news in brief
Pakistan: Pressured to drop charges
A Christian family is being pressurised by neighbouring Muslims to drop charges against their relative, who sodomised their six-year-old daughter. The girl had been in the Muslim family’s home for a tutoring lesson by the attacker’s sister, having received lessons there for several months, before he assaulted her.
Students had been left with the accused man, who is in his early 20s, when his sister went to do jobs around the house. The girl’s father revealed to Morning Star News that he then allowed the other students to leave the home before raping her in another room.
now this...
Living in a hostile world
Ian Hamilton
Date posted: 4 Aug 2026
The Bible is full of remarkable statements. One of the most remarkable is 1 Peter 1v17. Peter is instructing Christians how to live in an essentially Godless, anti-Christian society. He writes: “Honour everyone. Love the brothers. Fear God. Honour the emperor”.
This is surely remarkable. Love the brothers and fear God we can readily understand; but honour “everyone” and especially “the emperor”? The emperor in question was probably Nero, the fanatically anti-Christian megalomaniac. Honour him? God’s Word can be deeply unsettling.
What on earth did Jesus mean by ‘judge not’?
Dave Burke
Date posted: 25 Jul 2026
When it was revealed that Donald Trump, in the first year of his second term, had increased his personal fortune by 2 billion dollars I posted my views on Facebook. Within minutes, I was firmly rebuked for criticising him. “The Lord told us not to judge people!” someone said. “Shame on you!” chimed in an irate supporter, “Pastors like you are ruining the church!”
The Lord’s command that we refrain from judging people is a sacred calling; an essential principle for every pastorally active Christian. We should refuse to judge when the answers seem easy to us, but impossible to those we try to support.
Should UK Christians go to Franklin Graham’s rallies?
Tony Bennett
Date posted: 2 Jul 2026
Charles Colson was a senior member of President Nixon’s White House Staff who was sentenced to prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up. But having come to saving faith in Christ, he tells in his autobiography of what he witnessed when he would bring visitors to meet Nixon.
Colson would gather guests in a room near the Oval Office, where they would talk about what they were going to tell the President when they were face to face with him. ‘But it was always the same,’ Colson writes. ‘In the reception room they would rehearse their angry lines.’ But once they were in the Oval Office, ‘it was as if they’d suddenly sniffed some intoxicating fragrance. For invariably, the lions of the waiting room became the meek lambs of the Oval Office. And none were more cowardly than the religious leaders.’
letter from Japan
Drawn to Jesus – but repelled by Trump
John Newton Webb
Date posted: 30 May 2026
In the space of ten days, three Japanese people have asked me about Donald Trump and Christianity.
A non-Christian academic, who said he is drawn to Christianity but that Christian nationalism keeps him from embracing it, a non-Christian lady who is attracted by the Christian faith but was worried that following Jesus would also mean supporting Trump, and a Christian who was troubled by Trump/Hegseth’s claim to be doing God’s will.
To save humanity, we must return to humility!
James Burnett
Date posted: 13 May 2026
Jesus says: "The meek shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5). But how realistic is this Sermon on the Mount prediction for the contemporary scene?
The stage-boards of world power creak under the hefty tread of “strong men” (Donald Trump AI-imaged himself as Jesus on Truth Social and later eschewed messianic similarities as fake news); the tech industry is supine to Elon Musk who is the richest person on earth with possibly a genius IQ and certainly a hedonistic outlook; while primary school children in the UK are taught the three “s's” of western success: self-interest, self-reliance, and self-promotion.
Franklin Graham says Pope should thank Trump
en staff
Date posted: 16 Apr 2026
Evangelist Franklin Graham says he hopes the Pope and Donald Trump will meet - and that the Pontiff should express his thanks to the President.
Writing on social media platform X, the son of the late Billy Graham said he was sharing "thoughts" having "received some questions about President Trump's recent posts".
Trump dismay
Date posted: 4 Nov 2024
Dear Editor,
What a helpful set of articles you gave us for the UK general election earlier this year – thank you!
John Piper addresses Trump and Musk online
en staff
Date posted: 3 Mar 2025
Well-known preacher John Piper has name-checked Donald Trump and Elon Musk in a social media post.
