IRAN: CHRISTIAN COUPLE FLEES

After spending eight months in prison with no formal charges, two Iranian Christians fled Iran upon receiving threats from the Ministry of State Security. They now await resettlement in another country by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Arash Kermajani, 29, and his 26-year-old wife, Arezoo Teymouri, were detained while visiting Pastor Vahik Abrahamian and Sonia Keshish Avanesian in Hamedan in September 2010. The secret police burst in while the four Christians were watching a film. The couple was eventually transferred to a secret prison and separated, spending part of their time in solitary confinement.

‘NIGERIAN TALIBAN’ BOMBINGS KILL DOZENS IN CHRISTMAS DAY CHURCH ATTACKS

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital Sunday, killing at least 25 people there, officials said. A radical Muslim sect claimed the attack and another bombing near a church in the restive city of Jos, as explosions also struck the nation’s northeast.

The Christmas Day attacks show the growing national ambition of the sect known as Boko Haram — dubbed the “Nigerian Taliban” — which is responsible for at least 495 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. The assaults come a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded.

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How can we remain silent while Christians are being persecuted?

A new evil is sweeping the Middle East and the Foreign Office is failing to confront it.

 Egyptian Coptic Christians protest against violence: 25 were killed in October Photo: EPA/KHALED ELFIQI

By Fraser Nelson

Father Immanuel Dabaghian, one of Baghdad’s last surviving priests, is expecting a quiet Christmas. To join him in the Church of the Virgin Mary means two hours of security checks and a body search at the door, and even then there’s no guarantee of survival. Islamist gunmen massacred 58 people in a nearby church last year, and fresh graffiti warns remaining worshippers that they could be next.

The Americans have gone now, and Iraq’s Christian communities – some of the world’s oldest – are undergoing an exodus on a biblical scale.

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Bible Bans, Keeping "Christ" in Christmas

Christianity's Triumph

By Alan Caruba, BQI Contributor

“By far the most important event in the entire rise of Christianity was the meeting in Jerusalem in around the year 50, when Paul was granted the authority to convert Gentiles without them also becoming observant Jews.”

So wrote Rodney Stark, the Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. His most recent book is “The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion” ($27.99, HarperCollins).

Christ-mas, Mr. President: An Open Letter to President Obama

BQI Editor’s Note

To my family and friends who, in 2008 refused to heed my warnings, now with over three years of Obama actions in place, I hope that you will reconsider your support for the man who, not only lied and deceived so many into thinking that he was a Christian and follower of Jesus Christ, but who also lied about his true intentions for how he would govern as President.

Below is a heartfelt letter from Pastor Michael Youssef to President Obama on his anti Christian Administration.

  

Dear Mr. Obama,

From the time you declared your candidacy for president of the United States and announced under your breath that you are a Christian, many true, Bible-believing Christians immediately had doubts about your muffled profession of faith. After all, for 20 years you drank deeply from the well of Rev. Jeremiah Wright — who, in spite of the clerical garb he wears, preaches a Universalist gospel. It is not the true gospel that Jesus proclaimed, which clearly states that He and He alone is the only way to heaven and the Father. That claim was for all people of the earth.

The Gospel According To (Reverend Jeremiah) Wright

Christianity Under Attack (CUA) Editor’s Note:

Obama continues to assert his claim and commitment to the Christian faith. Just last week, after more than two years, Obama decided to attend church. Now, do not get me wrong, Church attendance is not necessarily a litmus test to one’s faith although if a person is nurturing his or her faith in order to grow, being able to fellowship with other Christians is important and effective.

Obama has offered any number of reasons for not attending church up to and including not wanting to be a disruptive force to the church proceedings. Perhaps there is another reason for Obama’s absence from church. Could it be that living in the D.C. area means that he does not have access to another church like his old church in Chicago, Reverend Wright’s church?

When Will Discrimination Against Christians be Banned?

 by Benjamin Bull

On Dec. 6, the White House released a memorandum instructing the heads of U.S. executive departments and agencies abroad to join in the “struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons” around the world.

In the memorandum, President Barack Obama expressed his concern over a broad swatch of matters in this arena, from “laws that criminalize LGBT status” to “beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women, and children for their perceived sexual orientation.” At the same time, the president also said, “Under my Administration, agencies engaged abroad have already begun taking action to promote the fundamental human rights of LGBT persons everywhere.”

Arab Spring Begins Weeding Out Christians

Arab Spring Begins Weeding Out Christians

  

Islamic factions jockeying for position from out of the ashes of the Arab Spring are posing an increased threat to Middle East Christians, an international human rights group contends.

The British group Barnabas Aid says that Christians in Iran and Azerbaijan are coming under increased pressure from their governments. 

Barack Obama’s White House Jesus

by Ulsterman on December 12, 2011 

In the last month Barack Obama, who has spent nearly three years as president purposely removing the name and concept of Jesus Christ from his administration, appears to have ”found religion” in the wake of falling poll numbers and a quickly approaching 2012 election.

