A march in Spain against abortion drew tens of thousands of people into the capital city of Madrid.
“Yes to life! No to abortion!” the tens of thousands of marchers chanted outside the headquarters of the Popular Party, the controlling party in the nation.
The leaders of the march wanted to get the message through to the ruling party that they will lose tens of thousands of voters if they allow abortions in the country to increase or back off on their vows to restrict the process in the country.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy abandoned efforts to completely ban abortion because his party could not reach a consensus.
“As president of the government I have taken the most sensible decision,” he said. “We can’t have a law that will be changed when another government comes in.”
The march’s leaders used evidence from around the world to prove restrictions that were opposed by members of the ruling party had no merit. One such example came from former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Coop.
“Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life,” Koop stated. “If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother’s health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby’s life is never willfully destroyed because the mother’s life is in danger.”
A boarding school in Beijing that had been taking care of Christians orphans and providing them with an education has been shut down by the Chinese government.
A teacher at the Angel Orphanage told the China Aid Association that the school was forced to move from their home in the Fangshan District of Beijing to Guangling, Shanxi. The school has been in Beijing for nine years but the government suddenly denied the school’s permit.
“Before the Oct. 1 holiday, our leaders suddenly said that the children must leave, and they brought some students to Guangling, Shanxi,” Yu, said. “Then they went to the education committee to process paperwork for the students’ transfer. When some children arrived in Shanxi, the school still hadn’t found a proper place to stay.”
A teacher who was identified only as Yu told China Aid that the local officials were angered because Christians from America came to teach the children in the summer.
China Aid reported that the government has shut down at least four Christian schools in the four months.
The man who founded an aggressive anti-Christian group was confronted by a Congressman during a recent hearing about his hate and bigotry toward Christians.
Representative Randy Forbes challenged Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for statements that were made regarding the purpose of the MRFF and Weinstein’s views.
Weinstein initially tried to avoid questioning from Forbes when the Congressman brought up Weinstein’s quote that his group’s goal was to “lie down a withering field of fire and leave sucking chest wounds.” Weinstein began to spew hate toward Christians before the Congressman cut him off and Weinstein confirmed he said it.
Congressman Forbes also challenged Weinstein on his bigoted statement that followers of Christ were “Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans.”
“I haven’t heard any people of faith calling atheists ‘monsters’ or saying they want to put sucking chest wounds in them,” Forbes said.
Weinstein is also notorious for comparing people of faith to rapists.
An American missionary who had been held for two years in a North Korean labor camp was suddenly released Saturday.
Bae spoke to reporters and gave praise to God and credit to the millions who have been praying for him during his captivity for being a Christian.
“I just want to say thank you all for supporting me and lifting me up and not forgetting,” Bae said at a news conference at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. “Thank you for all your support and prayer and love. It’s really been encouraging for me and for others.”
Bae had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for plotting to overthrow the government. The North Korean government considers spreading the gospel an attempt to overthrow the government.
Bae’s family said the first thing he asked for was “pizza or burgers, anything but Korean because he’d been eating that for two years.”
A federal judge in Mississippi has denied a request against the Jackson, Mississippi police department, which has been harassing pro-life Christians.
Police have been targeting Christians who are protesting outside the state’s last abortion facility for harassment.
“[Our] request that pro-life advocates receive injunctive relief from harassment by the City of Jackson, Mississippi Police Department was denied by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Jackson Division,” wrote Tom Ciesielka of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. “Despite hours of supportive testimony and a long and well documented history of police misconduct, Judge Carlton Reeves denied a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city police from further persecution of peaceful pro-life protesters.”
The police have been arresting the Christians for the most minor of accusations. For example, Christians have been arrested if a sign they were carrying touched the ground, with the police claiming that because it touched the ground they were “obstructing a public sidewalk.”
“We are very concerned about the potential for police mistreatment of our clients as this case awaits its day in court,” added Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director and President Dana Cody in response to the court’s denial of a preliminary injunction. “It is very disappointing that the district court did not acknowledge that a police department that is already behaving with impunity might perceive this as an opportunity to continue illegal harassment of private citizens exercising their constitutionally protected freedoms.”
While the leaders of Pakistan were using a blasphemy law to persecute Christians and keep a Christian mother jailed on false charges, the United States was giving the Pakistani government over $7.5 billion.
The American Center for Law and Justice is now calling for the United States to end financial aid to countries that persecute religious minorities.
