North Carolina House Passes Bill Protecting Students’ Rights to Religious Expression

 RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina House of Representatives has passed a bill protecting students’ rights to religious expression, and allowing teachers and other staff members to voluntary participate in student prayers before or after school.

According to reports, SB 370 was presented in response to a recent situation where an elementary school student was prohibited from reading a self-penned poem to her class because it contained a religious reference. The student’s poem centered on her grandfather’s service in WWII, but also cited his prayers for protection.

The bill passed by the House of Wednesday ensures that students are free to “[e]xpress religious viewpoints in a public school to the same extent and under the same circumstances as a student is permitted to express viewpoints on nonreligious topics or subjects in the school.” It also guarantees students the right to pray and distribute faith-based material.

North Carolina House Passes Bill Protecting Students’ Rights to Religious Expression | Christian News Network

Persecuted Christians Fleeing Iran for Germany

Iranian-born Muslims who converted to Christianity are breathing new spiritual life into communities across Germany, where they are fleeing to increasing numbers to escape persecution back home.


Men and women, who have been sentenced to the lash or worse for apostasy – converting from Islam – are forming a thriving community of Christian ex-pats in German cities and towns. The Iranian immigrants seek asylum, or simply pay up to $30,000 to enter the country illegally with a fake passport, a new name and plans to start their lives over in new churches.


“The growing number of Iranian Christians fleeing their homeland to come to Germany should alarm us that Iran’s regime is getting more and more radicalized and repressive – on a daily basis,” Saba Farzan, a German-Iranian expert on human rights, told FoxNews.com.



Persecuted Christians Fleeing Iran for Germany

Creation Museum Unveils ‘Exceptional’ Dinosaur Exhibit to Challenge Evolution

CINCINNATI – Leaders of the Creation Museum in
northern Kentucky unveiled a new $1.5 million dinosaur exhibit last week
which they say ‘will challenge evolutionary theory.’

Since 2007, the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum has displayed
exhibits which affirm and illustrate the history of the world from a
biblical perspective. According to the museum’s website, the Creation
Museum “brings the pages of the Bible to life” with many high-tech
exhibits.

In a press release  last week, Creation Museum leadership announced the grand opening of a brand new dinosaur exhibit featuring a well-preserved allosaur skeleton.
The exhibit, titled “Facing the Allosaurus,” features one of the best-preserved Allosaurus fragilis skulls ever discovered, according to the release.
Creation Museum Unveils ‘Exceptional’ Dinosaur Exhibit to Challenge Evolution

Stepfather Repeatedly Raped Teen, Including On The Night Before Her Forced Abortion

BRISBANE, Australia, May 23, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com)
– An Australian man has been convicted of 159 sexual charges against
his stepdaughter, including raping her the night before she was to have
an abortion he arranged to cover up his molestation.

The man, who lives in Warwick, initiated an involuntary sexual
relationship when the girl was 14, videotaping many of his sexual
encounters.

As she was about to enter her sophomore year in high school, she became
pregnant, and the stepfather demanded she have an abortion.

"I am more than satisfied you were the father of her aborted child,”
Judge Brian Devereaux told the unrepentant man at Friday's sentencing
hearing. "You even raped her the night before she was to have that
abortion.”

The abuse continued until the girl turned 19. He maintained that the relationship was consensual.

(See link below for more)
Stepfather repeatedly raped teen, including on the night before her forced abortion | LifeSiteNews.com

Muslim Clerics Resist Pakistan's Efforts to End Child Marriage

LAHORE, Pakistan (RNS) When police raided a marriage ceremony in
Karachi on Wednesday (May 14) and found a 46-year-old groom about to
marry his 14-year-old bride, the wedding didn’t come as a shock to most
here in this conservative Muslim country — the raid did.

The bride told police her marriage had been consensual, police
officials said. Her age was listed as 18 on the marriage certificate.

