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I have always loved the words of the chorus of Steve Green’s classic song Find Us Faithful. The chorus says, Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave, lead them to believe. And the lives we live inspire them to obey. Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful. Tony Snow left faithful footprints and a fire of devotion that obviously lit the way for many of his colleagues. I didn’t get word of Tony’s passing until almost 9:30am on Saturday...

<p>FORMER immigration minister Kevin Andrews instructed his department to lift the intake of Christian refugees from the Middle East in response to what he saw as a pro-Muslim bias created by corrupt local case officers.</p> <p>Opposition immigration spokesman Chris Ellison said yesterday this remains Coalition policy.</p>

<p>'Conversion' to Islam means they cannot be 'restored to their family of origin'</p> <p>A Pakistani judge has ruled two young girls from a Christian family who were reported kidnapped cannot be "restored to their family of origin' because they "converted" to Islam.</p>

Under pressure from Islamic fundamentalists trying to force them to convert, with the additional risks of the journalistic profession, in exile from one country to another: the Calvary of two Iraqi women from the fall of Saddam to the present. Rome (AsiaNews) - One day, Mariam* found her photo on the website of a fundamentalist Shiite group. Her life, and that of her family, would never be the same. Mariam, aged 30, is an Iraqi journalist, well known in the country for conducting the political news broadcasts on Al Sharqiya, the television channel connected to the Baath party of the...

Rihab, Jordan - Excavations are continuing on a hilltop in the rural Jordanian town of Rihab to find additional evidence that supports a recent history-making discovery of what renowned archaeologists believe could be the first church on earth. We believe this is the world's first church, where early Christians took refuge after they escaped Roman persecution in Jerusalem and came here to perform their rituals in secrecy," archaeologist Abdul Qader al-Hosan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Al-Hosan is head of the state-run Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies and doubles as a professor of archaeology at Hashemiyah University. "The evidence we have...

By Jerry Markon and Ben Hubbard Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, July 15, 2008; Page B01 A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as 2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders that these groups are "the enemies of the believers" and diagrammed for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves, a Washington Post review of the books has found. Saudi officials acknowledged that the textbooks used at the Islamic Saudi Academy had contained inflammatory material since at least the mid-1990s but said they ordered revisions in...

Condition and whereabouts of two sisters, 12 and 10, unknown. ISTANBUL, July 11 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian father in Pakistan is in a legal battle with kidnappers for the custody of his pre-teen daughters, who allegedly have been forced to convert to Islam. Yesterday a judge in Pakistan’s Punjab province ordered further investigation into the kidnapping of Saba Younis, 12, and Aneela Younis, 10, who went missing on June 26 in the small town of Chowk Munda. The kidnappers filed for custody of the girls at the local police house on June 28, stating that the sisters had...

A judge in California has ended juvenile court jurisdiction over two children in a family case that prompted an appeals court at one point to declare that parents had no right to homeschool their children in the state. The opinion in the Rachel L. case when WND broke the story in February rocked the foundations of homeschooling in the state and across the nation, because of its implications that without such rights, parents could be liable for civil and criminal penalties simply for teaching their own children at home. It especially outraged those who opposed California's mandated advocacy for homosexual...

A controversial legal ruling that outlawed most forms of home schooling in California will face greater scrutiny because the underlying family court case was dismissed earlier this week. News of the decision broke Friday as thousands of members of the Christian Home Educators Assn. of California met in Long Beach, where they opened with: "We pray God you deliver home-schoolers in California from the mouth of the lion. . . . Change the hearts of these judges, we pray." The issue remains in legal limbo. On Thursday, the family court judge terminated its jurisdiction over two of the eight children...

We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us—that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.

Nobody dislikes Tony Snow. By acclamation, people who know him say the White House press secretary is the most decent, kind and encouraging human being they have ever met. Speaking from personal experience, I can testify not only to his inner warmth and outer kindness, but also to the goodness of his wife, Jill, and their three children. The return of Snow’s colon cancer comes only days after Elizabeth Ed­wards announced the return of her breast cancer. Snow was quick in his warm comments about the wife of the presidential candidate, which came just days before the discovery that cancer...

