While Algeria’s government has now shut down all but a tiny handful of churches in the country, Algerian church leaders say the persecution is causing an increase in the number of new Christians, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
The Supreme Court grappled Monday with balancing free speech against gay rights, hearing a case involving a Colorado website designer who says she shouldn’t be compelled to violate the tenets of her faith by creating products for same-sex marriages.
A call to prayer has been sent out for the release of an American Christian missionary pilot and two South African volunteers who have been jailed in Mozambique for a month since being arrested by government officials on suspicion of insurgents in the ongoing civil war, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
The California Supreme Court has determined that Calvary Chapel Church in Santa Clara County does not have to pay the $217,500 in fines imposed by the state for violating COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
Iran’s morality police, which is tasked with enforcing the country’s strict Islamic dress code, has been disbanded following weeks of protests that killed hundreds of people, authorities say.
Suspected radicalized Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Ondo and Edo states kidnapped a total of 48 Christians in two attacks on buses on November 24, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
A jailed leader of more than 30 churches and congregations in northeastern India faces a trial on charges supporters link to his Christian activities, sources told Worthy News late Thursday.
Chinese authorities closed a house church and its Christian school in Shanxi province after detaining church members amid a crackdown on unauthorized worship in China, Christians confirmed late Thursday.
A new study published by the American Bible Society shows that Scripture engaged Americans donated $145 billion to churches and other charitable causes last year, giving much more than Americans in the “movable middle” and Americans that are Scripture disengaged, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
The Chaldean Patriarchate has issued a statement attesting that Iraqi Christians are leaving their country in droves due to compelling sociological and political factors, which include discrimination, Agenzia Fides reports. The Christians of Iraq make up one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world; there are an estimated 500,000 Christians still in the country.
A new census shows the number of people identifying as Christian in England and Wales has fallen below 50% for the first time, although researchers say this does not mean Britain has turned its back on religion, Christian Today (CT) reports. The census also shows that the percentage of the English and Welsh population who said they had no religion rose sharply from 25.2% in 2011 to 37.2% in 2021.
Federal agencies and the state of Wyoming have acknowledged in settling a lawsuit filed against them that the Christian Wyoming Rescue Mission is free to hire only like-minded believers who share in the organization’s mission to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Washington Times reports.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has stated in a new report that Christians in northwestern Syria are now living under threat from the de facto rule of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, Christian Today reports.
A pastor in Sudan has been jailed for alleged “witchcraft” after he led a prayer meeting for his sick mother, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. State-sponsored persecution of Christians has returned to Sudan since last year’s military coup toppled the moderate government, which had succeeded ousted Islamic dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Pakistan government officials bulldozed the homes and church building of 200 Christian families in Islamabad last month, with no warning or offer of substitute housing, the Christian Post reports.
China’s ruling Communist Party is continuing its crackdown and closure of evangelical house churches: earlier this month, the Covenant Home Church in Shanxi province was issued with an official notice that it has been banned and must close, reports Bitter Winter, a news outlet focused on religious liberty and human rights in China.
Archaeologists in Israel have recently discovered that the ancient city of Hippos in the northern Israeli region of the Golan was a major center for Christianity during the Byzantine period, Israel365 reports. Although Hippos was closely connected to Greco-Roman culture and was known as a religious center for the pagan Seleucids, archaeologists have discovered the remains of seven Byzantine-period churches there.
A UK Christian street preacher charged with a Public Order offense for telling a same-sex married couple that their union is against the Bible’s teaching has had his case dropped after the couple refused to engage with it, Christian Concern (CC) reports.
A former Hindu who gave his life to Christ just four months ago was beaten unconscious and left for dead after a mob of Hindus attacked a gathering of believers at a house church in India’s Odisha state earlier this month, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Rescuers on Tuesday struggled to find survivors of a powerful earthquake that rattled a highly populated area of Indonesia’s West Java province, killing and injuring more than two thousand people.