Marrying off girls as young as 10 is still a widespread practice in
Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere in Asia and Africa, despite the
prohibition of child marriage in some existing national and provincial
laws. Between 2000 and 2010, about 24.4 million women between the ages
of 20 and 24 were married before the age of 18, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund.

See link below for more:
Muslim clerics resist Pakistan's efforts to end child marriage | Religion News Service

New Study by Sociologist Mark Regnerus Suggests Religion Can Predict Sexual Behavior

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS). Controversial sociologist Mark Regnerus presented
new research on marriage and sex at a conference of Southern Baptists on
Tuesday (April 22), suggesting that religion and sex are tracking more closely
than ever before.

In his first new research since his controversial study on same-sex parenting
about two years ago, the sociology professor at the University of Texas at
Austin presented findings from an unpublished study on marriage and sexual
behavior to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission conference on
sexuality. The study suggests there’s a correspondence between what people’s
religious affiliations proscribe regarding sex and marriage and their behavior.

(Continued)

New study by sociologist Mark Regnerus suggests religion can predict sexual behavior | Religion News Service

Pennsylvania Gay Marriage Ban Overturned By Judge

Pennsylvania's ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal judge Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III called the plaintiffs -- a widow, 11 couples and one of the couples' two teenage daughters -- courageous.

"We now join the 12 federal district courts across the country which, when confronted with these inequities in their own states, have concluded that all couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil," Jones wrote.

An appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is likely. Gov. Tom Corbett's office had defended the law after Attorney General Kathleen Kane called it unconstitutional and refused to defend it. State marriage bans have been falling around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Read more: http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/25567390/pennsylvania-gay-marriage-ban-overturned-by-judge#ixzz32NZdfdyz

The Sword of the Lord

Of all the conflicts of the 20^th century, World War II looms
the largest. The horrifying death toll, the surprise attack at Pearl
Harbor, the Holocaust, and the unforgettable figures of Eisenhower,
Churchill, and Hitler have combined to keep the war in the popular
consciousness.

Lost in the shadows is the world war that came 30 years earlier, what contemporaries called “The Great War.” Yet in a new book, “The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade,” historian Philip Jenkins
of Baylor University shows us that this forgotten conflict had
tremendous implications for both the religious world of its own day and
for our own as well. Observers wishing to understand the origins of the
modern world cannot do so, he argues, without grappling with World War
I’s long-range consequences.

( Continued)

The Sword of the Lord

India's Christians Fear Rise in Persecution Under BJP

After the BJP's historic election victory this week, Christians in
India have mixed feelings about the future and how the country's new
leaders will impact on freedom of religion.

The last week has been a massive turnaround for the once struggling
opposition party that suffered defeats in the last two elections.

Taking them to victory was the charismatic Narendra Modi, who International Christian Concern reports has feigned ignorance about past Hindu nationalist attacks on minorities.

There are serious concerns among Christians, with one pastor, Ronald
John, telling ICC the "persecution of Christians will increase under the
BJP-led government".

"Christians already are gripped with fear and concern over the
election results. Hindu nationalist groups will take advantage of the
situation and use it to attack churches and members of the Christian
community," he said.
(See link below)
 India's Christians fear rise in persecution under BJP | Christian News on Christian Today

Teen Whose Father Was Slain by Islamists for Refusing to Deny Christ Denied U.S. Visa

WASHINGTON – A Christian teenager from Nigeria who
was denied a visa to the United States ‘multiple times’ is sharing her
story of strength in the midst of persecution after her father
was murdered by the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram for refusing to
deny his faith in Christ.

Deborah Peters, 15, spoke on Tuesday during a panel discussion hosted
by the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., outlining that she chose
to tell her story following the kidnapping of nearly 300 school girls in
her hometown of Chibok.

See more
Teen Whose Father Was Slain by Islamists for Refusing to Deny Christ Denied U.S. Visa | Christian News Network