A new law passed in Saudi Arabia could impose the death sentence on people who bring Bibles into the country and anyone else who distributes information about a religion that is not Islam.
“The new law extends to the importing of all illegal drugs and ‘all publications that have a prejudice to any other religious beliefs other than Islam,’” Paul Washer’s HeartCry Missionary Society outlines in a post on their website. “In other words, anyone who attempts to bring Bibles or gospel literature into the country will have all materials confiscated and be imprisoned and sentenced to death.”
The Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington has been refusing to confirm or deny the new law.
Members of the HeartCry Missionary Society reminded Christian News about the fact Christians in Saudi Arabia are routinely harassed by Muslims with virtual immunity.
“Christians are raped, abducted, murdered, and beaten on a daily basis. Saudis who accept Christ as their Savior are choosing to pick up a cross of ostracism, discrimination, harassment, and even death,” it outlines. “They risk losing their jobs, access to education for their children, or even the right to basic utilities like water and electricity.”
The Open Doors International list of the 100 most dangerous places for a Christian to live has Saudi Arabia at number 6.
A teacher at Arizona State University openly mocked Christ in one of the school’s classes.
Christofer Bang teaches biology and ecology courses for the state-funded university. The teacher held a class last week where he openly mocked Christ and described Biblical creation as “magic.”
The teacher’s actions were released to the website Campus Reform by a student who wished to remain anonymous. The teacher posted a slide that showed Darwin on one side with his evolution and Jesus on the other with a caption that read “zap! Magic!”
“Quite a few students in the lecture hall were bothered by the picture, and it didn’t contribute to the lecture besides adding spite,” the student said.
Arizona State officials are defending the teacher’s anti-Christian attitude.
“The image you are referring to is on the title page of a [PowerPoint] and sets the stage for a discussion about the extremes of the public discourse on evolution/creationism,” Sandy Leander, media relations manager for ASU’s School of Life Sciences stated.
Even non-Christian students were offended by the teacher’s actions.
“All the professor needed to do was state the facts about evolution and move on,” one student said. “There’s no need to attack Christianity in the process.”
In the wake of a Christian couple being burned inside a brick kiln due to false accusations of blasphemy, three more cases of Christians being accused of blasphemy has emerged from Pakistan.
A Muslim north of Lahore claims he found burned pages of the Quran along with a page that listed a bunch of Christians. He claimed that the Christians on the list must have burned the Quran or else they would have not been on the attached list.
“I don’t know who has done this heinous act, but I am sure that the perpetrator is very much against the Christian community,” Pastor Arif Masih, who is on the list, told World Watch Monitor.
In another incident, a 70-year-old Christian man was hired to whitewash a mosque including a signboard that contained writing from the Quran. The Christian man was beaten by a mob of Muslims as he performed his work.
The Christian man, Bashir Masih, was accused of blasphemy by the Muslim mob that attacked him.
Local officials say that while the charges have been filed, they have confirmed he was hired to do the work and that the issue is really between two separate Muslim groups.
The Minority Rights Group International report says these incidents are becoming common.
“Since 2001, violence and discrimination against Christians has increased. Seen as connected to the ‘West’ due to their faith, Christians have at times been scapegoated for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, as well as the immense human suffering seen as a consequence of interventions in other countries with large Muslim populations”.
A Virginia attorney wants to force public schools to stop renting spaces to churches for worship services.
John Flannery, who served as Chief of Staff for a Democratic representative from California, says that it’s a problem that 34 schools in Loudoun County allow churches to rent space and meet on their premises each Sunday.
“It’s time to declare that religious worship is an impermissible use of our public schools,” the anti-Christian lawyer said. “In Loudoun County, the churches that use public school space are holding ‘church services’ and collecting ‘donations.’ This use advances religious worship, and thus religion. The government is plainly entangled when it’s hosting religious worship not in one or two schools but in 40% of all the county’s public schools.”
School board member Bill Fox notes that Flannery is well known for his desire to eradicate Christians from society.
“Flannery really won’t be satisfied until we’ve completely excised religion from the public sphere,” Fox stated. “Some folks just believe that the First Amendment stands for the proposition that we should free from religion, instead of having freedom of religion. I’ve been an advocate for the First Amendment my entire life, and that’s not the First Amendment [interpretation] that I’ve studied and that I advocate for.”
A group of anti-Christianists have forced the removal of a nativity scene that had been placed in front of a North Carolina courthouse for over 40 years.
The virulent anti-Christian organization Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is not located in Dallas, North Carolina, complained that because the nativity was on government property the town owned it.
The nativity scene was moved to a local auto shop amid complaints from residents that the out of town anti-Christianists shouldn’t be forcing the community to go against their values and standards.
The Christian-hating organization also complained about a nativity scene in Jay, Florida. The city declared it “surplus property” and sold it so a private group could display it.
“The majority of the folks have been very supportive in understanding that there is a reason we moved it from City Hall to downtown. Actually, now that it’s downtown, it is more visible to the public than it was right here at city hall,” Jay Mayor Kurvin Qualls said, according to WEAR-TV.
