November 4 kicked off the 2018 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) event which implores Christians around the world to prayer for their persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The event, which takes place on the first and second Sundays in November each year – this year being the 4 and 11 – was started in 1996 by the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission.

According to Open Doors USA, the purpose of the IDOP is for “Christians throughout the free world [to] band together in solidarity with believers who live out their faith in the face of harassment, attacks, false imprisonment and even death.”

Every year the event has a theme. This year’s theme is called “Listen to Their Cry,” and aims to give persecuted Christians a platform to share their stories. 

In a video commemorating the day, the WEA does just that by sharing statements from Christians in countries such as North Korea, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan where hundreds, if not thousands of Christians are persecuted annually.

A Christian from Afghanistan is quoted in the video as saying, “I am so afraid; I believe in Jesus now, and my wife also but I still go to the mosque to pray five times a day.” 

A Christian woman from North Korea shared her experience in a labor camp with the outlet saying, “Every day was…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a church-state case that could have a dramatic impact on religious-themed monuments and war memorial crosses across the country. 

The case involves a 93-year-old cross-shaped World War I memorial in Bladensburg, Md., that was erected in 1925 but has been targeted in the courts by the American Humanist Association, which claims it violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on government established religion. 

A U.S. district judge upheld the memorial as constitutional, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year ruled the nearly 100-year-old cross must be removed.

It will be the first major church-state case heard by the Supreme Court with new Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the bench and could bring clarity to the legal landscape. 

The case is “The American Legion et al. v. American Humanist Association et al.” The legal group First Liberty Institute is representing The American Legion, which helped erect the cross.

“There are some who want to erase the memory of the service and sacrifice of these 49 fallen servicemen of Prince George’s County,” said Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of First Liberty. “If this monument is bulldozed to the ground, it’s only a matter of time before the wrecking ball turns on Arlington National Cemetery and the thousands of memorials like this one…

On Friday, two buses transporting Christian pilgrims in Egypt were ambushed leaving seven dead and up to 16 wounded.

According to the Associated Press, security officials reported that attackers fired off several rounds at the buses which were carrying pilgrims from the Bani Suef and Sohag provinces. The bus from Sohag was carrying 28 pilgrims, 9 of whom were wounded. The bus from Bani Suef had 14 passengers on board, half of them were killed and the other seven were seriously wounded.

AP reports that a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, Boulos Halim, believes the death toll will rise, local officials even raised the death toll to 10. This figure has not been confirmed at this time.

Reportedly, no group has claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, though according to AP it “bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants” who have repeatedly voiced their contempt with Egyptian Christians because of their support for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. El-Sissi led a military coup in 2013 to oust the Islamist president at the time.

On Friday, the Egyptian President took to Twitter to condemn the attack and offer condolences saying, “I am deeply saddened by the martyrs who fell today with treacherous hands seeking to undermine the fabric of a cohesive homeland… I wish the wounded a speedy recovery and affirm our determination to continue our efforts to…

The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of all wrongdoing on Saturday, noting that they found “no verifiable evidence” to support sexual misconduct allegations levied against him during his confirmation hearing in September. 

Kavanaugh was confirmed into the Supreme Court in September despite facing sexual misconduct allegations by three women.

Kavanaugh’s main accuser, professor of psychology at Palo Alto University Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, accused the judge and his friend Mark Judge of sexually assaulting her and attempting to rape her at a high school party in the 1980s. 

These allegations led to a supplemental FBI investigation into the judge, which yielded no evidence of wrong doing on the judge’s part. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee also launched an investigation into the judge after he was confirmed to the supreme court which, according to a series of tweets posted on Saturday along with the committee’s official report, also yielded no evidence of wrongdoing. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee wrote on Twitter, “Committee investigators spoke with 45 individuals and took 25 written statements relating to the various allegations made in the course of the #SCOTUS confirmation process.”

Committee investigators spoke with 45 individuals and took 25 written statements relating to the various…