China Tells US to Back Off on Religious Freedom Criticism, Claims America Isn't Role Model for Human Rights

By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian Post

China is pushing back against the U.S. State Department's annual religious freedom report that highlights the Communist government's persecution of Christians and religious minorities, stating that the U.S. needs to solve its own problems with white supremacist violence.

Bob Fu, president of persecution watchdog group China Aid, told The Christian Post, however, that China is "incorrect" in drawing a comparison between the two issues.

"The Chinese government is directly responsible for their abuses, while the U.S. government is not necessarily responsible for racism," Fu said in an email on Thursday.

"In Charlottesville, racism occurred because a group of white nationalist individuals who are not affiliated with the government acted on their prejudices, and many U.S. officials went on to condemn their actions, demonstrating that this is not a human rights abuse that can be tied to the government," he continued.

"China, on the other hand, implements local and national policies that specifically target specific groups of people and even goes so far as to hold official conferences about how to properly execute these policies. This denotes a direct government responsibility for the abuses."

The 2016 International Religious Freedom Report, released earlier this week, provided an update on the religious freedom situation in 199 countries around the world.

It criticized China for a number of reported human rights abuses, such as one incident in April 2016 in Zhumadian, Henan province, where the pastor of an unregistered church and his wife were buried alive while trying to save their church from government-ordered demolition. While the pastor survived, his wife, Ding Cuimei, died.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying argued in her response on Wednesday that China protects religious freedom.

"The so-called U.S. report ignores the facts, confuses right and wrong and makes wanton criticism of China's religious freedom situation," she said, according to Reuters, adding that America is not "perfect" either.

State news agency Xinhua further commented on the violence at last weekend's rally between white nationalist socialists and Antifa counter-protesters in Charlottesville — in which one protester was killed by a man who plowed his car into a crowd and two police officers were killed when their helicopter crashed — by suggesting that the U.S. is better off dealing with its own problems first.

Christian Post continues

Anti-Israel Curricula Used in World History Courses Across the Country

Inaccurate, Misleading, and Radical Israel Education is an Ongoing Problem at Area Schools

By Rachel Frommer
Washington Free Beacon

A monograph published late last month of anti-Israel curriculum used in Newton, Mass., public high schools has led to revelations of similar materials in circulation at other school districts in the country, the report's researcher told the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday.

Steven Stotsky of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said that since the release of his findings in "Indoctrinating Our Youth: How a U.S. Public School Curriculum Skews the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Islam," he has received phone calls alerting him to disquieting curricula being used in Michigan and California.

"We turned over a rock and discovered a significant problem," said Stotsky, about his deep dive into textbooks, articles, timelines, and maps used from at least 2011 to 2015—some possibly still in use—for World History course sections on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Islam in Newton's two public high schools, which are among the most prestigious in the country.

The materials included the Arab World Studies Notebook, a textbook the American Jewish Committee has previously condemned as filled with "factually inaccuracies," "overt bias," and "unabashed propagandizing"; a timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that almost entirely omitted instances of Palestinian terrorism; and a misrepresentative translation of the Hamas charter.

Stotsky said procedures must be established for vetting all materials brought into the classroom.

"Teachers are pulling things off the Internet, and a lot of it is fine, but a lot of it not. They can't just be giving this stuff to students," said Stotsky.

He questioned the decision to teach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a history class at all.

"History is complicated enough when you are studying issues that are 100, 200 years old," he said. "You further complicate things when you add current events, and the Israeli-Palestinian issue is still politically and ideologically active."

Stotsky's report was the first comprehensive study of these materials, which were only obtained after a years-long battle with Newton administrators by an ad-hoc group of parents and concerned citizens.

Questions about the Newton curriculum were first raised in 2011, but the school district delayed turning over the documents until the summer of 2015. They only complied with those demands after Judicial Watch submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in October 2014, and even then dragged their feet for another one-and-a-half years.

