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Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan, Says State Department

December 1, 2011 in Cross-Cultural Evangelism, Muslim Missions, Persecution with 0 Comments

Can you believe that there is a country in the world that has not one small, struggling church the worships the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what this article reports based on US State department findings.

I am alarmed. I am asking God to raise up men and women and send them to Afghanistan. Will you pray with me? Will you read portions of this article and then pray? Will you do what you can do to get missionaries to this needy part of the world?

The source article can be found by clicking here.

(CNSNews.com) — There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan’s new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”

“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church’s claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom. “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams], and at the Italian embassy. Some citizens who converted to Christianity as refugees have returned.”

Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.

“There were no explicit restrictions for religious minority groups to establish places of worship and training of clergy to serve their communities,” says the report, “however, very few public places of worship exist for minorities due to a strapped government budget.”

While the new constitution states that Islam is the “religion of the state” and that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” it also proclaims that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law.”

However, “the right to change one’s religion was not respected either in law or in practice,” according to the State Department.

“Muslims who converted away from Islam risked losing their marriages, rejection from their families and villages, and loss of jobs,” according to the report. “Legal aid for imprisoned converts away from Islam remains difficult due to the personal objection of Afghan lawyers to defend apostates.”

The report does note that “in recent years neither the national nor local authorities have imposed criminal penalties on coverts from Islam.” The report says that “conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and is punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic rule in the country.”

Also, in recent years, the death punishment for blasphemy “has not been carried out,” according to the State Department.

According to the State Department report, the United States continues to promote religious freedom in Afghanistan–even though the country no longer has even one Christian church.

“The U.S. government regularly discusses religious freedom with government officials as part of its overall policy to promote human rights,” according to the report.

According to the State Department report, more than 99 percent of the population, estimated between 24 and 33 million people, is either Sunni (80 percent) or Shia (19 percent) Muslim. Non-Muslim religious groups, including the estimated 500 to 8,000 strong Christian community in the country, make up less than 1 percent of the population. Other non-Muslim groups in the country are Sikhs, Bahais, and Hindus.

This country is in great need of the gospel. It will mean someone risking everything to start underground churches in the country. What are you willing to do to help reach this area with the gospel?

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Still praying for the life of the Iranian pastor

October 16, 2011 in Persecution with 0 Comments

For more information please click here

I want to challenge you to be praying for the life of the Iranian pastor as we have all been doing. Things have still not been decided. Here is an article with some points to consider:

The former Bishop of Rochester has written to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to ask that he grant clemency to a pastor sentenced to death for apostasy.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been held in Lakan Prison, Rasht, since being found guilty of apostasy in September last year and sentenced to death, despite there being no such crime under Iran’s penal code.

“It appears that the court who sentenced Pastor Nadarkhani has chosen to impose a sentence which is beyond what is codified in the Iran Penal Code and contravenes both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICPPR), and article 23 of the Iranian constitution,” he said.

“Although the court has justified these actions we ask you to appeal to the Iranian Government to have compassion on Pastor Nadarkhani and grant him clemency.

“Iran has a long tradition of justice and of compassion and we appeal to the Iranian authorities to uphold this tradition in Pastor Nadarkhani’s case.”

Pastor Nadarkhani was told that the death sentence would be annulled if he recanted his faith and returned to Islam. In appeal hearings, however, the pastor has refused to give up his Christian faith.

There are concerns that the execution will go ahead after the Fars News Agency reported this week that the pastor is now standing trial for rape, extortion and security-related crimes rather than apostasy.

The news agency quoted the Deputy Governor-General of Gilan province, Golam-Ali Rezvani, as saying that Pastor Nadarkhani was a “Zionist” and “traitor” who had “committed security crimes”.

The pastor’s death sentence has been condemned by Foreign Secretary William Hague and human rights groups, including Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Human Rights Watch.

Mr Hague said the sentence demonstrated the Iranian regime’s “continued unwillingness to abide by its constitutional and international obligations to respect religious freedom”.

“I pay tribute to the courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani who has no case to answer and call on the Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence,” he said.

Since the world condemns the religious persecution Iran wants to change the charge to rape. That is often how a cruel regime can cover up what they are doing. They change the charges so that they can still execute a man for loving Jesus.

Please continue to pray!

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State Media Reports Iranian Pastor Facing Execution for Rape, Not Religion

October 3, 2011 in Persecution with 0 Comments

The pressure must have affected Iran at least a little. They are now claiming that the Iranian pastor is facing execution for Rape not Religion. You can read the Fox News story right here.

Here are the highlights from this story:

  • Iranian evangelical pastor Yousef Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death for apostasy. (Christian Solidarity World)
  • Iran state media put out a stunning report Saturday claiming that imprisoned Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is facing the death sentence for rape and extortion, not for apostasy and refusing to renounce his religion, as his lawyer, human rights groups and Western news media have reported.
  • “His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” the deputy governor of the Gilan province, Gholomali Rezvani, told Fars, the semi-official state news agency.
  • “He is guilty of security-related crimes.”
  • The Fars comments were part of a larger Iranian media push to counter reports that Nadarkhani was facing execution for refusing to recant his Christian faith.
  • “We’re trying to determine if this is the state-controlled media throwing it out there,” said Jordan Sekulow, Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

The interesting thing is that this is what we are hearing now. They must change what they say to avoid the pressure from the world for them to give him religious freedom.

  • “There’s been no mention of any other charges than apostasy in trial documents.”
  • In a ruling from the Iranian Supreme Court, translated into English by the ACLJ, Nadarkhani was sentenced to execution by hanging for, “turning his back on Islam” and “converting Muslims to Christianity.”
  • The ruling also alleges that he also participated in Christian worship by holding home church services and baptizing himself and others, effectively breaking Islamic Law.

