Relatives of ethnic Rohingya Christian refugees cast into the sea by India’s navy have yet to hear from them nearly two months after the cast-offs swam ashore to their native Myanmar (Burma).
India’s famed Emperor Ashoka was an ancient convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. He demonstrated that a person is NOT forced by others to convert from one religion to another. Today, “religious conversions are forced,” is the flawed premise of all anti-conversion laws of India. Who could have forced mighty Emperor Ashoka to change his religion? The Emperor’s famous religious conversion was his choice.
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.
A terrorist in Syria killed at least 25 people in a suicide bombing of a church on the outskirts of Damascus at about 5 p.m. on Sunday (June 22), according to reports.
North Korean defectors and members of the South Korean church gathered on June 21 at Saejoongang Church in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, for the 2025 Pan-Korean Reunification Festival, a time of worship and prayer centered on the dream of reunification through the gospel. The event was jointly hosted by the North Korea Christian Association (led by President Rev. Seo Kyung-hwa) and the Global Mission United Training Center TMTC (chaired by Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim).
Days after a massacre of more than 100 people in a predominantly Christian village in Benue state, Nigeria, the country’s president called for action against the assailants even as a local traditional ruler tried to correct him and others about the nature of such attacks.
A mother of three children in Somalia is struggling to survive after her Muslim relatives drove her from their home and threatened to kill her for accepting Christ, she said.
An 8-year-old Christian boy in Indonesia died from a ruptured appendix on May 26, days after older Muslim students beat him so severely he required hospital treatment, sources said.
A politician in Finland who previously oversaw police as Minister of Interior recently told a conference in Berlin how officers later opposed her faith while interrogating her on “hate speech” charges for supporting biblical marriage.
The 12th General Assembly of the Latin Evangelical Alliance (AEL) concluded on Sept. 12 in Cartagena with a clear and forceful message: the evangelical churches of Ibero-America are determined to take a leading role in shaping public life. United in purpose, they pledged to defend religious freedom, the family, and the right to life, while deepening their unity and expanding their social engagement.
