9th Circuit Again Denies High School Football Coach Right to Pray on Football Field after Game

Banning coaches from praying just because they can be seen is wrong and contradicts the Constitution

Coach Joe Kennedy filing his complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in
 December 2015 against Bremerton School District. | Courtesy Liberty Institute

By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled against a high school football coach who was fired from his job for praying on the field after games.

For years, high school football coach Joseph Kennedy has pursued legal action against Bremerton School District in Washington state for suspending him due to his prayer practices.

Namely, this involved him praying at the 50-yard line after games, often being joined by players and sometimes giving a motivational speech.

In a unanimous opinion released Thursday, the panel said Kennedy’s practice of praying on the 50-yard line after games was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“BSD’s efforts to prevent the conduct did not violate Kennedy’s constitutional rights, nor his rights under Title VII,” wrote Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. in the panel's opinion.

“In sum, there is no doubt that an objective observer, familiar with the history of Kennedy’s practice, would view his demonstrations as BSD’s endorsement of a particular faith. For that reason, BSD had adequate justification for its treatment of Kennedy …”

The First Liberty Institute, a law firm based in Plano, Texas, which is helping to represent Kennedy, denounced the panel's opinion and vowed to appeal the decision.

“Banning coaches from praying just because they can be seen is wrong and contradicts the Constitution,” stated Mike Berry, First Liberty’s general counsel.

“Today’s opinion threatens the rights of millions of Americans who simply want to be able to freely exercise their faith without fear of losing their job. We plan to appeal, and we hope the Supreme Court will right this wrong. This fight is far from over.”

Americans United for Separation of Church & State, a Washington, D.C.-based group that participated in oral arguments on behalf of the school district, supported the panel's opinion.

“Public schools must provide an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, regardless of their religious beliefs. That includes ensuring that student athletes don’t feel compelled to pray or participate in religious activities to secure their place on a team,” stated Americans United Legal Director Richard B. Katskee.

“Bremerton School District did the right thing: It protected the religious freedom of all the students and their families. Americans United was proud to support the district’s efforts.”

In 2016, Kennedy sued the school district after being suspended in 2015 for his practice of praying on the football field after games, accusing officials of violating his religious freedom.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had previously ruled against Kennedy in 2017, with Smith also authoring that unanimous opinion.

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Chinese Christian Woman Persecuted for Faith Reveals Why Time in Prison was 'Wonderful'

Sister Tong shared how, during her time in prison, God was right there with her, every step of the way. "He felt so near to me during that time," she said.

                    Chinese Christians pray at an underground church

By Leah Marie Ann Klett, Christian Post Reporter

When Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton traveled to China in 2002 to interview Sister Tong, a Chinese Christian who was sentenced to six months in one of the country’s notorious prisons because of her faith, he wasn’t prepared for her response.

“Oh yes, that was a wonderful time,” she told him.

Baffled, Nettleton asked Sister Tong to explain. Was she not imprisoned for six months because she hosted a church — an “illegal religious gathering” under Chinese law — in her home? Were government officials not trying to “re-educate” her, forcing her to become less Christian and more Chinese?

“I'm thinking she’s going to paint a picture for us of how miserable her life was in prison. How hard the bed was, how cold the cell was, how big the rats were,” Nettleton told The Christian Post. “But instead, she looked at me with this heavenly smile."

Sister Tong shared how, during her time in prison, God was right there with her, every step of the way.

"He felt so near to me during that time," she said.

She was also able to start a women’s ministry in prison, sharing Christ with those who had never heard His name.

“So, yes, it was an absolutely wonderful time,” Sister Tong said.

As a relatively new member of the VOM team, Nettleton said he was “blown away.”

“I couldn’t imagine myself being in prison and thinking it was a wonderful time,” he said. “Sister Tong changed my perspective on how I view persecution. What if we all had the attitude, when we faced difficulties like unemployment or sickness, that Jesus was giving us an opportunity to minister and witness to others?”

