Posts

Christians Killed, Shops Destroyed in Egypt Again

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

Five Egyptians were killed and eight wounded in clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town near Cairo, security sources said on Saturday, in some of the worst sectarian violence in Egypt for months.

Christian-Muslim confrontations have increased in Muslim-majority Egypt since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 gave freer rein to hardline Islamists repressed under his rule.

Four Christian Copts and one Muslim were killed when members of both communities started fighting and shooting at each other in El Khusus north of the Egyptian capital, the sources said. State news agency MENA put the death toll at four.

An angry crowd smashed shops belonging to Christians, residents said. A Reuters reporter saw a burned-out Coptic day care center and several damaged shops belonging to Christian traders. An apartment inhabited by Muslims was also burned.

Residents said the violence broke out on Friday when a group of Christian children were drawing on a wall of a Muslim religious institute. A Reuters reporter saw what looked like a swastika drawn on the wall. Muslim residents said it had offended them because it looked like a cross.

Read more from this story HERE.

As the World's Christians Celebrate Easter, Pope Francis Makes Plea For Mideast Peace

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Alessandra Tarantino

By Frances D’Emilio. Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message to the world, decrying the seemingly endless conflicts in the Middle East and on the Korean Ppeninsula after celebrating Mass along with more than 250,000 faithful.

After the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Francis shared in the crowd’s exuberance as they celebrated the belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead following crucifixion. Aboard an open-topped popemobile, Francis took a lighthearted spin through the joyous gatherers, kissing babies and patting children on the head.

One admirer of the pope and the pope’s favorite soccer team, Argentina’s Saints of San Lorenzo, insisted that Francis take a team jersey he was waving at the pontiff. A delighted Francis obliged, briefly holding up the shirt.

Since the start of his papacy on March 13, Francis repeatedly has put his concern for the poor and suffering at the center of his messages, and the Easter speech he delivered from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica reflected his push for peace and social justice.

He said he wished a “Happy Easter” greeting could reach “every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.” Francis prayed that Christ would help people “change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace.” Read more from this story HERE.

Pope Francis’s First Easter Message

By Pope Francis. Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the world, Happy Easter! Happy Easter!

What a joy it is for me to announce this message: Christ is risen! I would like it to go out to every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.

Most of all, I would like it to enter every heart, for it is there that God wants to sow this Good News: Jesus is risen, there is hope for you, you are no longer in the power of sin, of evil! Love has triumphed, mercy has been victorious! The mercy of God always triumphs!

We too, like the women who were Jesus’ disciples, who went to the tomb and found it empty, may wonder what this event means (cf. Lk 24:4). What does it mean that Jesus is risen? It means that the love of God is stronger than evil and death itself; it means that the love of God can transform our lives and let those desert places in our hearts bloom. The love God can do this!

This same love for which the Son of God became man and followed the way of humility and self-giving to the very end, down to hell – to the abyss of separation from God – this same merciful love has flooded with light the dead body of Jesus, has transfigured it, has made it pass into eternal life. Jesus did not return to his former life, to earthly life, but entered into the glorious life of God and he entered there with our humanity, opening us to a future of hope.

This is what Easter is: it is the exodus, the passage of human beings from slavery to sin and evil to the freedom of love and goodness. Because God is life, life alone, and we are his glory: the living man (cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4,20,5-7).
Dear brothers and sisters, Christ died and rose once for all, and for everyone, but the power of the Resurrection, this passover from slavery to evil to the freedom of goodness, must be accomplished in every age, in our concrete existence, in our everyday lives. How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbour, when we fail to realize that we are guardians of all that the Creator has given us and continues to give us. God’s mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14).

So this is the invitation which I address to everyone: Let us accept the grace of Christ’s Resurrection! Let us be renewed by God’s mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.

And so we ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace. Yes, Christ is our peace, and through him we implore peace for all the world.

