A man who was arrested on the streets of London for preaching the gospel has won a cash payout from the police force that wrongfully detained him.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, Nigeria native Oluwole Ilesanmi was delivering a gospel message outside Southgate Underground Station in North London when he was apprehended for “breaching the peace.” However, shortly after marching him off to a waiting police car, law enforcement realized that they could not lodge any charges against him because he had not committed any crime. So, officers transported Olu to a remote location over five miles away and “de-arrested” him. The preacher was left to find his own way back.

After initially refusing to say they had done anything wrong, London’s Metropolitan Police finally admitted that Olu had been wrongfully arrested a couple of weeks after the incident. Now, they are solidifying that apology with a cash payout of £2,500 (just over $3,000). It’s not a huge amount, but for Olu, it is a welcome gesture to bring this disturbing situation to a close.

“I am glad that the police have recognized that it was not right to arrest me for preaching from the Bible,” Olu said after the compensation was announced, according to advocacy group Christian Concern. “It was traumatic being arrested and left many miles from my home. But God was always with…

Sixty-five people perished in an attack on a funeral procession in northeast Nigeria Saturday. While no one has claimed responsibility, authorities believe the attacks fit the pattern of Boko Haram.

According to CNN, 21 people perished in the initial attack and another 44 died pursuing the attackers. Ten more people were injured in the attack and are being treated at local medical facilities.

Nigerian state media did not identify Boko Haram as the attackers, but carried a strong message from President Muhammadu Buhari. Through a spokesman, he said, “The Federal Government is firmly and resolutely committed to taking necessary measures to safeguard the nation’s security.” He also added, “This administration is determined to end the menace of terrorism.”

Boko Haram has been responsible for violence and bloodshed in Nigeria for the last decade. In their attempt to enforce Sharia law in Nigeria, they have bombed houses of worship, killed religious leaders, kidnapped women and children, and assassinated women and children.

Earlier this year, 30,000 thousand people were forced to flee Nigeria, Africa’s largest nation, because of violence related to Boko Haram. Nigeria is split between Muslims and Christians, with more Muslims living in the north and more Christians in the south.

Boko Haram became a household name in 2014 when they kidnapped over 300 girls from a school. The…

The nation’s universities and the mainstream media may be promoting evolution, but a large percentage of Americans still isn’t buying it.

Forty percent of Americans say they believe “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so,” according to a Gallup poll released July 26. It is an increase from 38 percent in 2017, the last time Gallup asked the question.

Another 33 percent believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process.” 

Still another 22 percent – an all-time-high – believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.”

Americans’ answers differ greatly based on their religion and church attendance. Sixty-eight percent of Americans who attend church weekly say they believe that God created humans in the past 10,000 years. Among those who seldom or never attend church, only 27 percent pick that answer. 

A Gallup online analysis said the findings “have not changed significantly from the last reading in 2017.”

Gallup has asked the question 14 times since its initial inclusion in 1982, when 44 percent said they believed God created humans in the past 10,000 years. That year, 38 percent believed in a God-guide…

(RNS) — After 183 years as a Roman Catholic nation, Bolivia officially became a secular country in 2009, when a new constitution, promulgated by the administration of its first indigenous leader, President Evo Morales, dropped any mention of the historic faith of its Spanish colonial rulers, bolstering the position of its pre-colonial religions.

But the surprising winners in the transition to the new constitution have been the country’s long-ignored evangelical Christians.

Angered when the 2009 charter failed to recognize them, Protestant denominations have spent the past decade mobilizing their growing numbers of followers, finally forcing a religious freedom law that codifies their tax status and, perhaps more importantly, giving them standing in Bolivian society.

“For the first time, the religious entities have a legal identity, with the rights to self-determination and independence from the State,” said Munir Chiquie, president of the National Association of Evangelicals of Bolivia, also referred to as ANDEB.

The turning point for the evangelicals’ long campaign for recognition came in December of 2017, when Morales’ administration replaced the penal code written under Bolivia’s dictatorial president, the former Gen. Hugo Banzer, who is also credited with shepherding the country toward democracy in the 1980s.

Evangelical Christians, led by…

HYDERABAD, India, July 30, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Persecution of Christians in Bihar state, India, has so intensified in the past two years that Pastor Shelton Viswanathan didn’t dare call police after Hindu extremists broke bones in his hand and foot.

“If I force the police to register cases against the assailants, the [Hindu extremist] Bajrang Dal’s top leaders will not spare me,” Pastor Viswanathan told Morning Star News. “The police officials asked me to be wary as the Hindu militant activists roam freely with guns, and through their videos, I can be easily identified by other RSS [Hindu extremist umbrella group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]-affiliated groups also.”

Violence against Christians in Bihar state, in India’s northeast bordering Nepal and Bangladesh, has increased in the past two years, sources said. Hopes for forming a Christian response center with help from legal aid and relief organizations has yet to be realized, Devesh Lal of the Bihar Pastors Fellowship told Morning Star News.

“The Hindutva [Hindu nationalist] extremists are walking into churches and are disrupting prayer services – on a weekly basis, we hear of threats and attacks on home churches and pastors,” Lal said. “Christian persecution is widely spread across Bihar, and it appears to be a much planned, systematic opposition created to target…