The Christian Voices

Franklin Graham, a strong supporter of Donald Trump, regularly tours across the US speaking on the state of the nation and urging people to engage politically Despite numerous venues cancelling Franklin Graham's evangelistic events, his UK tour is going ahead "as originally planned", the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association UK (BGEA UK) has said. Liverpool ACC, the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield, Glasgow Hydro, Arena Birmingham, ICC Wales and Milton Keynes Arena have all cancelled his summer tour events following pressure from LGBT+ campaigners.  The venue for a finale event scheduled for October 4 has also not yet been determined.. The Utilita Newcastle is the only venue not to have cancelled his event but local Pride campaigners and Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes are putting pressure on the venue to pull the plug. A petition started on Change.org by Northern Pride calling on Utilita to cancel the event has been signed by over 5,000 people. Northen...

I've written a couple of times recently about the problem that the much of the church in the UK has in reaching poorer communities ( here  and here ). One of the reasons often cited for this is that when people become Christians, they automatically start to adopt habits and attitudes that move them into the middle class and away from their roots. My observation, as a lad from a council house who became a believer over 45 years ago, is that there is a lot of truth in this – it certainly describes much of my experience. I'd also suggest that it shows that we are doing something very wrong! The thing is, there is nothing inherently Christian about the British middle-class dream of having a professional job, owning your own home, having 2.4 children and eating hummus on toast. The notion of cosy suburban living has been sold to us by everything from TV sitcoms to the lifestyle pages of the newspapers and as Christians we've generally accepted this norm without ...

01/29/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has acquitted and ordered the release of 42 Christians accused of participating in the deadly Youhanabad riots that followed the bombing of two churches in 2015. The verdict was reached after settlements were agreed upon with the families of two Muslim men who were wrongfully killed by the rioters. On March 15, 2015, suicide bombers from the Pakistani Taliban attacked Christ Church and St. John’s Catholic Church in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Youhanabad, located in Lahore, Pakistan. As a result of those attacks, 15 people were killed, including 11 Christians and four Muslims. Following the bombings, enraged Christians took to the streets in protest. There, two Muslim men, Babar Noman and Hafiz Naeem, were wrongfully accused of participating in the bombings and were lynched by the mob. In response...

1/31/2020 Turkey (International Christian Concern) – On Tuesday, Osman Kavala again appeared in a Turkish courtroom as the trial continues regarding his alleged involvement in so-called masterminding the 2013 Gezi Park Protests. Defense lawyers requested that the judges recuse themselves, on the basis that the court had listened to additional witnesses without allowing their or Kavala’s presence. When the judges refused, 50 defense lawyers walked out of the courtroom in protest and Kavala was remanded back to prison. There are 15 other defendants on trial alongside Kavala, but he is the only one who remains in jail. His case is an example of Turkey using the judicial system to censor critics and has serious implications for religious minorities. As a philanthropist, Kavala’s work encompasses many cultural and historical angles. A significant amount of his work involved the publication of numerous books on the Armenian Genocide, a topic which Turkey actively discoura...

01/30/2020 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – There were at least 16 Christians killed in attacks in Plateau State, Nigeria by Fulani militants. These involved multiple attacks in areas of Plateau State that have been prone to attacks before. First, on Jan 1, Ngam Stephen Dachung was shot and killed by militants when they attacked his village of Rim. Rim has been attacked on numerous occasions over the past ten years and has never had help from the Nigerian government to rebuild. Second, on January 8, thirteen Church of Christ in Nation members were slain in Plateau state’s Kulben village, Mangu County. This attack was reportedly conducted by at least 20 Fulani militants. Area residents said that they have long lived in peace with the roaming herders, and were surprised by the attack. Finally, militants raided the village of Torok in Riyom where they killed Rueben Bulus. Riyom county is near Bokkos county which was part of the largets recent attack in Paltea...

01/31/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – When I first saw them walking along the beach, I knew it wasn’t for a day of play. But, I couldn’t have imag­ined what was to come. Each victim, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, was escorted by an ISIS soldier. They were forced to kneel, their sentence was read out, and the knives were revealed. That’s when the horror began. For a more than a decade before ISIS’s mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, ICC tried to wake the Western media and Western Church to the rise of radical Islam around the globe. Given ICC’s focus on persecution, we knew that most instances of modern persecution are driven by radical Islam. We witnessed radical Islam’s worldwide expansionist movement, and we weren’t afraid to be vocal (or politi­cally incorrect) about it. Unfortunately, for many years, our message often fell on deaf ears. That changed after the mass beheading. There were no more raised eyebrows or suspicions w...

