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.
As Christians around the world face increasingly intense persecution, the number of Christian refugees being allowed entry to the US has dropped by 90% since 2015, CBN News reports. This year the Trump administration set the total maximum number of Christian and non-Christian refugees to be allowed in at 18,000. Historically, the yearly average was 81,000.
Indian church leaders have condemned the killing of a young Protestant missionary and pastor by suspected Maoist rebels in western India.
Iraqi Christians want prayers for Christian and Kurdish families suffering from Turkish bombardments and incursions in Northern Iraq, aid workers say.
Christian converts in Sudan are rejoicing after the transitional government scrapped legislation that made leaving Islam punishable by death, Worthy News learned.
An international humanitarian aid organization has said Christians living in the formerly ISIS-controlled Nineveh Plains of Iraq are now in danger of extinction, the Christian Post reports. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) published a report this week in which it states that political and sectarian tensions are driving Christians out of the area.
Turkey’s top administrative court decided Friday that the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, which eventually became a museum, can be converted back into a mosque. Christian leaders condemned Friday’s ruling.
A UK Appeals Court has ruled that, while it is working with government authorities, a Christian adoption and foster care agency cannot refuse to place children with same-sex couples, the Christian Post reports. The Court ruled Tuesday that the Cornerstone Adoption and Fostering Service can recruit carers who identify as evangelical, provided it does not legally require them to be heterosexual.
Dozens of Christians have been detained in Eritrea in the latest government crackdown on devoted believers, advocacy representatives said Friday.
Turkey is expelling foreign Christians as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to increase support from conservative Islamic leaders, rights investigators told Worthy News.
At least 12 Christians are understood to have been arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRG) in what is believed to have been a coordinated round-up last week, the Christian Post reports. Announced by Article 18, a UK-based human rights non-profit organization, the arrests were said to have taken place in the cities of Tehran, Karaj and Malayer on June 30 and July 1.
After finding 40 churches connected to around 650 cases of the coronavirus, The New York Times is calling Sunday worship services “a major source” of COVID-19 cases.
New details emerged Thursday of a young Christian man who was reportedly murdered in eastern India for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ.