Christians are harassed in more countries — 130 — than any other religion in the world

Kirsten Powers – USA Today – April 2, 2013

Christians are harassed in more countries — 130 — than any other religion in the world.

  • Tragically, Christians have been forced to abandon homelands they have occupied for thousands of years.
  • Prosecution of Christians in the Middle East needs more attention.

“Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world.” So asserted German Chancellor Angela Merkel late last year, causing a stir. Merkel echoed a concern expressed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who warned in a 2011 speech that Christians face a “particularly wicked program of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing.”

Not ‘War on Christmas’

Now, this is not about clerks who say “Happy Holidays” or bans of nativity scenes in public schools. Merkel spoke of real persecution of hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. Indeed, a 2011 Pew Forum study found that Christians are harassed in 130 countries, more than any of the world’s other religions.

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Martyrdom of Christians in India Obscured by Under-Reporting

By Morning Star News – January 28, 2013

Four Christians in India died for their faith last year, but incomplete information obscured the anti-Christian hostility in three of the deaths, sources said.

In Tamil Nadu and West Bengal states where the killings took place, area Christians assert that the murders were rooted in opposition to Christianity; specifically, radical Hindus viewing Christianity as a threat to Hinduism and Indian nationalism as a unified identify. In three of the four deaths, however, under-reporting obscured the acts or motives of the attackers.

In India’s eastern state of West Bengal, where two brothers were hacked to death, villagers suspected the men’s wives were practicing witchcraft, according to local press accounts and area Christians. A mob in Palashpari village, near Malda, attacked 38-year-old Sonua Pahari and 32-year-old Baishakhu Pahari with swords, sickles, rods and stones as they lay sleeping in their homes on May 17 at 11 p.m. Area Christians and local press reported that the assailants believed the brothers’ wives had used witchcraft to inflict illness on members of the community.

Express News Service cited one police official as saying, “… they were killed due to belief in witchcraft,” and another who said one victim’s family “… believed in modern [medical] treatment, which made them unpopular in the village.”

In the version published by local press, the assailants were reportedly targeting their wives and ended up killing the men in the process.

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12 Hot Spots for Holy Ghost Revivals

Charisma News – J. Lee Grady- 11/23/2012

The Holy Spirit is working in places you might never expect. The move of God happening in these 12 locations is notable, and these hot spots are great places for evangelists and missionaries to set their sights.

China.  Nothing in the history of missions rivals the success story that is China. Mao Zedong tried to wipe out Christian faith in the 1970s when there were only 2.7 million believers. Today, the most conservative estimate is that China had 75 million believers in 2010. A few years ago the greatest growth was among rural “house churches.” Today Christianity is also growing in China’s major cities, and charismatic renewal has infiltrated state-sponsored churches.

India. Despite language barriers, tribal divisions and violent attacks by Hindus, indigenous church-planting movements have flourished all over India in the last 40 years. Fifteen years ago in Andhra Pradesh, a woman who heard a gospel radio broadcast, asked if someone could plant a church in her remote village. Within the first year after a pastor came, the church had 75 converts. After a church building was constructed in 1994, this church planted 125 churches with a combined membership of more than 5,000. This type of growth is occurring throughout India today.

Iran. Despite crackdowns on church gatherings, arrests of pastors and confiscation of Christian videotapes and other materials, Iranian believers are finding increased openness to the gospel in this stronghold of Shiite Islam. The leader of one indigenous ministry says, “Everyone we share the gospel with wants to become a Christian.” His ministry actually considered limiting outreach until it could obtain more Bibles and train workers to handle the overwhelming response. (more…)

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Christianophobia – A Faith Under Attack

Colorado Springs, December 21 2012 (World Watch Monitor) — By Steve Rabey

Jesus warned his followers that they would experience persecution, a prediction that was already coming true before the books of the New Testament were completed. Today, Shortt argues, “the greatest curbs on religious freedoms take place in Muslim majority countries.”

Take Egypt, where Christianity grew deep roots in the centuries before Mohammed. Today, there are more than 10 million Christians among a population of more than 80 million. But Christians have faced increasing pressures in recent decades, and the overthrow of a dictator and a historic election that promoted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi have complicated matters even more.

The book documents how attacks and bombings of churches have increased since the election; forced emigration is shrinking the Christian population; Coptic Christians (the largest group of Egyptian Christians) face systematic obstacles to promotion in the army, police and legal professions; Coptic women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam; and Muslims who convert to Christianity may be shunned, harassed, physically harmed and even killed.

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‘Militant Islam’ Greatest Threat to Middle Eastern Christianity, Says Think Tank

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter – December 26, 2012

A British think tank has released a lengthy report claiming that militant Islam is the greatest existential threat to Middle Eastern Christianity, bringing Christian communities in the region “close to extinction.”

