In This Issue: Praying for Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Iran, and more
- VIETNAM: Christian Activists Convicted
- PAKISTAN: Documentary Honors Slain Government Minister
- NEPAL: New Criminal Code Forbids Evangelism
- SOUTHERN SUDAN: Newest Nation to Emerge amid Violence
- IRAN: Supreme Court Overturns Pastor’s Death Sentence
Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
Greetings!
The world’s religious and political leaders are frantically responding to new developments – defining terms and engaging like never before. Conversions and reconversions are being recognized where once they were not. Evangelism methods are being rethought.
Check out How Can We Find Forgiveness from a Holy God? (You Tube) from Muslim-Christian Dialogue.
The seven-page Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct has just been released by three organizations that collectively represent 90% of the world’s Christians.
In May, a Statement on the Middle East and North Africa came out from Religious Liberty Partnership.
Let’s pray that some of the countries in this week’s edition will participate in and benefit from these conversations!
Blessings,
Pat
VIETNAM: Christian Activists Convicted
Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, June 17, 2011
Three Mennonite Christians who were accused of anti-government crimes were convicted and sentenced this week. They were convicted of subversion after helping fellow Vietnamese citizens whose land was forcibly sold to private companies.
The men, whose faith inspired them to stand up for justice for fellow Vietnamese citizens who lost their farmland when it was forcibly sold by the government to large corporations, have received prison sentences. Tran Thi Thuy received an eight-year prison sentence, Pastor Duong Kim Khai received six years, and Nguyen Thanh Tam received two years. Four other activists were also convicted.
The three Christians are members of the unrecognised branch of the Mennonite Church and attended the “Cow Shed Church” in Ho Chi Minh City. They are also members of Viet Tan, an overseas-based democracy party that calls for peaceful political reform.
>> Full story. Another East Asia story from CSW: Beijing Church Interrogated by “Official” Christians.
PAKISTAN: Documentary Honors Slain Government Minister
Source: ASSIST News, June 22, 2011
A 43-minute documentary honoring the life and work of Pakistani Christian leader Shahbaz Bhatti, the former Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, has been released. It is called “A Tribute to Martyr Shahbaz Bhatti.”
Bhatti, 41, had made a life’s work of campaigning for tolerance in Pakistan [and the reform of] the harsh blasphemy laws of his country.
Bhatti was savagely gunned down on March 2, 2011, in Islamabad by assassins who sprayed the Christian minister’s car with gunfire, striking him at least eight times before scattering pamphlets that described him as a “Christian infidel.” The leaflets were signed, “Taliban al-Qaida Punjab.”
>> Watch the 23-minute video Blind Faith, a documentary about Pakistan’s blasphemy law (Sarah Naqvi). This week Islamabad is celebrating diversity. See the two-minute video Christians: Pakistan’s “Forgotten Minority” (BBC).
NEPAL: New Criminal Code Forbids Evangelism
Source: Compass Direct, June 2, 2011
Five years after it abolished Hinduism as the state religion, Nepal is working on a new criminal code forbidding a person from one faith to “convert a person or abet him to change his religion.”
Article 160 of the proposed code also says no one will be allowed to do anything or behave in any way that could cause a person from a caste, community, or creed to lose faith in his/her traditional religion or convert to a different religion.
If found guilty, offenders could be imprisoned for a maximum of five years and fined up to 50,000 Nepalese rupees (US$685). If the offender is a foreigner, he or she would be deported within seven days of completing the sentence.
Nepal’s Christian community, which has no representation in the Council of Ministers or in parliament, was caught unaware of the new criminal law in the offing.
>> Full story. Readers might be interested in another Compass story, Messianic Christian Couple in Israel Accused of Converting Minor.
SOUTHERN SUDAN: Newest Nation to Emerge amid Violence
Source: Open Doors, June 22, 2011
Earlier this year, the people of South[ern] Sudan voted overwhelmingly to secede from the north and establish a new nation. The day of independence is slated to occur on July 9, but tensions are escalating in border areas and an important disputed boundary has yet to be established.
To escape the conflict and violence, an estimated two-thirds of the population of Kadugli [in Southern Kordofan state] has fled to the Nuba Mountains. But, instead of finding safety, the refugees are being hunted down in what is feared to become a humanitarian crisis hearkening back to the civil war that ended with the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement.
Sources in Sudan said Christians are calling their brothers and sisters worldwide to pray for the crisis in South Kordofan.
>> Full story.
>> At this crucial time, we’d encourage you to print out and share Prayers for Sudan and South Sudan (TearFund).
IRAN: Supreme Court Overturns Pastor’s Death Sentence
Source: The Christian Post, July 5, 2011
Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani of the northern city of Rasht, attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Just days earlier, human rights groups had reported that the Supreme Court had found Nadarkhani guilty of apostasy and upheld the death penalty ruling by a lower court.
Nadarkhani, who was arrested in October 2009, converted from Islam to Christianity in his late teens. The now 32-year-old evangelical house church pastor was first arrested for protesting against Christian children being forced to participate in Muslim religious education in school. Then last year he was sentenced to death for apostasy.
“The Supreme Court has annulled the death sentence and sent the case back to the court in Rasht (his hometown), asking the accused to repent,” said attorney Dadkhah.
“Repent” in the eyes of Islamic sharia law means Pastor Nadarkhani should renounce his conversion.
Pastor Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Dadkhah, is himself facing nine years in prison, which a Tehran court handed him on Sunday for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” according to AFP. He is also barred from practicing law for ten years. Dadkhah thinks the sentence is a result of his work with the Center for the Defense of Human Rights and for doing interviews with foreign media. He has 20 days to file an appeal.
>> See also Full Story of Youcef Nadarkhani (Present Truth), which points out that unless Nadarkhani renounces his conversion he could still be swiftly executed.
Pat Noble has been the “news sleuth” for the Missions Catalyst since 2004. In addition to churning out the news, she is working to create a SWARM (Serving World A Regional Mobilizers) in Northern New York using the NorthernChristian.org website. You can connect with her at www.whatsoeverthings.com.
