The bruised body of a Ukrainian priest who was detained by Russian occupation forces turned up on a village street on Thursday (Feb. 15), with an unconfirmed report of a bullet wound to the head, according to watchdog group Forum 18.
The situation for Iranian people is more dangerous now than before the recent war with Israel and the United States of America. Even more so for Christians who represent a growing minority religion in the staunchly Shia theocracy. Under threat, the ruling regime has increased its morality terror with brutal force.
In a perfect world, where legal systems hold political power to account and protect minorities against human rights abuses we might expect an end to persecution. But we do not live in a perfect world. People with power continue to act with impunity against those who think and live differently to them. Christians have a way to cope with this reality and a real and living hope for a future free of persecution.
New political winds are blowing with increasing force as the push-back against globalization grows with increasing nationalisms. The demand to pledge allegiance to something other than God in Christ will put renewed pressure on the Church and we need to be prepared to hold true to our faith. Here is a stern warning that Christians must take to heart.
Peace studies students witness locals spitting on a Christian holy site in Jerusalem prompting this response from a respected Christian leader whose family has lived in the city for millennia.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 13) reprimanded the Punjab Province government over its progress report on anti-Christian attacks in Jaranwala, terming it “worthy of being thrown into the dustbin.”
Among the estimated 2,000 displaced Sudanese who are converts from Islam is a mother of seven children whose husband beat her upon learning of her Christian faith, sources said.
A 72-year-old Christian in Pakistan was arrested and charged with blasphemy on Saturday (Feb. 10) based on a false accusation filed in retaliation over a property dispute, sources said.
Muslim villagers in eastern Uganda on Jan. 30 beat a Christian unconscious upon seeing him prepare a site for an evangelistic event, and they later set his house ablaze, sources said.
Chinese families are coming under pressure to keep the Christian faith from their children. Chinese partners of Release International, an organisation supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said that schoolchildren are being made to declare whether they are Christians. Those who state that they are must then sign a declaration promising to renounce Christianity.
Citing lax government response to Islamic extremist attacks on a Christian community last August, an advocacy group on Wednesday (Feb. 7) filed another plea for justice with the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Only a move of God — through love, prayer, and evangelism — can change the steady decline in the number of New Zealanders identifying as Christians. That’s the conviction of Dr. Stuart Lange, national director of the New Zealand Christian Network (NZCN), and his team of leaders, who say political protests, legal reforms, or government policies may bring some positive change, but they cannot address the nation’s deeper spiritual crisis.
