Surprise: More hate crimes against Christians than against Muslims

Islam FlagThis morning there was a report that a cab driver in New York was stabbed because he was Muslim. While the facts are still emerging, all reasonable people can agree this is a shameful and un-American act if this proves to be true.

This incident will undoubtedly be used by the media to further push the narrative that the controversy over the Mosque near Ground Zero in New York shows how Americans are bigoted against Muslims. So here’s some clarifying info from the FBI. According to the latest hate crime statistics available, there were 1,606 hate crime offenses motivated by religious bias in 2008. A closer look: 65.7 percent of them were committed against Jews. Against Muslims? 7.7 percent.

(more…)

Continue ReadingSurprise: More hate crimes against Christians than against Muslims

U.S. grants asylum to born-again ‘Son of Hamas’

MosabPosted: June 30, 2010 By Art Moore © 2010 WorldNetDaily

Homeland Security wanted to deport ex-Muslim who spied for Israel – Mosab Hassan Yousef
 
An immigration judge in San Diego ruled today the son of a Hamas founder who converted to Christianity and spied for Israel will be granted political asylum after the Department of Homeland Security dropped its objections.

As WND reported, Mosab Hassan Yousef had been denied his February 2009 request for asylum because the department interpreted his work as a counterterror agent with Israel’s Shin Bet security agency as engagement in terrorist activity, making him a threat to U.S. security.

Judge Rico Bartolomei ruled Yousef will be granted political asylum Aug. 26 after he is fingerprinted and passes a routine background check. Yousef says he wants to become a U.S. citizen.

From the world of radical Islam to the world of the radically transformed. Order your copy of “Son of Hamas” from the WND Superstore now!

(more…)

Continue ReadingU.S. grants asylum to born-again ‘Son of Hamas’

WE NEED Another JESUS MOVEMENT

Jesus MovementBy J. Lee Grady

Share In today’s hip, sophisticated churches, we often forget to preach about Jesus. Let’s get back to basics.

I became a serious Christian at the tail end of the Jesus movement. I was too young to remember the hippie beads, tie-dyed shirts and “Jesus Is Groovy” slogans, but the songs were still popular when I was in college (from musicians such as Andrae Crouch, Love Song and Barry McGuire), as were the movies (especially The
Cross and the Switchblade.)

The Jesus movement was like a spiritual tsunami that washed over hundreds of thousands of young people in the late 1960s and early ’70s and brought them into a personal relationship with Christ.  Some of these kids had been drug addicts and social misfits; most were just average Joes and Janes who discovered that Jesus is a lot more exciting than traditional churches had led them to believe…

Lately I find myself waxing nostalgic for those days-not because I want to return to the awkward fashions and hairstyles of 1972, but because I miss the spiritual simplicity of that era. The Jesus
movement was primarily focused on-surprise!-Jesus. Theology was not complicated, pastors weren’t trying to be hip or sophisticated or tech-savvy; and we hadn’t yet created a Christian subculture with its own celebrities and political power bases.

(more…)

Continue ReadingWE NEED Another JESUS MOVEMENT

Church Building in Israel Set Ablaze

Church FireFriday, 05 November 2010 Wayne King/Compass Direct News – Featured News

An unidentified arsonist in Israel set fire to a Jerusalem church building that has long been a focal point for anti-Christian sentiment in a Jewish ultra-Orthodox-leaning neighborhood, church officials said.

On Friday (Oct. 29) shortly before 1 a.m., someone broke the basement windows of the Jerusalem Alliance Church Ministry Center and set fire to its bottom floors. An area resident noticed the fire and called the fire department, which arrived 20 minutes later and found the church basement engulfed in flames.
 
Firefighters extinguished the blaze, ventilated the smoke and left after inspecting the rest of the building, said Jack Sara, senior pastor of the church.
 
Smoke and the noise of the blaze had awakened 10 volunteer workers who were sleeping at the church’s overnight facilities. The volunteers, who were visiting Israel from the United States and Denmark, went to a nearby hospital and were treated for smoke inhalation; they were released several hours later, church leaders said.
 
(more…)

Continue ReadingChurch Building in Israel Set Ablaze

The Vicar of Baghdad Speaks Out About Recent Iraq Church Bombing

The Vicar and Teresaby Teresa Neumann : Nov 23, 2010 : Andrew White – The Jerusalem Post

“I live with many threats, along with my people, but our place is not sad but full of joy. Despite the constant tragedies, our people are not sad and our church is not despondent.”

(Iraq)—Many Breaking Christian News subscribers watched our exclusive video interview with the Reverend Canon Dr. Andrew White last year. Now, White is speaking out about the recent church massacre in Baghdad.

