A religious rights leader said recently that Chinese authorities detained at least 10 pastors of house churches who were delegates to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism held last year.

The move is seen to be retaliatory because the officially-recognized Three Self Church felt “snubbed” when it was only invited to the event that was held last October as “observers” compared to the 10 pastors from Inner Mongolia who were all invited as delegates, Christian Newswire said.

The Christian pastors were picked up in raids last April 16 that were conducted by the Criminal Police Brigade and the Domestic Security Department of Hohhot’s Public Security Bureau, Worthy News said.

A rights activist told Christian Newswire that among those detained is Pastor Liu Jingtao who was a key Lausanne coordinator for Inner Mongolia, Christian Newswire said.

The names of the other detainees are not yet known. China Aid Association told Worthy News, “Because of the large number of people who have been detained, the names of the others are still being confirmed.” All the churches of pastors who had been picked up were closed and sealed.

The Christians from Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were detained on “suspicion of fraud” for being invited to the Lausanne Congress which was held in Cape Town, South Africa, according to Worthy News.

Criminal detention is usually the first step towards a legal process that includes trial, conviction and a jail term sentence, Christian Newswire said.

Pastors of house churches in Ordos, another Inner Mongolian city, were also “criminally detained.” Details of the arrests are still up for confirmation, according to Worthy News.

Chinese authorities were further upset because as mere “observers” of the Lausanne Congress, they were rendered ineligible to sign the Lausanne Covenant on worldwide evangelism, Worthy News said.

According to CAA, because China’s officially recognized Three-Self Movement prohibits evangelization outside of its churches, this alone already renders it unable to sign the covenant, Worthy News reported.

Fundraising questioned

Hohhot police told Worthy News they had done nothing wrong, and that the Christians were picked up on “suspicion of fraud” because they were “engaged in fundraising” even if they are not recognized as government clergy.

The fundraising that the police referred to was efforts by the home pastors to raise funds to help poorer churches from other countries so that they could join the Lausanne Congress, Worthy News said.

Harassed at airport

Last year, when house church delegates tried to leave for the Lausanne Congress, they were stopped at the airport by the Public Security Ministry’s Domestic Security Department, according to Christian Newswire.

CAA told Worthy News, “Angered that its official church was not the sole representative of Christianity in mainland China, Beijing spared no effort in stopping the 200 invited Chinese house church pastors and leaders from going to Cape Town.”

The Evangelical congress is named after the city where it was first held in 1974, namely Lausanne, Switzerland, according to Worthy News.

Government officials in China are reported to have privately admitted that there are some 130 million Christians in the communist country, many of whom would rather go to underground house churches which are not government controlled, Worthy News said.

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An international human rights group in Iran called recently for the release from prison of a Christian pastor who was sentenced to death for allegedly changing his religion.

The 11^th Circuit Criminal Court of Appeals of Gilan Province, Iran upheld a death sentence on Youcef Nadarkhani, 32, on the charge of apostasy, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran told CNN.

The ICC said another Christian pastor, Behrouz Sadegh-Khanjani, 35, faces a similar charge in an unrelated case. There is fear that he may also be sentenced to death, Iranian.com said.

Constitutional right

Iran’s Islamic Penal Code does not state that apostasy is a crime, Iranian.com said. Furthermore, two articles in the Iran constitution clearly defend the rights of Christians, CNN reported.

Nadarkhani’s lawyer filed an objection before Iran’s Supreme Court, citing these two constitutional articles, one of which allows Christians “the right to freely worship and form religious societies,” the other “obligates the Iranian government to uphold the equality and human rights of Christians,” CNN reported.

Never were Muslims

Both Christian pastors deny committing apostasy (renouncing one’s religion). Both say they were never Muslims. CNN reports Nadarkhani said he was forced by his interrogators to sign a statement admitting he committed apostasy.

Although born to Muslim parents, Nadarkhani never accepted any religion before he became a Christian at the age of 19. CNN said Nadarkhani’s interrogators lied to him, saying that at age 15, the child of Muslims automatically becomes a Muslim if he does not accept any other religion.

Khanjani, who is also charged with apostasy, is the son of Christians. His Christian mother is an immigrant from the Congo, and his father converted to Christianity before Khanjani was born, CNN said.

Loophole

Despite existing constitutional rights, the presiding judge in Nadarkhani’s case based his ruling on the writings of Iranian religious scholars, Iranian.com said. There is a constitutional provision which instructs judges “to consult sources when there is no codified-law that addresses a matter,” CNN reported.

