World

A Teachable Moment on Communist China

When I first heard it, I didn’t believe it. Alas, it’s true. A few weeks ago, New York City’s Empire State Building was aglow in red and yellow. Why? To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victorious revolution of the People’s Republic of China – i.e., the establishment of Mao’s Red China. I’m not kidding. This took place not in Beijing, or Pyongyang Havana or, say, Moscow in the 1950s. It was done in New York City, in 2009, at its highest building, the very symbol of the Empire State. In effect, New Yorkers basked in the glow of a […]

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Christians jailed in Cuba

Cuban authorities say two Baptist leaders held in jail for 11 days in a city on the eastern end of the island are suspected of illegal economic activities. Associated Baptist Press first reported Oct. 13 that Ruben Ortiz-Columbie, coordinator for special projects of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention, and Francisco “Pancho” Garcia, director of the convention’s teen department, had been arrested Oct. 3 and held without formal charge since then. They were being held in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The following day El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister paper of The Miami Herald, reported that Ortiz, 68, and […]

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‘Ardi’ ape simply disproves missing link

A “prehuman” fossil that some scientists claim gives new insight into human origins is likely nothing more than the remains of an ape and does not support evolutionary theory, scientists at Answers in Genesis say. Answers in Genesis, the Christian Life which runs the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio, posted an analysis of the scientific find on its Web site, saying that the “Ardi” female fossil – which is short for Ardipithecus ramidus and which evolutionary scientists say is 4.4 million years old – poses no more threat to creationist belief than past fossils have. “Given the number and scope […]

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Hindu idol worship stirs Christian witness

The Hindu god who removes obstacles was no match for a tree limb. Southern Baptist representatives Brendan and Alyson Strizek* watched from a balcony as celebrating Hindus tried to navigate a trailer-mounted image of Ganesha through a narrow alley. A low tree limb soon blocked the 10-foot idol’s progress. The crowd, unable to back the trailer out of the alley, tried in vain to sever the tree limb so the idol could proceed. “It took them about 45 minutes to figure out what to do,” Brendan Strizek said. Finally, a child removed the top of the makeshift temple covering Ganesha, […]

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Slavery still exists

A few years ago the film “Amazing Grace” captivated the attention of evangelical believers in North America. The courage of William Wilberforce, John Newton and several others in the fight to end the slave trade in Great Britain reminded us of what it means to give our lives for a worthy, timely concern. Time and again, when passion subsided it was the reality of human suffering and ultimately the call of God to remain in the struggle that stayed with them through many ups and downs. What if I told you that the evil of human slavery today is worse […]

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Open Doors brings hope and healing

When religious conflict flared in Maluku, Indonesia from 1999 to 2002, thousands of Christians were slaughtered by Muslims, and multiplied thousands of children were left parentless and alone. Many of these orphans were severely traumatized after seeing their parents murdered, often brutally. Varinia Lewerissa, a Christian in Maluku, heard stories of children who had witnessed their parents’ gruesome deaths, and decided to start a counseling Life to help them deal with their emotional scars. “I soon learned, however, that monthly counseling sessions were inadequate to help them recover,” said Varinia. In 2003, two years after starting her counseling Life, Varinia […]

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Prayer Movement for Jerusalem

Millions of Christians from dozens of denominations are preparing to unite this October for the sixth annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem (DPPJ), a highly regarded prayer effort gaining momentum in recent years – amid the threats, terrorist attacks and international pressure rising against Jerusalem from many sides. Driven by more than 1,000 major global church leaders, organizers say that the day of prayer, which this year falls on Sunday, Oct. 4, is happening in local churches all around the world, joined spiritually through simultaneous prayer in more than 175 nations. “As the Bible declared it would, […]

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U.N. will not teach students Holocaust

The United Nations’ refugee agency for Palestinians does not intend to include the Holocaust in the curriculum at schools it runs in the Gaza Strip, a U.N. spokesman said following criticism by Hamas about the purported plan. While Hamas’ objections to including information on the Holocaust in school lesson plans was not particularly surprising, some Jewish organizations have taken issue with the U.N. for apparently backtracking in the face of the criticism from the terrorist group that rules Gaza. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), operates more than 600 schools in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria, Jordan […]

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Hostage situations

Produced by Michael W. Smith, ‘Kabul 24’ is a film about eight Western aid workers  who were held hostage by the Taliban in 2001 – and escaped. Weeks before their attack on the World Trade Center, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden captured eight Western aid workers in an attempt to hold back a military response to what soon would come to be known as 9/11. Pawns of a brutal regime, the well meaning aid workers from Shelter Now were subjected to punishing interrogations, a mock trial before the Taliban Supreme Court and the eventual bombing of Kabul, where they […]

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Christians reportedly beheaded in Somalia

Four more Christians have been beheaded in Somalia, according to the Washington-based human rights organization International Christian Concern (ICC). The four Christians had been working for a non-governmental organization that aids orphans in southern Somalia. The Islamic extremist group al Shabaab, which has ties to al-Qaida, “kidnapped and eventually beheaded the Christians after they refused to renounce their faith,” ICC reported Aug. 11. According to the ICC report: “On Aug. 4, a junior [al Shabaab] militant notified all the families of the victims that the four Christians had been beheaded for apostasy. He described the Christians as promoters of ‘fitna,’ […]

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