Christian News

Christians in Indonesia appealed for prayers Tuesday as security forces crushed nationwide protests against attempts by parliamentary allies of outgoing President Joko Widodo to change regional election legislation in their favor.

Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, has developed and launched an app for iOS and Android that brings the Bible’s New Testament to life through seven sign languages used in the African nations of Benin, Cameroon-Anglo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, and Togo. The “Sign Language Bible” is now available on Play Store.

Mexico last week saw demonstrations against the violation of religious freedoms as protestors gathered in Mexico City and the city of Oaxaca to show their anger about how authorities have subjected a Protestant minority community to discrimination, violence, and arbitrary detention, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports.

Pastor Johannis ‘John’ Hus Lumenta, the restless, dedicated secretary-general of Indonesia’s main Pentecostal denomination Gereja Pantekosta di Indonesia’ (GPdI), has died, Christians confirmed to Worthy News early Sunday.

One year after the devastating Islamic riot against Christians in Jaranwala, Pakistan in August last year, just 12 of the more than 300 people arrested are facing trials, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Islamic-majority Pakistan ranks 7 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Prominent Yemeni Christian activist Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo has started a hunger strike from prison in Egypt in protest at how the Egyptian government has treated him, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. 

A judge in Punjab Province, Pakistan has allowed three young Christian sisters to return to their parents after their employers held them captive and tried to forcibly convert them to Islam, Morning Star News reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia turned hundreds of churches and other religious sites into rubble since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The fate of a Protestant pastor and his 13-year-old daughter who were abducted in Gusau, northwestern Nigeria last month is not known, despite a ransom having been paid for their release, Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.

In a move seen as punishment for not aligning with Nicaragua’s authoritarian communist regime, Nicaraguan authorities have revoked the legal status of hundreds of evangelical NGOs and transferred their assets to the state, CBN News reports. 

In the last four years, authorities in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state arrested 1,682, people under an extreme anti-conversion law designed to suppress non-Hindu religious freedom, the International Christian Concern (ICC) advocacy organization reports.

Pressure is mounting on Rahymjan Borjakov, a 44-year-old pastor who faces imminent arrest for leading an unregistered church in Turkmenistan, Christians tell Worthy News.

Nicaragua’s communist dictatorship imprisoned six Christian women on account of their faith in the last year, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Ruled by President Daniel Ortega, who has intensified the persecution of believers, Nicaragua ranks 30 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Christians in Pakistan’s Punjab province remained concerned Sunday after a Muslim mob reportedly tried to kill a Christian mother of two accused of blasphemy while also targeting her sister.

The Islamic extremist Taliban have been in power in Afghanistan for three years (since the US withdrawal in August 2021), and the Afghan church is in a “precarious” position, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A young woman who has been jailed in Iran after abandoning Islam and turning to faith in Christ has been denied requested psychological care despite suffering mental difficulties linked to her treatment in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Christians say.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) states in its 2024 Annual Report that the government of Nigeria continues to tolerate terror attacks by nonstate Islamic extremists who want to impose their form of Sharia law upon Nigerians, especially Christians, Morning Star News reports.

US Christian ministry leaders believe a revival is taking place in the Islamic Middle East, with more than one million leaving Islam for Christianity in Iran alone, CBN News reports.

A prominent church leader in military-ruled Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been released by local authorities while serving a lengthy prison sentence for allegedly violating the Asian nation’s controversial anti-terrorism legislation, Worthy News established Wednesday.

There was fresh concern Wednesday about a Ukrainian Orthodox priest sentenced to 14 years in a Russian labor camp after Kyiv effectively banned the branch of the Orthodox church with links to Moscow.