The London-based Civitas, also known as the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, published the report in December. “Christianity is in serious danger of being wiped out in its biblical heartlands because of Islamic oppression,” reads a statement from the group issued Sunday.

“But Western politicians and media largely ignore the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the wider world because they are afraid they will be accused of racism.”

Titled “Christianophobia” and written by reporter and Religion Editor for The Times Literary Supplement Rupert Shortt, the report details the persecution of Christians in Burma, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

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Persecution of Christians in 10/40 Window Up by 400 Percent, Says GFA

By Jeff Schapiro , Christian Post Reporter – November 1, 2012

The persecution of Christians in the 10/40 Window has increased by 400 percent over the last 10 years, which is why Gospel for Asia (GFA) is calling on Christians to spend an entire day, not just a few minutes, fasting and praying for the persecuted church.

“Americans who have not experienced persecution do not fully understand what it means to have their lives threatened, homes destroyed, rights violated and loved ones imprisoned, all because of embracing faith in Jesus Christ,” said K. P. Yohannan, GFA founder and president, in a statement. “In the 14 countries we serve, persecution of this sort has become a normal way of life, especially for those directly involved in mission work.”

The 10/40 Window is a section of the world – between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator – that encompasses those nations that have been least reached with the Gospel message. These nations include China, India, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria, just to name a few.

On Sunday, Nov. 4, churches across the U.S. took time to pray for persecuted believers around the world as a part of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), but GFA says a simple “nod” toward the problem isn’t enough.

The organization hopes churches will do more than say a brief prayer as a part of their morning worship services on Sunday. Instead, GFA wants them to intercede for their Christian brothers and sisters for the entire length of their services. The organization is also encouraging those who are physically able to fast for the persecuted church, and, if possible, take a day off from work to spend time in prayer.

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California Church Stands Up for India’s Untouchables

Charisma News – 1/27/2012 – George Thomas/CBN News Sr. Reporter

They are called “untouchables,” or dalits–millions of Indian men, women, and children born into a caste system that views them as impure, less than human. Despite laws to protect them, these outcasts face daily discrimination. (CBN)

They are called “untouchables,” or dalits—millions of Indian men, women and children born into a caste system that views them as impure, less than human. Despite laws to protect them, these outcasts face daily discrimination.

They are also the single largest victims of human trafficking in the world. Now, one Southern California church is on a mission to help free the Dalits of India through education, a biblical message of hope and a movie about their plight.

A Dalit’s Destiny

Every single day, somewhere in India, a Dalit is humiliated, assaulted, raped, beaten and killed. Considered outcasts not even worthy to be in the caste system, the vast majority of them are poor, illiterate and survive on less than $2 a day.

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Father and uncle ‘buried baby girl alive to protect family’s children from serious illnesses’ in India

By Chris Hanlon published 12 May 2012

The father of a six-week-old baby girl has been arrested, along with the child’s uncle, on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly trying to bury her alive in the belief it would protect his other children from illness.

A worker at a burial ground in Pilkhuwa, 100km south-west of New Delhi, alerted police after he saw two men attempting to bury baby Radhika in a shallow grave.

Dinesh Kumar, the parent, and his brother claim a local guru instructed them to carry out the shocking act as a means off warding off further bad luck after the family lost another child to an incurable disease last year.

Radhika, now two months old, is in hospital recovering from dehydration and malnutrition.

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Indian mother forced to abort 5 daughters

by Peter Baklinski Mon Apr 23, 2012 14:22 

AHMEDABAD, India, April 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After the horrific experience of being forced to abort five daughters, a mother in India has risen from the ashes to become a champion for Indian wives and mothers who suffer abuse, rejection, and even torture from a husband or in-laws who, in a male-obsessed culture, demand a male heir, reports the Times of India.

 Amisha Bhatt, 36, was coerced to undergo illegal ultrasounds to determine the sex of her babies between August 2001 and January 2009. When each test revealed that Amisha was pregnant with a girl, her husband and in-laws relentlessly forced her to abort. Her first daughter was aborted immediately after her first ultrasound visit in August 2001.

“My husband and his parents are obsessed with having a boy in the family,” Amisha told the Ahmedabad Mirror in 2009. “They don’t consider me a human being. They think I am a [baby making] machine,” she said.

“In the past nine years, they have coerced me into aborting five female fetuses.”

Click ‘like’ if you want to END ABORTION!One of Amisha’s daughters was remarkably spared the terrible fate of her sisters. “When I was pregnant the third time, I had gone for a wedding where I fell ill and was packed off to my parents’ place. This is how I gave birth to a girl child Kamya,” said Amisha to the Times of India in 2009.