"The obstruction, the failure to respond to citizens' concerned, the lack of transparency was shocking," said Stotsky. "The fact that it had to go all the way to a FOIA request is outrageous."

An easy fix to the transparency issue, said Stotsky, would be simply throwing all curricula up on the Internet as a matter of policy.

Inaccurate, misleading, and radical Israel education is an ongoing problem at area schools, Stotsky said, pointing to a May 2017 "Middle East History Day" program at Newton North High School, at which he described a speaker as giving an "anti-Israel rant" to 150 students.Washington Free Beacon continues

Defector: Christianity Thrives in North Korea as Citizens ‘No Longer Respect’ Kim Jong-Un

By Edwin Mora

Breitbart

Christianity is spreading in North Korea as fewer citizens in the hermit state consider dictator Kim Jong-Un a god, the Telegraphhas learned from an anonymous defector.

Using figures found in the latest International Religious Freedom Report authored by the U.S. State Department, Breitbart News has determined that the Christian population in North Korea has increased dramatically—at least five-fold—from about 37,000 known practicing Christians in 2012 to between 200,000 and 400,000 now.

The State Department, which gleaned the Christian population figures from data maintained by the United Nations and the Cornerstone Ministries International (CMI), acknowledged the number of Christians in North Korea may be higher.

State learned from CMI that an estimated “10-45 percent” of people imprisoned in North Koreans detention camps are Christians.

“An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions,” points out State in its report.

“CSW [Christian Solidarity Worldwide] said a policy of guilt by association was often applied in cases of detentions of Christians, meaning that the relatives of Christians were also detained regardless of their beliefs.”

An unnamed North Korean defector confirmed the significant increase in North Korea’s Christian population.

“In the past, the people were told to worship the Kim family as their god, but many North Koreans no longer respect Kim Jong-Un”, the defector, now a member of the Seoul-based Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, told the Telegraph. “That means they are looking for something else to sustain their faith.”

“In some places, that has led to the emergence of shamans, but the Christian church is also growing and deepening its roots there”, he also said, adding, “Even though people know they could be sent to prison—or worse—they are still choosing to worship, and that means that more cracks are appearing in the regime and the system.”

North Koreans who practice any form of religion can face jail, torture, or even execution in the communist country, reveals the International Religious Freedom Report for 2016.

Breitbart continues

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The Crisis of the Christian Colleges

Stephen Baskerville
for Crisis Magazine

We are often told these days, quite plausibly, that Christian universities and colleges are in acute crisis. The threat comes from campus radicals in alliance with the federal government’s educational machinery, itself operated by radicalized functionaries. “The expansion of the scope of Title IX legislation by the Obama administration makes colleges that hold to traditional Christian moral positions on homosexuality and transgenderism vulnerable to loss of government funding and to damaging legal actions,” writes Carl Trueman in First Things. 

“Failure to conform to Title IX will be punished with notations and probable loss of accreditation.” Trueman fears, also plausibly, that the institutions will not withstand the pressure and will compromise their integrity and forfeit their Christian mission in exchange for being allowed to continue.

Continue reading this article at Crisis Magazine using this link. 

Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College and past president of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and attends an Anglican parish in Virginia. His most recent book The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution and Civil Liberty is published by Angelico Press.

Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice.  Follow us on  Pinterest, and Google; like us on Facebook, and visit our website using this link.  

Russia's Crackdown on Evangelism Leads to Prosecution of Mostly Christians 1 Year After 'Anti-Missionary' Law

By Anugrah Kuman
Christian Post

Evangelical Protestants make up the majority of the 181 cases prosecuted by Russian authorities under the country's notorious "anti-missionary" laws, which came into force last July, according to a report. Christians were also prosecuted in Crimea, which Russia occupied in 2014.

Norway-based group Forum 18 recorded 181 cases since July 20, 2016, two weeks after the laws were signed by President Vladimir Putin to ban evangelism outside of churches.

