Anti Christians put fire on Believer in Andhra Pradesh | ആന്ധ്രാപ്രദേശില്‍ വിശ്വാസിയെ അഗ്നിക്കിര­യാക്കി

ഹൈദരാബാദ്: ആന്ധ്രാപ്രദേശിലേ ശ്രീകക്കുളം ഗ്രാമത്തില്‍ ക്രിസ്തുവിശ്വാസിയെ ആഗ്നിക്കിരയാക്കി. 35കാരനായ ചുക്കയ്യ ആണ് ഇവിടെ ദാരുണമായ വിധത്തില്‍ സുവിശേഷവിരോധികളാല്‍ കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടത്. മന്ത്രവിദ്യകള്‍ ചെയ്തുവന്നിരുന്ന ചുക്കയ്യ ഏതാനും നാള്‍ മുമ്പ് കര്‍ത്താവിനെ സ്വീകരിക്കുകയും തുടര്‍ന്ന് തന്റെ മന്ത്രവിദ്യകള്‍ പാടെ ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തിരുന്നു. അതേ തുടര്‍ന്ന് സുവിശേഷ വിരോധികളുടെ കടുത്ത എതിര്‍പ്പിനെ നേരിടുകയായിരുന്നു അദ്ദേഹം.

ക്രിസ്ത്യാനിയായ ശേഷം ചുക്കയ്യ മന്ത്രവിദ്യകള്‍ തുടരുകയും ഗ്രാമവാസികളെ അവരുടെ ദൈവത്തില്‍നിന്ന് അകറ്റുകയും ചെയ്തുവരുന്നതായാണ് അദ്ദേഹത്തിനെതിരായ ആരോപണം. അതിനാല്‍ ചുക്കയ്യയെ തങ്ങളുടെ ദൈവത്തിന് ബലി കഴിക്കണമെന്നും എങ്കില്‍ മാത്രമേ ദേവീ -ദേവന്മാര്‍ സംപ്രീതരാവുകയുള്ളൂവെന്നുമായിരുന്നു സുവിശേഷവിരോധികള്‍ പ്രചരിപ്പിച്ചത്. വാര്‍ത്ത പൊതുജനങ്ങളേ അറിയിക്കുന്നതിനോ പോലീസിനേ വിളിക്കുന്നതിനോ സ്ഥലവാസികള്‍ക്ക് ഭീഷണിയുണ്‍ട്. ചുക്കയ്യയ്ക്ക് ഭാര്യയും 8,5,3 വയസുപ്രായമുള്ള മൂന്നു കുട്ടികളുമുണ്‍ട്.

Hindu Militants Attack Evangelicals in India and Many Injured

Hindu militants twice attacked evangelical Christians in India's southern state of Karnataka, injuring several believers, including women and children, Christians told Worthy News.

In the bloodiest incident, on Christmas Day, an angry Hindu mob of 20 persons raided a home where several believers gathered for dinner, including pastor Suresh of the local New Life Church congregation in Surathkal town, and his family, local residents added.

Christians said Hindu's entered the house of Adiveppa Kashennavar armed with big stones, sticks and clubs, shouting abusive slogans. They were assaulting all of them, including women and children, hitting them and causing severe injuries to their head and chest.

W.M.E Church Convention 2012 - Karyamplavu Convention 2012

63rd W.M.E church convention will be held in Karyamplavu, Kerala from 2nd Jan 2012 to 9th Jan 2012.

Pastor O.M Rajukutty, the General president of W.M.E Church will inaugurate the convention on 2nd Jan 2012

Bethlehem at Christmas,Vincent Nichols remembers

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has offered his prayers for Palestinians who face losing their land in the New Year.

The parish of Beit Jala is taking legal action in a bid to stop Israeli authorities expropriating their land.

In his homily at Midnight Mass, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said more than 50 families face losing their land and their homes on the land, which lies in the path of the separation wall.

“We are to be freshly attentive to the needs of those who, like Jesus himself, are displaced and in discomfort,” he said.

“We are to see more clearly all those things which disfigure our world, the presence of the sins of greed and arrogance, of self-centred ambition and manipulation of others, of the brutal lack of respect for human life in all its vulnerability.”

International’s list of predicted hotspots for persecution in 2012

There are no surprises in Release International’s list of predicted hotspots for persecution in 2012. If anything, the organisation fears the plight of Christians around the world may get worse.

The organisation has received reports from partners that Christians are coming under increasing suspicion in North Korea. Practising Christianity is banned in the closed-off communist country and anyone caught with a Bible faces torture, imprisonment and possibly death.