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Iran: 62-year-old Christian Convert with Parkinson’s Disease faces Prison for Belonging to a Church

An Iranian Christian convert with advanced Parkinson’s disease and his wife have been told to expect a summons any day to begin their prison sentences for belonging to a house-church

March 22, 2021

Iran

The persecution of Homayoun Zhaveh and Sara Ahmadi is not unique. The Iranian government often targets converts to Christianity as apostates, which is a criminal offense in Iran. That is why Zhaveh and Ahmadi were charged with “actions against national security,” solely for practicing the Christian faith. The laws in Iran that grant some limited freedoms to the Christians are generally not considered applicable to converts from Islam to Christianity, who are all too often considered enemies of the state, as we see in this case. The U.S. State Department has classified Iran as a “country of particular concern” for “having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

The Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, requests that the government of Iran grant full religious freedom to all of its citizens, not interfering with their freedom of worship in any way, and immediately clear these seven converts.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of Iran, see here.

“Iranian Christian convert with Parkinson’s disease faces prison,” Article 18, March 16, 2021:

An Iranian Christian convert with advanced Parkinson’s disease and his wife have been told to expect a summons any day to begin their prison sentences for belonging to a house-church.

Homayoun Zhaveh, who is 62, and his wife Sara Ahmadi, 42, were sentenced in November 2020 to two and 11 years in prison, respectively, for membership and leadership of the church, though their case has not been made public until now.

They were also banned from foreign travel or membership of any social or political group for two years after their release, and given six months’ community service at a centre for the mentally disabled.

Their appeals were rejected in December – though Sara’s sentence was reduced to eight years – and on Sunday, 14 March, they were informed that their case has been forwarded on to the government body responsible for enforcing judgments, which may therefore summon them at any moment.

Homayoun and Sara were arrested by agents from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in June 2019 as they holidayed with several other Christian families in the city of Amol, near the Caspian Sea.

The other Christians were also questioned, but only Homayoun and Sara were detained – first in Sari, near Amol, and then in the notorious Evin Prison back in their home city of Tehran.

Homayoun was released a month later, but Sara was held for a total of 67 days, including 33 days in solitary confinement – mostly within the Intelligence Ministry’s Ward 209 – during which time she was subjected to extreme psychological torture.

Their sentences were pronounced by Judge Iman Afshari on 14 November 2020, following a hearing three days earlier at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

They appealed the verdict, but though the judge, Ahmad Zargar, slightly reduced Sara’s sentence in his 30 December verdict, the other aspects of their sentences were upheld.

The couple’s lawyer had argued in his appeal that the law was “unclear” on how meeting as a group of Christians could be construed as membership of an “illegal organization”.

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Chinese Authorities Seize Church Property Days After Raiding House Church

The U.S. State Department has labeled China as a “country of particular concern” for “continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

A cross is seen behind a poster with the logo of Communist Party of 
 China near a Catholic church on the outskirts of Taiyuan,North China's  
 Shanxi province, December 24, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee

By Anugrah Kumar   
Christian Post

Communist authorities in China removed all the belongings of a house church in China’s Chongqing municipality without showing any legal documents, days after raiding the building during a worship service, according to reports.

More than 30 officials, including local police, state security and local district administration, came with trucks and took away all the property, including chairs and books, at Mt. Olive Church in Chongqing on Wednesday, the U.S.-based advocacy organization International Christian Concern reports.

The Texas-based non-governmental organization China Aid reported the same group of officials, led by the Yuzhong District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, raided the church during its worship service last Sunday. The authorities sent the members home and sealed the church without showing any papers to prove official authorization.

Pastor Zhu Dong and several leaders were said to have been brought to the police station.

In January 2018, Mt. Olive Reformed School, founded by the church, was also raided, sealed and charged with being an “illegal venue for proselytization.”

China Aid suspects that the recent crackdown against house churches, which targets especially reformed churches, could be a “gift” to the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese government also continued its campaign against Christianity during the country’s coronavirus outbreak by destroying crosses and demolishing a church while people were on lockdown.

On February 28, authorities raided the Chongqing Living Fountain Church during one of its Sunday services and arrested two Christians, one of whom preached that day. According to China Aid, officers confiscated a computer belonging to the church and told those attending the service not to come on the church grounds again because the church is not registered and "there’s the potential risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus."

In January, police officers, education bureau officials, national security officers and urban management officers raided a house where homeschooled children of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu were playing together, the church said in a Facebook post.

“The police are now raiding the home. There are a large number of police officers outside and inside of brother Liang Huali and Sister Shu Qiong’s home, and they are currently removing brother Liang’s personal belongings. Please pray!” the church wrote.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be "illegal" and unregistered underground home churches.

China ranks as the 17th-worst country in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA’s 2021 World Watch List.

