Amnesty International is calling for the release of four Iranians who were sentenced to prison for “practicing their Christian Faith.”

Amnesty International’s report is asking the Iranian government to “quash the convictions and sentences of Victor Bet-Tamraz, Shamiram Isavi, Amin Afshar-Naderi, and Hadi Asgari, as they have been targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedoms of religion and belief, expression, and association, through their Christian faith.”

The prisoners are out on bail and awaiting appeal decisions.

Amnesty International is asking its supporters to write letters to the government to “stop harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and imprisonment of Christians, including converts, in Iran.”

The Assyrian pastor Victor Bet-Tamraz and wife Shamiram Isavi were both arrested in 2014 during Christmas celebrations.

Victor was charged with “conducting evangelism” and “illegal house-church activities.” He was given a 10-year sentence and his appeal was heard in court in June.

His wife also appealed her own five-year prison sentence for “acting against national security and against the regime by organising small groups, attending a seminary abroad and training church leaders and pastors to act as spies.”

Representatives for Article 18, an organization that supports Christians in…

The church is not an exclusive place for “church people,” Alabama megachurch pastor Chris Hodges said.

“We’ve got to make sure the church understands what the church exists for,” the pastor of Church of the Highlands told Premier while at a Hillsong Conference last month. “We don’t exist to be a little club that we have just for us — too many people think the church is for church people.”

Hodges, who leads a congregation of over 45,000 people in Birmingham, maintained that church was never supposed to be a place just for believers.

“I personally believe the church is a place where people who don’t agree with us can come,” he said. “We’ve had to train our church people and teach them how Jesus lived his life and how He ministered to people.”

He stressed that God’s heart is with the “lost” (nonbelievers) moreso than those who have been found (are already Christians).

“[God’s] not thinking about His found kids, He’s thinking about His lost kids,” Hodges said. 

And the best way to love God is to love the people He loves. “God loves the lost,” he stressed.

When it comes to reaching out to the community with the Gospel, the…

National Football League analyst and former coach Tony Dungy says he believes God has given him a job at NBC in part so he can be a voice for Christian athletes.

He also says the media shouldn’t withhold comments that Christian athletes make about their faith.  

Dungy made the remarks to CBNNews.com while discussing a new children’s book series he co-wrote with his wife. Among them are “Austin Plays Fair” and “Maria Finds Courage.” The books teach life lessons.  

Dungy, a Hall of Fame coach who won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts, said he received some pushback after reporting, on air, comments that Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles made to him prior to the Super Bowl.

“He told me he felt that God had him on that Philadelphia Eagles team for a reason,” Dungy said. “He had been the backup quarterback, now he was starting in the Super Bowl and he felt very confident he was going to have a good game because he believed God had him there for that purpose.”

Dungy said he received some criticism for bringing religion into his reporting, although most of the comments were positive. 

“So many people wrote in and said, ‘Hey, I’m glad that you said and reported on exactly what he said and I’m glad you talked about his faith in Christ,’” Dungy said before adding: “I feel like that’s one of the reasons God has me at NBC, to be the…

Iowa College student Mollie Tibbetts was purportedly found dead last week in Poweshiek County, Iowa. Reportedly, Tibbetts, 20, went missing while on a run. Several weeks after her disappearance an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, Cristhian Rivera, admitted to killing the coed. 

Naturally the family is distraught over the loss of their beloved family member, but the Tibbetts’ are asking people not to be angry at God for her death, instead they are encouraging people to follow her example and live a positive life.

According to The Christian Post, Tibbetts’ cousin, Morgan Collum, said about Tibbetts, that she would seek the good in everyone she met.

At a mass in honor of Tibbett’s, Collum said, “Please, don’t be mad at God for taking Mollie away from us. Rather, praise God for His perfect creation in making a soul so sweet, so pure and so caring to all.”

Mollie’s older brother, Jake Tibbetts, emphasized that his sister worked tirelessly to bring people together.

Last week Rivera was charged with first-degree murder in the case and led the police to Tibbetts’ body.

Rivera claims that he panicked when she threatened to call the police since he was following Tibbetts and does not remember how he killed her. He did recall, however, that he dragged her body into a cornfield and covered her with corn stalks.

At the Mass on Sunday Rob Tibbetts, the father, said…

City Road Chapel United Methodist Church of Madison in Nashville, Tennessee recently hosted a community-wide “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” themed block party. The block party worked to recognize the art of neighborliness.  

The block party called, the Beautiful Day Neighborhood Festival, had hundreds of people attending. The Christian Post reported, that the festival came in response to a sermon series that is Mister Rogers themed called “It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Being a Good Neighbor in a Divided World.”

City Road Chapel UMC lead pastor, Rev. Jay Voorhees, told the outlet, “Our church takes seriously Christ’s call to love our neighbors, but we recognize that in our current climate neighborliness is a lost art.”

He continued, “Our church is located in a very diverse area of Nashville, with a high rate of poverty, homelessness, and youth violence, so there is sometimes a perception of a neighborhood that is struggling. However, we believed it was important to help us draw closer to our neighbors and lift up God’s beauty in our midst.”

The outlet asked Voorhees how well the church was at being good neighbors, to which he responded the results were “mixed.”

Voorhees said, “More often than not it seems like church folks think that we get to choose who our neighbors are rather than loving the actual neighbors we have. I hear from folks all the…