The city estimated the costs to fight the anti-Christian group in court would be around $100,000.
The government of Kentucky has bowed to the demands of anti-Christianists who have been smearing the proposed Noah’s Ark theme park in the northern part of the state.
The state has withdrawn $18 million in tax incentives after multiple anti-Christian groups and organizations harassed legislators and officials claiming the park will promote religion in violation of the mythical separation of church and state.
Ken Ham’s Answers in Genesis who is funding the $172.5 million dollar park is now considering a lawsuit against the state to challenge the decision. The preliminary approval for the state tax-incentive program would have allowed them to keep 25 percent of state sales tax collected at the park for 10 years.
It could have meant more than $18 million that could be used to develop the park.
“State tourism tax incentives cannot be used to fund religious indoctrination or otherwise be used to advance religion,” Tourism Secretary Bob Stewart noted in the letter saying the state will now deny the funds. “The use of state incentives in this way violates the separation of church and state provisions of the Constitution and is therefore impermissible.”
The state is demanding Answers in Genesis not allow only Christians to be hired for the park.
“If you insist on the newly imposed condition … it will amount to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and my client will have no choice but to seek redress in federal court,” AiG attorney James Parsons wrote to the state.
A military Chaplain has been issued a “letter of concern” for telling people attending a class on suicide prevention that his Christian faith has been a help to him.
Colonel David G. Fivecoat, the commander of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, issued the punishment against the Christian pastor for his mentioning how faith helped him in hard times.
The Liberty Institute has stepped in to defend Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn and allow him to exercise his Constitutional right to share his faith.
“The Constitution, federal law, and military regulations all make clear that religious expression in the military is not only permitted, but it’s protected,” Mike Berry of the Liberty Institute told The Christian Post. “Congress recently strengthened religious freedom for service members in the FY13 and FY14 National Defense Authorization Acts (Sections 533 and 532, respectively).”
The letter, which stays for three years in Lawhorn’s personnel file unless Fivecoat leaves command, is a black mark against the pastor who simply did his job.
“You, above all others, must be cognizant of the various beliefs held by diverse soldiers,” the letter of concern reads. “During mandatory training briefings, it is imperative you are careful to avoid any perception you are advocating one system of beliefs over another.”
Rev. Franklin Graham is taking a bold stand against what he is calling the government’s assault on Christianity while society glorifies sin.
“What’s happening is we’re glorifying sin, we’re lifting up sin. And it’s like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God,” Graham told Fox News.
Graham’s statement came in the midst of a discussion about how one city is planning to rename Christmas “sparkle day” and a Minnesota courthouse banning poinsettias.
“It’s all over the country,” Graham asserted. “You have the secularists and the humanists who are wanting to deny that Jesus ever existed. And they want to take His name off of everything. What’s happening now is that it’s infiltrating our government. And our government is attacking Christmas. And it’s not only attacking Christmas, but the name of Christ.”
Graham says the same people who are doing all they can to remove Christ from society are the same ones that are pushing a satanic, sinful agenda.
“We are glorifying sin. People have got to understand that God takes sin seriously, because sin will separate us from God for eternity. Hell is a real place. And that’s where every person who turns their back on God [will go] — and God will condemn them. He’s a righteous judge. He has no choice but to condemn a person because of their sins. But He’s willing to forgive a sin, every sin,” he said.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has killed 11 people and kidnapped at least 20 women as they continue to expand what they call their “caliphate.”
The group says that the predominantly Christian town of Lassa is now under their control.
“As it is now, Boko Haram is fully in charge in Lassa town and has declared the town a caliphate,” one of the escapees from Lassa told Morning Star News. He declined to give his name, saying, “It is no longer safe for us to tell you our names, as doing so may pose a serious threat not only to us but also our relations who are still being held captive by Boko Haram members.”
The terrorists have also declared Chibok and Shani as part of their “caliphate.”
Samuel Dali, president of the EYN in Nigeria, who also has been displaced by the Boko Haram attacks, confirmed the attacks on the three Christian towns, saying many of his church members have been displaced.
A group of Australians are calling for the Bible to be banned at retail outlets that are refusing to carry a sexually explicit, violent video game.
The anti-Bible group is claiming that the Bible is just as bad as the video game and therefore should be banned at any location that does not carry the game. They say that Christians are just trying to earn “God points” by obeying scripture that calls for violence against women.
Kmart and Target stores in the country announced they will not be carrying a new version of the video game Grand Theft Auto Five, which was released last month for two new game systems. The ban came after a petition of 50,000 asked for the game to not be carried because it is a “sickening game that encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women.”
“Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fueling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia—and globally,” reads the petition.
“We have firsthand experience of this kind of sexual violence. It haunts us, and we’ve been trying to rebuild our lives ever since,” the petition continues. “Just knowing that women are being portrayed as deserving to be sexually used by men and potentially murdered for sport and pleasure—to see this violence that we lived through turned into a form of entertainments is sickening and causes us great pain and harm.”
