China’s Communist leadership has ordered devoted Christians not to believe in God, well-informed activists, and local believers say. “Attacks on house churches have intensified across China. Police and government officials raid places of worship and intimidate congregations,” added Shen Xiang, who writes for Bitter Winter, a respected religious rights magazine on China.
Reports emerged this week that Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda have murdered a pastor and a church member for preaching the Gospel to Muslims, the Christian Post reported Saturday. Pastor Peter Kyakulaga and parishioner Tuule Mumbya of Church of Christ were beaten and drowned in a lake in Lugonyola village in the Gadumire Sub-County of Kaliro District on June 22. Church leaders have reportedly asked the local Christian community not to retaliate, but to be in prayer instead, the Christian Post said.
Foreign Christians are being told to leave Turkey and others have been barred from re-entering the country, Morning Star News reported Sunday. Rights advocates have said the Turkish government seems to be purposefully aiming such actions against Protestant Christians.
Despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 lockdown measures, thousands of Christians have been gathering in both indoor and outdoor services across the state, Fox News reports.
A 1,300 year-old church has been uncovered in the Galilee region of Israel, CBN News reported Wednesday. Working with the Kinneret Academic College, Israel’s Antiquity Authority discovered the church in the Circassian village of Kfar Kama.
The Planned Parenthood abortion provider has filed suit against The Church at Planned Parenthood (TCAPP) in Spokane, Wash. for being too loud and harming their clients, Fox News reports. Its website explains that TCAPP is not a protest but “a gathering of Christians for the worship of God… and repentance of our blood guiltiness in this abortion holocaust.” TCAPP holds a service once a month, including worship songs and prayer, after Planned Parenthood has closed for the business day.
The International Christian Concern (ICC) non-governmental organization has received a new report that Chinese authorities threatened to send children from a church in Chengdu to re-education camps, Christian Today reports. ICC has previously reported that Chinese authorities had removed children from Christian families on the grounds that they were “trapped by an evil religion.”
Referencing “advances in science” and “brutal” abortion methods, a group of 18 states is petitioning the US Supreme Court to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, Christian Headlines reported Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s peace plan was still on the table, although neither leader gave any indication as to when Israel would extend sovereignty to those parts of the West Bank the plan provides for, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Islamic militants in northeast Nigeria have murdered four aid workers and a security guard after abducting them while they worked for the International Rescue Committee and Action Against Hunger, Reuters reported last week. In a video released by the militants last month, those who died were first shown alive and then shot dead on camera.
Christians in northwest Nigeria have plunged into mourning after at least 10 people were killed and 11 seriously injured in a massive attack by suspected Muslim militants, rights activists say.
The leading British bank Barclays has closed the account of a Christian charity which tries to help people overcome unwanted same-sex attraction, Premier Christian News reports.
While some California Christian leaders have filed lawsuits because state coronavirus measures ban indoor church services, others have seen their congregations grow dramatically in size as Gospel ministry has been forced out of buildings, CBN News reports.
Thousands of Iranian Muslims have left Islam and have put their faith in Jesus Christ since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Iran in March, CBN News reports.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected Americans’ Bible engagement, with the number of U.S. adults who read Scripture declining drastically amid the outbreak, a recent study found.
The Chinese government is reported to have told poor Christian families they must give up their faith or lose state aid, CBN News reports. In a report published Monday, the Bitter Winter human rights group said: “People on social welfare [have been] ordered to worship the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), not God.” This latest action follows longstanding persecution of Christians by the communist regime in China.
Christians around the globe face growing persecution and many look to the United States for refuge. New numbers, however, show they’re not getting near the protection compared to previous years and advocates are sounding the alarm.
Days before California churches closed due to a surge in coronavirus cases, there was a massive evangelical Christian gathering on Huntington Beach near Los Angeles.
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) human rights group has said the murder of Christians in Nigeria has reached “genocidal” levels, Christian Today reports. According to Intersociety, more than 1,200 Nigerian Christians were murdered by Muslim Fulani and Islamist militants in the first half of 2020 alone.
Christians in eastern China were recovering of their injuries Thursday after trying to prevent the removal of crosses from churches by Chinese government forces.