Suspected Muslim Fulani militants in Nigeria have demanded a ransom of 30 million nairas (US$73,600) for the release of Pastor Otamayomi Ogedengbe of Deeper Life Bible Church, whom they abducted at gunpoint from a Bible study at his church building in Akure, Ondo state on May 10, Morning Star News reports.
On May 15, a mob of over 200 Muslims attacked a Christian community in the Chak 5 village of Pakistan’s Punjab province, ransacking homes and seriously injuring eight people, International Christian Concern reports. Pakistan ranks 5 on the US Open Doors watch list of countries that persecute Christians; the persecution level in the country has been rated as “extreme.”
Four Christian men were beheaded in Indonesia earlier this month, in what is believed to have been an attack by East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) Islamic terrorists, Christian Today reports. The horrifying attack was carried out just six months after four Christians were murdered at a Salvation Army outpost in Sigi, Central Sulawesi.
Right after leading six Muslims to Christ during a public debate on May 3, a pastor in eastern Uganda was followed home and murdered by Islamic extremists who cut out his tongue and beheaded him, Morning Star News. The killing was the latest murder of Christians by Islamists in Uganda.
President Joe Biden recently rescinded several of former President Donald Trump’s executive orders, one of which called for the creation of a National Garden of American Heroes.
A jailed church elder has urged China’s Christians to continue worship services despite revelations that authorities force believers to renounce their faith in brainwash facilities.
Islamic hardliners are threatening the family of a mentally disabled Christian man in Pakistan who was forced to “convert” to Islam, Christians say.
Hundreds of Christians attended a mass funeral in a remote village of Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province Wednesday to mourn four people killed by militants linked to the Islamic State group.
China’s Communist authorities have launched a digital revolution against Christianity, according to Christians familiar with the situation.
The Biden administration said in a court filing last week it may reverse a 21-year-old restriction on the abortion pill and allow it to be distributed by mail, even after the pandemic ends.
The US State Department has published its International Religious Freedom (IRF) Report for 2020, providing an overview of religious freedom and persecution around the world, International Christian Concern reports. This year’s IRF condemned countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and China for their abuses of religious freedom, and stated that the US would continue to address the issue.
Rights groups report that Karen Christians in Myanmar are suffering under attacks and massive displacement by the Tatmadaw Burmese military which wrested control of the civilian government in February, and which carries out violent campaigns against ethnic and religious minorities in the country, International Christian Concern has reported. Prayer has been requested for the Karen Christians and all those oppressed in Myanmar.
Islamist militants killed and injured numerous Christians in a church and towns in central and northern Nigeria, Christians confirmed Thursday.
Following the Biden administration’s reversal of a Trump-era health policy on Monday, doctors may now be forced to perform transgender medical procedures, including surgery, against their professional opinion, conscience, and faith, Christian Headlines reports.
In the first such move by any major US Christian denomination, the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) has elected a transgender person to serve as Bishop, Christian Headlines reports.
The years-long onslaught of attacks against Christians in Nigeria by Muslim Fulani herdsmen continues with almost no resistance from the government, and 15 more believers were murdered last month, Morning Star News reports. At 3,530, Nigeria saw the world’s highest number of Christians killed for their faith last year.
As Islamic terrorists continue to kidnap Christians in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, in April a pastor’s wife was abducted from her home, two Christian nurses were taken from a hospital and around 70 residents were kidnapped from a single village, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. According to the Open Doors persecution watch group, 990 Christians were kidnapped in Nigeria last year – the highest number anywhere in the world.
The Texas House of Representatives has passed a Republican-sponsored bill that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected at around six weeks gestation, Christian Headlines reports. Senate Bill 8 passed 83-64 in the House on Thursday and is expected to be signed into law once the state Senate has reviewed changes made.
Christians have urged prayers for a couple who could face the death penalty in Somalia on Tuesday for abandoning Islam and “spreading Christianity” after in the Sunni Muslim nation.
Four devoted Christian men mistreated while in detention in Iran have been temporarily released due to the coronavirus pandemic, activists confirmed Thursday.