HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Persecution of Christians in Bihar state, India, has so intensified in the past two years that Pastor Shelton Viswanathan didn’t dare call police after Hindu extremists broke bones in his hand and foot. “If I force the police to register cases against the assailants, the [Hindu extremist] Bajrang Dal’s top leaders will not spare me,” Pastor Viswanathan told Morning Star News. “The police officials asked me to be wary as the Hindu militant activists … [Read more...]
Persecuted church draws 2 passionate advocates
WASHINGTON (BP) – One is a former FBI intelligence analyst supervisor, the other a longtime missionary. In their respective ways, they're intent on raising awareness of Christians facing persecution across the world. Patrick Carberry, who was with the FBI for 17 years, worked on intelligence matters in the Middle East war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nik Ripken has served with his wife Ruth as International Mission Board missionaries for 35 years. And each of the men, through … [Read more...]
German family still in custody, homeschooling limbo
STRASBOURG, France (BP) – The family of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich remains in legal limbo as they seek to win the right to homeschool their children in Germany, where homeschooling has been illegal since 1919. In April 2019, the Wunderlichs took their case to the highest level of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), called the Grand Chamber, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). On July 5 the Grand Chamber, located in Strasbourg, France, denied the Wunderlich family's … [Read more...]
FOURTH OF JULY: Let us pray
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a first-person article by Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee and author of "How to Pray: Developing an Intimate Relationship with God." NASHVILLE (BP) – July 4, as the day we set aside to celebrate America's independence, is but one of 365 days that are crucial for our country's future. Each day, we must join in prayer for America. Our nation is in dire need of a new, fresh touch of God. Sin is abounding in a … [Read more...]
FOURTH OF JULY: Chaplains, fog of war, flow of life
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a first-person article by Chaplain (MG) Doug Carver, USA-Retired, executive director of chaplaincy for the North American Mission Board. The article is adapted from his address honoring veterans on the opening day of the June 11-12 Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, Ala. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) – Seventy-five years ago, in June 1944, after the largest amphibious landing in history, U.S. and Allied forces began their offensive push from the blood-soaked … [Read more...]
FBC Troy’s Hayashi named to Human Rights Commission
TROY – There’s another voice promising to bring a biblical perspective to cases that come before the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. Gov. Mike Parson appointed Jonathan Hayashi, music and worship pastor of First Baptist Church, Troy and a Pathway columnist, to the commission, June 17. He was also named the vice chair of the commission. The ten-seat commission fields discrimination complaints in matters of housing, employment, and places of public accommodation based on race, … [Read more...]
S.C. church plant sues town for rental ban
CHARLESTON, S.C. (BP) – A Southern Baptist church plant in South Carolina has sued the town of Edisto Beach for prohibiting it from use of its civic center. Redeemer Fellowship of Edisto Island filed suit Aug. 27 in federal court in Charleston, S.C., because of a policy it says violates its free speech and religion rights guaranteed in the First Amendment. Redeemer Fellowship had twice met for corporate worship in the Edisto Beach Civic Center when the town council changed its policy to … [Read more...]
Army chaplain Squires cleared of all charges
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (BP) – The U.S. Army has dropped its investigation against Southern Baptist chaplain Jerry Scott Squires, fully exonerating the major of all charges, Aug. 24. "This is great news for both Chaplain Squires and all of the military chaplains who are serving our men and women the U.S. Armed Services," said Gen. Douglas Carver, executive director of chaplaincy at the North American Mission Board (NAMB). "It is a significant victory for all who support and defend the freedoms … [Read more...]
Greg Laurie on censored ad: ‘Hold the Bible high’
ANAHEIM, Calif. (BP) – After promotional materials for the SoCal Harvest crusade were taken down from two Southern California malls because they showed pastor Greg Laurie holding a Bible, Laurie is asking attendees of the event to hold up their Bibles in a show of support for God's Word. "Apparently, in our intolerant culture, we no longer can display the Bible in public," Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., wrote in an Aug. 17 op-ed for the Los Angeles … [Read more...]
Attorney under fire while defending religious liberty
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP) – An Alaska law firm representing a Christian women’s shelter is defending itself from a complaint brought by the same municipal agency suing the shelter. The case raises a question: Will lawyers come under fire for defending religious clients accused of discrimination? The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission (AERC) previously sued the Downtown Hope Center, a women’s only homeless shelter, for not admitting a man who identified as transgender. Kevin G. Clarkson, an … [Read more...]
SCOTUS sends florist’s case back to Washington court
WASHINGTON (ADF) – The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case of floral artist Barronelle Stutzman back to the Washington Supreme Court June 25 after vacating that court’s decision and instructing it to reconsider her lawsuit in light of the recent decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In that similar case, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Colorado’s decision to punish cake artist Jack Phillips for living and working consistently with his religious beliefs about … [Read more...]
Victory: Cake baker’s 7-2 SCOTUS win affirms religious liberty
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court delivered an important, if not wide-ranging, victory for religious liberty June 4 in its continuing faceoff with sexual liberty. In a 7-2 opinion, a high court majority that included conservatives and liberals ruled the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated the religious free exercise clause of the First Amendment by penalizing Jack Phillips for declining to design and decorate a cake for the wedding of two men. The commission demonstrated “religious … [Read more...]
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