Leaders of the troubled Shouwang house church in Beijing have established a legal committee to assist church members facing arrest or house arrest, the loss of employment or homes and forced relocation to their home towns.

In a press statement issued Tuesday, the unregistered church described the forced relocation of one church member to Shandong province as “a flagrant violation of the law.”

Leaders charged the committee, composed of legal experts within the church and officially formed last week, with collecting evidence of “citizens of faith being forced to leave their jobs or being evicted because of their religious belief.” The church would hold officials legally responsible for these violations, as outlined in an earlier press statement on May 12.

For the past three months, Shouwang church members have committed to meet in a public square in Zhongguancun, northwestern Beijing, in response to repeated attempts by the gov-ernment to deny them access to a permanent worship venue.

Shouwang represents the “third church” phenomenon in China—consisting of large Protestant or Catholic churches functioning openly rather than underground, but refusing to register with government approved bodies such as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

China is also currently embroiled in a tense debate with Vatican leaders over the unauthorized ordination of Catholic bishops within the CCPA, according to a Union of Catholic Asian News report on Tuesday.

Pressure Mounts
On Sunday, police arrested 15 people who showed up at Shouwang’s designated outdoor worship venue, including several from other house churches. Many church leaders remained under permanent house arrest, while scores of church members were detained in homes or hotel rooms, according to a China Aid Association report.

One of those detained on Sunday had traveled all the way from Henan province to express her support, the CAA said.

Two other women from Shuangshu house church in Beijing had planned on traveling to the venue, but police prevented them from leaving home. Within 24 hours their landlord also asked them to move out of their rented apartment, according to CAA.

CAA also claimed that officials pressured the management of the Beijing office of World Vision to dismiss employee and church member Xia Xiao, a claim that World Vision refutes.

“World Vision has fired no one and has come under no pressure to fire anyone,” World Vision spokesperson Cynthia Colin said in a press statement. “The staff member in question has in fact been working as normal out of her office this week.”

For the second week in a row, pastors from TSPM were called in to “counsel” Sunday’s de-tainees, according to the CAA.

In mid-May the director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs convened a meeting of Three-Self leaders from 15 provinces and municipalities, asking them “not to heed Shouwang church’s statement of faith,” and repeatedly slandering Shouwang church, according to Bob Fu, president of the CAA.

The national daily Xinhua published an article on Monday extolling the freedom of TSPM churches. As evidence, the article listed several TSPM churches around the country with congregations of over 4,000 people; the construction of 11 new churches in Nanjing, including one with seating for 5,000 people; the “abundant” provision of Bibles through China’s Amity Printing Press, and the training of over 2,000 TSPM clergymen through the government approved Nanjing Union Theological Seminary.

“I feel that the most pressing issue for Chinese churches is to figure out how they can be helpful to society, and how they can become integrated with traditional Chinese culture,” Pastor Kan Renping of St. Paul’s Church in Nanjing province told Xinhua.

MORE RELATED STORIES:
• China’s Official Church Members ‘Admonish’ Shouwang Group
• Chinese Christians Support Persecuted Churches
• Shouwang Showdown Leads to About Two Dozen Arrests
• Shouwang Church Faces Increased Persecution
• Beijing Churches Risk Open Air Worship
• Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released

Are you listening NBC? Because the Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography isn’t going to let the matter rest.

The group just launched the second phase of its nationwide effort to make it unprofitable for NBC to air its planned fall series The Playboy Club.

“Today, we begin an effort to contact every NBC affiliate across the country, as well as the top NBC executives, with a message about NBC’s fall series, The Playboy Club, says Patrick Trueman, director of the Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography and president of Morality in Media. “That message is this, ‘Sexual exploitation is to be condemned, not programmed on network TV.’”

For the second phase of the project, the Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography will activate its network of 110
national, state and local groups. Supporters of all groups number in the hundreds of thousands and will
be asked to go to the activist website set up for the project,
, and click “Contact NBC Leaders” to easily
send a protest email.

“The Playboy philosophy toward women is, ‘use them, abuse them and discard them,’ just like Hefner has with his girlfriends and wives,” says Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media.  “Such treatment is unacceptable. What mother wants her girls to be subjected to sexual exploitation?”

Trueman noted that Playboy, once equated with ‘soft-core’ pornography, has been distributing hardcore pornography on pay TV channels and the Internet for years. Distribution of hardcore pornography can be prosecuted under federal and state obscenity laws. 

