News Briefs – Page 166 – Missions Catalyst

Missions Catalyst News Briefs

In This Issue: Responses to intolerance and persecution

Dear readers,

This edition of Missions Catalyst falls between the two Sundays (November 2 and 9) designated as the International Day(s) of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. You can find all the resources you might need from Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs and the World Evangelical Alliance. But I thought I’d also pass on some other types of religious intolerance stories.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is representing a Muslim prisoner’s right to express his faith by growing a beard, while the Saudi police arrest a woman for questioning the length of Mohammed’s beard.
We rejoice that Muslim majority Turkey has agreed to offer a Christian curriculum, but do Satanists in Florida have the right to insist that kids have the option of a Satanic coloring book?
England has pledged more tolerance in their education system, while Gujarat, India, has its textbooks rewritten by the Hindu right.
While the US grapples with same sex marriage, many in the majority world are insisting on same-faith marriages (see India story below).

Surely intolerance is not always persecution. But once we decide something is an act of persecution, how do we respond? Check out How to Read a Persecution News Story (Morning Star News) and Prayer: Taking Sides (Voice of the Martyrs).

Standing with you,
Pat

Pat Noble has been the “news sleuth” for 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.

SUDAN: Air Force Bombs Church Complex in Nuba Mountains

Source: Morning Star News, October 14, 2014

The Sudanese Air Force dropped four bombs on an Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) complex in the Nuba Mountains on Friday (October 10), church leaders said.

“The bombs have completely destroyed our church compound in Tabolo,” the Rev. Youhana Yaqoub of the ECS in Al Atmor, near the Tabolo area in South Kordofan state, told Morning Star News. “A family living at the church compound miraculously escaped the attack, although their whole house and property were destroyed.”

Kamal Adam and his family thanked God for their safety as they watched their house burn from the bombing, he said.

» Read full story, which also includes reports of other incidents. See also Nuba Reports, featuring news and videos from Sudan’s frontlines.

INDIA: Christian Man Forced to Separate from Hindu Wife

Source: World Watch Monitor, October 3, 2014

An Indian couple who married September 26 had their marriage annulled five days later by police under pressure from Hindu nationalists.

The couple, Joseph Pawar and Ayushi Wani, were arrested in Gujarat after complaints that Pawar, a Christian, had lured his Hindu bride into marriage.

The forced dissolution of the marriage quickly drew protests from India’s Christian groups, who have attempted to put pressure on Narendra Modi, the new prime minister of India, for what they say is his persistent silence in the face of increased violence towards Christians and other religious minorities.

In a report issued in New Delhi on September 27, a group of Indian religious leaders accused Modi of remaining mute during 600 incidents targeting religious minorities since his landslide election victory in May.

» Read full story.

» Also read Buddhist Nationalist Group in Burma Calls for Restrictions on Interfaith Marriage (The Washington Post). And in another story from South Asia, Pakistan Mob Kills Christian Couple over Alleged Blasphemy (BBC).

NEPAL: Prime Minister Pledges Religious Freedom

Source: Barnabas Aid, October 15, 2014

In a welcome move for Christians, the Prime Minister of Nepal has made a public commitment that religious freedom will be upheld in the country’s long-awaited constitution.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala made the assurance on October 6 during an address to Muslims in the Hindu-majority country. During his speech, the Prime Minister praised the cordial relations that he said exist between Nepalis who follow different religions, cultures, and traditions, and said that Nepal is strengthened by this mutual tolerance.

The Prime Minister’s pledge may help to quell fears that religious repression in Nepal could intensify when the interim constitution becomes law. A proposed “anti-conversion” clause in the document, which has been under debate since 2008, currently states that “no person shall be entitled to convert another person from one religion to another.”

If the anti-conversion clause were to become law, this would undermine the Prime Minister’s promise to protect religious freedom. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been signed and ratified by Nepal, protects religious freedom and includes the right for every person to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.

» Read full story. Readers might also be interested in Elizabeth Kendal’s recent analysis of global trends that affect religious liberty and persecution (Critical Prayer Requests blog).

UZBEKISTAN: Christian Home Raided

Source: Worthy Christian News, October 15, 2014

A Christian in Uzbekistan has been fined and threatened with further punishment after religious literature was seized from his home during a raid by Uzbek police in August, according to Barnabas Aid.

Artur Alpayev was fined 50 times Uzbekistan’s minimum monthly wage for storing religious literature at his home in Navoi. During sentencing, Judge Oltinbek Mansurov said, “We will continue fining you unless you stop storing religious literature in your home.”

The judge said that the literature should have been stored in a building belonging to a registered religious organization, but Alpayev is a member of a Christian denomination that refuses on principle to seek state registration.

» Read full story. For regular news and analysis of religious liberty issues in Central Asia, see Forum18 News Service.

VIETNAM: Evangelist Seeks to Extend Gospel to Unreached Tribes

Source: Christian Aid Mission, October 16, 2014

The head of a team of Vietnamese evangelists has survived torture and the threat of being killed in prison, but that has only reinforced his determination to get the gospel to ethnic groups who have never heard the message.