P ro-life advocates and ministry leaders are challenging the results of a new study that found that most women do not suffer emotionally after an abortion, and that over time, they are less likely to express regret. Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) followed 667 women across 30 clinics after they received an elective abortion, finding that the majority had either positive feelings or no emotion at all toward their decision both a week later (71%) and five years later (84%), according to a study released last week in the journal Social Science & Medicine . Corinne Rocca, one of the study’s authors and UCSF professor, said that the study proves that the idea that women will develop negative emotions after an abortion is a “ myth ” and a “ red herring .” Rocca has also participated in multiple research studies and written several articles for the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood. While pro-choice advo...

Less than two weeks after suspected Fulani militants attacked a Christian school in Kaduna State, kidnapping 6 girls and two teachers, a similar attack has taken place in the same county. The murder and kidnapping took place in Kaduna, Nigeria, in the village of Ungwan Barau. The militants targeted a Baptist church, where they killed one woman and kidnapped four other Christians. One of the women kidnapped is the pastor’s wife. The kidnapping victims have not yet been returned and it is expected that ransoms will be demanded. International Christian Concern describes the attack as being committed by “suspected Fulani militants,” but the government of Kaduna has stated that these attacks are being committed by bandits who are linked to the Islamist Boko Haram terrorist group. The kidnapping came around the same time that thousands of Nigerian mercenaries were getting ready to lead a massive raid against Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group. The raid has the backing of t...

Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Nov. 14 killed four Christians in north-central Nigeria, attacking them with machetes as they slept in their beds, area residents said. The four members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Agban village, near Kagoro in Kaduna state’s Kaura County, were farmers who were killed in the early morning hours, villagers said. “Hosea Ayuba, Ado Adamu, Abagu Danladi and Kusa Danladi were killed by armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen,” area resident Derek Christopher told Morning Star News in a text message. “They were attacked with machetes, and their corpses had machetes cut wounds. The herdsmen came to the area in a minivan and a motorbike.” A relative of Ayuba, Williams Adamu, mourned the loss, calling the latest attack in the area, “one too many.” Herdsmen also attacked Agban in 2017 and 2015. A member of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Agban, Gideon Akut, and another village Christian, Didam Ashio, also said that the four named Christians ...

01/31/2020 Malaysia (International Christian Concern) – On January 26, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) announced through a statement that a public inquiry into the disappearance of Pastor Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Hilmy (née Sitepu) will begin on Feb 18 in Kuala Lumpur. The inquiry is to assist the authorities with their ongoing investigation into the disappearance of the couple and the panel will be chaired by Commissioner Hishamuddin Yunus and assisted by Commissioners Jerald Joseph and Madeline Berma. Suhakam has called for individuals with relevant and important information to come forward to have their statements recorded from now to Feb 14. “Through this inquiry, Suhakam intends to fully investigate to its best ability what has transpired in order to identify and make the best possible recommendations to the appropriate parties,” reads the statement. “Notwithstanding Suhakam’s investigation, the commission calls on the authorities to fully and...

By Claire Evans 01/31/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – Last February, International Christian Concern requested that the United States Treasury Department sanction Iranian Judge Mohammed Moghiseh, a known human rights abuser who used his authority to discriminate against religious minorities, including Christians. The following report details a casefile summary of the documentary evidence ICC collected when recommending that the US Treasury Department sanction Judge Moghiseh. He was officially sanctioned by the Treasury Department in December 2019. Full legal name of perpetrator: Mohammed Moghiseh Known Aliases: Haj Nasser, Naserian Country: Islamic Republic of Iran Title Position: Judge of Tehran Revolutionary Court Branch 28 Crime: Human Rights Abuse Birthdate: 1955 Other known personal identifiers: N/A Command Responsibility:   Iran’s judiciary is a well-oiled machine of oppression enshrined within the foundation of the country’s...

