Secretary of State John Kerry is highlighting the case of Pastor Saeed Abedini as an example of Christian persecution in the Middle East.
“In Iran, U.S. Iranian citizen Pastor Saeed Abedini remains imprisoned. The Iranian authorities sentenced him to eight years behind bars simply because of his religious beliefs. We will continue to call for his release and we will continue to work for it,” Kerry stated.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who has been working to get Pastor Abedini freed, released a statement saying they were thankful that the Secretary of State was finally paying real attention to the case.
Kerry was speaking about the State Department 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom.
“On several occasions, however, senior U.S. government officials, including the President and the Secretary of State, raised directly with their Iranian counterparts the case of Christian pastor and dual U.S.-Iranian national Saeed Abedini, who is being held on charges related to his religious beliefs, and called for his release,” the report states. “The Department of State also publicly called for the release of Mr. Abedini and other prisoners held on religious grounds.”
Prayer vigils around the country are planned on September 26th, the two-year anniversary of Abedini’s unlawful imprisonment.
A Christian leader in Iraq says the disappearance of all Christians from Iraq is “very near.”
Canon Andrew White, the vicar of the only Anglican church left in Iraq, says that as Islamic terrorists continue their campaign against those of other faiths, the Christian population is fleeing for other nations.
“Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed come what may, we will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near,” White told the Christian Post. “The Christians are in grave danger. There are literally Christians living in the desert and on the street. They have nowhere to go.”
The terrorists attempting to overthrow the Iraqi government killed 31 people in a homicide bomb attack last week. They’ve driven all but a few hundred Christians out of the city of Mosul, where the remainder has been forced to pay high taxes. However, worship in the city has ended.
“We have at least 25 churches in [Mosul],” Syriac Patriarch Ignace Joseph Ill Younan said. “All are abandoned. No more prayers, no services, no more Masses on Sundays in Mosul because no clergy, no people there that are Christian.”
The crackdown on churches in China is ramping up again.
Chinese police in Wenzhou forcibly removed the cross from the top of a local church building. The members of the church gathered around the fallen cross, weeping and praying for the men who conducted the removal.
The congregants had tried to protect the cross atop Longgang Huai En Church but hundreds of police descended on the building and overwhelmed the church members. The government said the cross on top violated the city’s ordinance on the height of buildings within the city.
The government workers did make an unusual step in allowing the church members to keep the cross inside their building.
The Chinese government is cracking down on churches in Wenzhou, called the “Jerusalem of China” by local Christians because of the revival of faith in the city. The International Chrsitian Concern says that the government has not only encouraged local officials to remove crosses from buildings but are offering political promotions to those who succeed in shutting down churches.
The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has killed as many Christians in Nigeria since the start of the 2014 than they did during the entire year of 2013.
The Jubilee Campaign reports that the total number of Christians killed are in proportion to a rising number of overall deaths caused by the Islamic extremist group. The death toll of close to 4,100 is already higher than all the total deaths of last year.
The increase in the death toll is reportedly due to an increase in weapon capability and training because of connections to other al-Qaeda related terror cells in Africa including al-Shabaab in Somalia and the terror groups in Mali fighting French troops for control of the northern regions.
“The pattern therefore is that if you do not do what they demand, even if you are Muslim, you become an ‘apostate’ deserving of death,” Emmanuel Ogebe of Jubilee Campaign said. “Therefore the difference between Boko Haram’s approach to Christian ‘infidels’ and Muslim apostates is you are killed as a Christian ‘just because’ your name is Christian – you go to church, etc. – whereas Muslims are generally killed ‘for cause,’ for example working for the government or refusing to pay extortion taxes to Boko Haram.”
Human Rights Watch reported over 2,000 deaths during the same time period but acknowledged they only covered a part of the country and that their information is likely a very conservative estimate.
A Portland, Oregon children’s ministry is coming under fire from a group of citizens who object to kids being told that all human beings are sinners who need salvation through Jesus Christ.
Portland residents are attacking the Portland chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship over their voluntary summer camps in the area. The CEF teaches children as part of their camps that everyone, including them, are sinners and that because of Jesus Christ our sins can be forgiven.
Some of the “never mention sin” group have started a group called Protect Portland Children to harass parents into not taking their children to CEF events. The group was founded by an anti-Christianist who aims to keep the group from not only speaking to children at camps, but keep the group from having Bible study groups at area schools this fall.
The group says that they’re not saying anything that hasn’t been said for 2,000 years.
“The message of the gospel, teaching of the core Christian tenets of the Christian faith that have been taught for 2,000 years in the Bible is what we’re teaching,” CEF Vice President Moises Esteves said. “There’s nothing new here.”