Su and his team have planted hundreds of churches elsewhere, especially among highland tribes, where thousands of people who once followed multiple gods and spirits now worship Christ.

One people group Su’s teams have reached is the Khmu, whose traditional animism dictates refraining from violating certain taboos – touching an altar or amulet in a house, for example – that might exact the vengeance of spirits. Appeasing the rice goddess with ritual dancing is a common practice in hopes of a productive harvest.

“There was a Khmu tribal group with a population of about 60,000, and no believers whatsoever,” he said. “There was a boy whose parents passed away, and he was adopted by another tribal group, a Christian group. When he was 20, he went back to the Khmu and boldly preached the gospel. Now there is a church there because of that one young man.”

» See full story with picture, which also describes how Su and his team approach ministry.

Missions Catalyst News Briefs

In This Issue: Release for the captives

Image from The Himalayan Boy and the TV Set (BBC)

Greetings!

This week yielded an unusual number of stories with happy endings, including charges dropped and captives set free or escaped. A human rights activist was even freed in Burundi. Burma agrees to repatriate Royingya refugees in Bangladesh and released more than 100 child soldiers from the army.

While there seems to be a season of release for the captives (Isaiah 61:1), why not pray for whole groups of people enslaved spiritually? See the new BBC documentary, The Himalayan Boy and the TV Set (72 minutes) and pray for the Buddhists of Bhutan and the changes coming to the Himalayan peoples. If you are inspired to touch the lives of children in the Himalayas, read about a literacy project among orphans in Nepal.

Can you use some good news this week? Read on.

Rejoicing,
Pat

AFGHANISTAN: Answer to Prayers for the Pashtun

Source: Godreports, October 8, 2014

Last year the U.S. Center for World Mission began equipping thousands of churches in Latin America to pray for the Pashtun, one of the biggest least-reached people groups in the world.

The Pashtun number over 30 million and the Taliban are included within this ethnic group in Afghanistan. “If you are wondering whether prayer really makes a difference, in this particular case, we have the proof,” says David Taylor, with the U.S. Center.

A Christian radio ministry had been broadcasting for years to the Pashtun and were receiving about 60 responses to their program each month. “As soon as thousands of churches in Latin America began praying for the Pashtun, this radio program began receiving hundreds and then thousands of responses each month,” Taylor exclaims. “Like the Bible story of the disciples whose nets could not handle all the fish, this ministry is now asking for help from others to handle this unexpected interest in the gospel!”

Some of the churches praying for the Pashtun are located in El Salvador. In one of these Salvadoran churches, a man was dying of HIV-AIDS. “He decided to come to the Wednesday prayer meeting which was focused on the Pashtun,” Taylor recounts. “As he was praying for them he felt the Holy Spirit come upon him and move throughout his body. He felt as though he had been healed. The next day he went to the doctor to have his blood checked. When the nurse came back with the results, she was beaming. His blood was completely clean of HIV!”

Taylor sees a valuable lesson for believers here. “When we bless the nations, God blesses us in return. This is the principle we see in Psalm 67: ‘May the peoples praise you O God, may all the peoples praise you! Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God will bless us.’”

» Full story with pictures.

PAKISTAN: Blasphemy Charges Dropped

Source: Barnabas Fund, October 13, 2014

Charges against 55 Pakistani Christians who were falsely accused of blasphemy have been dropped after a written compromise was agreed between the Muslim accuser and the believers involved.

The accusation of blasphemy was made against a group of Christians in a small village in Tehsil Samandri district, Faisalabad, on September 3 following a dispute with a gang of Muslims over the use of land for a graveyard. Thirteen Christians, including a 12-year old boy, were arrested; they have now been released.

The Christians were originally charged under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which refers to defiling the name of Muhammad and carries the death penalty. Remarkably, following the intervention of Barnabas-funded Christian lawyers, this charge was later overturned in a rare move by police.

» Read full story.

» Also read Iran Drops Death Sentence against Pastors and Laos Releases House Church Christians (BosNews Life).

IRAQ: Syrian Christian Hostages Free

Source: WorldWatch Monitor, October 13, 2014

The last of a group of 20 Syrian Christians kidnapped October 5 have been released as their pastor awaits trial before an Islamic court.

Rev. Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan priest in the northeastern Syria town of Knayeh, was abducted with about 20 other Christians. The town, in Idlib province, is eight kilometers from the Turkish border, an area where al-Nusra Front and other rebel groups have been fighting the Syrian army for three years.

Citing Franciscan administrators in the region as well as “local sources,” the Vatican news agency Fides reported October 7 that Jallouf and “several men of the Christian village” had been abducted. Several children were reported to be among the abductees. Three Franciscan nuns who run a youth center and dispensary in the village were inside the St. Joseph Convent at the time of the kidnappings and escaped capture.

» Read full story.