Officials in China are extremely threatened by the involvement of Christians in recent mass protests in Hong Kong, with many churches on the mainland pinned for supposed extremism in recent months for their association with Christians in the Special Administrative Region.
China will roll out new measures to further circumscribe the spiritual activities of its citizens on February 1st in the New Year, as state news reported Monday that the 42 articles of the Administrative Measures for Religious Groups had been approved.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated people led an attack on a new prayer hall dedicated to Jesus in India’s West Bengal state Saturday, as a mob of 800 people, mostly non-Christians, surrounded the building’s inauguration ceremony.
Nine Iranian Christians who had converted from Islam were sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison for “acting against national security” and “promoting Zionism,” as Iran’s Revolutionary court denied the requests of those who asked for lawyers and transferred them to the country’s worst prison.
A translation from a 56-second video released by the Amaq ISIS news outlet showing the beheading and execution of 11 Christians in Nigeria over the Christmas holiday was provided by the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group in recent days.
In a gesture of reconciliation following years of persecution, the new religious affairs minister of Sudan, Nasr al-Din Mufreh, attended Christmas celebrations in Khartoum to personally apologize for former dictator Omar al-Bashir’s harassment of Christians.
Chinese pastor Wang Yi was sentenced to 9 years of prison on December 30th, following a year of detention in an unknown location in which he was deprived a lawyer by President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party.
Two people were killed and one person critically injured in a Texas church shooting Sunday morning, with one person having died on the way to the hospital and been revived.
A Tajik Pastor imprisoned for over 2 years for possessing a Josh McDowell book was released recently, 3 months before the end of his sentence.
17 Chinese officials discussed revising religious texts last month to suit the needs of the Chinese Communist Party, even framing a new religion.
ISIS-affiliated terrorists in Nigeria killed 11 people, many assumed to be Christians, on Christmas day, following the slaying of 7 Christians in Borno State by the organization on Christmas eve.
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, continues to receive requests for help from Christians living in highly volatile regions who are committed to bringing the translated Scriptures to their language groups.
A Christian mother in Uganda had to flee her home when her Muslim husband discovered she had been taking their 7-year-old child to church services after her recent conversion in May.
A pastor was kidnapped in Nigeria in Adamawa state last week, with no reason given by captors for the abduction, and no ransom demanded.
At least 3 evangelical churches have been closed in Russia over the last 6 months, in spite of President Vladimir Putin’s pledge at a recent conference to “do everything” to protect Christians in the Middle East.
51 Baptist churches were allowed to reopen in Burma, where 100 were shut down in 2018 by armed ethnic Wa rebels.
Indonesia has seen 40 anti-Christian attacks in the first 5 months of 2019, a two-thirds jump from last year, and a quadrupling of the rate from 10 years ago.
A Christian community in Karnataka state, India was prevented from building a church on December 4 and later deprived of drinking water when they went to police, with members now fearing to celebrate Christmas in their town.
A once-loving Chinese pastor and family man imprisoned 6 years ago by the Chinese Communist Party was found under severe psychological duress by his family members on their last visit to him December 13, and his daughter is seeking to expose the brutal methods by which the regime quells dissidence.
Twenty-eight Pakistani Christian asylum-seekers were detained in Thailand on December 19, and are facing longer-term detention and separation one from another due to ongoing repairs at the main detention facility in Bangkok.