Large Family in Eastern Uganda Becomes Big Target for Muslim Extremists

Large Family in Eastern Uganda Becomes Big Target for Muslim Extremists



NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Yusuf Tulo and his sizeable family were worshipping in their home in eastern Uganda on April 28 when they heard their neighbors shouting, “Fire!”


Tulo, 35, had left Islam to put his faith in Christ last October. He still had three wives and 14 children dependent on him living on a homestead with more than one house in Bugwere village, and the house they used for worship was on fire.


When they went outside, however, something was not right; among neighbors standing around the house looking at the smoke, one said, “Please remain indoors – your lives are in danger.”


Tulo had been receiving threatening messages from Muslims for months, but faced with the danger of smoke coming from the house, he chose to remain outside. An hour later, the roof collapsed in flames and the house was charred.


“We lost everything in that house: beddings, clothing, books, documents and other household belongings worth more than $1,000,” Tulo told Morning Star News.


The village is in Kitantalo parish, Tirinyi Sub-County of Kibuku District, and Tirinyi police arrived at the scene an hour later.


Since then the family has been living with friends and neighbors – in intense fear for their lives, he said. Among the threats he has received, one text message read, “The burning of the house was just warning. If you continue…

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No mention of Asia Bibi’s name in UK correspondence with Pakistan 2009-2018

Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman from Pakistan, was sentenced to death for blaspheming against Islam and freed after international outcry and her legal acquittal in the Pakistani High court last October.

She was in prison, facing death, for nearly a decade before she was finally freed last month and flown to Canada. 

 

 

Although many UK MPs have repeatedly brought up her case in parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May has been criticised for not offering Asia Bibi asylum in the UK. May has always insisted that the UK were in conversation with other allies to decide the best place for Asia Bibi and her family to stay.

The government has now been criticised for not being as interested in her case from the start as it has seemed in the last year. 

A freedom of information request was submitted by Luke de Pulford, a campaigner for Asia Bibi and founder of the anti-slavery charity Arise foundation. 

He told Premier Christian Radio’s News Hour it seemed ‘obvious’ to him that the foreign office had been dragging their heels in calling out the persecution of Christians and wanted to find out for sure.

“What I found out it that it had only come up after the story had hit the headlines last October when she was acquitted. So, it shows she hadn’t been mentioned a single time between 2009 and 2018, despite the fact that politicians around the world, and in our own parliament, had…

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Another Christian Woman Sentenced to Death Now Resides in Asia Bibi’s Former Cell

Another Christian Woman Sentenced to Death Now Resides in Asia Bibi’s Former Cell



The former cell of Asia Bibi is now being used to hold another Christian woman in Pakistan.


Asia Bibi was freed earlier this month and joined her family in Canada. She spent some eight years in a Pakistani prison on blasphemy charges and faced the death penalty. She was exonerated in 2018.


Her former cell in Pakistan at the Multan Women Jail is now being used for Shagufta Kausar, a 45-year-old mother and wife.


Kausar and her husband were both condemned to death by a trial court in February 2014. A prayer leader at a local mosque accused Kausar’s husband, Shafqat Masih, of sending blasphemous text messages from his wife’s cell phone with her “connivance.”


The couple was arrested, and a mob surrounded the local police station, demanding the husband and wife be handed to them to be killed.


Since the arrest, the couple has been waiting five years for the Lahore High Court to hear their appeal.


“The couple is innocent,” their lawyer Saif-ul Malook said, “and there is no legal substantial evidence available that proves they actually texted those messages.”


Malook also represented Bibi.


“Every legal case requires a different strategy and I have decided a different strategy for this case as per the facts and relevant laws,” Malook told CT.


“Sending false persecution news [in the West] does not help the Pakistani Christians…

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Christian charity says the UK’s food waste has global implications for the poor

The government is taking measures to half the country’s food waste over the next ten years and has urged major supermarkets, along with members of the hospitality industry, to join them in helping reduce waste.

It is estimated that UK homes chuck away £15 billion worth of food which creates the same level of emissions as one third of cars on the road.

 

 

Climate Stewards, a charity working to help people offset their carbon emissions, praised this effort and highlighted the global impact of western consumer habits and the responsibility Christians have to take care of the earth.

Climate Stewards Director, Caroline Pomeroy, told Premier: “It’s not just money that we are wasting, we are wasting water, land and we are causing poverty to other people. So, it’s a huge issue that particularly, as Christians, we have a responsibility to be good stewards.”

She added that Christians have a biblical calling to live sustainably: “Jesus said we should love our neighbour. And if we love our global neighbour, who’s being impacted by climate change which our food waste is contributing to, who’s being impacted by us demanding salad crops which are shipped across the world…then that ultimately will be hurting our poorer global neighbours who are relying on agriculture for their existence.”

 

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Mike Pence Warns Liberty University Graduates to ‘Be Ready’ for Attacks on Their Christian Faith

Mike Pence Warns Liberty University Graduates to ‘Be Ready’ for Attacks on Their Christian Faith



In a commencement speech delivered at Liberty University Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence told thousands of students that they should “be ready” for an increase in personal attacks on their faith.


In a bid to encourage and equip young Christians to live out their calling in our modern secular culture, Pence warned that, increasingly, believers will be asked to “tolerate things” that go completely against their personal faith and spiritual convictions.


“You’re going to be asked to bow down to the idols of the popular culture,” he explained, noting that it has become “acceptable and even fashionable to ridicule and discriminate against people of faith.”


Highlighting the absurdity of the secular left and its militant opposition to open Christian expression, Pence referenced the case lodged against the Little Sisters of the Poor by the previous administration.


