Lady Warsi, a Muslim who is Great Britain’s Faith and Communities Minister, told the BBC that Christianity in large parts of the Middle East and in a majority of Islamic nations is on the brink of extinction.
I’m concerned that the birthplace of Christianity, the parts of the world where Christianity first spread, is now seeing large sections of the Christian community leaving, and those that are remaining feeling persecuted,” Lady Warsi told the BBC Radio 4 Today program. “One in 10 Christians live in a minority situation and large numbers of those who live in a minority situation around the world are persecuted.”
She said that as Islamic extremist groups gain influence, they are able to convince the local population that Christians are “newcomers” to the area that should be driven out when in many cases the Christians were living in the area before the arrival of the Islamists. She also said that Christians are being made the scapegoat for problems in the Middle East created by Islamists.
She also said that violence against Christians in Pakistan is threatening to drive all Christians from that nation.
She said that violence against Christians worldwide should not just reverberate in the Christian community but in all communities.
Christian leaders in the city of Detroit are banding together in hopes of stemming the tide of violence that has broken out the last few weeks including a gun battle at a barbershop that left three people dead.
The leaders are plastering the city with “Thou shalt not kill” posters and billboards along with crafting messages for their congregations about combating violence with love.
“We all have to do what we can do, and right now we don’t have a respect in our communities for life; we don’t have a respect for many things,” Ovella Andreas, a Detroit area minister, told WWJ-TV. “But we still have to create a standard to hopefully have a consciousness about God …. because even our people have become apathetic.”
The group has worked with the city to have the 22nd day of each month declared “Stop the Violence Day” in Detroit.
“This is an emergency; this is a crisis, and we have to come together now to do what we can,” Andreas said. “I truly know if we do what we can, God will do what we cannot; but we’re not doing all that we can.”
Billy Graham turns 95 on November 7. Happy Birthday!
While age and health restricts his mobility, Graham is still doing what he’s always done since 1949, he’s preaching the Gospel.
For more than 60 years, the country preacher from humble beginnings in North Carolina has become a global evangelist and statesman for God.
In that role, he has prayed personally with presidents, kings, queens, world leaders, celebrities and filled stadiums with common folk eager to hear his inspiring message. He is celebrating his birthday with a national outreach called “My Hope America.”
Source: FOX News – FOX News: Why Billy Graham has hope for America
A Kentucky teenager who refused to wear the number 666 in a regional cross country meet lost her chance to continue to chase a state championship.
Codie Thacker took a stand for her Christian beliefs and refused to wear the number even when she was told that she would not be able to run.
“I just don’t believe that 666 should be a number that’s anywhere on your body and I did not want that number associated with me. It kind of made me sick,” Thacker told reporters.
A representative for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association spokesman said that officials were not told Thacker’s objection was for religious reasons or they would have accommodated her. However, both Thacker and her coach told reporters they explicitly told the KHSAA officials she was objecting because of her Christian faith.
“I wouldn’t have been more proud of her if she won the entire meet. She stood on her principles; she stood for what she believed in,” Thacker’s coach Gina Croley said.
A new survey shows that 76 percent of America believes in the existence of a God and 38 percent of those surveyed said they do what God tells them to do.
Most of those who believe in God are also more likely to give credit or blame for weather and disasters to God rather than some excuse like man-made global warming.
The YouGov.com survey found that born again Christians are more likely to do something because God told them. Protestants were more likely to do something than Catholics by a result of 56 percent to 39 percent.
The survey was surprising in that the difference between Republicans and Democrats was not as wide as researchers had expected. The number of Republicans who complied with what they felt God say was 42 percent compared to 40 percent for Democrats.
Thousands of American churches will be participating in Orphan Sunday this coming weekend aimed at raising awareness of children in need of finding a loving, Christian home.
However, many in the adoption movement say criticisms and actions by international governments to curb adoption numbers are hurting the movement.
Critics of Christians attempting to derail the ongoing adoption processes have used high profile incidents of adoption-related fraud and human trafficking as scare tactics. However, Judd Medefind of the Christian Alliance for Orphans who organize Orphan Sunday said that while they listen to critiques and take them to heart, their partners are eager to support a broad range of orphan-care programs.
Major Christian organizations have joined the call for Christians to adopt children in need such as Focus on the Family in 2007 and the Southern Baptist Convention in 2009.
The number of international adoptions by Americans has been falling over the last decade from 22,991 in 2004 to just 8,668 last year. However, the U.S. foster care system has around 100,000 children who need a home for Christians seeking to adopt a child domestically.
The Bible is filled with examples of the Lord coming to people in dreams to give them guidance, correction and wisdom. Now a National Football League star is telling the story of how Jesus came to him in a dream and changed his life.
Russell Wilson, star quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, tells in the new documentary “The Making of a Champion” that when he was 14, Jesus came to him in a dream.
“I had a dream that my dad passed away and that Jesus came into the room and he was basically knocking on my door, saying, ‘Hey, you need to find out more about me,’” Wilson said. “So that Sunday morning I ended up going to church and that’s when I got saved.”
Wilson talks about how he was a “bad kid” and that seeking Christ helped him to mature. He credits God for the talent that has allowed him to become a top player in the NFL.
“No one can stop what God has for you,” Wilson said.
An Alabama man born in Syria says a brain aneurysm suffered when he was a Muslim resulted in his starting on a path to accepting Christ as Lord.
Karim Shamsi-Basha grew up in Syria and were practicing Muslims. Shamsi-Basha told the Christian Post he was “very serious” and prayed five times a day. He said he would go to mosque before sunrise and fasted during Ramadan.
He moved to the U.S. when he was 18 to attend the University of Tennessee and stayed because he was not a fan of President Bashar al-Assad’s government. In 1992 he fell into a month-long coma after a brain aneurysm.
After he woke, a doctor told him that he needed to find out why he survived the aneurysm. He accepted Christ in 1996 but then faced a decade of struggles from divorce to homelessness before he fully realized his position in Christ.
Shamsi-Basha tells his life’s story in a book called “Paul and Me”. He says most of his family are still Muslim and he never told his father, who died in 2005, that he had become a Christian.
He says he’s been struggling to get his sister out of Syria since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War but U.S. officials have denied her visa.
A 10-year-old girl who finished an assignment to write about “someone she idolized” by writing about God was told by her teacher that she could not write about God.
The teacher then said the paper had to be taken home because it could not remain on school property. Continue reading →
A new study released by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity is showing the world overall is growing more religious and will likely continue in that trend for many more years.
According to the report “Christianity In Its Global Context, 1970-2010”, an almost ten percent increase in religious belief is expected by 2020. In 1970, 80 percent of the world’s population was religious, 88 percent in 2010 and is predicted to be 90 percent by 2020. Continue reading →