A November 2020 report from the Pew Research Center showed that restrictions on religion in China had risen to a record level. Researchers found that China continued to have “the highest score on the Government Restrictions Index out of all 198 countries and territories in the study.”

In addition to Early Rain Covenant Church, the Chinese Communist Party has forced several well-known churches to shut down, including Rongguili Church in Guangzhou and Xunsiding Church in Xiamen.

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Arkansas Governor Signs Law to Protect Religious Conscience of Healthcare Providers

The bill contends that the conscience of medical practitioners, healthcare institutions and healthcare payers has been increasingly threatened in recent years.

Getty Images/Science Photo Library

By Emily Wood
Christian Post

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed legislation Friday to provide conscience protections for the religious objections of healthcare providers, payers and institutions.

Sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer and Rep. Brandt Smith, both Republicans, “The Medical Ethics and Diversity Act,” S.B. 289, will protect medical professionals from providing services that go against their moral, religious or ethical beliefs, such as performing abortions or sex-change surgeries.

Hutchinson said in a statement that he “weighed this bill very carefully” before signing.

The governor originally opposed the legislation in the 2017 legislative session until it was changed to ensure the ability to exercise the right of conscience is limited to “conscience-based objections to a particular health care service.”

“Most importantly, the federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, and national origin continue to apply to the delivery of health care services,” Hutchinson said in the statement.

The governor said he supports this legislation as long as emergency care is exempted and conscience objections cannot deny general healthcare services to any class of people.

“This bill is about elective things, things you can take time to find a provider who’s willing to offer the service rather than a force a provider who doesn’t believe in doing it,” Hammer said about the bill, according to the Associated Press.

Stephanie Nichols, legal counsel for Alliance for Defending Freedom, a religious freedom legal advocacy group that has argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, commended the governor’s signing for protecting the right of “health care heroes” to serve according to their ethical and religious briefs.

“Patients are best served by doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who are free to act ethically and consistent with their oath to ‘do no harm,’” Nichols said in a statement. “The MED Act ensures that no medical professional is compelled to breach this oath by being forced to participate in procedures or treatments that violate their conscience.”

“Driving out doctors, nurses, and other medical providers because of their faith or ethical convictions means fewer health care options for patients at a time when our nation’s health care system is overstretched and experiencing a dire shortage of providers,” Nichols continued.

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School Teaches Kids to Stop Using 'Mom' and 'Dad': Why This Story Matters and the Rock on Which We Must Stand

This threat of internal compromise in the body of Christ is growing exponentially today.

By Jim Denison, Opinion
Denison Forum on Truth and Culture

A private school in Manhattan is encouraging its students to stop using the terms “mom,” “dad,” and “parents” because the words make “assumptions” about kids’ home lives. Instead, children are encouraged to use the terms “grown-ups,” “folks,” “family,” or “guardians” as substitutes.

In its push for gender inclusion, the school wants its students to substitute “people” for “boys and girls.” Rather than lining up as boys and girls, they are to line up alphabetically or by types of shoes. If someone says, “a boy can’t marry a boy,” they are encouraged to respond by saying, “People can love and commit to whomever they please, it’s their choice who they marry.” Instead of wishing each other “Merry Christmas!” or even “Happy Holidays!,” they are to say, “Have a great break!”

When I saw the story, I assumed it was about another highly secularized school at war with Judeo-Christian morality. Multiple examples of such conflicts are in the news these days. For instance, a curriculum being considered in California seeks to displace Christian culture and recommends that teachers instead lead students in a series of songs and chants to the Aztec gods (whom the Aztecs traditionally worshiped with cannibalism and human sacrifice, by the way).

It turns out, the school in Manhattan is Grace Church School. A school official explained their language policy: “As part of our Episcopal identity, we recognize the dignity and worth common to humanity.”
WHY WE MUST BE SPIRITUAL "FRUIT INSPECTORS"

There are two kinds of threats in our fallen world: those we can identify and those we cannot.

Examples of the former abound: a New York bill that could force schools to teach sex education to kindergartners and gender identity to second graders; the escalation of forced marriages and physical violence against Christian women around the world; and the Biden administration’s push for taxpayer-funded abortions, for instance. Like an Eiffel Tower-sized asteroid that missed our planet on March 5 but will return in eight years, we can see these threats coming.