Peace for the Middle East, and particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, who struggle to find the road of agreement, that they may willingly and courageously resume negotiations to end a conflict that has lasted all too long. Peace in Iraq, that every act of violence may end, and above all for dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort. How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution to the crisis will be found?

Peace for Africa, still the scene of violent conflicts. In Mali, may unity and stability be restored; in Nigeria, where attacks sadly continue, gravely threatening the lives of many innocent people, and where great numbers of persons, including children, are held hostage by terrorist groups. Peace in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the Central African Republic, where many have been forced to leave their homes and continue to live in fear.

Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow.

Peace in the whole world, still divided by greed looking for easy gain, wounded by the selfishness which threatens human life and the family, selfishness that continues in human trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this twenty-first century; human trafficking is the most extensive form of slavery in this twenty-first century! Peace to the whole world, torn apart by violence linked to drug trafficking and by the iniquitous exploitation of natural resources! Peace to this our Earth! Made the risen Jesus bring comfort to the victims of natural disasters and make us responsible guardians of creation.

Dear brothers and sisters, to all of you who are listening to me, from Rome and from all over of the world, I address the invitation of the Psalm: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever. Let Israel say: ‘His steadfast love endures for ever'” (Ps 117:1-2).

Greeting
Dear Brothers and Sisters, to you who have come from all over the world to this Square at the heart of Christianity, and to you linked by modern technology, I repeat my greeting: Happy Easter!

Bear in your families and in your countries the message of joy, hope and peace which every year, on this day, is powerfully renewed.

May the risen Lord, the conqueror of sin and death, be a support to you all, especially to the weakest and neediest. Thank you for your presence and for the witness of your faith. A thought and a special thank-you for the beautiful flowers, which come from the Netherlands. To all of you I affectionately say again: may the risen Christ guide all of you and the whole of humanity on the paths of justice, love and peace.
__
Copyright Vatican Publishing House

So Much for Iraqi Freedom: Christians, Churches Disappearing From Iraq Since US Invasion

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq says that the number of Christian houses of worship there has dwindled alarmingly in the decade since the U.S. invaded and ousted Saddam Hussein from power.

There are just 57 Christian churches in the entire country, down from more than 300 as recently as 2003, Patriarch Louis Sako told Egyptian-based news agency MidEast Christian News. The churches that remain are frequent targets of Islamic extremists, who have driven nearly a million Christians out of the land, say human rights advocates.

“The last 10 years have been the worst for Iraqi Christians because they bore witness to the biggest exodus and migration in the history of Iraq,” William Warda, the head of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization told the news agency.

Many Christians live in the provinces of Baghdad, Nineveh, and Kirkuk, and Dohuk and Erbil, which are both in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. Warda said some 1.4 million Christians lived in Iraq prior to Hussein’s ouster. Under the democratically-elected government that now oversees the war-torn, but oil-rich nation, Islamic extremists have been able to operate more freely.
“More than two-thirds [of Christians] have emigrated,” Warda noted.

Read more from this story HERE.

Global Persecution Of Christians Ignored By Obama Admin (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: breitbart

Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom and a Hudson Institute Fellow, told Breitbart’s “Uninvited” panel at CPAC on Saturday that “religious persecution is the gravest human rights crisis of our day.” She added that “Christians are as a group the most persecuted, out of sheer numbers, across the world. This means they are being killed, tortured, imprisoned and eradicated …sent into exile for their beliefs.”

“This is happening in three types of countries,” she said. “Those with a remnant Communist country, like North Korea and China, some nationalist countries like Burma and Eritrea, and then in the Muslim world …where Islamism is on the rise.” In those Muslim countries, she said, “persecution . . . is intensifying, and it is spreading.

The crisis of global persecution of Christians has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. Ms. Shea told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that “since A.M. Rosenthal at the New York Times passed away [in 2006], this issue has not been covered at the level it deserves, so I was very happy that Breitbart gave me the opportunity on the panel to promote the issue of global persecution of Christians.” Rosenthal, the former executive editor and columnist at the Times from 1977 to 1999, wrote dozens of columns on the problem of global Christian persecution in the 1990s.

