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The following anecdotes of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world occurred or were reported in April. They are categorized by theme, or familiar patterns: Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches United States: A pro-ISIS group calling itself the United Cyber Caliphate defaced the website of the Christian Reformed Church in the city of Lamont, Michigan. A 15-year-old teenage girl discovered the website’s defacement—which consisted of a YouTube ISIS propaganda video and Arabic text—while searching for the church’s phone number. The video’s spokesman says, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses and enslave your women by the permission of Allah,...

All eyes should be on Florida to see the seeds of change in black America. The issue is school choice and the nation's largest private school choice scholarship program, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, enacted in Florida in 2001 under Gov. Jeb Bush. Students receive scholarships to attend the school of their choice from Scholarship Funding Organizations. The FSOs are funded through donations from businesses that receive tax credits on corporate taxes and insurance premium taxes. It sounds like a no-brainer that this makes all the sense in the world. It's all voluntary; businesses choose to contribute and freedom and...

If I had any lingering doubts about Donald Trump being the best possible candidate for President, he erased them with his announcement of Mike Pence as his preferred VP. It is not about Mike Pence, although he is a great selection. Go to 13:40 in his announcement speech. At that point in the speech, Mr. Trump explains the "Johnson Amendment". This was an amendment to the US Tax code in 1954 proposed by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and eventually passed that prohibited Pastors, Ministers and Priests from addressing political issues in their sermons on the penalty of losing their tax...

WASHINGTON — Thousands of youth flocked to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Saturday for the ecumenical gathering “Together 2016,” which sought to unite those of various backgrounds to “stand together for Jesus” and featured a video endorsement by the leader of Roman Catholicism. The event featured speakers such as Francis Chan, Ravi Zacharias, Lou Engle, Christine Caine and Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd, as well as music from Michael W. Smith, Hillsong United, Lecrae, Jeremy Camp, Lauren Daigle, Casting Crowns and Kirk Franklin, among others. “Everything now is protests: ‘I’m against this’ or ‘I hate that.’ We...

Noah's Ark replica made of 3.1 million board feet of timber Creationist theme park tries, fails to make theology scientific Many Christians don't see conflict between faith, evolution

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an anti-terrorism law, but for the country's many churches, the signature sparked a demand for prayer and fasting. The bill toughens punishment for acts deemed to be terrorism and for the organization of "mass unrest," according to the Los Angeles Times. It would also introduce prison sentences of up to a year for those who fail to report such crimes. Furthermore, Great Commission Ministries Chairman Hanny Haukka tells Charisma News the law entails: Foreign guests are not permitted to speak in churches unless they have a "work permit" from Russian authorities If a friend or...

An Iraqi Catholic group called the Chaldean League has urged Christians to stay put in their native land, saying “ISIS terrorism will soon go away,” local media reported on Tuesday. “Christians in Iraq must stay in their land and to stop migrating,” Safa Sabah Hindi, the head of Chaldean League, said in a statement reported by Iraq-based Al-Sumaria News website. The Chaldean League, headquartered in Iraq, was formed last year to unite Iraqi Catholics in the country and abroad. He added: “Christians are one of the main edifice for building Iraq and one of its cultural civilizational pillars, who add...

Last week, a young Christian male asked me a pretty direct question. He wanted to know whether I ever worried that my blunt commentary on social media was “turning people away from Christianity.” I thought it was an honest question. So I gave him an honest answer. I told him that I believe the problem is just the opposite of what he considers it to be. In other words, it isn’t occasional blunt commentary that turns people away from Christianity. It is the constant displays of Christian cowardice that make people both reticent to join and quick to attack us....

Bill Armstrong, a former U.S. senator, congressman, owner of the defunct Colorado Springs Sun daily newspaper, and president of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, died Tuesday, after a five-year struggle with cancer. He was 79. Armstrong served two terms in the U.S. Senate after defeating Floyd Haskell in 1978. He declined to seek a third term, ending a career in elective office that began with his election to the state House of Representatives in 1963. ... As president of Colorado Christian University, Bill Armstrong sought to 'pass the torch' by preparing students for their future roles in leadership." ... Colorado...

Five years ago I warned readers that folks on the left do not care one whit about your religious liberty. Four-and-a-half years ago, Pope Benedict voiced particular concerns about "certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion". Four years ago, the US Bishops launched the first annual Fortnight For Freedom,  running from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day. This event, once unnecessary but now imperative, seeks "to highlight the importance of defending religious freedom" in America. Unfortunately, the situation for...