Other threats are not obvious until they are dangerous, like a meteor that caused “Earth-shaking booms” over Vermont on March 7. Such threats are especially insidious because, by the time we know we are in a conflict, it can be too late to respond.

This is true medically of cancer, heart disease, and other ailments. It is true geopolitically with rising threats from China and elsewhere. And it is true spiritually as well.

In fact, I fear threats from within the body of Christ far more than those from without.

Jesus warned us to “beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). How are we to identify them? He told us, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (v. 16). Ultimately, our Lord assured us, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 19).

THE BIBLE IS AN ANVIL

Grace Church School is an example of this challenge. I wholeheartedly agree that we should “recognize the dignity and worth common to humanity.” Every human is created in the image of our Creator (Genesis 1:27), someone for whom Jesus died (Romans 5:8) and therefore a person of sacred worth.

However, we do not “recognize the dignity and worth common to humanity” by violating God’s word and will for humanity. Scripture not only tells us that we are loved by God (John 3:16)—it also tells us how to live our best lives and how to relate to others in truthful, redemptive ways. When we alter or reject biblical revelation on sexuality or any other issue, however kind our motive might seem, we do far more harm than good.

The Bible has been likened to an anvil—we do not break God’s word; we break ourselves on it.

Christian Headlines continues

Wife of Pastor Arrested for Holding In-Person Worship Services Details Her Husband’s Time in Jail

We are gravely concerned that COVID-19 is being used to fundamentally alter society and strip us all of our civil liberties.

By Amanda Casanova
Christian Headlines

The wife of a Canadian pastor who is in jail for holding in-person worship services says her husband spent “the majority of” his first two weeks “alone.”

Canadian pastor James Coates was originally quarantined for two weeks and only allowed two 15-minute blocks outside of his cell. The GraceLife Church pastor has since been moved to general population, Coates’ wife, Erin, said.

“Now, he gets about three hours out, in one-hour chunks,” Erin said. “He is able to be with the inmates on his unit during this time. I still can’t visit him because of COVID restrictions.”

Coates was arrested for “exceeding the 15 percent allowable capacity for the services held on Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, 2021.” His trial is set for May 3-5.

Previously, the church was fined $1,200 in December for violating capacity limits set due to the ongoing pandemic.

Last week, a judge ruled to deny bail to Coates because the pastor has said that he refuses to agree “to the condition of release and multiple noncompliance with the stated intent to continue concerns public safety.”

Coates has said he will not stop holding in-person services and will not put a cap on how many people can attend services.

The church also released a statement, saying holding in-person services is a “civil liberty.”

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India: Christians attacked, beaten at prayer meeting by radical Hindu mob wielding weapons

Christians in Chhattisgarh state, the majority of whom are from tribal or indigenous people groups, have witnessed a rise in attacks since last September.

                                                                                                                              Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

By Anugrah Kumar

Christian Post

A mob of about 70 people carrying weapons attacked a group of Christians who were praying at a believer’s home in India’s eastern state of Chhattisgarh this week, burning Bibles and vandalizing furniture, according to a report, which said at least six Christians sustained serious injuries.

The Christians were attending a prayer meeting at the house of a fellow believer in Surguda village in the state’s Bastar District on Monday night when some of the men in the mob surrounded the property and the others entered the house to attack, according to the U.K.-based group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The men, believed to be Hindu nationalists, verbally abused and physically assaulted the Christians, burning Bibles, furniture, bicycles and a motorcycle, CSW reported Thursday, adding that at least six Christians had to be admitted to the hospital due to severe injuries.

“This brutal attack on a prayer meeting is yet another example of the rise in crimes against religious minorities in several Indian states,” CSW’s Chief Executive Scot Bower said. “When private prayer gatherings are seen as soft targets for mob violence it is evident that states are failing to uphold an individual’s right to manifest their faith, which is a central aspect of freedom of religion or belief and protected by the Indian constitution.”

Christians in Chhattisgarh state, the majority of whom are from tribal or indigenous people groups, have witnessed a rise in attacks since last September.

The persecution is taking place amid radical Hindu groups’ campaign to stop the country’s tribal people from converting to Christianity. These groups have been demanding that the government ban those who convert from receiving education and employment opportunities.

Most tribals do not identify as Hindus; they have diverse religious practices and many worship nature. However, the government’s Census deems them to be Hindu. Radical nationalist groups, which have been working in tribal-majority areas to compete with Christian workers, have influenced some groups among the tribal population.

