Christian leaders have sued the governor of the U.S. State of North Carolina for banning extensive indoor church services to limit the new coronavirus outbreak. Their lawsuit asked a court to throw out Governor Roy Cooper’s restrictions on person-to-person services in North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are Christians in North Korea but congregations are typically made up of two or three people from the same family, Fox News reports. The North Korean church exists, but it has had to go deeply underground: under the Kim Jong Un regime, believers – and their families – may face the death penalty or detention if their faith is discovered.
An American mission pilot flying much-needed coronavirus test kits to a remote village in Indonesia has died in a plane crash, her Christian aviation organization confirmed.
Hope was rising Thursday for an Iranian Christian father and his young son held in detention on the Hungarian-Serbian border for 17 months, after the European Union’s top court condemned Hungary’s treatment of asylum seekers. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Budapest was obliged to reconsider their applications. The court stressed that Hungarian authorities circumvented EU law by holding migrants seeking refuge in unlawful prison-like conditions.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a pair of cases that could shape how far religious employers’ “ministerial exception” goes in protecting them from discrimination lawsuits brought by certain employees.
Dozens of villagers have been killed in the latest attack on Christian communities in northwestern Nigeria by suspected Fulani Muslim militants, rights investigators, told Worthy News late Wednesday. Among victims were reportedly five people who died when armed men of Fulani origin attacked Makyali village in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna state. One person was injured in Wednesday’s attack, added advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) in a statement.
Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias has been battling a rare form of bone cancer since March and was recently informed by doctors that his cancer has spread and there’s nothing more they can do medically.
GOD TV has confirmed Israeli authorities want to shut down its new Hebrew-language Gospel channel, the Christian Post reports. The Shelanu (“Ours” in Hebrew) channel recently began broadcasting Christian content on Israel’s popular HOT cable network.
US Christian streaming services have seen a substantial increase in viewers and membership as families have stayed home in COVID-19 lockdowns, the Christian Post reports.
New footage has emerged of an ongoing crackdown by China’s government against devoted Christians, including the removal of crosses and disbandment of churches.
Ben Hoekendijk, the Dutch evangelist who became the face of the Netherlands’ post-war Pentecostal movement, has died. He was 81, friends confirmed to Worthy News. Hoekendijk, who was in frail health after suffering a stroke, died last week in his hometown of Harderwijk.
The World Red Cross Day celebrating the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement was overshadowed Friday by concerns that the coronavirus would spread to overcrowded refugee camps.
A US clinical trial has been launched into whether multi-denominational prayer can help patients with COVID-19, the New York Post reports. Dr. Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, a cardiologist at the Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute, is leading a trial involving 1000 coronavirus patients who require intensive care because of the infection. The trial began on May 1 and is due to last four months.
Video footage of a violent police raid on a church in the Fujian province of China was posted by Christian watchdog group ChinaAid this week. Broadcast by Fox News, the 11-second video shows members of the Xingguang Church blocking police officers who were forcibly entering the premises and a member being dragged out of the door.
Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau state shot a Christian school director in the head before shooting his wife in the back and his two children in the feet on May 5, sources told Morningstar News.
U.S.-led coalition forces have reportedly hit back against an Islamic State cell in Syria. They captured a midlevel leader linked to increasing attacks by the terror group in the Deir el-Zour countryside, the Voice of America (VOA) network said Thursday.
California Gov. Newsom’s executive order banning in-person church services during the COVID-19 pandemic has been upheld by a federal judge, the Washington Examiner reports. The Cross Culture Christian Center near Sacramento had filed a lawsuit stating the governor’s lockdown order violated their First Amendment right to free assembly.
Israel’s government has threatened to close down an evangelical television channel broadcasting in Hebrew if it violates laws on proselytizing and missionary activities. Tuesday’s announcement came after global network GOD TV launched Shelanu (“Ours”) to spread “the gospel of Jesus Christ into the homes and lives and hearts of the Jewish people.”
An independent Christian adoption and fostering agency in England has been downgraded by a government regulator for “unlawful discrimination against same-sex couples” in that it only places children with opposite-sex Christian couples. The agency is seeking Judicial Review of last year’s decision and the case will be heard in Leeds High Court on Wednesday and Thursday.
Christians in south-eastern China were recovering of serious injuries Tuesday after suffering attacks during a Sunday service amid a government crackdown on unregistered churches, rights activists told Worthy News. Church properties were also damaged in the May 3 violence against Xingguang Church in Xiamen city in China’s Fujian province, added advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).