Tag Archives: Christian Persecution

Franklin Graham Says Christians Need To Step Up Against Persecution Abroad

Reverend Franklin Graham is making a call to Christians across America to shake off their apathy and begin to work to help persecuted Christians around the world.

“I don’t think we’re doing enough. No, I don’t. There is much more we can do,” Graham told The Christian Post.

“The greatest thing we can do is to pray — to pray for the Christians who are suffering. Saeed Abedini is on the poster behind us, but there are thousands upon thousands of Christians in Syria and Iraq who are suffering because of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Graham spoke at the Washington vigil for Saeed Abedini, whose plight has been largely ignored by the State Department and Obama administration.

Graham was also critical of Muslims around the world that have not taken steps to stop Islamic extremism.  Graham believes if they truly are against the movements of groups like ISIS or Boko Haram, they would be taking action.

“Followers of a peaceful religion do not cut off the heads of innocent people in the barbaric action the world has been watching,” said Graham before those gathered.

“Believers in a peaceful religion do not kidnap 300 young school girls as Boko Haram did in Northeastern Nigeria in April. … Men who practice a peaceful religion do not detonate bombs on American streets during a marathon race to kill and to maim.”

Worldwide Prayer Vigils For Saeed Abedini

Friday is a day of worldwide prayer for Pastor Saeed Abedini.

The event was organized by Saeed’s wife Naghmeh and is including groups of Christians from the United States to Mexico to Kenya.

The American Center for Law and Justice says the event is focusing on prayer for Abedini as the day marks the 2nd anniversary of his wrongful imprisonment for being a Christian.  The event will also pray for other Christians imprisoned around the world for professing Christ.

At the Washington, D.C. event, Naghmeh Abedini read a letter that Saeed wrote to his daughter for her recent eighth birthday.

“I know that you question why you have prayed so many times for my return and yet I am not home yet,” it read. “The answer to the why is who. Who is in control? [The] Lord Jesus Christ is in control.”

“Jesus allows me to be kept here for His glory,” Abedini continued. “He is doing something inside each of us and also outside in the world. People die and suffer for their Christian faith all over the world and some may wonder why. But you should know the answer of why is who. It is for Jesus. He is worth the price. And He has a plan to be glorified through our lives.”

Attorney General Holder To Resign

The man who has overseen the most anti-Christian Justice Department in American history is going to be leaving the position.

Justice Department and White House officials confirmed that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be announcing his resignation but staying on until a successor is confirmed to replace him.

Holder’s tenure in the office has been marked by multiple scandals and an open hostility toward conservative and Christian groups.

During Holder’s reign, evangelical Christians were listed to soldiers at military basis as threats to the country, although that was later claimed as a mistake.  They also said that when the soldiers were threatened with punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice if they donated to evangelical an Christian group, that was also a mistake.

Holder has also been at the forefront of suing Christian groups and organizations who refuse to follow the ACA’s mandates on abortion inducing drugs.  He also vehemently defends the law against any Christian group that sues against it, including the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Over 100 Christians Arrested In Chinese House Church Raid

Chinese officials raided house churches on Sunday and arrested more than 100 Christians for worshiping in a manner the state considered illegal.

Children were among the arrested, being taken from their parents.

The raid in the Guangdong province included over 200 police officers who stormed into the home during the service.  The move is believed to be part of a government crackdown on Christianity within the country.

“We don’t know exactly why they raided our church,” a local believer told watchdog group International Christian Concern. “The government does not want us to get together and worship as a church.”

Multiple surveys show that Christianity is growing fastest in the world within China.

An ICC spokesman says most of the people have been released but the incident has been traumatic, especially on the children.

“What the government here is doing is so barbaric,” local church leader Chen Zhi’ai told CNN.

California Charter School Censors Christian Books

A Christian legal organization is raising the alarm about a California charter school who is removing all books from their library that contain Christian content.

The cleansing of Christians from the Springs Charter Schools was exposed by officials with the Pacific Justice Institute.  The school claims to be “Created and operated by parents” and says that “we value parent choice and involvement, using the community as the classroom, fostering a child’s innate creativity, collaborating to achieve goals, building relationships, and personalizing learning.”

A concerned parent first raised the alarm when librarians started removing the book The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom from the shelves.  The librarians said they were ordered to remove anything containing Christian content.

“It is alarming that a school library would attempt to purge books from religious authors. Indeed, some of the greatest literature of Western Civilization comes from people of faith,” PJI President Brad Dacus stated in a press release about the matter. “Are they going to ban the sermons or speeches of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? What about the Declaration of Independence, which invokes the laws of nature and nature’s God?”

“We are calling on Springs Charter Schools to immediately reverse their ill-conceived and illegal book-banning policy.”

Self Proclaimed “Man Of Faith” Stops School Prayer Chain

A school superintendent who claims that he is a “man of faith” told a school principal and his teachers that they can no longer have a prayer chain for the sick and needy.

“I’m a man of faith who wants good for all, but I’m also a firm believer in separation of church and state,” Medina Schools Superintendent Dave Knight told The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Still, this “man of faith” Dave Knight told Principal Chad Wise of A.I. Root Middle School that he had to stop a prayer chain for community members dealing with a number of difficulties.  The plan was to uplift those who were facing illness, dealing with family deaths or in the middle of neglect or abuse cases.