Ms. Shea pointed to several recent examples of violent persecution of Christians in the Muslim world. “Last week alone,” she said, “we saw in Libya a Coptic Christian from Egypt tortured to death. Fifty of his co-religionists were imprisoned and some are still there.”

Ms. Shea’s complete remarks to “The Uninvited” panel can be seen in this video clip:

Read more from this story HERE.

Gay Rights Activists Bully Tebow, Christian University

/0 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: jeffrey beallGay rights activists are demanding Tim Tebow back out of a speaking engagement at Liberty University just two weeks after pressuring the New York Jets quarterback to cancel a speaking engagement at the First Baptist Church of Dallas.

Tebow is expected to speak this weekend at Wildfire – a men’s conference hosted by the conservative Christian university. His remarks will be closed to the general public. The professional football player is well-known for sharing his faith in Christ – but in recent weeks he’s come under fire from the national media and gay rights activists for speaking in churches that follow biblical teaching.

Huffington Post called Liberty a “notoriously conservative private college with an anti-gay reputation.” And more than 10,000 people have signed a petition launched by Faithful America calling on the quarterback to cancel his speech.

“Liberty University isn’t just another conservative Christian college,” the group stated. “It’s ground-zero for a global assault on the legal rights of gays and lesbians – and a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the religious right.

A Liberty University spokesman refused to comment. Faithful America said Tebow would give his “Christian faith a bad name” by speaking at the university founded by the late Jerry Falwell.

Read more from this story HERE.

Heads Roll As The Religion Of “Turn The Other Cheek,” Meets The Religion Of “Peace”

/9 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Irish CentralThe latest casualty in the war against Christianity, is a Tanzanian pastor who lost his head to an outraged Muslim mob. The incensed mob was demanding all non-halal butcher shops and especially pork butchery, be forbidden

A spokesman said a group of youths believed to be Muslim, assaulted several Christians, including a butcher shop owner, using sticks and machetes. During the confrontation Pastor Mathayo Kachili, of the local Assembly of God Church, was beheaded.

Besides the Pastors beheading, several other people were injured critically during the incident and taken to the local hospital in Buseresere for treatment.

Christians in a small village in southern Egypt are rebuilding their lives and homes after hundreds of Muslims rampaged through their community firebombing houses and businesses, over rumors of a romantic relationship between a Christian and a Muslim.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram, a group seeking to impose Islamic law on the country, picked out Christians in a small village, gathered them in a group before massacring them. 15 people died in the attack; many had had their throats slit.

These are not isolated incidents as Muslim extremists attack other religions wherever the two meet, but Christianity seems to be singled out.

According to a report named Christiana-phobia, by the think tank Civitas: The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith. Between half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or have been killed in the past century.

“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” it claims.

Violent oppression of Christians has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations, especially in Africa and the Middle East. In some countries it is government sanctioned violence that burns down churches and imprisons parishioners.

In others countries, groups and vigilantes take matters into their hands by murdering Christians and driving them out of regions they have called home for centuries.

One Christian pastor in an affected country described the situation this way: “On the Christian side, strong emphasis is placed on the teaching of Christian love, patience, mercy and forbearance. But in such a situation one wonders what the future of Christianity and of the nation as a whole can be.”

“Muslims believe that if they die in the course of a Holy War (or Jihad) they will go directly to heaven. We are dealing with a religious philosophy where war is a must! The whole weight of the challenge is now on our shoulders. Who can tell how successfully we will respond?”

It seems, the Christian philosophy of turning the other cheek, is on the road to running out of cheeks to turn, in Muslim dominated countries. It seems when it comes to tolerating other religions, the religion of “peace” isn’t so peaceful.

