kamil | Coptic Solidarity

By Samuel Smith

Christian Post
Authorities in Egypt have again delayed the court hearing for a Coptic Christian activist jailed last November on “preposterous charges,” according to a persecution watchdog group.

It's been over two months since plainclothes police officers in Cairo raided the home of Christian activist Rami Kamil during the early hours of the morning. He was taken into custody and reportedly accused of joining a terror group as well as broadcasting false information.

However, advocates contend that Kamil was targeted because of his advocacy for human rights and religious freedom. Kamil is part of the Maspero Youth Union, an activist group fighting for equality and civil rights for the Coptic community. He has also written about the mistreatment suffered by Christians in Egypt.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a United Nations-recognized NGO that works in several countries to assist persecuted communities, reports that Kamil was slated to appear before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on Jan. 19.

But on the day of his hearing, Kamil’s lawyers waited several hours before being informed that the Ministry of Interior did not bring Kamil from Torra prison to the SSSP office for the hearing.

According to CSW, this is not the first time that the government ministry failed to transfer Kamil from the prison to the hearing.

Sources who spoke with the nonprofit agency believe that failure to bring Kamil to his scheduled hearings are an attempt to prolong his legal process as well as increase psychological pressure.

There have been several “procedural irregularities” in Kamil’s case. According to CSW, Kamil’s detention was extended by 15 days after an interrogation by prosecutors. Defense attorneys were informed that Kamil’s detention would be extended again even though he has not been formally charged with a crime.

It is not yet clear when the next hearing is scheduled.

“Mr. Kamil’s detention increasingly appears to be an effort to punish him for his work as a human rights defender,” CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said in a statement. “We call for his immediate and unconditional release, and for due process to be observed.”

SSSP officials are accused of preventing Kamil’s lawyers from gaining full access to documents related to their client’s case while the request for Kamil’s release remains unanswered.

“Mr. Kamil’s lawyers must be permitted to access every document and testimony related to this case to mount an appropriate defense,” Thomas added.

“The Egyptian government must ensure that it upholds its constitutional obligation under article 53 to ensure equality before the law without discrimination.”

Egypt ranks as the 16th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List. 

Christian Post continues here

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Judges Rule Against Kidnapped 14-Year-Old Christian Girl: 'Unable to Treat Christians as Pakistani Citizens'

"Once again, justice has been defeated and, once again, our state has shown itself unable to treat Christians as Pakistani citizens"

By Steve Warren
CBN News

A Pakistan high court has handed down a ruling based on Islamic "sharia" law that says men in Pakistan can marry underage girls as long as they have had their first menstrual cycle.

International Christian Concern (ICC), a Christian persecution watchdog group, reports the ruling handed down by a two-judge panel is in direct opposition to the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act which forbids marriage below the age of 18.

The ruling came during the latest court hearing into the kidnapping, forced conversion and marriage of Huma Younus, a 14-year-old Christian girl.

As CBN News reported, Younus was kidnapped by three men from her home in Karachi last October. The men waited on her parents to leave the house before forcibly taking the young girl. She was reportedly taken to Dera Gazi Khan, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, more than 370 miles from her home.

Since then, the girl's parents have been doing everything they can to recover their daughter.

Younus' parents received documents from the abductors a few days after she was taken, including papers showing her alleged conversion to Islam and a marriage certificate. The girl's mother Nagina said the papers are fake because the date on documents was the same as the day when her daughter was abducted.

In an effort to rescue their daughter, the family argued the marriage to a man named Jabbar was invalid under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act. The Christian couple supplied the court with baptismal and school documents proving Huma is 14, according to the ICC. She was born on May 22, 2005, the Independent Catholic News reports.

The law in question was passed almost six years ago in an effort to stop forced marriages to minors in the province. The practice is prevalent among Hindus and Christian girls, according to various media outlets.

During the court hearing, judges Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Irshad Ali Shah ruled that the marriage between Huma and Jabbar is valid because she has already had her first period.

"Once again, justice has been defeated and, once again, our state has shown itself unable to treat Christians as Pakistani citizens," Nagheena Younus, Huma's mother, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Huma's parents have vowed to take her case to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

"On February 3rd we went to the Sindh High Court but our little girl was not in the courtroom. If we do not get justice, we will address the case to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. We believe that the government and the judges are delaying the decision because our girl is 14 years old. They want to wait for her to turn 18 and then close the case," she explained.

Tabassum Yousaf, Younus' lawyer, told the ACN they hoped the law could have been applied for the first time in Huma's case.