When we look at the numbers, we wonder where these people go to church. Though the survey included many others, here I will focus on the Evangelical (EV) and Mainline (ML) Protestant churches. Absolutely Certain Belief in God: EV Protestants - 90 percent; ML Protestants - 73 percent. Literal Interpretation of Scripture: EV Protestants - 59 percent; ML Protestants - 29 percent.

BAGHDAD (ANS) -- The Reverend Canon Andrew White, affectionately known as The Vicar of Baghdad, says the situation for Christians in Iraq is "clearly worse" than under the Saddam Hussein regime, toppled by US and Coalition forces in 2003. In a segment of the CBS news program 60 Minutes, originally broadcast on Dec. 2, 2007, updated June 26 and aired on June 29, 2008, correspondent Scott Pelley asked Canon White: "You were here during Saddam’s reign. And now after. Which was better? Which was worse?" "The situation now is clearly worse” than under Saddam, White replied. "There’s no comparison between...

Baghdad, IRAQ - Senior research fellow, Brian J. Grim, paints a harrowing picture of the ongoing persecution of Iraqi Christians.  The research expert on religion and world affairs with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C. reports that the situation for Christians in Iraq is worsening.  “It is no small irony, of course, that the Shiite majority that's now a leading force in Iraq was brutalized and suppressed under Saddam, who extensively curbed the Shiites' religious freedoms. A State Department report in 2002 said Saddam's government ‘severely restricts or bans outright many Shiite religious practices.’...

A growing number of Christians in Britain from a Muslim background are facing harassment and persecution, warns Release International. They include ‘Yasmin’, whose ex-husband planned to kill her. She’s been attacked in the street, driven from her home and was taken under police protection. Yasmin became a Christian after receiving a vision of Jesus during the difficult birth of her son. She tried to keep her faith a secret from her family, but eventually told her mother. “When my mother found out I had become a Christian she went to the local mosque and told them that I had gone...

If it is hard for the church to understand the political issues it can be said that it is nearly impossible for the secularists to understand why abortion and the attack on marriage is so critical for the church. Conservative Biblical theology is the single reason that the church can’t take its eye off the ball. For the church it is like cause and effect with a promise. It is a law not a theory or a possibility. The biblically grounded believer knows that to continue with the abortions and the attack against marriage will produce a long range negative...

Alberta Pastor Steve Boissoin has filed an appeal to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal ruling that convicted him of hate speech. The pastor was found guilty last November of having written a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate that was "likely" to expose homosexuals to hatred. The appeal was filed on June 26 with the Queen's Bench of Alberta. A hearing has preliminarily been set for September 9, although that date could change during negotiations between the involved parties. LifeSiteNews spoke with Boissoin's attorney, Gerald Chipeur, who said that he is confident that the court will grant...

Under pressure from fundamentalist forms of Islam and bursts of sectarian violence, the most populous Christian community in the Middle East is seeking safety by turning inward, cutting day-to-day social ties that have bound Muslim to Christian in Egypt for centuries, members of both communities say. Attacks this summer on monks and shopkeepers belonging to Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, and scattered clashes between Muslims and Christians, have compelled many of Egypt's estimated 6 million to 8 million Copts to isolate themselves in a nation with more than 70 million Muslims. To a degree, the separation will stand as the legacy...

South Carolina plans license plate for Christians

ST. LOUIS Sen. Barack Obama declared Saturday to a roaring crowd of religious African-Americans at the America's Center that they should have no doubt of his commitment to his Christian faith, his nation or his political principles. In an address filled with religious and patriotic imagery, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president told delegates attending a national conference here of the African Methodist Episcopal Church that his career and his life revolved around his belief that "I won't be fulfilling the Lord's Will unless I'm doing the Lord's work.'' That commitment would continue to influence his performance and his politics...

