A U.S. government advisory panel wants India on a religious freedom blacklist over a “drastic” downturn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, triggering an angry reaction from New Delhi. In addition to India, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also recommends the inclusion of four more – Nigeria, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam.
In ongoing vicious attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen against Christian communities in Nigeria, two more people were killed and two others were kidnapped on April 22-23, Morningstar News reports. The herdsmen also burned down 25 homes and a church building in the raids.
Christians have launched a global letter-writing campaign demanding the release of an ethnic Korean believer who spent his 2000th day in a prison inside North Korea. Jang Moon Seok, a deacon, was kidnapped by suspected North Korean agents in November 2014 from China, according to aid workers familiar with the situation. He is currently serving a 15–year prison sentence on charges that friends link to his involvement providing aid to North Koreans and evangelism.
More than 130,000 people from across the world, many in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, have decided to follow Jesus Christ after an online evangelism event, organizers said. “We are living through a Great Quarantine Revival, and I think God is just getting started,” explained evangelist Nick Hall, whose Pulse movement organized the virtual program.
The Governor of Tennessee expressed full support for holding drive-in church services during the COVID-19 pandemic by attending such a service himself, Christian Headlines reports. At a time when state and local leaders have grappled with whether to allow drive-in services, Gov. Bill Lee attended a multi-church ‘Beyond Our Walls’ worship service on Sunday evening.
After weeks of having online services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, about half of US churches are expected to resume holding in-person services in May, the Christian Post reported. Churches that reopen are expected to do so while still observing safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A new report of a respected U.S. researcher concludes that more Americans believe in Satan than belief in God. George Barna, whose work is based at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, also writes: “Tens of millions of Americans consider themselves to be Christian but do not believe that God is really in control or cares what happens to them.”
A Baptist pastor in the U.S. state of Michigan has died shortly after celebrating his recovery from the new coronavirus and preaching about the resurrection of Christ. David Ford, a pastor at Friendship House of Prayer Baptist Church in the state capital Lansing, had been hospitalized with the virus disease COVID-19, friends said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he was ‘confident’ US President Donald Trump would let him fulfill his election promise to apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank “a couple of months from now.”
A pastor in India whose family’s house was demolished a month ago was assaulted on his way home from grocery shopping by the same people who forced him to flee his village.
An evangelical church and mission group has launched rooftop services in Pakistan after authorities banned regular church meetings amid a national lockdown to halt the coronavirus pandemic. Besides providing alternative worship, the church also saved 100 Christian families from slavery in some of Pakistan’s notorious brickyards, a pastor said in an extensive interview.
Saudi Arabia is ending flogging as a form of punishment amid efforts to modernize the judicial system, according to a document obtained by several media outlets. The kingdom’s top court said in written remarks that flogging would be replaced by prison sentences or fines, or a mixture of both.
A group of pastors in Cuba is sharing the gospel message during the coronavirus pandemic by having Scriptures written on face masks to wear and give out as they minister. Fox News learned of this outreach from Vernon Brewer, the CEO and founder of the World Help Christian humanitarian aid organization.
Facebook has removed four videos of military chaplains encouraging prayer and referring to God during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News reported on Thursday. The posts were taken down after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRRF) complained the videos constituted ‘illicit proselytizing’ of Christianity.
The Liberty Counsel (LC) Christian non-profit organization has launched the ReOpen Church Sunday campaign, calling on US churches to resume congregating in person on May 3, the Christian Post reports. As the campaign follows weeks of on-line worship services due to the coronavirus pandemic, LC advises that congregations should continue to observe social-distancing and sanitation measures at in-person services. However, LC says: ‘Now is the time to act.’
Four Christians were killed last week in an attack by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Kaduna state, Nigeria, Morningstar News reports. This attack is the latest in a string of murders committed by herdsmen targeting Christians: Nigeria ranks second after Pakistan on the Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List for countries where Christians are killed for their faith.
The daughter of a murdered pastor in India was shot last week, five years after the death of her father and in the same house.
Christian rights activist Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi says she has been sentenced to three months and one-day imprisonment and 10 lashes for publicly protesting Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.
Prophecies from rabbis about the coming of the Messiah and a third World War are coalescing with the timing of the implementation of the ‘Deal of the Century’ peace plan this summer under a new Israeli unity government.
Tens of thousands of Christians joined an online ceremony marking Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, amid concerns that antisemitism will spread as fast as the coronavirus. While a memorial siren sounded across Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) had viewers stand to honor 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, also known as Shoah.