Confirmed: The United States Is the Chief Facilitator of Christian Persecution

By Raymond Ibrahim
 

Prominent indicators confirm that the U.S. is the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today.

 
According to the recently released 2014 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted, Syria is the third worst nation in the world in which to be Christian, Iraq is fourth, Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four countries receive the strongest designation, "extreme persecution" (other designations are "severe," "moderate," and "sparse" persecution).

Aside from being so closely and harshly ranked, these four nations have something else in common: heavy U.S. involvement. Three-Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya-were "liberated" thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring "freedom fighters" against the regime, many of whom would be better labeled "terrorists."

The Syrian situation alone indicts U.S. foreign policy. According to Reuters:

"Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 "martyr" killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said. "This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm," said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors. Estimates by other Christian groups put the annual figure as high as 8,000."

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Obama Gets Schooled in Christianity 101

The Obama administration is being handed a lesson in Christianity 101 as religious leaders rise up to condemn an Obamacare requirement that forces religious organizations to pay for abortifacents or face crippling financial penalties.

“Christian doctrine states it is a sin for a Christian to enable or aid another in doing what the Christian believes to be sin,” states a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by a coalition of dozens of prominent Protestant theologians, African-American pastors and participants in the Manhattan Declaration.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed over the requirement in the Affordable Health Care Act that employers pay for abortifacents. Two cases, involving Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods, are pending for review before the Supreme Court.

Even members of Congress have weighed in against the provision, which effectively forces Christians to violate their faith by participating in the killing of unborn children.

A brief submitted by the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, which was joined by Rick Warren, Wayne Grudem, Bishop Harry Jackson, Ravi Zacharias and dozens more, explains that Christian doctrine governs a person’s life, not just a behavior during a short time at church on Sundays.

It also contends Obamacare “substantially burdens” the free exercise of religion.

“This case throws into sharp relief the problems that can arise when the Christian doctrine of work is not properly understood,” sand IFWE Executive Director Hugh Whelchel. “We as Christians cannot compartmentalize our faith from the work we do every day, whether we’re a pastor, a plumber, or business leader. The Bible teaches that all of life is integrated and matters to God. This fundamental doctrine needs to be preached more often in our churches as well as understood in our courts.”

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Christian Artists Skip, Walk Out of ‘Satanic’ Grammy Awards Show

LOS ANGELES, January 28, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sunday night’s Grammy Awards show was all about shock value.  Scantily-clad singers, same-sex “marriages” set to anti-Christian lyrics, simulated sex acts and a performance full of demonic imagery by pop star Katy Perry – who used to be Christian artist Katy Hudson – were just a few of the on-stage stunts that seemed custom-designed to offend Christian believers.

Christian singer-songwriter Mandisa, pictured here, opted to stay home from the Grammys Sunday night.

While most of the industry insiders in attendance cheered the provocative displays, at least a few decided they’d had enough, as one Christian nominee walked out in the middle of the show, and one Grammy award winner refused to show up at all.

“We left the Grammys early,” Christian gospel singer Natalie Grant announced via Twitter. “I’ve many thoughts, most of which are probably better left inside my head. But I’ll say this: I’ve never been more honored to sing about Jesus and for Jesus. And I’ve never been more sure of the path I’ve chosen.”
After social media caught fire over Grant’s decision to walk out of the show, with many homosexuals accusing her of ‘hate,’ Grant responded via Facebook.

“I NEVER said I left during any particular performance,” Grant wrote. “I only said I left early. I never pointed out any one particular performance, I only said I had many thoughts about the entire show, which were best left inside my head and that is where they will stay. So those who say I condemned one performance but then condoned others clearly did not read the post.”

“I will never stand on a street corner and wave a sign, I won't use my platform to engage in political arguments that will only divide and not unite,” she said. “I do have my own personal convictions that I live by, and I will continue to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. (Philippians 2:12)”

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Hairless Hero: Iranian Teacher Shaves Head in Solidarity With Bullied Pupil

When Iranian schoolteacher Ali Mohammadian noticed that one of his students was being bullied after going bald as a result of a mysterious illness, he decided to show solidarity and shave his own hair. In no time, his entire class shaved their heads and the bullying stopped.

Now, Mohammadian, who teaches at Sheikh Shaltoot's elementary school in Marivan, a Kurdish city in the west of Iran, has become a national hero. President Hassan Rouhani has praised him, the government has offered financial support for the pupil's medical treatment and his story has reached the four corners of his country.

