(RNS) — Cameron Strang, the founder and CEO of Relevant Media Group, found himself under attack from a host of former employees this week who accused him of behavior they said was racially insensitive and changed depending on his mood.

Relevant Media publishes a Christian bimonthly geared toward young evangelicals, as well as a website and a network of podcasts. 

It was the allegation of racial insensitivity that came in a Twitter barrage on Wednesday (Sept. 18) after Relevant recommended a podcast episode about race and the church on the social media platform.

In reply, Andre Henry, an African American writer who served as Relevant’s managing editor from October 2017 through July 2018, shot back: “Several experiences & stories from my time at @RELEVANT … convince me the org is not committed at all to creating an antiracist culture internally to produce a race podcast with integrity. 

“Nor do they honor Black people,” he added.

Henry followed his tweet with a blog post on Medium, titled “Black Christians Deserve Better Than Companies (And Churches) Like Relevant Media Group.” 

“The company is in need of the very information they wish to publish for others,” Henry wrote. 

Henry’s retorts spurred a stream of online testimonies from people who used to work for Strang, both African American and white, men and women, who…

Christians in India have endured a rapid increase of violent persecution with over 200 reports of incidents this year.

“The attacks are spread across the country and usually take the form of mob attacks, which can include interruptions to worship and prayer services, intimidation, verbal assault, and even death threats and violence,” Johanna Hohenberg, Communications Officer for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) told Faithwire.

ADF in India has discovered that 218 incidents have occurred this year. Despite the large number, only 25 police reports after the attacks have been filed. According to Hohenberg, the violence “rarely receives the police attention that it should.”

For many of these incidents, a mob will appear at a Christian gathering, shouting and beating up anyone in their way. Often, when the police arrive, the perpetrators are not arrested. The police instead bring in the pastors or priests under the false allegation of forced conversions, which is illegal in India.

“These are not isolated incidents and there has been an increase recorded this year—the average has risen from 20 to 27 per month since last year,” Hohenberg said.

Many watchdog groups point to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the increased persecution. Ever since the party rose to power in 2014, the attacks have more than doubled.

“The…

In its persecution of Christians, India will now force nonprofits to sign commitments to not evangelize or “engage in religious conversion.” 

The Christian Post reported the move on Sunday, which backs employees of foreign-funded nonprofits into a corner and places amendments to the Foreigners Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The act regulates foreign aid and according to the Times of India, it has given the government permission to freeze bank accounts of non-governmental organizations.

“These new modifications will reignite fears that NGOs will be selectively targeted and their FCRA registration canceled and their bank accounts frozen,” Global Council of Indian Christians President Sajan K George said. “Every organization whose goals can be interpreted in the broadest sense of sectarian discord, or with accusations of conversion or as a simple ‘violation’ will be included.”

The new restriction is a result of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rise to power in 2014. The Hindu nationalist group has pushed for increased persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.

More than 11,000 foreign-funded NGOs have lost their licenses to serve the country, including Christian sponsorship organization Compassion International in 2017. The nonprofit stopped its ministry to over 147,000 children in the country because…

President Trump on Monday announced $25 million in funding to protect religious freedom and religious sites around the world, and asked the world’s governments to join together to end religious persecution. 

Trump also announced an initiative comprised of a “coalition of U.S. businesses for the protection of religious freedom.”

Trump was speaking at a meeting on religious persecution he convened at the United Nations, with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and other international officials in attendance. Vice President Mike Pence said Trump was the first American president to hold a meeting at the U.N. on religious persecution. 

The $25 million, Trump said, will go toward protecting religious freedom, religious sites and relics. 

“We’re … urging every nation to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities,” Trump said. “There can be no greater crime than that.”

The initiative involving business, he said, will “encourage the private sector to protect people of all faiths in the workplace.”

“Too often, people in positions of power preach diversity, while silencing, shunning or censoring the faithful,” Trump said. “True tolerance means respecting the right of all people to express their deeply held religious beliefs.”

Trump listed several examples of religious…

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted ‘clear bias’ in blocking pro-life group Live Action’s videos, saying it was wrong to censor.

CBN News reported that late last week, in a meeting with the social media giant’s executive and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Lila Rose, founder and CEO of pro-life group Live Action, confronted Zuckerberg over the mistake.

“…In a meeting today with Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was wrong to censor me & Live Action, that there was clear bias, and that the ‘fact-checkers’ were activists,” she said in a tweet.

Despite the admission of guilt, Facebook did not apologize for the mistake, nor for telling thousands of Live Action’s followers that the nonprofit was “false news.”

Zuckerberg did express his concern about the mistake, however, according to Conservative Review.

The censorship involved two pro-life videos that underwent a “fact-check” after claiming that abortion is not medically necessary. The independent fact-checking board included Robyn Shickler and Daniel Grossman, both who support abortion. Schickler said in her evaluation that “all reasons for deciding to seek abortion care are valid; no one reason is better than another.”

Lila Rose has pushed for Facebook to publicly apologize for the mistake, as well as remove the Fact Check and notify the group’s…

Communist officials in China deported 13 families in 2017 who had been living and working in the country as missionaries.

According to The Christian Post, the Communist officials said the missionaries were “illegally” living in the country because of their Christian work.

A Korean missionary who was also deported detailed the 2017 deportation recently in an interview.

He told the International Christian Concern that in 2016 a missionary leader arrived at a Chinese station and was immediately arrested. Later the rest of the mission team of 13 South Korean families was taken into police custody.

Police charged the groups with “being missionaries” and told them they were illegally in the country.

Chinese law says that foreigners may not start religious groups or try to convert people.

The Korean missionary says, however, that the families were teaching the Bible to North Koreans who regularly visit China. He says they were not trying to force conversion on them.

In January 2017, the 13 families were deported.

Later, police closed all the Korean-Chinese churches in Dandong. The ICC says officials had hacked their email accounts and listened in on phone calls in the group of missionaries.

“Such act of tapping the communication is presumed to be an attempt of Xi Jinping’s government to demonstrate its power in the border area, where they see the…