In three separate attacks in Chhattisgarh’s Kondagaon district in September, tribal villagers vandalized 16 houses belonging to Christians from the same tribe and attacked at least one tribal Christian woman, forcing all male family members to flee into jungles for safety at the time.

The Christian men were able to return to their homes days later after the Bilaspur High Court passed an order in a Public Interest Litigation filed by 12 Christians to seek security for the displaced Christians.

Chhattisgarh is one of the states where an “anti-conversion” law is in force. These laws, which presume that Christians use money or other fraudulent means to convert Hindus, have been in place for decades in some states, but no Christian has been convicted of “forcibly” converting anyone to Christianity. These laws, however, allow Hindu nationalist groups to make false charges against Christians and launch attacks on them under the pretext of the alleged forced conversion.

“Since the current ruling party took power in 2014, incidents against Christians have increased, and Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences,” noted Open Doors’ World Watch List last year, which ranked India as the 10th worst country for Christians.

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16 Killed, Catholic Church Burned by Suspected Islamic Rebels in DRC Attack

“That’s the No. 1 thing we’re always asked for when we’re overseas is [for] prayer for them and their families.”

Three Congolese ride a motorbike and carry a cross for a grave along

the road linking Mangina to Beni on August 23, 2018, in Mangina, in 

the North Kivu province. | JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images

By Emily Wood
Christian Post

A suspected Islamic extremist group raid resulted in the deaths of 13 civilians and three soldiers, as well as the burning of a Catholic church on Sunday morning in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to an initial assessment. 

Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic terrorist group, was blamed by an army spokesperson for being behind the deadly massacre in Ndakya village.

But the group’s involvement is not yet confirmed, according to Reuters. ADF has been prevalent in the area since the 1990s and killed around 850 people in 2020, according to a United Nations estimate.

Christophe Munyanderu, the coordinator of the Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, told the news agency that gunmen opened fire upon entering the village Sunday morning. 

Army spokesperson Jules Ngongo Tshikudi stated that military troops are now occupying the village and four perpetrators were killed. 

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The United States-based persecuted church advocacy group International Christian Concern’s Regional Manager for Africa Nathan Johnson said there is lots of violence in eastern DRC due to over 100 active rebel groups in the region. 

He said ADF is one of the largest, most active militant groups and is believed to have ties to the Islamic State terrorist organization. 

“The attacks are daily,” Johnson told CP. “There is vast underreporting.”

Even though DRC’s population is around 95% Christian, violence from Islamic extremism continually worsens, especially in the eastern region.

Johnson said many Islamic militant groups aim to create an Islamic caliphate, which is difficult because the Christian population outnumbers them. He contends that many of the attacks are conducted to “terrorize people and gain power in the area.”

Johnson said several hundred had been killed already this year. The U.N. reported last July that intensified ADF attacks in the previous 18 months had resulted in over 1,000 people's deaths and could amount to crimes against humanity. 

“I ask for people to pray for those who have been killed and for their families,” Johnson said. “That’s the No. 1 thing we’re always asked for when we’re overseas is [for] prayer for them and their families.”

Due to Islamic oppression, DRC is ranked No. 40 for Christian persecution on the 2021 Open Doors USA World Watch List, which ranks countries for their severity of persecution. This is the first time DRC ranked in the top 50. The country was ranked No. 57 last year.

“Those rebel groups are just creating chaos, but people don’t know that because nobody reports on it,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the DRC government and military have had very little control in the eastern region for years and have largely been pushed hundreds of miles to the west toward the capital city of Kinshasa. 

This is due to the high volume of rebel groups being pushed into eastern DRC from the neighboring countries of Uganda and Rwanda, especially during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

“One of the things you’ll find is that the Western world really doesn’t care too much about what goes on in Africa, specifically countries like DRC where there’s just mass amounts of violence,” Johnson asserted. “Civil wars have been continuous basically for decades. The Western world doesn’t care, ... neither do news agencies who are going to be getting money from what they report.”

After attacks in the DRC in late December and early January, Open Doors’ Senior Analyst for Freedom of Religion or Belief in Sub-Saharan South Africa Illia Djadi said the DRC violence needs more attention. He said the majority of deaths in the DRC are believers.

“These predominately Christian communities are attacked by an Islamic extremist group with a clear Islamic expressionist agenda,” Djadi told Baptist Press. “We need to pay attention to these events because what’s happening in eastern DRC, the killing of innocent civilians on an almost daily basis, is an underreported tragedy.”

