Anugrah Kumar – March 2, 2021

At least four Christian men recently suffered serious injuries after they were stabbed, forced to eat pages of the Bible, and had “crosses” etched into their skin by eight hooded men, according to a persecution watchdog organization.

The attack by men suspected to be criminals from a drug gang took place at Restoration House in the city of Libertador on Feb. 16, Open Doors reported Friday. Restoration House is a church-led drug rehabilitation center in Venezuela’s Mérida State.

The charity, which works with persecuted churches in over 60 nations, explained that Christians, who deter people from criminal lifestyles, are often seen as a threat to the illegal activities of drug gangs in Latin America.

“The criminals covered our faces and started to beat and stab us,” a victim was quoted as saying. “They drew ‘X’ on our bodies and forced us to eat the Bible.”

While the four Christians have been discharged from the hospital, one of them remains in poor health due to two broken ribs and injuries to his lungs and head. Two others had casts put on their legs and arms.

“Weeks before the attack, in the middle of a meeting discussing neighborhood issues, two men said they were going to end the Restoration House because they did not agree with this type of program,” Pastor Dugarte, who founded the center with his wife, told Open Doors.

Pastor Dugarte remains strong in his faith, and he will carry on with the ministry in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

https://www.christianpost.com

Steve Warren – February 4, 2021

Christian leaders in Denmark say religious liberty and the freedoms of speech and expression have come under fire after a proposed law would require leaders of all faiths to translate their sermons into Danish and submit them to the government.

La Croix International reports the new measure is primarily aimed at radical Islamic groups, but it will also affect churches. It is scheduled to be reviewed this month at the Folketing, the Danish Parliament. The country has more a population of more than 270,000 Muslims, and most of the sermons in the mosques are preached in Arabic.

The government of Denmark has said the law is necessary to curb the growth of Islamic extremism.

CBN News sources explain the measure is aimed at getting the preaching of jihad out of mosques, but because Europe is so politically correct they won’t just pinpoint mosques. They’re including churches and casting a broad, politically correct net.

Christian leaders are sounding the alarm about the proposed law and the dangers it represents.

Church of England Bishop Robert Innes wrote a letter to Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen expressing his alarm over the measure with what he describes as an “overly restrictive” bind on freedom of expression, according to The Guardian.

Innes told the newspaper he feared the law if backed in the Danish parliament, would be replicated elsewhere in Europe at a time when religious minorities were generally finding their freedoms being encroached upon.

https://www1.cbn.com

Evangelical Focus – February 08, 2021

The parliament of Victoria (Australia) is about to conclude the process of the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill.

The law has been approved by both the Lower House and the Legislative Council of the Victorian parliament and could be soon ready to be implemented.

Any practice that aims to “change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity” will now be illegal.

According to Australian evangelical magazine Eternity News, this ban includes “prayer conversations suggesting change, and counselling when targeted at an individual”.

Melbourne, the State’s capital, is known for being Australia’s region with a strongest support for LGBT movements – as seen in the Pride Marches and other demonstrations in the last years.

The law becomes a real challenge to churches that hold to a traditional and biblical view of sexuality. Jail sentences up to ten years and large fines can be imposed by courts if there is a perception that a ‘conversion’ practice has caused injuries to a LGBT person.

According to the analysis of Eternity News, the law distinguishes between general teaching and personal counselling. “Sermons and general discussion of same-sex and gender issues which might take a conservative line” would not be prosecuted but “activities which are directed at an individual, on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and have the aim to change or suppress that person’s identity” would.

The law will not come into effect right away, but there will be one-year period in which the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission will lead consultations to clarify the details of how the law would be applied in different scenarios.

Several church denominations in Victoria have expressed their concern about the law.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com

Andrea Morris – February 9, 2021

China’s communist regime is reportedly taking more steps to indoctrinate young children to ensure they worship the country’s communist ruler Xi Jinping instead of God.

As CBN’s Faithwire has reported, under the regime’s Regulations on Religious Affairs, schoolchildren have been trained for years to report any family members who espouse Christian views.

