The anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation continued their campaign to drive Christians out of America by filing a suit in U.S. District Court challenging the 1954 law that allows clergy members to use untaxed income to purchase a home.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, appointed in 1979 by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, ruled the law “provides a benefit to religious persons and no one else, even though doing so is not necessary to alleviate a special burden on religious exercise.”
Judge Crabb is the same judge that ruled in 2008 in a suit brought by the same anti-Christian activists that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional.
The defendants in the case are U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and acting IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel. Neither agency commented on the case.
Nigerian Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram has taken to a new tactic to try and boost the morale of their soldiers. They are kidnapping Christian women, forcing them to convert to Islam through violence and then are forcing them to marry terrorist fighters.
A 19-year-old woman identified only as Hajja escaped from the group after four months of captivity. The Christian woman said she was forced multiple times to kneel and beaten while her captors yelled at her to worship Allah. She said she eventually pretended to go along with them because a fighter told her she was about to be beheaded.
She told reporters that she was forced to be a slave for a group of fourteen terrorists and was used as bait to lure in civilians working with the military so that the terrorists could slit their throats. She reported being forced to watch multiple murders at the hands of her captors.
Hajja now lives in the nation’s capital city of Abuja and is free to worship Christ. She says that she has trouble sleeping at night because of nightmares related to her captivity.
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has targeted Christians for extermination in northern Nigeria and has killed more people for their faith in Christ in one year than the rest of the world’s martyrdom of Christians combined.
The Jubilee Campaign released a report showing that close to 1,200 Christians were killed for their faith in northern Nigeria. The persecution watchdog group Open Doors agreed with Jubilee’s data that more Christians have been killed in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined in the last year.
The group released their information at an event sponsored by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.
One of the event’s speakers was Adamu Habila, a Nigerian Christian who survived being shot in the head at close range by a Boko Haram militant when he refused to convert to Islam.
“I give thanks to God Almighty for keeping me alive up to this moment. I know if not because of God I am a dead man now,” said Habila. “But because of His grace I am still alive in order to testify the goodness of God in my life and the work of God in my life.”
The U.S. State Department officially declared Boko Haram a terrorist organization last week.
American Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been moved by Iranian officials to a prison notorious for prisoners killing other prisoners, has reportedly been denied medication and blankets his father tried to give him.
Prison officials said that Abedini is not allowed to have any personal belongings. Those familiar with Rajai Shahr prison say the prison is severely overcrowded and that conditions inside are “deadly and inhumane.”
Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, announced Abedini’s move from Evin prison to the brutal Rajai Shahr last week although the Iranian government gave no explanation for the move. He said that without medication, the health of Abedini is likely to quickly decline.
Over 211,000 people have signed a petition calling for President Obama to take immediate action on behalf of Abedini believing that Iran moved the American pastor in the hopes that he will be killed in prison.
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 Supreme Court is considering a case that involves prayers at the opening of government meetings.
An anti-Christianist in Greece, New York sued the town because they had opened their meetings with prayers that the resident considered “overtly Christian.” They claimed that the prayers violated their Constitutional right to not hear prayers.
A federal appears court ruled the city was violating the Constitution. Observers at the court noted the questions and tone of the judges indicated the Court would likely not agree with the lower court’s ruling as it stands.
The case has surprised some observers in that along with the usual social and religious conservative groups backing the town’s position what they’re doing is legal, the Obama administration has joined in support of the town.
The potentially decisive vote in the case, analysts believe, could be Justice Anthony Kennedy who seemed dissatisfied with the positions of both the town and the resident.
The case is expected to be decided by June.
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.”