Current Events

Needs in Ukraine (A Barnabas Fund Report)

Words of thanks came from Ukraine after the quick and generous response of our supporters to our appeals on behalf those suffering. We are thrilled, grateful to God, and thankful for your donations of money and supplies. People remaining in Ukraine are suffering. There are many thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters amongst them. Hundreds of thousands are without gas and electricity. Supplies of food and drinking water are also diminished. Barnabas Fund immediately launched urgent appeals for Christians in desperate need of food, blankets, warm clothes, and other basic humanitarian aid. Within days of our appeals, more than six tons of food and five tons of blankets, coats, and other clothes were delivered to Barnabas Fund. More donations continued to arrive each day. The first 40-foot truck carrying thirty tons of aid from our warehouse reached Romania on March 16 followed by others, approximately one each week. Aid was distributed not only to refugees in Romania but also to the needy in Ukraine itself. Further shipments from the U.S. and Canada are planned in the coming months—for as long as they are needed. As well as sending supplies we have sent funds—some into Ukraine itself and some to Poland and Moldova for churches and other partners near the Ukrainian border to use to care for refugees. Food and heating fuel were the main costs. One partner in Moldova was able to accommodate over one hundred people from Ukraine in a hotel normally used for hosting conference attendees.

—BarnabasFund.org

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws misused

For the past ten months a mother has been waiting for trial in Pakistan. In July 2021 she was arrested for forwarding a WhatsApp message that allegedly contained blasphemous content. Armed police raided her home and arrested her and her two sons (ages 10 and 12) accusing them of violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Later they freed the sons. She had joined several interfaith WhatsApp groups where she preached and defended her Christian faith. It was in one of these groups that she was accused of forwarding blasphemous content. She was charged with insulting Islam (Section 295-A of Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes, punishable by up to ten years in prison), insulting Muhammad (295-C, carrying the death penalty) and more. The family has had to flee from Islamabad because of threats. Her eldest son was upset that he was not allowed to hold his mother’s hand when he went to visit her in prison. Her daughter said: “…we feel no excitement about celebrating any feast without our mother. We are worried about her fate, and pray that the court frees her and that she can come back to us.”

—ChurchInChains.ie

Unrest in Nigeria escalates

Rioters upset over the arrest of two Muslims in connection with the killing of a Christian college student in Nigeria attacked three church buildings and looted and damaged Christian-owned shops in May. The Christian student had been beaten, stoned to death, and her body set on fire after she was falsely accused of blaspheming the prophet of Islam because she had refused to date a Muslim. Area Muslims demanding the release of the two suspects assembled in strategic areas of the city and then marched to the palace of the sultan, leader of Nigeria’s Muslims, demanding the release of the two Muslims. The sultan has condemned the killing. An area resident, said, “In spite of efforts by the police and other security agencies to prevent them from becoming violent in their protest, these Muslims still succeeded in attacking and destroying two churches.” General secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), said in a statement that the inability of the Nigerian government to prosecute Muslims who have killed Christians over false claims of blasphemy has fueled such criminal acts.

—MorningStarNews

United Methodist Church split

Dozens of Georgia churches split from United Methodist Church (UMC) in May over LGBTQ issues. Seventy churches in Georgia split from the UMC last week largely marking the latest in this growing LGBTQ divide within the third largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. The UMC’s change toward leniency relating to the practice of homosexuality or the ordination of marriage of homosexuals caused this split. A 2019 agreement is allowing churches to leave the denomination through the end of 2023 for reasons of conscience regarding this change. The Methodists trace their roots to 18th-century English evangelist John Wesley, whose followers split from the Church of England following his death

—FoxNews.com

Physician-assisted suicide (MAiD) is problematic in Canada

Clergy, chaplains, spiritual care professionals and entire denominations across Canada find dealing with MAiD very hard. When physicianassisted suicide—popularly known as Medical Assistance in Dying or MAiD—first became legal, much of the public’s attention was focused on those individuals who had won the right to have their lives end at a time of their choosing, but it takes a community to take a life legally. Some of those who compose the community that surrounds MAiD deaths find the practice ethically immoral and philosophically reprehensible, and experience participation—even from a distance—to be excruciating. A pastor at a congregation in Ontario is one of them. The bishop of his church instructed clergy not to participate in MAiD, but caring for someone pastorally can mean being involved in one way or another, even when you are deeply uncomfortable. The first time he personally encountered MAiD, he was walking into a hospital and he spoke to a man who was visiting his wife. The man said something leaving the pastor speechless. He said, “I was thinking of putting her down, but my kids are uncomfortable with that. Plus, she’s in a state where she can’t make a decision.” This brief exchange was evidence that culture swings very quickly. The pastor said MAiD has become “more and more normalized…once a door opens, it never closes again.” Not long after that experience, someone he knew chose MAiD. The man, having recently lost his wife, was diagnosed with cancer and wound up in hospital where he discussed MAiD with his physician. “He was sick. He was vulnerable. He was depressed. He’d just sold his house. There was huge change coming in his life, but more could have been done.” With permissibility has come popularity. MAiD has become “more and more normalized.” Throughout the two weeks it took for the MAiD team to arrive to end the man’s life, the pastor visited him on several occasions. “I was trying to talk him out of it,” he says, but he was determined. Three days later the pastor received a text message from the man which concluded with, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. Love you.” It was his final goodbye. The cause of death listed on the death certificate was not the lethal drug overdose he had been given, but cancer.

—FaithToday.ca

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen