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Ministries like Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, and Middle East Concern monitor and describe persecution around the world. Read some of those reports here.

But persecution is also prevalent in the Deaf world; it simply looks a little different. Nonetheless, Deaf believers in South Asia are taking a bold stand for Jesus.

Deaf people communicate in a completely different way than the general populace; in other words, Deaf people sign rather than speak. This unifying factor gives Deaf Christians a distinct advantage in countries hostile to the Gospel.  However, there’s also a downside to Deaf unity.

“Because they (Deaf people) have their own language… many hearing people around them have no idea what they’re talking about when they’re having a conversation on the street,” DOOR International‘s Rob Myers says.

“There’s a natural barrier that helps provide security to some Deaf workers, especially in areas that have high rates of persecution.”

However, the tightly-knit bond of Deaf communities can also present a challenge to Gospel work.

“Deaf people, because they grow up without a lot of relationship with their parents, many times they get involved in gangs,” Myers explains.

To some Deaf individuals, gangs are appealing because it’s a group “that at least knows their language and provides some sort of community, which maybe they’ve never experienced before.”

In South Asia, Deaf gangs usually associate themselves with whatever religion their country follows.

“For example, you might have a gang of Deaf people who strongly feel that Buddhism is correct. They may not necessarily understand why, but they are going to come against any other Deaf people who are speaking out against that or saying something different,” Myers says.

“They feel, culturally, ‘we belong to this particular religion. Therefore, anything different needs to be done away with’.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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President Trump is wrapping up a two-day visit to India, the world’s largest democracy.

The President and Mrs. Trump were the guests of honor at a state banquet held at the presidential palace in the capital of New Delhi.

India’s president said Trump’s visit had “opened a new chapter” in US-India relations.

Earlier in the day, Trump met with India’s controversial prime minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders have developed a close relationship in the last few years.

Meanwhile, the president was asked about India’s record on religious freedom during a news conference Tuesday in New Delhi.

“I will say that the prime minister was incredible on what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom, and very strongly, and he said that in India, they have worked very hard to have great and open religious freedom,” Trump told the assembled reporters.

India ranks number 10 on Open Doors USA’s 2020 Watch List of the world’s top persecutors of Christians. 

Since the current ruling party took power in 2014, incidents against Christians have increased, and Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little or no consequences, according to the ministry. Christians in India face horrific levels of violence from extremists – thousands of attacks take place every year.

CBN News International Correspondent George Thomas has spent a lot of time covering Christians in India over the past several years. While appearing on the Tuesday afternoon edition of CBN’s Newswatch program, Thomas said Trump needs to read Open Doors USA’s report. 

“Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, we have seen widespread attacks against Christians led by Hindu radicals. And it’s been devastating. From big cities to small remote villages and towns, Hindu radicals have gone on the rampage attacking churches, attacking Christians,” Thomas explained.

“All these village pastors, all they want to do is tell people about Jesus Christ and these mobs of Hindus would come and attack them. That’s why Open Doors has declared India the tenth worst place in the world to be a person of faith, specifically to be a Christian,” he noted.

Thomas told viewers he believed what the president did was stagecraft since you don’t want to criticize or call out the government official standing next to you.

“Hopefully, behind the scenes, behind closed doors, hopefully, the president has been forthright with Mr. Modi and has really pressed him on the issue of religious freedom in India,” Thomas said. 

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Will the Equal Rights Amendment become part of the Constitution? Experts say it’s possible since the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was eliminated Feb. 13.

Many in the conservative Christian community are not happy that the measure passed. They say the proposed amendment would actually remove protections for women and could lead to the government having to pay for abortions.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 232-183 to remove the deadline in an attempt to revive the amendment, which was originally proposed in the 1920s and adopted by Congress in the 1970s. Five Republicans voted in support of the measure, as did all Democrats, according to NPR.

The ERA states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Democrats have pointed out that all constitutions created since the 1950s include an equivalent to the ERA.

“It’s more than time,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), sponsor of H.J. Res. 79 (116), tells Politico. “It’s almost laughable that we are one of only a handful of countries in the entire world to not have this in our Constitution. What are we afraid of?”