“Public school staff can’t use district resources, including email, to promote prayer, especially when the principal, a person in a position of influence, is involved,” “Man of Faith” Knight told reporters. “When it comes to separation of church and state, it’s very clear.”

The principal was advised a single e-mail asking for keeping a family in “thoughts and prayers” was permissible but the prayer chain was a bridge too far.

Principal Wise says he will continue the prayer chain on his own time outside of school e-mail and outside the reach of “man of faith” Knight.

Arkansas State University Allows Players To Wear Crosses

In a victory for the religious freedom of Christians, Arkansas State University has announced they will allow players to continue to have cross shaped stickers on their helmets to pay tribute to fallen classmates.

The only condition from the school is that the players pay for the stickers themselves and that they personally place them on the helmets.

The stickers, which bare the initials of classmates Markel Owens and Barry Weyer who died in the last year, had been placed on all the helmets as a way for the team to pay tribute.  An anti-Christian attorney in Jonesboro, Louis Nisenbaum, saw one of the players on TV with a cross on his helmet and sent a threatening letter to the school.

After initially saying they would remove the crosses in response to the anti-Christianist, the school relented after student athletes contacted various religious freedom organizations to defend their religious freedom.

“In the interest of allowing our student-athletes to memorialize their fallen colleagues, Markel Owens and Barry Weyer, it is the university’s position that any player who wishes to voluntarily place an NCAA-compliant sticker on their helmet to memorialize these individuals will be able to do so,” University attorney Linda McDaniel wrote.

“This is a great victory for the players of Arkansas State University,” Liberty Institute litigation director Hiram Sasser remarked following the decision. “The university officials and the Arkansas attorney general did the right thing restoring the religious liberty and free speech rights of the players to have the original cross sticker design if they so choose and we commend them for doing so.”

United Nations Panel Slams Iran Over Abedini

A United Nations panel has slammed Iran for their continued imprisonment of Pastor Saeed Abedini for his Christian faith.

The Iranians have been firm in refusing to free the pastor before the end of an eight-year prison term for being a Christian.

United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says that the 34-year-old Abedini “has been deprived of his liberty for peacefully exercising the rights to freedom of religion, belief, and association.”

The report detailed all the issues surrounding the imprisonment of Abedini and called for his immediate release.

Saeed’s wife Naghmeh has been pleading with the White House and lawmakers to do something to free her husband from his wrongful imprisonment.  She hopes that the U.N. report will be a large step toward her husband’s release.

“There are times where your cause feels forgotten — but today is not one of those days,” Naghmeh told Fox News. “From the depths of my heart, I urge the member countries of the UN to act on the recommendations of this report. As these countries sit face-to-face with Iran during the upcoming UN General Assembly, I plead with them to ask for my husband’s release. It is time for our family to be re-united. My children need their father and I need my husband.”

The administration has been criticized for negotiating the release of potential traitor Bowe Bergdahl while doing virtually nothing to gain the release of Abedini from Iran.

Nigerian Christian Survives Brutal Boko Haram “Conversion Attack”

The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram is known for invading villages and giving the residents the option to convert to Islam or die.  What has not been known is the extent of the brutality this group has used to try and get conversions, along with why so many people seem to give in to their demands.

A Christian man, John Yakuba, had fled the city of Gwoza with his family when the terrorists first began to invade.  He and his family had to leave everything behind in the rush to get away and save their lives.

Unfortunately, his family was unable to find a place to live that would support them so he had to return to the village to see if he could recapture some of their livestock.

The terrorists seized him before he could even make it to his former home.

“You must convert to Islam or else you will die a painful death,” he was told.

“You can kill my body, but not my soul,” Yakuba repied.

The terrorists then methodically began slashing his body with a machete.  His hands, then his back, then his feet.  All the time asking if he would follow Allah.  When it became clear the man would not deny the Savior Jesus Christ, they hit him in the knee and head with an axe and left him for dead when he passed out.

In what can only be described as a miracle, someone spotted Yakuba tied to a tree three days after the assault and Yakuba was alive.  He is currently recovering in a hospital in a safe area of the country.

“I have forgiven the Islamic militants because they did not know what they are doing,” Yakuba told witnesses at the hospital.

“Cultural Cleansing” Of Christians By ISIS Being Ignored

A Princeton law professor is speaking out over the large number of Americans and residents of other western nations that are ignoring the systematic “cultural cleaning” of Christians from the Middle East.

Robert George says Christians in the west need to step up and spur their governments to action.

“It must be a kind of complacency that comes with power and affluence,” George said. “We are happy. We are content. We are not persecuted, or not very much. So, we do not see the persecution of our brothers and of our sisters on the other side of town.”

“Where is the voice being raised on behalf of Middle Eastern Christians by my fellow American Christians and Christians in Europe?” George continued. “Yes, some do raise their voices and they are to be congratulated. To often this persecution goes on and we hear nothing. No voices raised by Christians.”

George, the vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, spoke at a press conference announcing a gathering of Middle East Christians.

“The narrative has too often been internalized by Christians themselves so that they fear speaking out lest they be confronted with a claim that Christians have no right to complain about persecution because their history has been one of persecuting,” George said. “As the heads are being chopped off by ISIS and other criminals, as the tortures are occuring, people are being burried alive, women are being raped. As evil beyond imagineable, genicidal evil is being done, we in the West must not worry about being accused of special pleading.”