A Christian university in Dayton, Tennessee is being attacked because the school has taken a truly Biblical stance in regards to the origins of man.
The Board of Trustees and President Stephen Livesay have amended the school’s statement of faith to state that “all humanity is descended from Adam and Eve. They are historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life forms.”
Several faculty members and students are protesting and complaining about the change, saying that such a position is out of touch with the world.
The school requires faculty to sign the statement of faith every year as part of contract renewals and when two long-term professors at Bryan College refused to sign the agreement saying God created Adam and Eve, resulting in their contracts not being renewed.
A small group of students is calling for the Board and President to be removed because of the change that led to the professors not being retained.
Kevin Clauson, the vice chair of Bryan’s faculty, told Inside Higher Ed that while he is sad some faculty have chosen to leave, Bryan as a Christian college must make sure “there is no slippage of doctrine.”
In what’s being hailed as a victory in the battle to defend Americans’ religious freedom, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that it is Constitutional for government meetings to have a prayer spoken at the opening of the gathering.
The decision was specifically praised for the very clear response to the issue.
“Even if [the decision] did uphold prayer in public legislative sessions, I wasn’t sure how clear that would be. This is crystal clear,” Rev. Rob Schenck told the Christian Post. “I would say, from reading the opinion, this is going to give very clear guidance in the future and it’s going to frustrate a lot of people who will attempt to get prayer at legislative sessions or any kind of public gathering shut down.”
The court’s five conservative justices said the prayers at the opening of the meetings were for the participants in the meeting and not for the general public.
Those who have tried to eliminate Christianity from public life were expectedly upset with the court’s decision. Rob Boston of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said the court’s ruling upholding religious freedom was “out of step with the realties of modern-day America.”
“The majority opinion makes it clear that legislative prayer often isn’t coercive because the adults being exposed to it have options, such as leaving the room,” Boston said before making a threat. “So, if any misguided religious right activists out there is thinking this decision opens the door for a return of official school prayer, they can forget it.”
East Carolina University officials are telling students to ignore the instructions from a chemistry professor to not mention God at all in their departmental graduation ceremony.
Assistant Professor Eli Hvastkovs sent an e-mail to his students to prepare a “family friendly” statement for the department’s graduation event but that God was prohibited.
“I’ve had some submissions that needed to be edited. so [sic] here are some guidelines,” Hvastkovs wrote. “1. You can’t thank God. I’m sorry about this – and I don’t want to have to outline the reasons why.”
The e-mail was published by the website Campus Reform drawing a response from the school that the e-mail was not authorized by ECU.
ECU Provost Dr. Marilyn Sheerer wrote to students saying that religious references “of any type will not be restricted.”
China’s war on Christianity is continuing with the removal of statues that depicted various parts of the Passion of Jesus.
The Chinese officials removed the statues making the absurd claim the statues were violations of construction regulations.
The statues were located on Longgang Hill in Wenzhou, which is considered “China’s Jerusalem” by Christian and Jewish residents. The statues included images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.
Statues that could be lifted by Chinese government workers were lifted and demolished. Those that could not be lifted were covered over with bricks. Cranes are being brought into the area to remove the bricked-over statues.
Wenzhou is the same town where the government demolished a Christian church that took 12 years to build because they said it too violated construction codes. Christian residents of the community say that there were no code violations and the government is lying to cover up an assault on Christians in the nation.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has told the State Department they need to add eight countries to the list of “countries of particular concern” where severe violations of religious freedom are taking place.
The group is calling for Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam to be added to the list that already includes Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
“With religious freedom abuses occurring daily around the world,” USCIRF Chairman Robert George wrote, “the United States must by words and deeds stand in solidarity with the persecuted.”
The announcement is the 15th from the group since they were founded in 1998. The commission often travels to foreign nations to study the levels of religious freedom in countries and to determine levels of persecution.
Christian persecution advocacy group Open Doors said that all of the countries on the proposed list are in their top 50 worldwide for Christian persecution and 11 were in the top 15.
The virulent anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation is attacking the 2013 National Baseball Coach of the Year because he would lead his team in a prayer before they took the field.
