Mormon President Announces Plans for Temples in Russia, India, Nicaragua

Mormon President Announces Plans for Temples in Russia, India, Nicaragua

SALT LAKE CITY (Associated Press) — The Mormon church has announced plans to build seven new temples, including one in Russia where Mormon missionaries are known as “volunteers” and banned by that country’s law from publicly proselytizing. New church president Russell M. Nelson announced Sunday that the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints […]

Child in Kazakhstan Church Triggers Police Raid

Child in Kazakhstan Church Triggers Police Raid

(World Watch Monitor) — A senior police officer in the southern Kazakh city of Kyzylorda has defended sending anti-extremism officers to investigate the presence of a child in church, reports regional news agency Forum 18. Kuanishbek Urazov, Head of Kyzylorda Regional Police’s Department for the Struggle with Extremism, said it was the police’s “duty to […]

Baptism Service Violently Halted by Hindu Mob Claiming ‘Forced Conversions’

Baptism Service Violently Halted by Hindu Mob Claiming ‘Forced Conversions’

(World Watch Monitor) — Around 20 Hindu extremists in saffron-coloured clothes barged inside a church in eastern India’s Uttar Pradesh state yesterday (March 28), violently assaulting the pastor and two church members. Shouting in extremely offensive language, they entered the Evangelical Churches of India (ECI) building in the Fatehpur district of the city, and bolted […]

Hindu Extremists Turn Tribal, Animist Villagers Against Christians in India

Hindu Extremists Turn Tribal, Animist Villagers Against Christians in India

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – About 20 villagers questioning Christians gathered for worship in a home in Odisha state, India were animists who worshipped objects in nature and other gods, but Hindu nationalists had led them there. “Why have you left your ancestral faith and begun following the Christian faith?” a few of them asked, […]

Kidnapped Girl’s Church Calls on Buhari to Win Her Release From Boko Haram in Nigeria

Kidnapped Girl’s Church Calls on Buhari to Win Her Release From Boko Haram in Nigeria

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria retained the only Christian among more than 100 kidnapped girls who were freed last week, prompting the head of her church denomination to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to obtain her release. Boko Haram refused to release Leah Nathan Sharibu, 15, because she would not renounce […]

Clergyman Who Defied Church of England on Same-Sex Marriage Loses Discrimination Case

Clergyman Who Defied Church of England on Same-Sex Marriage Loses Discrimination Case

(The Christian Institute) — A homosexual clergyman who was disciplined for violating Church of England teaching on marriage has lost his case at the Court of Appeal. Canon Jeremy Pemberton entered into a same-sex “marriage” in 2014, despite Church of England rules not allowing clergy to do so. The court said the Church had applied […]

North Carolina Pastor Sentenced to 7 Years in China’s Prisons

North Carolina Pastor Sentenced to 7 Years in China’s Prisons

PU’ER, Yunnan (ChinaAid) — A court in China’s southern Yunnan province sentenced a North Carolina pastor to seven years in prison Friday and heavily fined him on a trumped up charge of “organizing illegal border crossing.” His colleague also received a one-year jail sentence and a fine. John Cao, a North Carolina pastor well-respected for […]