Christianity - Page 40

Residents on the Greek island of Lesbos have reacted with anger to the destruction of a large stone cross by an unknown group of people, just weeks after an open borders-backing NGO demanded its removal on the basis it promoted “hate” against migrants.

The Christian couple that recently won a Supreme Court free speech victory in the “gay cake” controversy are urging their fellow Christians to “take their stand for the word of God.”

The devil’s mission is always to destroy, Pope Francis said Friday, but his worst assaults are not frontal attacks, but subtle, “well-mannered” persuasion.

(AFP) — The family of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother who faces execution for blasphemy in Pakistan, said they hoped the Supreme Court would free her.

American pastor Andrew Brunson marked his second year imprisoned in Turkey on Sunday. Ankara accuses him of terrorism in connection to the failed coup in 2016, an allegation that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration refutes.

The Fides news agency announced in a special report Saturday that at least 447 Christian missionaries have “died violently” in the first 17 years of the third millennium.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) – Two days of voting on a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to legalise same-sex marriage have gotten started in Romania.

London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey is under fire for a 2005 pamphlet in which he described his escape from a sink estate and said multiculturalism was a bar to integration, eroding Britain’s sense of community, and turning it into a “crime-riddled cesspool”.

Sweden’s third largest city Malmö has opened up nominations to play the lead role in the Christian Saint Lucia procession to men, because “people don’t always identify with a gender”.

Beijing is demolishing crosses and replacing them with Chinese flags as part of Xi Jinping’s efforts to “Sinicize” Christianity — ensuring the religion is completely subordinate to the atheist Communist Party, the U.S. government and independent experts told American lawmakers on Thursday.

The latest generation of Americans is the “least religious” in the nation’s history, said Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput over the weekend in a dour assessment of the present state of affairs.

The Chinese government’s campaign to “Sinicize” organized religion – in other words, make religion completely subordinate to the Communist Party – grew more aggressive this year and featured the destruction of Bibles, crosses, and entire churches. Religious freedom activists call it the worst crackdown on Christianity since religious freedom was nominally granted by the 1982 Chinese constitution.

Just two percent of young British adults identify with the Church of England and seven out of 10 people under the age of 24 say they have no religion, research has revealed.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper announced a series of “grass-roots” measures to diminish the influence of religion in the lives of individuals, particularly designed to weaken “overseas influence” and manage “illegal” religious practices that do not promote communism.

Belgian Roman Catholic Bishop Jean-Pierre Delville was assaulted earlier this week by “foreign men” during a home invasion, according to the diocese of Liège.

A fresh appeal to free U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, whose continued detention has sparked a diplomatic spat between Turkey and the United States, was rejected Wednesday.

The Italian bishops conference announced Tuesday that changes to the Lord’s Prayer proposed by Pope Francis will take effect in Italy this November.

Actor Chris Pratt worked his Christian faith into his acceptance speech at the “Teen Choice Awards” Sunday night, telling his young audience to “love God.”

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Pakistan-born former Bishop of Rochester, has weighed into the controversy around Islamic face veils to call for a near-total ban on the garments, supported by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.

Peter Hitchens, brother of the late ‘anti-theist’ writer Christopher Hitchens, has waded into the debate surrounding Boris Johnson’s burqa comments, declaring it is Christianity, not Islam, which is “under siege” in Great Britain.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticized the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) by name Wednesday as he spoke at the Religious Liberty Summit of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the successful Christian public interest law firm the SPLC designates a “hate group.”

Ireland’s Leo Varadkar had said he will challenge Pope Francis on the ‘equality’ of same-sex families on his upcoming visit, with the establishment demanding the pontiff scrap the church’s “evil” teachings on homosexuality.

The bishop of Albany, NY, has criticized proposed clerical solutions to the recent revelations of sex abuse reaching as high as a U.S. cardinal, insisting that the laity must be in charge of investigations.

The Colson Center for Christian Worldview has denounced a new TV version of the 1908 children’s story Anne of Green Gables for pushing a pro-LGBT agenda antithetical to the original story.

Pope Francis has amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding capital punishment, declaring it “inadmissible” and saying the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”

Modern idolatry takes many forms, Pope Francis said Wednesday, including not having children in order to advance one’s career.

Americans are “far more religious” than citizens of other prosperous western countries, the Pew Research Center said in a report Tuesday.

Viktor Orbán has told supporters he will use his third consecutive election victor as an opportunity to advance into a “new era”, with Central Europe becoming a bastion of Christian culture and nation-state democracy as multicultural globalism turns liberal democracies into “liberal non-democracies”.

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church says a bishop has been found dead inside a monastery in the desert northwest of Cairo.

Pope Francis offered a prayer Sunday that programs “dedicated to development, nourishment, and solidarity” prevail over programs of “hate, armament, and war.”

The British government has admitted that no Christians were taken among the Syrian refugees flown into Britain recently, with the Home Office rejected the handful of non-Muslims selected for resettlement by the United Nations.

MOSCOW (AP) – Vladimir Putin says the adoption of Christianity more than 1,000 years ago in territory that later became Russia marked the starting point for forming the Russian nation itself.

A church in the French city of Orleans was attacked this week by unknown vandals who set partial fires, vandalised the interior of the building and wrote various “hate tags” according to police.

The League party of Matteo Salvini has introduced a bill in the Italian parliament requiring crucifixes in all public buildings, including train stations, airports, universities, embassies, and — significantly — ports, Italian media reported this week.

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney accused previous White House administrations of withholding foreign aid from countries in sub-Saharan Africa to secure compliance with left-wing policy initiatives on “abortion [and] gay marriage.”

The largest gay advocacy group in the U.S. has released a “guide for LGBTQ evangelical Christians” asserting the compatibility of an active homosexual lifestyle with faithful Christianity.