Taliban authorities arrested 35 more Afghan aid workers over the weekend, bringing the total to more than 50 Afghans jailed by the strict Islamist regime since early August on suspicion of aiding covert Christian missionary work.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–With a heart institute study showing that prayer helps patients improve, two Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professors warn against depending upon scientific verification of a spiritual exercise.
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)–Just as Olympic athletes are at war with their bodies, so in the spiritual realm “life is war” for Christians, a prominent evangelical author and minister told students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C., during the annual Carver-Barnes Lectures, Sept. 24-25.
WASHINGTON (BP)–The U.S. Supreme Court wrestled March 29 with whether student-led, student-initiated prayers at public-school football games are permissible under the First Amendment.
“I do not expect the tide of evil and immorality in America to ebb. We are cycling, as cultures and civilizations have always cycled, and are now on the down side of glory. Our once great and godly nation, having crested the hill of God’s grace, has begun a slow descent into the abyss of self destruction.”
NEW DELHI, India (BP)–Another day, another bombing.
That’s the impression being created, at least, by a mounting wave of attacks on Christians and churches in India.
Vandals recently broke into the office of a Bible school in India, tied up the schools’ cook, and destroyed the office.
The vandals seem to have thoroughly planned their attack. The school is housed in two buildings, and both buildings were ransacked at the same time. About thirty-five people live at the training center.
As numbers of lower caste Indians embrace Christ, and in the face of the increasingly violence against Christians in India at the hands of Hindu militants, Dr. Joseph D’Souza, President of the All India Christian Council, is asking for Christians from around the world to pray for his nation during the month of July. God is mightily at work in India and so it should not surprise us that persecution should be on the rise as well.
“A politics of community can be strengthened when we are not afraid to make the connections between spirituality and politics.”[2] Al Gore who also touted faith-based partnerships. Senator again urges expanded role for religion in social service programs
“Bush and his aides moved to downplay the religious component, emphasizing the proposal’s overall purpose: boosting communities and civil society.”[3] Bush Unveils ‘Faith-Based’ Initiative
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (ANS) – An 18-year-old Christian called Marianne Larsen has seen quite a victory in an extraordinary battle against pornography in Denmark. UCB Crossroad, a Christian radio and TV ministry, and the prayers of 185,000 Brazilian women in the city of Curitiba, have supported her fight.
WASHINGTON (ABP) — U.S. Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments Feb. 28 in a dispute over whether a Christian youth organization should be allowed to meet with children directly after school hours in an upstate New York public school. While the high court has before ruled in favor of religious groups using school facilities to discuss secular topics from a religious perspective, this raises new questions.
A refugee camp on the Thailand/Burma border has been overrun by troops sent by the Burmese military junta.
Heavy shellfire preceded the attack on the Ler Per Hur camp just inside the Burma border which was later torched by the soldiers on December 29.
LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) — Most Christians understand the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism around the world, but few are aware of a virulent strain of Hindu radicalism targeting believers in India.
Listening via television to evangelist Billy Graham’s stirring words of spiritual comfort and encouragement at the national prayer and memorial service in Washington DC on Friday, I recalled that the last time I saw the towering World Trade Center was the same day I spoke at his ministry headquarters in Minneapolis. It was a great honor to address his staff of over 300 dedicated workers last August 6 just before boarding a plane to Newark airport on my way back to my home at the center of the world, Jerusalem Israel.
Turkmenistan has moved to fifth place on the Open Doors World Watch List of worst persecutors of Christians, behind Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Laos and China, causing “great concern” to persecution watchers around the world.
(Washington, DC) – The American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, today filed a petition for certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court asking the court to hear an equal access case from Arizona and to overturn a federal appeals court decision that said the City of Tucson acted properly when it discriminated against a couple, Patricia and Robert Gentala, who organized a public event celebrating the National Day of Prayer in 1997.
The Voice of the Martyrs rejoiced to learn yesterday that Chinese Christian “Sister Tong” has been released from prison following a 15 day prison sentence. A VOM worker in the area was able to pass financial support and encouragement to her.
An American Christian working in Turkey has called for open dialogue on the issue of persecution of churches in that country.
The letter below — the cry of a frustrated and persecuted Vietnamese Mennonite pastor named Nguyen Hong Quang — is an appeal for religious freedom in Vietnam and for support from the international Christian community.
Thirty-five house church Christians were arrested in Inner Mongolia and 15 were sent to labor camps after police raided a worship meeting being held on May 26 in Dongsheng, the Associated Press reported on May 30.