Tag Archives: Church

Nine Dead In Charleston Church Shooting

A white gunman walked into a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday night.  He sat in the prayer service for about an hour before he pulled a gun, opened fire and killed 9 people including the pastor who was also a state senator.

The gunman has been identified by the FBI as 21-year-old Dylann Roof of Lexington, South Carolina.  He was apprehended Thursday morning in Shelby, North Carolina, about three hours away from the shooting site.

“This is a situation that is unacceptable in any society and especially in our society and our city,” Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.

Officials confirmed that three men and six women were killed in the shooting.  The gunman reportedly reloaded five times during the assault.

Witnesses said that the pastor, Clementa Pinckney, tried to talk the gunman out of the attack. Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of the pastor who survived the assault.

“He just said, ‘I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country,” Johnson said.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

“The only reason that someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate,” Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley said. “It is the most dastardly act that one could possibly imagine, and we will bring that person to justice. … This is one hateful person.”

Christians In China Put Crosses Back On Churches

The atheist government of China has been removing crosses from church buildings throughout the country for the last few years.

Now, the Christians are pushing back.

A group of protestant churches are putting their crosses back on the buildings in an act of civil disobedience to the government.  Sixteen churches in the cities of Lishui and Fuyang are replacing the crosses.  In some cases, elderly church members are replacing the churches three times a day after the government comes back to take the crosses back down.

Last month, government officials said all crosses in the nation need to come down.  The move is believed to be in response to the exponential growth of the church despite the government’s efforts.

“The central goal of this campaign is to minimize Christianity and to limit its access to ordinary people,” says Bob Fu, director of ChinaAid.

“There’s an enormous struggle across China brought by the rise of worshipers that seem to really believe,” says Terence Halliday, a director of the Center for Law and Globalization in Chicago who has worked in China. “Christianity now makes up the largest single civil society grouping in China. The party sees that.”

A new survey shows that protestant Christians in the country number between 50 and 100 million with about 6 million Catholics.  The ruling party has 70 million members.

ISIS Destroys Ancient Iraqi Church

Islamic terrorists have burned down an ancient Iraqi church so they can build a mosque on the site.

Christian symbols and relics were destroyed in the church.  Terrorists posted fliers throughout Mosul saying the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephraim is going to be reopened as “mosque of the mujahideen.”

“They (ISIS) take everything from us, but they cannot take the God from our hearts, they cannot,” said Nicodemus Sharaf, archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Mosul, who’s now a refugee.

The homes and businesses of Christians in Mosul are now marked for destruction according to a report in the BBC.

The terrorists have become so extreme that Muslims in Mosul say they’ve stopped attending mosques.

“The group has even replaced the imams in the mosques with pro-IS people,” a Mosul resident named Hisham told the BBC. “Many of us have stopped going to the mosques because those attending are asked to give an oath of allegiance and we hate that.”

Hisham reported that restrictions on women are so severe that a man was beaten because his wife’s gloves did not completely cover her hands.

Karachi Christian Church Threatened By Muslims

A gang of Muslims want to seize the property of a Christian church in Karachi, Pakistan and are threatening to file false charges of blasphemy against those in the church if they do not surrender the land.

The members of the Jerusalem Church have told the International Christian Concern they are receiving death threats from a Muslim gang known for seizing property from the poor and also for various murders.

One of the church’s pastors, Ilyas Masih, said that they have been threatened since May.

“These Muslims have been pressuring the church people not to play musical instruments and asked the church leaders to stop girls from singing with boys in the church,” Masih explained. “Several times they stopped and threatened the worshipers and pastors for going into church for prayers and harassed the women in the past.”

Muslims in Pakistan routinely use false accusations of blasphemy against Christians as a way to persecute them since it’s extremely difficult for Christians to defend themselves in court.

The members of the church have vowed to die before giving up the church to the Muslim mob.

Ancient Church Found During Highway Construction

The expansion of the Jersualem-Tel Aviv highway has resulted in the discovery of an ancient church.

