A student at California’s Brawley Union High School defied the school’s leadership during his graduation ceremony speech.
The school’s officials had told Brooks Hamby, the class salutatorian, he would not be allowed to make any reference to his Christian faith during his speech. He submitted his speech three times to the school only to have it rejected over issues of faith.
“In coming before you today, I presented three drafts of my speech, all of them denied on account of my desire to share with you my personal thoughts and inspiration to you: my Christian faith,” Hamby said in his speech. “No man or woman has ever truly succeeded or been fulfilled on the account of living for others and not standing on what they knew in their heart was right or good.”
Hamby also quoted Matthew 5:13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
Hamby has been a leader for the school’s mock-trial team and also a U.S. Senate page.
A Missouri school district has announced a settlement in a lawsuit with an anti-Christian group that claimed they violated the U.S. Constitution by promoting Christianity on the campus.
The anti-Christian American Humanist Association of Washington had filed a lawsuit in November 2013 against the Fayette School District on behalf of an “anonymous student” and “anonymous parent” who claimed the school wrongly promoted Christianity over other religions or no religion.
The complaint said that one of the school’s teachers prayed with students and that the high school’s principal announced weekly prayer meetings of a Christian group on the intercom.
The settlement was reached because the school said they did not want to spend more tax dollars fighting the anti-Christianists. The school added that while they did find one allegation was accurate, most of the complaints from the anti-Christian group were false, misleading or deliberately taken out of context.
The judge in the case has banned the schools’ teachers from participating in prayer or other religious activities at student events and prohibits teachers from having religious materials in sight of students.
The anti-Christian American Humanist Associated celebrated their latest removal of Christians from public life.
“Public schools must uphold the separation of church and state,” remarked AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt.
Christians throughout Iraq have suddenly found their lives in danger as Islamic extremists attempt to overthrow the government.
The Al-Qaeda related group Islamic State of Iraq has launched a military style offensive against the Iraqi government, taking over the cities of Mosul and Maiji. The cities allow them to control the nation’s largest oil refinery and over $425 million in gold stored in the Mosul central bank.
In addition to the attempt to overthrow the government, they have been killing Christians who refuse to convert to Islam.
“What we are living and what we have seen over the last two days is horrible and catastrophic. The priory of Mar Behnam and other churches fell into the hands of the rebels this morning … and now they have come here and entered Qaraqosh five minutes ago, and we are now surrounded and threatened with death … pray for us,” Fr. Najeeb Michaeel wrote online from Mosul.
“Many thousands of armed men from the Islamic Groups of Da’ash (another name for ISIS or ISIL) have attacked the city of Mosul for the last two days. They have assassinated adults and children. The bodies have been left in the streets and in the houses by the hundreds, without pity. The regular forces and the army have also fled the city, along with the governor.”
After the last decade of attacks from Islamists, the number of Christians in Iraq has fallen from 1.5 million to less than 400,000.
Christians in Plano, Texas are no longer breaking the law when they gather to praise God.
The Agape Resource and Assistance Center had been holding Bible studies in the homes of members before the city told them they violated an ordinance that you cannot have more than 8 people inside a home at any one time.
The ministry contacted the Liberty Institute who informed the city they were in violation of the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“It is unlawful and unjust for the City of Plano to ban the ministry of Agape Resources and Assistance from fulfilling its calling to serve local women and children in crisis,” Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute’s director of litigation, stated. “We are hopeful that the City of Plano will lift its unlawful ban, and no further legal action will be necessary. This is an outrageous violation of our client’s religious freedom.”
The city of Plano responded June 12th with a letter apologizing for an error.
“It has come to the [city’s] attention that the aforementioned Notice was issued in error and should therefore be disregarded,” Cynthia O’Banner from the city wrote in the response letter. “As previously conveyed, the City of Plano appreciates Agape Resource & Assistance Center for services rendered to citizens in need. Please accept our apology for the misunderstanding.”
The developers of a Bible-themed park in Sioux City, Iowa have announced they rejected a $140,000 grant from the state after the anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation made harassing complaints.
Vision Iowa, a group aimed at renovating and rehabilitating green spaces within the state, had offered a $140,000 grant to the park’s designers for trees, plants and other non-religious parts of the park. That wasn’t good enough for the anti-Christian group FFRF, who said that any funding given to a public park that might have a religious element is a violation of church and state.
