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.

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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.”…

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Cuban Church Leaders Under Pressure to Sign Document Claiming Gov’t Demolition of Church was Legal

 The church has faced harassment and threats since 2015

The Cuban national flag is seen raised over their new embassy in Washington, . 

July 20, 2015| Reuters/Andrew Harnik/Pool

By Samuel Smith
Christian Post

Christian leaders in a southern Cuban town have faced pressure from government agents to sign a statement declaring that the recent destruction of the Assemblies of God Church was legal.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an international watchdog group that helps persecuted believers in over 20 countries, reports that authorities in Santiago de Cuba are trying to cover their tracks after a church affiliated with one of the largest demonstrations in the country was destroyed last Friday. 

The church in question is located in the Abel Santamaria neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba and is led by Pastor Fausto Palomo Cabrera. The church has faced harassment and threats since 2015. The government claimed that the church’s destruction was done for the construction of train tracks.  

Cuban independent journalist Ricardo Fernández Izaguirre reported on Sunday that the church’s demolition came after government authorities stepped away from negotiations with the denominational leadership. 

The denomination is one of the largest legally-recognized religious bodies by the Cuban communist regime, which often cracks down on non-state-sanctioned churches and believers. 

CSW earlier reported that a local pastor not affiliated with the church, Alain Toledano, was arrested for filming heavy machinery at the church early last Friday morning. 

In addition to Toledano, two members of his church named Adrián Arza and Félix Daniel González were also detained and held incommunicado for nine hours, the organization reports. 

Sources told CSW that Cabrera and the denomination’s regional superintendent, Jose Martinez, were apprehended by officials at the Department of Physical Planning on  Monday. 

“It is believed that the authorities are applying pressure on Pastor Palomo Cabrera and Superintendent Martínez to sign a document saying that the demolition of the church was legal,” a statement released by the watchdog group reads. “Local sources also report that the authorities are attempting to charge Pastor Palomo Cabrera for the use of the machinery used in the demolition.”

CSW CEO Scot Bower denounced the development.

“Cuban authorities demolished a church building belonging to a registered denomination, and are now attempting to pressure Pastor Palomo Cabrera and Superintendent Martínez into agreeing that the destruction was carried out legally,” Bower explained. “They are doing this in order to give the impression that this is not a violation of freedom of religion or belief.”

Bower warned that over the last five years, the church in the Abel Santamaria neighborhood has been targeted and harassed, which amounts to religious freedom violations. 

“We call on the authorities to cease all harassment of Superintendent Martínez, Pastor Palomo Cabrera and members of their church and denomination, and to ensure that they have the right to manifest their religion in public and in community with others — an essential component of this right,” Bower said. “We further call on the Cuban government to reimburse the church for their loss so that they can rebuild their place of worship.”

As a country ruled by a communist party, Cuba was placed on the U.S. State Department’s “special watch list” of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom last December. 

Christian Post article continues

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North Korea: Christians Executed for Owning Bible, Newborn Babies Murdered

Though adherents of various religions are held in North Korea’s “reeducation” camps, the harshest punishments are reserved for Christians, the report found. 

People look toward the north through a barbed-wire fence near the militarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, December 21, 2017. | Reuters/Kim Hong-

By Leah Marie Ann Klett
Christian Post

A new report has exposed the atrocities done to North Korean Christians arrested for their faith, including forced abortions, the murder of newborn babies, and death by execution for possessing a Bible. 

The London-based Korea Future Initiative published its latest report, “Persecuting Faith: Documenting religious freedom violations in North Korea,” which includes information from 117 interviews with those exiled from the isolated country. 

The investigation documents 273 victims of religious freedom violations, ranging in age from just 3 years old to over 80 years old. 

Though adherents of various religions are held in North Korea’s “reeducation” camps, the harshest punishments are reserved for Christians, the report found.

More than 200 Christians were identified as victims punished for crimes, including religious practice, religious activities in China, possessing religious items, contact with religious persons, attending a place of worship, and sharing religious beliefs. 

The report documented the various methods of torture victims endured in North Korea’s prison camps, including strangulation, starvation, being forced to ingest polluted food, sleep deprivation, and excessive beating.

One former female prisoner recalled, "Men were beaten like dogs. Even in the cell. They screamed like crazy because they hurt so much. 

"Even though women were beaten less, I was hit in the face and my skin ruptured and I bled a lot. [Officers] told me to wipe the blood, so I cleaned it. I wept a lot when they hit me again. Blood and discharge ruptured during my next pre-trial examination. They hit me again because I wept."

In several cases, prisoners found with a Bible or religious pamphlets were executed by a firing squad, while others were locked in electrified cages and fed watery soup. Others were executed for smuggling Bible pages into the country from China for North Koreans to make prayer books.

In one instance, a victim found in possession of a Bible was publicly executed in front of over 1,000 people. The victim was tied to a wooden stake and executed by an MPS firing squad.

One witness told KFI, “I saw the flesh fall off. That is how close I was."

Another man, who had converted to Christianity, was allegedly forced into a metal cage that was just 3 feet high and 4 feet wide.

