Last fall, we began sharing stories about the vulnerable church around the world and how God uses these brothers and sisters to do his kingdom work. The vulnerable church has much to teach us here in the West. These believers are living out stories that need to be told and retold, stories of hope in…
By Samuel Smith, The Christian Post. As conflicts in Iraq and Syria have forced millions of residents to flee their homes over the last several years, a leading Christian persecution activist has explained that over 80 percent of Christians have left Iraq in the last 13 years, while nearly half of all Christians have fled Syria…
By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post. The United States government is processing an unbelievably low number of Christian refugees despite the ongoing genocide at the hands of the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria, the American Center for Law and Justice reports. The conservative law group cited numbers from the Refugee Processing Center, noting that…
The Islamic State Can’t Stop Christ So They Destroy Those Who Reflect His Image By Faith J. H. McDonnell, Patheos. They hate the Image reflected in the mirrors. But even they, with their knives and guns and bombs, and their crucifixions and abductions, and their rape and enslavement, and their marking of houses with threats, forcing thousands to flee, are powerless…
A Christian congregation in Syria is defying the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by continuing to hold church services amidst the threat of violence and death. By Lorraine Caballero, Christian Daily. While many Christians fled Syria after ISIS razed the war-torn region, Pastor Edward Awabdeh and his congregation stayed and supported each other…
By Suzette Gutierrez Cachila, The Christian Times. A Catholic nun and priest attended the #WeAreN2016 international congress on religious freedom, which was held April 28 to 30 in New York and sought protection from the United Nations against the brutalities of persecution. Sister Maria de Guadalupe and Father Rodrigo Miranda, missionaries from the Institute of…
By World Watch Monitor. War and persecution has led to a hemorrhaging of Christians from the Middle East, particularly from Syria and Iraq. A new report highlights what the region stands to lose should Christians continue to leave. The report, compiled by a trio of Christian charities and a university, argues that Christians are an essential…
By George Weigel, First Things. The Monuments Men was a disappointing movie, but one of its most chilling scenes sticks in my mind as an analogue to the appalling wickedness underway in the Middle East. In the film, SS Colonel Wegner supervises the destruction of art works plundered by the Nazis: treasures intended for Hitler’s…
By Paul Seebeck, Presbyterians Today. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about them. About what they, the survivors of a brutal war in Syria, said when I first met them in 2014. “Tell everyone you know to stand with us against those who are profiting off war,” said one person….
After 45 years of rejecting citizenship, war in Syria has caused a change in the minority group, with 80 applications this year The fifth year of Syria’s brutal civil war has marked a sharp increase in the number of Druze residents on the Golan Heights seeking Israeli citizenship. In contrast to the only two requests…