I’ll Tell You What…

From the ACLJ:

June 6

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which specializes in constitutional law, today demanded that a community college in California reverse a low grade given to a student who was punished for including a reference to God in a paper written for an English class.

“It is absolutely unbelievable that a student would be punished for presenting a thoughtful and well written paper that included references to God,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, which is representing the student. “The actions by the instructor reflect a profound hostility toward religious expression and his actions clearly violate the constitutional rights of our client. We are demanding that the college immediately remove the low grade given for this paper and order the instructor to end his discriminatory treatment, and apologize to the student for his actions. We are giving the school an opportunity to correct this injustice before federal litigation is considered.”

The ACLJ today sent a letter to Patricia Spencer, President of Victor Valley Community College in Victorville, CA regarding an incident involving adjunct instructor Michael Shefchik and his actions toward student Bethany Hauf. The issue revolves around an assignment given to an English class by Shefchik.

Hauf notified the instructor that her topic for the research paper would be “Religion and Its Place within the Government.” In an email to Hauf, Shefchik, a self-described atheist, said the topic was within the bounds of the assignment. However, he put one troubling condition on Hauf’s paper: “I have one limiting factor,” wrote Shefchik, “no mention of the big “G” gods, i.e., one, true god argumentation.” After pursuing this topic and presenting a draft of the paper to Shefchik, as required by course requirements, Hauf was told that, at best, because she had written off topic about God, she would be graded 69 out of a possible 100 points. Shefchik told Hauf that among the reasons for the low grade was that references to “God” could be offensive. After presenting her paper on Friday, Shefchik handed out the final grade on Monday and gave Hauf a score of 49 out of a possible 100 points for the research paper.

Hauf’s paper included a thoughtful and historical look at the role that God and religion have played in the formation of our country and government.

In a letter sent today to the college president, the ACLJ contends the actions of the instructor violate the First Amendment rights of Hauf including numerous rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States which safeguard student speech and expression. The ACLJ is demanding that the discriminatory treatment of Hauf by Shefchik cease, that the instructor recalculate and reverse the scoring for the paper, and that the instructor apologize to Hauf for his discriminatory treatment of her views. The ACLJ letter states: “It is imperative that this situation be corrected immediately to avoid possible litigation in federal court.”

Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice specializes in constitutional law. The ACLJ is based in Washington, D.C.
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If you can support the ACLJ monetarily (for any amount) do so today.

I just received this from Gospel for Asia (GFA):

For those who have never heard,

K.P. Yohannan

I really think that this is where America is headed if we do not stay vigilant with current events and politics. It is just this kind of regulation that is a result of government controlled expression.

From Forum18.org in Oslo, Norway.

Two Baptists are set to have personal property confiscated - in one case a car - while a third is having his pay docked after the three visited a hospital at Easter to sing hymns and hand out New Testaments, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Local regional religious affairs official Vladimir Klevtsov told Forum 18 that the Baptists had broken the law because - amongst other violations - they did not get the hospital authorities’ permission to hold “a mass event with music and give out literature”. Their other offences included the fact that two of the Baptists are from Brest, which is outside the region where the hospital is located, and that they do not belong to a registered church. Asked by Forum 18 what the legal position is for individual Belarusian believers wishing to visit or give religious literature to hospital patients, Klevtsov said that he knew of no such precedent, as “we normally get requests only from registered religious organisations.”

Thanks for the tip, Hal.

From a Gospel for Asia newsletter:

GFA Nepali missionary Besh’s life is in danger as radical insurgency group Maoists forcibly abducted him a week ago for their purposes. This morning we received the urgent news. Though we do not know the details of the kidnapping or where he has been taken, we know our brother’s life is on the line. He is well known in the community as a Christian pastor and evangelist, and authorities in an area where he was ministering a year ago noticed his activity and asked him to leave…

“In the past, more than 200 people�teachers, students, village officials and commoners�have been abducted by the Maoists and killed without mercy. Some 9,000 lives have been claimed since the insurgency began in 1996. Missionaries are even more at risk as they travel to share the Good News. This has hindered our missionaries in their travels to reach needy villages for Christ. Elsewhere in Nepal, authorities have ordered two of our brothers, Pastor Basu and native missionary Imansingh, to vacate their area of ministry within a week.”

Please pray earnestly with us for our missionary Besh’s protection and safe return. Pray for courage for Besh and other Nepali believers in the face of persecution. Lift up the persecutors in prayer, that they may come to know the Lord. Pray also for the 200-plus pastors and their churches, and our 356 native missionaries in Nepal. Pray especially for the congregations that must continue on without their pastors.”

