Release International, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, has warned of an epidemic of grooming and has urged for Egypt’s government to take a stand against such injustices.

Abouna, whose name has been changed for security reasons, works in communities where kidnappings are taking place and supports the victims. He said young women and girls are targeted as part of a deliberate strategy to convert Christians to Islam.

“They start with seducing the young girls, especially the non-educated girls by telephone calls – mobiles are now in every hand,” he said.

“They start to have affairs with them. And after a while, they convince them to marry and the girl finds herself trapped.”
The charity has found that there are rewards for every man who succeeds in converting a girl to Islam.

Kate Ward, a Release worker whose name has been changed, said: “He will be paid, according to our information, £1500 for a non-educated woman or £3000 for an educated woman.

“After that, he might divorce them. She then goes back to a life of shame. The money is coming from religious leaders, who many believe are paid from Saudi Arabia.’

Release has claimed this deliberate strategy of persecution because many abductions take place in Upper Egypt, a poor, rural area many miles from Cairo where attitudes are ultra conservative and the persecution of Christians is most severe.
 
Ward added: “He will say, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be able to stay Christian. And when your…

Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) will become compulsory in England in primary schools.

New proposals will likely include more education on transgenderism and same-sex relationships as well as changes to include teaching about the dangers of pornography and sexting.

Some Christians view the consultation period as a positive thing because Christian parents can speak out and say what they would like to see in RSE.

Rachel Gardner, Christian Director of Youthscape and President of the Girls Brigade, told Premier: “This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved and talk about the fact that we want our young people to grown into compassionate, kind adults with self-control and we really want that front and centre on the curriculum.”

Up until now, only a third of all secondary schools have been required to teach RSE.

Gareth Cheeseman from the Christian charity Acet UK which runs sex education classes said: “Our concern at the moment is the number of young people who don’t receive any relationship and sex education because their teachers are untrained and they don’t have the curriculum time to cover it, anything that can help tackle that issue has the potential to be a positive force.”

The news of including teaching about same-sex relationships has not gone down well with those who consider sexuality a moral issue which parents will have different views on.

Thomas Pascoe from Coalition for Marriage told Premier that young children are not old enough to…

The moment was revealed in his new book “Own the Moment” and sparked criticism from church leaders about whether it was appropriate for Lentz to use alcohol as a way to invite someone to church.

When the 38-year-old pastor was asked about it in an interview with NJ.com, he responded: “There’s always going to be criticism from within that’s going to be more frustrating, problematic, annoying than from outside.

“That’s just classic Christian faith stuff.

“It was happening when Jesus was walking the Earth, and it will always happen.”

Lentz said one of the major points of his book is to remind people to seize the moment.

“I think the point of this book is to get people to go like, ‘You’re not going to get this life back; you have to do something now,” he added.

“If you do that long enough, I think it leads to somewhere special.”