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Read more from this story HERE.

US-Egyptian Christians Fear for Faith Under Morsi’s Islamist Agenda (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: argenberg

It seems like every Sunday, there’s a new face sitting in the pews of the Church of Saint Verena and the Three Holy Youth in Orange, Calif. Most are young professionals or families with small children and some have been living in the United States for a just few weeks.

“The first waves of immigration,” said Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii.

These worshippers are Egyptian Christians, better known as Copts. Their church is Coptic Orthodox, the largest Christian church in Egypt and the Middle East with services similar to other Christian faiths. They perform sacraments like the Catholics and recite prayers many faithful Americans would recognize, including “Our Father” and “Hail Mary.” Mass is spoken in a mix of English, Arabic and the ancient Coptic language.

“We are Christians,” said Bishop Serapion. “We believe in the Holy Bible as the word of God.”

While small, the Coptic Christian population in the United States has been growing since the 1950s, particularly in Southern California, New York and New Jersey. But since the Arab Spring began in early 2011, Department of Homeland Security figures show the number of Egyptians seeking asylum has doubled. Unofficial estimates are that 100,000 Egyptians have so far sought refuge in the U.S. Many of them are believed to be Copts but there are no official statistics on their numbers.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Price of Peace Remains Eternal Vigilance – Especially if Romney Wins

/0 Comments/in , /by

Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton Hotel Empire, spent money out of his own pocket to run the following prayer in many major American magazines on July 4th, 1952:

Our Father in heaven,

We pray that You save us from ourselves.

The world that You have made for us, to live in peace, we have made into an armed camp. We live in fear of war to come. We are afraid of “the terror that flies by night, and the arrow that flies by day, the pestilences that walks in darkness and the destruction that wastes at noon-day.” (Psalm 91)

We have turned from You to go out selfish way. We have broken Your commandments and denied Your truth. We have left Your altars to serve the false gods of money and pleasure and power.

Forgive us and help us.

Now, darkness gathers around us, and we are confused in all our counsels. Losing faith in You, we lose faith in ourselves.

Inspire us with wisdom, all of us of every color, race and creed, to use our wealth, our strength to help our brother, instead of destroying him. Help us to do Your will as it is done in heaven, and to be worthy of Your promise of peace on earth. Fill us with new faith, new strength and new courage, that we may win the Battle for Peace.

Be swift to save us, dear God, before the darkness falls.

Again, Hilton ran that ad in major American magazines in 1952. For many of us today, that period of time represents an era of nostalgic Americana we are striving to return to. Yet Hilton looked around at what seems to us an idyllic era and saw many of the exact same evils and threats to freedom we are wringing our hands about today.

There’s a lesson here.

American Christians like me are faced with a temptation to think shortsightedly that I don’t believe any other Christians in the history of Christendom ever had to deal with. That’s because as Americans we are blessed with a level of prosperity, freedom, and mainstream acceptance – yes, even under President Obama – that no other era of Christians has ever had. This provides us the luxury of thinking primarily about the next election, the next fiscal quarter, or the next job review.

Before and outside America, Christians worldwide faced a level of persecution, pestilence, and oppression that compelled them to think long-term, because otherwise there was no hope.

I understand Obama represents an unprecedented lack of respect and agreement with the traditions and values that created American Exceptionalism. I also remember when we were told the same things about Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis, too. The other side of this debate does not agree or understand American Exceptionalism otherwise they would support policies that support it. That will always be the case until we win the day, and that requires a long-term plan.

Part of that long-term plan is realizing the battle isn’t over on Election Day, but is just beginning. The other side has more diligence and perseverance. Whether they win or lose on November 6th, they will be right back in the fight on November 7th.

Will we do the same? Yes Mitt Romney has more respect for American Exceptionalism than Obama, and he clearly has a better idea of how a real economy works, but given Obama’s failures that’s not a tough threshold to clear. Still, as someone that owns his own show and is thus a business owner himself, I could certainly use a better economy for me and my employees as much as the next guy.