Much of my wife Mary's and my time is spent traveling the country, helping to elect conservatives to the House and Senate. I am chairman of the Conservative Campaign Committee. On a rare stop back home in Florida, we decided to enjoy a day at our favorite, New Smyrna Beach. After multiple stops for gas, banking, and Walmart, we were finally on our way. It brought back fond childhood memories of hot summer family trips to the beach; mom, dad, fat Aunt Nee, and five kids all crammed into a station wagon with no air conditioning. The ritual included picking...

Before dawn Monday, four suicide bombers killed five and wounded at least a dozen in the Lebanese Christian town of al-Qaa. Later that night, as townspeople prepared to bury their dead, four more suicide bombers hit. The attacks underscored just how endangered are Christians who live in today’s Muslim world. As the United States debates how many Mideast refugees to accept and who should get priority, the answer is staring us in the face: Those most in need of refuge are Christians and Yazidis who live among Muslims. On June 19, a suicide bomber killed three people as he detonated...

After a series of messages over several weeks encouraging the listeners to respond to the ‘fire of God’, Pastor Bates waded into the controversy over homosexuality, highlighting it’s sin as compared to Scripture: “I was literally shocked, personally, when I began to see people get up, move out, walk out the door kinda shaking their heads. “ Bates says that the people who were most likely to walk out on a message on the Biblical stance of homosexuality are those people with relationship connections with those in the LGBT community. Be it a son, daughter or parent, many going to...

The US Supreme Court today denied to hear a case involving pharmacists in Washington state who, for religious reasons, declined to dispense RU-486Plan B, the “morning-after pill,” which causes abortion. Effectively this means that Christian pharmacists who refuse to sell drugs that intend to exterminate life in the womb cannot work in the new society. More: The Supreme Court will not review Washington state’s requirement that pharmacies dispense emergency contraceptives to women, prompting a complaint from conservative justices that it was an “ominous sign” for religious liberty. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued a sharp dissent Tuesday to the court’s...

Has Donald J. Trump become a born-again Christian? That is the suggestion of James C. Dobson, one of America’s leading evangelicals, who said Mr. Trump had recently come “to accept a relationship with Christ” and was now “a baby Christian.” Dr. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and one of the country’s most prominent social conservatives, gave his account at a meeting Mr. Trump had in New York on Tuesday with hundreds of Christian conservatives. In an interview recorded at the event by a Pennsylvania pastor, the Rev. Michael Anthony, Dr. Dobson said he knew the person who...

Washington D.C., Jun 22, 2016 / 04:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Obama administration has rejected a challenge to the State of California’s requirement that health care plans include abortion coverage. A major federal budget amendment intended to protect abortion foes does not apply, it ruled. Leaders with the U.S. bishops’ conference said it was “shocking” that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allowed the State of California to force all employers, including churches, to fund and facilitate elective abortions. “Even those who disagree on the issue of life should be able to respect the conscience rights of those...

Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II was unharmed in the attack on Sunday, which left three people dead and dozens injured. It was the fourth assault on Assyrian Christians in the region in the last six months, and most of the church's members now live in diaspora communities. ...

The world leader of Syria's besieged Christians has issued a heartfelt plea to the West to "stop arming and supporting terrorist groups that are destroying our countries and massacring our people." The Patriarch of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, said he was not asking the West for military intervention to defend Christians. If the West wants to do something about the present crisis, the most effective thing would be to support local governments, which need sufficient armies and forces to maintain security ...

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is meeting with a group of more than 1,000 faith leaders in New York City. The evangelical leaders gathered during the United in Purpose and My Faith Votes summit, titled: “A Conversation About America’s Future with Donald Trump and Ben Carson.”

Donald Trump will meet behind closed doors on Tuesday with hundreds of the nation’s most prominent Christian conservatives — megachurch pastors, religious media personalities, theological writers, heads of social conservative organizations and more. Many of these Christian leaders supported other candidates, including Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina in the primary season. Some have criticized the presumptive Republican nominee for his rhetoric about race and about women, his lack of an anti-abortion history and even his ownership of casinos. What would Trump have to say to earn their support on Tuesday? Several people who will be attending the meeting...