Tag: Christianity

Christians have been rooted in the Middle East as minority communities since the birth of the religion, but their numbers are dwindling amid conflict and jihadist attacks.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller said this week that many bishops today are involved in “a blatant process of Protestantizing” the Catholic Church, leaving many of the faithful confused and disoriented.

UK police have dispersed a group of Christian preachers from a public space, describing their actions as an “incident of public disorder” after members of the public heckled and called their views “provocative”.

Muslim Fulani herdsmen massacred some 120 Christians in central Nigeria over the weekend, the majority of whom were returning from the funeral of the father of a local Christian clergyman.

A Catholic priest in Kenya has reportedly been suspended from serving his church after rapping to his congregation as a way of preaching the gospel, according to local media.

The ever more unhinged former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, railed against the Catholic Church in an interview with the Irish Times this week, denouncing infant baptism and praising gay rights.

“The Middle East today is a crossroads of difficult, painful situations,” Pope Francis said Friday, while suggesting that some would like to see the Christian presence eliminated.

The Rev. Timothy Rogers, the popular pastor of Prince of Peace Church in Blytheville, Arkansas, said Wednesday that hell is an “imaginary place” invented to scare ignorant believers, adding that “when you’re dead, you’re done.”

While accepting the Generation Award at Monday’s MTV Movie and TV Awards, actor Chris Pratt told his millennial viewers “God is real,” they have a soul, and they have to take care of it.

Pope Francis is counseling young people to be audacious and idealistic, insisting Wednesday that mediocrity is the greatest enemy of the young, stunting their growth and turning them into “Christian midgets.”

Those who attend Church are likely to live longer than those who do not, a study has found, in results which may be linked to healthy lifestyle choices made by regular churchgoers. British newspaper The Times reports: “The fruit of the

Chinese government officials used excavators and pickup trucks to demolish the sanctuary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in China’s Henan province Tuesday, a popular pilgrimage site for Catholics since its founding in 1903.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper argued in a column Tuesday that banning all religious garments in public is necessary to achieve “social unity” and contended the act does not portray “religious hatred.”

Evangelist Franklin Graham is continuing his condemnation of sexually graphic sex education curricula in public schools, urging parents to take action against states that are trying to “lure” children “into promiscuity.”

The Chinese Communist Party, under Xi Jinping, has expanded its religious crackdown on Islam and Christianity to Taoism. In a column Friday, the Global Times cites a “patriotic” Taoist priest who insists the native Chinese religion is not Chinese enough without “core socialist values.”

Liberal talk radio host Bill Press echoed comments made by The View co-host Joy Behar comparing Vice President Mike Pence’s Christianity to having a mental illness.

The head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office said Tuesday that the church’s ban on women priests is permanent and irreformable because it is “bound by the Lord’s decision” to ordain only men.

China tortured, harassed, and imprisoned “hundreds of thousands” of Muslims and Christians in 2017 for practicing their faith outside of the control of the staunchly atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the U.S. Department of State (DOS) noted in a report released on Tuesday.

Transgender people are being encouraged to join the clergy in new Church of England guidance on “honouring LGBT+ people”, aimed at fighting the church’s reputation as “homophobic”.

(PREMIER) — Accomplished singers from the Sistine Chapel Choir in Vatican City and Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal Choir have sung together at Buckingham Palace in support of persecuted Christians of all denominations.

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has announced that demographics will be his top priority following his triumphant re-election, with mass migration rejected in favour of policies supporting Hungarian mothers.

Hungarian deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjen has warned that Islam is penetrating Europe without resistance as Christianity and national identity fade away.

MOSCOW (AP) – Four gunmen attacked a Russian Orthodox church in the mostly Muslim Russian province of Chechnya on Saturday but were killed by security forces in a clash that also left two policemen and a churchgoer dead. The attack underscored security challenges in Russia as it prepares to host the World Cup next month.

In a warm Ramadan message, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue addresses our “dear Muslim brothers and sisters” in an appeal for mutual collaboration and overcoming differences.

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has joined the attack against Pastor Robert Jeffress for praying at Monday’s ceremony moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Romney faults the longtime supporter of the Jewish state for what many regard as Jeffress’ mainstream evangelical Christian beliefs about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The jihadist terror group Boko Haram continued to hold a Christian schoolgirl captive after 85 days for refusing to renounce her faith and convert to Islam after she turned 15 this week.

North Korea’s state news service KCNA issued a vocal defense of its abysmal human rights record on Tuesday, alleging that “socialist Korea” presents “a good example in guaranteeing the genuine civilization and human rights” in contrast to the free societies of the West.

North Korea’s state news service, KCNA, issued a vocal defense of its abysmal human rights record on Tuesday, alleging that “socialist Korea” presents “a good example in guaranteeing the genuine civilization and human rights” in contrast to the free societies of the West.

Leaders from a number of progressive, mostly mainline U.S. Christian churches have rejected President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies in favor of “global development.”

On the eve of the historic move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, American Christians are expressing how the development is also a milestone for them as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a cornerstone of their faith.

JERUSALEM, Israel — Pastor John Hagee, founder and national director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview Friday that President Donald Trump had earned “political immortality” by moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Reuters cited half a dozen experts on Wednesday who said the three prisoners freed by North Korea could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), experiencing symptoms from “anxiety, depression, irritability, and anger” as a result of their ordeal.

Oscar-nominated actor Woody Harrelson said he and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence palled around some at Hanover College in the 1980s but would probably not be friends today due to Pence’s Christianity, because he has “that kind of fervor that you really don’t want.”

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper reported Wednesday that the nation’s religious regulation agency has drafted new rules to “protect foreigners’ religious beliefs” by demanding they rigorously detail their religious activity in the country when participating in “group religious activities.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan has described the 2018 Catholic-themed Met Gala, with guests dressed up as cardinals, saints, the Virgin Mary, and even Jesus, as a “powerful evening” in which the guests “were rather respectful of the sacred.”

An American pastor facing 35 years in prison in Turkey for alleged ties to terrorist groups will not have a chance to leave prison until his next hearing on July 18, the court presiding over his case decided on Monday after dismissing all witnesses assembled to defend the pastor without listening to their testimony.