After being yanked from a bus just outside of her hometown in Algeria, 35-year-old Habiba Kouider was searched and questioned about her faith. When police found several Bibles and books about Christianity, they detained the Christian convert for 24 hours and brought her before a state prosecutor. The official gave her two options: Convert back to Islam or face charges. Kouider now faces three years in prison for "practicing non-Muslim religious rites without a license." She is one among dozens of believers arrested this year on religious grounds. Many Christians fear ominous times are ahead for Christians in Algeria, a...

A good sign for the McCain camp from an absolutely essential constituency. It's not so much that these leaders can move thousands of votes, but to have them off the reservation and teeing up unhelpful quotes for the next four months would have been a huge problem for the GOP. Reports Michael Scherer: At a meeting Tuesday in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders from around the country agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted, marking the latest in a string of movement that bodes well for McCain's general election prospects among...

At a meeting Tuesday in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders from around the country agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted, marking the latest in a string of movement that bodes well for McCain's general election prospects among the Republican base. "Collectively we feel that he will support and advance those moral values that we hold much greater than Obama, who in our view will decimate moral values," said Mat Staver, the chairman of Liberty Counsel, a legal advocacy group, who previously supported Mike Huckabee's candidacy. "There are people who came...

America stands at a religious and a political crossroad. If Barack Obama becomes president, his religiosity will be embraced to some extent by certain members of our society. There will be more unseemly and drastic changes than our country has ever experienced. Obama and others of his ilk will dedicatedly undermine the traditional understanding of God’s Word to change our society as they see fit. The Democrats implemented a strategy to vie for votes using Christian verbiage to draw people to them. However, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfeger spoiled it to a degree with their flamboyance.

The fate of the Christians in Iraq should not have come as a complete surprise. It is true that some believed that the kind of Iraqis in exile they met, the soft-spoken thoroughly westernized chalabis and makiyas, who were Representative men, and would, with others like them, inherit Iraq. Really? Was that ever plausible? Here was the worldly, smiling, slippery eye-always-on-the-main-chance Chalabi, a man who had lived in the West since the age of 14 (he left Iraq at the time of Qassem’s coup, and the overturning of the monarchy, back in 1958). He had become thoroughly used to London,...

MONTREAT, N.C. - Billy Graham is as close to a religious icon in American politics as anyone, so it’s no surprise that a U.S. presidential candidate would seek his blessing. On Sunday Republican John McCain did just that, essentially, traveling to the ailing evangelist’s mountaintop home to meet and pray with him and son Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. ...

In his new book, Anglican priest and psychoanalyst Jeremy Young reveals how the “abusive” God of the Bible, who was like a wife-beating husband to His Jewish and Christian followers, is the sordid inspiration for the endless U.S. War on Terror. Called “The Violence of God and the War on Terror,” Young’s revelation understandably is getting appreciative reviews from the Religious Left on both sides of the Atlantic.

Have you noticed a change in Barack Obama’s campaign? Instead of avoiding controversies over values, religion and race, he seems to welcome them and wade into the debates with an increasing enthusiasm. Characterizing how the Republicans will attack him, he predicted that they would criticize his “funny name” and add “and by the way, did you notice that he’s black?”

Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad warned this week that there is an effort underway “to rid the Middle East of Christians.” According to the bishop, “The war has destroyed everything and even the tradition of coexistence. One-third of Christians have fled the country because of threats, abuse and violence.” The Italian news agency SIR is reporting that the bishop made his comments in an address to the scientific committee of the Oasis International Study and Research Center, which is meeting in Amman, Jordan, to discuss the situation in Iraq. Bishop Shlemon also mentioned the “kidnapping of men of the...

Muslim militants are crucifying children to terrorize their Christian parents into fleeing Iraq, a parliamentary committee studying the persecution of religious minorities heard yesterday. Since the war began in 2003, about 12 children, many as young as 10, have been kidnapped and killed, then nailed to makeshift crosses near their homes to terrify and torment their parents. One infant was snatched, decapitated, burned and left on his mother's doorstep, the committee was told. Filham Isaac, speaking for the Nineveh Advocacy Committee, told the human rights committee that Iraqi Christian churches were bombed, clergy murdered and unveiled Iraqi women raped or...

