Persecution Blog

Christian Persecution: Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs to Discuss Growing Trend

World Net Daily's Joseph Farah will be interviewing Voice of the Martyr's very own Todd Nettleton on the subject of increased Christian persecution today.

Persecution of Christians is on the rise across the globe, and while solid numbers are difficult to ascertain, it has been estimated that as many as 160,000 Christians are martyred each year worldwide.

Todd Nettleton, spokesman of The Voice of the Martyrs, will discuss the subject as guest today on "Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily RadioActive," the nationally syndicated talk program.

You can hear "Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily RadioActive," the daily, nationally syndicated radio show featuring WND's founder on radio stations from coast to coast and streamed on the Internet.

Christians Face Deportation

ROCHESTER — These are uncertain, even frightening times for many at the Marturia Presbyterian Church.

Church officials say 110 religious asylum-seeking men in the congregation of 210 face being deported to Indonesia as early as six months from now.

It may come later for others depending on when judges rule on their appeals. If the men are forced to go, their families will have to go with them, parishioners said Saturday.

Church parishioners gathered Saturday at the Church of the Redeemer. They said they fear being sent back to Indonesia, where Christians are a tiny minority and face religious persecution from the country's Muslim majority. Islamic extremism also is a threat, they added.
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Persecuted Indonesian Christians Continue to Make the News

We've been covering the news of the three Indonesian women who are being persecuted in Indonesia for teaching children the Bible.  Here is another article about these dear precious saints.  Please remember them in your prayers.

Christians face jail for giving treats to children of Muslims

Will the Persecuted Be Forgotten by the Church?

CBN News reported a few hours ago concerning the very sad and heartbeaking situation in the Sudan.

Gordon Robertson did an interview with The Diocese of Bishop Macram Max Gassis.  The following is part of that interview and article.

Gassis says, "These are human beings destroyed by the war, traumatized by the war, forgotten by the international community…are they also going to be forgotten by the church?"

So he is helping to lead the charge to bring aid to refugees from Darfur and rebuild the ravaged south of Sudan.

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ROBERTSON: Is that going to be possible within…you know, I see that belief within the Christian faith, and I adhere to it - but how does that translate to a Muslim faith, where it seems they are bent on jihad against the infidel? Is it translatable into the faith of Islam?

GASSIS: It is through enlightenment, education, and dialogue. I would like to clarify the word dialogue. Nobody so far gave me a satisfactory definition of dialogue. Yet, people point their fingers at us, the leaders in the church, [and say] you must dialogue. I tell them, give me the definition of dialogue. And they are not able to give me a definition of dialogue. According to me, dialogue is acceptance of each other. The reciprocal respect for each other – it is a living dialogue.

When I have a school, whether I have a thousand students, and I have Christians, Muslim, and African of traditional belief - this is dialogue. When I drill wells, the water that comes out, it's not Catholic, it is not Christian - the water is for everybody. This is dialogue. Christians and Muslim and Africans of tradition are going to drink from the same source and the same well. When I make a hospital or a maternity, it is not reserved for Christian mothers, it is for everybody. This is what I call living dialogue. This here, we send a message of our creed, our faith is love in action. And that will help them.

Read the full article here.

Eritrean Christians Call for Day of Prayer

Prayer is on the heart of many Christians all over the world.  So when I saw this story today I had to share it with you.

Eritrean Christians are calling for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for Christians prisoners in Eritrea on Aug. 5, according to a UK-based Christian persecution watchdog group.

In a letter to the international Christian community, the organizers of a “Day of Christian Prisoners” belonging to Erishalom Ministries expressed their urgent need for help from the worldwide church.

“Throughout the Bible, whenever Christians are in any kind of difficult situation, the whole Church would pray as one without ceasing,” said the coalition of Eritrean Christians, some of whom work underground in Eritrea, while others are living abroad.

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Once-Tortured Believer Now an Advocate for Christians

Special thanks to Charisma Now for this very important article.