Of these prosecutions under Parts 3, 4, and 5 of Administrative Code Article 5.26, as many as 57 cases were against Protestant churches, including Pentecostals; 26 against Baptists; six against people associated with the Gideon's; and three against Seventh-day Adventists.

There were also cases prosecuted against 41 Jehovah's Witnesses, four Mormon-related cases, three Buddhists, nine Muslims and 12 Hare Krishnas.

Activities such as holding prayer meetings in homes and posting worship times on a religious community's website "have all been interpreted by police and prosecutors as 'missionary activity,'" according to the report.

Part 3 punishes "implementation of activities by a religious organization without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately false label."

Part 4 punishes "Russians conducting missionary activity," and 

Part 5 deals with "foreigners conducting missionary activity."

However, it is still not clear what can amount to a "missionary activity."

Russia has also imposed these punishments in Crimea, filing 27 administrative cases, in which 16 of the cases have thus far resulted in fines. The amendments were introduced as part of an "anti-terrorism" law.

American Pastor Donald Ossewaarde, an independent Baptist missionary who has been living in Oryol, a town 224 miles south of Moscow, for about 15 years, was charged and convicted last August.

"I was accused of gluing two Gospel tracts to a bulletin board at the entrance of an apartment building" and "of conducting a religious service in a private home, which they said was a violation of the new anti-missionary law," the pastor said at the time on his website.

Christian Post continues

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Hungary Offers Asylum as Sweden Prepares to Deport Christian Convert Actress to Iran

“Taking in persecuted Christians is our moral and constitutional duty all at once.” 

By Chris Tomlinson
Brietbart News

Hungary has offered asylum to Christian convert Aideen Strandsson because the Swedish government plans to deport her to Iran where she could face prison or even the death penalty for apostacy.

In 2014, Iranian actress Aideen Strandsson came to Sweden on a work visa and applied for asylum after she had converted from Islam to Christianity. The Swedish Migration Board recently denied Strandsson asylum and began the process of deporting her but now the Hungarian government has offered to take her in instead, Nyheter Idag reports.

Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén released a statement on Hungary’s official government website saying: “Right from the beginning, we have differentiated between economic migrants and genuine asylum-seekers.”

“Taking in persecuted Christians is our moral and constitutional duty all at once,” he added.

Semjén also noted that Christians would have a much easier time integrating into Hungarian society than Muslim migrants. The move backs up previous statements from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who has previously said that multiculturalism and mass migration are endangering the “Christian roots” of Europe.

Breitbart continues

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Islamic Nations Kill Religious Liberty

Bill Donahue
Catholic League for Religious & Civil Rights

"Respecting Rights? Measuring the World's Blasphemy Laws" is a comprehensive report on the status of religious liberty throughout the world. Issued by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, its findings are illuminating on several counts.

Its definition of blasphemy is straightforward: it is defined as "the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God." Of the world's 195 countries, 71 have such laws. Two of them, Malta and Denmark, repealed their blasphemy laws after the data were collected by the Commission.

There were some surprises and some predictable findings. Regarding the former, the following countries sanction imprisonment for blasphemy: Canada, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, and Poland. Not surprisingly, the five nations with the most oppressive blasphemy laws are Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Qatar. They all are Islamic states.

The official religion in Iran is Islam. Article 513 of its Penal Code says that anyone who insults Islam "should be executed if his insult equals to speaking disparagingly of Prophet Muhammad. Otherwise, should be imprisoned from one to five years."

Pakistan is formally known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, with Islam as its state religion. Chapter XV, Section 295-C authorizes death for "innuendo" of an insulting nature. "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."

Continue reading article here

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Freed Christian Pastor Describes North Korean Labor Camp Conditions

Persecution Watchdog Groups Describe North Korea as the Worst Persecutor of Christians in the World 

By Stoyan Zaimov 

Christian Post

Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim, the Christian pastor who last week was freed and returned home to Canada, revealed what he had to suffer through at the North Korean labor camp where he was held.