From The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China:

China: Crackdown on a Million-member House Church - the Leader Kidnapped, Over Fifty Coworkers Arrested, and One Tortured to Death

Flushing, NY, May 14, 2004 Starting on April 17, a harsh crackdown on a house church with several million members started by the Chinese government. Xu Shuangfu, the leader of the church was kidnapped in Ha-er-bin, Heilongjiang Province. Thereafter, more than fifty coworkers were arrested by the police, and one named Gu Xianggao was beaten to death. According to Ms. Liu who was kidnapped together with Xu and escaped later, the kidnappers drove a police car and held guns. After Ms. Liu escaped from the hands of the kidnappers, she fell in the hands of the police of the Provincial Public Security Bureau, and never got back. When Xu’s goddaughter begged the police for help, the answer was “How can we solve the case without the 3-million RMB (Chinese yuan)?” After she realized what happened and managed to leave, the police set up a trap to catch her but failed. Xu’s wife was kicked back and forth between the police departments when she tried to seek help. The situation has become very severe now - the police arrest whoever inquires about this case. The victims’ families are under tight surveillance, making them unable to say anything unless willing to be arrested. According to a police officer, Xu’s church is being treated as the second to Falungong.

Xu Shuangfu is from Linglou Village, Xiaodian Town, Nanzhao County, Henan Province. Having devoted his life to evangelism at the age of 12 in 1957, he has been jailed many times because of his faith, six times for over three-year imprisonment. After several decades of hard work, his church has thrived in almost every province. On April 17, 2004, Xu and several coworkers went to Haerbin to visit the brothers and sisters there. After the assembly, on their way to a sister’s house, a jeep with license plate number 99999 tried to intercept them several times. After they arrived at the sister’s home, Xiao San, the driver left. Some minutes later, they got a phone call from Xiao San saying urgently, “I was stopped by someone!” Then the call ended suddenly. (Till now, nobody knows the whereabouts of Xiao San and his car.) Knowing this, Xu decided to leave ahead of the schedule. At 4:00 in the afternoon, a brother came to give Xu a ride to the airport. He saw Sister Liu and Xu were followed right after they went out of the building, and called them immediately. Then they decided to take the taxi to the airport. But still, they were kidnapped on the way. Fortunately, Sister Liu got a chance escaped at the night. She told her friends what happened: the kidnappers held guns and drove a police car. They stopped them and pulled them into the car and blindfolded them. Then they were taken to Bin County, where Sister Liu escaped. However, on 18th, Sister Liu was taken away by the police from the Provincial Public Security Bureau, and never got back.

In the morning of 19th, Xu’s goddaughter called the kidnappers, and was told to pay three million RMB to get Xu back. She went to Dacheng Police Station for help. However, the police treated her as a criminal, interrogating her until noon. The kidnappers called her and threatened, “Send the money before midnight. Otherwise, we will kill the old man. We are going chop down one of his fingers right now.” She was so frightened that she cried, begging the police to find a way to rescue the hostage. The policeman answered with a smile, “You must prepare the money quickly. How can we solve the case without the money?” She begged the police again and again, and finally, realized that the police did not want to solve the case at all. Then she managed to escape by telling them she would do according to them to contact his family and prepare the money. At the night, the whole police station started to look for her, saying that her godfather was found and asked her to go and confirm. She knew it was a trap and then left Haerbin. After knowing what happened, Xu’s wife tried to seek help from the police also. She contacted both the local police department and Heilongjiang police for many times. But she was kicked back and forth. Until now, no body has taken the case yet.

In the afternoon of 26th, more than fifty Xu’s coworkers in Haerbin were arrested at the same time. Their homes were ransacked and seized entirely. Among the arrested were some preachers: Yin Chuanhui; Fan Yuqin; Jiao Jianmin; Lian Zhifu. A 28-year old brother named Gu Xianggao was beaten to death on 27th.

It is very clear now that this is a carefully planned, large-scale and severe crackdown on this house church by the government. We urge the international society, especially the Christians, to give a helping hand to rescue Brother Xu and his church.

Listed in the following is some contact information in China relevant to this case:

Wang Jun (Xu Shuangfu’s wife)

011-86-13653851307

Linglou Village, Xiaodian Town, Nanzhao County, Henan Province

Gu Yucheng and Zhao Meihua (parents of Gu Xianggao who was beaten to death)

011-86-535-7559652

Dongshige Village, Tuanwang Town, Laiyang City, Shandong Province

Hou Naifeng (Police who knows Gu’s case)

011-86-451-84693293

70 Dongfeng Street, Daoli District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China is a nonprofit organization dedicating to revealing to the world the brutal crackdown on house churches by the Chinese government and to helping those persecuted. For more information, please call: 646-361-5039 or email: ciprc1@yahoo.com, or visit our website at www.china21.org.

