Today’s Headlines:

ATTACK IN PAKISTAN PROMPTS INCREASED SECURITY AT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

CHRISTIANS SCRAMBLE TO AID PAKISTANI QUAKE VICTIMS AS COLD DESCENDS

CHURCH IN TURKMENISTAN BANNED FROM MEETING IN PUBLIC PLACE

POLL: MAJORITY OF AMERICANS FEEL RELIGION IS ‘UNDER ATTACK’

Today’s Top Stories:

ATTACK IN PAKISTAN PROMPTS INCREASED SECURITY AT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

An explosion in a bazaar that killed 12 people and wounded 40 others in Pakistan Thursday, Dec. 8, has prompted Strategic World Impact (SWI) to beef up security measures at its nearby Christian school. Terrorists set off a bomb in a hotel restaurant in Jandola in Pakistan’s tribal belt that borders Afghanistan, destroying nearby weapons shops and other businesses, said military and civilian officials. SWI’s Kevin Turner said the key to the Christian school’s future safety isn’t necessarily having more security, but “having a good rapport with the community. The attacks that have taken place on our school are not so much by the citizenship, per se, but there is a madrasa (Islamic school) a few miles down the road, and this is where all the vitriol comes from.” Some 154 students attend the Christian school. “We have Pakistani teachers who are all Christian, and we also have families from the West who serve with SWI, teaching at the school,” Turner added. “Of course, these children are getting a chance to hear the gospel continually.” (Mission Network News/The Hindu)

CHRISTIANS SCRAMBLE TO AID PAKISTANI QUAKE VICTIMS AS COLD DESCENDS

Evangelical ministries are hurriedly responding to Operation Winter Race, a U.N. effort to gather and distribute aid to Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province before snow and ice cut off devastated mountain villages from transport trucks and helicopters. By mid-November, the U.N. reported that more than 87,000 people had died with 100,000 injured and 3 million homeless in some of the world’s most rugged terrain.

Len Stitt, director of Shelter Now Pakistan, said an equal number of people could now perish from illness and exposure to harsh winter weather. Children are most vulnerable. One evangelical physician working in the Himalayan foothills said that by early November about 80 area communities still had not been reached by aid workers. Landslides destroyed roads and entire villages. Relief-bearing helicopters that could ferry victims to hospitals had no place to land.

The doctor described rampant misery in makeshift communities. Surgeons have amputated numerous limbs because many of the victims could not access healthcare until 10 or more days after the earthquake. Hundreds of children have been orphaned. (Religion Today/Christianity Today)

CHURCH IN TURKMENISTAN BANNED FROM MEETING IN PUBLIC PLACE

After just four weeks of holding services in a rented hall in Ashgabat, the capital of the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, the Ministry of State Security has banned the Greater Grace Protestant church from holding meetings in a publicly owned premises. “This was the first time we could meet together as a church for many years,” said a church member. “Now we’ve had to try to find a private venue.” Grace was one of just two registered Protestant churches that had permission to hold public worship services in rented facilities in Ashgabat. “In effect, this means they have to be in remote parts of towns where people will find it hard to reach them and there may not even be electricity and water supplies,” said another church member. “Moreover, churches can’t put up signs declaring that they are churches.” The officials said that registered religious communities can buy buildings to use as places of worship, provided they are free-standing, not near schools and kindergartens, and not in residential or commercial districts. (Forum 18 News Service)

POLL: MAJORITY OF AMERICANS FEEL RELIGION IS ‘UNDER ATTACK’

A new survey shows the majority of Americans think religion is “under attack” and “losing influence” in American life. According to the poll, “American Attitudes Toward Religion in the Public Square,” 64 percent of 800 adults polled agreed with the statement that “religion is under attack” in the U.S., and 80 percent of those who identify themselves as evangelical Christians were in agreement. The poll also found 53 percent of respondents believe that religion is “losing influence” in American life while 35 percent said it is “increasing influence.” Among those who think religion is losing influence, 60 percent are evangelical Christians, while 33 percent of that same group said religion is increasing in influence. (Religion Today/CNSNews.com)