The penal code also allows “judges to draw upon their personal knowledge when adjudicating cases,” CNN said.

Mahmoud Taravatrooy, lawyer for Khanjani, consulted top clerics regarding apostasy under Islam. He told CNN that four Ayatollahs, one of them the late Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, said that converting from Islam to an Abrahamic religion, including Christianity, is not apostasy, CNN said.

North to South

Nadarkhani is with the Church of Iran ministry and is pastor some 400 churchgoers in Rasht, a city in the north, Iranian.com said. Khanjani comes from Shiraz, a city in the south, CNN reported.

However, the charges of apostasy against both pastors may be seen as part of a larger trend in persecuting Christians, Firouz Sadegh-Khanjani, brother of Behrouz, told CNN.

Aaron Rhodes, spokesman for ICHR, told Iranian.com, “It is the low point of any judicial system to sentence a person to death outside of its own legal framework. To execute someone based on the religion they choose to practice or not practice is the ultimate form of religious discrimination.”

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Over 70 pastors signed recently a letter to affirm that President Barack Obama is a Christian. The letter also urged public officials, religious leaders and media to ignore remarks that distort Obama’s “unwavering” Christianity.

The letter, which was sent out by the Eleison Group included signatories such as Joel Hunter, TD Jakes and David Gushee among others. Many of the signatories said they had prayed and worshiped with Obama, CBN News said.

The letter also said that the signatories come from diverse ideological and political backgrounds and noted, “As Christian pastors and leaders we believe that fellow Christians need to be an encouragement to those who call Christ their savior, not question the veracity of their faith,” CBN News said.

Last week a poll showed that 18 percent of Americans think Obama is Muslim, compared to 11 percent last year. Another poll showed 34 percent of Americans say Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent the year before, The Hill said.

Obama’s job approval rating among Protestant Christians has gone down from last year at 43 percent, making them the group that approves of Obama the least, except for the Mormons, The Hill said.

Leith Anderson, president of NAE cited Romans 10:9 which is about a confession of faith in Jesus and concluded, “I’ve never heard President Obama describe himself as anything other than a Christian. He should know better than anyone else,” CBN News said.

The signatories to the letter represented some seven Protestant denominations among other religious groups. In the letter, they said “the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for debate,” The Hill said.

In Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope, Obama said his biological father was an atheist and his mother, agnostic. His stepfather was a “nominal Muslim,” and he was not raised in a religious home, although his mother’s parents (who raised him to a large degree) were Baptist and Methodist. In his 20s Obama embraced Christianity and joined the church of Jeremiah Wright, the Huffington Post said.

According to the Huffington Post, “It’s irrelevant whether Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim — as long as he governs like he’s neither.”

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Faithful America claims that Fox News commentator Glenn Beck preaches a false, piecemeal gospel and has sponsored a radio ad to counter some of the claims Beck has claims made by about Christianity.

The ad says “Would you support a leader who said Jesus’ teachings can lead to Nazi

Glenn Beck / yournews.com

sm? Or who attacks Christian pastors for preaching the full gospel? Then why do so many Christians tune into Glenn Beck? By deriding pastors who preach the justice taught by Jesus and the prophets, Glenn Beck has urged listeners to follow his piecemeal gospel. Scripture teaches that the tongue can be like a small fire that sets a whole forest ablaze, and Christians are cautioned not to praise God in one breath while cursing those made in God’s likeness in the next,” The Atlantic reported.

Beck has spoken out against social justice ideology that is based on faith, urging his viewers to leave churches that preach liberal social justice views.

According to Beck social justice is akin to wealth redistribution and is not in the Bible. Beck said that such ideology is founded on communism and Naziism and dramatically raised up a hammer and sickle and a swastika to further enhance his point, The Atlantic said.

By contrast, Faithful America’s Beth Dahlman cites the prophets and Jesus saying, Beck “has gone after what’s at the heart of what we believe our faith tradition says. For people in our community there is just no way to read scripture and not think about social justice. It’s our obligation as people of faith to take that seriously and to do all we can to make that good news a reality,” Time reported.

The ad launches the organization’s “Driven by Faith, Not by Fear” campaign, according to Time.

The ad will be aired on local Christian radio stations and is scheduled to coincide with Beck’s scheduled appearances in South Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Washington DC.

Faithful America is connected to Faith in the Public Life, an advocacy group that often takes positions on issues such as poverty, health care and immigration.

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