Persecuted Christian? Don't expect these pastors to speak up

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FAITH UNDER FIRE

CUT Editor's Comment

To help understand how President Obama was elected President in 2008, look no further than the Christian church and the American media. Little was known about candidate Obama but there was enough background information on Obama that could have predicted what he would do if he became president. Because the American media and most churches chose not to vet Obama and then inform the public we now have a President that has set the country on a direct path towards socialism. As we approach the 2012 election the church and the media are once again complicit in not providing America with TRUTH. While the liberal media is determined to save face in 2012 American pastors continue to seem more concerned about increasing the size of their congregations and financial resources than preaching Truth; the Truth that will enable their flock to behave in a manner more consistent with God's word.

The world is at a crisis yet preachers choose not to inform their flock. God said that those who mislead his people will someday be held accountable. 

   

Half don't plan to mention martyrs – but 3 in 4 members say they want to know

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Posted: November 05, 2011

By Michael Carl
WorldNetDaily

About half of all the pastors in America's churches todaydo not want to tell their congregations that there are forces in the world that persecute Christians for their beliefs, because it's a "downer," according to the results of a startling new poll.

The Barna Research Associates survey, commissioned by Open Doors USA, says a significant majority of American Christians, some three out of four, want to hear about the persecuted church.

But the same study showed that 52 percent of America's pastors don't want to talk about persecution and have no plans to talk about it.

GAY CLUB’S CONDOM-DECORATED ‘CHRISTMAS’ TREE CAUSES OUTRAGE AT PENN. COLLEGE

CUT Editor’s Note

For years now Christianity, and especially Christmas, has been under a relentless attack by the left in this country and around the world. In the article below we find yet another example of the so called liberal enlightened left using the Constitution as a tool to insult those of another faith or belief.

Gays at a college in Pennsylvania are proud to exercise their constitutional rights of free speech by using condoms to decorate a Christmas tree, a symbol synonymous with the Christian faith. These stalwarts of strength and moral conviction are more than willing to show their disdain for a religion that actually lives by the peace that they preach. I wonder when these Gay groups will show equal disdain for a religion, Islam, that actually puts to death those who engage in homosexual acts. The hypocrisy of these actions towards Christianity is surpassed only by the immoral acts that they seek to legitimize.

     

Students at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, are reportedly coming together to protest against a Christmas tree on campus that has been adorned with condoms. The tree, which was put up by the college’s Gay Straight Alliance, was assembled to raise awareness about HIV-AIDS.

The Blaze  

EGYPTIAN COPTIC CHRISTIAN AND ‘FOURTH-CLASS CITIZEN’ DESCRIBES SAVAGE MASSACRE DURING CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

 “I‘m a woman and I’m a Copt. I’m a fourth-class citizen in Egypt.”

That was among the many chilling revelations put forth in a testimony to Congress this week by Egyptian political activist Cynthia Farahat. The Coptic Christian and co-founder of the Liberal Egyptian Party, testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the House of Representatives, reliving the horrors of the massacre at Maspero and sharing her experience on the worsening plight of Christians under sharia law in Egypt.

For Arab Christians, a wintry 'spring'

Even more ominous are the prospects for the Arab world's Christians, who have been undergoing not a springtime of toleration but an increasingly frightful winter of suffering and persecution. Since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's Coptic minority has been repeatedly victimized – churches have been destroyed, homes have been vandalized, and jihadist mobs have rampaged through Christian neighborhoods. In October, Egyptian troops in Cairo's Maspero district slaughtered Christians as they protested the burning of churches in Upper Egypt. 

TESTING THE FAITH Christian church teams up with high priestess of Isis

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Famous denomination welcoming paganism with guided meditations

A Protestant church in California is coming under fire from some Christians over its upcoming conference featuring "guidedmeditations" by a high priestess of the pagan fertility goddess Isis.

The fifth annual "Faith and Feminism Conference" taking place Nov. 11–13 is being hosted by the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco, which bills itself as "herchurch."

Among the scheduled participants is Loreon Vigne, high priestess ofIsis Oasis – a temple, retreat and animal sanctuary Vigne founded in 1978 in Geyserville, Calif.

"I personally see Isis as Mother Nature," Vigne told WND, "and that she encompasses everything with her wings. She's a winged goddess. She encompasses any other goddess from any culture."

By Joe Kovacs
Continue reading @ 2011 WND

A Laboratory for Christianity’s Destruction

A church that lacks the doctrinal conviction and courage necessary to prosecute an atheist pastor for heresy is a church that lost its Christian identity — a long time ago.

As the BBC reports, some church leaders in the Netherlands want to transform their small nation into a laboratory for rethinking Christianity — “experimenting with radical new ways of understanding the faith.”

