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Christian World and Messianic News: Global news from Christian World and Messianic News
Another 5 Chinese Megachurch Leaders Sentenced
::By Ethan Cole christian Today :: Another five leaders of the Chinese megachurch whose pastor was recently sentenced to prison have been ordered to be re-educated through labor camps, a U.S. human rights group reported.
Just days after a Chinese court sentenced Pastor Wang Xiaoguang of Linfen Fushan Church in Linfen, northern Shanxi province to three years in prison and handed out three- to seven-year jail sentences to four other church leaders, ChinaAid Association learned that five more church leaders were each sentenced to two years in labor camps.
The sentences were reportedly given arbitrarily by the public security bureau without a proper court trial.
“To arbitrarily send five innocent citizens to labor camps is in direct violation against the international human rights covenants and norms the Chinese government has signed and even ratified," said Bob Fu, president of CAA, in a statement.
Former Christian Peacemaker hostage returns to Iraq
:: christian Today :: A Christian peace worker has returned to Iraq for the first time since he was freed from captivity four years ago.
Harmeet Singh Sooden is part of a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation that has been travelling through Iraqi Kurdistan for the last two weeks meeting representatives of human rights groups, NGOs, displaced people and government officials.
He said he wants the reports from his visit to encourage the public to influence their governments' policies.
"My role is simply to report the genuine views of the people in Iraq," he said.
Mr Sooden was taken hostage by Islamic militants in Baghdad in 2005 along with fellow Christian Peacemakers, Norman Kember, from Britain, Canadian Jim Loney and Tom Fox, from the US. Mr Fox was murdered just weeks before British forces freed the remaining three members on 23 March 2006.
Arrested Pastor, Evangelist Released in Karnataka
:: christianpost :: A pastor and an evangelist detained by police after Hindu radicals attacked them and held captive, were released after three days on an intervention by Christian advocacy group in Karnataka, south India.
Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), based in the state capital Bangalore said Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB) missionaries - Pastor Murthy Nayak Ganesh, 28, and Evangelist Chandrakanth Gopanna Lambani, 18, were released Monday after its intervention.
The FMPB missionaries based in Laksmeshwar, Kundugol Taluk, Hubli, Dharwad district in northern Karnataka were arrested by police on Saturday after about 30 Hindu extremists barged into a home where they were offering prayers for Ms. Venkatamma's family on the latter's request in Gowdigere Tanda, 25 km away from Laksmeshwar, their mission centre. The radicals accused them of forceful conversion, and questioned the pastors asking them how much they paid people to accept Christianity. They held them captive in a temple until the police were called in, the duo were instead arrested.
Ever since the arrests, GCIC had been keeping in touch with the authorities in the area, resulting in the release of the missionaries.
Christians Concerned Over Acquittals in Orissa Riot
:: christianpost :: NEW DELHI (Compass Direct News) - Only 24 people have been convicted a year after anti-Christian mayhem took place in India's Orissa state, while the number of acquittals has risen to 95, compounding the sense of helplessness and frustration among surviving Christians.
Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, called the trials "a travesty of justice."
Last month a non-profit group, the Peoples Initiative for Justice and Peace (PIJP), reportedly found that as many as 2,500 complaints were filed with police following the violence in August-September 2008 in the eastern state's Kandhamal district. The violence killed at least 100 people and burned more than 4,500 houses and over 250 churches and 13 educational institutions. It also rendered 50,000 people, mostly Christian, homeless.
Police, however, registered only 827 complaints and arrested fewer than 700 people, even though 11,000 people were named as attackers in those complaints, according to a PIJP survey.
Pastor Attacked, Threatened in India's Madhya Pradesh
:: christianpost :: A 51-year-old pastor was attacked by suspected Hindu radicals in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Monday threatening him further attacks.
According to Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), about 15 anti-Christian fanatics on motor-cycles broke into Rhema Gospel Church, a house Church in Jabalpur city at 12:30 p.m., shouting slogans 'Jai Sri Ram' (hail god Rama) and destroyed the cross in the entrance and threatened the pastor Pastor Peter Johnson Lal with further attacks. The threats and intimidations went on for half an hour, said the report.
The radicals are suspected to be members from Abhinav Bhrathi - a Hindu extremist wing suspected to be involved in bomb blasts in different parts of India, said GCIC, the voice of persecuted Christians in India.
