Thanksgiving Place for Pastor Saeed Abedini Set up in Front of White House

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Thanksgiving Place for Pastor Saeed Abedini Set up in Front of White House

The Christian Defense Coalition and Church on the Hill have announced that they’ll be setting up a Thanksgiving place for American pastor Saeed Abedini in front of the White House on Thanksgiving morning, reminding President Barack Obama about the imprisoned husband and father.

“While Americans enjoy the blessings of spending Thanksgiving Day with family and friends, it is important to remember that millions around the world are being brutalized, persecuted and attacked for their Christian faith. Thousands are in prison,” Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said in a statement.
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“Pastor Saeed will not be able to spend this special day with his wife and two young children but instead will be spending it in a cramped prison facing constant violence and persecution,” he continued.

Mahoney reminded Christians that they can never be silent on issues concerning human rights and religious freedom.

“Leaving a Thanksgiving place setting is a powerful way for Americans to stand in solidarity with the persecuted church around the world and teach their families about the important issues of human rights and religious freedom,” Mahoney said.

“We will also be reminding President Obama that while he celebrates Thanksgiving with his wife and two children, pastor Saeed will be spending Thanksgiving in a brutal Iranian prison separated from his wife and two precious children…Read More

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

Foundation Working to Change Christian Perception on Genesis, Adam and Eve

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Foundation Working to Change Christian Perception on Genesis, Adam and Eve

Just a five-minute stroll from the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., sits the brown brick building that is home since last year to BioLogos, a foundation pushing churches and believers to embrace evolution, and in the process change how they read the Bible.

The brainchild of Francis Collins, who now heads the National Institutes of Health, BioLogos has taken in nearly $9 million from the Templeton Foundation and millions more from other donors. BioLogos in turn offers grants to church, parachurch, and academic leaders and organizations that promote “evolutionary creation.”

BioLogos president Deb Haarsma, former chair of Calvin’s physics and astronomy department, says churches that support evolution will be more effective witnesses in a culture that reveres science, and will help college students avoid a crisis of faith when biology professors argue for evolution. The BioLogos website states, “Genetic evidence shows that humans descended from a group of several thousand individuals who lived about 150,000 years ago.”

But Stephen Meyer, a Discovery Institute leader of the intelligent design movement, told WORLD BioLogos leaders are using “an unsubstantiated and controversial claim to urge pastors and theologians to jettison a straightforward reading of Genesis about the human race arising from one man and one woman. They think ‘the science’ requires such a reinterpretation, but apart from speculative models that make numerous question-begging assumptions, the science does no such thing.”

The BioLogos website gives three options regarding the existence of Adam and Eve: “One option is to view Adam and Eve as a historical pair living among many 10,000 years ago, chosen to represent the rest of humanity before God. Another option is to view Genesis 2-4 as an allegory in which Adam and Eve symbolize the large group of ancestors who lived 150,000 years ago. Yet another option is to view Genesis 2-4 as an ‘everyman’ story, a parable of each person’s individual rejection of God.”

BioLogos is now spending $3.6 million (primary funder: Templeton) on 37 projects in the United States and around the world, with grants ranging from $23,000 to $300,000. According to the BioLogos website, funds go to “projects that explore consonance between evolution and Christian faith.” Projects must not “reject the conclusions of mainstream science (e.g. old earth, common descent, etc.).” The requirement is not so stringent on the other side of the spectrum: Proposals cannot reject, but they can “helpfully inform … historic, creedal Christianity (e.g. historical Resurrection, high view of Scripture, etc…Read More

Source and Original Content by Christian Headlines

Archbishop Pleads: Reject Violence Amidst Ferguson Unrest

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Archbishop Pleads: Reject Violence Amidst Ferguson Unrest

The Archbishop of St Louis, Missouri, has called on protesters and angry locals not to “lash out” in violence as unrest engulfed the city of Ferguson last night.

Archbishop Robert Carlson was speaking at a prayer service at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta church in Ferguson after a grand jury ruling sparked rioting.

The grand jury had decided that a police officer who shot dead an unarmed black teenager in August would not face criminal charges.

The archbishop, speaking as protesters burned and looted shops and clashed with police, said: “I implore each of you: Choose peace!

“Reject any false and empty hope that violence will solve problems. Violence only creates more violence. Let’s work for a better, stronger, more holy community – one founded upon respect for each other, respect for life, and our shared responsibility for the common good.”

“I know that many feel hurt, betrayed, forgotten and powerless,” Archbishop Carlson said. “I know anger, disappointment, resentment and fear abound in our community at this moment, but we must accept this decision as the proper functioning of our justice system. … We all want justice, so we should respect the integrity of our system of justice as something that aims for the common good. This grand jury decision is not an excuse for more violence.