It is monitoring events closely following the death of dictator Kim Jong-il but there is little optimism that the change of leadership to Kim Jong-un will ease their plight.

In China, authorities are considering legalising the detention of people considered a threat to national security, a move that would put lawyers and Christian human rights campaigners at risk.

Iran : Sunday school children detained

Children were among a group of Christians reportedly rounded up by the Iranian authorities when they raided a church just before Christmas.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has received reports that the authorities barged in as Christmas celebrations were being held at a church in Ahwaz affiliated to Assemblies of God.

According to sources, authorities detained everyone in the building, including children attending the Sunday school.

They were put on two buses and the majority interrogated and threatened before eventually being released.

Christian Kitsch : Jesus Saves, But Does He Shave?

Show your electronics that Jesus saves and ring in the New Year with a piece of Jesus toast; freshen your breath with one of the famous Testa-Mints (found in your nearest Christian bookstore) before slapping on your Jesus Save sandals to go buy a bobblehead football Jesus.

Are these items harmless, or humorless and offensive? Christian kitsch is becoming a mainstream commodity, making waves in Christian retail on Internet sites featuring odd items.

“There are some disconcerting side effects to watch out for in the world of Christian advertising,” noted James Beverley, in an interview with The Christian Post. “Any promotion that uses Gospel symbols to sell non-spiritual products increases the chances of non-Christians thinking that all Christians are interested in is money.

“There is also the danger of cheapening the value of Christian symbols by direct connection with various products of modern capitalism,” said Beverley, professor of Christian thought and ethics at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada.

Secret Guarantee to Success in 2012

Those looking for success in 2012 may first need to redefine what it means to be successful,suggests a Tennessee pastor.

Success from the standpoint of human success is entirely different from what God has planned for our lives, says church strategy consultant Ron Edmondson, who is a co-founding pastor at Grace Community Church in Clarksville.

Edmondson told The Christian Post that success is guaranteed for a person if one shifts from desiring their own will to God’s will in their life.

“You have to define success before you can measure whether you have achieved it or not,” Edmondson said. “For me, success is only measured in the context of God’s will.”

Muslim Police Join Students in Demolishing Church in Ethiopia

 More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church in the village of Qoto Baloso, Ethiopia, on Nov. 29.

The students screamed "Allahu Akbar" as they set fire to St. Arsema Orthodox Church, which was built on land used by the Christian community for more than 60 years.

According to Inspector Mustefa Bashir of Silte Province, police had already ruined the roof after a court ruled that the church was built without a permit, but as for the razing of the church by students, we are investigating to determine those responsible.

"The actions of the Muslim police as well as the Muslim students show the growing Islamization of Ethiopia," said Jonathan Racho, ICC Regional Manager for Africa. "We urge the Ethiopian government to stop gross violations of the rights of Christian minorities in areas of the country dominated by Muslims."

This news is published in Worthy news 

Christian used "superstition" to undermine law enforcement by China

A leader in China's growing underground church movement who disappeared last month was actually in police custody.

Held on "suspicion of using superstition to undermine national law enforcement," Shi Enhaoi is one of 150 million Chinese Christians who refuse to join the Communist Party's Three-Self Patriotic Movement: the only officially sanctioned Protestant church on the mainland.

Three-Self pastors are employed by the government and preach only on topics assigned by Party officials.

As the deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance, Shi and other Christian leaders have called on the government to halt its ongoing persecution of Beijing's 1,000-member strong Shouwang House Church.

Bob Fu, head of ChinaAid, said the persecution against Shi is premeditated.

"Against the backdrop of the persecution of one of Beijings largest house churches, the Shouwang Church, this criminal detention of Pastor Shi is another sign of the increasing persecution of house churches across China," he said.

Fu called on police to release Shi and to "stop creating conflicts between church and state."

Shi first disappeared in June just after he was released from 12 days of administrative detention, but before he could return home, police took him to an undisclosed location. The next day, police raided Shi's home and removed books and other written materials.

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Govt Crackdown On Christmas Celebrations Of House Churches in China

One of China's largest house congregations planned to hold its last outdoor worship service on Christmas Day in the capital Beijing after months of detentions, while elsewhere several congregations were raided by Chinese security forces as part of a Christmas season crackdown, local Christians and activists said.

In comments, monitored by Worthy News Saturday, December 24, the Beijing-based Shouwang Church said it would for the last time publicly worship in the open air because authorities detained dozens of believers and denied access to a building the congregation already bought.

"Shouwang Church had her 37th Sunday outdoor worship service," last week, however "As Christmas is approaching, each police station puts more force in guarding and watching believers," the church explained in a statement.