The workers were near a spring called Ein Naqa’a when they discovered a Byzantine-era way station and church.  Antiquities Authority estimated the find as being 1,500 years old.

“Churches like the one just discovered at the entrance to Abu Ghosh were built along the road as part of the services offered along it,” Annette Naga said. “Other churches were discovered in the past in Abu Ghosh and in Kiryat Ye’arim.”

The church’s mosaic floor was uncovered along with a series of unique items.  Shards of plaster was found that had been painted red indicating that frescoes were painted on the sites of the buildings.

A baptismal font was also found at the site.

“This road station ceased to be used at the end of the Byzantine period, although the road beside which it was built was renewed and continued to be in use until modern times,” said Nagar.

Chinese Authorities Raid Church House Gathering

Police in Heilongjiang province, China, raided a church house gathering on April 29th, and demanded those in attendance go to a government-sanctioned church.

“When we were gathering on April 29, people from the domestic security protection squad (DSPS), the local police station and the religious affairs bureau entered our building and demanded that we stop the worship service,” said a female leader, Yu, from the Home of Bodani church in the city of Yichun.

“When they entered the room, one church member was delivering a sermon. I told them that we were worshiping and that they could tell us whatever they wanted after our gathering was over. A man said no and that he wanted to talk to the person in charge.”

“Our leader is an elderly man named Dong Shiyun. He couldn’t do anything but follow the officers out of the building in order to not disturb the gathering,” Yu said. “I followed, too, and heard them say that our gathering is illegal because we don’t have a ‘site registration permit.’”

Yu said that the church has been meeting in the house for over 20 years and that the majority of the 10 worshippers inside were elderly and lived close to the house.

Xilin District Religious Affairs Bureau of Yichun and the Xilin District Public Security Bureau issued a notice stating that the church was illegal because it did not have a permit and that all religious activity had to immediately stop.

The officials said if the church continued to meet, they would be classified as a cult and further legal action would be taken against them.

Pastor Shot Outside Connecticut Church

A Connecticut Pastor, outside his church on Sunday morning placing American flags in honor of Memorial Day, was shot by an unknown assailant.

Rev. Augustus Sealy, 54, is pastor of First Church of the Nazarene in Hartford, Connecticut.  He was planting small American flags in the church yard when someone drove past in a black car and opened fire.

Police say that they received multiple 911 calls and found Rev. Sealy shot in the leg and shoulder.  The pastor’s femur was shattered and a metal rod was placed in the leg to stabilize it.

His wife Sharon told the Hartford Courant that while her husband was in a lot of pain he should make a full recovery from his wounds.

“He hasn’t lost any hope,” Sealy’s wife told NBC Connecticut. “You know, this is something that was really terrible and shouldn’t have happened and we’ve already prayed for that person who actually committed the crime.”

Rev. Eustance McDonald of Brooklyn, New York came to the church to preach at the 11 a.m. service and spoke from the book of Samuel where King David and his men had their town burned down by an enemy but did not lose heart.

“Misfortune in life comes to us all,” he said, telling the congregation that what matters most is their response. “You have to go to a place of hope.”

Rev. Henry Brown, who has been working to end gun violence in Hartford, came to the church after the incident to comfort and counsel church members.

“I am tired of people being shot,” he said. “The devil is not going to win here.”

Largest Christian Pentecost Sunday Celebration In Israel Scheduled

A group is rushing to finish an 11,600 seat arena in Jerusalem to host what could be the biggest Christian Pentecost Sunday celebration in the history of Israel.

The workers said they know the event could be huge and that “the Christians are coming.”

Empowered21 Global Congress is organizing the event that is scheduled to run through the 25th.  Spirit-led leaders from around the world are coming to the Holy City such as Teen Mania founder Ron Luce and Samuel Rodriguez, Jr. of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

William M. Wilson of Oral Roberts University, co-chair of Empowered21, called the event a “landmark.”

