PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN NEARLY KILLED AFTER REFUSING TO EMBRACE ISLAM

COUPLE IN NEPAL IMPRISONED FOR TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT JESUS

SRI LANKA’S PARLIAMENT TO VOTE ON 2 ANTI-CONVERSION LAWS

INMATE TAKES ADVANTAGE OF AUSTRALIA’S RELIGIOUS HATRED LAW

‘GODMAN’ FILM LAUNCHES ON U.S. TELEVISION IN ENGLISH, SPANISH NEXT

Today’s News Stories:

PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN NEARLY KILLED AFTER REFUSING TO EMBRACE ISLAM A group of eight armed Muslim beat up a Pakistani Christian and left him for dead Saturday, April 23, after his Muslim employer showed him kindness, reported the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. Shahbaz Masih, 29, worked as a driver for the Muslim family of Mir Hussein, earning the respect and trust of his employer. However, that offended a number of area Muslims, and eight of them invaded Masih’s farmhouse outside his village south of Islamabad and threatened to kill him unless he renounced Christianity. He refused and tried to escape, but the men overpowered him, tied his hands behind his back and placed a rope around his neck. “You can kill me but cannot convert me,” he said. Hearing this, Masih’s captors pistol whipped him and beat him up, breaking both of his legs, before abandoning him. They called Hussein and asked him to remove his body. He also informed Masih’s family members who, along with other villagers, went to the farmhouse where they found him unconscious and bleeding profusely. Masih was immediately taken to an area hospital where after regaining consciousness he recounted his experience. Police are investigating, but no arrests have been made. (Assist News Service)

COUPLE IN NEPAL IMPRISONED FOR TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT JESUS A couple who runs children’s homes in Nepal and India were charged with forced conversion and imprisoned on Wednesday, April 27, reported EquipNepal, a ministry that operates a child sponsorship program and the two children’s homes. The husband, a native of India, and his Nepali wife have taken in orphans for 10 years and cared for 77 children in one home in southern Nepal and nine children in a second home in northern India. The couple also runs a Christian school. Jan Viren, president of the Wyoming-based ministry, said the problem began with a disgruntled teacher at the school, but it escalated when several newspaper articles were written, asking that the couple be imprisoned for teaching the orphans about Jesus. The imprisonment could last days or years, Viren said. “We know that their faith in Christ is strong and that they are in His hands.” (Assist News Service)

SRI LANKA’S PARLIAMENT CONSIDERS 2 ANTI-CONVERSION LAWS Sri Lanka’s parliament was scheduled to vote this week on two anti-conversion laws. Glenn Penner of Voice of the Martyrs in Canada says if the bills are passed, persecution would, in effect, be institutionalized. Anyone who leads a Hindu or Buddhist to Christ could be put in prison and fined. “It’s meant to have a dampening effect on evangelistic efforts,” Penner said, adding that the laws would also have an impact on other things that could be seen as a way of doing conversion. “Even such things as handing out relief aid, like what’s been going on with the tsunami” could be seen as trying to “buy someone into the kingdom of God.” These bills are being pushed by militant Buddhists who are afraid foreign religions will try to dominate the island nation. (Mission Network News)

INMATE TAKES ADVANTAGE OF AUSTRALIA’S RELIGIOUS HATRED LAW Robin Fletcher, a self-described witch serving a 10-year jail term for child sex abuse, has become the latest person to use Australia’s controversial religious hatred law to complain that he is being defamed on the basis of religion. Fletcher claims that the Alpha course, which teaches the basics of Christianity at the Ararat penitentiary where he is incarcerated, “poses a danger to his health and safety” because of its references to witchcraft. He complained to the state’s prison authorities, the Salvation Army that runs the course, and a Christian distribution and marketing company that produces the course materials. The Alpha program has been used worldwide in tens of thousands of churches, prisons, military bases, colleges and other facilities to introduce unbelievers to Christianity. (WorldWide Religious News/CNSNews.com/Mission Network News)

‘GODMAN’ FILM LAUNCHES ON U.S. TELEVISION IN ENGLISH, SPANISH NEXT After four years of production and an investment of millions of dollars, the digital 3D animated film of the life of Christ has made its debut in the U.S. A ministry called Book of Hope took its popular story of the life of Christ and turned it into an animated film called, “The Godman.” “We released it on about 140 TV stations, and the response was just wonderful,” said Book of Hope’s Bob Hoskins. “We got telephone calls and e-mails. The first one came from a dad. He said he was watching it with his children, and part way through the film his little 4-year-old girl said, ‘Daddy, could I have Jesus come into my life?'” The film will be shown in other English-speaking areas of the world, but that’s not the end of the project. “Now the big thing is rolling it out worldwide,” Hoskins said. “We’ll do nine versions [starting with] Spanish, and that will air in Buenos Aries, Argentina, in June.” (Mission Network News) * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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