“Now is the time to channel emotions in a way that helps build up our community, to become more active in your church or religious community, to volunteer at a food pantry or community service organisation, to take part in political activity, to mentor a young person.

“Whatever you do, do not lash out with violence at your brothers and sisters. Do not seek to destroy or divide. Instead, we must come together as a community through prayer, mutual understanding, and forgiveness if we are to obtain peace. Rather than fuel the fires of hatred and division, we should strive for peace in our own hearts and share it with those around us. Violence does not lead to peace; they are opposing forces and cannot co-exist.”

Archbishop Carlson urged the faithful: “Pray unceasingly for peace. Pray for our leaders and pray for your neighbours. If you feel called to act, do so only after prayer.”

He added: “Long-term solutions will ultimately come about when we are quick to apologize for our faults, and quick to forgive the faults of others,” said Archbishop Carlson.

“Both families need prayers now more than ever,” he said. “With profound hope in the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the intercession of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, I ask all the faithful in the Archdiocese of St Louis as well as all people of faith to join me in praying for peace and justice in our community.”

Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald

Pope Francis says Talks with Islamic State would ‘never close ’

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Pope Francis says Talks with Islamic State would ‘never close ’

Pope Francis has said he would “never close the door” on dialogue with the Islamic State in an effort to bring peace to a region of the world suffering from violence and persecution.

He also said that “terrorism” could describe not only the actions of such extremist groups but also those of some national governments using military force unilaterally.

Meeting reporters on his return flight from Strasbourg where he addressed the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, Pope Francis said terrorism was a threat the world must take seriously.

Specifically asked if he thought there was even the most remote possibility of negotiating with terrorists like those from the Islamic State, Pope Francis said, “I never count anything as lost. Never. Never close the door. It’s difficult, you could say almost impossible, but the door is always open.”

But Pope Francis also told journalists that the threat of terrorism was not the only horror weighing on the world.

“Slavery is a reality inserted in the social fabric today, and has been for some time: slave labour, the trafficking of persons, the sale of children – it’s a drama. Let’s not close our eyes to this. Slavery is a reality today, the exploitation of persons,” he explained.

“But there is another threat, too,” he said, the threat of “state terrorism,” when tensions rise and an individual nation decides on its own to strike, feeling it has “the right to massacre terrorists and with the terrorists many innocent people fall.”

Nations have a right and duty to stop “unjust aggressors,” he said, but they must act in concert and in accordance with international law.

A Spanish reporter asked Pope Francis about a man from Granada, Spain, who wrote to the Pope about a priest who sexually abused him. The correspondence set off a widespread police investigation, the arrest of three priests and a lay man, and the suspension of several priests by the Archdiocese of Granada in November.

The Pope said he received the letter. “I read it and I phoned the person and I told him: ‘Go to the bishop tomorrow’, and I wrote to the bishop and told him to get to work, conduct an investigation,” he said.

Pope Francis said he had read the letter “with great pain, the greatest pain, but the truth is the truth and we must not hide it”.

Another journalist asked the Pope about his remarks at the Council of Europe that in audiences at the Vatican he had noticed differences between young politicians and their older peers. “They speak with a different music,” the Pope told reporters. No matter what countries or which political parties they belong, the young seem “to not have fear of going out of their own group to dialogue. They are courageous. And we must imitate this.”

“This going out in order to find and dialogue with others – Europe needs this today,” he added.

Another reporter told the Pope that his remarks at the European Parliament on employment, the dignity of human life and the role of the state in helping citizens made it seem like the Pope could be a card-carrying member of the Social Democrat Party.

“I don’t want to label myself on one side or another,” the Pope said, adding that, besides, “this is the Gospel”.

While many reporters and pundits have tried to pigeonhole the Pope’s politics, he said: “I have never distanced myself from the social teaching of the Church.

Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald

Ferguson Update: Churches Serving as Safe Havens, Christians Asked to Respond by Promoting Prayer and Peace

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Ferguson Update: Churches Serving as Safe Havens, Christians Asked to Respond by Promoting Prayer and Peace

Local churches in Ferguson, Missouri are serving as safe havens for the community in the midst of turmoil and one local pastor is calling on Christians to promote peace and healing.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is among several local ministries that have opened their doors to the public in the wake of civil unrest and Rector Rev. Steven Lawler called for compassion and lots of prayer.

On Monday, a St. Louis grand jury in the Michael Brown case announced that it would not indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson over the shooting death of the-late teen.

Lawler’s church has been a safe haven for local school children amid growing “fear and frustration.” On Tuesday an estimated 50 children came.

