World in Brief

The Roman Catholic Church was the majority religion in Honduras, central America, and is officially recognised by the government. But it has now been overtaken by evangelicals.

A new survey shows that 43.2% of the population identify themselves as evangelical Christians while just 38.2% call themselves Catholics. 13% of Hondurans say they do not belong to any religious denomination.

Honduras is a country with religious freedom; everyone is free to practise whatever religion they wish, so long as it does not contravene public order and other laws.

A Christian family from northern Vietnam has been made to pay their community US$90 and 100kg of pork (the equivalent of four month’s wages) to avoid further persecution from their animist neighbours.

The man, 40, his wife and four children converted to Christianity last summer, whereupon they were harassed by the local authorities and villagers. When they refused to deny their faith, Lohn was beaten and their Christian literature was confiscated.

The villagers said the money and the meat would serve as an offering ‘to appease the gods of the village’.

A US pastor has been murdered outside his church on a Sunday. Pastor Joe Moore, 65, had just led a Bible study at the Upper Room Christian Church in Compton, California when he was shot in the chest and was declared dead at the scene.

His daughter Daney Moore described the shooting as ‘senseless’ and said that her family was struggling to cope with the news. ‘It’s something we can’t process. It was so unexpected. It was so senseless,’ she said. ‘My heart is broken.’ The County Sheriff’s Department said no clear motive has been established.

A medical doctor and pastor in northeast Nigeria has been shot dead by Fulani herdsmen. Dr Habila Solomon, president of Charity and Hope Ministry based in Taraba state, was killed at his home in the village by Muslim Fulani herdsmen.

A first attack a few weeks ago failed, but recently the gunmen returned and shot him in his chest, killing him instantly.’

Solomon encouraged many people who turned to Christ. While leading missions he also helped provide drinking water, shelter, free education and food for the poor.

The Chinese Communist Party is stepping up its attacks on the church by targeting Christian education. In early November, police in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, arrested five representatives of Christian home-schooling programme Abeka Academy.

Officials then raided a Christian school in Jiangsu. Three teachers and three parents were taken to the police station and had not been released by the following day. Local Christians believe the two events were co-ordinated attacks on Christian education.

Christian families in China are increasingly turning to home-schooling because they dislike the brainwashing, atheistic state education.

Over 2,500 people took to the streets of Vienna during the ‘March for Life’ demonstration for the protection of unborn children and against the threatened legalisation of euthanasia.

Many of the marchers attended church services before the march began. The demonstrators included many young people and families. Although the march was peaceful and without incidents, it was disrupted by counter-demonstrators who had encouraged gangs to gather and stand in the way of the marchers.

The ‘Mitternachtsbus’ (Midnight Bus) of the main Protestant Evangelical Church of Germany in Hamburg celebrated its 25th anniversary this November. Its volunteers take care of 160 of the approximately 2,000 homeless people in the city every night.

It was founded by state pastor Dr Stephan Reimers and members of the Hamburg Donations Parliament in 1996 to prevent people from freezing to death.

Every night, volunteers drive to about 30 stops with hot drinks, baked goods, blankets, sleeping bags and clothing for Hamburg’s homeless.

Secular human-rights group Amnesty International has condemned the conviction and sentencing of an Algerian Christian convert, drawing attention to the deteriorating religious freedom conditions there, especially for its small Christian minority.

Algeria’s law regulating non-Muslim worship, under which convert Foudhil Bahloul has been convicted, is ‘discriminatory’ and he must be released, the group said. Bahloul was arrested and charged with ‘illegal donations’ and ‘collecting donations or accepting gifts without a licence from the authorised departments’. He faces additional charges under a law regulating non-Muslim worship, specifically targeting him for distributing Bibles.

A Cuban Protestant pastor who has been detained without trial for over three months has been told that he now faces a ten-year prison sentence.

Pastor Lorenzo Fajardo, leader of the Monte de Sion Independent Church in Palma Soriano, was detained by police last summer while he participated in peaceful protests. He was held for a month in a notorious State Security facility before being transferred to Boniato Maximum Security Prison. He has been charged with crimes including ‘disrespect’ and ‘public disorder’.

Islamic State in West Africa, an offshoot of Boko Haram, has released a video showing a 12-year-old child executing two Nigerian soldiers with an AK-47 assault rifle.

The 17-minute video, titled ‘Makers of Epic Battles,’ includes footage of an ISWAP child soldier shooting to death two Nigerian soldiers, according to Sahara Reporters.

‘There are no words to describe how awful the 17-minute video is’ said Tomasz Rolbiecki, a researcher on the Islamic State’s attacks worldwide.

Hindu extremists have beaten and looted Christian worshippers in northern India, leaving several with serious injuries.

More than 200 members of Vishva Hindu Parishad entered the House of Prayer church building, brandishing wooden clubs and shouting nationalist slogans. About a dozen people were inside.

The assailants beat both men and women as they accused the Christians of practising forced conversions. The Hindu attackers stole cash, credit cards, mobile phones and purses; they also smashed up the sound system and other equipment. No-one has been arrested.

A new report from human-rights organisation Korea Future reveals how prison guards in communist North Korea struck the heads of Christian detainees suspected of Bible study until ‘blood spurted upwards’.

It identifies 167 human-rights abuses against 91 Christians in prison camps, with victims subject to physical beatings ‘with objects, fists, and feet; to the ingestion of polluted food; to positional torture; to sleep deprivation; and to forced squat jumps.

‘In some cases, the physical beatings of victims were so severe that it contributed to their premature deaths’.

The US has issued its first passport with a gender-neutral ‘X’ marker instead of the traditional ‘M’ for male and ‘F’ for female.

It follows the announcement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken that passport processing services would be updated to allow people to self-select from male, female or ‘X’ without medical certification – even if it differs from their other citizenship or identity documents.