A federal appeals court has told a group of anti-Christianists that “the cross at Ground Zero” is not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
The group American Atheists had demanded the cross be removed because it violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
“American Atheists contend that the Port Authority and the foundation impermissibly promote Christianity in violation of the Establishment Clause and deny atheists equal protection of the laws by displaying the cross at Ground Zero in the museum unaccompanied by some item acknowledging that atheists were among the victims and rescuers on September 11,” read the opinion.
“American Atheists acknowledge that there is no historic artifact that speaks particularly to the loss of atheists’ lives or to atheists’ rescue efforts … we conclude that American Atheists’ challenge fails on the merits. Accordingly, we hereby affirm the judgment in favor of appellees.”
The president of American Atheists says it’s not fair that a cross is in the 9/11 Museum and his group can’t put up some kind of tribute to atheists, even though the “cross” wasn’t given by any Christian group but rather discovered as part of the debris of the Twin Towers.
“They’re trying to Christianize 9/11 with this cross and it’s not American and it’s not fair,” said David Silverman.
The anti-Christianist group will likely appeal the decision.
A Christian in Iran was ordered by a judge to have his lips burned with a cigarette after he did not fast during the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
Ramadan requires all Muslims to fast from food and drink from sunrise to sundown. The Islamic government of Iran is imposing those requirements on all citizens even if they are not Muslims according to sources within Tehran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran released a statement condemning the actions saying it shows the way Iran targets Christians.
“The silence of the world community, especially of western countries, vis-à-vis these medieval punishments under the excuse of having nuclear talks with Iran has intensified the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran. This will ultimately embolden the Iranian regime to continue its nuclear projects more than before,” read the statement from the France-based group.
Some Muslims within the city are welcoming the strict actions. One Tehran resident lamented the way many residents of the city are not being as strict on the rules.
“In 1995, if someone had even a drop of water, everyone went and reported it and that person would get fired, or just scolded if they were lucky. Not any more, though. People are looking out for each other. I almost miss those days, though. It’s like people’s hearts just aren’t in religion anymore,” a man named Hamid told The Guardian newspaper.
A small country church in Carthage, Missouri wanted to honor veterans and soldiers during their Vacation Bible School. The military banned troops from going to the event.
Paramedics, police and firefighters in the community showed up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to talk to the kids, teach them some basics of their jobs and receive thanks for their efforts to make the community better.
On Thursday, when the National Guard was supposed to show up, no one was there.
The military told the National Guard troops they were banned from the event and if they showed up at all on the grounds of the church they could face discipline. The military said that just the presence of the troops or any National Guard asset meant they were sponsoring the Baptist religion.”
The military officers were more concerned about someone who is not a Christian being offended by the troops appearing at the church than they were about any Christians who might be upset at being told they weren’t worth visiting.
The Missouri National Guard reportedly tried to do all they could to attend the event but it was at the federal level where the ban on associating with Christians was ordered.
National Guard troops were furious at the Defense Department’s actions.
“We had a lot of disappointed kiddos because of the National Guard being unwilling to allow a Humvee and a few soldiers to spend an hour at a Baptist Church,” a Guardsman said. “It makes we wonder what I’m actually fighting for.”
The Islamic terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria accepted responsibility for a homicide bombing in Baghdad that has left at least 31 people dead.
Another 58 people were injured in the blast, some very severely, and officials say it’s likely the death toll is going to rise.
Christian bishops in Iraq are now calling for the government to protect Christians who are being killed and driven out of their homes in masses. They’re calling for the government to also provide funding for the thousands of families suddenly displaced by Islamic extremists.
Over 35,000 Christians have been forced to flee the city of Mosul after ISIS threatened to kill them unless they convert to Islam or pay a huge fine. Many of them have fled to Baghdad, where ISIS targets them in attacks.
Christian relief group World Compassion estimates at least 750,000 Christians have been forced to leave their homes since the Islamists began their campaign in northern Iraq.
The family of Meriam Ibrahim, who had brought a lawsuit in an attempt to have her declared a Muslim by Sudanese courts, announced they have dropped their lawsuit.
The development could allow the persecuted Christian woman to finally leave the country with her husband and two children for the United States.
Attorney Abdel Rahman Malek would not give a reason that the family was dropping the suit.
The Sudanese government is still holding charges over Ibrahim’s head that she tried to leave the country on false travel documents; however, the family’s attorney says he has evidence to show that the papers are legal under international law.
A New York City area church said this week they would be willing to provide housing, food and other necessities to Ibrahim and her family so they could begin a new life in the United States.
The Sudanese government has not responded to multiple requests from American groups and political leaders to release the family.
