Lady Warsi, a Muslim who is Great Britain’s Faith and Communities Minister, told the BBC that Christianity in large parts of the Middle East and in a majority of Islamic nations is on the brink of extinction.
I’m concerned that the birthplace of Christianity, the parts of the world where Christianity first spread, is now seeing large sections of the Christian community leaving, and those that are remaining feeling persecuted,” Lady Warsi told the BBC Radio 4 Today program. “One in 10 Christians live in a minority situation and large numbers of those who live in a minority situation around the world are persecuted.”
She said that as Islamic extremist groups gain influence, they are able to convince the local population that Christians are “newcomers” to the area that should be driven out when in many cases the Christians were living in the area before the arrival of the Islamists. She also said that Christians are being made the scapegoat for problems in the Middle East created by Islamists.
She also said that violence against Christians in Pakistan is threatening to drive all Christians from that nation.
She said that violence against Christians worldwide should not just reverberate in the Christian community but in all communities.
The government of North Korea has murdered Christians for possessing a Bible.
A South Korean newspaper reports that the people labeled criminals by the North Korean government for owning a Bible were killed in public execution events arranged by Kim Jong-un’s government.
A source said in the city of Wonsan, those being executed were tied to stakes in a local stadium and shot to death with machine guns while over 10,000 residents were forced by military forces to watch. He said the bodies were so riddled with machine gun bullets that identities could not be determined.
Relatives or accomplices of those murdered were taken to prison camps.
Some North Korean experts say the executions are an effort by the government to quell any possible opposition.
A federal lawsuit filed Friday says that two chaplains were forced out of a training program for Veteran’s Administration chaplains after being told they had to stop quoting the Bible and had to stop mentioning the name of Jesus.
Todd Starnes of Fox News reported that Nancy Dietsch, leader of the San Diego-based VA-DOD Clinical Pastoral Education Center program, openly ridiculed two chaplains. The one-year program trains chaplains to serve veterans at VA hospitals across the U.S.
“No American choosing to serve in the armed forces should be openly ridiculed for his Christian faith,” John Wells, attorney for the two men, told Fox News.
Among the allegations in the report, it says that Dietsch told the chaplains it was against the policy of the VA and her personal policy that chaplains pray in the name of Jesus. Dietsch told the chaplains they could not quote the Bible in any of her classes and yelled at the chaplains any time they made mention of the Bible. She told the Christians if they felt their beliefs were right and others were wrong that they had no place in the CPEC program.
The American pastor being held in Iran because of his faith was moved to a prison considered even more brutal than where he had previously been held.
Family members of Saeed Abedini went to visit him at Evin Prison, a Tehran facility where he had been kept over a year. When they arrived, they were told the pastor had been moved 90 minutes away to Rajai Shahr Prison.
Rajai Shahr prison houses some of Iran’s more violent prisoners including murderers and rapists. Also, Abedini is not allowed to have any visitors at that prison.
The American Center for Law and Justice, Abedini’s American based attorneys, say that Abedini has been beaten and tortured. The mysterious move has concerned his lawyers who have been closely monitoring Abedini’s health.
Four Iranian Christians will be receiving 80 lashes after being convicted of breaking Iranian law for using wine in a communion service.
The four men were sentenced on October 6th after being arrested on a raid of a house church in December. The men were charged with consuming alcohol because they were using wine to conduct a communion service.
The head of Christian Solidarity Worldwide says this action by the Iranian government effective criminalizes Christians exercising their faith.
“The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalize the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord’s Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably,” Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, told Fox News.
More than 300 Christians have been arrested in Iran since 2010 for exercising their faith. The United Nations has been very critical of Iran’s treatment of Christians and has called for the release of several Christians imprisoned for their faith including American pastor Saeed Abedini.
A pastor in North Hampton, Ohio was violently attacked after a sermon by a man who describes himself as a “militant atheist.”
