I am greatly saddened by the death of Chuck Colson this past weekend. I have always been grateful to Chuck for his kindness toward me. I was a part-time research fellow and a full-time mother when he began talking about my first book, “Love and Economics.” There was absolutely nothing for him to gain by [...]
Half of Iraq’s indigenous Christians are gone due to the unleashed forces of jihad, many of them fleeing to nearby Syria; yet, as the Assad regime comes under attack by al-Qaeda and others, the jihad now seeps into Syria, where Christians are experiencing a level of persecution unprecedented in the nation’s modern history. Likewise, some [...]
“Never, ever, ever give up.” Thus said Winston Churchill in October 1941, in the shortest of his speeches. As the WW II statesman applied this maxim famously to political life, so too might we apply the principle of perseverance to our personal lives when the warfare is spiritual in form. Perseverance works in tandem [...]
A smooth shaved head, dark tear drop forever etched by her left eye, and Roxanne scrawled in ink across her neck, this young woman stood before me, arms over crutches to support her newly amputated leg and smiled. “I can’t believe I’m getting to meet you,” she said. “I finished your book today. You’ve been through so much,” she [...]
Recently, I began corresponding with a young man who once walked down a dark, destructive path. Eric is sentenced to twenty years in a Jamestown, North Dokota prison for his third drug offense. He tracked me down through Ascension Press, the publisher of my co-authored Amazing Grace books. After reading Amazing Grace for Survivors and [...]
The beginning of the New Year saw only an increase in the oppression of Christians under Islam, from Nigeria, where an all-out jihad has been declared in an effort to eradicate the Muslim north of all Christians, to Europe, where Muslim converts to Christianity are still hounded and attacked as apostates. According to the Chairman [...]
Has there ever been a time when one group of people openly exposes its animosity for another group of people—even as this second group not only ignores the animosity, but speaks well of, enables, and legitimizes the first group? Welcome to the 21st century, where Western politicians empower those Muslims who are otherwise constantly and [...]
On January 21st, I attended a terrific conference in Framingham, MA concerning “The Persecuted Church.” When I say terrific, I mean the full, riveting, appalling sense of the word. Sponsored by CAMERA, the speakers ranged from young participants of the “Arab Spring” protests to sage professors to political operatives. The event culminated in a keynote address [...]
Fears are growing for the safety of two priests from Sudan who have been abducted. Fr. Joseph Makwey, in his 40s, and Fr. Sylvester Mogga, in his mid-30s, were seized on Sunday, January 15th, by men who smashed through the gates of their parish compound and broke down the presbytery door. According to neighbors, the [...]
Repeatedly, the US Catholic Bishops have issued their plaintive calls, asking us to fix our “broken and destructive” criminal justice system here in America. Most of us paid this call no attention at all. Perhaps this was to be expected; I’m afraid the USCCB’s recommendations have not always been free from a certain tincture of [...]
The so-called “Arab Spring” continues to transition into a “Christian Winter,” including in those nations undergoing democratic change, such as Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis dominated the elections—unsurprisingly so, considering the Obama administration has actually been training Islamists for elections. Arab regimes not overthrown by the “Arab Spring” are under mounting international [...]
A recent Fox News report tells of how “a rash of attacks on Christian-owned businesses in northern Iraq has raised troubling questions about the future safety of the country’s shrinking Christian community, particularly as U.S. forces withdraw completely from the nation they’ve refereed since 2003.” In fact, “questions about the future safety of the country’s [...]
Several churches in northern Nigeria were bombed December 25, in what has been described as “Nigeria’s blackest Christmas ever.” The attacks, perpetrated by the Muslim militant group Boko Haram, killed at least 39 people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla near the capital of Abuja] after celebrating Christmas Mass [...]
Thanks to support from Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a new diocesan center has opened in Novosibirsk, Siberia. The center is also a memorial to martyr Bishop Alexander Chira (pictured left). The Apostolic Nuncio to Russia, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovitch, Bishop Joseph Werth of Novosibirsk as well as the Catholic Bishops of [...]
“The Church is a place of refuge and a sign of hope for the people.” With these words, a bishop in East Congo drew attention to the growing significance of the Church in this crisis region. Vincent de Paul Kwanga Njubu, Bishop of Manono in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo made [...]
Egypt’s Maspero massacre—where the military killed dozens of Christians protesting the destruction of their churches—dominates October’s persecution headlines. Facts and details concerning the military’s “crimes against humanity” are documented in this report, and include videos of armored-vehicles running over civilians, a catalog of lies and deceitful tactics employed by Egypt’s rulers and state media, and [...]
I found myself traveling with nothing to read, so I wandered over to the airport kiosk to find something to occupy me for a few hours. Having a small mountain of unread books at home, I couldn’t justify another, so it had to be a magazine, and who can resist National Geographic? The cover was [...]
A year after the attack which left 58 Christians dead in Baghdad, the faithful in Iraq’s capital city continue to be scared of fresh violence. “Living in Iraq means living in fear. There’s no feeling safe and during the last two or three weeks the situation has got worse, because of tensions among political parties,” [...]
Christian prisoners in Pakistan’s jails are suffering severe discrimination, according to a local Catholic lawyer. Moazzam Aslam Bhatti reported his claims of anti-Christian prejudice to staff from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), who are currently visiting projects which the Catholic charity is supporting in the country. Mr. Bhatti said that Christians are marginalized [...]
Renegade politicians whipping up religious hatred are to blame for bloodshed and violence in northern Nigeria according to the local bishop who says the police have failed in their duty to protect the people. Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri said local politicians were exploiting the region’s religious divisions to “whip up” anger in a [...]
To what extent was Egypt’s Maspero massacre, wherein the military literally mowed down Christian Copts protesting the ongoing destruction of their churches, a product of anti-Christian sentiment? A video of Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa (or Gom’a), which began circulating weeks before the massacre, helps elucidate. While holding that Muslims may coexist with Christians [...]
According to a local Coptic leader in Egypt, “Christians are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries.” This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). As he described, Christians are being violently killed under the eyes [...]
“The Lord’s Resistance Army continues to terrorize the population. People are afraid.” This was the declaration of a local Catholic leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rt. Rev. Julien Andavo Mbia, Bishop of Isiro-Niangara, described the dire situation of his countrymen and -women in the north-western region of the Democratic Republic of the [...]
An especially busy month in the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world, September also witnessed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton release the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. Ironically, aside from Iran and Sudan, none of the countries that habitually appear in this series were designated as “countries of particular concern,” defined by the [...]