Christian Post continues here

What Global Churches Did When Their Governments Said They Couldn’t Have Large Gatherings

“What a reminder that Jesus Christ came for everyone. Not just the Church that’s in North America. In fact, the Church in other parts of the world is growing so much more rapidly than what we’re seeing in America”

Christians at one of the global church plants made possible with
help from global church planter ICM. | ICM

By Leonardo Blair
Christian Post Reporter

The evidence is anecdotal, but the lesson from the reaction of some of the world’s poorest Christians to hunger and government restrictions on large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic is a powerful one for their American counterparts, says Janice Rosser Allen, CEO and president of the global church planting ministry ICM.

The ministry, started in 1986 by Allen’s father, Dois Rosser Jr., is described by some as the mission world’s best-kept secret because in the more than three decades it has existed, ICM has helped to plant and build more than 35,000 churches in 100 nations, creating a safe space for the faithful who sometimes have to worship in a hostile cultural climate.

While the majority of American churches shifted to convenient online worship services, and a vocal minority flouted social distancing protocols and challenged public health restrictions on large church gatherings in the name of religious freedom when the pandemic hit in March, ICM-backed congregations responded differently.

“It’s been interesting to see the response of churches in America when we were told you can’t get together in groups of greater than 25. ... Many, many churches as we all know closed their doors,” Allen recalled in a recent interview with The Christian Post.

“What we began seeing with a number of our partners is that if they were told that same thing, ‘You can’t have more than 10 gather,’ they’ll say we’ll just have the church open 24 hours seven days a week so we’ll have groups of 10 come through throughout the days and nights,” Allen said. “It wasn’t an option for them to not gather. And the passion that these believers have for their faith where they know [when] they decide to become a follower of Jesus Christ that they are putting their lives on the line. They’re putting their families on the line, their jobs on the line. It’s [like] that old hymn, ‘I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back, no turning back.’”

Unlike the American Church, which has faced few obstacles to gathering beyond the pandemic restrictions, Allen, who took over ICM from her father in 2006 after a career in nursing and the passing of her husband, said her ministry has been investing in helping indigenous congregations build their own churches in the developing world because sometimes that’s the only way their government would allow them to fellowship.

“In some nations where we work it’s been interesting that the government may have put laws into place that forbid congregations to gather unless they have a building. And so in those instances it was a strategy of the government to try and keep Christianity to minimal growth because they just figured these poor congregations could never afford to build a church?” Allen said.

“I think God has a sense of humor because they thought that would be the restriction that would keep the church from growing and then all of a sudden ICM helps provide something they never ever thought would be possible,” the mother of three added. “In some other places we find that, particularly where Christianity is in the minority position, it sometimes is seen that it’s a Western religion, so it's discounted. When a congregation that’s an indigenous congregation is able to build their own church, it gives a legitimacy to Christianity that did not exist before.”

A church being constructed at one of the global church sites planted
with help from ICM. | ICM

ICM’s church planting model focuses on identifying strong indigenous ministries in the developing world and then partnering with them to help create self-sufficient churches which they support with religious education through a variety of electronic technologies and social media.

“I’ve always said over the years that ICM basically is trying to work ourselves out of a job because we want to empower the indigenous church to be self-sustaining. I never thought we were going to have a chance to test that model in every single nation where we are working at the same time, but to see the strength of the indigenous ministries and the indigenous leaders to continue the work seamlessly even when we couldn’t be traveling to oversee the work has really been extraordinary,” Allen said.

She said that about 850 churches were under construction when the pandemic hit in March and she fully expected the work to come to a grinding halt. But the churches never stopped working.

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Church Leaders Abducted, Christians Killed in Nigeria During Christmas Week

In June, five of Nigeria’s major Islamic groups made an alliance with each other to rise up against Christians

A Christian family mourn three relatives killed by armed Fulani herdsmen

in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria, in December 2011. | Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde

By Anugrah Kumar
Christian Post Contributor

Armed Muslim Fulani tribesmen abducted at least three Christian leaders and killed 18 Christians in the week leading to Christmas Day as they increased attacks on farming communities in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, according to a report.

On Dec. 24, armed Fulani men “mercilessly” beat the Rev. Luka Shaho of the Assemblies of God Church and then abducted his wife, Jumai Luka, in the Ungwan Waziri area in Chikun Local Government Area of central Kaduna state, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.