Modesto is known as the bible belt of California. It has deep conservative roots in farmland and a vocal Evangelical community. But increasingly, some less familiar notes are echoing through California's Central Valley, CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports. Like many other places, Modesto is becoming more religiously diverse. But unlike any other place, religion is a required course in high school here. "We can't preach, but we can teach," teacher Yvonne Taylor said. Using "Teach Don't Preach" as her motto, Taylor guides the world religions course at Johansen High. "And now we're going to be looking at Judaism, Christianity,...

Censorship. Book burning. The Criminalization of Christianity. It's here and it's now the law in the state of Colorado. The Ku Klux Klan can march. The Nazis can hand out brochures. Skinheads can do whatever it is that Skinheads do. But in the state of Colorado, the only group who is NOT allowed to be heard is … the Christians. They're the ones who disagree with same-sex marriage, cohabitation, and believe the biblical view that homosexuality is a sin. But if they voice that objection from now on, it had better be inside the four walls of a church. If...

As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution. The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization’s headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.

(also) Having a "Fruitcake" Interpretation of the ConstitutionDr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family -- who has stayed unusually quiet in this election cycle likely due to his loathing of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- will tomorrow attack Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, on Tuesday for a speech the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee delivered in 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. The AP was given an advance copy of Dobson's 18-minute radio segment, which has already been taped, and will air Tuesday. In it, Dobson hammers Obama's views of religion, and says the...

WASHINGTON - America remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life -- even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise. The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths. Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe...

Walter Russell Mead is one of the most revered American foreign policy scholars in the U.S. He has authored some great books (chief among them, Special Providence), as well as many great articles. Last year he wrote the most powerful argument against Walt and Mearsheimer's The Israel Lobby. Now Mead has a new article in Foreign Affairs, entitled "Why Gentile Americans Back the Jewish State". Although I usually refrain from just quoting articles without adding my own take, I think this time I'll do just that. Most people do not read such long articles, and are not Foreign Affairs subscribers,...

What I am talking about is a strategic alliance between Christians and Hillary supporters It may seem awkward at first, but if we unite we can defeat Obama. If we can put down our differences for a few months and unite in our common cause to defeat Obama and his far left liberal ways then we can at least keep our country safe for the next 4 years. I have been dialogging with some strong Hillary supporter blogs for a few weeks now. Sometimes it got a little confrontational, but now that she is probably not going to be the...

Princeton, New Jersey (Reuters) - Matt Dunbar is not your typical evangelical Christian. With his tousled hair, sideburns and a scruffy "soul patch" beard, the 26-year-old New Yorker belongs to a growing minority of young evangelicals who want to broaden their political agenda beyond the traditional opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Evangelicals like Dunbar are eager to move on and tackle such hot topics as global warming and social justice. As they move to the center of the political spectrum, they are deciding whether Republican presidential candidate John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama aligns best with their values and...

In early June, the German television network ARD aired a film called GOD AND THE WORLD: THE PERSECUTED CHILDREN OF GOD. The “children” referred to are Iraq’s largest Christian community: the Assyrians. While any attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians is welcome, I only wish that the film could have aired in the country that is in the best position to help them: the United States. The film tells the story of the suffering and persecution endured by Assyrian Christians through interviews with Christian refugees - or “internally displaced persons,” as bureaucrats call them - who escaped the most...

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics. It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections. "I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama. "To be running against...

France's Association of Copts plans to hold a demonstration on Sunday against what it calls "repeated and ferocious" attacks against members of the Coptic Christian minority in Egypt. "The beating up of Coptic citizens are occurring daily in Egypt," the association said, adding that these attacks have been going on for years. The association said it hoped Sunday's protest would raise awareness in France and other countries about the plight of Egypt's Coptic minority. The association cited an incident on 31 May in which 60 armed Muslims allegedly attacked a Coptic monastery in Abufana assaulting dozens of monks and setting...

For eight years Daniel and Sharon Dixon, apartment managers in Lake City, Fla., displayed in the apartment complex's management office a stained glass depiction of flowers with the words "Consider the lilies … Matthew 6:28" written in the lower left corner – an act for which they were suddenly fired from their management jobs and evicted from their apartment. Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom that is representing the Dixons, told WND that neither before nor after the incident were the Dixons charged with any wrongdoing other than protesting the removal...

