In central India’s Chhattisgarh state, followers of tribal religion in Bastar District recently dug up the grave of a tribal Christian buried 20 years before. They unearthed his skeleton, burned it and scattered the ashes.
The Hindu nationalist organization, widely regarded as the ideological backbone of India’s ruling party, has launched an international outreach campaign aimed at countering growing criticism over its role in religious persecution and sectarian violence. It can try to dodge, but it cannot hide the robust and verified experience of Indian Christians.
It is widely understood that Nepal has a rapidly growing Christian population. As it starts to stabilize and mature, the Church in Nepal is seeking official status and protections for their many congregations. The Nepal Christian Grand Trust now provides a pathway for official recognition, while theological, spiritual, and practical leadership development remains an urgent need.
A new federation of churches in India has been launched to help protect church assets from being taken under amended laws giving authorities new powers that will negatively affect Christian witness. But the new group is already mired in controversy, for which groups it includes and which have been excluded.
In Yemen, there are few churches left to burn, few congregations able to gather openly, and few Christian leaders who can speak publicly without endangering themselves or others. The persecution of Christians in Yemen is so complete that it has made them disappear from the world’s view.
Lord David Alton of Liverpool has called upon the U.K. government to “mean what it says” and take measures to show “strength on the world stage.” He urged the government to stop facets of the country’s international trade from depending on dictatorships that use slave labor, and to support survivors of mass atrocities—including Christians—by legally classifying those experiences as genocide in international courts.
Thanks to misuse of a law against “outraging religious feelings,” a Christian pastor in Punjab state, India still cannot return home. His church is shut.
Secret police in Kyrgyzstan have deported and banned a jailed pastor who suffered a traumatic brain injury from torture, according to rights group Forum 18.
Christian leaders in Egypt were pleased with progress of a government effort to approve the existence of churches in the country following an executive order on May 19 legalizing 191 churches and affiliated buildings.
A Muslim mob in Indonesia led by members of the Islamic extremist Islamic Jihad Front (FJI) on Sunday (May 24) stopped a church from worshiping at the congregation’s new location, sources said.
Fresh attacks linked to Islamist militants in northern Mozambique have left at least nine people dead and several churches destroyed, according to church groups and religious aid organizations monitoring the violence in Cabo Delgado province.
Ebola has been spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. A terrifying disease, it must be handled with great pastoral wisdom and care. The former Chairman of the World Evangelical Alliance's International Council provides advice to the Church, which at first may seem counter-intuitive for followers of Jesus.