James Maxie, 28, of Springfield, Ohio was attending a service at Bridge Community Church. Maxie disrupted the service several times in what parishioners described as attempts at confrontation with the pastor. After the service ended, Maxie and his girlfriend approached the pastor.
When the pastor asked the girlfriend if she felt safe, Maxie attacked with a brutality that police chief Jarrod Campbell says he’s never seen before.
Reverend Norman Hayes, 57, suffered a broken nose, bruises and three long cuts to the face that required stitches. Hayes said that he feared for his life and begged for Maxie to stop the attack.
Maxie fled the church and hid in a cornfield where police discovered him. Officials say that because of the brutality of his attack on the pastor, Maxie will be facing felony charges.
“We believe there is hope for everyone,” Hayes told WHIO-TV, “but we also believe that regardless of that, people need to pay for what they have done, and I hope he has to pay for what he has done. Get put away for a while and not hurt anyone else. In my opinion, the next person won’t be as lucky as I was.”
The anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation has found another target in their quest to eliminate Christ and Christians from the armed forces.
The group filed a complaint at the Air Force Academy claiming the phrase “so help me God” in the Academy’s honor oath is hostile toward those who do not profess a faith in their personal life.
Fox News reports that the Honor Review Committee of the Academy is reviewing the oath and will make recommendations to Academy leaders. The Academy Superintendent will make the final decision.
The current oath reads: “We will not lie, steal or cheat nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and live honorably, so help me God.”
The Colorado Springs Independent newspaper obtained a photo last week of a poster at the academy with the oath and forwarded to the anti-Christian group.
“Removing this voluntary affirmation expresses hostility toward religion,” Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty told Fox News. “Further, it removes the solemnity and gravity of the oath, particularly for the many cadets who come from a faith tradition.”
Masked gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside a church in a Cairo suburb on Sunday killing at least three people including an 8 year old child.
The terrorists reportedly shot randomly at the guests exiting the church and did not appear to be attempting to discern between Christians and other wedding guests.
A Coptic priest at the wedding told Reuters that he was inside the church when the gunfire began but rushed outside to find a dead man, a dead woman and many wounded wedding guests laying around the front of the church building.
Coptic Christians make up around ten percent of Egypt’s population and had been living in peace with the majority Muslims in the country for years. However, the Muslim Brotherhood told supporters that the Christians were behind the removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3rd and called for retaliation.
Analysts in the region say the violence against Christians in Egypt since the removal of Morsi and the government disbanding of Muslim Brotherhood protest camps on August 14th is unprecedented.
The European Parliament passed a resolution calling for Iran to release Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned for over a year because of his Christian faith.
The resolution states the European Parliament “is deeply concerned about the fate of Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for over a year and was sentenced to eight years of prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs.”
The Christian Post reports that the resolution was received this week by the American Center for Law and Justice, who is representing the jailed pastor and his family.
Iran imprisoned the Christian pastor in 2012 for allegedly threatening national security. However, many world leaders have stated their beliefs his imprisonment is directly connected to his Christian faith.
An Army briefing at Camp Shelby in Mississippi listed the American Family Association alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam according to a report from FoxNews.
A soldier who attended the briefing contacted Fox News about his concerns that the military was classifying Christian ministries as “hate groups”.
“I had to show Americans what our soldiers are now being taught,” the solider told FoxNews. “I couldn’t just let this one pass.”
The soldier’s identity was kept confidential by FoxNews to avoid retaliation for releasing the information that Army training is classifying Christian ministries as hate groups. The soldier also said that a chaplain interrupted the briefing to challenge the presenter on his assertions but that other soldiers remained silent.
The report of the briefing comes months after other Army officials were exposed telling troops that evangelical Christians and Catholics were religious extremists.
In an e-mail forwarded to FoxNews, another officer told other officers to pay attention to troops who support groups like the American Family Association and the Family Research Council saying those groups do not “share our Army Values.”
“When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army Values – don’t just walk by – do the right thing and address the concern before it becomes a problem,” the officer wrote to subordinates.