Later Pastor Peter Johnson Lal gave a complaint letter to Adharthal Police Station which is 14 k.m. from Jabalpur Railway Station. The police assured speedy investigation. No arrests have been made so far.
Bomb Explosion in Indian Christian Relief Camp Killed One
:: christianpost :: One man was killed and three others got injured when a crude bomb exploded in a Christian refugee camp, that houses the victims of anti-Christian violence in Orissa a year ago.
The incident took place Sunday afternoon at a tent inside a transit camp at Nandarigi village, just outside Kandhamal, the district headquarters, the police official told Press Trust of India.
Bangalore-based Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said a man allegedly belonging to Sangh Parivar, a Hindu extremist outfit entered the relief camp a few days earlier and threatened the Christians, demanding food and shelter.
Reports said the ground was soggy and wet due to the heavy rains and this man slipped and fell and the bombs exploded, killing one on the spot and injuring three others, Patrasen Mallick of Batikola village, one of the injured admitted to a nearby hospital is in a critical condition, according to Union News International.
Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons, say Christian leaders
:: christiantoday :: They warned in a letter to the US Congress this week that a nuclear-armed Iran would "almost certain[ly]" spark an arms race in the Middle East.
The volatile country, one of the world's leading state sponsors of terrorism, would also likely sell or give nuclear weapons to extremist groups that consider America an enemy, they said.
"For the world's most dangerous regime to obtain the world's most dangerous weapons is something that neither the United States nor the community of civilised nations can allow," the leaders assert.
Among the prominent leaders to sign the letter were Pat Robertson, president of Christian Broadcasting Network, Charles Colson, chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries, Johnny Hunt, current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and John Hagee, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.
Pastor Seriously Injured in Attack in Southeast India
:: christianpost :: Veiled men attacked a pastor on Sunday after the worship service, injuring the pastor who received nine stitches on his head and still in the hospital in southeast coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.
According to Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the attack took place when Pastor Vanamala Parishuddam, his family and few believers were returning home after the Sunday service around 11.45 a.m. on Sunday from Yellareddygudam village, Narketpalli Mandal, Nalagonda district, Andhra Pradesh.
The report said four veiled radicals on two motorcycles stopped the Pastor on the way and started beating him with the wooden sticks. Few believers who accompanied the Pastor ran away. Pastor Vanamala was profusely bleeding and collapsed on the spot, GCIC stated.
GCIC said that after seeing the profuse bleeding of the pastor, the radicals ran away from that place and the Pastor's wife and other two believers carried the Pastor to Kaminani Hospital, near Narketpally, an administrative division in the district.
EU's equality plans will 'silence' Christians, warns legal group
:: christiantoday :: A Christian legal group is warning that the EU's proposed Equal Treatment Directive will silence Christians and undermine their ability to profess their faith.
Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON) said the directive had the potential to be used as an "instrument of cultural genocide" and persecution against Christians.
"Its provisions are likely to restrict Christian freedoms to the extent that, in certain cases, we would be silenced and prevented from providing goods or services to the public without violating our consciences, particularly if required to promote other religions or the practice of homosexuality," said director Andrea Minichiello Williams.
The directive seeks to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, and sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services in each of the EU's 27 member states.
Violent Attack at Dawn on Chinese House Church Injures Many
:: christianpost :: A mob of about 400 people including Chinese officials launched an attack on Fushan Church's new building in Linfin City, Shanxi province at dawn on Sunday, vandalizing the building and injuring more than 10.
ChinaAid Association (CAA) reported Tuesday that a mass of 400 deviants in police suits and red armbands broke into the 'Good News Cloth Shoes Factory', on the site of Fushan Church's new building in Linfin City, Shanxi province at 3 a.m on Sunday, 13 September.
"Two shovel loaders tore at the building foundations, while the mob, with bricks and other blunt instruments in hand, beat Fushan church members who were sleeping at the church construction site," it stated. "Within the hour, more than ten church members lay bleeding heavily; some were severely injured and sent to the emergency room. Several people lost consciousness and were subsequently hospitalized."
The local emergency room was instructed by anonymous authorities to withhold treatment and prohibit blood transfusions for the injured church members. On Sunday night, two seriously injured patients had to be transferred with oxygen cylinders to a hospital in Linfin area.