“We are a safe haven for children who are out of school because the schools closed yesterday. We have some teachers here and some food and we’ve been responding to families who have their kids with them today because schools were closed,” Lawler told The Christian Post. “We partnered with some other churches. [The] concern is to be here for kids and families, so we wanted to be a place of hospitality and we certainly have people here praying but this was a way for us to work with the community to provide a safe place for kids.”

Since the Aug. 9 shooting death of Brown, protesters have taken to the streets daily demanding justice in the form of Wilson’s arrest.

Shortly after news of the grand jury announcement broke, activists across the nation launched demonstrations protesting the outcome. According to reports, some looters smashed windows out of police cars as well as several businesses before setting them ablaze which has left local residents in fear…Read More

Photo: : Reuters/Jim Young
Photo: : Reuters/Jim Young

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

School District Approves Student’s Proposal to Start Christian Club

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School District Approves Student’s Proposal to Start Christian Club

A New York school district has decided to approve a student’s proposal to start a Christian club at her high school called “Dare to Believe” after she was initially told that her student organization would be a possible violation of the U.S. constitution.

In September, student Liz Loverde met with Wantagh Principal Carolyn Breivogel about the possibility of starting a Christian club called Dare to Believe. Reportedly, Breivogel rejected the student club idea under the assumption that having a Christian student organization recognized would violate the U.S. Constitution.

In response to the rejection from Wantagh High School of the Wantagh Union Free School District, Loverde and her family contacted the Plano, Texas-based Liberty Institute, which sent a letter to the principal last Monday, as well as to other school district officials alerting them that they were violating the Equal Access Act of 1984 for denying her request.

Subsequently, the district’s board of education decided to approve seven student clubs last Thursday, including the Christian group Dare to Believe.

Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with Liberty Institute, said in a statement released Monday that he was “glad” that Wantagh officials will now recognize the Christian student group.

“It took a lot of courage for a 15-year-old girl to come forward to reveal that her principal said Christian clubs are illegal,” said Dys. “It is always a scary position for students to take a stand against government school authorities who hold significant power over their everyday lives. We look forward to Wantagh High School respecting Liz’s religious liberty at school.”

After her request to start a Christian club was reportedly rejected, lawyers with the Liberty Institute sent a letter to Wantagh officials arguing that the school district was violating the Equal Access Act of 1984.

“The school officially recognizes more than 30 student groups, including a wide variety of noncurriculum related student groups such as the Wantagh Animal Rights & Recycling Club, the Rube Goldberg Club, the Key Club, and Variation Club,” read the letter, in part.

“These student organizations enjoy not only the use of space within the school for meetings but also other access that is only available to officially recognized student groups…Read More

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

Bangladesh Pastors Face Charges for Proclaiming Christ to Muslims

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Bangladesh Pastors Face Charges for Proclaiming Christ to Muslims

Two pastors in northwestern Bangladesh could face two years in prison if convicted for “hurting religious sentiments.”

Police on Nov. 9 arrested the pastors and 41 people listening to proclamation of Christ at a rented house in Nabinagar village in Lalmonirhat District, 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Dhaka, after at least 100 Muslims disrupted the meeting and began “jabbing” at the church leaders’ faces, sources said.

The 41 people who were detained along with their children were released that night; the pastors of Faith Bible Church of God were not released on bail until Nov. 17, charged with “hurting religious sentiments” and luring Muslims to convert by offering money. The church leaders deny both charges.

“We did not tell anything to anyone that might hurt religious sensibility,” one of the released pastors, Arif Mondol, told Morning Star News. “We did not offer any money to anyone to be converted to Christianity.”

An area source told Morning Star News on condition of anonymity that the incident caused a sweeping furor among local Muslims.

“More than 100 Muslims headed by local Jamaat-e-Islami party members and Muslim clerics gathered at the house and started barking questions at the pastors – why did they propagate Christianity in the locality and convert some of them,” the source said.

The Islamist leaders asked the pastors who had given them permission to spread Christianity in the area.

“The pastors replied that it did not take any permission from any authority to propagate any religion and convert people to any religion,” the source said. “Suddenly the Muslims became apoplectic with rage, tried to pick a fight and started jabbing the pastors’ faces.”

Police arrived and detained all 41 people, along with their children, and the two pastors, and took them to the Lalmonirhat police station at noon.

Local imams filed a case against the pastors the following day. Police told Morning Star News they were investigating…Read More

Source and Original Content by Christian Headlines

Christian Man Tortured and Killed by Police in Pakistan

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Christian Man Tortured and Killed by Police in Pakistan

A 35-year-old Christian man was reportedly tortured and killed by police while in custody in Lahore, Pakistan. His family attempted to storm the policy station in protest, while an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Fides News Agency reported that the family of Rakha Shahzad is demanding justice for the slain man, which has prompted an investigation by authorities. The agents involved in the incident have claimed that the Christian, who was allegedly arrested because of selling drugs and alcohol, died because of a “heart attack” during the investigation. The brother of the diseased has claimed, however, that Shahzad “was arrested for no reason.”

