"Orange County Public Schools allows Christian groups to provide students with Bibles and other religious materials, which prompted the Satanist group to push for an alternative..."
"A Satanist organization in New York is planning to distribute activity books to children in Orange County, Florida public schools. The books, provided by The Satanic Temple, feature a variety of activities that are intended to teach children about Satanism and counteract the teachings of Evangelical Christians in the region.
"Orange County Public Schools allows Christian groups to provide students with Bibles and other religious materials, which prompted the Satanist group to push for an alternative..."
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"The Syrian crisis reached a new milestone as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees counted more than 3 million officially registered refugees driven out by the conflict tearing the Middle Eastern country apart.Syrian refugees cross the border from Syria to Jordan. They must wait a few hours before going to the UN camp. Photo by Jedediah Smith
"As the crisis continues in its fourth year, Christian workers persevere in bringing spiritual and physical aid to the refugees and call on the church to keep praying and keep giving to these efforts. "'We have a God-given moment in history," Don Alan,* a Christian worker in the Middle East, said. "Will we be cowards and shrink back, or will we play the role that God is calling us to? I pray that you [the church] will stand with us as we respond to this window of opportunity that we have been privileged to be a part of." "The Syrian crisis began in the spring of 2011 with protests against the government that escalated into a civil war. Since then, countries surrounding Syria -- Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt -- have been flooded with Syrian refugees seeking asylum. "In the last four years, the conflict has displaced more than 6.5 million people within Syria and killed more than 150,000. "As the numbers continue to rise, workers seek to keep their focus on the individual people around them, sharing the Gospel with refugees as they meet their physical needs..."
India Marks Sixth Anniversary of the 2008 Anti-Christian Orissa Riots with Apathy
ICC's India Correspondent 9/17/2014 Washington, D.C. International Christian Concern The 2008 anti-Christian riots that swept across Orissa's Kandhamal district still stand as one of the worst incidents of anti-Christian violence in the history of independent India. The events that took place in 2008 shook the entire nation and continue to produce aftershocks even after six long years. The mayhem that was unleashed literally left thousands in devastation, as the communal violence shattered an entire Christian community. The trigger that sparked the violence, which commenced on the August 24, was caused by the killing of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader named Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Following almost three months of violence, the National Peoples Tribunal recorded that over 56,000 people were displaced and forced to flee into the forests as mobs of enraged Hindus burned down over 5,600 house and 300 churches and Christian institutions. The Tribunal also estimated that over 100 people were killed in the violence, many Christians being hacked to death by axes and machetes, and several burnt alive by mobs. At least three women were also gang raped during the violence. The Destruction of K.K. Singh K.K. Singh was a remote village in Gajapathi district of Orissa, a village that does not exist today because it was completely destroyed in the 2008 for being a Christian village. Mr. Biswasdas Lima, aged 66, was the pastor of a Baptist church in K.K. Singh and he shared his testimony with ICC about the day K.K. Singh was destroyed as the tears ran from his eyes. On the August 26 at about 6 p.m., a mob of about 300 Hindu radicals stormed into the village with guns and knives, shouting anti-Christian slogans and creating what Lima described as a "war like situation." Seeing the large mob of Hindu radicals carrying guns and knives, the Christian villagers of K.K. Singh ran into the nearby forest in an effort to save themselves. These Christians were chased by the Hindu radicals, so they ran in different directions to hide themselves in the forest. The Christians who fled spent the entire night in the forest with nothing to eat or drink. In the morning when they return to the village, to their utter shock, the entire village was reduced to ashes by the Hindu radicals. At this point in the retelling of the events, Lima broke down and told ICC, "Everything that we had, even our clothes and kitchen utensils, was burnt to ashes, all our hopes and future [were] destroyed." Again, on August 27, the Hindu radicals returned to K.K. Singh intending to kill Christians knowing that they would likely have returned from the forest. Again, the Christians had to run away into the forests to save their lives from the hands of Hindu radicals. Some of the Christians wanted to retaliate, but Lima, who was a pastor and had authority in the village, urged the Christian villages not to retaliate, saying, "We do not want bloodshed and we need to protect our lives by leaving this place." Following Lima's counsel, the Christians abandoned K.K. Singh leaving behind the burned out structures