JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya, November 30 (Compass) — A smouldering civil unrest that has troubled the eastern Indonesian province of Irian Jaya for years threatens once again to harm Christians and others caught in the war between a growing independence movement and the Jakarta government.
AMBON, Indonesia (Compass) — “It is disappointing that the suffering of the Christians due to the conflict in the Malukus has been insufficiently exposed in various reports on a national and international level,” stated the U.S. Consul General Robert Pollard.
NEW DELHI, India (BP)–Another day, another bombing.
That’s the impression being created, at least, by a mounting wave of attacks on Christians and churches in India.
Vandals recently broke into the office of a Bible school in India, tied up the schools’ cook, and destroyed the office.
The vandals seem to have thoroughly planned their attack. The school is housed in two buildings, and both buildings were ransacked at the same time. About thirty-five people live at the training center.
In the first spot on an otherwise squeaky clean record, US Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell has run into a flap for recently accepting a large sum of money for delivering a university lecture subsidized by a senior Lebanese official with ties to Syrian intelligence.
HONG KONG (Compass) — Christians in Laos continue to suffer persecution from a government crackdown on believers, and they cannot visit friends or travel freely because the secret police follow them every everywhere. Some have been forced to recant their faith.
MORE CHURCHES DESTROYED IN NORTHERN NIGERIA Sharia-related Tension Continues to Breed Violence by Obed Minchakpu GUSAU, Nigeria (Compass) — At least five churches were destroyed during February in northern Nigeria as the controversial implementation of Islamic law continued in several states. St. Dominic’s Catholic Church was demolished on February 14 in Dashi, a village located 12 kilometers from Gusau, the state capital of Zamfara state. Zamfara Governor Alhaji Ahmed Sani had forcefully converted the church into an Islamic school in January. Christian Leaders told Compass that some of the persons who attacked the church have been arrested and that it … Read more
LAGOS, Nigeria (Compass) — Disturbed by some northern Nigeria states’ widespread declaration that they are Islamic states and have adopted Islam as the state religion, Nigerian Christian churches have resolved to go to court to challenge what they see as an onslaught on their rights.
ISTANBUL, April 9 (Compass) — Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province registered another questionable blasphemy case against one of its Christian citizens on April 1, jailing a respected high school principal for slander he allegedly spoke two months ago against Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. Pervaiz Masih, founding director of the Iqbal Memorial High School in Chelay Kay village near Sialkot, was arrested at his home on April 1 during a late-night police raid.
WASHINGTON (BP)–The State Department’s second report on global religious liberty presents a challenge for the U.S. government to act against persecution, the chairman of a federal commission said.
by Michael Fischer HONG KONG (Compass) — A fundamentalist Hindu mob attacked a church in the eastern Indian state of Tripura on February 25. Church leaders say the Krishnanagar Baptist Church in the capital Agartala was attacked as Christians were attending the Sunday service. The mob forced the pastor to stop the service. The church is registered under the Tripura Baptist Christian Union. Delegates from the Union met with the chief minister of Tripura on February 27. Another meeting to resolve the issue was held on March 3 with the chairman of the Agartala municipality, officials and church members. But … Read more
Pastor Li De Xian preached twice this week in his usual Tuesday meeting in Huadu near Guangzhou, China without interference from Chinese authorities. This marks four consecutive weeks without arrest or interference for Pastor Li’s ministry.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Christians in America will face great persecution soon and they must be aggressors in the midst of it, Josef Tson said March 2 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
The growing awareness of worldwide Christian persecution can hardly be explained by the actions of a few people or the dramatic events in a specific country. So the following list of “top” stories for 2000 should be viewed only as a representative sample of significant news stories that have taken place this year. The list is also limited to areas where Compass Direct correspondents were able to provide in-depth coverage. Some of the stories come from isolated events. Others describe the ongoing oppression Christians often face. All help give us a glimpse of the difficult situations faced by the church around the world.
Protestant ministers in the United States generally believe that religious persecution is a major problem in today’s world, and they believe the U.S. should impose sanctions against countries where this is occurring. These findings have just been released from a research study conducted among Protestant clergy in America.
SANTIAGO, Chile (Compass) — The issue of religious discrimination is in the public spotlight in Chile, due to the case of San Pedro de la Paz, a town some 300 miles south of Santiago. There a Baptist lawyer named Raul Romero has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Education and Gospel Task Force for Chile because of evident acts of religious discrimination against evangelical students in the community schools.
ANHUI
“Here we only have one registered church, which is packed out with people standing in the courtyard. However, since the church was opened, none of the accounts listing all the believers’ donations have ever been made public to them. The pastor has dismissed several Christians who originally were responsible for the finances. He also hands over the donations to the Religious Affairs Bureau to use. Not long ago, several elderly believers formed a church, but the Three Self pastor asked the Religious Affairs Bureau not to grant them a license and called the police to come and arrest them. Can such a church be blessed by God? How can it cause the gospel to spread?”
— Letter from a Christian in Anhui dated March 29, 2000
HONG KONG (Compass) — Zhang Rongliang, also known as David Zhang, is at large in China despite receiving a three-years’ hard labor sentence in December 1999. Reliable reports from central China say he was able to buy himself out of jail. But Born Again movement leader Xu Yongze remains incarcerated, despite having completed his three-year sentence on March 15, and 10 more house church leaders were arrested in southeast China in May.
Paul Crouch got it wrong. In fact, Christian leaders only get it that wrong once or twice a decade. The last time a Christian leader visited China and swallowed and disgorged official propaganda so obligingly for his Chinese hosts was Dr. George Carey, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, in September 1994.
ISTANBUL, February 6 (Compass) — Instead of convicting the Muslim murder suspects accused of killing 21 Christians in last year’s El-Kosheh massacre, a judge in southern Egypt has accused the local Coptic clergy of responsibility for the three-day rampage.