I also agree that it’s tough to be free unless you can provide for yourself, and the more the government interferes with that the more freedom is threatened. I do agree that based on his private sector experience and Obama’s public sector record, Romney is the superior choice for freedom in this area.

However, let us not forget that Romney has shown repeatedly that left on his own he cannot be trusted, as have most Republican politicians who talk a good game on the campaign trail. If a politician like Romney in the heat of a campaign is willing to turn on his own base (see Todd Akin and Chick-fil-a) when he thinks most needs us in the heat of a campaign, what will he do in office when he thinks he doesn’t?

We must do a better job of being diligent in holding their feet to the fire while in office, rather than spinning their failures as “not as bad as the other guy.” For once they’re in office there is no “other guy,” for they are the ones taking the oath of office. Thus responsibility for leadership falls on them alone.

The past two election cycles we have thankfully been willing to wield the ultimate weapon against the ruling class—the threat or realization of a primary. We have mounted casualties of spineless and untrustworthy Republicans around the country, and this trend must not only continue but be ratcheted up all the more. Politicians don’t see the light until they feel the heat, and no amount of blogging, broadcasting, or blasting impacts a politician as much as the threat of losing their job.

The price of liberty remains eternal vigilance. We must be willing to pay it otherwise Hilton’s prayer will be as sadly relevant 60 years from now for our children and grandchildren as it was for Hilton 60 years ago.

_____________________________________________

You can friend “Steve Deace” on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow. To learn more about his nationally-syndicated radio show, go to www.stevedeace.com.

Huckabee Tells Christians to Come Out of their Closets

/2 Comments/in /by

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a Christian gathering in New York on Saturday that it is believers’ responsibility to get more involved in civic life, give a bold declaration of the life of the Gospel, and not live as if they were “recruited by the Secret Service.”

“I think a lot of Christian people tend to think they need to disassociate themselves from cultural pillars. I think it’s the opposite,” said the former presidential candidate, the keynote speaker at Saturday night’s kickoff banquet in Cicero, N.Y., for a new non-profit organization, Ten Good Men Inc.

“Christians in this country could be the most important source for good in America if they would execute their basic civic responsibilities,” said Huckabee, a Fox News Channel personality. “Many (Christians) think they were recruited by the Secret Service instead of giving a bold declaration of the life of the Gospel.”

Huckabee added that Christians should not blame “things that putrefy and get spoiled, because that’s what things do when they’re left alone and godless.” If things are dark, it’s the Christians who are going to turn the lights on, he said. “If politics is dirty in this country, it’s dirty because not enough good, clean people get involved.”

Huckabee told the 130 guests at the banquet that only about half of Christians were registered to vote, and further only half of those registered actually cast a ballot.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Embassy: Egyptian Terrorists “Targeting US Female Missionaries in Egypt”

/0 Comments/in /by

The US Embassy in Cairo issued a terrorist threat warning on Friday for American citizens living in Egypt.

The diplomatic mission stated on its website that it has “credible information suggesting terrorist interest in targeting US female missionaries in Egypt.”

The embassy urged US citizens to “exercise vigilance, taking necessary precautions to maintain their personal security.” Americans in Egypt were also advised to maintain valid travel documents and to regularly monitor the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs website, which lists updated travel warnings and alerts.

On August 4, the US issued a travel warning to Americans to “take precautions in travel to the Sinai.” It warned that “overland travel from Israel to the Sinai in particular is strongly discouraged.” That warning came soon after Israel urged its citizens to get out of the Sinai. The next day, Sinai terrorists killed 16 Egyptian border guards in an assault at the Egypt-Gaza-Israel border.

Also on Friday, the chairwoman of the House of Representatives committee that oversees foreign aid said she would block $450 million in US assistance to Egypt in light of tense relations between the two countries.

Read more from this story HERE.