A Pakistani Christian couple was to face a court Thursday after spending six years in prison waiting for an appeal against their death sentence for “blasphemy”, trial observers said.
Eritrea released at least 69 Christian prisoners this month, including many detained in horrific circumstances for their faith “for up to 16 years without trial,” aid workers told Worthy News.
While the police killing of George Floyd sparked a nationwide and international conversation about racism and its effects, a new survey has found that practicing US Christians are less likely to acknowledge racial injustice this year (43%) than they were in 2019 (46%). Moreover, there was an increase in the percentage of those who said race is not a problem in America at all (19% in 2020, up from 11% in 2019), Barna reports.
Calvary Chapel of Bangor Maine has resumed holding indoor services while also practicing social distancing and following sanitizing guidelines, despite threats of criminal charges, fines and imprisonment.
Gregory Boyd, senior Pastor of New Birth Harvest Outreach Ministries Churches of Deliverance in Florida, was shot and killed at a shopping area in Northwest Miami-Dade on Thursday last week, CBN News reports. Pastor Boyd is believed to have been caught in crossfire after a gunfight broke out between two groups of men at The Village Flea Market and Mall.
A British pastor who received threats of violence from LGBT supporters, including a threat to burn down his church, was recently told by local police that he could be breaking the law by expressing his view of homosexuality on social media, CBN News reported on September 8. Pastor Josh Williamson of Newquay Baptist Church in Cornwall, southern England, was advised by police that he should keep his views to a “safe environment” and not offend the LGBT community.
Almost 1,000 people were baptized at a California beach Saturday, in what is described as a possible spiritual revival in the state, Christian Headlines reports. The record number of people had gathered at Corona Del Mar in Newport Beach to be baptized by Calvary Chapel Church, Chino Hills Pastor Jack Hibbs and his staff.
An advocacy group reports “horrific attacks” against minority Christians in India at a time when critics claim the government is turning the country into a full-fledged Hindu nation.
Three Iranian Christian converts have fled Iran following the rejection of their appeals, rights activists confirmed. “Kvian Fallah-Mohammadi, Hadi Asgari, and Amin Afshar-Naderi were facing a combined 35 years in prison because of their faith,” said advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).
As talks were underway between the Vatican and Belarus, reports emerged that Belarusian authorities detained dozens of pro-democracy protesters.
A new poll has found that 22% of US Evangelicals believe in “gender fluidity” rather than that people have a God-given gender that is either male or female, the Christian Post reports. The results of the “State of Theology 2020” poll were published by LifeWay Research on September 8.
Several devoted Christians in and around Sudan’s main cities are reportedly prevented from worshiping by authorities and angry mobs despite government pledges to end over three decades of hardline Islamic rule.
A California Superior Court has ordered Pastor John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church to stop holding indoor services in defiance of county COVID-19 health regulations, Courthouse News reports. Giving his ruling on Thursday, LA County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said he was making the order because “there is an immediate threat to public health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Evangelical Christians in eastern Sri Lanka have expressed concerns about recent attacks by Hindu and Buddhist mobs opposing their faith.
A massive fire erupted at the Beirut port on Thursday, just weeks after a massive blast at the same site devastated the Lebanese capital.
Eritrea has released dozens of Christians, many of whom spent a decade behind bars for their faith in Christ, well-informed rights activists say.
Despite an ongoing coronavirus pandemic, U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham urged Americans Wednesday to join him in a prayer march in Washington, D.C. as the nation faces deadly riots and other turmoil.
An Assemblies of God church in Seattle has launched a legal challenge against a state law which mandates the church must provide its employees with health insurance coverage for elective abortion if it also offers coverage for maternity care, CBN News reported Tuesday.
Muslim Fulani herdsmen are suspected of murdering three members of the Evangelical Church Winning All denomination in Nigeria’s Kaduna state early on Sunday morning, the Christian Post reports. Two church members were also abducted in the same attack and a further five were kidnapped in a separate attack on a nearby community the same day. The killings and abductions are the latest in ongoing murderous assaults by Islamic extremist terrorists on Christian communities in Nigeria.
At least 500 Christians have been slaughtered, and thousands traumatized and displaced, in the last two months in Ethiopia’s Oromia state, the Christian Post reports. It is believed that those responsible for the recent door-to-door attacks and killings are members of a youth movement of Muslim men from the ethnic Oromo population.