“Idolizing hardcore porn king Hugh Hefner might be a suitable topic for a porn movie but most people will want to keep that kind of trash programming out of their homes,” Trueman says. ” Studies consistently demonstrate that pornography harms people and leads to violence against women, sexual trafficking, sexual addiction, destruction of families and so much more harm. Why would NBC promote such harmful behavior?”

NBC has not responded to Charisma News’ interview request.

Many call her apostle. But many more will call her city councilwoman.

After winning a tight race in a run-off election, Kimberly Daniels, founder of Spoken Word Ministries, an inner-city, multiracial church, was installed as the city councilwoman for the At-Large Group One seat on Jacksonville’s City Council on Thursday.

Jim Lafferty, director of The Policy Communications Group, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C., who served both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations, was on hand at the ceremony to support Daniels. At Lafferty’s request, Daniels spoke before Congress as a conservative African-American voice. He credits Daniels with helping three conservaive Supreme Court Justices find a seat on the bench.

“I’ve seen Kim’s political skills in Washington,” Lafferty told Charisma News. “She’s going to bring reformation to Jacksonville. She’s tough. No one will intimidate her.”

Radical gay groups and racists tried to intimate Daniels during the election. A hate-filled website was launched to paint her as a radical Christian zealot. But Daniels persevered, understanding through a prophetic dream that God was calling her to take a stand for Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida and the largest land mass city in the world.

“Through hard work and prayer I prevailed. I now have the opportunity to serve people in a greater capacity,” Daniels says. “I am rolling up my sleeves and I am ready to work.”

Daniels, a veteran of Desert Storm who has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Florida State University, will have her work cut out for her. Jacksonville has significant budget challenges and needs to cut millions of dollars from the rolls. And the city is known for its political in-fighting. Daniels will work to bring unity and positive change to the city.

“Kim’s election is significant because the apostolic is bringing reformation to the mountain of government,” Axel Sippach, executive director of John Eckhardt’s Impact Network, told Charisma News. “She will bring wisdom and find solutions to the problems in Jacksonville. God was all about justice and Kim will be about justice and bring an anointing.”

Daniels broadcasts 25 Minutes of Power! weekdays at noon on Jacksonville’s Christian radio station. She also runs Morning Commanders, a prayer ministry that brings together more than 20,000 prophetic intercessors across the country on morning prayer calls. She’s also known for books like Prayers That Bring Change.

Marilyn Hickey has turned 80—and she’s looking for a new beginning.

Hickey is the founder of Marilyn Hickey Ministries. In 1976, God gave her a verse of Scripture that defined her mission: “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9, ESV). God called her to “cover the earth with is Word” and that’s just what she’s been faithfully doing for the past 35 years.

“I feel like in my 80th year my best years are ahead. And I am not retiring … What would I do? I don’t play golf, I don’t like television, shopping is not that big a deal,” Hickey said on her daily broadcast. “I’m telling you, people, souls, healings, miracles, nations are a big deal … In my 70s I had my biggest meetings, so I am saying, what’s going to happen at 80? We have so many people to reach, so much to do. God is so good to me. I just want to reach people with His Word. And again, living the Word will unlock the miraculous all around the world.”

Kenneth Copeland and Jerry Savelle were featured in an opening segment of Today With Marilyn and Sarah, in a lighthearted exchange about Hickey hitting the 80-year mark.

“I shouldn’t be surprised, at all, because if there’s anybody gonna make 120 it’ll be Marilyn Hickey,” Copeland said. “Marilyn, all kidding aside, happy birthday, dear. You have ministered to all of us. You have fed the Word of God to us. You’ve been an example to us. You’ve lived and walked by faith and your family is an example family to what God can do if people would just believe Him and take Him at His Word.”

Hickey has had audiences with government leaders and heads of state all over the world. She is the first woman to join the board of directors of the largest church in the world, Dr. David Yonggi’s Church Growth International in South Korea. She has traveled to nearly 130 countries and is believing to visit many more in the years to come. She ministers alongside her daughter, Sara Bowling.

As part of the celebration, Christians in the social media world are honoring Hickey.

“My mom is 80 years old today and you’d never know it; she acts like she’s 50 but has the wisdom of over 30 years of Bible memorization,”  Bowling tweeted this morning.

Others in the Twitterverse were also celebrating this major milestone. Dannetta Lynn Rivers tweeted, “Happy 80th Birthday to Marilyn Hickey! Still going hard for God.” And Beverly Powell tweeted, “I am reminiscing on a word that Marilyn Hickey spoke N2 my life 26 yrs. It has come to pass. God is faithful!”

