The leading contenders are former cricket star Imran Khan and his right-of-centre Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) and the right-of-centre Pakistan Muslim League, the party of disgraced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif is in jail serving ten years on corruption charges and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, has taken control of the party.
Wilson Chowdhry from the British Pakistani Christian Association, told Premier News Hour: “Imran Kahn has openly said he would not change the blasphemy laws and insure that it’s enforced.
“That blasphemy law has been a tool or discrimination and persecution for Christians since 1987.”
Pakistani politician Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, speaks to media after casting his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan,
The unprecedented participation of radical religious groups, including those banned for terrorist links but resurrected and renamed, has also raised fears the space for moderate thought may shrink further in Pakistan.
Wilson added: “The tragedy is that for the first time in any election in Pakistan, no Christian candidates have been picked by any of the mainstream parties for the national assembly. We will be bereft of a voice whoever we vote for.”
… Read More Blood Moon on Friday Will Be Longest Lunar Eclipse of This Century
This Friday’s lunar eclipse will result in the emergence of a Blood Moon, and it’s expected to remain visible in the sky for an extended amount of time.
According to Accuweather, the occurrence of this particular Blood Moon is notable in part because it’s the longest one of this century.
The total phase of the lunar eclipse is expected to last for approximately one hour and 43 minutes. The entire event could last for up to six hours after taking into account the partial phases of the eclipse.
For many people, this lunar eclipse could be the longest one they will ever witness, as a similar event that will last for a comparable amount of time is not expected to take place until June 9, 2123.
People in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America and even Antarctica will have an opportunity to see the Blood Moon.
Residents of eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand will actually be able to see the Blood Moon on the morning of July 28, but people in South America and western Europe should see the crimson-colored satellite as early as Friday night.
People in Africa and Antarctica will have the chance to see the full lunar eclipse unfold in the sky.
Unfortunately for residents of North America, the Blood Moon will not be visible where they are because of the presence of daylight. Still, people can catch a glimpse of the Blood Moon with the help of some live streams.
The Blood Moon is more…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.
Teen Vogue Tells Girls Abortion ‘Can Be Funny’
Teen Vogue has published an article about an “abortion comedy tour,” drawing criticism from pro-life supporters.
In a July 18 opinion piece, Solange Azor wrote for the publication about the Lady Parts Justice League, a comedy tour she interned with in 2017.
“Lady Parts Justice League is a grassroots, comedy driven, pro-abortion organization founded by comedian and activist Lizz Winstead in 2015,” Azor said. “They are a group of comedians and performers who use their art to raise awareness about the erosion of reproductive rights.
“Consequently, their style of comedy varies from staging counter protests at fake abortion clinics to posting online memes about harmful legislation in the United States.”
Azor said she was “slightly hesitant” of the group’s mission to use comedy in abortion politics, but she said the “Vagical Mystery Tour” uses “laughter to bring people in, and then takes that opportunity to remind them that every person has the capacity to be an advocate.”
The group shouts back at pro-life supporters who may be protesting at clinics and “make jokes out of the situation.” The group also volunteers with the clinic if needed.
“What makes Lady Parts Justice League critical in the current political moment is their ability to push both anti-abortion and pro-choice advocates to be unapologetically supportive of women that choose to obtain…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
Evangelicals Warn Mary Has ‘Taken Jesus’ Place on the Cross’ as Millions Seek Miracles in France
As millions of people travel to Lourdes, France, every year in search of divine healing, some evangelical missionaries are warning that at the holy site venerated by Catholics, many are revering the Virgin Mary more than Jesus Christ.
“For followers of Jesus Christ, the atmosphere in Lourdes is dark and discouraging. Christians know that it is ‘the Lord who heals you’ (Exodus 15:26). The determination and expectation of 6 million pilgrims a year feels overwhelming,” Pioneers, a missions agency that is based in Florida but has offices worldwide, said last week.
One Pioneers member in Lourdes said: “In my town Mary takes Jesus’ place on the cross. People come from far and wide to bring honor to her, to ask her for healing, to pray to her. This is all the locals of this rural town in the mountains know: not Jesus, just millions of Catholic pilgrims from the whole world with their Mary statues, rosaries, and holy water. What should church look like for people who have been completely desensitized to the Gospel?”
As the article explains, every year over 6 million people — Catholics and people of other faiths — visit Lourdes where they believe…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.
ISIS Claims Series of Suicide Bombings and Attacks in Syria That Killed 90 – Urban Christian News
A series of suicide bombings and attacks that sparked fighting between local armed groups in southern Syria killed around 90 people Wednesday, a local health official and activists said, spreading mayhem in a province that has been relatively quiet throughout Syria’s seven-year conflict. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the carnage.
The coordinated attacks — the worst in recent months — had all the hallmarks of IS even before it claimed responsibility and were reminiscent of the group’s horrific assaults over the past years in Syria, already ravaged by civil war.
The bombings in the city of Sweida, including a motorcycle bomber who struck at a busy vegetable market, were apparently timed to coincide with attacks by a militant group linked to IS on a number of villages in the province, also called Sweida. It triggered deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and residents who picked up weapons to defend their hometowns on one side, and IS militants on the other.
Al-Ikhbariya state-run TV showed images from several locations in the province and its capital where the bombers blew themselves up. State-run news agency SANA said 38 people were killed in the suicide bombings and blamed the Islamic State group. The breakdown of the fatalities from the attacks was not immediately known.
Sweida health official Hassan Omar told The Associated Press by phone that 90 people were killed in the suicide blasts and subsequent fighting in Sweida, and that 80 people were wounded. The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the overall death toll…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Urban Christian News
Bishop joins calls for treason laws to be updated to avoid death penalty
Home Secretary Sajid Javid allowed two British men who chose to fight for IS in Syria, Alexander Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, to be sent to America and be tried there, where they could be given a death sentence.
