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Today’s Headlines:

PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN ARRESTED ON BLASPHEMY CHARGES AFTER ARGUMENT CHRISTIANS DETAINED IN VIETNAM FOR DISTRIBUTING LITERATURE PALESTINIANS WELCOME CHRISTIAN EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH PROTESTERS URGE ERITREAN OFFICIALS TO ADDRESS PERSECUTION ISSUE THEOLOGIAN/EDITOR CARL F.H. HENRY DIES AT AGE 90

Today’s News Stories:

PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN ARRESTED ON BLASPHEMY CHARGES AFTER ARGUMENT On Friday, Nov. 28, Christian laborer Anwar Masih was arrested and charged with blasphemy after a heated discussion with an acquaintance, Naseer Ahmad, who had converted to Islam three months earlier. According to news reports, Ahmad was visiting his Christian mother in the town of Shadhra on the outskirts of Lahore when he got into a discussion on Islam with his mother’s neighbor, Masih. During the discussion, Ahmad allegedly told police that Masih became angry and blasphemed the prophet Mohammed. When Ahmad told other neighbors about the discussion, they gathered a mob together and attacked Masih’s home, pelting it with stones. When police arrived, they arrested Masih, ignoring the attack on his home. According to one report, there had been prior clashes between Ahmad’s and Masih’s families, and it is believed that these charges were pressed as an act of revenge. If convicted of blasphemy, Masih could face the death penalty. (Voice of the Martyrs)

CHRISTIANS DETAINED IN VIETNAM FOR DISTRIBUTING LITERATURE Vietnamese police report they detained more than seven Christians in Hanoi on Dec. 4 for handing out Christian flyers on the eve of the South East Asian Games. In Ho Chi Minh City, 19 Christians were arrested for carrying or distributing Christian leaflets, prompting supporters to stage a sit-in and hunger strike. According to ABC Radio Australia, police deny that the Christians have been arrested, but they are being held for questioning to determine the origin of the materials. A police spokesman said that the Christians were breaking the law because they were distributing material without the authority of the organizing committee for the South East Asian Games. While Christianity is officially legal in Vietnam, there is extreme repression of all religions, particularly those who are not officially state-sanctioned. Radio Free Asia reported that Nguyen Hong Quang, a minister, along with 30 assistant ministers, has staged a hunger strike and sit-in at the first district’s police station. All but four of the detainees are known to be held at local police facilities, an unnamed source reported. “We love this country, and we respect the law, but we are being persecuted for our beliefs,” Quang said. (Religious Media Agency/Radio Free Asia)

PALESTINIANS WELCOME CHRISTIAN EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH An indigenous Christian ministry is finding its evangelistic outreach among Palestinians welcomed by the community. A ministry assisted by Christian Aid held three evangelistic events in three days recently, attracting more than 2,000 people. About 400 of them indicated on comment cards that they had prayed to accept Christ and the ministry plans to follow up each of them in their homes. “The Lord has put in us the responsibility of leading a ministry of evangelism and discipleship in the Holy Land. We are amazed to see Him moving everywhere in every main city,” the leader told Christian Aid Mission this week. The leader said 16 people were being trained to be able to evangelize and disciple the lost in old Jerusalem, and that he and his wife were planning on speaking at two evangelistic meetings there — one for men and one for women — next week. The ministry has been working for four years in the Gaza Strip and has helped lead a group of youth to know the Lord and work for Him there. “They are working faithfully to accomplish what He has called them to do, especially in the area of relief work. They go out not only to meet the material needs of the people, but to reach out to them with the love of Christ,” the leader said. (Missions Insider)

PROTESTERS URGE ERITREAN OFFICIALS TO ADDRESS PERSECUTION ISSUE Staff members from Christian Solidarity Worldwide and some 30 supporters protested outside the Eritrean embassy Wednesday, Dec. 10, to heighten awareness of the increasing persecution against Christians in that country. As part of the protest, Member of Parliament (MP) David Drew handed a letter of protest, signed by a nonpartisan group of MPs and peers to the Eritrean ambassador and was invited for a 45-minute meeting. The protest coincided with International Human Rights Day. A giant padlocked Bible formed the centerpiece of the protest with supporters holding placards. The protesters pressed for a review of the Eritrean government’s decision in May 2002 to order the closure of all churches not belonging to the Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Lutheran denominations. This effectively rendered all other denominations illegal. More than 300 Christians are in detention in Eritrea because of their faith, and several have been subjected to torture as the authorities pressure them to renounce their beliefs. In many cases the mere possession of a Bible is seen as sufficient evidence of guilt, rendering a person vulnerable to abuse, ill treatment and detention. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

* HCJB World Radio reaches across North Africa, the Middle East and Europe with Christian Arabic programming aired via shortwave, satellite and local stations. The Radio Al Mahabba (Radio Love) Arabic satellite network airs programs direct-to-home 24 hours a day. This region has the world’s highest concentration of personal satellite dishes.

THEOLOGIAN/EDITOR CARL F.H. HENRY DIES AT AGE 90 Evangelical leader and theologian Carl F.H. Henry, the first editor of Christianity Today magazine, has died at his home in Wisconsin at age 90. Henry attended Wheaton College with Billy Graham, who would later urge him to head a new magazine dealing with faith issues and defending biblical orthodoxy. Henry opposed attempts to “water down” Christianity as well as the tendency of some fundamentalists to withdraw from modern society. He was also among the early leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals and the author of several books, including “God, Revelation, and Authority” and “The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism.” World magazine editor Marvin Olasky, who published some of Carl Henry’s last columns, describes Henry as “a major figure” of the latter half of the 20th century who was instrumental in shaping the evangelical movement. “He did not really care for escapism,” Olasky says of Henry. “He wanted Christians to be involved and working to transform culture, and not giving up.” (Religion Today/Associated Press)

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