Christian faces losing home for opposing gay weddings in churches

Controversial: Adrian Smith and his comments on Facebook about same-sex marriage

By Jaya Narain and Steve Doughty posted on 23rd October 2011

A housing association manager faces losing his home because of his Christian views about gay weddings in churches.

Father-of-two Adrian Smith, 54, was demoted and had his pay drastically cut after he posted comments on  his private Facebook page in which  he said that celebrating same-sex weddings in churches would be ‘an equality too far’.

He was hauled before bosses at the taxpayer-funded Trafford Housing Trust in Greater Manchester and found guilty of gross misconduct.

His salary was cut from £35,000 a year to £21,396 and he was given a final written warning that means any further offence will result in his sacking. Mr Smith, who now handles rent collection, was told he had been spared the sack only because of his long service of 18 years.

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Happy 13th Birthday Catch the Fire Ministries!

Happy Birthday Catch the Fire Ministries! Today we celebrate 13 years as a ministry! We praise the Lord for all the amazing things He has done for and through CTFM!…

Continue ReadingHappy 13th Birthday Catch the Fire Ministries!

Bro Yun (Heavenly Man) in Melbourne for 1 service only this Sun 27th Nov at 9:30am / Pr Daniel ministering in Perth and Geraldton, WA

Dear friends and family in Christ.

1) Brother Yun, the author of the Heavenly Man book and Chinese Underground Church Leader, will be ministering the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit at CTFM in Hallam (Melbourne) this Sun 27th of Nov at the 9.30am service only.

Click the following link to listen to Light FM radio ad.

https://reformationharvestfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Catch-The-Fire-1249-004-208430-KA-H-1.mp3

Click the following link to download the brochure with details.

https://reformationharvestfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Brother-Yun-flyer.pdf

Please note that this is your last chance to hear him speak on his current Australian tour.

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Continue ReadingBro Yun (Heavenly Man) in Melbourne for 1 service only this Sun 27th Nov at 9:30am / Pr Daniel ministering in Perth and Geraldton, WA

Communist Leader Raised from the Dead / 1 Million Salvations Every Month – Revival in China / Brother Yun at CTFM Melbourne on 27/11/11

Dear family & friends in Christ,

1) We at Catch The Fire were absolutely blessed last Sunday as we heard the powerful testimonies shared by the team which came from the Underground Church in China and the Back to Jerusalem Movement!

Although Brother Yun was not permitted to board his flight from Bangkok to Melbourne, due to a problem with his documentation, and was therefore unable to be at the meetings at CTFM, the Spirit of God moved most powerfully through Uncle Tang (Bro Yun’s Pastor), who has served the Lord for 30 years in China and still is!

The CTFM base was absolutely packed out for both services with around 750 people attending in total. The church sanctuary was so full we that we had to use the overflow room with projector screens. The people who gathered were mightily blessed through the amazing testimonies of what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing in the Underground Church in China.

Brother Yun is now expected to arrive this week in Melbourne and we prayerfully hope to have him minister at CTFM in Hallam (Melbourne)on Sunday 27th of Nov 2011 at the 9.30am service only. Please stay tuned in to CTFM email for updates and further details.

It was so exciting to hear that only around 30-40 years ago the Church in China was severely persecuted and quite small. However, as the faithful Christian believers cried out to the Lord, He heard their cry and sent a mighty Holy Spirit revival!

Uncle Tang said, “Suddenly one day, miracles started happening everywhere and thousands of people were getting saved.” Now, it is estimated that more than 30,000 people come to Jesus every day and 1 million people every month! Glory to God. They believe that the current conservative estimate of on-fire Christians in China is around 150 million people!

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Continue ReadingCommunist Leader Raised from the Dead / 1 Million Salvations Every Month – Revival in China / Brother Yun at CTFM Melbourne on 27/11/11

Does the Crucifix ‘Provoke’ Muslims?

Posted by Raymond Ibrahim Bio ? on Nov 4th, 2011

For a religion that is perpetually “misunderstood,” the consistency of Islam is remarkable. Consider how ostensibly diverse issues—complaints of “human rights” abuses at an American university and murder in an Egyptian classroom—are interconnected.t

First, the American story.  According to Fox News:

The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that Catholic University of America [CUA] violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers.  The investigation alleges that Muslim students “must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism – e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians which many Muslim students find inappropriate.”

Behind the complaint is John F. Banzhaf III, a George Washington University professor whose website boasts that his “enemies” call him a “Legal-Terrorist” and “the Osama bin Laden of Torts.”  He asserts that Muslim students are “particularly offended” because they have to “meditate” at the school’s chapels and cathedral, where they pray while “having to stare up and be looked down upon by a cross of Jesus.”

Of course, as a private Christian institution, even Banzhaf admits “that it is technically not illegal for Catholic University to refuse to provide rooms devoid of religious icons.”  Still, according to this so-called “Legal-Terrorist,” that CUA refuses to compromise its Catholic image “suggests they are acting improperly and probably with malice.”