It prompted the think tank The Policy Exchange to call for our treason laws to be updated from 1351 so that betrayal against the state could be punished by a life sentence.
Doctor John Inge, bishop of Worcester, agrees with this idea and told Premier’s News Hour: “If we as Christians are opposed to the death penalty, as I am, then that has to apply in all cases. Opposition from a Christian perspective to the death penalty results from human life being sacred and that is not negotiable, no matter how heinous the crimes of anyone.
“I would want the sanctity of life proclaimed and protected by our nation, as a Christian who believes very strongly in that sanctity.
The report also focuses on the soon release of several terrorists and says life sentences for them would be safer for the country.
Bishop John agreed that long-term sentences were favourable over the death sentence.
“I think it’s become topical at the moment but I’ve thought long and hard about the death penalty…it seems to me to be unthinkable for us as Christians to support the death penalty. ‘Vengeance is mine’ says the Lord, ‘I will repay’, Jesus tells us to love our enemies.
“That doesn’t…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
Christian Contestant Given Second Chance on ‘America’s Got Talent,’ Advances
An America’s Got Talent contestant, who attends a Christian college, advanced to the next round, Tuesday, after changing songs mid-performance and getting a verbal scolding from judge Simon Cowell.
Joseph O’Brien, who studies worship and pastoral studies at Boyce College in Louisville, Ky., walked to the piano and began singing REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” when Cowell raised his hand and told him to stop. O’Brien’s voice wasn’t as strong in the song as in his previous performance.
“You’ve got to stop this song. I’m sorry,” Cowell said.
O’Brien said his “heart was beating” and he “just wasn’t getting in the vibe.”
“I think you’re overthinking everything right now,” Cowell responded. “You have a great voice. I’m just frustrated because I didn’t like that song choice.”
O’Brien then offered: “Would it be OK if I did an original, or would that be a bad idea?”
Surprisingly, the judges allowed a re-do – a rarity on the talent show.
O’Brien crushed his original song, which was faith-based.
In the show’s final moments, Simon and the other judges allowed O’Brien to advance to the next round – the “live shows” — in Hollywood. Fewer than half of the contestants Tuesday survived.
“You’ve got a lot of work to do, young man,” Cowell told him. “But you…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
Ice Age, End of Human Civilization, Great Commission Approaching: Christian Astrophysicist Hugh Ross
The next ice age, followed by the end of human civilization, and before that the fulfillment of Jesus Christ’s Great Commission, could be coming sooner than some suspect, Hugh Ross, a Christian astrophysicist and Old Earth creationist, has said in a recent series on his Reasons to Believe website.
In part three of his series, “The End of Civilization As We Know It?” Ross wrote on Monday that humans can only delay, but not prevent the next ice age.
While he did not offer a specific date, Ross analyzed ice age cycles, and said that humans need to realize just how favorable the conditions they live in now are compared to conditions on the planet in the past, and those coming in the future.
Ice age cycles are caused by variations in Earth’s tilt on its axis and the shape of Earth’s orbit around the sun, Ross said, and due to these, the next ice age should’ve started 5,000 years ago. But human activity, such as the additional atmospheric carbon caused by the domestication of cows and deforestation, caused global warming effects that mitigated the cooling effects.
The additional increase in atmospheric carbon caused by the burning of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution has…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.
Indonesia Passes Anti-terrorism Law After Suicide Attacks On Churches That Left 13 Dead – Urban Christian News
Weeks after a radicalized Muslim family committed suicide attacks on churches in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia, the country passed an anti-terror law meant to prevent more attacks and foster the majority-Muslim country’s tolerant culture.
The May 13 attack, which killed 13 churchgoers and a security officer and took place days before the start of Ramadan, was the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia since a 2002 bombing in Bali. Then, the target was foreign tourists. This time it was Indonesian Christians, a minority who make up about 10 percent of the population, according to the 2010 census. Many feared that the attacks were a sign that the country’s religious diversity is under threat.
“Indonesia prides itself on its tradition of moderation, but intolerance is growing in a way that is making some fear for their hard-won democracy,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, based in Jakarta.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — a moderate Muslim who campaigned for the presidency with an image of a clean, populist politician — responded swiftly to the attacks, vowing a tough crackdown on terrorists. Key to that was his strong call for the passing of an anti-terror law.
“President Widodo promoted…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Urban Christian News
Christian group issues warning on IVF anniversary
Wednesday marked the 40th birthday of the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown.
Philippa Taylor, head of public policy at CMF, said that 40 years later IVF treatment has not solved the “heartbreak of infertility”.
“While the IVF industry and media focus on and market the success stories, the average delivery rate from ART treatments [assisted reproductive technology] are around just 19 per cent per cycle.
“In the UK, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority reports a ‘success’ rate of 26.5 per cent. This ‘success’ rate actually means that 73.5 per cent of cycles do not lead to a birth”, she wrote.
Taylor also warned that too many women are being duped by stories of celebrities in their 50s who with the help of IVF find it relatively quick and easy to conceive.
She said: “Success rates for IVF diminish rapidly after 35 years of age for women. Even a woman under 35 years has less than a one in three chance of having a baby per embryo transferred, using her own eggs and partner’s sperm.
“A woman in her early 40s only has about a one in ten chance of having a baby per embryo transferred. And the success rate drops to a mere two per cent for women over 44.”
Taylor highlighted the “troubling aspects of the fertility industry” citing babies born with health challenges and the use of medically unproven techniques.
“IVF can provide couples with a child they desperately…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