This case involved a group of Catholic nuns who sought exemption from an Obama-era mandate that would have required them to provide birth control – something that would have infringed on their religious beliefs.


“It wasn’t all that long ago that the last administration brought the full weight of the federal government against the Little Sisters of the Poor merely because that group of nuns refused to provide a health plan that violated their deeply held…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Figures show huge links with mental health and body worries

The head of the YMCA’s Be Real campaign, Liam Preston, told Premier: “We are constantly bombarded with images and messages that tell you don’t look good enough.

“When you get this, when you turn over a newspaper, when you get this when you turn on TV or look on social media, they are going to feel pressure, that they aren’t good enough and this will naturally have a knock on effect on their mental health as well.”

Liam told Premier that the Be Real campaign aims to make the general population feel good about the way they look, but also to help young people who are ‘worried that they don’t fit in society.’

 

 

The start of Mental Health Awareness Week (13th – 19th May) was also marked on Monday with radio stations across the UK, including Premier, simultaneously broadcasting the Mental Health Minute.

The message included words from Katy Perry, Stephen Fry and Prince William and encouraged people to open up about their own experiences.

  

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Six More Christians Executed by Terrorists in West African Church Attacks

Six More Christians Executed by Terrorists in West African Church Attacks



Another church in Burkina Faso, West Africa was targeted by terrorists this Sunday leaving six dead.


According to Christianity Today, six Christians were killed in a Burkina Faso Catholic church in the town of Dablo after people on motorcycles raided the church, executed five worshippers and the priest and then set the church on fire.


Reportedly, the motorcyclists entered the church during the Sunday morning Mass and opened fire on the churchgoers.


According to the Burkina Information Agency, the attackers “ordered the women and children to clear the scene before executing six men, including the priest.”


According to Reuters, the men also looted several stores in the town, including the pharmacy, before taking off.


This is the second attack in this area since Easter that have had nearly identical M.Os.


As Christian Headlines previously reported, six Christians were executed in a West African Protestant church on April 28, after they refused to convert to Islam.


Several armed motorcyclists opened fire on the Assemblies of God church in a Burkina Faso killing six people, including the church’s long-time pastor Pierre Ouédraogo, after they refuse to deny their Christian faith.


According to the Associated Press, no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in April, though violent Islamist extremism has increasingly become a problem in…

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Anti-gay US pastor banned from Ireland

The country will block his entry despite his claim that he’s preaching and ‘soul winning’ in Dublin on 26 May.

 

It is first time Ireland has used a law introduced 20 years ago which permits banning foreign nationals from entering.

It comes after online petition calling for a ban gained over 14,000 signatures.

Anderson runs Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona but has been accused of openly expressing anti-gay and anti-Semitic views.

Spotlight was put on his church in 2009 when he preached a sermon titled ‘Why I hate Barack Obama’. In it he argued the US would “benefit” from Obama’s death.

Anderson has already been banned from the UK.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

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Seven Consequences for the Church Staff When a Pastor Leaves

About once a month, I am contacted by a person serving on a church staff voicing a similar concern. The pastor has retired, resigned, or been fired. A new pastor will be coming at some point in the future. Life has changed for the staff member with one announcement by the pastor. As an executive pastor recently asked me, “Where do I go from here?”

The question is legitimate. Many church members do not fully grasp how disruptive a pastor’s departure is to the remaining staff. The staff are left behind, even if it’s not in an eschatological sense. Look at some of the possible consequences for church staff.

  1. The staff member and his or her family’s life is disrupted. This consequence is almost universal. It is not just the staff member. The family is uncertain where the next job, town, school, or income will be.
  2. The staff member may be terminated. It is not that common anymore, but some churches “clean house” so the next pastor can choose the staff. Some ask for a written letter of resignation that can be accepted or rejected by the next pastor.
  3. Those closest to the pastor are most vulnerable. It can be rewarding for a staff member to have a close working relationship with the pastor . . . until the pastor leaves. The closest staff members have their ministry identity tied closely to the exiting pastor. And that can be a threat if the next pastor is uncertain where loyalties lie.
  4. The on-boarding of the new pastor is fraught with tension for the staff members. They, in many aspects,…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Thom Rainer.

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Boycotting a pro-life state and gay aardvarks: How to love our lost culture

Actress Alyssa Milano

After Georgia’s governor signed legislation banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, more than one hundred actors pledged to boycott productions in the state. Five film production companies announced they would no longer work in the state as well.

In other news, the Times Literary Supplement recently profiled “new fiction for children and young adults on an LGBTQ theme.” One tells the story of a boy who decides he is a mermaid. Another tells the “gay love story” of two aardvarks. Another is much more explicit than I am willing to describe.

Meanwhile, The Atlantic is promoting a documentary on its platform that claims to describe “both sides of the ‘heartbeat’ bills.” But note the now-familiar options: “Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion.”

For years, the left side of the culture wars has been astute in describing the other side as “anti,” knowing the psychological advantage of such branding. We’re “anti-abortion” rather than “pro-life,” “anti-LGBTQ” rather than “pro-biblical sexuality,” “anti-marriage equality” rather than “pro-traditional marriage,” and so on.

Any time I can describe you as what you’re not more than what you are, I gain a significant rhetorical and persuasive advantage.

How should we respond to a culture that seems so antagonistic to biblical values?

“We are not our own. We belong to him.”

One of the most important lessons I have learned in recent years is this: God wants us to love the world without needing the world to love us in return.

Jesus clearly taught us to love even our enemies and “pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). We are to offer the world the kind of love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

But “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) means…

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