Larry Turner of Owasso High School teaches his baseball players to do more than just play the game. The team also visits war veterans in hospitals and teaches the sport to children who want to compete in the Special Olympics.
Now, the aggressive anti-Christian FFRF says a “concerned citizen” filed a complaint with them over the coach leading the team in prayer. The Freedom From Religion Foundation routinely files complaints all over the country where it is not located on behalf of anonymous people they do not provide evidence of truly existing.
The group did say in their letter they have no actual evidence of the coach leading the prayers, just the allegations of an unnamed source.
The anti-Christian group has been focusing this year on high school coaches who may lead or participate in prayers with their teams before games.
The school has not yet responded to the demands of the FFRF.
The al-Shabab terrorist organization has stepped up a campaign against Christians with their latest effort focusing on the very public execution of a Christian woman.
Sufia, a Christian woman living in Mogadishu, was inside her home when a group of terrorists stormed inside, drug her into the street, beat her and then shot her point blank while friends, family and neighbors tried to save her.
The terrorists shouted as they were committing the murder that Sufia had been converting Muslims to Christianity. The woman’s family says she was not doing any evangelizing in their community.
The government says this is the third targeted murder of Christians this month by the Islamic terrorist outfit.
According to the watchdog group Open Doors, Somalia is the second most oppressive country for Christians behind North Korea.
The killing comes on the heels of the government driving the terrorist group out of a previous stronghold in the city of Eyn.
The Chinese government is opening up a war on Christians.
Authorities used police to break through a human barricade to bring in heavy equipment for the destruction of a newly built church in Wenzhou. The church had made worldwide headlines when the worshippers formed a human shield around the building a month ago in an attempt to stop the government from their announced intent to tear it down.
The government claims they aren’t attacking Christians but that the building had violated multiple buildings codes and was unsafe for occupation.
However, church members have reported being harassed by police both at the church and at their homes. Also, they have found electronic devices spying on their phone calls and at least one person has been harassed by secret police for a phone conversation.
The head of Zhejiang’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee has said before the move on the church building “Christianity’s spread has been too excessive and haphazard.”
The city of Cincinnati says the City Gospel Mission is a benefit to the city and helps residents get back on their feet.
The state’s two U.S. Senators, one Republican and one Democrat, have sent letters saying that the mission is an example of a faith-based organization that makes a real difference and is an asset to their community.
But the Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking to keep the mission from being able to expand to help more people.
The Mission had planned to move to a larger, state-of-the-art facility when an insurance company discovered that the property had a private use restriction from HUD that dated back 40 years. The restriction was part of a deal between the city and HUD.
And while Cincinnati waived the agreement saying it was in the city’s best interests, HUD is objecting because the Mission is a Christian organization and because it only houses men in its facility.
HUD says those factors mean the shelter will be violating the Fair Housing Act.
Cincinnati officials say that if the Mission cannot expand, it will mean more homeless on the streets.
A HUD spokesman denied to FoxNews that the matter had anything to do with the group’s religion but then said that he could not comment while they are investigating the situation.
A professor at the University of Connecticut took it upon himself to make a hostile confrontation of Christians who were street preaching on the campus.
James Boster, who is a Professor of Anthropology, spent two hours trying to make students leave the area where several evangelists were sharing the truth of Christ and handing out information regarding Scripture.
At one point, Boster ran up to one of the evangelists and began swearing in his face. Boster stood just inches away from the preacher and shouted that the man was ignorant for his belief in Christ.
Boster started chants of “Hail Darwin” and demanded to know if Christians in the area had accepted Darwin as their lord and savior.
Boster defended himself in an e-mail to Christian News Network saying that Darwin’s message that all humans are brothers and sisters and all mammals are our cousin is closer to the gospels than the preachers who were telling students to turn from their sin and accept Jesus.
The University of Connecticut released a statement saying the professor’s actions were unacceptable.
“Everyone has a right to exercise free speech on our campuses,” the school said to NBC. “At the same time, we expect our faculty to act in a way that promotes civil discourse and to express themselves respectfully. The use of abusive language and the confrontational posture seen here are inconsistent with UConn values.”
