HYDERABAD, India, October 9, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Christians in southern India are increasingly living in fear as the level of violence against them continues to rise, sources said.

 

The southern states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala saw at least 60 cases of persecution of Christians in the first nine months of 2018, compared with 36 such attacks in the first nine months of 2017, according to religious freedom advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)-India.

 

Although none of the states’ governments has explicit connections with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), commonly known as the political arm of the Hindu extremist Sangh Parivar (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates), the RSS volunteers are found throughout regional, secular parties, sources said.

 

“In Tamil Nadu, RSS activists are provoking the Hindus in their speeches at public gatherings to cause communal tension,” the Rev. Sagaya Raj, deputy secretary of the (Roman Catholic) Tamil Nadu Bishops Council told Morning Star News. “The current situation is alarming – our state was a peace-loving state, and we lived in harmony. The recent attacks on Christian community are very disturbing.”

 

In one case, a mob of nomadic Hindus in Veppur village, Vellore District, on Sept. 13 attacked an elderly Christian woman as she took her usual late-evening…

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California has said that resentment is the “unhealthiest emotion there is” and identified three reasons Christians should forgive those who have sinned against them.

Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” said in a devotional this week that many people are walking around with deep wounds, pain, and resentment resulting from a past insult or injury.

“You say, ‘Why in the world should I forgive that person who hurt me so much? You have no idea how much they hurt me. Why should I offer grace to that person?'” he said, offering three reasons believers should forgive others.

First, Warren reminded readers that Christians are called to be gracious and forgive others “because God has been gracious to you.”

“You will never have to forgive anyone else more than Jesus Christ has already forgiven you,” he contended. “Remember that you haven’t always gotten what you deserved, either. God has been gracious with you. Now choose to be gracious with others.”

Second, it’s important to forgive…

One of the male members from Beth Moore’s worship band got on his knees and apologized to the women in attendance at a conference for Native American women for any pain they have received because of men. Moore shared her reflections on the moment, which took place at a Living Proof Live event in Chinle, Arizona, on Twitter Monday morning.

Moore shared a picture of her drummer, Kevin Jones, on his knees speaking to the assembled audience. She said he asked “their forgiveness for all hurts & harms they’ve ever received at the hands of men. 

Humility can usher in tremendous healing. The most powerful moment at our event for Native American women: this is Kevin Jones on his knees, our drummer & as Christlike a man as you’ll meet, asking their forgiveness for all hurts & harms they’ve ever received at the hands of men. pic.twitter.com/4nxkOFCogp

— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) October 8, 2018

She went on to praise Jones, whom she said created the most powerful moment of the weekend, saying that “I don’t know a man who’s more of a gentleman than Kevin Jones.” Then she added, “But he humbly & gladly stood before those women and on behalf of all men who had hurt them, voiced words like these: ‘I am so sorry. Would you forgive us?’” Then she said he “told them of their worth and prayed on his knees for them.”

I don’t know a man…

The new senior pastor for the California-based megachurch Mariners Church has stressed the importance of accountability, in light of recent scandals elsewhere in the evangelical world.

During the summer it was announced that Eric Geiger, senior vice president of LifeWay Christian Resources, was going to become the new senior pastor of Mariners Church of Irvine, California.

Geiger took the helm of the megachurch, which averages between 9,000 – 10,000 worship attendees every weekend, in September, replacing the retiring Kenton Beshore, who had led the congregation for nearly 35 years.

Geiger is becoming senior pastor at Mariners at a time when many institutions, secular and religious, are seeing abuse scandals make national headlines.

For example, recently allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced against Willow Creek Community Church founder and newly retired senior pastor Bill Hybels.

In an interview with The Christian Post on Thursday, Geiger explained that Mariners has a group of elders that he is accountable to, who he meets with on a monthly basis. It is a system that was in place while his predecessor was heading the congregation.

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee has selected two recipients for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, including Christian gynecologist Denis Mukwege, who has dedicated his life to caring for victims of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

Mukwege, nicknamed “Dr. Miracle” for his specialized procedures, received the award alongside Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi activist who survived being kidnapped and raped by ISIS members in Iraq. 

The Nobel committee selected these two recipients saying that both winners modeled “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.”

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said that his Christian faith was a massive influence on his decision to pursue medicine and his strategy for patient care. The son of a Pentecostal minister, Mukwege told NPR that he was inspired to become a doctor after traveling with his father to pray for the sick. Mukwege attended the University of Angers in France to study gynecology and obstetrics.

Over the past 20 years, Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of women in his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu which he founded in 1999 with the help of the Pentecostal Churches in Central Africa (CEPAC).

The hospital provides care for women, many of whom have been gang raped by militants.

Mukwege told NPR that he works “not only to treat women—their body, [but] also to fight for their own…

Israel is holding an American graduate student at its international airport, accusing the 22-year-old of supporting a boycott on Israel.

Lara Alqasem landed last week at Ben-Gurion Airport. She had a student visa and was traveling with her Palestinian grandparents.

An Israeli court orders that she remain in custody during an appeal. According to ABCNews, it’s the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case.

Alqasem is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The student group supports the boycott.

The boycott campaign, known as BDS, includes Israeli businesses, universities and institutions. Meanwhile, Israel says the campaign is meant to hurt the country.

“Lara served as president of a chapter of one of the most extreme and hate-filled anti-Israel BDS groups in the U.S.,” said Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan. “Israel will not allow entry to those who work to harm he country, whatever their excuse.”

Last week, Erdan also said that he would not expel her if Alqasem apologizes and renounces her BDS support.

Alqasem, however, said she never actively participated in the boycott, saying she also wouldn’t promote a boycott.

“We’re talking about someone who simply wants to study in Israel, who is not boycotting anything,” said her lawyer, Yotam Ben-Hillel. “She’s not even part of the…