Meanwhile, Daniel and Jessica King, missionary evangelists, took to YouTube to wish Hickey a happy 80th birthday. And dozens of Hickey’s followers expressed their appreciation on her Facebook fan page. Linda Lynn Pereff wrote, “You were the one that started me on a daily reading through the Bible 35 years ago. I thank God for you!!!!!! Happy Happy blessed birthday precious lady!”

In a disturbing new development in the 12-week long Shouwang Church clash with Chinese authorities, a church member who is employed by Christian humanitarian group World Vision is facing dismissal for her participation in Shouwang’s outdoor worship attempts, ChinaAid reports.

In the 12 weeks since Shouwang Church lost its meeting site and decided to hold its Sunday worship services outdoors, Chinese authorities have tried many different ways to try to get the church members to desist. These have included police detention, house arrest, eviction, loss of jobs, and being escorted out of Beijing and returned to one’s hometown.

The World Vision action was just one of at least four new cases in the past week of persecution against a Shouwang Church member.

Police handed over detained Shouwang Church member Chuan Liang to the Shandong Provincial Government, which has escorted him from Beijing to his hometown in coastal Shandong province.

Another Shouwang member who has been a frequent participant in Shouwang’s attempts to hold its Sunday worship services at an open-air plaza has been under 24-hour surveillance since last week. His tails are even following him the entire time that he is traveling to and from work. Not only that, government officials have sought out his company CEO and seriously defamed him and threatened the company. His managers worriedly exhorted him to quickly leave Shouwang Church, otherwise his contract would not be extended.

Two women from another Beijing house church, Shuangshu Church, were planning on Sunday morning to head to northwest Beijing’s Zhongguancun area to join the Shouwang outdoor worship service. But to their surprise, police barred them from leaving their home. Soon thereafter, their landlord came to pressure them to move out.

World Vision employee Xia Xiaoqiu has been detained in police custody on many occasions for participating in Shouwang’s attempts to hold outdoor Sunday worship services. Apparently under pressure from the government, her employer, the Beijing office of the international Christian group World Vision, has pressured Xia to quit.

Xia wrote on her Google Buzz on Sunday: “With regard to the job, I’ve already had several rounds of talks with my boss. Each side has already made clear what can be made clear. My boss said that my activities cannot be allowed to impact the organization’s development [in China], and those in the managerial level are all in agreement about this. The only thing left now is to await their decision. I’m thinking that no matter what, I must do my part to the utmost, so even if I do have to leave, I’ll make sure there’s a smooth transition to my successor.”

In response to the continuous violations of the lawful rights of its members, Shouwang Church on May 12 released its “Statement on the Infringement of the Rights of Citizens of Faith” in which it clearly states, “We will organize legal experts from within our church and set up a legal small group that in the coming days will start collecting the necessary evidence in the cases of citizens of faith being forced to leave their jobs or being evicted because of their religious belief.

“In order to promote the establishment of a Chinese society ruled by law, we do not rule out the possibility, if the circumstances require, of holding legally responsible for violating the law the related individuals or departments who infringed upon the basic rights of these citizens of faith … which will advance Chinese society becoming a society ruled by law.”

Last week, Shouwang Church’s Governing Committee decided to have the legal small group start its work, formally establishing the group to help those brothers and sisters whose rights have been violated. ChinaAid calls on all Christians and churches to watch these developments closely and to pray on behalf of the Shouwang members.

RELATED STORIES:
• Chinese Authorities Expel Shouwang Church Member from Beijing
• China’s Official Church Members ‘Admonish’ Shouwang Group
• Chinese Christians Support Persecuted Churches
• Shouwang Showdown Leads to About Two Dozen Arrests
• Shouwang Church Faces Increased Persecution
• Beijing Churches Risk Open Air Worship
• Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released

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When our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they considered religious freedom one of Americans’ most fundamental rights.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. He considered these two of his most important accomplishments, along with founding the University of Virginia, and left instructions for them to be inscribed on his tombstone.

Today, our commitment to religious freedom has gone global, and it has become part of the fabric of our diplomacy. In 1998, Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act, and now the State Department issues an annual report on religious freedom.

The U.S. even has an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom—Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook.