On Dec. 21, over 100 well-armed men attacked the Gwazunu community in the Gwagwada area of Chikun Local Government Area and abducted the Rev. Thomas James of Godiya Baptist Church Gwazunu.

The same militia then attacked the Gbaja Katarma community and shot dead eight people. Four others reportedly sustained gunshot injuries, CSW said.

On Dec. 19, assailants from the Fulani ethnicity abducted the Rev. Luka Dani of the Evangelical Church Winning All after they attacked the Galumi community in the same area in Gwagwada.

On Dec. 17, Fulani men killed 10 people — five of them were from the same family — and burned down 18 homes in Gora Gan village in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in the Atyap Chiefdom, CSW added.

On Dec. 21, the Ikulu Traditional Council, a local body, warned the chief executive of Zagon Kataf Local Government Council that a government-run school in Unwan Gimba was being used as a base by unidentified armed men. 

“The urgent and deteriorating situation in Kaduna must not be forgotten, nor must the religious element to these attacks be brushed aside,” CSW’s founder and President Mervyn Thomas said. “The authorities must develop a comprehensive security plan that considers the different dimensions to this security crisis, amid signs that the violence is not only continuing but has also spread to other areas.”

CSW blamed the renewed attacks on “inadequate official intervention to address ongoing violence by armed men of Fulani ethnicity on Christian farming communities in central Nigeria, and a concomitant proliferation of light arms.”

In a report released last week, Nigeria’s International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law revealed that the country’s government lists murders of Christians by radical Islamists as having “other causes.”

The report said that since 2009, 34,400 Christians had been killed by radical Islamists, with 2,200 slain in the last year. Radical Muslims had also killed an estimated 20,000 moderate Muslims.

Christian Post continues

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Iran: Four Christian Converts Given Combined 35 Years in Prison

While about 30 percent of the world’s population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed at Christians. Int'l Society for Human Rights 

Christian Persecution 

Persecution of Christians in Iran: this story indicates how deeply threatened many governments that persecute Christians are by converts to Christianity. In their persecution of Christian converts they manifest a deep insecurity about their own beliefs and tacitly admit that they know how God can transform men’s souls. Authoritarian governments in many regions of the world clamp down on converts to Christianity out of a fear that they will lose their control over their people if there are large-scale conversions to Christianity. The result is the persecution and harassment of converts to Christianity in particular.

Please pray that Almighty God would grant to these four Christians and to all the Christians of Iran the indomitable strength and perseverance in the Faith of the Holy Martyrs.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of Iran, see here.

“Four Christians given combined 35 years in prison,” Article 18, November 17, 2020:

Four Christian converts have been sentenced to a combined 35 years in prison.

Mehdi Akbari, Fatemeh Sharifi and Simin Soheilinia were given 10 years, and Mehdi Roohparvar five, all under the same charge of “acting against national security by forming a house-church”.

Very little is known about their case, but Article18 has been able to independently verify that Mehdi A and Mehdi R are both now serving their sentences in Ward 4 of Tehran’s Evin Prison.

It is therefore assumed that Fatemeh and Simin are in the women’s ward of the prison, but Article18 has not yet been able to verify this.

If confirmed, that would bring the total number of Christian prisoners of conscience currently in Evin to at least 17.

A further two Christians, Ebrahim Firouzi and Mohammad Reza (Youhan) Omidi, are currently in internal exile following their release from prison, while another, Majidreza Souzanchi, is now in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary on criminal charges he denies.

In total, that would mean 20 Iranian Christians are currently serving sentences either in prison or exile….

Christian Persecution Link

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Christian Persecution on the Rise Amid COVID Pandemic This Christmas

Indian Christians offer Christmas prayers at St. Mary's Garrison Church in Jammu, India, Thurs., Dec. 25, 2014 (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

By Tre Goins-Phillips,

Faithwire

The Christmas season puts a particularly intense strain on vulnerable Christians around the world and, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the persecution believers are facing this year is even greater than usual.

“Christmas is the real focal point for celebrating the birth of Jesus and, conversely, the focal point for people who are targeting Christians for their faith,” said David Curry, CEO of Open Doors USA, a nonprofit advocating for persecuted Christians around the world.

Those persecutions, he told Faithwire, have only escalated during the COVID crisis.