In excerpts from a Jerusalem Post blog, White writes: “In Iraq we have been under attack since the beginning of the war in 2003, but the past month has seen an escalation in our situation. Over the past year, 93 Christians were killed in my church. This month alone over 100 have been killed in Iraq. Some 59 were killed in a single massacre in the Syrian Catholic Church on the 31st of October 2010. Since then many more Christians have been targeted, blown up, told they no longer belong in Iraq and were advised to leave now or be executed. Things are so hard that many Christians are fleeing, or at least are trying to.”

“My security now is very intense and far greater now than in the post war year. It always used to amaze me when I went to church each week with body armor on, in armored cars and surrounded by Iraqi Military. I don’t think that there were many other ministers in the world who would go to church like this. Nowadays things are very different. I now live in the church Compound, and the security of the church is now completely different than before. Not only are we surrounded by bomb barricades, the number of police and army security is phenomenal—and they are all provided by the Iraqi Government. Not long ago I went to Kurdistan with my board chair Lord Hylton. We were given over 120 military security to get us out of Baghdad. Then we reduced to our normal 35 soldiers when we left Baghdad. The children of our church came to me and, pointing at the soldiers, told me they were my children. So from that day I call my security my children.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe Vicar of Baghdad Speaks Out About Recent Iraq Church Bombing

Bush Memoir Points to Faith-Based Decisions

President George W BushThursday, 11 November 2010 04:19 PM Jimmy Stewart News  

He never would have made it to the White House in 2001 as the country’s 43rd president without the faith-based decision he made in 1986.

“I could not have quit drinking without faith,” former President George W. Bush writes in his memoir, Decision Points, which released Tuesday. “I also don’t think my faith would be as strong if I hadn’t quit drinking.”

It was the first significant decision among several that ultimately solidified Bush’s resolve to act on his belief that God was calling him to lead the nation as president, the memoir shows, according to a report published Wednesday by Religion News Service (RNS).

That his politics were influenced by his faith in God after Bush took office in Jan. 2001is no revelation. But now he recounts in his own words, across the 497 pages, the ways his religious belief shaped his life and his politics, and thus his administration, RNS reported. His reliance on God, though not the central thrust of the book, remains a theme throughout, the report stated.

(more…)

Continue ReadingBush Memoir Points to Faith-Based Decisions

Global warming has slowed down over the past 10 years, say scientists

Measurements from space are used to see how temperatures are changingBy Daily Mail Reporter 26th November 2010  [Not necessarily the views of Catch the Fire Ministries]

The rate at which global temperatures are rising has slowed in the past decade, scientists said today. In a report published today, the Met Office said the slow in the rate of warming was down to a combination of natural variation in the weather and pollution. Scientists say one of the major factors is the rise in heavy industry and pollutant ‘aerosols’, particularly in Asia.An upsurge in industrial emissions such as sulphur which are being pumped into the atmosphere reflects sunlight and could lead to a cooling effect.

A NASA thermal satellite image of the Earth. Measurements from space are used to see how temperatures, particularly in the Arctic, are changing.

Changes in the amount of water vapour in the stratosphere may also be a factor, the report suggests.

(more…)

Continue ReadingGlobal warming has slowed down over the past 10 years, say scientists

Pakistan Gov’t Barred from Pardoning Christian on Death Row

By Nathan Black | Christian Post Reporter – Nov. 29 2010

The Pakistani government was barred on Monday by the country’s high court from pardoning a Christian woman sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy.

A lawyer argued that a pardon would be illegal while the case was pending in the courts.

“Since the matter is in the high court, the government cannot now make any move to pardon Bibi,” lawyer Allah Bakhsh Leghari told Agence France-Presse.

Asia Bibi was sentenced early this month to death by hanging for allegedly speaking ill of Prophet Muhammad. The Christian mother of five is the first woman to receive a death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan.

Bibi’s attorney filed an appeal and signed a petition pleading for a presidential pardon. (more…)

Continue ReadingPakistan Gov’t Barred from Pardoning Christian on Death Row

Amazing Dreams and Visions Coming Out of the Middle East

Muslim womanby Teresa Neumann: Nov 29, 2010 : Staff – Mission Network News

Middle East (MNN) ― Last week we told you about Muslim leaders warning Muslims about the danger presented by the “network of house churches” in the country. Despite threats, Christians aren’t easing their desire to share the Gospel. Many young Iranian leaders met in a nearby country to receive training from a E3 Partners team.