"But evidently in Pakistan these laws are formulated and approved only to improve the image of the country in front of the international community, ask for development funds, and freely trade Pakistani products on the European market," he said.

Another hearing in the case has been scheduled for March 4.

CBN News continues here

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Religious Freedom is an Inconvenient Right to American Progressives

Nothing in our founding documents allows the federal government, activists, or pop culture icons to infringe on these rights. Given by the Creator, our rights pre-date stone tablets and inform our written laws.

By Ken Blackwell, OpEd Contributer
Christian Post

As political and ideological divisions in our nation become more polarized, it seems religious intolerance has become a tool of choice for many waging war on traditional American values.

Why? Because faith brings values, principles and morals. None of these comport with hedonism, socialism or narcissism.

The first task for the Founding Fathers was to codify the roles and responsibilities of all branches of government, state and federal, in the U.S. Constitution. After ratifying the document in 1788, some Founders were concerned there was not quite enough law to ensure the heavy hand of government would not encroach on individual liberty. James Madison then drafted the Bill of Rights and it was ratified in 1791.

It was no accident that religious freedom was in the first amendment. The Founders sought to protect people from government limiting faith. What they never saw coming was religious oppression from one group of “We the People” to another.

Technology and media have lifted the veil on cultural declinists who depend on the removal of God from the public square. Public figures embrace hypocrisy, and the entertainment industry mocks values and celebrates immorality as recently demonstrated in the Super Bowl halftime show.

The Trump Administration has made religious freedom a central issue. President Trump has issued strong statements embracing religious liberty, released guidance protecting prayer, and made a powerful United Nations speech calling for global religious freedom.

Ken Blackwell served as the mayor of
Cincinnati, Ohio, the Ohio State
Treasurer, and Ohio Secretary of State

It is, ironically, possible that this embrace of existing religious freedom by the President and by newly-emboldened Americans of every faith is further inciting morally rudderless relativists and secularists to push their oppressive anti-faith agenda. Freedom, Godliness and the rule of law is the natural enemy of progressive values. 

According to the FBI, religious hate crimes were up from 1,239 in 2010 to 1,879 in 2018, increasing in three of the country’s most liberal cities—New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. 

Anti-Muslim violence decreased while anti-Semitic violence increased with 58% of reported crimes against Jews.

Attacks against Christians and Muslims usually comprise religious slurs or vandalism around houses of worship.

According to the Anti Defamation League, there were 7,067 reported incidents of anti-Semitic violence in the U.S. in 2018 and 2019, and forty-eight already in January of this year. The nation was horrified by vicious anti-Semitic attacks in December including a mass stabbing at a rabbi’s home in New York State and a shooting that killed three at a New Jersey kosher grocery store. 

American atheists remain busy fighting against a God they do not think exists. Their agenda includes blocking “Christian Nationalist Legislation”—such as allowing “In God We Trust” on licenses plates.

The ACRU partnered with other religious freedom organizations in opposing an atheist’s demand that a WWI memorial cross in Maryland be removed. In June, 2019, the Supreme Court handed a win to religious freedom by ruling that the Bladensburg Peace Cross could remain standing.

Last October, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo observed, “When religious freedom is denied or destroyed, we know other freedoms are imperiled.” He couldn’t be more right.

The State Department’s 2019 International Religious Freedom Report identifies Burma as a primary “Country of Particular Concern” as Buddhist majority military forces systematically slaughter Rohingya Muslims. Radical Muslim groups, often funded by Iran, call for the annihilation of Israel while individual terrorists kill and maim innocent Israeli citizens. Nigeria’s radical Islamic actors commit mass murder with impunity against its 35 percent Christian population. The North Korean regime demands absolute repression of religious expression.

As Secretary Pompeo noted, there is linkage between religious freedom and other rights. In its annual ranking of economic freedom of 180 countries, The Heritage Foundation’s Index of World Economic Freedom tracks directly with the State Department’s listing of “Countries of Particular Concern” for religious freedom.

Christian Post Op Ed continues here

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Archbishop Protests Slaughter of Christians: Nigeria Is ‘Drifting Toward Anarchy’

“The prayer walk was aimed at offering prayers and supplications unto God to save Nigeria from being consumed by insurgents, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, militants and ritualists in all our states”

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty

By Dr. Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
Breitbart

The ongoing killings of Christians in Nigeria indicate that the country is “drifting towards anarchy,” said Lagos Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins following the murder of an 18-year-old seminarian last week.