they used to call their homes. The Christian community of K.K. Singh then spent three months in a government relief camp before relocating to Meliyaputti, a village on the border of Andhra Pradesh, a state neighboring Orissa. This exodus undertaken by the Christians of K.K. Singh forced them hundreds of miles from their home to completely start over from nothing. "The situation on the ground is very pathetic," Lima told ICC. "[We are] without the basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation and roads in the newly formed village." Lima continued, "The government gave [each villager] 35,000 Rupees to build houses, which is not sufficient to even put up a normal structure to live in." "Relief and rehabilitation has been extremely tardy, with the authorities failing in their duties to provide assurances of long-term security, as well as resources and opportunities including employment to rebuild their lives," Dr. John Dayal, a member of National Integration Council (NIC) told ICC in response to questions regarding relief to Christian victim of the 2008 anti-Christin riots. Loved Ones Lost In another tragedy, Ms. Laxmi Bardhan, age 45, lost her husband, Kumudha Bardhan, in a brutal murder in the anti-Christin riots on August 25, the day after the riots began. The incident took place in Mukundipur, a village just over ten miles from Rayagada block, in Gajapthi district, which was one of the worst hit villages in 2008 Anti-Christian riots. More than 200 Hindu radicals invaded Mukundipur on August 25 armed with iron rods, knives and guns. Shortly after invading the village, they started separating out and attacking the village's Christians. Both Laxmi and her husband were returning from the fields unaware of the hell like situation in their village. Their eldest son, Tikina Bardhan, had already been shot twice in his legs by the radicals, and other Christians in the village were fleeing into the nearby forest. As Laxmi and Kumudha approached the village, they were surrounded by Hindu radicals. One of the radicals hit Kumudha with an iron rod and he collapsed on the ground bleeding. Laxmi and their daughter try to protect him from the Hindu radicals, but they were also severely injured. Laxmi and her daughter somehow escaped the mob and started running with other Christians to save their lives. Laxmi recalls the terrible events and told ICC, "I was shocked as I saw my husband fall to the ground in a pool of blood. I was terrified, I did not think that my small children and I would survive." Later, the Hindu radicals dragged Kumudha to the village church and burned him in front of the church. Broken Promises and Injustice for All For many not personally affected by the 2008 anti-Christian riots, the events have become history, but for those who were forced to endure the riots, the scars of the tragedy continue to haunt the many thousands of victims, as they continue grapple with the government and smoldering anti-Christian sentiments for both justice and aid to rebuild their lives. "Although the government made several promises to the victims of the 2008 riots, even six years after the carnage, the promises remained promises and have never materialized," Mr. Pramod Raul, a Christian leader from Orissa involved in a relief work, told ICC."The aid that was promised never reached the victims." According to Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), statistics show that out of the 827 First Information Reports filed, charges against the accused were followed through in only 512 cases. Only 75 of those cases have ended in convictions, in which only 477 people were convicted, mostly for smaller or petty offences such as the burning of houses and damaging of property. To date, only nine people have been convicted for their role in the killing of the Christians. "The victims of 2008 anti-Christian riots have been let down by both the government and the Christian NGOs," Mr. Rajkumar, an active Christian lawyer and an activists from Orissa, told ICC. "Even after six years, justice for the victims is a distant dream. However, the international community has played a role in bringing the issue into discussions on the international level." The failure to effectively prosecute those accused of carrying out violent attacks against the Christian community and the apathy of the state machinery has left victims vulnerable to threats, discrimination and social isolation. The impunity enjoyed by the mobs in Orissa has also emboldened other fundamentalist groups to continue to attack the Christians in Orissa, as well as elsewhere in the country. The extent of suffering of the Christian community of Orissa continues to be unimaginable. Along with rebuilding physical structures of the houses and churches destroyed in the riots, there is the bigger challenge of rebuilding the lives and communities that were shattered. It has been six years since the anti-Christian riots swept across Orissa and still little of this necessary rebuilding has come to fruition. For interviews, contact William Stark, Regional Manager for South Asia: RM-SAsia@persecution.org # # # You are free to disseminate this news story. We request that you reference International Christian Concern (ICC) and include our web address, www.persecution.org. ICC is a Washington D.C.-based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441. "Hobby Lobby President Steve Green has spoken out..."