This commitment reflects the scope of the problem. At Bible League International, we have found that religious persecution has left its mark on many areas of the world:

• In Albania, where communist purges “destroyed the human soul,” according to a government official, leaving the Church with many years of work to restore it

• In China, where the government raids underground churches, arrests their leaders and destroys their property

• In India, where Hindu Nationalists force Christians to convert to Hinduism and burn churches to the ground

• In Laos, where Christian women have been raped and murdered in front of their families

• In Nigeria, where an Islamic sect that believes Western ways are evil has killed pastors and church members and destroyed churches

• In Pakistan, where Muslim radicals murdered a Christian government official for opposing the government’s blasphemy law.

Religious persecution is most common against Christians. A Vatican spokesman indicated this spring that 75 out of every 100 people killed because of religious hatred are Christian. Open Doors, a ministry that serves persecuted Christians, says that there are more than 100 million of them around the world.

News of extremists persecuting Christians floods our inbox at Bible League. In general, the Middle East is the least evangelized area of the world because of religious persecution. In the Muslim world, Christian worship takes place behind a veil of secrecy and fear.

But even where persecution takes place, God’s Word has a way of getting through. It would be easy for persecuted Christians in these nations to lose heart. But at Bible League, we have found that no heart is beyond God’s reach.

Witness a miracle that has taken place in Vietnam this year. In one of communism’s last strongholds, all activities are tightly controlled by the government, including religious practices. Most Christians choose to worship in underground house churches due to mandatory church registration.

Late last year, a Bible school in Ho Chi Minh City was bulldozed. Five hundred police, soldiers and firemen showed up at 7 a.m. and began demolishing the property. The pastor was beaten unconscious, and several members of his congregation were detained.

But 2011 has brought new hope—this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first Protestant church in Vietnam. To commemorate the occasion, the Vietnamese government, which tightly controls the printing and distribution of Bibles, has authorized the publication and distribution of up to 100,000 Bibles in 2011 by groups such as Bible League and the World Bible Translation Center.

This spring, as part of the anniversary, evangelist Luis Palau preached in a soccer stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, and thousands accepted Christ. The government later forced the cancellation of Easter events scheduled in Hanoi, but church leaders said they were encouraged by Palau’s visit.

Stories like this one are echoed everyday around the globe. Despite trials and persecution, millions of people have found that God’s Word brings peace and promotes freedom. This Fourth of July, that’s a good thing to remember.

Robert T. Frank is the CEO of Bible League International, a non-profit evangelical Christian ministry dedicated to making disciples and training Bible study leaders and church planters using the Word of God.

One of the four men who accused Bishop Eddie Long of sexual misconduct was arrested this week in Florida on suspicion of being a drug dealer.

Jamal Parris, 24, was driving a white 2011 BMW in Miami Beach Tuesday evening, when a Florida Highway Patrol officer noticed that it had no tags.

Sgt. Seth Dubinsky stopped the car. When he approached it, he smelled marijuana, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

Dubinsky searched the car and said he found 181 grams of marijuana, which is worth about $1,000 on the street. He said he also found 50 clear plastic baggies and a Taurus semiautomatic handgun. He said Parris also was carrying $1,250 in cash.

The gear was “indicative of a drug dealer,” Dubinsky said. Parris was arrested and jailed. He was charged with two felony counts: possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm while committing a felony. He also was charged with operating a motor vehicle with no registration, a misdemeanor. It was unclear late Thursday whether he was still in custody.

Click here to read the rest of this story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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• Eddie Long Denies Rumors Wife Left Him
• Eddie Long, Randy White Warned Before Scandals
• Eddie Long Settles Sexual Misconduct Claims

There’s nothing like the sound of a person’s voice to tell a deeper ‘s why a newly obtained recording of a 911 call
is such a striking example of the dangers of abortion.

Operaton Rescue just released the call, which was placed from the UNM Center for Reproductive Health. The recording ofers dramatic audio of a 35-year old woman “crashing” after being
given “conscious sedation” during an abortion procedure on
Feb. 15. In the audio, you can hear voices calling the patient’s name and urging her to breathe as she groans and gasps for air.

“We have a patient who is crashing right now,” the caller told the
dispatcher. At the dispatcher’s request, the call was transferred to the
abortion room where another clinic worker described the patient as
“grayish” in color. Once the call was transferred, the disturbing sounds
of the patient’s suffering and struggling for life became clearly
evident.

The fate of the woman is unknown.

“This 911 call is evidence that there is no such thing as a ‘safe’
abortion. It emphasizes the need to end this grisly practice. Until it
can be ended, this patient’s suffering graphically illustrates the need
for more accountability and oversight for abortion clinics around the
nation,” says Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.