FoxNews.com obtained a copy of the ruling and there is not a single mention of rape or extortion allegations.

  • Fox News reported earlier this week that Nadarkhani, 32, who ran a group of house churches in Iran, was facing execution after being convicted last November of apostasy.
  • Nadarkhani appealed his conviction all the way to the Iranian Supreme Court, and his appeals trial began last Sunday in Gilan province.
  • It was then that the married father of two young children refused to renounce his religion, according to his lawyer and rights groups monitoring the trial.

 

  • Dadkhah said neither Iranian law nor clerics have ever stipulated the death penalty as punishment for converting from Islam to Christianity.
  • Early Saturday in Iran, ACLJ received report from sources in Iran that Pastor Youcef is alive.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement saying: “The United States is deeply concerned by reports of the Iranian government’s continued repression of its people. Despite statements from Iran’s Supreme Leader and President claiming support for the rights and freedoms of Iranian citizens and people in the region, the government continues its crackdown on all forms of dissent, belief, and assembly. We are particularly concerned by reports that Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is facing execution on charges of apostasy for refusing to recant his faith.”

  • Also on Thursday, the White House condemned the conviction and possible death sentence, saying the execution would further demonstrate Iranian authorities “utter disregard” for religious freedom.

Governments conveniently change the charges or publicize that the charges are something else. That is exactly what they will do in all of the countries that repress religious freedom. Will you continue to pray for this brother.

Do not easily believe the charges that it is rape. That is an amazing change of events. Remember they simply want to shut down the gospel.

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Meet John James

September 29, 2011 in Biographies, Persecution, Reading Notes with 0 Comments

Many of our people have been persecuted for their faith. This story is of a man that loved God, preached the Word, and did not get involved in politics but was put to death by false accusations. Read it, learn, and enjoy!

James, Rev. John, was pastor of the Baptist church meeting in Bulstake Alley, Whitechapel, London. In the latter end of 1661, Mr. James was rudely interrupted twice by officers of the law while preaching to his own people, and commanded to come down.

Then he was dragged out of the pulpit. A perjured wretch named Tipler, a journeyman pipe-maker, charged him with uttering treasonable words against the king; and so disreputable a person was Tipler that the justice refused to commit Mr. James on his testimony, unless it was corroborated; but this was done, and the good pastor was sent to the Tower.

On the 14th of November he was brought before Chief-Justice Forster, and three other judges, at Westminster Hall, where he was charged with “endeavoring to levy war against the king; with seeking a change in the government; with saying that the king was a bloody tyrant, a blood-sucker, and a bloodthirsty man, and that his nobles were the same; and that the king and his nobles had shed the blood of the saints at Charing Cross, and in Scotland.”

To this indictment he pled “not guilty, neither in matter nor form.” And there was not a tittle of evidence to substantiate one of the charges in any just court on earth. Mr. James was remanded to Newgate for four days, when the trial was to proceed: In the mean time he received a letter from a friend of distinction, who informed him that for many years there had not been such efforts to pack a jury, and that his only hope of safety lay in challenging them, or “most of the chief men of them.”

When Mr. James was brought before the court, the chief justice exclaimed, “Oh, oh, are you come?” “and this was a specimen of the way in which his trial was conducted.” He was condemned according to the plot of those who planned his murder; and the next day, after the court had sentenced him, his wife presented a petition to King Charles II. proving his innocence, and appealing for mercy; but the only reply of his majesty was, “Oh! Mr. James, he is a sweet gentleman,” “and the door was shut against her.”

The next morning she made another appeal to him; and his cruel response was, “He is a rogue, and shall be hanged.”

When he was asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon him, his answer was: “As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as it seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye.” And when Mr. James heard his sentence, he immediately added, “Blessed be God, whom man hath condemned God hath justified.”

At Tyburn, where he was hung, drawn, and quartered, his remarks were gentle and loving, and his soul brave and full of hope. “His quarters were taken back to Newgate prison on the sledge which brought him to the gallows, and they were afterwards placed on the city gates, and his head was set upon a pole opposite his meeting-house.”

John James was an inoffensive and benevolent man, free from any blemish in his character, and guiltless of every charge in the indictment.. He was savagely murdered by Charles II., his courtiers, and his tools, the judges, to terrify the Dissenters, and especially the Baptists, into loyalty.

Undoubtedly the vengeance of God, invoked by the innocent blood of John James, had something to do with driving the Stuarts from the throne of England. Mr. James was a Seventh-Day Baptist.

Roger William Heritage Archives Editors. (2003; 2003). Baptist Biographies. Roger Williams Heritage Archives.

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Pray for Persecuted Brethren around the world

September 29, 2011 in Persecution with 0 Comments

Iran would like to keep quiet what they are doing. They do not want a public outcry. We must get the word out. This should be on the top of the charts as far as news today.

The Fox News article says:

“The key is to keep up the pressure and to publicize the story because it obviously outrages most people,” Auerbach said. “It’s part of the pattern of persecution based on religion in Iran.”

House Speaker John Boehner said Nadarkhani’s case is “distressing for people of every country and creed,” according to a statement released on Wednesday.

“While Iran’s government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith,” the statement read. “This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity. I urge Iran’s leaders to abandon this dark path, spare [Nadarkhani's] life, and grant him a full and unconditional release.”

“Will President Obama, and the free world, allow the United Nations to continue in its cowardly silence on this matter?”

Please help spread the word. We have friends that serve the Lord Jesus in countries that still persecute believers and those that would preach the word.

The believers there are strong. They love Jesus. They will not recant. They will not deny Jesus even if it means losing their life or their freedom.

I long to see those people all over the world get a chance to see and hear the gospel. They can accept if they want. There should be freedom of conscience and no government force either way!

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