The humanitarian leader pointed to northern Nigeria, for example, where he said Islamic government leaders “are keeping food from these Christian villages” amid shortages caused by the pandemic. Curry pointed to similar reports from Pakistan and India. In July, the communications director for Open Doors Asia, Jan Vermeer, told Premier Christian Radio the charity has been “inundated with reports of Christians telling us their communities would only give them food if they re-converted back to their original faith.”

“So we’re now helping to feed this Christmas season people who are withheld food and government relief during COVID because they are Christians in these communities,” Curry explained. “And some of these areas … it will touch your heart to see how much they love Jesus, how hungry they are, and then when we bring them their food, it’s a game-changer for them.”

In addition, Christmas is particularly difficult for new Muslim converts who have abandoned their Islamic faith in favor of Christianity. The lives of those new believers, Curry said, have been “greatly altered,” noting many of them are shunned by their families while living in countries hostile toward their newfound beliefs. Enduring such tectonic spiritual shifts for the first time at Christmas “can be very stressful,” he added.

Article continues here

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China: Churches Told to Worship the Chinese Communist Party or Face Closure

President Xi Jinping’s personality cult has reached unprecedented levels, as countless places of worship are given ultimatums

The Persecution of Christians
by An Xin, Bitter Winter 

Persecution of Christians in China: it is clear from the measures outlined in the article below that the Chinese government is deeply threatened by Christianity and views it as a serious challenge to its power. That government is consequently in the midst of an all-out campaign to turn Christianity into simply another venue for the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese Orthodox Church is in a vulnerable position amid all this, as it is not one of the Christian groups recognized by the Chinese government. Holy Orthodoxy in China predates this war on Christianity. It has a three-hundred year history in China, with the first Orthodox Christians coming into the country in 1685. In the 1980s, the Chinese Orthodox Church began to experience a revival. Pray that it not be snuffed out. The Order of Saint Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, requests once again that the Chinese government end these repressive measures, grant official recognition to the Chinese Orthodox Church, and give full religious freedom to all the Christians of that nation.

See ChristianPersecution.com’s previous coverage of China and its war on Christianity here.

The religious affairs department of Putian, a prefecture-level city in the southeastern province of Fujian, spent 500,000 RMB (about $ 75,000) in October to turn the first floor of a Three-Self church in the Xiuyu district’s Daitou town into a “Civilization Practice Station for a New Era.” Numerous such propaganda centers are being established nationwide since late 2018 to enforce the CCP ideology on the population. They are often installed in religious venues that have been taken over by the state for this purpose.

On November 6, over 100 government officials attended the opening of the propaganda center, filled with 168 posters about Mao Zedong, Xi Jinping, and China’s other past and present communist leaders. The church pastor was forced to integrate stories about Mao Zedong in his sermon that day, which greatly saddened the congregation that now has to meet on the building’s second floor.

“We do not dare to refuse these propaganda materials for fear that the government will ban our gatherings,” a church member said helplessly. “We’re powerless to challenge them.”

President Xi Jinping’s personality cult has reached unprecedented levels, as countless places of worship are given ultimatums: hang a president’s portrait, or your venue will be closed. Two months after a Three-Self church in Shangrao city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi refused an order by a village official to display a president’s image in August, his superiors issued an order, banning all religious meetings “without Xi Jinping’s portrait in the church.” A government representative came later to hang a president’s image over a religious calendar on a church wall. The venue was also ordered to hang four national flags and slogans promoting the core socialist values inside and outside the building.

“I had to agree to this, fearing that we will lose our venue,” the preacher explained.

On August 26, the Religious Affairs Bureau, Public Security Bureau, United Front Work Department, and other government institutions in the Nanhu district of Jiaxing, a prefecture-level city in the eastern province of Zhejiang, convened 60 directors and preachers of local Three-Self churches to the Yuxin Three-Self Church for a meeting about propaganda. The gathering started with a flag-raising ceremony and the singing of patriotic songs.

According to a student at a state-run Protestant seminary in Zhejiang, students are demanded to learn how to preach in conformity with socialist dogmas, interpret the Bible in line with the core socialist values, follow the policy of snicization of religion, and resist the “infiltration of foreign religious forces.” The seminary also indoctrinates them by slandering missionaries from abroad, condemning their evangelism as “an imperialist invasion.”…

Christian Persecution article continues

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