A Christian teenager has sued his school after he was prohibited from praying, singing and discussing religious topics with classmates during the school’s “free period.”
Chase Windebank, a senior at Pine Creek High School, has been leading a group for the last three years that meets during what the school calls the “seminar” period. On Mondays and Wednesdays students can participate in a variety of activities and students with passing grades may also do so on Fridays.
“During the free time, students are permitted to engage in a virtually unlimited variety of activities, including gathering with other students inside or outside; reading; sending text messages to their friends; playing games on their phone; visiting the bathrooms; getting a snack; visiting teachers; and conducting official meetings of school clubs,” states Alliance Defending Freedom.
The school claims that because the “Seminar” is considered class time, they’re now banning Christian students from meeting. The school has not backed down despite it being shown that their actions are violations of the Constitution.
“Public schools should encourage the free exchange of ideas. Instead, this school implemented an ill-conceived ban that singles out religious speech for censorship during free time,” remarked ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.
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.”
Bill Nye, the atheist scientist who attacked Pastor Ken Ham and his beliefs as “bad for humankind” has published a book that mocks Christianity and had stated he has a goal to keep children from being taught the truth of creation from the Bible.
Nye has written a book called “Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation” where he claims to outline “scientific proofs” for the theory of evolution.
He even mocks Christianity by saying evolution is “the most meaningful creation story that humans have ever found.”
Nye even told the New York Times that he wants to get his book into the hands of young children to keep them from being brainwashed by Chrsitians.
“My biggest concern about creationist kids is that they’re compelled to suppress their common sense, to suppress their critical thinking skills at a time in human history when we need them more than ever,” he asserted. “By the time you’re 18, you’ve made up your mind. … But if you’re 7 or 8, we got a shot.”
Creationist Ken Ham reviewed Nye’s book and says Nye dismisses anything that does not agree with him.
“I want to point out that the public would understand science a lot better if evolutionary scientists would stop treating their humanistic, God-denying, worldview-based interpretations of our origins—which no scientist has ever observed or tested—as if they were as reliable as the conclusions drawn from the testable, repeatable processes of observational science,” he stated.
The government followed through on their proclamation they would find the people responsible for the mob murder of two Christians on false charges of blasphemy.
However, the local officials tried to deny that Muslims were behind the attack.
“We have arrested 44 people, it was a local issue incited by the mullah of a local mosque,” said Jawad Qamar, a regional police chief from Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab province, according to The Guardian. “No particular sectarian group or religious outfit was behind the attack.”
A Muslim mob attacked Shahzad Masih, 28, and Shama Bibi, 25, because someone found a burned Koran and claimed the Christian couple had burned it in a brick kiln before throwing it away.
The mob then beat the couple and threw them alive into the brick kiln to cremate the bodies.
“The Pakistani state has to act proactively to protect its minorities from violence and injustice,” Pakistan Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif said.
In the latest round of Christian persecution in Pakistan, a Christian couple was falsely accused of desecrating a Koran and then murdered.
The murder took place in Kot Radha Kirshan, a village about 40 miles from the city of Lahore according to the BBC.
The married couple, identified only as Shama and Shehzad, had worked at a brick kiln. A desecrated Koran was found in the area of the kiln earlier in the day and a Muslim mob decided it had to be the Christian couple. So they killed them and stuffed their bodies into the brick kiln.
The chief minister of the region has said he will investigate the killings.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who has been raising the alarm about Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death on false accusations of blaspheming Mohammed, is calling for the U.S. to end foreign aid to Pakistan until they take steps to stop the killing of Christians.
Local officials are teaming with Hindu extremists to attack Christians in India.
Christians in Madota, Bastar District, were summoned to a meeting by local officials to discuss issues related to problems with non-Hindu religions worshipping in the region. When the Christians arrived, no local officials were there, but a mob of Hindu extremists showed up to beat the Christians.
“Some of the injured Christians were admitted in a hospital in Jagdalpur, and some local Christians have also been forced to go into hiding due to the constant threats they received from the right-wing groups,” Bhupendra Kohra told Morning Star News.
The government has banned missionaries and Christians from worshipping in the region.
“The district authorities, along with some right-wing elements, are also pressuring us to withdraw the petition filed in the high court against the ban on the entry of non-Hindu missionaries in Bastar,” said Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum. “Now our writ is pending in the high court. We see this latest attack as a pressure tactic.”