But many Republicans believe that instead of protecting women’s rights, the ERA would actually remove them by eliminating vital distinctions of sex. To shed light on this issue, Charisma News interviewed Concerned Women for America (CWA) President Penny Nance.

The CWA was founded by the late Beverly LaHaye in 1978 out of concern that the proposed ERA would eradicate legal distinctions of gender and eliminate protections for women.

Read Charisma News’ Q&A with Nance below:

Why are you and other conservatives concerned about the Equal Rights Amendment?

The ERA is a misguided attempt to erase sex distinctions in law through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. While men and women already have equal standing under the Constitution, we are not the same, and our laws in appropriate ways should continue to reflect that fact—whether it be in allowing for sex-specific spaces, encouraging women in business, accommodating mothers in the workplace, prohibiting sex discrimination in education and sports under Title IX, and in military service. Of further concern is that state-level ERAs have been interpreted to require full taxpayer funding of abortion since procedures for men, like prostate surgery, have no restriction. Pro-abortion advocates are advertising that the ERA would “reinforce the constitutional right to abortion.”

SOURCE: Charisma News

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An evangelical advocacy organization is supporting a push in Congress to ensure working families  — in the government and private sector — are ensured paid parental and family leave as hope builds that bipartisan legislation will be passed this election year.

While the United States remains the only industrialized country to not guarantee workers paid family leave, there is optimism that 2020 could be the year that changes.

Only eight states and the District have paid family leave programs on their books.

But the increasingly bipartisan paid family leave movement got a small victory last year with the passing of a national defense spending bill that for the first time guaranteed most federal workers up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child.

Since the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act does not cover all federal employees or nonfederal workers and also doesn’t provide other types of family leave such as when a family member is sick, advocates feel that improvements can be made.

While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a bill to extend the FEPLA benefits to all federal workers, there are three other pieces of legislation looking to further guarantee paid parental leave for all other Americans.

The Center for Public Justice, a Christian nonpartisan research and civic education organization, released a policy brief examining each bill’s different approaches. All three proposals accommodate workers that don’t hold “full-time salaried jobs” that traditionally enjoy parental leave benefits in the private market.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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In an image-obsessed society, “Biggest Loser” winner and outspoken Christian Michelle Agular Whitehead is encouraging others to find purpose and worth beyond the number on a scale, as true, lasting joy is found in Christ alone.

Twelve years ago, Whitehead was propelled to fame after winning the NBC reality television competition that documented her remarkable 110-lb weight loss. Whitehead, who competed alongside her mother, took home $250,000 and, more significantly, a new perspective.

“I remember one of the greatest compliments I ever got was from a dear friend after I had left the show and come home before it aired,” she recalled in an interview with The Christian Post. “I was having lunch with friends and he looked at me and said, ‘You know, I never saw you as someone who was overweight. You’re just Michelle. I just see you. I don’t see anyone else.”

“A huge lesson weight loss taught me was, we think everyone sees our flaws, but really, they see you,” Whitehead shared. “They see who you are as a friend, a wife, a mother, a sister. They see who you are and not what you are. The scale wants to tell you what you are. It’s a great way to check in or keep you accountable, but it’s a tool, it doesn’t define who you are.”

“I would encourage women and men who get caught up in that and to look at their bodies and say, my body is amazing. I look at my arms and I think, ‘They’re not my favorite body part, but they lift my children off the floor when they’ve had a bad day. My hands can reach out and hold onto my spouse. These legs carry my children in the rain to the car.’ Our bodies are amazing and meant to do great things.”

Back in 2006, Whitehead sat down with I Am Second in her White Chair Film to divulge the behind-the-scenes reality of her experience on “Biggest Loser.” Recently, she returned to I Am Second to share her struggle with self-worth beyond the scale.

Now a mother of two little girls, she revealed that motherhood introduced new obstacles and insecurities that she soon discovered couldn’t be overcome or prevented through mere physical change.

“A lot has happened over the last decade,” she said. “I got married, had two children — the responsibilities of life have been forever changed.”

Whitehead admitted that she felt “trapped and lost” in those early years of marriage and parenting.

“It very easily becomes this thing where you get caught up in all the things that come along with being a wife and mom and lose track of who you are and your relationship with the Lord,” she said.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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