“This is a pivotal moment in history for the global Spirit–empowered movement,” said Wilson in a statement. “The Impartation service, which will pass the mantel of the global Spirit–empowered movement on to the next generation, is of particular significance. Our prayer is that this service will be a catalyst, igniting the hearts and minds of young people from around the globe with the fire of God’s love and power.”

“The Global Congress will be a powerful time of worship and ministry for Spirit–empowered Christians from every continent,” noted Empowered21 global co–chair George O. Wood. “We anticipate many changed lives as thousands of Spirit–empowered Christians gather together to seek God and bless the Holy Land.”

The group is moving into the event after a weekend event in Amman, Jordan which drew 1,000 Christians from 15 different nations.

Study Showing Less Christians Could Be “Good News” For Church Says Moore

The President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention says that the Pew report showing a raise in people who claim no religious affiliation could be “good news” for the church.

Russell Moore focused on the “increasing strangeness” of Christianity.

“Christianity isn’t normal anymore. It never should have been. The increasing strangeness of Christianity might be bad news for America, but it’s good news for the church. The major newspapers are telling us today that Christianity is dying, according to this new study, but what is clear from this study is exactly the opposite: while mainline traditions plummet, evangelical churches are remaining remarkably steady,” Moore said in a statement.

Moore said that people are rejecting the forms of Christianity that throw away the truth of the Scriptures to fit in with the whims of the secular society.

“The churches that are thriving are the vibrant, countercultural congregations that aren’t afraid to not be seen as normal to the surrounding culture. This report actually leaves me hopeful. The Bible Belt may fall. So be it,” he continued.

“Christianity emerged from a Roman Empire hostile to the core to the idea of a crucified and resurrected Messiah. We’ve been on the wrong side of history since Rome, and it was enough to turn the world upside down.”

Moore said in a posting on his personal blog that he sees many people refusing to call themselves Christians because of society.

“In the Bible Belt of, say, the 1940s, there were people who didn’t, for example, divorce, even though they wanted out of their marriages. In many of these cases, the motive wasn’t obedience to Jesus’ command on marriage but instead because they knew that a divorce would marginalize them from their communities. In that sense, their ‘traditional family values’ were motivated by the same thing that motivated the religious leaders who rejected Jesus—fear of being ‘put out of the synagogue,'” Moore offered.

“Secularization in America means that we have fewer incognito atheists. Those who don’t believe can say so—and still find spouses, get jobs, volunteer with the PTA, and even run for office. This is good news because the kind of ‘Christianity’ that is a means to an end—even if that end is ‘traditional family values’—is what J. Gresham Machen rightly called ‘liberalism,’ and it is an entirely different religion from the apostolic faith handed down by Jesus Christ.”

Fewer Americans Claim To Be Christians

A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows a decline in the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christians.

The survey showed the percentage of Americans who identify as Christians fell almost 8 percent, from 78.4% to 70.6%.

The survey showed that the decrease is because of millennials leaving the church.  Since 2007,  the number of millennials who say they are unaffiliated with any faith has increased 10 percentage points.  More than one-third of millennials say that they have no faith.

However, the number of those who say they have no faith does not mean there has been an increase in atheism; the poll showed only a ride from 1.5% to 3%.  A Pew researcher noted that many who said they have no faith were just choosing to not identify as religious.

“It’s not as if young people today are being raised in a way completely different from Christianity,” said Greg Smith, Pew’s associate director of religion research and the lead researcher on the new study. “But as adults they are simply dropping that part of their identity.”

Gregory Jones, senior strategist for leadership education at Duke University, cited a different survey that showed 70% of youth pastors have no theological education and said perhaps the problem is that students are not being engaged intellectually by leaders on issues that matter to them. Jones said it leaves the youth bored with church.

“If it is the case that millennials are less ‘atheists’ than they are ‘bored,’ then serious engagements with Christian social innovation, and with deep intellectual reflection (and these two things are connected), would offer promising signs of hope,” Jones said.