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Gingrich Says ‘Arab Spring’ is Really ‘Anti-Christian’ Spring

By Stephanie Samuel | Christian Post Reporter – Politics  Mon, Oct. 31 2011

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the Arab Spring and the Muslim campaign against Catholic University are symptoms of a growing anti-Christian climate, and pledged to defend religious freedom around the globe.

Speaking at a South Carolina fundraiser Saturday, Gingrich criticized the Obama administration’s involvement in the Arab Spring – the Middle East grassroots uprising that has overthrown longstanding authoritarian leaders such as Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak – arguing that such involvement is creating an atmosphere of hatred towards Christians.

“People say, ‘Oh isn’t this great, we’re having an Arab Spring,’” he said. “I think we may in fact be having an anti-Christian spring. I think people should take this [assertion] pretty soberly.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2011 report states that while “the Egyptian government engage in and tolerated religious freedom violations” before Mubarak stepped down in February, sectarian violence targeting Coptic Christians have grown unchecked following the Arab Spring. The transitional government, the report noted, “has failed to protect religious minorities … during the transitional period when minority communities are increasing vulnerable.”

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You Can’t Stop the Holy Spirit—Iran’s Persecution of Christians Causing Huge Growth of Underground Church

by Aimee Herd : Jun 6, 2011 : Trevor Persaud – Christianity Today

“…in places like Tehran and more educated communities, if you say, ‘I have become a Christian,’ they will respect you because of your courage and your independent thinking.” -Issa Dibaj

(Iran)—Just as we have witnessed in China, where oppression against Christians there has only caused faith, and the underground Church to grow exponentially over the years; the same is reportedly happening now in Iran.

According to a recent article in Christianity Today, it was noted that Iran’s Government previously had discounted Believers denying that any “Iranians become Christians.” But that now the House Church movement has become too big for them to ignore, and they’ve subsequently labeled the grass roots movement as “enemies of Iran.”

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Let’s thank those who dragged Geert Wilders into court

The German site Politically Incorrect has an excellent commentary on the acquittal of Geert Wilders on Sharia-inspired “hate speech” charges: “A Historic Victory for Freedom!,” by Frank Furter, translated by Anders Denken:

Dear PI Community,

We finally made it! The movement for Islam criticism is celebrating a great, and even historic, victory. Let’s thank those who dragged Geert Wilders into court. Those who were recruited primarily by various Muslim organizations were holding a gun to the heart of the Dutch judiciary. And the judges had to decide which values, which rights and which law was to apply in the Netherlands. Is it that law that is written down in the constitution of their land? Or that law that is gaining entry into the West with the influx of Muslims? They decided for Western law. Anything else would have been scandalous and would have forced the question of whether our Western ideas concerning law and order were only a collection of empty phrases.

The trial against Geert Wilders clearly brought to light just how greatly Western and Islamic values differ from each other. The supporters of multicultural society believe that all cultures lend themselves to combining into a flourishing society of diversity. On the surface, this seems to function where culture overflows in tradition and folklore. However, at the roots of a culture is more than just the question of what one should wear, eat and celebrate, and when, where and how. At their roots, cultures open up to the elementary questions of what one may do and not do, what is permitted and what is forbidden, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil.

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Pakistani Believers Defy Islamic Rule for Christ

Monday, 11 July 2011 - Mission Network News News – Featured News

ChristianChristianity and Islam in Pakistan s working in remote Pakistani communities are facing extreme pressure, according to a Voice of the Martyrs Canada report.

A believer was handing out gospel literature when a group of Muslims threatened him to try to get him to stop. In another city, Christians who work in an evangelist’s office are now under investigation, and authorities are watching their mail.

The notorious blasphemy law also comes into play, imposing the death penalty on anyone who defames Mohammed, and life in prison for anyone who defiles the Quran. Many Pakistani Christians have been falsely accused under this law.

Against this backdrop, Mawii Pudaite with Bibles For The World says, “In recent months, we have been getting telephone calls and emails with urgent requests for gospels, New Testaments and Bibles in Urdu language for the people in the country of Pakistan.” (more…)

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Father Zakaria Botros, also known as Islam’s “Public Enemy #1,” is back.

Posted by Raymond Ibrahim on Jul 22nd, 2011

FromFather Zakaria Botros around 2005-2010, this 76 year-old Coptic priest was Islam’s bane. Appearing weekly on Arabic satellite, where he was viewed by an estimated 60 million people worldwide, mostly Muslims, he meticulously exposed any number of theological problems with Islam—all from Islam’s own books—while simultaneously evangelizing from his own book, the Bible.

His mission “is to attack Islam, not to attack Muslims but to save them because they are deceived. As I love Muslims, I hate Islam.”

