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Istanbul Bomb Attack on Police Bus Kills 11, Wounds 36, Russia is 'paving the way' for a major re-escalation in Syria, Arab League won't accept any changes to 2002 peace initiative, says chief, Netanyahu: No one will remove us from our land, Rice promises Israel 'largest military aid package in history', Flesh-eating tropical bug sweeps the Middle East after thriving in ISIS-stronghold, Christian grocer hacked to death in latest Bangladesh attack, Episcopal Priest: LGBTQ People Will 'Revitalize Christianity' and Faith in the spotlight as Australians tipped to lose their religion.

Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God . And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For...

A mob ransacked and torched seven Christian homes in a province south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, after rumors spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman, according to a statement by the local Orthodox Coptic church. Released late Wednesday, it said that during the May 20 attack, the mother of the Christian man, who had fled the village, was publicly stripped of her clothes by the mob to humiliate her.

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The Catholic Church has been on the list for extinction in every totalitarian society in history. In most cases, it has been the number one target but under German National Socialism it was lower, communists & Jews were higher, although there can be no doubt the Church was on the hit list. It’s interesting to speculate why. Here is a version of the famous poem by Gerhard Niemöller. First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I...

ISIS has executed 25 people in Mosul, northern Iraq, by lowering them in a vat of nitric acid, according to several local news reports. The men had been accused of spying on ISIS on behalf of Iraqi government security forces. According to witnesses, the 25 alleged 'spies' had been tied together with a rope and lowered in a large basin containing nitric acid until their organs dissolved.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaican police said Monday they are trying to determine the motive in the weekend slayings of two American missionaries in the north coast area where they lived and worked. A team of officers is interviewing residents of St. Mary parish in northern Jamaica where the bodies of Randy Hentzel, 48, and Harold Nichols, 53, were found in bushes along a rural road where they were traveling on motorbikes.

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness" (Matt. 5:10). If you don’t experience persecution, people probably don’t know you’re a Christian. I heard of a man who was fearful because he was starting a new job with a group of unbelievers whom he thought might give him a bad time if they found out he was a Christian. After his first day at work his wife asked him how he got along with them. "We got along just fine," he said. "They never found out I'm a Christian." Silence is one way to avoid persecution....

On a special edition of Breitbart News Daily entitled “The Global War on Christianity,” Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon interviewed legal editor Ken Klukowski, who is also senior counsel and director of strategic affairs for First Liberty Institute, the largest law firm in the United States dedicated exclusively to protecting religious liberty for Americans.

AsiaNews spoke to Josephine, one of hundreds of Christians from Al-Hasakah, who spent a year in the hands of the Islamic State group. She talked about psychological suffering, conversion attempts, and separation from her male relatives. She survived thanks to her faith. Her mother Caroline, a Caritas official, is the only one in her family to have been spared the ordeal. She also negotiated their release with IS, and gave a Jihadi copies of the Bible. Now she hopes “to meet the pope” with her entire family. Damascus (AsiaNews) – Josephine Martin Tamras is a young Assyrian woman. For a...

Unidentified attackers hacked a Christian convert to death in northern Bangladesh Tuesday, amid growing attacks on religious minorities by suspected Islamist militants in the Muslim-majority country. Police said at least two attackers stopped Hossain Ali while the 68-year-old was taking his regular morning walk in the town of Kurigram and then lunged at his neck with sharp weapons. "He died on the spot. The attackers exploded a molotov cocktail to create panic and left the scene on a motorcycle," Kurigram district police chief Tobarak Ullah told AFP. Ullah said Ali had converted to Christianity from Islam in 1999 but he...

Your soul, and the peace of mind that comes from using it to worship the Almighty, is all that will keep you going through turbulent times in which radical Islam flagrantly slaughters Christians and Marxist sympathizers continue to facilitate it There’s a donkey coming your way this Palm Sunday that has nothing to do with the ones that symbolize a certain political party. Palm Sunday’s donkey, like the One who rides it, has come back every year since bringing Christ into Jerusalem; the presage of a coming victory that continues to the end of time. Though you won’t hear about...

Pressure is mounting on the Obama administration to take action following a unanimous Congressional vote Monday approving a resolution to designate the persecution of Christians and other minorities in the Mid East by the Islamic State as “genocide.” The resolution, which passed in the House in a 383-0 vote, comes ahead of a March 17 deadline requiring Secretary of State John Kerry to announce a final decision. The designation would legally categorize the targeting, torture, uprooting and slaughtering of Christians, Yazidis and Kurds as "genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity." For the executive branch to officially take a position...

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is hosting an international summit on religious persecution in Moscow in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox Church. The summit, called 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians,' will be taking place from October 28-30, 2016. Franklin Graham announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning that 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians' is called in view of rapidly increasing persecution of Christians around the world in recent years, as also documented by last year's study on persecution by Open Doors, which found that 2015 was the worst year of Christian persecution.

In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.(Psalm 120)Why has Anti-Semitism been such an enduring, intractable problem throughout history? The...

Last year, in response to a Pew Research poll showing the American Catholic Church in decline, Elizabeth Scalia (now at the editorial helm of Aleteia) posted this challenge on her Patheos blog The Anchoress: If you're Catholic and have access to a web-page, a radio program, a Facebook page, whatever, take a few minutes, and tell the world why you are remaining a Catholic in an era where doing so seems not only counter-cultural, but also counter-intuitive and even, perhaps, a bit risky? Thoughtful and moving responses rolled in from all across the Internet, and continue to to do so...

A student is punished for refusing to "stomp on Jesus," a Christian baker faces a year in jail for refusing to cater faux marriages, two men are arrested for reading the Bible aloud near a government building, a school "purges" Christian works from its library. Critics asserting the existence of an institutional anti-Christian bias, and a resultant war on the faith, have often been labeled paranoid. But now two University of North Texas sociologists have produced research showing that just such an agenda exists — among America’s most powerful people. Professors George Yancey and David Williamson shared their findings in...

Last week, a Texas grand jury indicted activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for allegedly using fake IDs and attempting to buy fetal tissue. Both of the Center for Medical Progress, the pair concealed their identities while attempting to frame/highlight the willingness of Planned Parenthood employees to sell fetal tissue... ....a breathtaking example of government hypocrisy. The situation facing CMP is evidence of the upside-down understanding of right and wrong in our culture..... ....why, as citizen journalists, Daleiden and Merritt are not protected by the same laws that have shielded countless of their fellow reporters down through the years. Undercover...

AUSTIN, Texas –  A Houston grand jury investigating undercover footage of Planned Parenthood found no wrongdoing Monday by the abortion provider but instead indicted anti-abortion activists involved in making the videos that provoked outrage among Republican leaders nationwide. David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Another activist, Sandra Merritt, was also indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

The headline at The Clarion Project reads: "Christian Persecution in 2015 at ‘Levels Akin to Ethnic Cleansing'." The sub-heading notes that 2015 was "the most violent year in modern history for Christians." It takes one’s breath away to see the blunt truth summed up like that. And the world is turning a blind eye. The article the references a piece at Open Doors that provides an overview of the rise of Christian persecution around the world. (See summary below.) In 2015, more than 7,000 Christians were killed because of their faith (twice as many as the year before). And the...