From AsiaNews.it: One man was beaten to death and 90 worshippers arrested in the northeastern province of Heilongjian (China) during a crackdown on an underground Protestant church, a US religious rights group says.

Li Shixiong, chairman of the US-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, said government officials were trying to suppress the Three Grades of Servant church, which authorities saw as being second only to Falun Gong in terms of its threat.

Authorities are said to have declared the church illegal and “evil” as early as 1999. It claims to have several million members.

The committee says the church’s spiritual leader, Xu Shuangfu, has been abducted and is being held by police. Authorities have accused Mr Xu of deifying himself and collecting money from church members.

The group said Mr Xu was abducted by people driving a police jeep as he was making his way to Harbin airport on April 17.

His wife, Wang Jun, reported the kidnapping to police in Heilongjiang on April 21. Another family member was allegedly asked for 3 million yuan when she asked police to investigate Mr Xu’s case.

A spokesman for the Heilongjiang Public Security Bureau denied Mr Xu was being held and claimed to have no knowledge of the case.

The committee said 90 other church members were arrested after Mr Xu’s abduction.

Meanwhile, another church member, Gu Xianggao, 28, died in the custody of Harbin police on April 26.

Officers initially told his family that he had been detained on suspicion of robbery and murder, according to his sister, Gu Xiangyan. But Ms Gu said that when family members travelled to Harbin early this month, they were told he had been arrested for being a member of the church.

The predominantly Christian populations of Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda have been terrorised and traumatised over the past. 18 years by a blasphemous cult-militia called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Whilst LRA atrocities have occasionally shocked the world, the world has, to its shame, largely ignored the immense suffering of the people…

From News on Christian Persecution at persecution.org.

The LRA abduct and terrorise children, converting them into traumatised and disturbed child soldiers and sex slaves. The LRA commits atrocities too evil and horrific to detail here. Their most well-known signature trademark is the mutilation of faces; removing lips, ears, noses - leaving their victims to live the rest of their lives as living monuments to LRA terror. The LRA has departed from its original political aims and today contemporary LRA terror is little more than the crippling persecution of a predominantly Christian people who have known revival. Priests, nuns, pastors, missionaries, churches, Christian activities (such as funerals), and Christian missions and services, are specifically targeted for terror. It is a persecution that is generated not by political or religious systems but by occult forces associated with LRA leader, spirit medium Joseph Kony. the light has finally gone for Christians in southern Uganda. Buwembo says that he attended services in several churches on Easter Sunday and the message was always the same - pray for Joseph Kony, pray for the suffering people of the north, pray for God to intervene in the situation in the north, pray for God to deliver peace.

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org, has just become aware that on Thursday, March 25th, 2004, Mr. Brian O’Connor, a Christian ex-pat Indian national, was arrested by the Muttawa (religious police) on the streets of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ICC is being told from a highly reputable source that the Muttawa abducted, imprisoned, and tortured him in a Mosque. Mr. O’Connor is presently being held at the Olaya police station in Riyadh.

Mr. O’Connor has received visitors and has communicated that his legs were chained and he was hung upside down and “they played football with me”. “The Muttawa came in turns of fours and kicked me in the chest and rib area, and this continued up to 2 AM on Friday morning”. He also says that he was whipped on his back and the soles of his feet by electrical wires and is in much pain as he walks. He also reports that he is in intense pain, and thinks that a rib may be broken.

The police at the Olaya police station state that he is being held on account of preaching Christianity, drug related charges, and for selling liquor. They went on to add that these charges were brought up by the Muttawa, and they have no direct proof of the claims made by them. It is typical for charges of drug dealing to be leveled at Christians suspected of spreading the Gospel. The Police also stated that the Muttawa were the ones who interrogated him and not the Police themselves. The Muttawas have informed Brian that he is to be formally charged on these 3 points and will be taken to court where the case would take about 6 to 7 months before a verdict is issued.

Brian O’Connor is known to be an upstanding citizen in the community and is a Christian. It is not known yet if the Muttawa have forced him to sign documents of admission to the crimes he is charged with. It has been common practice in Saudi that during torture, the Muttawas force Christians to sign documents in Arabic, which they were told are release papers. Later, they find out that they signed documents admitting to crimes of drug trafficking, etc.

ICC is very concerned that the Saudi’s, who claim to be the United States’ partners in the war on terror, have continued to imprison, torture and deport expatriate Christians workers in Saudi Arabia. We are asking that the United States take serious action in demanding not only the release of Brian, but a formal apology be made, and the immediate reinstatement to his position with Saudi Airlines. We are also very concerned about his present physical condition and are asking for an immediate report on his health, confirmed by a doctor.

Please contact the Saudi Embassy to voice your concern in a firm but polite manner.

ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC delivers humanitarian aid, trains and supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US Church regarding the problem of persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State Department. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.