By Gina Goh 01/31/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – A new respiratory virus with origins in the Chinese city of Wuhan has now infected 8,200 people across the world, and has claimed nearly 200 lives. The outbreak of the coronavirus, which causes pneumonia-like symptoms, prompted Chinese authorities to quarantine several major cities. The usual lunar new year holidays, which typically last no more than 10 days long, have also been tentatively extended to mid-February to prevent the disease from spreading further. In this time of desperation and fear, China’s Christian community, which has suffered an intensified crackdown by the government in recent years, has stepped up to fill in the gap left unattended by the incompetent authorities. A Chinese Christian Twitter user shared on January 27, “Some overseas Christians shipped supplies designated to serve local hospitals through local churches, with the intention to ask them to pass ...

01/21/2020 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – Two young Christian women were killed in Southern Kaduna State on Friday, Jan 17. According to a report by Morningstar News, the two women, Briget Philip and Priscilla David, were both still in Secondary School (equivalent to Highschool in the United States) and were shot by Fulani militants who had driven into the village of Gora-Gan in Kaduna. The attackers ambushed the villagers who were gathered in the village square around 5 pm. Three young men were also hurt during the attack. They are listed in the report as 18-year-old Henry Jonathan, 19-year-old Benjamin Peter and 12-year-old Goodluck Andawus. After the shooting started, the locals scattered to the surrounding woods to find safety. It is unclear what provoked this attack, as there have been claims that it was in reprisal for other actions. It is likely that this attack was conducted to gain supplies or force the locals off of the land to allow for the migra...

Daniel Dauda and his family heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the man in a video released by the militants. Rev. Lawan Andimi , 58, Mr. Dauda’s father-in-law, had gone missing on Jan. 2 after a Boko Haram raid on Michika, a town in Adamawa, northeast Nigeria. The family found out about the pastor’s capture via a six-minute Facebook video released three days after his kidnapping, where he softly but bravely told his loved ones not to panic but to pray. “Be patient. Don’t cry, don’t worry, but thank God for everything,” he said in the video. He also called for Christian leaders and the governor of Adamawa State to rescue him. “The attack occurred at about 6:30 p.m. and lasted for more than two hours,” Mr. Dauda said. The community was still enjoying the new year celebrations when gunshots rang out. People “flew out in different directions,” Mr. Dauda said. Some went high up into surrounding mountains for safety. But when the attackers left and everyone returned, Mr. ...

A video released by Islamic State on Dec. 26 which claims to show the killing of 11 Christian hostages in northern Nigeria threatens to spark religious tensions in the country and compounds the political problems of president Muhammadu Buhari. The Islamic State sub-group called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) said the “beheading” of the hostages was part of its campaign to “avenge” the killing of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US military raid in Syria last October. ISWAP is a 2016 breakaway faction of the Nigeria-founded Boko Haram terrorist group. Until last year when more radical leaders took over, ISWAP was led by Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf. As well as Nigeria, it operates in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali, all of which are Nigeria’s neighboring countries. In December, the group killed four aid workers from the NGO Action Against Hunger who they originally abducted in Damasak in Nigeria’s northeaster...

LAGOS, Nigeria — Islamic militants in Nigeria have killed a Christian pastor who had pleaded for his life in a video just days earlier, and a human rights activist said Tuesday that other extremists attacked his hometown on the same day. The Rev. Lawan Andimi was abducted earlier this month when Boko Haram militants attacked the Michika local government area, where he was the chairman of a local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. He was killed on Monday. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari condemned Andimi's slaying, calling it “cruel, inhuman and deliberately provocative.” “I am greatly saddened by the fact that the terrorists went on to kill him even while giving signals of a willingness to set him free by releasing him to third parties,” Buhari tweeted. Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International in Nigeria, called it “appalling” that Boko Haram followed up Andimi's killing on Monday with an attack on his hometown in the Chibok ...

The Islamic State group has released a video claiming to show the killing of 11 Christians in Nigeria. IS said it was part of its recently declared campaign to "avenge" the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US raid in Syria in October. No details were given about the victims, who were all male, but IS says they were "captured in the past weeks" in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno State. The 56-second video was produced by the IS "news agency" Amaq. It was released on 26 December and analysts say it was clearly timed to coincide with Christmas celebrations. Have Nigeria's militants been defeated? The rise and fall of the Islamic State group Caliphate defeated but IS remains a threat Where is IS still active around the world? President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the apparent killings and urged Nigerians not to let themselves be divided along religious lines. "We should, under no circumstance, let the terror...