"During the winter, I had to dig holes that measured one meter wide and one meter deep," Lim said on Sunday upon his return to Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Mississauga, Ontario.

"The ground was frozen. The mud was so hard that it took two days to dig one hole. It was incredibly challenging. My upper body was sweating. My fingers and toes were frostbitten," he recalled, according to The Globe and Mail.

As Reuters reported, Lim was held for more than two years in North Korea after originally being sentenced to hard labor for life in December 2015, accused of attempting to overthrow Kim Jon Un's regime.

Lim spoke before his church on Sunday for the first time since his release. He thanked the Canadian government for its assistance, including National Security Adviser Daniel Jean, who visited North Korea to ask for his freedom.

"It's a miracle for me to be here today," the pastor said in Korean. "I always knew Canada was a very warm and compassionate nation, but through my ordeal I really began to grasp that very deeply."

Lim further revealed that he suffered from "overwhelming loneliness" while in prison, explaining that he ate 2,757 meals in isolation and worshiped alone for 130 Sundays.

Additionally, he read more than 100 books and watched many propaganda films about North Korea's history, which he said allowed him to "grasp and gain a deeper understanding of the 70-year history that formed the nation."

The pastor was made to confess to "indescribable treason" back in 2015 for writing biblical phrases and the name of his church on sacks of food, which the government said represented efforts to try and overthrow the Kim regime.

Senior Pastor Jason Noh said that he was not sure what Lim's role at the church will now be, but said that the congregation's "prayers were answered."

Christian Post continues

Blogger's note: Persecution Unveiled has posted many reports of Christian persecution from various watch groups.  Visit Open Doors that ranks the top 50 countries persecuting Christians.

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Cuban Pastor Jailed for Homeschooling Kids Told He Can Resume Work as Church Leader, but Can't Leave His House

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

A Cuban pastor who was jailed and later placed under house arrest because he and his wife began homeschooling their children earlier this year will now be allowed to resume his work as a church leader, a leading religious freedom watchdog group has reported.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a United Nation's accredited human rights organization, Pastor Ramon Rigal of the Church of God in Cuba made an appearance in court Tuesday where he was granted the right to resume his work for the church after he was initially barred from doing so upon his release from a correctional facility last month.

Rigal's troubles with the socialist government began in February when he and his wife, Adya, were arrested for refusing to send their children to a state-run school. The couple felt that the teachings their children were receiving in the state school emphasised a Marxist-Leninist secular ideology that cuts down their Christian beliefs.

In April, Rigal was sentenced to one year in prison, while Adya was sentenced to one year of house arrest. The Homeschool Legal Defense Association reported that during the trial, Ramon wasn't allowed to speak in his defense.

"I brought evidence that my children were learning — notebooks and materials — [but] they didn't care," Rigal was quoted as saying.

Rigal's prison sentence was reduced to house arrest in early July. CSW reports that the release from prison came with the caveat that Rigal enroll his children in state school in September. Additionally, he was barred from serving as a church leader.

CSW notes that even though Rigal has been granted permission to resume his work with the church, he and his wife are still confined to house arrest. Additionally, the issue with their children's education remains unresolved because the children have also been given scholarships to an online course through a Christian institution.

"While we welcome the news that Pastor Rigal will be able to continue leading his church, he and his wife are still under house arrest," CSW senior advocate Anna Lee Stangl said a statement. "We continue to call for the unwarranted sentences that he and his wife received to be cancelled and for the government to cease its harassment of the family and their church."

Christan Post continues

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Sweden Tells Iranian Christian Woman Fearing Deportation It’s Her ‘Problem She Decided to Become Christian’

Open Doors Report: Iran Ranked Eighth on 'World Watch List' of World's Top 50 Countries Persecuting Christians 

By Pamela Geller

“Sweden Tells Iranian Christian Woman Fearing Deportation It’s Her ‘Problem She Decided to Become Christian,'” by Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post, August 7, 2017:

An Iranian actress, who moved to Sweden after her conversion from Islam to Christianity following a vision of Jesus in her dream, is now facing deportation and has been told by Swedish authorities “it’s not our problem if you decided to become a Christian” even if the refusal of asylum results in rape, torture or death.