“New Mexico has virtually no laws regulating abortion, so this is the
kind of thing that one can expect. Abortion clinics fight safety laws
because they don’t want inspectors to know the truth about what really
goes on behind their closed doors. The 911 call released today gives us a
window into that world and it’s not a pretty sight.”

The UNMCRH is an abortion clinic operated by the University of New
Mexico School of Medicine, which is a public funded institution.
Residents in the program are rotated through the abortion clinic for
training. If residents opt out of abortion training, they are assigned
other tasks at the clinic.

UNMCRH offers abortions up to 22 weeks gestation and is yet another
troubled member of the National Abortion Federation, a national
affiliation of abortion clinics that has a particularly abysmal health
and safety record.

“This is more proof that the abortion industry is incapable if
regulating itself. NAF standards are a joke. States need to get serious
about protecting the safety of women,” Newman says.

Bud and Tara Shaver of Defend Life announced on Friday that they have
opened a new pregnancy resource center across from the UNMCRH in order
to better assist women and help spare them from the trauma and tragedy
experienced by the patient that was the subject of the recent 911 call.
The Shavers are former interns for Operation Rescue and obtained the 911
recording through an open records act request.

Leaders of the troubled
Shouwang house church in Beijing have established a legal committee to
assist church members facing arrest or house arrest, the loss of
employment or homes and forced relocation to their home towns.

In
a press statement issued Tuesday, the unregistered church
described the forced relocation of one church member to Shandong
province as “a flagrant violation of the law.”

Leaders
charged the committee, composed of legal experts within the church and
officially formed last week, with collecting evidence of “citizens of
faith being forced to leave their jobs or being evicted because of their
religious belief.” The church would hold officials legally responsible
for these violations, as outlined in an earlier press statement on May
12.

For the past three months, Shouwang church members have
committed to meet in a public square in Zhongguancun, northwestern
Beijing, in response to repeated attempts by the gov-ernment to deny
them access to a permanent worship venue.

Shouwang
represents the “third church” phenomenon in China—consisting of large
Protestant or Catholic churches functioning openly rather than
underground, but refusing to register with government approved bodies
such as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the Chinese Catholic
Patriotic Association.

China is also currently
embroiled in a tense debate with Vatican leaders over the unauthorized
ordination of Catholic bishops within the CCPA, according to a Union of
Catholic Asian News report on Tuesday.

Pressure Mounts
On Sunday, police arrested 15 people who showed up at Shouwang’s
designated outdoor worship venue, including several from other house
churches. Many church leaders remained under permanent house arrest,
while scores of church members were detained in homes or hotel rooms,
according to a China Aid Association report.

One of those detained on Sunday had traveled all the way from Henan province to express her support, the CAA said.

Two
other women from Shuangshu house church in Beijing had planned on
traveling to the venue, but police prevented them from leaving home.
Within 24 hours their landlord also asked them to move out of their
rented apartment, according to CAA.

CAA also claimed that
officials pressured the management of the Beijing office of World Vision
to dismiss employee and church member Xia Xiao, a claim that World
Vision refutes.

“World Vision has fired no one and has
come under no pressure to fire anyone,” World Vision spokesperson
Cynthia Colin said in a press statement. “The staff member in question
has in fact been working as normal out of her office this week.”

For the second week in a row, pastors from TSPM were called in to “counsel” Sunday’s de-tainees, according to the CAA.

In
mid-May the director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs
convened a meeting of Three-Self leaders from 15 provinces and
municipalities, asking them “not to heed Shouwang church’s statement of
faith,” and repeatedly slandering Shouwang church, according to Bob Fu,
president of the CAA.

The national daily Xinhua
published an article on Monday extolling the freedom of TSPM
churches. As evidence, the article listed several TSPM churches around
the country with congregations of over 4,000 people; the construction of
11 new churches in Nanjing, including one with seating for 5,000
people; the “abundant” provision of Bibles through China’s Amity
Printing Press, and the training of over 2,000 TSPM clergymen through
the government approved Nanjing Union Theological Seminary.

“I
feel that the most pressing issue for Chinese churches is to figure out
how they can be helpful to society, and how they can become integrated
with traditional Chinese culture,” Pastor Kan Renping of St. Paul’s
Church in Nanjing province told Xinhua.

MORE RELATED STORIES:
• China’s Official Church Members ‘Admonish’ Shouwang Group
• Chinese Christians Support Persecuted Churches
• Shouwang Showdown Leads to About Two Dozen Arrests
• Shouwang Church Faces Increased Persecution
• Beijing Churches Risk Open Air Worship
• Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released