Local officials have said their goal is to stop Chrsitians from being able to discuss their faith with Hindus.
The mother of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran because he’s a Christian has fled for the United States because of threats to her life.
“Facing threats in Iran, Saeed’s mom is now safely out of the country,” Naghmeh Abedini, the pastor’s wife, told FoxNews.com. “We look forward to seeing her soon here in the United States. It has been a difficult time for all of us — including Saeed’s mom. She did not want to leave Iran. She did not want to say goodbye to her son.”
Abedini’s mother has not been released because of security reasons. She is still in the nation and is in an unnamed country awaiting her travel to the continental U.S. She revealed that Iranian officials have banned her from visiting her son at Rajai Shahr prison.
The ACLJ says that Saeed is continuing to be beaten for his faith and is in need of medical attention.
“We remain concerned about the health and safety of pastor Saeed, who continues to be held in an Iranian prison because of his faith,” said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ. “We know that he needs medical care for injuries received during his captivity. It is an increasingly frustrating time for pastor Saeed and his family, both in this country and in Iran.”
A display at a playground in Newark, Delaware has been removed because some anti-Christianists threatened a lawsuit.
“Earlier this month, the city of Newark received a complaint regarding the playground equipment, which had been installed for some time, alleging that it was in violation of the establishment clause, citing numerous examples of case law,” a city spokesman told The Christian Post. “After review, our city solicitor advised that the display be removed, and the Parks and Recreation Department, acting on this advice, removed the display.”
The complain came from the anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the local chapter Delaware Valley Americans United.
Janice Rael, vice president of the anti-Christian group, said that two anti-Christian grandparents didn’t want their grandchildren to possibly be exposed to anything related to the Bible.
The anti-Christian groups celebrated their removal of Christianity from that part of the public.
A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted to review a case that claims police officers in Dearborn, Michigan failed to protect the freedom of speech for Christian preachers.
The court had ruled in August in a 2-1 decision the police did not violate the free speech rights of “Bible Believers” but voted in favor of a review, which is “intended to bring to the attention of the entire court a precedent setting error of exceptional public importance.”
Ruben Israel, a street preacher who organized the Dearborn outreach, told the Christian Post the review is about protecting free speech in America.
“We had to get [the case] out of Dearborn and we had to get it out of Detroit. Now, since the circuit has picked it up, we believe and trust that they will set the record straight,” Israel said in an interview with The Christian Post. “Free speech sometimes may not be very gracious. But there is something called ‘the hecklers veto.’ That is when you can say something very unpopular and it is protected. We believe that since the circuit wants to and has gone ahead and picked it up, now we believe that we have a pulse. We are thankful for our court system that we still have the appeal case and that’s working.”
The group was blocked by police from preaching in the majority Muslim town outside of a Muslim street festival.
“I told [the police officer] that we were already getting pelted with water bottles and he says ‘oh that’s Ok, we will keep an eye out for you.’ He turned around and he walked away. Of course, that was it,” Israel said. “The police did confront us several times. Every time they came to talk to us and tell us that we had to leave, everything got stopped. Once they walked away, it just turned around and did the same thing all over again.
Nine out of ten Orthodox Christians in Iraq have been displaced by the terrorist group ISIS.
Ghattas Hazim, the Greek Orthodox Bishop for Baghdad, says he fears for the future of Christianity in Iraq and the surrounding region because of the terrorists. He says that of 600 Orthodox families remain in Baghdad because of fears the terrorists will take over the nation’s capital.
He said the only Christians left in Mosul are the ones who can afford to pay the “tax” levied on them by the terrorists or who are too ill or infirm to flee.
Hazim said that western nations, despite saying they are working to help the Christians displaced by the terrorists, have done nothing to help them.
“It is not true that the West is facilitating the emigration of Christians,” Hazim told The Christian Post. “I know many Christians and Orthodox in particular who went to embassies and did not get visas. Others resorted to the United Nations and other international organizations in order to emigrate and it did not work out.”
Hazim vowed to stay in Baghdad to keep the Word of God alive in the city no matter what may happen with the terrorists.
“I will carry the word of God to my parish in Baghdad and Kuwait: Fear not, little flock, for I am with you,” Hazim said. “If they persecute you, remember that they persecuted me before you. We will not fear, because this is not the first time in history that this has happened. We will stay, as long as faith remains and as long as our God exists, we will remain present.”