“They said to me it’s your personal life and it’s not our problem if you decided to become a Christian, and it’s your problem,” Christian Broadcasting Network quoted Aideen Strandsson as saying.

Strandsson traveled to Sweden in 2014 on a work visa, and has twice been denied asylum in that country. 

“It is really dangerous for me and I don’t know why immigration doesn’t believe that,” she said. “I’m really in danger.”

However, Swedish authorities do not seem to care. “Her case has been appealed and processed by the Migration Agency and thereafter by the Swedish courts, which have also decided that she cannot be granted asylum,” Swedish migration board official Ulrika Langels told CBN.

Swedish attorney Gabriel Donner pointed out, “The (Swedish) migration board information regarding Iranian prisons tell us that torture and rape is common and it is a breach of international law to subject any person to such treatment. Some of them are killed straight off, some of them succeed in going into hiding, some of them escape to another place, but you are putting them at risk.”

Strandsson’s Iranian passport has been taken away. Her first choice is to remain in Sweden, if possible, the actress said.

“I read the Bible and I understood what Jesus said about peace, about love, about kindness, and in my heart I became a Christian when I was in Iran,” she said earlier.

Pamela Geller's report continues

Blogger's note: Many muslims are coming to Jesus through dreams and visions.  Please pray for Aideen that she will be given asylum and not be deported from Sweden. Pray also for Christians who are under heavy persecution in muslim countries.

Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice.  Follow us on  Pinterest, and Google; like us on Facebook, and visit our website using this link.  

Prayer Banned at Graduation After Atheists Complain

By Bob Kellogg
One News Now

A prominent atheist organization has successfully intimidated an Indiana school district, which announced that it will no longer make prayer a part of graduation ceremonies after receiving a threatening letter from atheists.

A lawyer for the Roosevelt STEAM Academy has confirmed that prayers will no longer be a part of the Indiana high school's graduation ceremonies.

Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) president Brad Dacus concedes that the law is on the Freedom From Religion Foundation's (FFRF) side in this case.

"Case law says the public schools cannot have prayer – in terms of formal invocation or benediction – as part of a program," Dacus explains.

However, the attorney stresses that it's important to remember that no school or organization can stifle a student from personally expressing his or her religious beliefs.

"If a school district goes and censors a student who has already earned that podium to speak at that graduation ceremony, like valedictorian, and if they censor that student because of religious content, they are themselves begging for a lawsuit," Dacus points out.

The attorney encourages parents to become familiar with information about the religious rights of their children in public schools - information that's available through PJI’s Reclaim Your School document.

Website: One News Now

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

A Dao woman walks past a church in Sapa town 

in northern Lao Cai province (217 miles) from Hanoi 

By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christian Post continues

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

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

By Susan Crabtree
Washington Free Beacon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Washington Free Beacon continues

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

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

By Bradford Richardson
The Washington Times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Washington Times article continues

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Islamist Militants in Kenya went House to House Killing Christians

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

Displayed are weapons captured in a successful 

operation.  Reuters

By Mark Woods
Christian Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christian Today continues 

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Christian School Appeals Ruling Barring Prayer Before Championship Game

By Joshua Gill
The Daily Caller

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

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

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

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

The Daily Caller continues

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

By Adelle Nazarian
Breitbart

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Persecution of Christians Isn't Rare: Franklin Graham

By Franklin Graham
USA Today

It’s shocking to our Western eyes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

USA Today continues

Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice.  Follow us on  Pinterest, and Google; like us on Facebook, and visit our website using this link.  

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

 

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

By Joseph Hartropp
Christian Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Website: Christian Today

Christian School Defunded Over Bible Verses

By Scotty Robinson
The News Blaster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The News Blaster article continues