We Persevere
Week of June 16, 2016

United States: In California, A threatening and overreaching bill (Senate Bill 1146) is working its way through the legislature. If passed as is, this bill would strip California’s faith-based colleges and universities of their religious liberty to educate students according to their faith convictions. As many as 42 faith-based institutions of higher education in California could be impacted; it would eliminate religious liberty in California higher education, as we know it today, and deprive tens of thousands of students of their access to a distinctly faith-based higher education. Read more…

Austria: Since 2014, applicants interested in converting to Christianity with the Austrian church have to go through a one-year “preparation period” during which they are informally assessed. “There has to be a noticeable interest in the faith that extends beyond merely the wish to obtain a piece of paper. We are not interested in proforma Christians. You have to be able to register some kind of process of change in people.” Read more…

Nigeria: Authorities said 74-year-old Bridget Abahime was “mobbed and extra-judicially murdered” on Thursday at a market in Kano, Nigeria’s largest northern city. Following reports that the woman was killed over a perceived insult on Prophet Muhammad, the northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria said police are not doing enough to protect Christians and warned Saturday of a “looming religious crisis.” Read more…

North Korea: From giant balloons and illicit DVDs to portable media players, campaigners have been extremely persistent in finding ways to smuggle information inside North Korea. But “stealth gospel”, whereby adoring references to the ruling Kim dynasty in classical propaganda music are replaced with mentions of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, must be one of the most creative. Read more…

United States: The Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s presentation on Religious Liberty and the Common Good, held on May 23, very effectively made its key point that religious liberty is vital to a free and virtuous society. Read more…

For Your Bookshelf this month:

They Say We Are Infidels, by Mindy Belz

“For the past decade, journalist Mindy Belz has returned again and again to the Middle East, following Iraqi Christians fleeing from rape, murder, kidnapping, and suicide bombing. Belz brings the stark reality of this escalating genocide to light, sharing the stories of real-life Christians who refuse to abandon their faith—together with the hope that still lives, even in the face of terror.” Learn more…

We Persevere is curated by K.A. Ellis, pioneer of the Persevering Church campaign. She is Ambassador for International Christian Response, a Swiss organization providing support for church planters in hostile regions where Western missionaries cannot go.