JOS, Nigeria, September 30, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremist group Boko Haram released a video last week showing the execution of two Christian aid workers in Nigeria, sources said.

Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Plateau state, are shown kneeling while three masked, armed men stand behind them in a video posted Sept. 22 on Boko Haram’s Amaq news agency site. The two young men, who had gone to Maiduguri to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence, are then shot from behind.

Speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says in the video that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture in revenge for Muslims killed in past religious conflicts in Nigeria. Dacighir and Shikagham, originally from Plateau state’s Mangu County, were captured by Boko Haram, now called the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), as they carried out their work in displaced persons camps.

Ethnic and religious tensions resulted in large-scale clashes between Muslims and Christians in Jos in 2001 and 2008.

It is not clear from the video, temporarily posted on YouTube, when the two men were executed. Their identities were confirmed by a relative, the Rev. John Pofi, a COCIN pastor.

Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, told…

MECCA, Calif. (RNS) — Aida Sansor and Maria Teresa Pacheco have traveled the Eastern Coachella Valley area, seeking to connect with the indigenous Purépecha community.

Sansor and Pacheco are with Missionary Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit, a nonprofit corporation of Catholic women based in Mexico City. The organization has provincial headquarters in Los Angeles. 

They were brought on by the Diocese of San Bernardino, which serves Riverside and San Bernardino counties, under a three-year contract to reach the estimated 1,500 Purépechas living in the region. They started last August.

Although their presence in the Coachella Valley may be categorized as “Hispanic ministry,” the Missionary Guadalupanas recognize that the Purépecha people “have their own culture,” Sansor said.

“They’re a community that deserve a lot of respect. They have their own language and traditions,” Sansor said.

“We’re here to accompany them in their Catholic faith,” Sansor said.

Purépecha is a language and the name of the pre-Hispanic people of the Central Mexican state of Michoacan. Purépecha people in Riverside County speak Purépecha as well as Spanish, and some, especially the children, also know English. The community has endured discrimination due to their language and traditional clothing.

Sansor and Pacheco have immersed themselves in…

A new bill in Pennsylvania, if passed, would allow schools to display “In God We Trust.”

House Bill 1602, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Cris Dush, uses the country’s enduring legacy with the phrase to justify the displays, according to The Epoch Times.

“While this phrase was first introduced to the nation by Francis Scott Key in 1814 in the words of our national anthem, it was a Pennsylvanian, James Pollock, the 13th Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who was responsible for suggesting the installation of these words on our coins during his term as Director of the United States Mint,” Dush said in a memo.

“With this rich history in mind, my legislation will allow school districts to display the motto in each school building,” he said. “The display of our nation’s motto may take the form of mounted plaques or artwork from a student contest that will be prominently displayed in each school building.”

Schools, however, will not be required to display the phrase. As long as the displays are intended to advance the national motto and not advertise religion, Federal 5th, 9th, and 10th Circuit Courts would likely rule the bill as constitutional.

Some Democrats, however, believe the bill could alienate people without religious belief.

“I do believe that allowing for public schools to put this message in classrooms is an endorsement…

Christian publishing house Crossway has released a new Bible specifically geared for new Christians, as reported by Faithwire.

“The Bible can be daunting to a new believer,” the edition’s description reads. “The ESV New Christian’s Bible is a unique, affordable edition created specifically to help young Christians begin to navigate God’s Word for the first time.”

Four articles start off this new version, hoping to answer four questions: “What Is the Bible?” “How to Read the Bible,” “Where Do I Start?” and “Further Helps.”

The Bible, still English Standard Version, sections-off each new book with a helpful introduction and “30+ sidebars explaining core Christian beliefs tied to key passages.” Reading plans, ranging from 30 days to one year, also help readers grow in their understanding.

According to a recent study conducted by the Barna Group in partnership with the American Bible Association and reported by the Christian Post, reading the Bible has created a meaningful impact in Christians’ lives.

The study found that 60% of Americans found that the Bible “transformed their lives.” Reading Scripture also changed their behaviors and helped them make better decisions at school and work.

More than 20 million people are flipping through the thin pages of Scripture for wisdom this year and nearly 15 million of those who disengaged…

The children of a pastor imprisoned for his faith in Iran have been barred from completing their education because they refuse to study Islam and the Quran.

When Yousef Nadarkhani’s kids went back to school last week, they were summarily informed that their previous grades did not count due to their refusal to engage in Islamic recitals.

According to the Christian Post, two of the pastor’s children are not allowed back to school because they did not complete their Islamic education, while 17-year-old Daniel has been enrolled as a “guest” in the 12th grade – he has still yet to receive his certificate of achievement for the previous grades.

In protest against the mistreatment of his own children, Yousef has begun a hunger strike in prison, according to Article18, a British-based non-profit “dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom in Iran.”

The human rights group noted that Yousef and his wife Tina have been “fighting for the rights of their boys to identify as Christians for the past decade.”

Unfortunately, despite the fact that Christians are often granted exemptions from Islamic classes on account of their religion, Christian converts are not afforded the same privilege.

“Members of recognised religious minorities – including Christians, as well as Jews and Zoroastrians – are ordinarily exempt…

University of Iowa officials who booted a Christian club off campus can be held personally liable and forced to pay damages out of their own pockets because they failed to follow an earlier court decision, a federal judge ruled Friday. 

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephanie M. Rose – who was nominated by President Obama – could have an impact across the country, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed the suit. 

The university was trying to prevent InterVarsity Christian Fellowship from requiring its leaders to share the group’s beliefs. Such a requirement, Becket argued, could have led to a non-Christian leading InterVarsity.

At issue is a university requirement that groups affirm a human rights policy banning discrimination on the basis of religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, among other classes. 

“It’s too bad it took twice for the University to learn its lesson,” said Daniel Blomberg, senior counsel at Becket. “There was no excuse the first time for squashing students’ First Amendment rights. University officials nationwide should now take note that religious discrimination will hit them in the pocketbook.”

The controversy began in 2017 when the University of Iowa kicked another group – Business Leaders in Christ – off campus because its statement of faith required…

Nigerian police rescued some 500 men and boys from a building posing as an Islamic school in the city of Kaduna, where they were allegedly sexually abused and tortured.

Kaduna state’s police commissioner, Ali Janga, told reporters that police raided the building after being tipped-off about suspicious activities going on in the building. 

When they arrived, police found that children— some as young as five-years-old— were among the boys locked in chains in the building. It is unclear how long the men and boys had been at the building.

“This place is neither a rehab or an Islamic school because you can see it for yourselves,” Janga told reporters. “The children gathered here are from all over the country … some of them were even chained. They were used, dehumanized, you can see it yourself.”

Janga called the building a “house of torture” where the detainees were injured and sometimes starved of food.

“I have spent three months here with chains on my legs,” Bell Hamza told Nigerian reporters.

“This is supposed to be an Islamic center, but trying to run away from here attracts severe punishment; they tie people and hang them to the ceiling for that,” he added.

Police arrested eight people— most were teachers.

The detainees are now being housed at a camp where families are arriving for them. Hafsat Muhammad Baba, of the…