These articles were first published in our January edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
A church in Algeria’s north-western town of Aïn Turk was closed down by local authorities on 9 November.
Authorities claimed that the church had been used to ‘illegally print gospels and publications intended for evangelism’. The police notification also stated that the church did not have state approval. But the president of the church group, the Revd Mahmoud Haddad, denied any wrongdoing, saying the justifications for closing the church were ‘unfounded’.
A Christian couple was reported in mid-November as having been rejected as adoptive parents due to their beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
Initially approved to become adoptive parents, six months into the process the couple were informed that they had to answer further questions about their beliefs on sexuality. They reiterated their intention to treat the child ‘with unconditional love, respect and compassion, regardless of what the child chose to do, and regardless of the child’s sexual orientation or behaviour’.
In the Yugan county, Communist Party leaders described the presence of religion as a ‘crisis’ as they tore down religious posters in December.
5,000 to 6,000 Christian families ‘see God as their saviour… [but] should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the Party for help’, said officials. If the people don’t remove the Christian symbols and pictures, and replace them with portraits of the Chinese president, as they are being ‘encouraged’ to do, they face not being given their quota from the poverty relief fund.
Scientists who grew replacement skin using adult stem cells for a seven-year-old boy suffering from a devastating genetic disorder said, two years on, that the skin is able to heal and renew itself, it was reported in early December.
The young boy, from Syria, had lost 80% of his skin and was covered in untreatable, infected wounds. The Italian team took a sample from the boy’s remaining healthy skin and were able to create enough new skin to cover almost his entire body – a world first.
An Amending Law imposing new restrictions on freedom of religion went to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan in late November.
If adopted, it will require re-registration of almost all religious communities, and impose new restrictions on and punishments for religious education, sharing beliefs, censorship of literature and (for state officials) participation in worship.
Baptists in Ekibastuz were fined and told that they ‘should not meet for worship until they register’ it was reported in late November.
Meetings for worship by Oskemen’s New Life Church remain banned until 19 December after church members, relatives and friends sang religious songs without state permission. Officials would not explain why football fans don’t need permission to publicly sing songs, but religious believers do.
CNN News on 15 November revealed that captured African migrants heading to Europe are being sold into slavery in modern-day slave markets in Libya.
Among the refugees are Christians, including Eritreans, fleeing religious persecution. One migrant described Libya as a ‘hell,’ where he lived in ‘permanent fear of being … picked up by a militia group and sold off as a slave.’ A 2016 report showed that Christians face acute danger and are targeted by both people-traffickers and Islamist groups in the country.
More than 100 Iranians serving in ministry in a country close to Iran gathered together in late November to be equipped to offer pastoral care.
Through the letter of 1 Peter, the conference delegates were taught on the theme of ‘Living for Christ in a world of suffering and injustice.’ The importance of pastoral care was emphasised, with practical workshops to equip the delegates to care for those in seasons of suffering.
Five Christians were killed and five others reported missing after attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau and Benue states in late November.
Christopher Musa Chong, 28, and Bulus Dantoro, 35, were ambushed and shot dead, and their corpses cut with machetes. A Member of Parliament in Nigeria has called for the herdsmen to be classified as terrorists and treated with the same response as Boko Haram has been handled.
Three years of Muslim Fulani attacks have displaced over 500,000 people in Benue State, it was reported in early December.
Over half a million people from the Christian majority Benue State have been displaced as a result of more than 40 different Muslim Fulani herder attacks on Christian communities between 2013 and 2016. Over 500 persons are missing, while the future of almost a million youths is in jeopardy. In 2014 alone, hundreds of millions of pounds worth of properties were destroyed.
An Indian pastor who was falsely accused of a blasphemy while participating at an interfaith dialogue event in Pakistan, was set free and returned to India in December.
The account of Pastor Shibu Mathew’s arrest appeared only in an Indian Malayalam newspaper despite the potential for a death sentence on him. Pastor Shibu said he was very grateful for all the people who prayed for him: ‘I believe it was the almighty hand of God that set me free,’ he said.
A Christian family who took a usurious loan from Muslim moneylenders, watched their daughter die from a shot aimed at her father, in November.
Waris Masih borrowed from a money-lender to pay for repairs to his home and the costs associated with the birth of another child. He missed one payment and ran into his home as he tried to escape the lender who began firing at him. The first hospital his daughter was taken to refused to treat her; she died at a second.
Five Christian families were forced to leave their village on 10 November and go into hiding, after a Christian teenager was accused of ‘blasphemy’ on social media.
Sonu Arshad, an 18-year-old from the northern Punjab province, was accused of ‘blasphemy’ on a Facebook page displaying his picture and a call for local Muslims to ‘burn his church and give him the death penalty.’ A mob gathered in the village and, although police intervened, Ashad’s family and four others fled, fearing for their safety.
The majority of those charged under Russia’s religion laws, following their introduction last year, have been Christians, it was reported in December.
Since Putin’s Government amended anti-terror laws to crack down on ‘extremism’ in July 2016, a total of 202 cases have been brought to court. Of these, 53% have been against Protestant Christians or organisations. Aimed at disrupting terrorist activity, the laws have been used to target Evangelical Christians and other religious minorities.
Jack Phillips, the Christian bakery owner who refused to produce a cake for a gay wedding, received support from many people in the gay community in November.
Two men posting on social media linked to the organisation defending Phillips said they support him because no ‘artist should be forced to create for something that violates their beliefs’.
R.C. Sproul, theologian, pastor, and founder of Ligonier Ministries, died on 14 December 2017 at the age of 78, after being hospitalised due to complications from emphysema.
Dr. Sproul had a worldwide influence among evangelical Christians. An admirer of the Reformers, he played a key role in drafting the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. He was a defender of the authority of God’s Word and of the gospel.
A new law on Belief and Religion, scheduled to come into effect on 1 January 2018, is more likely to control religion than provide freedom for believers.
Evangelical leaders say the law represents more intrusion into the internal affairs of their churches than any prior legislation. The new law will abrogate the benefits of the Prime Minister’s Special Directive No.1 Concerning the Protestant Faith (2005), sometimes used to grant permission for local congregations to operate, even while legal registration was pending or not available.
A Christian cemetery in Aden was desecrated on the night of 20 November, including the graves of Christians murdered in an attack on a Christian-run home for the elderly in 2016.
The vandalising of the Christian cemetery in the port city of Aden – a former British protectorate – appears to be an effort to eradicate the historical evidence of a Christian presence.