“We must stop sending billions of our taxpayer dollars to nations that persecute Christians. It’s that simple. Not one more dime for persecution. Cut off American foreign aid to any country that persecutes Christians,” a petition started by the ACLJ reads. “As a wave of persecution sweeps across the Middle East — and Christians flee for their lives — it’s time for the money to stop. Already there is growing support for basic human rights and basic common sense on Capitol Hill.”
The focus of the petition is Asia Bibi, a Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy by Muslims who were upset she took a drink of water from a bowl they wanted to use to drink.
Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemy is now in the hands of the country’s supreme court.
Mexican authorities have admitted finding a mass grave in their search for 43 students who went missing last month after a clash with police.
Mexico’s attorney general told reporters the grave was discovered after information was obtained from two arrested gang members.
Police in the region had admitted to investigators that they had taken the students and turned them over to local drug gangs so the gangs could “take care of” the students for the police.
The incident has shocked Mexican residents to the point that 56 people have been arrested in the disappearance and local officials have been forced to resign. The governor of the state has also stepped down because of the mass corruption of the police department.
The mayor of Iguala, where the children were taken, is on the run along with his wife and the police chief. The mayor reportedly ordered the students to be intercepted so that his wife would not be interrupted during a speech.
The Chinese religious freedom group China Aid has released documents showing the Chinese government is increasing their crackdown on churches and Christians.
The government destroyed churches in Wenzhou and Hangzhou on Friday. Christians in the area reported to China Aid that only one cross remains standing in the Wenzhou area where most of the government persecution has taken place.
“On [Friday], the cross of [Kaiyang Church] of Wuniu pastoral region in Yongjia County, Wenzhou was taken down,” a worshipper from Pingyang County, Wenzhou said. “[The cross on] a church in Ouhai District, Wenzhou was also taken down. Now, in Pingyang County, only the cross of Zengzhan Church has not been taken down.”
Security agents reportedly descended in the middle of the night to remove the crosses and witnesses say that at 3:30 a.m. local time the security agents left after destroying the cross.
“The authorities in Zhejiang have never stopped taking down the crosses,” Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, also known as Pastor “Bike,” said. “They have been obstructing the entry of Christian culture into China. This is religious persecution. In taking down these crosses, they resort to violence.”
The recent incidents in Houston where the government tried to seize the sermons of pastors critical of city government actions is now coming under fire from those on the left-wing who fear a backlash that could harm them at the ballot box.
The anti-Christian organization Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has posted a piece posted by member Rob Boston which says that incident will harm those who are trying to keep Christians from having their views in the public arena.
“The officials have handed the Religious Right an incredible public relations victory,” wrote Boston, adding that “this incident has become fodder for the Religious Right’s ‘we’re being persecuted’ campaign. At the end of the day, that’s what’s so unfortunate about the city’s misstep: These subpoenas will launch a thousand right-wing fund-raising letters.”
The demands came after many Christian groups protested and spoke out about a law that would force public locations within the city to allow various actions considered possibly dangerous, including allowing men to use women’s bathrooms.
The subpoenas have drawn condemnation from even major anti-Christian organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
The city is angered that over 50,000 signatures were collected on a petition over overturn their law, which city attorney David Feldman dismissed as being mostly invalid. The issue will go before a court in January.
Two Christian pastors and a deacon will be spending the next six years in some of Iran’s most desolate prisons because of their Christian faith.
Pastors Benham Irani and Matthias Haghnejad along with deacon Silas Rabbani will be taken to prisons as far away from family and friends as the Iranian government can take them after convictions on trumped-up charges to justify the government’s campaign of hate against Christians.
“We are deeply concerned by the six-year sentences given to pastors [Benham] Irani and [Matthias] Haghnejad and deacon Silas Rabbani, and the fact that they will serve these sentences so far from their families and home towns,” said Christian Solidarity Worldwide Chief Operating Officer Andy Dipper.
“We are particularly appalled by the extra six years given to pastor Irani, who has already endured ill-treatment whilst in prison and now faces nearly a decade in prison on trumped-up charges. We urge the Iranian government to release without delay every person who is imprisoned for their faith. Their incarceration contravenes international covenants guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief, to which Iran is party.”
The government claims the Christian men were taking “action against the state” and “action against the order” along with Pastor Irani being accused of “spreading corruption on Earth.” He could have received the death penalty on the last charge.