A Filipino pastor and evangelist who was tortured and scheduled for public hanging in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, now leads an organization that supports persecuted Christians worldwide.

Wally Magdangal had just two days left to live when he was spared a Christmas Day 1992 execution because of the intervention of international human-rights groups, the U.S. Congress and the White House.

His crime, according to the Saudi Arabian muttawa'in, or Islamic religious police, was blasphemy. It was a trumped-up charge based on his agreement with a Christian magazine article that predicted the ultimate fall of Islam, he said.

He noted that the real reason he was imprisoned was because the underground church he'd led for 10 years in a sprawling Riyadh villa had become one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, with between 300 and 700 people attending each service. Magdangal and his wife, Mathilda, leased the villa, which included a pool they used for baptisms, from a wealthy Muslim who knew of their activities and cautioned them to be careful.

Underground Churches Are Her Beneficiaries

   This is Duck Ae Karasek's studio where she paints and here is her story...

Special thanks to The Atlanta Journal Constitution for this story.

Duck Ae Karasek doesn't just practice what she preaches. She paints it, too.

The pastor-turned-painter says she sees the divine in her every work, even the ostensibly nonreligious collection of impressionist paintings that went on display last week at the Centerville Community Center near Snellville. The "Bounty of Summer" exhibit lasts through Sept. 28.

"I'm a prayer person," Karasek explained from the one-story Duluth home where she lives with her husband, 14-year-old son and more than 100 paintings. She motioned to one piece featuring a field hand with a hoe slung over his shoulders.

"Farmers are like pastors," she said. "The farmer all the time take out the stone, the weed. Pastors, they take out worry."

Karasek, 53, should know.

She worked as a pastor and professional artist in her native South Korea after graduating from the Dae Han Theological Seminary College in Seoul 23 years ago. Karasek ministered to prisoners, hospital patients and the handicapped. During a stint as an art instructor and missionary at a Korean orphanage, she met her husband, Mark, who was on a mission trip.

North Korea Human Rights Conference

Yesterday I told you that Janet Parshall was playing sound on her radio program from a conference earlier this week on North Korea Human Rights abuses.

Janet continued to play more sound today in her second hour.  If you want to hear more, please click on over to Janet's archives and listen to hour two later today.

Restricted Nation Profiles

Did you know that if you sign up at the Voice of the Martyrs website for their magazine you can also get access to Restricted Nation Profiles? 

This is very exciting because it will give you some behind the scenes information you normally wouldn't get.  Here's a little sample of information on China.

Chairman Mao Zedong declared the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 and quickly sought to purge society of anything religious, causing China’s people to endure great hardship ever since. Mao’s Great Leap Forward in the late ‘50s and the Cultural Revolution in the ‘60s and ‘70s left millions of his countrymen dead or victimized. Today, with its policies of forced abortion and sterilization, China’s human rights record is one of the worst in the world. Authorities reportedly sell the organs of executed prisoners to meet the demand for transplants. Its system of “re-education through labor” detains hundreds of thousands each year in work camps without even a court hearing. China’s “strike-hard” policy, presented as a crackdown on criminals, is hardest on Christians, putting more believers in prison or under detention than in any other country. The confiscation of church property and Bibles continues—even Bibles officially printed by the government. Yet the Church grows: an estimated 3,000 Chinese come to Christ each day. China’s house church movement, which comprises approximately 90 percent of China’s Christians, endures unimaginable persecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel no matter the cost. In 1998, house church leaders for the first time publicly called on the Communist government to officially recognize house churches. Pray for continued faithfulness of Chinese believers.

Want to learn more about other restricted nations? Go here and do it, and have fun!

Pray for London

As you may have heard London is suffering another attack from terrorists.  Please remember Tony Blair and all world leaders in your prayers.

I will be updating the rest of the persecution news later this afternoon, as I have a very busy day today.

Thank you for stopping by and feel free to leave us a note of encouragement or comment.