Now the Epoch Times reports that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is escalating its efforts to “groom” young people in China to have the “right ideas and thoughts” that are anchored in atheism.

One Christian mother said her child appeared to be acting differently after attending school.

“Before starting school, I told my child about God’s creation, and he believed it. But after being taught at school, my child is like a different person. In atheistic China, these pure and innocent children have been taught to hate God.”

In one case, a child found a Christian booklet in his home and became anxious because his teacher warned that, “Christianity is a Xie jiao” or “evil cult.”

The children are given a textbook called “Morality and Society” which talks more about Xie jiao.

CBN News previously reported that the CCP strives to eliminate the faith community because it’s perceived as a threat to Xi’s regime. There are more Christians in China than Communist Party members, and this reality doesn’t sit well with the party. So religious materials have been classified as contraband.

Xi has ordered that all religions must “Sinicize” to see that they are loyal to the officially atheistic party.

https://www1.cbn.com

Anugrah Kumar – January 18, 2021

Around 750 people were killed in an attack on an Orthodox church, which is said to contain the Ark of the Covenant described in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, in northern Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region — home to thousands of churches and monasteries — according to reports.

Hundreds of people hiding in Maryam Tsiyon Church in Aksum amid an armed conflict were brought out and shot to death, and local residents believe the aim was to take the Ark of Covenant to Addis Ababa, the Belgium-based nonprofit European External Programme with Africa reported in this month’s situational report, released on Jan. 9.

“The number of people killed is reported as 750,” it said. The church, the most ancient and sacred of Ethiopian Christianity and also known as the Church of St. Mary of Zion, belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

“I’ve not heard more than rumours about the looting of the Arc from Maryam Tsion, but if it’s true that up to 750 died defending it, it is conceivable that the attackers didn’t stop there,” said Michael Gervers, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, according to The Telegraph.

“The government and the Eritreans want to wipe out the Tigrayan culture. They think they’re better than rest of the people in the country. The looting is about destroying and removing the cultural presence of Tigray,” Gervers explained.

https://www.christianpost.com

Michael Snyder – January 17, 2021

For years I have been warning that Christian persecution was rising all over the globe, but we have never seen anything like the past year.  Christians are being slaughtered all across Africa, they are being taken to concentration camps in North Korea, thousands of churches have been brutally shut down under a new wave of persecution in China, and millions of believers throughout the Middle East must live knowing that each new day may be their last.  Of course most Americans have never heard about any of this because the mainstream media won’t cover it.

Thankfully, there are organizations that do keep track of what is happening to Christians around the globe, and one of them is Open Doors USA.  According to the group, the number of Christians that were killed for their faith was 60 percent higher in 2020 than it was in 2019…

The watchdog organization Open Doors USA says levels of Christian persecution are at a record high around the world. Open Doors reports that levels of Christian persecution are at a record high, revealing that the number of Christians murdered for their faith rose 60 percent in 2020.

A 6 percent rise in a single year would be bad.

A 60 percent increase is a nightmare.

Open Doors USA also just released the 2021 World Watch List in which they named the top 50 nations that are persecuting Christians the most.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

John Paluska | January 7, 2021

Nigeria ended its year with a massive spike in terrorism. Jihadists in the country reportedly hacked 200 Christians to death illustrating what experts are calling a dangerous situation for Christians.

According to an end-of-year report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), a total of 2,400 Christians were hacked to death by Jihadists in Nigeria in 2020. This “further represents the same number of Christians hacked to death by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in 2018 alone,” according to the report.

The 200 Christians attacked during the Christmas season by Muslim extremists was simply the penultimate expression of the status quo in Nigeria, the report stipulates. In that massacre alone, the report states that “the slain Christians included those abducted on religious grounds and likely to have been killed in captivity, including five abducted from Garkida (Adamawa) by ISWAP Jihadists on Christmas Eve and beheaded on 29th Dec 2020.”

Additionally, the report highlights that official statistics are unwilling to address the true nature of Christian persecution, where they claim it is “at least 60” Christians killed without providing a true upper limit, because it would show numbers much higher.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Michael Foust – November 12, 2020

Christians are persecuted in more countries than any other religious group in the world, followed closely by Muslims, according to a new Pew Research Center study that also found government restrictions of religions are at an all-time high.