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Korean pastor’s books are a main draw at the New Delhi World Book Fair

Friday, March 2, 2012 – ASSIST News Service 

NEW DELHI, INDIA (ANS) — The 20th World Book Fair in New Delhi, the capital of India, began on Saturday with the Honorable Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal, who inaugurated the nine-day book fair, being held Feb 25-March 4, at the Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

Organized biennially by the National Book Trust (NBT), India, a hundred years of Indian Cinema is the focus at the World Book Fair this year.

The fair is also celebrating two important events: 150 years of Rabindranath Tagore with a display of books on and by Tagore and 100 years of Delhi as the capital of the country.

There are 1300 exhibitors, including 30 foreign exhibitors from foreign countries like South Korea, Germany, France, Spain, Belarus, Iran, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE, China, Thailand and United Kingdom and international bodies like WHO, UNESCO and World Bank.

The books of Korean evangelical author Dr. Jaerock Lee, Senior Pastor of the Manmin Central Church in Seoul, South Korea including “Heaven”, “Hell” and “The Message of the Cross” and were featured and impressed many visitors. (more…)

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Indian Courts Order Facebook, Google to Remove ‘Religiously Offensive’ Material

The Christian Post  – Jan. 03 2012 

One court in Delhi issued summons to the tech companies to stand trial for offences relating to distributing obscene material to minors, after it was shown images deemed offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians, reported Reuters. Another Delhi court earlier reportedly ordered the companies to remove photographs, videos or text which might hurt people’s religious sentiments.

The websites were given until Feb. 6 to remove the “anti-religious” content, according to other sources.

“The accused in connivance with each other and other unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content,” government representative said in court, as quoted by Reuters.

In response, a Google spokesman reportedly told the agency: “We believe that access to information is the foundation of a free society.”

“Where content is illegal or breaks our terms of service we will continue to remove it,” he added.

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Extraordinary Christian leader from the mysterious state of Nagaland to visit the United States

Phughoto Sema with his familySunday, May 29, 2011 -  By Dan Wooding – Founder of ASSIST Ministries

NAGALAND, INDIA (ANS) — A Christian leader from the mysterious land of Nagaland, in north-east India, is to visit the United States in September.

The Rev Tim Phillips who, who has been visiting Nagaland each year since March of 1999, now wants American Christians to know more about the Naga Christians and to even invite this leader to their church.

He is part of the revival that is sweeping this Indian state where 99 percent of the people are said to be Christian

He was talking about the Rev. Phughoto Sema who, Phillips said, “Will be speaking around the country about an amazing project he has undertaken. There is a need for quality schools among the tribal people of north-east India. There is also a need for orphanages for abandoned children. He has a story and a testimony uncommon in our time.”

Rev. Phughoto and his family, Phillips said, have adopted a number of these abandoned children and has plans to build a structure which will house a school, orphanage and shops for local tribal people to sell their handmade products.

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Was Osama a true Muslim or a radical Islamic extremist? / By Pr Daniel

Osama Bin LadenPastor DanielDear family and friends in Christ,

There has been much news in the media all over the world in the last few days regarding the death of Osama bin Laden.

This man who was driven by a very evil agenda and who managed to terribly change the world in some 10 years through violence and fear, has successfully put Islam on the global scene.

So, was he a radical Islamic extremist or was he a true Muslim who followed the Quran?? Click the following link to read a document and make up your mind as to whether this man followed the Quran or not??

https://reformationharvestfire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/we-must-care-for-australia.pdf

A true believer of any faith is a person who follows the fundamental doctrines of the faith, generally called a ‘fundamentalist’.

The question then needs to be asked, are there good Muslims? The answer is YES, of course.  However, they are not necessarily true Muslims according to Mohammed and the Quran.  Many Muslims have not read, nor follow the whole Quran, and prefer living a peaceful life.

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Is Islam really a religion of Peace? / Pastor Daniel Scot and Evangelist Immanuel this Sunday at CTFM

Spread of IslamPastor Daniel ScotDear friends and family in Christ,

1) Following is a must watch (6 minutes) interview with an Islamic leader in the UK about the truth of Islam, as he states according to the Koran – violence, jihad, and global terror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64V09tTIjR4&feature=player_embedded

Click the following link to read an article about the everyday practice of Islamic Sharia Law according to the Koran titled ‘Screaming woman publicly flogged by laughing policemen in shocking video from Sudan’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338479/YouTube-video-Sudan-shows-woman-flogged-laughing-policemen.html#ixzz18A3YV1XZ

2) Pastor Daniel Scot will be ministering at the 9:30am worship service and Evangelist Immanuel at the 6:30pm worship service this Sunday 27th March at CTFM Apostolic Centre. (more…)

Continue ReadingIs Islam really a religion of Peace? / Pastor Daniel Scot and Evangelist Immanuel this Sunday at CTFM