"There were steel bars on all four-sides that were heated with electricity,” he told KFI. "Usually prisoners lasted only three or four hours in the cage, but I sat there for 12 hours and prayed. I kept praying to God to save me."

The man eventually soiled himself and passed out before being beaten by guards, leaving him with severe injuries.

Investigators documented 32 incidents of sexual violence against women — who made up 60% of victims identified in the report — and forced abortions. 

At North Hamgyong Provincial MSS pre-trial detention center, for example, pregnant women were forced to get an injection to trigger labor. After giving birth to live babies, the newborns would be taken from them, smothered by guards using plastic sheets or cloth sacks, and then discarded in a cleaning cupboard.

“Mothers of the aborted infants were forced to resume manual labor the day after the abortion and without medicine or rest,” the report noted. 

Girls as young as 3 were forced to undergo “degrading internal and invasive nude” body cavity searches, according to the report.

In some cases, entire families were arrested and sentenced to separate political prison camps for adhering to Christianity.

One individual interviewed shared how 10 attendees of Bible study groups were arrested and sentenced to political prison camps. Later, the parent of one of the victims was informed that their child had died at a political prison camp. 

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Please remember to keep our persecuted brothers and sisters in North Korea in your prayers.

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.

China Sentences Christian Bookseller to 7 years in Prison, Destroys Thousands of 'Illegal Books'

China is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.

A pictorial Bible is displayed at an exhibition, titled “Thy Word Is the Truth: The Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Protestant Church in China,” in Washington, D.C., Sept. 29, 2011. | The Christian Post/Amanda Winkler

By Leah MarieAnn Klett
PJ Media

A Chinese Christian online bookstore owner has been sentenced to seven years in prison and fined nearly $30,000 for engaging in what the regime deems as “illegal business operations."

Persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reports that in September 2019, Chen Yu, who operated his online bookstore in Zhejiang province’s Taizhou city, was detained for selling unapproved religious publications imported from Taiwan, the U.S., and other countries.

Last week, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 200,000 RMB ($29,450), according to a document from the People’s Court of Linhai City, shared by Father Francis Liu from the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness.

Additionally, Chen will also have his iPhone confiscated, while the 12,864 Christian books from his bookstore will be destroyed by the Linhai City Public Security Bureau.

ICC reports that police also launched a nationwide investigation to track down the bookstore’s customers through sale records and will confiscate their purchased books.

Gina Goh, ICC’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, said Chen’s sentencing reveals China’s Communist Party is “increasingly frightened by all things religious.”

“From religious symbols, Chinese couplets, to Christian books, anything that features religious elements is no longer tolerated by the Chinese Communist Party,” she said. 

Goh warned that the “disproportionate sentencing of Christians” such as Early Rain Covenant Church Pastor Wang Yi — who was sentenced to nine years in prison under the same charge as Chen Yu — “implies that the crackdown against Christianity will only intensify.

“The U.S. government and international community should continue to stand up to the tyranny in Beijing,” she stressed. 

As the Chinese Communist Party seeks to limit the influence of Christianity in China, authorities have increasingly cracked down on Christian booksellers and their customers.

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Virginia Forces Christian Ministries to Adopt 'Government Ideology' or Pay 100K

"Such government hostility toward people of faith has no place in a free society"

By Tyler O'Neil
PJ Media

Three Christian schools and a Christian network of pregnancy centers are suing Attorney General Mark Herring (D-Va.) in order to prevent Virginia from implementing two pro-LGBT laws that force “people of faith to adopt a particular government ideology under threat of punishment.” The two laws purport to prevent “discrimination” against LGBT people but, in reality, they force Christian ministries to choose between violating their sincerely held religious beliefs or paying hefty fines, as much as $100,000 per offense.

The so-called Virginia Values Act (S.B. 868), which Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) signed on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday) in the middle of a pandemic, compels churches, religious schools, and Christian ministries to hire employees who do not share their stated beliefs on marriage, sexuality, and gender identity. A companion law (H.B. 1429) requires ministries and others like them to pay for transgender surgery in employee health care plans, a procedure that violates these ministries’ convictions.

“The faith of many Americans inspires them to act for the good of their neighbors and also requires them to abide by its teachings,” Denise Harle, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the law firm representing the Christian ministries, said in a statement. “Our clients offer spiritual guidance, education, pregnancy support, and athletic opportunities to their communities because of the religious beliefs that motivate them. But Virginia’s new law forces these ministries to abandon and adjust their convictions or pay crippling fines—in direct violation of the Virginia Constitution and other state laws.”

“Such government hostility toward people of faith has no place in a free society,” Harle argued.

The ministries filed a pre-enforcement challenge, a lawsuit designed to convince a court to prevent the government from implementing an unconstitutional law.

In the lawsuit, ADF is representing Calvary Road Christian School in Alexandria (preschool through 6th grade, 250 students), Grace Christian School in Staunton (preschool through 12th grade, 320 students), Community Christian Academy in Charlottesville (K-9, 50 students), and Care Net, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that supports a network of 1,100 pregnancy centers, churches, and other ministry organizations and has approximately 22,000 volunteers.

PJ article continues here