MILITARY COURT SENTENCES IRANIAN PASTOR TO 3 YEARS IN PRISON

ACTIVISTS SUPPORT PANEL TO PROTECT MALAYSIA’S RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS

AFRICANS HELP BOOST LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION MEMBERSHIP BY 5.8%

ALARMING NUMBER OF ‘STAY-AWAY SAINTS’ AFFECTING TODAY’S CHURCH

AID EFFORTS OPEN DOORS TO EVANGELIZE SUDAN’S UNREACHED GROUPS

Today’s News Stories:

MILITARY COURT SENTENCES IRANIAN PASTOR TO 3 YEARS IN PRISON A Tehran military court sentenced Iranian Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand to three years in jail Wednesday, Feb. 16, ordering his immediate transfer to a group prison cell in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. The former army colonel was found guilty of deceiving the armed forces by not declaring that he was a convert from Islam to Christianity. It is illegal for a non-Muslim to serve as a military officer in Iran. Pourmand, 47, a Christian for nearly 25 years, produced original documents showing that his military superiors had acknowledged years ago that he was a Christian. “But the court didn’t accept them,” an Iranian source said. “They said these were false documents.” The verdict represented the maximum penalty for Pourmand’s alleged offense. As a result, the lay pastor of a small Assemblies of God congregation faces automatic discharge from the army and forfeits his entire income, pension and housing for his family. A lawyer acting on behalf of Pourmand’s family said he will appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court. Simultaneously, he hopes to block efforts to put Pourmand on trial before a sharia court of Islamic law where, under charges of apostasy and proselytizing, he could be sentenced to death. (Compass)

ACTIVISTS SUPPORT PANEL TO PROTECT MALAYSIA’S RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS Malaysian religious and human rights groups are urging the government to set up a national commission to investigate religious grievances and improve policies on sensitive matters of faith. Representatives of dozens of private groups will hold a conference Feb. 24-25 to prepare a proposal for a National Interfaith Commission that they say would reflect the predominantly Muslim country’s commitment to safeguard other religions. “We cannot run from the reality that our society comprises people of various faiths,” said lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, who heads a committee spearheading the proposal. “The fact is that conflicts exist and will cause resentment to fester if we leave them entrenched.” Religion is a sensitive issue in Malaysia. Nearly 60 percent of the country’s 25 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims, but freedom of worship is guaranteed in the constitution for the large Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities. Religious controversies occasionally surface, but open friction between Muslims and non-Muslims is rare. Nevertheless, activists believe the creation of a state-backed panel is necessary to probe complaints of religious rights violations and advise the government on laws to curb such abuses. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

AFRICANS HELP BOOST LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION MEMBERSHIP BY 5.8% The Lutheran World Federation announced member churches have 65.9 million members as of 2004, a one-year increase of 5.8 percent, thanks largely to a 1.1-million gain in Africa and a merger between a Lutheran church in the Netherlands and two large Reformed churches. With a total of 500,000 new members, the Malagasy Lutheran Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania each reported having 3 million members. Africa’s largest Lutheran denomination is Ethiopia’s Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus with 4.2 million members, an increase of 131,000. Meanwhile, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sub-Saharan Africa lost nearly 180,000 members, a 23-percent drop. Counting churches outside the federation, world Lutheran membership increased 3.6 million, to 69.5 million. Germany remains the nation with the largest number of Lutherans, 13.1 million, representing a one-year decline of 160,000. Membership in North America dropped 2.2 percent to 8.3 million. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

ALARMING NUMBER OF ‘STAY-AWAY SAINTS’ AFFECTING TODAY’S CHURCH An alarming number of Christians in the U.S. are staying home on Sunday mornings, and the trend is affecting churches. Believers who have become “stay-away saints” are alternately worrying and exciting church leaders, pointing to what is being seen as either a threat to the spread of the gospel or the cusp of a revolution that could usher in a revival. A recent study by the Barna Group, a California-based Christian research organization, found that about 13 million Americans whom the researchers identified as being born again were “unchurched . . . not having attended a Christian church service, other than for a holiday . . . at any time in the past six months.” David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates there are 112 million “churchless Christians” worldwide. He projects that number will double by 2025 — though it includes both nominal believers and those connected with underground churches in nations where they face persecution for their faith. (Religion Today/Charisma News Service)

AID EFFORTS OPEN DOORS TO EVANGELIZE SUDAN’S UNREACHED GROUPS In eastern Sudan refugees and nomadic Muslims are largely unreached by the gospel. The Beja and Rashaida are two of the world’s least-reached people groups, and Strategic World Impact (SWI) President Kevin Turner says staff members are building relationships with these people to reach them with the gospel. “The last five years we’ve been actively working in the eastern part of Sudan, which is really a forgotten area. Very few aid organizations get into this area.” As SWI distributes humanitarian aid, people are asking for God’s Word, opening opportunities to share the gospel on a one-on-one basis. “Then we literally train them, equip them and encourage them so they can actually go out and be the individuals who show a changed life.” (Mission Network News)

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