"I'm so happy that this has touched many hearts and people reacted enormously positive," the 45-year-old teacher told the Guardian by phone from Marivan. "Everyone in the school now wants to shave their head."

Earlier this month, Mohammadian posted a picture of himself with eight-year-old Mahan Rahimi on Facebook. "Our heads are sensitive to hair," he wrote on the social network in support of his student. "Mahan had become isolated after going bald, smile had disappeared from his face and I was concerned about his class performance. That's why I thought about shaving my head to get him back on track."

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Twin Attacks on Nigerian Church, Village Leave 74 Dead

At least 74 people have been reported killed in two attacks in northeast Nigeria, including a siege on a Catholic church, as part of the ongoing sectarian violence gripping the region.

Attackers armed with guns and explosives killed 22 people at a busy church service, in a region where Islamist sect Boko Haram is resisting a military crackdown, witnesses said on Monday.
They set off bombs and fired into the congregation in the Catholic church in Waga Chakawa village in Adamawa state on Sunday morning, before burning houses and taking residents hostage during a four-hour siege, witnesses said.

President Goodluck Jonathan is struggling to contain Boko Haram in remote rural regions in the country's northeast corner, where the sect first launched an uprising in 2009.

The shady sect, which wants to impose sharia law on a country split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims, has killed thousands over the past four and a half years and is considered the biggest security risk in Africa's top oil exporter and second largest economy after South Africa.
Its fighters' favourite targets have traditionally been security forces, politicians who oppose them and Christian minorities in the largely Muslim north.

The spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Yola, Reverend Father Raymond Danbouye, confirmed 22 people killed in the attack were buried at a funeral on Monday.

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Iran's Military Nuclear Bid 'Will Be Stopped': Israel

SpaceDaily.com reports: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Iran's atomic drive ‘will be stopped’, a day after an interim agreement bringing sanctions relief for Tehran took effect.

‘Iran's military nuclear programme must be stopped, and Iran's military nuclear programme will be stopped,’ Netanyahu said at a joint news conference with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, without saying how.

Israel has long warned that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state, and has refused to rule out a military strike to prevent that from happening.
Netanyahu fought a major diplomatic campaign against the so-called Geneva Agreement which was hammered out in November between world powers and Iran, and on Monday he said the agreement would not succeed in stopping Tehran.

‘The interim agreement which went into force today does not prevent Iran from realizing its intention to develop nuclear weapons,’ he told the Israeli parliament.

His remarks came just hours after the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed Iran had halted production of 20 percent enriched uranium, marking the entry into force of the landmark deal with the P5+1 group of world powers.

The international community also kept its part of the deal, with both the European Union and United States separately announcing they were easing crippling sanctions on Iran.
The deal, which was signed in Geneva, came about after nearly a decade of failed negotiations over its disputed nuclear program, which the West believes is a front for building a military capability.

Tehran has denied the charge...


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Syria Accused of Torture and 11,000 Executions

BBC News reports: “There is clear evidence that Syria has systematically tortured and executed about 11,000 detainees since the start of the uprising, a report by three former war crimes prosecutors says.
The investigators examined thousands of still images of dead prisoners reportedly smuggled out by a defector.

One of the authors told the BBC there was evidence of government involvement. Damascus has denied claims of abuse.

The report comes a day before peace talks are due to begin in Switzerland.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK - which along with CNN first unveiled the report - says the release appears timed to coincide with the conference, opening in the resort town of Montreux, and continuing in Geneva two days later.

The talks, known as ‘Geneva II’, are being seen as the biggest diplomatic effort to end the three-year conflict which has left more than 100,000 dead and millions displaced…”

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Syria: Al Qaeda Training Western Citizens for Terror Abroad

Israel National News reports: “Al-Qaeda has been using the influx of foreign nationals to Syria to train potential terrorists to begin cells abroad, specifically in the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU), Britain's The Telegraph reported Monday.

A defector from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and Western security sources confirmed to the British news agency what UK and other intelligence officials have long suspected: that at least some foreign nationals who leave to fight in the Syrian civil war plan to use their experience and training there to attack their native countries upon their return.

The defector, speaking from the Turkish border - a route commonly taken by foreign Islamist fighters into Syria - said that Al Qaeda has been training recruits from Europe, the UK and the US how to make and detonate car bombs and suicide vests in anticipation of being sent home to start new terror cells.