An autopsy will be carried out on the man’s body to determine the cause of death.

Fr. Francis Nadeem, provincial of the Capuchins in Pakistan, said that the Christian community in Pakistan has once again been left bewildered “due to the umpteenth extrajudicial killing.”

Christian lawyer Mushtaq Gill, who has been involved in a number of cases defending Christians from Pakistan’s strict blaspheme laws, added, “The whole world is still deeply shocked and outraged for the lynching of the Christian couple in Kasur, but violence continues: it is urgent to repeal laws that are routinely used to persecute Christians and ensure justice and legality, starting with the work and the behavior of the police and public officials.”

The Christian couple, 28-year-old Shahzad Masih and 25-year-old Shama Bibi, were killed and burned by a mob of Muslims earlier in November, allegedly for desecrating a copy of the Quran.

The grisly murder led to the arrest of at least 44 people, and Pakistani authorities have said that they will bring those responsible to justice.

The murder of the couple was condemned by persecution watchdog groups, including the International Christian Concern.

“The brutal killing of Shahzad and Shama once again highlights the extreme danger of religious fanaticism that Christians in Pakistan face on a regular basis. The accusation of blasphemy can be used for any dispute and can often prove deadly as it did today, inciting a mob to brutally murder this young couple,” ICC Regional Manager Todd Daniels said in a statement.

Christians and other religious minorities regularly face hostilities for their faith, and are often targeted by the blasphemy laws.

A report by NGO network Awaz-e-Haq Itehad two weeks ago noted that 182 Christians have faced blasphemy charges in Pakistan between 1987 and October 2014, which often carry life in prison or the death penalty as punishment.

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

You Version Bible App for Kids Going Strong

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You Version Bible App for Kids Going Strong

The most popular book of all time may be celebrating a bit of a renaissance.

Thanksgiving Day marks the first anniversary of the Bible App for Kids, developed by YouVersion in partnership with OneHope. The app has been downloaded in 200-plus countries and nearly 5 million times.

“This app literally brings the Bible to life,” wrote reviewer Zach Green. “This app is great for new believers as well as for children.”

Today’s digital age requires new formats for media consumption. And Hollywood responded to that call with two Bible-based blockbusters: Noah and the December release of EXODUS: Gods and Kings.

“Today’s kids love technology,” said OneHope president Rob Hoskins. “We’re raising a generation of digital natives. That is why we have placed a significant focus on developing digital ministry tools to support parents and churches by providing them with quality, age-appropriate, Scripture-rich content that is a good digital option for kids to engage with.”

In late August, the Bible App for Kids was translated into its first language: Spanish. Now nearly one-quarter of all Bible App for Kids downloads use the Spanish translation. Last week, it launched in Chinese and Korean. By the end of 2015, developers plan to release the app in 9 additional languages, with a total of 40+ stories so children around the world can experience the gospel through this innovative and engaging platform.

“My 2- and 4-year-old love it,” said Melinda York in her Google Play store review, “they love the interactive stories and I like that they are getting a good introduction to the Bible. Thank you to the developers of this app and for making it free.”

Free downloadable parent resources were also created to accompany each story so that the whole family can engage in God’s Word together.

In another app review, Terri Lozano calls it, “The BEST interactive Bible story app. It’s the first thing they go to on my phone on our ride home from school. They even made a trivia game of it between them. It’s such a delight to my heart to see their interest in the stories. Keep the new stories coming. God bless you.”

The Bible App for Kids is available for free on the App store, Google Play and Amazon.

Source and Original Content by Charisma News

Monday, November 24 International Day of the Bible Was Celebrated

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Monday, November 24 International Day of the Bible Was Celebrated

Monday, Nov. 24 is the International Day of the Bible, where Bible-believers around the world are encouraged to share their love of the Bible with a friend.

Those recognizing the day can also check out a Bible app or even post a scripture verse on social media using #biblecelebration.

“On Monday, Nov. 24 at noon local time―in public or online―people of all ages are being invited to participate in International Day of the Bible by taking pause for a few minutes to read or even sing Scripture or otherwise creatively express their love of The Good Book,” organizers posted on the International Day of the Bible website.

The event is sponsored by The National Bible Association and invites organizations from different Bible providers, like The American Bible Society, YouVersion, Bible Gateway and Scripture Union to participate as well…Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN1

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