"As far as we know, on Sunday morning, [December 18] at least 35 believers were taken away [by police] for going to the planned location to join the outdoor service, either at the spot or on their way there."

The church added that "Except for a few believers who were released on the way, most of the rest were sent to 15 local police stations in their respective area. Besides them, five believers waiting outside of Haidian Street police station were also taken into police station to be detained by violent policemen for no reason."

Two Christians in Iran got bail on $40,000

Two Azeri converts from Islam were both released temporarily on $40,000 bail after appearing before two separate court hearings.

Vahid Rufegar and Reza Kahnamooee were first accused of apostasy, but this charge was later dropped after they were accused of "propagating anti-government ideas against the regime and threatening the national security"; the judge ordered their release on $20,000 bail each.

In July 2011, Rufegar and Kahnamooee were traveling in Kalibar where they were stopped by agents of the Ministry of State Security of the Islamic Republic; eyewitness reports reveal that the agents began punching and kicking the two young Christians when they discovered the pair possessed Bibles.

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Raid Christmas Celebrations; Pastor, Wife Detained by Iran Security Forces

A senior evangelical pastor and his wife are spending Christmas behind bars in southern Iran after security forces raided their Assemblies of God-affiliated church, detaining everyone in the building, including children attending Sunday School, a friend of the couple told Worthy News.

"Pastor Farhad Sabokrouh and his wife Shahnaz were among those detained in the southern town of Ahwaz Friday morning, [December 23] while they were having Christmas celebrations", explained their friend, Firouz Khandjani, early Sunday, December 25.

No public churches in Afghanistan, U.S. State Department.

There aren't any public churchs left standing in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

So much for religious freedom one decade after the United States first invaded and then overthrew its Taliban regime, costing taxpayers $440 billion and incurring more than 1,700 U.S. military deaths to date.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed back in March 2010, according to the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report, which also states that there are no Christian schools left in the country.

"There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church's claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March ... (private) chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams), and at the Italian embassy."

The report also states that "Negative societal opinions and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Muslim converts to Christianity. The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom."

Today, most Christians in Afghanistan are afraid to even "state their beliefs, or gather openly to worship."

The report acknowledged that Afghanistan's new constitution -- ratified with the help of U.S. mediation in 2004 -- can be contradictory when it concerns the free exercise of religion.

While the new constitution proclaims that Islam is the "religion of the state" and that "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam," it also claims that "followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law," even though "the right to change one's religion was not respected either in law or in practice."

"Muslims who converted away from Islam risked losing their marriages, rejection from their families and villages, and loss of jobs," according to the report. "Legal aid for imprisoned converts away from Islam remains difficult due to the personal objection of Afghan lawyers to defend apostates."

More than 99 percent of the Afghan population is either Sunni, or Shia. Non-Muslim religious groups make up less than 1 percent of the population; other non-Muslim groups in the country are Sikhs, Bahais and Hindus.

This news is published in Worthy news

"Reign of Terror" continues against Christians, Police close Pentecostal churches in Karnataka, India

Following complaints from radical Hindu groups, police recently closed Pentecostal churches in the districts of Hassan and Bangalore.

"Hindu extremists with the complicity of the authorities continue their reign of terror against defenseless a Christian community," said Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians.

In Bangalore, police arrested the pastor of the Church of God Full Gospel for not having permission to conduct worship services and for alledgedly practicing so called "forced conversions". According to George, police inspector Balram Gowda "threatened the pastor in a clear fashion and ordered to close the church".

On the same day in Hassan district, Hindu extremists stormed the End Times Full Harvest Pentecostal Church, beating Pastor John Frederick D'Souza while forcefully taking Bibles from the congregation, then throwing them to the ground. When the police finally arrived, they closed the church because there were no religious practice permits in addition to more accusations of "forced conversions".

"The Pentecostal pastors were systematically beaten and threatened," said George, "dragged into police stations with false accusations, arrested and locked up, often without even the option of bail. And now, the followers of these churches have no Sunday service."

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Activits fail to stop prayer meeting in Karnataka, India

More than 30,000 Christians recently took part in a prayer meeting in Hubli, Karnataka despite efforts by pro-Hindu groups to disrupt them.

Although Hindus blocked roads with burning tires and pelted cars with stones to discourage attendance, the "Jesus Christ Festival of Blessings" was still held Nov. 25-27 at the Chelli Railway Colony ground in Hubli.