The lengthy Pew report was released this week and found that in 2018 – the most recent year studied by Pew – government limits on religion continued to climb, contributing to a “substantial rise in government restrictions on religion” compared to 2007, the first year Pew conducted the study. Pew defines restrictions as “laws, policies and actions by officials that impinge on religious beliefs and practices.”

The worldwide Government Restrictions Index score in 2018 was 2.9, compared to 1.8 in 2007 (The score involves a 10-point scale based on 20 indicators).

China is the world’s most restrictive country toward religion with the highest score (9.3) of all 198 countries and territories studied. Iran (8.5) is second, followed by Malaysia and the Maldives (8.2 each) and Tajikistan and Turkmenistan (7.9 each).

Most of the world’s religious persecution takes place in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in the Middle East and North Africa, Pew said.

Christians and Muslims in 2018 received the highest level of persecution, which Pew calls “harassment.” Harassment, Pew said, “can include a wide range of actions – from verbal abuse to physical violence and killings – motivated at least in part by the target’s religious identity.”

Christians were persecuted in 145 countries in 2018 – a record – while Muslims were persecuted in 139 countries. Jews experienced persecution in a total of 88 countries.

“As in previous years, Christians and Muslims experienced harassment in more countries than any other religious groups in 2018. This pattern has remained consistent since the study began in 2007,” Pew said in its analysis.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Phil Shiver – December 23, 2020

On Tuesday, in an op-ed published by the Daily Signal, Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin raised awareness about a dangerous plan being hatched by progressives to shape future generations of Americans.

The plan — outlined in a recent Human Rights Campaign manifesto titled, “Blueprint for Positive Change” — urges the incoming Biden administration to mandate compliance with their political agenda by stripping accreditation from religious colleges and universities that don’t meet “nondiscrimination policies and science-based curricula standards” regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

The objective, which is one of 85 policy recommendations submitted by the LGBTQ advocacy group, demands that the Department of Education amend language found in the Higher Education Opportunity Act that presently requires accrediting agencies to respect a school’s “stated mission.”

The department, HRC argues, “should issue a regulation clarifying that this provision … does not require the accreditation of religious institutions that do not meet neutral accreditation standards including nondiscrimination policies and scientific curriculum requirements.”

Should the plan be carried out, it would effectively dissolve religious higher education institutions in America as many employers do not hire applicants without a degree from an accredited school.

Babin responded to the plan, saying, “Here, couched in language designed to suggest moral superiority and scientific legitimacy, is a blatant, full-frontal assault on our religious liberties.

https://www.theblaze.com

Steve Warren – December 9, 2020

A prominent LGBT rights group is trying to persuade former Vice President Joe Biden and his presumptive administration to adopt guidelines that could lead to the closing of private Christian colleges and universities.

Activists at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have written a document titled Blueprint for Positive Change, which gives 85 pro-LGBT policy and legislative recommendations for a potential Biden administration to enact.

One of the proposals in the HRC’s document calls for the US Department of Education to eliminate all exceptions for faith-based colleges and universities if they “discriminate or do not meet science-based curricula standards.”

Last month, Dr. Al Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned about the HRC’s document in a commentary, which he called “a direct threat to Christian education.”

The word “discrimination,” he advised, is the key to what could come next.

“The Blueprint is not ambiguous—it makes detailed policy positions and recommendations, department by department, for the Biden Administration to deploy once the president-elect assumes office. From the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Human Rights Campaign demands the enactment of policies to prohibit what is identified as discrimination,” Mohler wrote.

Mohler also notes the HRC is camouflaging sexual orientation and gender identity politics as “science.”

“The Human Rights Campaign is not known for any particular agenda on the creation-evolution front, nor is the group preoccupied with particle physics. The Human Rights Campaign is targeting issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, cloaking them in the language of ‘science.’ This is an undisguised effort to require Christian schools and colleges to abandon biblical authority or lose accreditation,” he explained.

https://www1.cbn.com