"'...Just a few years ago we never would have imagined we would have filed suit against our own government, the government that we love,” Green said. "But there are challenges. There are struggles that people of faith are facing today that have never been faced before." "Green said Christians must "stand up and let their voice be heard through the ballot box, and if need be, to file suit.” ";If we don't stand up and fight for the freedoms that our founders fought for then we very well may lose some of those," he said..." "What ISIS has done in Iraq, Boko Haram is doing in Nigeria, a Nigerian cleric says. For Rev Samuel Dali, recent territorial gains made by Boko Haram in the northeast, signal the end of his home and of the church in that part of the country, Africa’s most populous.
‘‘'The news is really bad. When they attacked our hometown, we decided to vacate the place. In Michika and surrounding areas, soldiers were running away. Some of them were killed or wounded and lot of people were also running for their lives,” Rev. Samuel Dali, President of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, told World Watch Monitor as he was on the run, a few metres from the Cameroon border. "During the weekend of Sept. 6-7, Boko Haram militants took over Dali’s hometown of Michika, in Adamawa State, on Nigeria’s eastern border. Recent territorial gains made by Boko Haram in the northeast, he said, signal the end of his home and of the church in that part of the country, Africa’s most populous. "In Iraq, The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, swept across the country’s north in June, forcing hundreds of thousands of people, about a quarter of them Christian, fleeing from their homes. Hundreds have been killed. Whole towns have essentially emptied of Christians and non-Sunni Muslims, and their places of worship have been destroyed or occupied. "The situation in the parts of northeast Nigeria overrun by Boko Haram is similar, Dali said..." "Despite Myanmar’s (formerly Burma) recent transition to democracy, Christians in the area are lumped in with the ethnic minorities.
"As a result, they are being purged from the borders. Christian minority groups–particularly the Karen and Chin ethnic groups–are singled out for the harshest treatment. In the last 10 years, notes the Voice of the Martyrs USA, more than 3,000 Christian villages have been burned down. "According to Open Doors USA, being Burmese is synonymous with being Buddhist, and anyone who departs from the norm is often ostracized. "The Burmese government claims to support freedom of religion, but religious groups face surveillance, imprisonment, discrimination, violence, destruction or desecration of property, and censorship of religious materials..." "A Christian couple in north-east India's Bihar state needed hospital treatment after Hindu extremists beat them and threatened to kill them..."
"...Later that day, about 100 Hindu extremists armed with clubs reportedly took up positions on each corner of the village and threatened to kill any Christian who left to try to file a police complaint. Extremists later held a public meeting at which they resolved to kill the couple." "Three elderly Italian nuns murdered in Burundi were laid to rest Thursday (Sept. 11) in a Xaverian cemetery in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid heightened calls for action about their death.
"Sister Lucia Pulici, 75, Sister Olga Raschietti, 82, and Sister Bernadetta Boggian, 79, of the Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary were gruesomely murdered Sunday in their convent in the Kamenge area of Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. "The triple murders shocked Christians across the globe and ignited calls for the protection of sisters worldwide. The nuns were reportedly beaten and killed with a knife. At least one nun was decapitated. There were conflicting reports about whether they had been raped..." "As the caliphate is established, though, one thing is common: bloodshed. Christians are being purged out of the extremist-dominated areas. Yet, that isn’t stopping followers of Christ from sharing their stories or praying. “We’ve not ever been in a time in history where more Muslims are becoming Christians than we are right now,” says Musselman, adding that prayer is key in spiritual warfare. “I’ve met many from these kinds of groups that have had a dream or vision of Jesus, or found a Bible and became Christians. They become amazing evangelists. We need to continue to pray that God will get a hold of the hearts of the enemies of the Gospel.'”
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