5 July 2000 (Newsroom) — France is set to pass a law aimed at cults that human rights campaigners fear could lead to the persecution of minority religious groups and possibly make evangelism illegal. The bill, which was signed by all the Socialist members of the National Assembly, was approved on June 22 and now awaits Senate approval.
JERUSALEM, Israel, 22 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Maronite Christians are openly challenging Syria’s presence in Lebanon in protests that are unprecedented since their Arab neighbor crushed the Lebanese Forces Christian militia at the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1989.
22 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Seventeen resolutions concerning gays and lesbians will confront delegates to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) when they gather for a week in Long Beach, California, beginning Saturday.
5 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Two United States courts have upheld judicial orders to remove wall displays with the Ten Commandments from a public school district and two county courthouses in Kentucky. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and a U.S. District Court denied motions to stay the preliminary injunctions issued last month by federal judge Jennifer B. Coffman.
2 June 2000 (Newsroom) — A local official in Uzbekistan has denied registration to a Baptist church and barred its denomination from using a collective farm to hold a summer camp, the Keston News Service reported.
25 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Two Chinese Protestant pastors accused of organizing an unauthorized Christian meeting are being held in labor camps near Beijing, a London-based religious rights group reported Thursday. Wang Li Gong, 34, and Yang Jing Fu, 36, are in two separate camps in Tianjing serving administrative sentences of one year, and one and one-half years, respectively, Christian Solidarity Worldwide said.
23 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Turkmen police have expelled the last remaining Russian Baptist missionary in the country, the Keston News Service reported. Authorities ordered the deportation of Vitali Tereshin in March, but the missionary went into hiding to continue his work. He was located in April by Turkmenistan’s political police, the National Security Committee (KNB).
LAGOS, 22 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Nigeria’s Federal High Court will hear arguments next month on the legality of Sharia law, which has sparked violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims in northern states where it has been introduced.
18 May 2000 (Newsroom) — A U.S. federal court in Kentucky has ordered state officials to remove wall displays that include the Ten Commandments from classrooms in a public school district and two county courthouses. Judge Jennifer B. Coffman issued three nearly identical preliminary injunctions on May 5, arguing that the wall displays amounted to government endorsement of a particular religion, in conflict with the First Amendment.
KAMPALA, 16 May 2000 (Newsroom) — The Fellowship of Born Again Churches in Uganda has launched a program to regulate the operations of Pentecostal churches in the wake of a government crackdown on cults.
15 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Chinese police have arrested more than 10 house-church leaders across the southern province of Guangdong over the past several days, according to an Australian-based monitoring group. Two evangelists, Ah Kong and Ah Yung, co-workers of well-known evangelist Li Dexian, were arrested Monday morning, the Christian group Voice of the Martyrs said. No other names were available at press time.
11 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Gay rights activists in the United Methodist Church have vowed to launch a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience in protest of three votes Thursday at the church’s general conference in Cleveland that maintained strictures against homosexuality.
KAMPALA, 8 May, 2000 (Newsroom) — Police in western Uganda are investigating the popular leader of a cult whose membership numbers about 10,000 and who is building the largest house of worship in this East African nation.
7 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Chinese police have detained 47 members of a Protestant group in central Anhui province, according to the state press. The Jianghui Morning Daily said last week that six of the main leaders of the Quanfanwei (Holistic) Church face criminal charges for organizing an illegal sect and illegal gatherings.
LAGOS, 7 May 2000 (Newsroom) – The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) launched a new political organization last week with the aim of more effectively mobilizing Christians to act in public affairs.
2 May 2000 (Newsroom) – Americans across the country will meet to pray on Thursday for the 49th National Day of Prayer. Last year there were an estimated 20,000 prayer gatherings across the nation. Prayer events are scheduled in each one of the 50 states, organizers say.
SANTA ANA, CA (April 28, 2000) — Since October 1999 some 23 Christians have been killed in public by firing squads on falsified criminal charges in North Korea reports Open Doors, the ministry begun 45 years ago by Brother Andrew, the Dutch-born author of “God’s Smuggler.”
25 April 2000 (Newsroom) — Indonesia vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri is visiting the Molucca archipelago this week in a further attempt to diffuse tensions between Muslims and Christians that have resulted in an estimated 3,000 deaths since January 1999.
LAGOS, 24 April 2000 (Newsroom) – Religious and political leaders have soundly condemned the attempt by a controversial senator to launch impeachment proceedings against Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo, a move they say is meant to embarrass the country’s first elected president in nearly two decades.
18 April 2000 (Newsroom) — Chinese evangelist Li Dexian has been kept in chains since his arrest April 11 in Guangdong province and is suffering physical pain, according to a Christian monitoring group. The house church leader, who has been arrested 13 times since October for his unauthorized church activities, is in the middle of a 15-day sentence.