In a statement on the diocesan website, the archbishop (pictured) lamented the death of the young seminarian, Michael Nnadi, who had been abducted along with three others in Kaduna State. The other three young seminarians were released but Mnadi was executed by his captors.

“This was a young man who abandoned all with the desire to serve His creator and humanity, now murdered for no just cause,” the archbishop said, while noting that this latest murder was just one of several cases of innocent Nigerians being shot dead on daily basis “while our security services and their chiefs watch as if they were helpless.”

Martins noted the rise in insurgency and the inability of the federal government to arrest the situation, describing it as a symbol of failure in the current security arrangement of the state.

The archbishop also warned that the constant killings of Nigerians should not go unchecked and a mass arrest of the perpetrators should be carried out in the nearest future.

“This appalling situation must come to an end,” his statement said. “We cannot just fold our arms and allow these monstrous activities to continue to thrive. The consequences of the dastardly acts on the psyche of Nigerians can only be imagined. The Federal Government must act now before things get out of hand.”

The only way the government can reassure the people that they are committed to their welfare is to “enforce mass arrest of the perpetrators and bring an end to the menace of kidnapping across the land,” he said.

Warning that the situation could make people start taking laws into their hands, the archbishop urged the president to look into the nation’s security structure and fix it.

“For a while now, many Nigerians from different walks of life have been calling for a revamping of the security arrangements in the nation even if it means the replacement of the Heads of the various Security Agencies in order to give room for new ideas,” Martin said. “It is beyond doubt that the gains of the past few years are being lost because those at the helm of affairs and the soldiers in the thick of the war are tired and need to be replaced.”

Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) organized prayer services and protests across the country Sunday to draw the Federal Government’s attention to the escalating killings, abductions, and insecurity across the nation.

The group protested the recent brutal killing of Lawan Andimi, the CAN Chairman in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, by Boko Haram terrorists, as well as a number of other killings in the nation.

“The prayer walk was aimed at offering prayers and supplications unto God to save Nigeria from being consumed by insurgents, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, militants and ritualists in all our states,” said CAN representative Pastor Adeboye.

“Furthermore, we declared that Jesus who is the Prince of Peace is our Lord and King,” the pastor said. “We carried and displayed several placards saying ‘No’ to further killings and demanding that the Federal and State governments should rise up to their civic responsibility of securing the lives and properties of her citizens.”

In his speech, Adeboye also proposed that “the security infrastructure in our nation be overhauled and improved drastically,” in the hope that current security challenges “will be a thing of the past.”

Website: Breitbart

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Good News Report: Postal Worker Gives Glory to God after Finding Missing Toddler

"It was God-ordained that I be in that place at that time," said Keith Rollins, the USPS employee who found the toddler. "Remarkable man, remarkable."

Keith Rollins, the US postal worker who found 2-year-old Ethan Adeyemi,
says he was in the right place atthe right time.(Photo: WUSA9)

By Staff Writer
Christian Today

The postal worker who found a toddler walking barefoot along a Maryland highway has given God the credit for the incredible rescue.

Ethan Adeyemi, 2, was spotted by Keith Rollins after being missing for 10 hours.

Neighbors, K9 units, helicopters, drones, firefighters and police officers had all joined in the hunt for the toddler after his family reported him missing.

He disappeared from outside his home at around 10:20pm on Wednesday night. But it wasn't until around 8am the following morning that Rollins, a worker for the US Postal Service, saw the toddler as he was driving down the highway in Howard County.

Speaking to local media, Rollins said it was "remarkable" that he found the boy when he did as he was "shivering, cold".

"It was God-ordained that I be in that place at that time," he

Describing the moment he spotted the toddler, he said: "He only had a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, no shoes or socks. So I walked up to him. I said, 'Hey, buddy. How you doing? What's your name? Are you OK?' He looked at me, but I didn't get a response from him."

It was at that moment that Rollins "decided to just scoop him up" and take him back to his vehicle.

"I had a sweater that I tried to cover him up with, and turned up the heat and I called the police back and said that I had the little boy in my vehicle, and within a matter of minutes, the police were there," he said.

Asked if he thought of himself as a hero, he said "not at all".

"Giving glory to God that I was able to help at that particular time and be in the correct place at the right time," he said. 

Website: Christian Today

Torrents of Support Come in as Graham Tour Faces Opposition in the UK

"Franklin, I will pray intensely for you to preach the Gospel of Jesus in Europe, but this is extremely important! Please whatever you do, do not water down the Gospel in order to go to any of those places. The Holy Spirit will work in any place you go and it doesn't have to be inside, just like your dad realized...."

By Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn.

More than 1,800 churches across the United Kingdom are cooperating with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to share the Gospel in multiple cities this spring. That number has steadily increased in past weeks.

When Billy Graham made his first trip to the U.K. in 1954, many protested his visit, leaving Billy Graham to wonder if he would even be allowed off the ship after his transatlantic voyage. By the end of his time there, thousands had come to know Jesus Christ, and many today still share how God transformed their lives during those Crusades.

Now Franklin Graham plans to take the same Good News throughout Scotland and England beginning this May, and again protesters are threatening the outreach, specifically calling Franklin Graham’s Biblical views “hate speech.” Several venues have cancelled.

In response, churches and everyday people from the U.K. have expressed their support of the eight-city Graham Tour, set to begin in Glasgow, Scotland, and end in London this October.

Here are some of their words of encouragement:

The importance of bringing Franklin Graham to Newport [near Cardiff] is not about hate but the absolute opposite. It is about the power of God’s love through Jesus Christ to rescue us from the power of darkness. … Imagine standing before God and saying, “I stopped people having the right to hear your message of the gospel. You sent your son but I stopped the people hearing the message.”
—Alex
Read more from his letter to Jayne Bryant, a member of the Welsh Labour Party who called for Franklin Graham’s tour stop in Cardiff to be cancelled

On behalf of this nation, our church … wants to apologise to Franklin Graham and to ask for forgiveness for rejecting him and rejecting the standard of God he stands for. We choose to honour and welcome Franklin Graham into the UK, we choose to welcome the gospel he carries, and we choose to welcome God and His standard into this nation.
—Lydia and Jonathan

Covenant Fellowship Scotland, which represents hundreds of Church of Scotland ministers, elders and members across the country, believes the decision of the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) and its majority shareholder, Glasgow City Council, not to host the American evangelist Franklin Graham at the Hydro, to be deeply regrettable and alarming, and calls on all parties to reverse the decision in the name of religious tolerance and the right to freedom of speech and expression.
—Covenant Fellowship Scotland

Read more from their press statement

I am praying for Franklin’s trip to the UK that God will be glorified in this situation.
—Lee Ann

Franklin, I will pray intensely for you to preach the Gospel of Jesus in Europe, but this is extremely important! Please whatever you do, do not water down the Gospel in order to go to any of those places. The Holy Spirit will work in any place you go and it doesn’t have to be inside, just like your dad realized. A meeting can be in a tent or in a field. There are God’s people everywhere. … Jesus will show up no matter where you have the word of God being preached.

 … Remember to dust your feet off in that town where they won’t accept you, me or the Gospel and move on. “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (Matthew 10:14-15). Get a very spiritual team to go with you and be prepared for extreme spiritual warfare. We who support you will go with you as well. We are here for you.
—Catherine

Perhaps you should consider what John Wesley did—preach out in the nearby countryside. Cities tend (like the ancient city with the Tower of Babel) to nurture self-centeredness and the tendency to exalt man above God. If these venues do not repent, do not let that be a reason to not proclaim the Gospel in that vicinity. Personally, as one who has dealt with same-sex attraction … it was hiding God’s Word in my heart (from childhood) so that I might not sin against Him, that was my saving foundation.”
—Charles

Website: Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn.

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Kanye West Claims Some Record Labels Prohibit Musicians from Mentioning Jesus

“I believe Jesus died for my sins. There was a time when the devil had me,” he said to over 12,000 students. “Do you know the good news? Jesus can save a wretch like me.”

                       Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Kevin Winter/Staff

By Mikaela Mathews
Christian Headlines

In a recent Sunday Service event in Miami, Kanye told the audience that some record labels contractually forbid artists from saying “Jesus.”

“The devil took all the producers, the musicians, the designers. He moved us all out to Hollywood, moved us all out to New York. Chasing gold statues. Literally signing a contract and selling our souls,” he said to the audience, according to Relevant Magazine. “They got contracts out there that say, ‘you can’t say Jesus.’ When we were working on this album, people were coming to the studio just to say ‘Jesus’ as loud as they wanted to. You can say ‘Jesus’ in ‘Ye studio.”

Rapper Bizzle responded to West’s claim by posting a photo of West, captioning it with lyrics from Bizzle’s song “Lit Lit.” The lyrics read: “I told ‘em I am not for sale and won’t promote evil / they told me I can give you murder, but no JESUS / the devil’s in this game are handpicking yo leaders/that’s why you get 100 dope boys and no preachers.”