The internationally-acclaimed author and speaker addressed them on X – formerly Twitter – with reference to Luke 18:7 in which Jesus speaks about entering the Kingdom of God like a child.
What if aliens are real? A thought experiment
Russell Moore
Date posted: 13 Mar 2026
This is how strange our times are: recently, two United States presidents engaged the question of whether aliens are real, and it wasn’t even in the top 15 stories of the week. The debate was over not "aliens" as in migrants to a country but "aliens" as in extra-terrestrial, nonhuman beings.
Former president Barack Obama sparked the controversy by responding to a question about aliens in a podcast interview and saying that "they’re real" before assuring listeners that there are no underground bunkers studying aliens at Area 51. President Donald Trump then accused Obama of giving out "classified information" and then pledged to declassify government documents on what used to be called unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and are now referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
Nigeria: Violence ongoing after strikes
Luke Randall
Date posted: 20 Feb 2026
Recent US airstrikes have “clearly had an impact” on the situation facing Christians in Nigeria, but religiously motivated violence continues, according to an Open Doors source.
Militant Islamist groups previously feared no punishment for their continual persecution of Christians across the nation’s northwest, but US intervention seems to have alerted them to stronger repercussions for their actions.
news in brief
Canada: Protesting pastor returned to jail
A pastor from Calgary, Canada has been arrested and accused of breaching the terms of his year-long house arrest after attending a protest ahead of his own court appeal. Derek Reimer had been charged with criminal harassment and breaching bail conditions following his participation at protests against drag storytime events at a library last year.
CBC News reports that Reimer was allowed to attend court hearings while serving his sentence, but is accused of exploiting this allowance by arriving at the court 90 minutes beforehand. His lawyer expressed concern that he has been “punished for going to court too early and saying the wrong thing”.
As one ‘rules-based order’ passes, another abides
John Stevens
Date posted: 4 Feb 2026
Events since the beginning of 2026 have suggested the collapse of the “rules-based world order” that has held sway since the end of the Second World War.
US president Donald Trump ordered the seizure of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, threatened Columbia and Iran, and reasserted his determination to take control of Greenland. He has claimed American hegemony in Western Hemisphere, and seems prepared to allow other nations, including China and Russia, to have control over their own geographical spheres of influence. It feels as if the world is returning to the era of competing empires, with great powers forcing their will on smaller vassal nations. Britain feels especially vulnerable to this change because we are no longer the world power we were in 1945.
Iranian pastor: 'The people are not backing down'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 16 Jan 2026
Iranian evangelical pastor Pooyan Mehrshahi says the people of Iran are not backing down, despite thousands having been killed and tens of thousands reported to have been arrested amid the country's protests against the government.
In an update earlier this week, en shared statistics from the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) stating that 490 protesters and 48 security personnel had died in Iran in recent days, with 10,600 reported arrests.
Donald Trump's second term: Christians in key roles
Luke Randall
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
Donald Trump bas become President of the United States for the second time, and while he naturally takes the limelight, he has appointed several Christian influences in key positions around him.
Vice President J.D. Vance’s Catholic background is well-documented, but others with a more evangelical worldview include House Speaker Mike Johnson, Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and Secretary of Defence nominee Pete Hegseth.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Trump 'has no faith'
en staff
Date posted: 30 Dec 2025
US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she realised Donald Trump "has no faith" after Charlie Kirk's assassination.
The Georgia Republican representative, who is stepping down from her elected role on January 5th, was speaking in an interview with The New York Times.
What on earth did Jesus mean by ‘judge not’?
When it was revealed that Donald Trump, in the first year of his second term, had increased his personal fortune by 2 billion dollars I posted my views on Facebook. Within minutes, I was firmly rebuked for criticising him. “The Lord told us not to judge people!” someone said. “Shame on you!” chimed in an irate supporter, “Pastors like you are ruining the church!”
The Lord’s command that we refrain from judging people is a sacred calling; an essential principle for every pastorally active Christian. We should refuse to judge when the answers seem easy to us, but impossible to those we try to support.