A federal judge in Mississippi has denied a request against the Jackson, Mississippi police department, which has been harassing pro-life Christians.
Police have been targeting Christians who are protesting outside the state’s last abortion facility for harassment.
“[Our] request that pro-life advocates receive injunctive relief from harassment by the City of Jackson, Mississippi Police Department was denied by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Jackson Division,” wrote Tom Ciesielka of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. “Despite hours of supportive testimony and a long and well documented history of police misconduct, Judge Carlton Reeves denied a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city police from further persecution of peaceful pro-life protesters.”
The police have been arresting the Christians for the most minor of accusations. For example, Christians have been arrested if a sign they were carrying touched the ground, with the police claiming that because it touched the ground they were “obstructing a public sidewalk.”
“We are very concerned about the potential for police mistreatment of our clients as this case awaits its day in court,” added Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director and President Dana Cody in response to the court’s denial of a preliminary injunction. “It is very disappointing that the district court did not acknowledge that a police department that is already behaving with impunity might perceive this as an opportunity to continue illegal harassment of private citizens exercising their constitutionally protected freedoms.”
While the leaders of Pakistan were using a blasphemy law to persecute Christians and keep a Christian mother jailed on false charges, the United States was giving the Pakistani government over $7.5 billion.
The American Center for Law and Justice is now calling for the United States to end financial aid to countries that persecute religious minorities.
“We must stop sending billions of our taxpayer dollars to nations that persecute Christians. It’s that simple. Not one more dime for persecution. Cut off American foreign aid to any country that persecutes Christians,” a petition started by the ACLJ reads. “As a wave of persecution sweeps across the Middle East — and Christians flee for their lives — it’s time for the money to stop. Already there is growing support for basic human rights and basic common sense on Capitol Hill.”
The focus of the petition is Asia Bibi, a Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy by Muslims who were upset she took a drink of water from a bowl they wanted to use to drink.
Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemy is now in the hands of the country’s supreme court.
One of the most virulent anti-Christian organizations in the nation has been discovered to have its roots in the pro-abortion lobby.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which targets Christians all over the country in an attempt to bully them into silence, was started in 1976 as part of the pro-abortion movement according to Madison, Wisconsin’s Isthmus newspaper.
“[FFRF] grew out of the reproductive rights movement after the Gaylors saw legislative hearings packed with Catholic nuns, priests and schoolchildren and concluded religion was the root of women’s inequality,” Isthmus reported.
Anne Gaylor once wrote fundraising letters bragging about abortions being given to 13-year-old and 12-year-old girls.
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation is not just about abolishing Christianity,” Steve McConkey of the ministry 4 WINDS said. “What they really desire is to eliminate biblical standards that Christians uphold. This is obvious when you see the connection to abortion.”
“This is an organization that not only has a hatred for Christianity, but a desire to see the most innocent harmed,” he warned. “They were founded on the principles of the Zero Population craze in the 70s. If they indirectly push the silent holocaust of abortion, they are no different than other evil movements that have eliminated innocent people in history.”
“We must remember we are in a spiritual battle,” McConkey told the Christian News. “The enemy blinds the eyes of people, especially as time progresses toward the end. Look at the world today—the lack of absolutes has created an open door for every kind of evil and can lead to evil leaders exploiting people. Evil builds if not checked by God’s absolutes.”
The Chinese religious freedom group China Aid has released documents showing the Chinese government is increasing their crackdown on churches and Christians.
The government destroyed churches in Wenzhou and Hangzhou on Friday. Christians in the area reported to China Aid that only one cross remains standing in the Wenzhou area where most of the government persecution has taken place.
“On [Friday], the cross of [Kaiyang Church] of Wuniu pastoral region in Yongjia County, Wenzhou was taken down,” a worshipper from Pingyang County, Wenzhou said. “[The cross on] a church in Ouhai District, Wenzhou was also taken down. Now, in Pingyang County, only the cross of Zengzhan Church has not been taken down.”
Security agents reportedly descended in the middle of the night to remove the crosses and witnesses say that at 3:30 a.m. local time the security agents left after destroying the cross.
“The authorities in Zhejiang have never stopped taking down the crosses,” Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, also known as Pastor “Bike,” said. “They have been obstructing the entry of Christian culture into China. This is religious persecution. In taking down these crosses, they resort to violence.”
Pastors across America are expressing their solidarity with pastors in the Houston area who are being harassed by the city government with “I Stand Sunday.”
The event will feature former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and members of the Duck Dynasty family. The event is aimed to raise awareness of government attempts to intimidate Christians into silence.
“This is not about speeches, not about sermons, not about teachings even on biblical morality…it is about intimidation,” said Perkins. “This is about political intimidation and it is about the mayor using the bully pulpit to try and silence the pulpits of Houston.”
