Current Events

Persecution and Redemption

A young Afghan man who was a recent convert to Christianity told his family about his new hope in the gospel. Their response was to brutally beat him. After ongoing abuse, as dictated by Islamic Law, he fled to Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. He became part of a house church that helped him, until Taliban terrorists entered the house church and murdered many and blew up the compound. He went underground; alone and grieving he stayed out of the public radar. When the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the sudden foreign policy shift profoundly impacted all religious minorities. Many Afghan Christians had managed to keep their identity a secret, but his faith was known. His family, loyal to their Islamic faith, exposed their son to the Taliban. At that point, he knew he was risking his life by staying in the country. Through a series of God-ordained connections he was helped by Shai Fund, a non-profit who helps those like him. Secret plans were made for him to leave. When it was time for him to board a plane for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) he had only minutes to leave his house.. He was a high-profile target, so the evacuation plan was exact. Shai Fund mapped out every Taliban checkpoint of concern on the way to the plane. Once he arrived in the UAE, Shai Fund continued working with him and found him a permanent home in Canada. There he can now meet with a house church of other Afghan Christians. Even now, his whereabouts and real identity cannot be disclosed. There are many other stories like this.

—ChristianityToday.com

Poll Shows Majority Believe Gender Determined at Birth

A recent poll found that 57% of American adults believe gender is based on a person’s sex at birth. That percentage is 53% for 18- to 34-year-olds but 63% for 55- to 64-year-olds. The poll showed the majority (in the 60 percentile) of adults do not believe that biological males should be allowed in women’s sports. Disappointingly the poll found that the majority (in the 60 percentile) of adults supported so-called “genderaffirming counseling or therapy” for kids and teens (10 to 17 years old); yet, the majority were against giving puberty blockers.

—FoxNews.com

Legalized Drug Crisis

The data is in and it is becoming increasingly clear that the impacts of the commercial marijuana industry are even worse than we thought, particularly for America’s young people. A new report released shows the reality in “pot-legal states” paints a vastly different picture from the common sales pitch of the industry and supporters of recreational legalization. Usage rates have reached record highs among the young who are most vulnerable to long-term health effects. Usage reached the highest levels ever recorded among those aged 19 to 30. The percentage of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders who used marijuana daily has more than tripled between 1991 and 2020. For all the talk about how pot is not addictive, in 2021, 1.3 million individuals between the ages of 12 and 17 had a marijuana use disorder, a 25% increase. As usage rates, potency, and addiction have increased, the adverse effects have also increased.

—FoxNews.com

Prayer Rooms Banned in Quebec Schools

Quebec’s education minister has formalized a promise to ban prayer rooms and other religious practices in the province’s public schools. The directive says schools must ensure that none of their spaces are used “in fact and in appearance, for the purposes of religious practices such as open prayers or other similar practices. Schools are places of learning and not places of worship.” No requests for accommodation will be heard. The concept of prayer rooms runs counter to Quebec’s policy of official secularism. The Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms recognizes freedom of religion but also the fundamental importance of secularism. It also notes that “according to the principle of freedom of conscience, a student has a right to be protected from all direct or indirect pressure aimed at exposing him or influencing him so that he conforms to a religious practice.” They cannot ban prayer altogether, so students who want to pray should do so discreetly and silently. The directive applies to public schools, vocational schools, and adult education centers but not to private schools or Indigenous school boards.

—GlobalNews.ca

Gunmen Kidnapped 40 Christians

Gunmen kidnapped 40 Christians on a Sunday during church worship in northern Nigeria. The chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna state said the attack took place on a Sunday in May during a service in Madala village. He added that fifteen people escaped the same night of their kidnapping but that there has not been any contact for ransom and they have not heard anything from [the gunmen] concerning the remaining people. Nigeria has dealt with significant violence for years at the hands of several entities, including Boko Haram—radicalized Islamic Fulani herdsmen—and localized gang violence. Tens of thousands have been killed or abducted by these groups, and hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced. Christians in Nigeria are especially vulnerable to this violence.

—Persecution.org

After Nine Years Two More Rescued

After nine years in captivity two more schoolgirls abducted in 2014 have been rescued. The leader of the Nigerian military operation against Boko Haram, the Islamist terrorist group that abducted the girls, said troops rescued Hauwa Maltha and Esther Marcus (both now 26) on April 21. They had been forced to marry several times while in captivity, as successive husbands were killed during military clashes, and each was rescued with a small child. One had already lost two children who became ill and died in captivity. She was also about eight months pregnant during the time of her rescue and delivered a bouncing baby boy soon after the rescue. They were among the 276 schoolgirls abducted from a school in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014, and driven away into captivity in the vast Sambisa Forest in northeast Nigeria. Many have escaped or were rescued during the intervening years but approximately ninety-four are still missing.

—ChurchInChains.ie

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