‘They talked often about terrorist attacks,’ the defector, who would only give the name of Murad, stated to the British daily. ‘The foreigners were proud of 9/11 and the London bombings. The British, French and American mujahideen [holy warriors] in the room started talking about places that they wanted to bomb or explode themselves in Europe and the United States. Everyone named a target. The American said he dreamed of blowing up the White House.’…”

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Atheists Demand Florida City Remove Bible from City Hall Chambers

A nationally-recognized atheist activist group is demanding that officials with a Florida city remove a 40-year-old Bible from city hall chambers.

The Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) recently sent a letter to officials in Pinellas Park, Florida on behalf of local businessman Randy Heine, who states that the Bible makes him feel uncomfortable when he attends city meetings.

"The Bible must go. It doesn't belong in a government meeting," he told Fox13 Tampa Bay. "Every time I speak, it makes me feel awkward."

According to reports, the Bible was presented to the city in 1975 by the local Kiwanis club and has rested on a desk in the chambers for nearly 40 years since.

Government Relations Administrator Tim Caddell said that local residents have not expressed any grievances about the Bible in the decades that have passed.

"We've not had complaints from residents, from people who participated," he told Bay News9. "We have complaints from groups who come in looking to find something wrong."

However, FFRF says that the Bible serves as a government endorsement of Christianity, and asserts that such a suggestion is unconstitutional.

"It's on display, and that certainly is improper. It shows an endorsement of the Bible as a holy book over other holy books," Co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor told reporters. "How would the people of Pinellas Park feel if it was a Quran?"

Therefore, the organization sent a letter to city officials, contending that the Bible must be removed.

"Not only is the city council sending a message of endorsement for Christianity over other religions and nonreligion," it read, "but display of this King James Bible sends a message of endorsement of one particular Christian sect over all others."

The letter also takes issues with inserts that are included with city utility bills, which advertise for church events, as well as prayers that precede city hall meetings.

FFRF has sent letters to Pinellas Park in the past, which have heretofore been ignored. However, a review of the correspondence is said to be underway this week.

Reaction to the matter has been mixed.

"I love the Freedom From Religion Foundation! … Help pull this country out of the insanity of superstitious beliefs," one commenter wrote. "Magical thinking will not improve the human condition."

"[T]here is nothing about separation of Church and State in the Constitution. The 1st Amendment simply says that the government (federal) will not declare any religion the religion of [the] State.

"This was due to what England did by making the Church of England the official religion of the country," another stated.

"Religious freedom means you are free to worship and display your worship. You are not supposed to worship behind closed doors!"

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Evolution: Plenty of People Believe, But at What Cost?

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe in human evolution and one-third reject the idea, according to a Pew Research Center study highlighting a battle of worldviews with implications for multiple facets of life.

Sixty percent of those surveyed said "humans and other living things have evolved over time," while 33 percent said "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time," Pew reported Dec. 30.

About half of those who reported a belief in human evolution said it's "due to natural processes such as natural selection" while 24 percent said "a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today."

Pew's study contrasts with a Gallup poll from 2012 that found 46 percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. In that poll, about a third of Americans said they believe humans evolved but with God's guidance, while 15 percent said God had no part in the process.

Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture told Baptist Press the Pew data could be analyzed to mean 57 percent of Americans hold a view compatible with Intelligent Design, that the universe is the product of intelligence rather than blind chance.

"If you define evolution as mere 'change over time,' then sure, most Americans (about 60 percent) believe humans have 'evolved,'" Luskin said. "But if you further define evolution as 'unguided natural selection,' then apparently only about a third of Americans agree with that type of evolution.

"If we interpret the poll correctly, well over half of Americans -- at least 57 percent -- take a view that fits within Intelligent Design and don't support Darwinism," Luskin said.

Ken Ham, president and founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum, which are grounded in the belief that God created the world in seven literal days and that the earth and universe are thousands –- not billions –- of years old, told Baptist Press the way Pew phrased the questions determined how people answered and even he would have said living things have not existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

"I believe there have been a lot of changes in animals because there has been a lot of speciation within a kind," Ham said. But overall, he is encouraged that the study indicates that a strong number of people have not been persuaded by the human evolution theories.

"In a culture where generations of kids are being taken through a public education system where there's been legislation to protect them from even hearing about creation and to teach them evolution as fact -- that we still have a third of the population who would stand basically very similar to where we stand, I think that shows there's been a significant influence in this culture to teach people about [God as creator]," Ham said

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