The pastors being harassed by the city had spoken out about the city’s new law that would allow situations such as men using women’s bathrooms.
“I Stand Sunday” will be held November 2nd at Grace Church in Houston and broadcast nationwide.
“Hosted by Family Research Council and other partners, speakers from across the nation will gather at Grace Community Church in Houston to focus on the freedom to live out our faith free of government intrusion or monitoring,” reads the I Stand Sunday website. “We will stand with pastors and churches in Houston who have been unduly intimidated by the city’s mayor in demanding they hand over private church communication.”
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has sided with the IRS and thrown out lawsuits connected to the IRS targeting conservative and Christian groups.
Judge Reggie Walton ruled that the cases against the IRS for their actions were “moot” because the IRS claims they are no longer targeting conservative groups and because the IRS granted the tax-exempt statuses for the groups involved in the suit.
“After the plaintiff initiated this case, its application to the IRS for tax-exempt status was approved by the IRS. The allegedly unconstitutional governmental conduct, which delayed the processing of the plaintiff’s tax exempt application and brought about this litigation, is no longer impacting the plaintiff,” Walton said in his decision to throw out True the Vote’s lawsuit against the IRS.
This means that the IRS could begin targeting Christian or conservative groups again at any time because there is no legal prohibition to those actions.
“[T]he Court is satisfied that there is no reasonable expectation that the alleged conduct will recur, as the defendants have not only suspended the conduct, but have also taken remedial measures to ensure that the conduct is not repeated,” the judge wrote.
A security official for ISIS captured by anti-ISIS rebels admitted that when they captured any Yazidi village, they would separate the virgin women to use as rewards for terrorists who carry out successful attacks.
The ISIS official from Raqqa revealed that they are routinely taking Christian and Yazidi women and having them repeatedly raped by terrorist fighters as a way to increase the morale of their fighters.
The ISIS official said the terrorists would “marry” the virgins and then most of the time divorce them after the “wedding night’ so they could be given to other terrorists.
The report says that the leaders within ISIS are taking great efforts to keep the truth of what they’re doing to captured women from the public so it doesn’t bring them negative response from groups sympathetic to their views.
“The inner circle of leaders and security officials, and were careful that this issue should not be known as much as possible to the civilians,” the report stated.
The Islamic State has stated all women who are not Muslim should be used as sex slaves.
North Korea surprised the world by releasing an American Christian who had been held illegally in the country for the last six months.
Jeffrey Fowle, who had forgotten his Bible in the bathroom of a restaurant, has been held since mid-May on charges that he was using his tourist visa as a way to commit Christian proselytization.
“We can confirm that Jeffrey Fowle has been allowed to depart the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and is on his way home to re-join his family,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fowle spoke to reporters last month and said that while he was good his situation was getting desperate.
The White House said that while they were very happy for Fowle’s release, they are still demanding the release of two other captured Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller.
The recent incidents in Houston where the government tried to seize the sermons of pastors critical of city government actions is now coming under fire from those on the left-wing who fear a backlash that could harm them at the ballot box.
The anti-Christian organization Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has posted a piece posted by member Rob Boston which says that incident will harm those who are trying to keep Christians from having their views in the public arena.
“The officials have handed the Religious Right an incredible public relations victory,” wrote Boston, adding that “this incident has become fodder for the Religious Right’s ‘we’re being persecuted’ campaign. At the end of the day, that’s what’s so unfortunate about the city’s misstep: These subpoenas will launch a thousand right-wing fund-raising letters.”
The demands came after many Christian groups protested and spoke out about a law that would force public locations within the city to allow various actions considered possibly dangerous, including allowing men to use women’s bathrooms.
The subpoenas have drawn condemnation from even major anti-Christian organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
The city is angered that over 50,000 signatures were collected on a petition over overturn their law, which city attorney David Feldman dismissed as being mostly invalid. The issue will go before a court in January.
The Pakistani government is receiving condemnation and pressure from around the world over a death sentence given to a Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy.
Asia Bibi has been jailed for four years after a Muslim woman who was angry she drew water from the same bowl as her made false accusations that Bibi, a Christian, blasphemed the prophet Mohammed.
One Christian group said they are working to increase the international pressure on Pakistan for giving a death penalty to a woman simply because she is a Christian.
“We continue to hope because, as Christians, our faith nourishes hope. We continue to pray for Asia Bibi and for her release, so that the Lord protects and comforts her. But there are many elements that are not conducive to optimism,” Haroon Barkat, director of the Masihi Foundation, told Fides News Agency.
The Christian leaders in the nation who have been fighting for Bibi are taking the case to the nation’s Supreme Court.
