Somalia tops the list of countries where access to the Bible is blocked by law, actions of religious extremists or acts by other nonstate actors, the Bible Access Initiative announced Oct. 2.
“We hope this article is useful as a kind of grand narrative about what’s going on in the world, a model of how to see global religious change,” Conrad Hackett, one of the authors, told RNS.
Religious leaders who resist state control face a wide range of punishment—from surveillance and fines to retribution against family members, imprisonment, forced labor and torture, the report states.
A priest of the Anglican Church of Sudan who stayed in El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur, to serve Christians remaining there is now homeless after paramilitary violence forced him out of his church.
Ruth Abah, 28, no longer walks to her local church, St. Paul’s, which now lies in ashes. Instead, the mother of two locks her doors
A 63-year-old Russian Pentecostal pastor received a four-year sentence for preaching against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an Oslo-based news service focused on human rights and religious freedom reported.
With no end of the ongoing attacks in sight — at least for now — Russia launched its largest aerial assault on the country since the war began. Missiles reportedly struck Kyiv and multiple regions with more than 800 drones and 13 missiles.
A deadly 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan Sunday (Aug. 31), claiming more than 1,400 lives and leaving over 3,000 people injured. Entire villages were leveled in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, where mud-brick homes collapsed, trapping residents under rubble, according to media reports.
R. Keith Parks, missions leader who played a key role in opening Southern Baptists’ eyes to the millions of unreached peoples worldwide, died Aug. 26. He was 97.
The Russian Supreme Court in Moscow is scheduled Aug. 28 to hear the appeal of an unregistered Baptist church in Kurganinsk whose building was sealed by government officials in May.