During the festival, a meeting was held between Hindu and Christian leaders who promised not to "belittle the Hindu religion nor attempt conversions, while Hindu leaders agreed to end their protests," according to Pastor Cedrik Jacob, executive secretary of the Christian Minority Association of Hubli- Dharavad that organized the festival.

"Their antics attracted more people to the prayer meeting," said Jacob. "On the first day there were around 25,000 people, on the second nearly 30,000 and on the final day more than 30,000 people were here."

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Churches Can't Be Built on Streets with Islamic Names : Indonesian Mayor

Bogor's mayor has a new reason not to allow the Yasmin church to open: the name of the street on which it is built bears an Islamic name.

Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto who continues to defy rulings from both the Supreme Court and Ombudsman Commission to open the church told Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi that a new church cant be built on a street bearing an Islamic name.

However, Muhammad Mustofa a local Muslim cleric whose father is the streets namesake -- has no objection to the church. He said differences between religions were not new and similar problems had occurred since the time of Prophet Mohammad.

Church spokesman Bona Sigalingging said Budiarto's reasoning was wrong since some churches already stand on streets with Islamic names; mosques were also built on streets with Christian names.

Sigalingging said the Yasmin church will refuse any alternative venues for its construction.

"The problem is it against the law, against the court ruling and against the recommendation of Ombudsman. It also breaches legal certainty."

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Ransack Church and Beat Clergyman by Hindu Radicals in Karnataka,India

For two consecutive Sundays, church service was disrupted in Karnataka while clergy were roughed-up and arrested on false forced conversion charges.

Rev. Sangappa Hosamani Shadrak was attacked by 20 Hindu activists while he was celebrating Sunday services in the home of a parishioner. The Hindus desecrated the eucharistic bread and wine and assaulted Shadrak, who lost a tooth; he was then taken to another village where he was left tied to a tree.

After Inspector Choudhary freed the clergyman, he took him and some parishioners to a police station from where Shadrak was sent to Jamkotai prison for detention on unspecified charges.

GCIC President Sajan K. George said that for two Sundays in a row, church service was disrupted, Pentecostal clergymen insulted and churches ransacked.

"The aggressors walk free," sad George. "Sixty-four years since independence, religious freedom does not exist in states like Karnataka, Orissa and Gujarat. This is a serious blot on secular India."

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Boys Beaten and Arrested for Converting to Christ in Karanataka, India

Christians are regularly attacked in Karnataka by Hindu nationalists, while the authorities "turn a blind eye," according to Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, concerning yet another case of abuse against so called forced conversions.

When Bhasker Naik, 20, and Hemanth Naik, 22, heard the sermons of Pastor Sadananda of the Church of Christ Fellowship, they eventually converted to Christianity. However, when the pair returned to their village, activists from Bajrang Dal -- an ultra-nationalist Hindu youth group -- began beating and insulting them, insisting they return to Hinduism. After Bhasker and Hemanth refused to deny Christ, the activists reported them to the Honnavar police for forced conversions; Inspector Venkatappa conducted a brief investigation, and then arrested them.

"From May 2008, when the BJP came to power in Karnataka," said George, "freedom of worship for the Christian community is under threat, even in private homes. Our places of worship are under constant control of fundamentalist forces, who systematically stop prayer services and beat pastors and faithful, while the police are increasingly available and hasty in arresting and imprisoning Christians. "

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A Christian accused of blasphemy died in a Pakistan Jail

A Christian accused of blasphemy died in a Pakistan prison from a treatable disease after he was denied medical care.

The autopsy indicated that Aslam Masih died from Dengue virus, but he was denied treatment by prison officials. Masih was arrested in early 2010 after two members of an Islamic missionary group falsely accused him of blasphemy; Masih was initially released on lack of evidence, but was later re-arrested after pressure from local Muslims.

In Pakistan, many Christians accused of blasphemy have either been killed in jail, or in court.

On March 15, Pakistani officials reported that Qamar David died of a heart attack, but his lawyer claimed he was was murdered. On September 20, 2009, Falish Masih was found dead inside his prison cell; despite severe wounds over his body, Pakistani police claimed Falish committed suicide, and on July 19, 2010, Muslims shot and killed Rashid and Sajjid Emmanuel outside a court house in Faisalabad.

"I condemn the prison authorities for not providing medical treatment to Aslam Masih and urge Punjab government to constitute (an) inquiry committee to investigate (the) death of Aslam Masih," said Dr. Nazir Bhatti, president of the Pakistan Christian Congress. "The death of Aslam Masih in jail has raised questions of safety and security for the life of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother sentenced to death and in jail waiting for her appeal to be heard in Lahore High Court."

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