In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, persecuted Christian Meriam Ibrahim says her newborn daughter is physically handicapped because she was forced to give birth with her legs shackled to a wall.
Ibrahim, who is currently seeking refuge inside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, gave her first interview after being released from her incarceration on charges of apostasy and adultery.
Ibrahim said that she was shackled with chains, not cuffs, and that her legs were forced together by the chains. The guards would not release the chains so that she could open her legs for the birth and her daughter’s legs were injured during the birth.
“I couldn’t open my legs so the women had to lift me off the table,” Ibrahim told the Guardian. “I wasn’t lying on the table.”
Ibrahim said it wasn’t clear yet if the child will need help walking as she grows older because of the injuries.
Sudan is forcing Ibrahim to stay in the country claiming she forged her papers to leave. Ibrahim told the Guardian that she has a document from South Sudan because that is where her husband is from and that is proper under international law. The family has visas to enter the United States when she is able to leave the country.
While millions of American Christians are celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision protecting religious freedom, one prominent Baptist pastor is cautiously warning that the celebration of freedom may be short lived.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas says that while the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling “stopped the greatest attempted assault on religious liberty in history”, the case is a sign that the government is going to increase attempts to strip away the religious freedom of Christians.
“The Obama administration was basically saying that you can be religious and pro-life in your church, synagogue or at home on the weekend, but when you go to work on Mondays, you have to give up those beliefs and become pro-abortion,” Jeffress said to the Christian Post. “There is no such thing in the Constitution as the separation of faith from the rest of your life.”
Jeffress said that the mainstream media and pro-abortion activists have been repeating the complete lie that those who want to protect the life of unborn children are nothing more than religious fringe extremists.
“It is a part of the belief system of tens of millions of Protestants, Catholics, Jewish people and people of all faiths,” he said. “This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. In this ruling, I think the court is very sound in saying that we have the right to uphold and exercise those beliefs.”
A Louisiana sheriff says that he is not going to cancel a planned public prayer event even if the ACLU is objecting to the event as unconstitutional.
Sheriff Julian Whittington of Bossier Parish, Louisiana is hosting the second annual “In God We Trust” rally on the Fourth of July. The event will include food, games, prayer and what the Sheriff termed “patriotic and God-lifting music.” The event is taking place on the grounds of a sheriff’s substation in Bossier, property that is owned by the city.
The ACLU is complaining that the existence of the event on the city property means they’re violating church and state and the event needs to be shut down no matter how much of a benefit it is to the city.
Sheriff Whittington said he’s not the least bit concerned about the ACLU.
“Not only am I elected to serve the people of Bossier Parish, but I live here and my family lives here. I think Bossier Parish is a better place with Christianity and Christian values involved in it,” Whittington told the Shreveport Times. “I don’t work for anybody in Washington. What they do, what they say, I couldn’t really care less.”
The ACLU says the event is telling non-Christian residents of the area that “they are less than equal and not worthy of support by their sheriff” even though Sheriff Whittington has not made any statements nor taken any actions that back up the ACLU’s assertion.
An American Christian is facing trial in North Korea on charges that he was trying to undermine the country’s government.
His crime? He left a Bible in his hotel room after he and his tour group checked out to head back to America.
Jeffrey Fowle, 56, is being charged with leaving the Bible in his room, which is “inconsistent with the purpose of a tourist visit.” The North Korean government has not officially named charges against Fowle, just stating he will be tried for leaving behind the Bible.
“The significance of these arrests and trials cannot be overstated: North Korea is choosing to publicly blame Christian missionaries for its human rights problems and internal difficulties,” Seoul USA CEO Pastor Eric Foley told The Christian Post. “There are important lessons to be learned from the arrests by Christians seeking to reach North Korea in the future. Now is not the time to comment on the strategies of those being detained. But what we can conclude with certainty is that there is no ‘back door’ into North Korea – no strategy for sharing the gospel there that does not involve paying the highest of personal prices. This is what North Korean underground Christians have known and practiced for years.”
A spokesman for Fowle’s family said that he was not in North Korea on any kind of church mission. They denied there was anything that he could have done to “confirm suspicions” of undermining the government as claimed by North Korean prosecutors.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly warned American citizens traveling to North Korea that they could be detained for any reason and imprisoned without trial or charge. The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram launched a major offensive against churches in northern Nigeria Sunday, leaving dozens dead and injured.
Witnesses say the terrorists descended during worship services and set fire to church buildings with Christians inside. When the Christians attempted to flee the flames, the terrorists would gun them down with automatic weapons.
A vigilante group in the village of Kwada said that at least 30 victims have been confirmed dead and the death toll was likely to rise significantly because a number of people fled into the bush and were chased by armed terrorists.
At least four churches were burned to the ground during the assault, including one church that was started by American missionaries in the 1920s. In addition to the churches, the terrorists set fire to the homes of Christians in at least two communities.
Officials say the terrorists also attacked the village of Kautikari to continue their assault but they have not been able to get a count of the dead and wounded.
The city council of a Canadian town canceled an event in a city-owned facility because they did not want to be associated with the Christian beliefs of Chick-Fil-A.
An event center in Nanaimo, British Columbia was scheduled to be rented out to a Georgia-based leadership organization that was putting on a simulcast for business leaders to develop their skills. The event was sponsored in part by Chick-Fil-A. When the town’s city council discovered the restaurant was a co-sponsor, they voted 8-1 to cancel the event.
City Council member Jim Kipp said that Christian beliefs were the same as the Boko Haram terrorists killing thousands in Nigeria. He said that Biblical Christianity was “organized crime.”
“I find [Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy’s beliefs] almost to be a criminal point of view in this day and age,” he claimed.
City staff told the council members that the event had nothing to do with the Christian beliefs of the restaurant’s president, but the council members were not interested in the information.
A column in the Tornado Sun newspaper called the council’s actions “shocking bigotry” against Christianity.
A petition demanding the Air Force Academy respect the religion freedom of Christian cadets has been sent to the Academy.
The Family Research Council and the American Family Association organized the movement after a series of decisions that basically eliminated the rights of Christian cadets to display their faith on the same level as those without any faith or of other faiths.
“I trust the Air Force Academy to train up the best young men and women our nation has to offer to be prepared to faithfully defend my family, my community and my country,” read the petition delivered to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson. “Part of that trust hinges upon the notion that the Academy would protect the religious freedom of the cadets we send it.”
The Academy has been keeping Christian students from expressing their faith because of actions taken by extremist anti-Christian Mikey Weinstein of the anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
“If cadets are taught to be afraid of Bible verses, how will they respond against terrorists who are willing to die for their cause?” continued the petition. “Our U.S. Air Force Academy cadets should be taught how to intercept the enemy, not how to tiptoe around the hyper-sensitive complainants.”
A group of Chinese Christians who could not stop the government from destroying their church building stood and sang hymns as the workers stripped crosses off the building.
The Chinese government continued their crackdown on any Christian emblems in Wenzhou City. The city had been the source of a major movement of Christianity that the government claimed was illegal and sought to end.
The government has gone as far as to destroy a multimillion dollar church building that took five years to build within weeks of the church’s official opening. The government claimed that the building violated building codes and had to be destroyed.
The government is now blocking any website that makes mention of the crackdown on churches in Wenzhou, saying that the information in violation of Chinese law and that they are nothing more than propaganda which is aimed to overthrow the government.
Local Christians have told aid organiztions that over 360 churches have been destroyed in the last few weeks in the Zhejiang Province which includes Wenhzou City. All of the buildings were destroyed for “illegal construction” and are going to be replaced with government buildings aimed at “urban development.”
Christian teachers now have fewer rights to express their faith after a ruling form a New York judge.
Joelle Silver, a teacher who had displayed Bible verses in her classroom on motivational posters, a painting that included three crosses on a hill and a prayer box on her desk placed by the school’s Bible Study Club, has been told all of those items must be removed from the classroom.
Judge Leslie G. Foschio ruled that she could not proceed in her lawsuit against the Cheektowaga Central School District that her rights were being violated. The judge did, however, leave open the possibility she could move forward in her suit on the basis of equal protection discrimination because only Christian items were forced to be removed.
The removal of her items came when the virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the school complaining about the Christian teacher.
New details are emerging in the case of an Egyptian Coptic Christian who has been sentenced to six years in prison for an online posting deemed offensive to Islam.
Initial reports said that Kerolos Attallah, 29, had posted a photo on Facebook that several people considered insulting to Islam. Those who were offended reported the posting to authorities who arrested Attallah near his home in a village near Luxor.
Now, information has come out that Attallah did not post the picture, he only clicked the “like” button for a page where someone else had posted the picture. Attallah did not post the picture himself, did not “like” the actual picture and even removed his “like” of the page when he discovered some Islamic friends were offended.
Safwat Samaan, chairman of Egyptian human rights group Nation Without Borders, said that Attallah had not even posted a single comment on the disputed page.
“The sentence today was a shock not just to Kerolos but to everyone who uses Facebook in Egypt,” Samaan said. “Any person who uses Facebook in Egypt and presses ‘Like’ on any page … can be put into prison for six years.”
The page was called “Knights of the Cross” and is written in Arabic for Christians who convert from Islam. The page provides encouragement, prayer and Bible Scriptures.