Religion and the Candidates Rachel Paulk, June 20, 2008 Religion remains a point of interest regarding the presidential candidates in the upcoming 2008 election, with significant media attention devoted towards both Senator Barack Obama’s and Senator John McCain’s religious preferences. Both endorse Christianity in some form, yet both stray from widely accepted Christian viewpoints on specific social issues. Between McCain and Obama, Obama has been more vocal about religion, especially given the heightened concentration on his 20-year membership at the Trinity United Church of Christ under the controversial Jeremiah Wright. Obama stated at The Compassion Forum, an event held at...

When a Christian pastor in Canada wrote a commentary on the Bible's perspective on homosexuality, a government commission ordered him to renounce his faith and apologize. When a family owned photography studio in New Mexico refused, on religious grounds, to take pictures at a same-sex ceremony, the fine for such "discrimination" was $6,600. Now the experts say Colorado is joining in the repression of the practice of Christianity. "Getting beyond the bathroom and locker room issue, the biggest danger this law poses is to the religious or moral consciences of small business owners who may object to doing business...

Joshua Teitelbaum Over the past several years, Iranian leaders - most prominently, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - have made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. While certain experts have interpreted these statements to be simple expressions of dissatisfaction with the current Israeli government and its policies, in reality, the intent behind Ahmadinejad's language and that of others is clear. What emerges from a comprehensive analysis of what Ahmadinejad actually said - and how it has been interpreted in Iran - is that the Iranian president was not just calling for "regime change" in Jerusalem,...

As a former skeptic, I have a particular interest in Christian apologetics: the defense of the Christian faith. I've read and recommended many excellent books on the subject but want to call your special attention to one I've most recently read because of the uniqueness of its approach and content. "Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend" is a compilation of essays by renowned Christian apologists compiled and edited by my friend and Christian philosopher and apologist, Ravi Zacharias, that together "suggest a new vision for Christian apologetics in this century." I love apologetics because it helped me overcome certain...

JUNE 5--Last June, Matthew Lincoln was attending an evening service at his nondenominational Tennessee church when he approached the altar where a visiting minister was offering individual prayers for parishioners. Assigned "catchers" were present on the altar in case congregants fainted, fell, or otherwise lost control. When the minister, Robert Lavala, slightly touched his forehead, the Knoxville-area man "received the spirit and fell backwards." Except nobody was there to catch him, Lincoln charges in a $2.5 million lawsuit filed yesterday against Lakewind Church and its pastors. Lincoln, 58, claims that he fell backwards, striking his head against the "carpet-covered cement...

CHRISTIANS from all over the country were gathering in Birmingham today following claims that two ministers were ejected by police for preaching the word of Jesus. Followers from Christian Voice have accused West Midlands Police for turning the predominately Muslim area of Alum Rock into a no-go zone for non-Muslims. The Carmarthen-based group was heading into Alum Rock today to distribute Christian leaflets and share the Gospel with passers-by. Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said: “We are coming to preach the Gospel and to show West Midlands Police that they cannot create a Muslim ghetto for the Gospel....

Delhi: 50% Christian quota in St Stephen's NEW DELHI: After months of speculation, St Stephen’s on Saturday clearly stated its stand on its minority status - 50% of seats in the college will now go to Christians. In what could be a blow to the hopes of students from other communities, St Stephen’s spokesman Sunil Mathew made it clear the percentage could even increase in future. ‘‘For this year, 50% is the cap on reservation for Christians. Next year we will look into the issue again.” Some seats will, however, be added for the sports quota. Of the seats, 40%...

Sister Ruth Lautt works from a single room on the 19th floor of the God Box. Such is the nickname for the Interchurch Center, the office building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan that is the closest thing to a Vatican for America’s mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, Sister Ruth’s fellow tenants include agencies of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Wearing the tapered suits left over from an earlier career in law and the crucifix of her more recent life as a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Ruth cuts an inconspicuous figure at the...