Secular intolerance has a “chilling effect” on Christians who are having to practice “various forms of self-censorship” as they're finding it difficult to express their faith freely in society, according to a new report detailing accounts from four countries.
Gunmen suspected to be Islamic Fulani herdsmen barged into a Catholic Church in southwestern Nigeria, opened fire and detonated explosives while the congregation was celebrating Mass on Pentecost Sunday, killing at least 50 worshipers, including women and children. It's feared that some Christians were also abducted after the attack.
The Islamic State terror group has released a video showing the execution of about 20 Christian civilians in Nigeria’s Borno State in revenge for the killing of their leader in Syria by the United States special forces in February, according to reports.
A 25-year-old Christian student in Nigeria’s Sokoto State was beaten to death and her body burned after her Muslim classmates purportedly found a blasphemous message she had sent to a school WhatsApp group, according to a persecution watchdog.
Hong Kong’s national security police arrested 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen under its national security law for his role in a now-defunct humanitarian relief organization that helped people who participated in the large-scale 2019 pro-democracy protests.
The Revolutionary Court of Tehran has sentenced an Iranian-Armenian Christian man to 10 years in prison for establishing a house church, which the judge called “propaganda contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam,” according to reports.
The pastor of an Evangelical church in French Guyana was shot to death and his church burned down the day after he met with a delegation from the National Council of Evangelicals in France that was visiting to discuss the implementation of a law on “separatism,” according to a report.
Only 6% of adults in the United Kingdom identify as practicing Christians, while 42% say they are non-practicing Christians, and one in three non-Christians say they want to know more about Jesus Christ, according to the findings of a recent survey, Talking Jesus.
In Uganda, a Christian teacher was abducted from his home and dragged inside a mosque where he was beaten and burned by his colleagues at an Islamic school who planned to kill him for praying in Jesus' name.
A group of armed men suspected to be radical Fulani herdsmen attacked several villages in Nigeria’s Plateau State, killing at least 142 people, abducting dozens, mostly women, and displacing more than 3,000 people, according to reports.
Finnish Christian politician Päivi Räsänen says she is ready to defend freedom of speech and religion again as public prosecutors have announced they will appeal her legal victory in a lawsuit in which she faced the possibility of six years in prison for sharing her deeply held biblical beliefs on sexuality and marriage.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has launched a humanitarian effort to bring at least 500 Nigerians home from South Africa. The first 100 returnees arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Sept. 24 after flying from Johannesburg.
Younger Protestant churchgoers in the United States are more likely than older attendees to say cultural change can make some biblical truths “obsolete,” according to a new Lifeway Research survey. Overall, 28% agreed “that as culture changes, some biblical truths become obsolete,” up from 24% in 2019. Another 34% said they “accept some truths from the Bible, but others do not fit what they believe,” compared with 30% six years earlier.
Religious freedom advocates told a gathering in Texas that armed conflict and state surveillance are undermining the methods Christians have used to defend persecuted believers. They said a divided global church is poorly placed to respond.
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) marked its 180th anniversary with online gatherings. Founded in London in 1846, the WEA represents more than 650 million evangelicals through nine regional alliances spanning 160 countries. Hundreds of participants from more than 20 countries joined two Zoom events on Sept. 23, scheduled at different times to accommodate multiple time zones.