Relevant Magazine pondered the claim, pointing out several other best-selling rappers who have also used Jesus’ name in their lyrics, including Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper. Lamar recently sang, “I am a sinner who’s probably gonna sin again. Lord forgive me. Lord forgive me.”

West recently announced the release of a follow-up album to his chart-topping Jesus is King record. West shared that he is working with fellow rapper Dr. Dre on the new album. As Christian Headlines previously reported, he also performed at the Strength to Stand youth conference in Tennessee earlier this year, declaring his victory in Jesus.

“I believe Jesus died for my sins. There was a time when the devil had me,” he said to over 12,000 students. “Do you know the good news? Jesus can save a wretch like me.”

Website: Christian Headlines

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Christians in China Courageously Share Gospel in Coronavirus Crisis Zone

The believers, often operating underground to avoid persecution and prosecution by Communist authorities, are taking advantage of the need for surgical masks.

By Tim Tune
Christian Headlines

As if rallying around the apostles’ declaration that “We must serve God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), Christians continue to boldly share the Gospel in the streets of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Witnesses who share their faith openly not only face possible infection from the dangerous respiratory disease caused by the virus, but also could be subject to potential persecution by authorities, as well.

Despite the potential dangers, CBN News Asia correspondent Lucille Talusan reports that Christians in Wuhan are meeting needs created by the crisis and by doing so are creating opportunities to share the Gospel.

The believers, often operating underground to avoid persecution and prosecution by Communist authorities, are taking advantage of the need for surgical masks. In addition to helping prevent contracting the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, the masks also help shield the identity of the witness.

Talusan reported that a “very courageous” group of Christians in Wuhan have hit the streets to distribute the protective facemasks. As they hand out the masks, Talusan said, “They say that they are Christians and they share the love of Christ and point to Jesus to bring hope to them and their families and the whole of China. ... This is really a breakthrough."

Talusan said that the uncertainty of the crisis has helped heighten the receptiveness to the message of Christ.

While the Chinese Communist government includes Christianity-based Catholicism and Protestantism among the nation’s five officially sanctioned religions, activities of these faith traditions require registration and are subject to complex state-regulatory agencies that manage “all aspects of religious life, including religious leadership appointments, selection of clergy, and interpretation of doctrine,” according to the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

CFR reports that membership in non-sanctioned churches is growing. The CFR website says that “research by Fenggang Yang, of Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society, estimates that there are between 93 million and 115 million Protestants in China, with fewer than 30 million attending officially registered churches.”

Website: Christian Headlines

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‘The Bible Is Banned’ – China Shuts Down Churches, Threatens Christians

“According to orders from the central government, the Bible is banned. You’re designated as a target of the campaign to ‘clean up gang crime and eliminate evil.’” 

By Michael Foust
Christian Headlines 

China’s crackdown on the booming house church movement continued this fall, with government officials raiding worship services and even telling Christians they could no longer read the Bible.

By law, churches in China must register with the government and join either the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (if they’re Protestant) or the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. But because such churches face severe restrictions, millions of Christians have joined illegal, unregistered house churches.

In October, a house church in Jinan, Shandong province was ambushed by a group of local officials, according to the watchdog Bitter Winter.

“From now on, you are not allowed to meet here, nor are you allowed to read the Bible,” a local government official told the church members. “According to orders from the central government, the Bible is banned. You’re designated as a target of the campaign to ‘clean up gang crime and eliminate evil.’”

House churches “all over Shandong province are to be shut down,” the church members were told.

“What kind of government is this?” an elderly Christian asked Bitter Winter. “They turn a blind eye on evil-doers and criminals, but persecute us Christians.”

In August, police officers and government officials raided a house church in the province of Yunnan and ordered the members to join a Three-Self congregation that was “thousands of miles away,” according to Bitter Winter.

“Having no other choice, the churchgoers signed a document that prohibits them from holding religious gatherings,” Bitter Winter reported.

Government officials took the church’s valuables and told church members they would be arrested if they continued gathering. Further, they raided the houses of at least eight church members, “confiscating religious books and tearing down religious paintings,” Bitter Winter said.

In September, government officials raided another church meeting in Yunnan and confiscated 100 religious books published in other countries because owning them “was not in accordance with the Chinese laws.”

The next day, the members were told the pastor was guilty of “illegal preaching” because he did not have a permit. If they met with him again, they could be arrested. 

Christian Headlines continues here

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