Religious Affairs Correspondent Robert Pigott tells of Rev. Klaas Hendrikse, a minister of the PKN, the mainstream Protestant denomination in the Netherlands. Pastor Hendrikse doesn’t believe in life after death, nor even in God as a supernatural being. He told the BBC that he has “no talent” for believing historic and orthodox doctrines. “God is not a being at all,” he says, but just an experience.

What would Jesus think? Churches now promote Islam.

'Spiritual treason' seen as 'something hostile to Jesus Christ himself'

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Dozens of Christian churches, from Park Hill Congregational in Denver to Hillview United Methodist in Boise, Idaho, and First United Lutheran in San Francisco to St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Honolulu, are planning to send "a message both here at home and to the Arab and Muslim world about our respect for Islam" with a time to read the Quran during worship this Sunday.

It's not just wrong, but dangerous, according to Christian trends analysts.

Posted:  2011

By Michael Carl
 2011 WND

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Christianity under attack by Obama administration

CUA Editor’s Note

 This is an old story but we decided to publish it because it is one of many examples of how our government is  on the attack toward Christianity. Many governments, individuals, for profit and not for profit organizations have hidden or exposed agenda against Christianity specifically and religion generally.

A veterans group from Texas is speaking out after filing claims that the Department of Veterans Affairs is preventing them from saying the words “God” or “Jesus” during funeral ceremonies at the Houston National Cemetery. Gretchen spoke to Marilyn Koepp, secretary of the National Memorial Ladies, a volunteer group whose aim is to attend every soldier’s funeral at that cemetery.

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IS CHRISTIANITY UNDER ATTACK?

CUA Editor’s Note

It seems only natural that we have as one of our inaugural articles a discussion on whether Christianity is actually under attack. While the answer to the question seems rather apparent, given the wealth of facts even worldwide, it does help to have a succinct analysis and discussion on the issue. We believe that the following article provides such an analysis.

  

By Leonard Hitchcock

Why would someone insist that an act of petty vandalism involving a nativity scene was actually a hate crime against Christians, even though the police found no evidence that that was the case?  Why would local citizens assert that an effort to discontinue prayer at meetings of the city council is aimed at depriving them of their freedom of worship?  Why do so many people still grumble about the loss of prayer in schools, and express irritation at the mention of “multiculturalism?”  The explanation, I think, is that those on the religious right are persuaded that nonbelievers are bent upon destroying, or at least marginalizing, Christianity.  That narrative is so compelling and abhorrent to them that they respond to even minimally relevant incidents with exaggerated fear, anger and indignation.

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'Chrislam' - A Spirit of Antichrist

I want to address what is beginning to occur in the Church and why it must be rejected outright. It's becoming increasingly 'in vogue' to accept Islam in the Church. Consider a June 24, 2011 article from World Net Daily."Dozens of churches, from Park Hill Congregational in Denver to Hillview United Methodist in Boise, Idaho, and First United Lutheran in San Francisco to St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Honolulu, are planning to send 'a message both here at home and to the Arab and Muslim world about our respect for Islam' with a time to read the Quran during worship this Sunday." It has been labeled 'Chrislam', the attempt by some Christians to find common ground with Islam. One person said it was wrong. Another called it dangerous. God uses stronger words than that. Scripture itself declares 'Chrislam', the mixing of Christianity and Islam, to be a Spirit of Antichrist!

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Van Impe leaves TBN over ‘Chrislam’ remarks

Christianity Under Attack (CUA) Editor's Note: The rise of Chrislam is, perhaps, one of the most dangerous threats posed today on the Church and the Christian faith. CUA will be providing significant reporting on this new movement within the  Church.    

posted by Beliefnet News Editor June 20, 2011

By ADELLE M. BANKS
c. 2011 Religion News Service

(RNS) Jack Van Impe, a popular End Times broadcaster, has ended his decades-long run on Trinity Broadcasting Network after a dispute over naming ministers that he accuses of mixing Christian and Muslim beliefs.

Earlier this month, Van Impe named California megachurch founders Rick Warren and Robert H. Schuller as proponents of “Chrislam,” which he defined as “a uniting of Christianity with Islam.” TBN pulled the episode before a repeat broadcast could air.

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‘BLASPHEMY’: CHRISTIAN GROUPS BLAST JOHNNY DEPP FOR HIS ROLE IN ‘JESUS STAG NIGHT CLUB’ SONG

Johnny Depp, the actor known for taking on epic movie roles, is reportedly getting slammed by the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family for his involvement in a controversial new song by the British band Babybird called “Jesus Stag Night Club.” Depp, who has apparently helped to finance the group’s comeback, offers his vocals on the tune.

The Blaze

KENTUCKY CHURCH BANS INTERRACIAL COUPLES FROM BECOMING MEMBERS & LEADING WORSHIP

A small Kentucky church finds itself at the epicenter of a battle over racism and the gospel. Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, a small, 40-person congregation located in Pike County, Kentucky, is catching widespread grief over its recent decision to target interracial couples. The church has decided to forbid these couples from partaking in worship activities and will not allow them to become members.

From The Blaze