In this edition of News Briefs:
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Source: Global Christian Relief, January 6, 2023
You might expect India, as the world’s largest democracy, to set the global standard for the protection of human rights, including the freedom to worship. The country’s constitution grants every individual freedom of conscience, including the “right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion.”
But a recent report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) claims the opposite is true: “In 2022, religious freedom conditions in India remained poor.” The report states that all levels of the Indian government continued to promote and enforce policies and laws that target Christians and other religious minorities.
With nearly 1.4 billion people in 28 states that cover an expanse over one million square miles, India has places where Christians are the frequent targets of extremists.
Global Christian Relief is calling for urgent prayer for believers in these five specific hotbeds of persecution: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and Punjab.
Read the full article for details, or check out the USCIRF report on India. That was released in November.
See also 15 Places Where Christians Risk Everything When They Convert from Islam and another article from Global Christian Relief which asks, Does the Bible say if persecution will ever end?
Never heard of this organization? They were formerly Open Doors USA. Learn more about the change in a joint statement from the two organizations.
Meanwhile, Open Doors just released its 2023 edition of the World Watch List, 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution and discrimination. You might have a use for the four-minute video featuring the top ten. North Korea leads the list this year, after losing that spot to Afghanistan last year. Afghanistan is now ranked number nine.
Source: Sound Vision Foundation, via Religion News Service, January 12, 2023
More than 200 imams, Islamic scholars, and leaders across the United States and Canada are calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban to end its ban on girls’ and women’s education in the country.
Months after banning education for girls in high school, in December, the group announced an indefinite ban on girls’ and women’s attendance at universities.
The move has elicited outrage across the world, with Muslims, both scholars and laypersons, condemning the ban and calling on the Taliban to rescind it.
“Education is both a right and a duty for all Muslims, women and men,” said Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, an imam in Chicago and former Chair of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest interfaith organization in the world. “The Taliban cannot claim to be following the teachings of Islam while violating a core tenet and requirement of the faith.”
Read the full story and the full text of the petition.
Source: The Christian Post, January 9, 2023
The construction of the Mor Efrem Syriac Ancient Orthodox Church, the first church built in the modern Republic of Turkey, is nearly complete and is expected to open within two months, the Istanbul Syriac Ancient Foundation has announced.
The church’s foundation was laid in February 2019 during a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul’s Yesilkoy district.
[Foundation president Sait] Susin told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that the church cost about $4 million.
He further explained that while there are churches from the Turkish Republic era, Mor Efrem Syriac Ancient Orthodox Church is the first church to be built from scratch in modern Turkey. “They were built without official permission. It is the first time that a church has been officially built. This gives us great pride,” he said.
Anadolu Agency previously reported that when completed, the church would serve about 17,000 Syriac Orthodox believers living in Istanbul.
Read the full story for context and links. Note the population of Syriac believers in the city increased significantly due to war in Syria.
Also under construction: Berlin, Germany will be the first location to construct a significant worship center for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to worship together. The House of One will be built on a historically significant site, once a Christian church (Back to Jerusalem).
Source: Back to Jerusalem, January 2023
“It is time to begin preparing Bibles again to go into North Korea,” came the text from [a missionary] last week.
Getting money, food, supplies, and not least of all, Bibles, into North Korea in the last three years has been tough as North Korea has isolated itself from the rest of the world, but that might all be changing in 2023.
In his speech at the end of December 2022, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, alluded to opening North Korea back up in 2023. The North Korean self-reliant Communist strategy of Juche has clearly not worked.
North Korea’s borders between China and Russia have been tightly closed since 2020, but now, due to a lack of money and economic activities, the cross-border traffic between the nations is about to resume.
North Korea watched as China opened up its border to Hong Kong in the 1980s to become one of the busiest economic cross-border ports in the world. They mimicked the activity with a special economic zone that mimicked China’s Shenzhen and Guangzhou. In doing so, North Korea’s cross-border activity with China grew to be so influential that North Korea started to use the Chinese Yuan as their primary currency.
Chinese missionaries stand by, ready to participate in cross-border commerce with North Korea the moment they open.
You may know that neighboring South Korea is one of the world’s top missionary-sending countries, with some 22,000 foreign missionaries, some of them featured (for good or ill) in a recent article. See Christian Missionaries Target the Birthplace of Buddha in Nepal (BBC).
Source: International Mission Board, January 4, 2023
The watchman. He was the grandfather who loved spy novels, Manchester United, and coffee.
Dawit was Matt and Gretchen Clay’s door to communities with no gospel presence. He made introductions for the International Mission Board missionaries and translated from the trade language to the regional language. Dawit helped the Clays begin their ministry in the area by translating for their community development projects.
“He ushered us in,” Gretchen said.
With his high level of English, he was overqualified for the security job, but he saw serving as a watchman as a way to serve and give back to his community.
When the Clays felt the Lord calling them to move deeper into the region where their people group lived, they told Dawit he was welcome to move with them, but they weren’t requiring it, and they blessed him to retire whenever he saw fit.
“If you’re going, I’m coming,” he told Matt and Gretchen. He lived with the Clays for the past few years in a standalone room next to their house and was a daily part of their lives.
This summer while the Clays were in the U.S., Dawit unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack. His death was devastating. All the missionaries he helped, whether still in the country or back in the U.S., were grieved.
For two months, Gretchen didn’t go into his room. The grief was still too raw. When she did go in, she picked up a piece of paper with random numbers jotted down. She flipped it over and found a note.
“I’ve been working with a family for many years, this American family, I’ve really loved my work with them. They are good people. I like them and their children. They are very good for me. They believe in the one, true God, in Jesus Christ, me too,” the note read.
Gretchen said it confirmed that he had indeed committed his life to Christ.