Most violent persecution of Christians in Nigera is associated with Islamist groups, or with Fulani herdsmen.   Refugees in a camp in Nigeria, among the millions displaced by terrorist militia Boko Haram Photo: Kristin Palitza/DPA/PA Images Boko Haram have executed a prominent Anabaptist pastor who was chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). The Rev Lawan Andimi was brutally murdered by the terror group on 20 January, with news of his death being received the following day by Nigerian journalist Ahmed Salkida, an expert on Boko Haram. The 58-year-old pastor, the father of nine children, was shot alongside an as-yet unidentified Nigerian Army soldier...

During the past six months, Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremist sect has continued to demonstrate the ability to execute attacks. It has both solidified its hold over the region of Maiduguri in Borno State, as well as expanded its operating area to include the major Muslim population centers of northern Nigeria. 1 To date, the Nigerian government seems incapable of responding to Boko Haram, and through a series of mistakes has revealed what outside observers have long suspected: certain elements of the security forces and political leaders of Muslim-majority northern Nigeria are either complicit with Boko Haram’s operations, or they are taking a rather complacent view of its success. The most significant changes to Boko Haram’s operations have been a departure from high-profile operations with international implications—such as the suicide attack on the United Nations headquarters in Abuja on August 26, 2011—and an escalation of attacks on Nigerian Christians as well as a ...

Franklin Graham has asked for prayer as he remains determined to see through his planned UK tour despite multiple venues backing out. he Liverpool ACC, Glasgow SEC and ICC Wales have all pulled out of hosting evangelistic events as part of Graham's eight-city UK tour, due to take place over the summer. The Newcastle Arena has come under pressure to cancel his scheduled event at the venue on June 3. Graham is the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and a vocal supporter of Donald Trump.  He has also repeatedly defended heterosexual marriage. Despite the setbacks, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, of which Graham is the CEO, said that the tour was going ahead as planned. And in a letter to supporters, Graham asked Christians to pray "that God will keep the doors open" to preach the Gospel in the UK.

The Church of England is expected to take steps to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2045, including making radical changes to the way it heats its 40,000 buildings, among them vast medieval cathedrals. There could be heated cushions in pews aimed at warming individuals rather than heating the air in churches and cathedrals, and bishops may be discouraged from international air travel. The church is launching an energy ratings system similar to those used for household appliances to monitor the carbon footprint of its buildings, which also include schools, halls and vicarages. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said Nicholas Holtam, the bishop of Salisbury and the church’s lead on environmental affairs. The C of E’s ruling body, the General Synod, will debate a motion next month calling on the church to reach net zero emissions by 2045 at the latest. A paper submitted to the synod says all parts of the church must take action or “ramp up what they are alrea...

The fast-growing religious right – both Catholic and Protestant – see the president’s exit as a first step in transforming the country, leaving many indigenous Bolivians horrified Luis Aruquipa Carlo, a hardline pastor from the de facto capital, La Paz, has other ideas. “The glory is God’s,” proclaimed the evangelical leader who heads a conservative coalition of Bolivian churches called the National Christian Council. Aruquipa claimed that in the hours before Morales’s flight to Mexico the leftist received a divine decree: “Pharaoh , leave Bolivia in peace!

This weekend, a video of Trump’s spiritual adviser, Paula White, surfaced showing her preaching some potentially ungodly words. “We command any satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now!” she says, before clarifying: “We declare that anything that’s been conceived in satanic wombs that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm.” White has since claimed that her words were taken out of context – she wasn’t praying for literal miscarriages, just metaphorical ones! Right. Whatever the case, it’s not the most outlandish thing she’s ever advocated. 1 She has an assignment from God White has a close relationship with the president and his family. She offered a prayer at Trump’s inauguration; brags about how she calls Trump first thing in the morning; and reportedly visits the White House once a week . But despite all of her talk about rejecting self-serving actions, she has called her appointment as Trump’s adviser an “...

Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy, has released two photographs taken in exile, as she prepares for the launch of her autobiography on Wednesday. The former farm labourer, whose case became one of the most high-profile human rights campaigns in the world, was freed last year and flew to Canada, where she was reunited with her family. They are all believed to be living under assumed identities, at a secret location, as they still receive death threats from extremists. The autobiography, Free At Last , has been written in French with journalist Isabelle-Anne Tollet, who had become a leading campaigner for Bibi’s freedom, and wrote two books about her case. “You know my story from the media, perhaps you have tried to put yourself in my place to understand what I suffered,” she was quoted saying in a press release announcing the new book. “But you are far from understanding my day to day existence in prison, or m...