World in Brief

Authorities closed another church building and its Bible school on 22 May.

Citing a law that requires authorisation for non-Muslim places of worship, gen-darmes locked the doors of the evangelical church building in Boudjima. Pastor Youcef Ourahmane said that the permit has been applied for, but the government commit-tee that approves them has never met. Ourahmane said they are praying for the authorities whilst recognising that ‘God is sovereign and is in control of this situation and all circumstances’.

In early May, a professor of psychiatry (who supports sex-change surgery for adults) was banned from Twitter for stating that ‘trans-sexualism and milder forms of gender dysphoria are types of mental disorder’.

An outcry by supporters had him reinstat-ed a few days later. Professor Ray Blanchard was on the team that wrote the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

Baptist leaders called on the Cuban Government in May to fulfil its promise to allow them to build a new church after their building permit was arbitrarily cancelled.

The Maranatha Baptist Church was grant-ed a construction permit in 2017 and has spent at least US$1,500 attempting to com-ply with government requirements. The church is one of the largest in the city. Its church leaders believe that the growth of the congregation is the reason behind the government’s actions.

Days after Muslim leaders in Egypt came to his apartment to warn him to return to Islam, a Sudanese Christian received another death threat by phone on 27 May.

Having fled Sudan after authorities tor-tured and threatened to kill him if he refused to return to Islam, the man said he had to change apartments once again in the face of fresh threats. The caller said he was an ‘infidel and fuel for hell’.

An American doctor who was shot while on a mission trip has said he was saved by ‘an angel’.

Travelling in a van delivering computers, gunmen on motorbikes fired at him. After he was shot, another man pulled up on a motorbike and spoke in English saying: ‘It’s going to be okay’. He then stepped in front of the bandits and spoke in Creole, and the crowd slowly backed off. An operation to remove bullets from the doctor’s neck, jaw and spine was successful. The doctor said he would go back ‘wherever the Lord tells me to go. But I will have to ask my wife’.

The Hong Kong Government backed mar-riage as being between one man and one woman during a court case on legalising same-sex marriage in May.

The law was challenged by a woman want-ing to enter a civil union with her girl-friend. A government lawyer defended the situation, arguing that introducing same-sex marriage would ‘dilute and diminish’ mar-riage between opposite-sex couples. Stewart Wong said: ‘Not all differences in treatment are unlawful. You are not supposed to treat unequal cases alike.’

A Bible app has been developed so that Kurdish-speaking people can easily down-load scriptures onto their phones and other devices, it was reported in May.

Although a basic app has been available since 2017, work is ongoing to make it avail-able on more devices, including Windows computers. They are also adding functions that will allow users to share verses on social media, highlight passages, and make their own notes.

In May, Islamist militants invaded a church meeting 50 km from Niger’s capital Niamey, shooting the minister as they made off with a stolen car.

The armed attackers forced their way into the church during a women’s meeting. After stealing keys and loading the car, they confronted the minister and shot him in the chest, hip and foot. Although his injur-ies are not thought to be life threatening, he is still in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Niamey.

The Religious Liberty Partnership released a statement in May calling on the govern-ment to ensure the right to freedom of reli-gion or belief for ‘all of Nigeria’s religious communities’.

It notes that Nigeria faces attacks of such ‘frequency, organisation and asymmetry that references to farmer-herder clashes no longer suffice.’ It asks for the government to work to release Leah Sharibu and Alice Ngaddah, and 112 Chibok girls held by the Shekau faction of Boko Haram since April 2014.

Gunmen suspected to be local Fulani Muslims killed several Christians as they made their way home from church services in Jos on 26 May.

Seven Christians were killed after uniden-tified Muslims killed Moses Victor, a mem-ber of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), in the Rikkos area of Jos on 20 May.

The lawyer who successfully defended Asia Bibi was reported in May as having taken up another ‘blasphemy’ case in Pakistan, this time involving a Christian couple who have endured five years on death row.

Saif-ul-Mulook will appeal against the con-viction in April 2014 of Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, a couple with four children, convicted of sending ‘blasphemous’ text messages to two Muslims, one of whom was the prayer leader at the mosque in their hometown Gojra, Punjab.

Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage on 24 May.

Lawmakers debated three different bills to legalise same-sex unions and the govern-ment’s bill, the most progressive of the three, was passed. A referendum showed the public wanted marriage to stay defined as between a man and a woman. The government there-fore did not alter its existing definition of marriage in civil law, and instead enacted a special law for same-sex marriage.

Police banned evangelistic events in a town in western Uganda on 20 May following open-air preaching in which many Muslims put their faith in Christ.

Churches in Bwera held a joint evangelis-tic event amid the large Muslim population. The success of the event led not only to the ban, but to church leaders receiving death threats, pastors said.

The Trump administration ended federal research using human foetal tissue, it was reported on 5 June.

Critics said tissue research is vital to com-bating cancer and HIV. The Department of Health and Human Services cited ‘the dignity of human life’ as a ‘top priority’. Privately-funded or university-led research is not affected by the policy. In May, the US Supreme Court upheld a state requirement that all foetal remains be buried or cremated.

In May, a small Texas town rejected an atheist organisation’s demands to remove crosses from the county courthouse.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that four white crosses on the public building violated the US Constitution’s prohibition on government establishment of religion. 600 of the 900 residents attended a meeting to decide on the problem, and the county officials voted unanimously to keep the crosses on the building.

Hundreds of former LGBT men and women gathered around the Washington Monument in early June testifying to the newfound free-dom they have found in Christ.

Noting that many people don’t even think they exist, the event gave the opportunity for many to testify of the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. One person said: ‘It wasn’t a “gay to straight” thing, it was a “lost to saved” thing.’

The Pope caused controversy in early June when it was announced that he was changing Matthew 6:13 from ‘lead us not into tempta-tion’ to ‘do not let us fall into temptation’.

Opponents argued that as temptation leads to sin but is not sinful in itself, and that the Greek word can also refer to ‘testing’, and the Bible does describe God bringing both Jesus and his people into times of testing, then no change should be made.