The only Arabic Christian broadcaster in Lebanon said Wednesday that it continued broadcasting despite suffering minor damages to its studios in Beirut, where a massive blast killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 others.
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, has developed a virtual rendition of its MAST (Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation) methodology.
A Christian convert in Iran has won an appeal against conviction for “insulting the sacred beliefs of Muslims,” but lost his appeal against two charges of inciting “propaganda against the state” and for “membership of a [“Zionist” evangelical] group hostile to the regime” respectively, the Christian Post reports. Ismaeil Maghrebinejad was arrested in January 2019 and sentenced by a civil court in January 2020 to a total of six years imprisonment on the original three charges.
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.
California churches this weekend rallied against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s worship restrictions as many pastors continue to disregard state-imposed bans on singing and indoor services.
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.”
A Chicago church on Tuesday announced its intentions to appeal to the Supreme Court, following an unfavorable ruling from an Illinois federal appeals court upholding Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s worship ban.
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.
For most U.S. congregations, in-person worship has returned to mid-March levels despite a nationwide rise in coronavirus cases, a new report says.
More than a thousand people gathered on a beach in California to hold a worship service while churches are closed over coronavirus concerns.
A recent US Supreme Court ruling has opened the door for a lawsuit that seeks to force a Catholic hospital to carry out transgender surgery, PJ Media reports. Brought by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Maryland lawsuit is relying on the case of Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) to make its case. In Bostock, Justice Neil Gorsuch led the Court’s four liberals to redefine a person’s “sex” as including transgender identity and sexual orientation. At the time of this ruling, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned that Gorsuch’s decision would pave the way for the kind of case that has now been filed.
The Supreme Court ruled against a Nevada church that was seeking to overturn the state’s mandatory cap on attendance because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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.
Spain and several other European nations are taking new measures to halt an increase in reported coronavirus cases. The decisions come amid fresh warnings by authorities of a widespread “second wave” of infections.
A Russian court has fined an influential priest for publicly denying the existence of the new coronavirus and urging his followers to ignore government ordered lockdowns.