The board of the Shepherd’s Garden told the Des Moines Register they just want to build the park and not be in the middle of frivolous lawsuits.
The FFRF celebrated the decision to harm the Christian park by having the funds withdrawn, claiming it was a “victory for the separation of church and state.”
The good news in the story is that after the word of the anti-Christianists actions hit the news, private donors provided a significant increase in funding that should allow for completion of the park in September.
Bowdoin College of Brunswick, Maine is openly discriminating against a Christian student organization by revoking official school recognition after the group would not allow non-Christians to be voted into leadership.
The college says that as part of their anti-discrimination policy, a group that is founded for and by a certain religion cannot require their leadership to actually be a part of the faith in that group. The college believes that if someone who hates and wants to undermine the faith of an organization can obtain leadership and destroy the group, they should have the opportunity to do so.
The action by the college is similar to that of other liberal arts colleges and Universities across the country who are seeking to eliminate Christian groups from their campuses.
Members of the group, who will now meet informally wherever they can because the University has revoked their rights to meet on campus, say that it’s a matter of standing up for the Gospel and the faith.
“It would compromise our ability to be who we are as Christians if we can’t hold our leaders to some sort of doctrinal standard,” student Zachary Suhr told reporters.
The national field director for InterVarsity said that the decision shows Bowdoin College believes those of religious faith should be suspect and marginalized.
This is a wonderful time to be alive – a time like none other when the signs of Jesus’ Second Coming are all around us and are screaming from the news headlines every day. These are great days we are living in… but an even Greater Day is coming.
We are definitely privileged to be living in these last days and we know that because we are, there’s a mission and a purpose that is only unto this generation. While the generations before us were charged with going unto all the world to spread the Gospel, our charge is not only spreading the Gospel but standing strong without wavering in the face of vicious attacks by an angry devil (because he knows his time is short). Continue reading →
An appeals court in Sudan has begun the appeals trial of Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian mother sentenced to death for her refusal to renounce her faith in Christ.
Daniel Wani, the husband of Ibrahim, told CNN that formal notification has been given to himself and his wife’s attorney that the court has begun the deliberations of the case. The formal notice was issued Thursday meaning the court’s ruling could come at any time.
The appeal that was filed by Ibrahim’s attorney reportedly focused on what he termed “procedural errors” in the initial court’s ruling and the actions of the prosecutors.
Wani, an American citizen, has been asking the U.S. State Department to expedite an asylum process for his wife based on religious persecution. He also says that if she is released from prison, it’s very likely Islamic extremists will attack her.
Wani told reporters that after a lack of action from the State Department he has appealed to his state’s U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte to take steps to help his wife and children.
A group of Nigerian Christians are dead after Islamic terrorists impersonated pastors.
Members of Boko Haram entered the city Maidugur proclaiming they wanted to speak to the community about the “righteous path of God.” Villagers say the men said they came to preach and once the crowd was gathered, pulled out weapons and began to fire point-blank at the Christians who came to worship.
More gunmen then stormed into the village, destroying mobile phone towers to try and keep news of the attack from spreading and destroyed several houses belonging to the murder victims. They also burned down a Roman Catholic Church and government office.
The attack on Maidugur came after an assault early last week where Boko Haram impersonated government troops and said they were protecting villages in Borno province before launching assaults.
Nigeria, now considered the largest economy in Africa, has rejected offers of help from the United States and other western nations in stopping Boko Haram beyond searching for 200 kidnapped girls.
Christians in Sudan are telling media outlets and international aid organizations that they no longer feel safe to even pray after the religious persecution of Meriam Ibrahim.
One Christian activist told CNN that they are refusing to publicly identify themselves anymore because they don’t want to face the same situation as Ibrahim, who was sentenced to 100 lashes and then being hung to death for her failure to renounce Christ and praise Allah.
“The church is now contaminated with terror. You don’t feel safe in prayer,” he said.
A human rights lawyer in the country who is a Christian said that the Christian minority will never be able to make traction because of the government’s systemic persecution. The government-controlled media routinely tell the public that Christianity is an “illegitimate religion.”
The U.S. State Department continues to be virtually silent on the matter even though Ibrahim is the wife of an American and her children are legally American citizens.