Vice President of Church and Ministry Partnerships with E3, Tom Doyle, says those who receive the training were young. “Many of them 22 to 25 are pastoring churches throughout Iran. And the church is growing in Iran. Obviously, it’s a very threatening existence for them.”

From there the team traveled to Israel. “My buddy Jason Elam, who used to be a place kicker for the [Denver] Broncos, was also hosting with me. He’s a wonderful Bible teacher. And he’s getting involved.”

The work in Israel focused on the city of Haifa. “Haifa is the place where Arab and Jews really get along in Israel, and they work together. We worked with a church there. [We] did some things in the West Bank and did Gospel outreach in Tel Aviv,” which is a secular city.

E3 has a desire to see the Middle East turn to Christ. Doyle says many are turning to Christ. He says the way they’re doing so is amazing. “We found that Muslim-background believers, many of them, in our informal surveys — maybe even as many as half of them — had a dream or a vision before they came to Christ. They became a ‘seeker,’ found a believer, heard a message on the radio, or found a Bible.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingAmazing Dreams and Visions Coming Out of the Middle East

The Saudi Problem

King Abdullah of Saudi ArabiaPosted by Rich Trzupek on Dec 2nd, 2010 

It shouldn’t have needed confirmation, but the latest WikiLeaks release affirmed what astute observers of the Middle East have known for a long time: Saudi Arabia is a most dangerous ally. On the one hand, King Abdullah is reported as having urged America to “cut off the head of the snake,” referring to the radical fundamentalist regime in Iran. On the other hand, another cable states that “Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like al-Qaida.” Neither bit of news is terribly surprising, but it puts new focus on the troubling, entangling and often hypocritical alliance between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Obama administration, like administrations before it, surely understands the complexity of the Saudi problem. The question is: how to solve it? Given Obama’s lamentable foreign policy track record, it would seem that America is farther away than ever from formulating a plan to deal with the Saudi monarchy.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe Saudi Problem

Church Growth Exploding in Cuba

Cuban Churchby Teresa Neumann : Nov 17, 2010 : Mission Network News

Because music is such a major part of Cubans’ lives, many musicians are coming to Christ as well.

(Cuba)—Cuba is seeing one of the fastest church growth rates in the world, so much so, that the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) says there aren’t enough churches to hold all the Believers.

As reported in Mission Network News, church growth in Cuba is surpassing the speed of construction for houses of worship, which leaves some of the congregations worshipping in houses, garages, yards or on rooftops.

According to the report, an IMB team discovered that—because music is such a big part of Cuban life—one of every five people is involved in music in some way and as a result, many musicians are coming to Christ.

In 1960, Cuban Baptist churches numbered 210. Growth was slow over the next three decades, increasing that number by just 28.

(more…)

Continue ReadingChurch Growth Exploding in Cuba

WHEN HIS FATHER AND MOTHER FORSOOK HIM

Witnessing the Good News of Salvation in JesusGospel for Asia – November 16, 2010

Ajay Chattopadhyay’s parents want nothing to do with Jesus Christ. In fact, they persecute their son for his faith in the Lord. But that was not always the case.

When Gospel for Asia-supported missionary Jyoti Banerjee shared the Good News with Ajay and his parents, all three chose to leave their traditional religion and follow Jesus. When Ajay decided he wanted to learn more of God’s Word, Jyoti encouraged him to attend a Gospel for Asia-supported Bible college.

Problems arose after Ajay enrolled in the Bible college. His relatives joined together, threatening Ajay’s parents with certain “inevitable consequences” if they did not reject their new faith. Because of continuous pressure, they turned their backs on Jesus and returned to their former faith. Ajay, shocked, began crying out to the Lord for them.

When Ajay returned home for vacation, he discovered that the religious teachings of their old faith had captured his parents’ hearts again. They tried convincing him to abandon Jesus, too, but he refused. He implored them to understand their need for Jesus. Angry, they forced him out of the house and told him not to come back until he had given up his faith in Christ.

(more…)

Continue ReadingWHEN HIS FATHER AND MOTHER FORSOOK HIM

Vatican: Koran encourages ‘killing Christians’ AKI

KoranMillions of dead Christians later…..finally, real “dialogue.” Now, duck!

Vatican City, 22 Oct. (AKI) – The Koran is a text that encourages Islam to impose itself with force and permits the killing of Christians, said Lebanon’s Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Archbishop Raboula Beylouni, addressing a Vatican meeting of Middle East bishops.

“The Koran gives Muslims the right to judge Christians and kill them with Jihad,” he said. “It gives orders to impose religion with force, with the sword. For this reason, Muslims don’t recognise the freedom of religion among themselves or others.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingVatican: Koran encourages ‘killing Christians’ AKI