And he has been effective: Mass conversions to Christianity, open and clandestine, have resulted. Indeed, years back al-Jazeera aired a segment complaining about Fr. Zakaria’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world; similarly, one Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatani lamented that as many as six million Muslims annually “apostatize” to Christianity.

Unsurprisingly, Fr. Zakaria’s exploits caused al-Qaeda to proclaim him “one of the most wanted infidels in the world,” putting a $60 million bounty on his head; undeterred, the priest kept going, his viewers and converts multiplying by the week. (more…)

Continue ReadingFather Zakaria Botros, also known as Islam’s “Public Enemy #1,” is back.

God’s Word Reigns Despite Religious Persecution

Friday, 01 July 2011 – Robert T. Frank News – Featured News

God\'s Word Reigns across the Nations of the World

When our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they considered religious freedom one of Americans’ most fundamental rights.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. He considered these two of his most important accomplishments, along with founding the University of Virginia, and left instructions for them to be inscribed on his tombstone.

Today, our commitment to religious freedom has gone global, and it has become part of the fabric of our diplomacy. In 1998, Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act, and now the State Department issues an annual report on religious freedom. (more…)

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Will the Western World Surrender to the Middle East? – By Pr Daniel Nalliah

London RiotsDear family & friends in Christ across our Nation of Australia and around the World,

Over the past several years, I have been very carefully watching the unfolding events across the world and asking the questions, “Will the Western world surrender to the Middle East and lose its Judeo-Christian Heritage, Freedom of Speech, Democracy, etc. to the political, social, economic, religious and spiritual force of Islam? How long will it be before the West wakes up and realises that if the current trend continues, we could have Islamic Sharia Law dominating parts of the West, as it is already happening in many parts of Europe?”

While watching the media breaking news across the Middle East over the past 6 months or so, in particular PRESS TV NEWS, a channel which comes through satellite and is broadcast from Iran, of the many increasingly spreading revolutions throughout the Middle East, I have heard many Islamic clerics and others in the revolution repeatedly proclaim, “We will take this revolution into Europe.”  Then they went on to call on the youth in Europe to start similar revolutions there.

Over the past week or so, I have been watching the latest developments in the UK on news and noticed that most rioters were youth. Who is behind the current riots in the UK is a question we need to ask? Is it simply because of one young man’s death, or is there a well organised movement coordinating these riots?

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Continue ReadingWill the Western World Surrender to the Middle East? – By Pr Daniel Nalliah

Despite 200 Murders, Iraqi Church Grows Strong

Anglican Canon Andrew White Thursday, 02 June 2011 – Felicia Mann - Charisma News Online Featured News

Most Bible-believing Christians would probably run from a church after one or two of its members were murdered, much less after witnessing 200 killed in the first six months of the year.

Indeed, many of the most fervent saints would abandon a congregation where bomb blasts are the norm and where saints are kidnapped on a weekly basis.

Despite these horrible realities, however, Iraqi Anglican Canon Andrew White says his Baghdad church is 4,000 people strong—and his members are among the happiest church-goers he’s ever seen.

“So many Christians have been killed,” White said in an exclusive interview with Charisma Publisher Steve Strang which you can watch below.

“Yet the church in Iraq is so happy—miraculously happy. The fact that the church is like this is incredible. And they’ve got a huge amount to teach us.”

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Pray for Christians’ Safety During Ramadan, Open Doors Urges

Islamic RamadanFri, Jul. 29 2011 - By Anugrah Kumar | Christian Post Contributor

Ramadan, the 30-day annual Islamic fast which begins next week, may expose Christians to an increased risk of persecution in Muslim-majority countries and believers in the West should pray for them, Open Doors USA said as it launched a Ramadan Prayer Calendar.

A Lebanese Muslim woman, shops for decorations in preparation for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday Aug. 9, 2010. Muslims traditionally decorate their homes, shops and streets for the holy month of Ramadan. Muslims throughout the world will be celebrating the holy fasting month of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, refraining from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset.

“Ramadan is a time when Christians are especially isolated in some Muslim-dominated countries,” said Open Doors USA President Dr. Carl Moeller in a statement. “This is why it is so important for us to unite in prayer for persecuted Christians throughout the world.”

To help Christians pray for the persecuted, Open Doors has prepared a Ramadan Prayer Calendar having multiple prayer points and designed to help believers pray for vulnerable Christians around the world during the 30 days. (more…)

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CTFM, Citylife & Sterihealth meeting update

ReconciliationDear family & friends in Christ,

I am pleased to report that a meeting has taken place between representatives of Catch the Fire Ministries (CTFM), Citylife Church, and Sterihealth, in relation to the issue involving Sterihealth on which I have made a number of recent statements.

The meeting was conducted in a genuine spirit of reconciliation, in which each of the parties acknowledged that both CTFM and Citylife Church are wholeheartedly pro-life ministries. Because of the commercial sensitivity of details regarding Sterihealth’s business activities, the discussions were undertaken strictly on a confidential basis. (more…)

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