North Korea ranks number one in the Open Doors World Watch List for the ninth straight year, but Islamic countries are quickly gaining ground as the most dangerous for Christians. Eight of the top 10 countries on the 2011 list have Islamic majorities—and persecution has increased in seven of them.

The top 10 in order are North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Laos, which has a Communist government. Iraq is new to the top 10 list while Mauritania dropped out, going from No. 8 to No. 13, according to the annual list compiled by Open Doors International that tracks Christian life in 77 societies and ranks the top 50 most dangerous environments among them.

“Being a Muslim Background Believer or ‘Secret Believer’ in a Muslim-dominated country puts a bulls-eye on the backs of Christians,” says Open Doors USA president and CEO Dr. Carl Moeller. “There is either no freedom to believe or little freedom of religion. And as the 2011 World Watch List reflects, the persecution of Christians in these Muslim countries continues to increase.”

Iran is clamping down on a growing house church movement. Thousands of believers in Afghanistan cluster deep underground. Saudi Arabia refuses to allow any Saudi person to convert to Christianity. Somalia is ruled by bloodthirsty terrorists threatening to kill Christian aid workers who feed the nation’s starving, impoverished people. Yemen is determined to expel all Christian workers. And Iraq saw extremists massacre 58 Christians in a Baghdad cathedral on Oct. 31. Of the top 30 countries, only seven have a source other than Islamic extremists as the main persecutors of Christians.

Iraq saw conditions decline for Christian religious freedom, jumping from No. 17 to No. 8.
The country has seen a Christian exodus in recent years in the face of organized violence by extremist militia, with an estimated 334,000 Christians. That’s a more than 50 percent drop since Saddam Hussein’s regime toppled in 2003. At least 90 Christians were martyred last year in Iraq while hundreds more were injured in bomb and gun attacks. More killings have taken place in the past two weeks, Open Doors reports.

Here are some additional highlights from the list:

• The country with the largest Christian community in the top 15 is Pakistan with more than 5 million believers. Twenty-nine Christians were martyred in the reporting period with at least one killing occurring every month.
• Afghanistan, up from No. 6 to No. 3, saw ugly demonstrations when footage of Muslims being baptized was shown on network television.
• The year’s grisliest headlines were found in No. 26 Nigeria, however, where a staggering 2,000 Christians lost their lives in riots caused by Muslim extremists in some of the northern states in the country.
• Egypt is ranked No. 19 on the WWL and could be a focus of persecution this year as 21 Christians were killed in a bomb blast on New Year’s Day outside the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria.
• While persecution continues to increase in Muslim-dominated countries, there is no question that North Korea deserves its No. 1 ranking, Open Doors concludes. The state’s attitude towards Christians is extremely hostile. There is no freedom to build churches or to worship in homes. Possession of Christian materials is punishable by death.

Open Doors points to North Korea’s discovery of a group of 23 Christians in May 2010. The police found Bibles and other Christian literature. Three people were publicly executed, and the others disappeared within the infamous Yodok Prison camp. Open Doors says the number of Christian martyrs in North Korea is hard to discern because it is such a secretive society, but hundreds of believers have been arrested.

There’s plenty of talk about the attack on marriages and family. Now, the Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund, is encouraging creative young adults to become part of the solution with a video contest.

The Ruth Institute just launched its first annual Reel Love Challenge, a video contest for young adults aged 18 to 30. The contest is open to all young adults, married or single, male or female, in college, out of college, or never been anywhere near a college. This contest offers a platform for a generation to offer ideas about what sustains love over a lifetime.

“Marriage will be what your generation makes it,” says Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of The Ruth Institute. “Divorce, adultery, even incest are all over the news. I urge all emerging adults to take matters into their own hands and begin to create a culture of fidelity and love.”

Roback says the Reel Love Challenge gives young adults a forum to start asking and answering, the right questions, such as “What makes lifelong love possible?” and “Why is it worth the effort?” She says the videos can be professional looking, or just done with a cell phone camera. The Ruth Institute is more interested in content, thoughts, and ideas, than Hollywood production quality.

Here’s the skinny on entering the contest: Submit a video that runs from 30 seconds to three minutes on the Reel Love Challenge Web site. The video should answer either or both of these questions: What makes lifelong love possible? Why is it worth the effort? Contestants should enter soon and take advantage of the Early Bird Contest: $100 to the first 7 videos submitted before January 6, 2011.

The Reel Love Challenge Video Contest ends on February 1, 2011. The first-prize winner will receive $2,000. The second-prize winner will receive $1,500. The third place will receive $1,000. Winners will be announced mid-February.

Do you think video contests like this can raise awareness among a generation about the value of marriage and family?

China’s population has drawn foreign companies looking to cash in on retail opportunities. But it’s also drawing ministries seeking to save the lost and equip the saints.

Biblica, a 200-plus Bible translation and publishing ministry, is pushing deeper into communist nation with the Chinese Contemporary Bible (CCB). The new version will be released at the Chinese New Year in February.

The CCB is translated into Standard Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, meaning “common speech.” There are 873 million Mandarin speakers in mainland China. This version reflects changes in Chinese language that aim to reach a younger generation, children and seekers.

This is a potentially important development in the quest to reach the lost in Chinese. The CCB is a revised version of the Chinese Living Bible released in 1975. But much has changed since 1975. Specifically, there has been tremendous growth in the Chinese Church—from 2.7 million in 1975 to over 75 million in 2010, according to Operation World.

Initially, 50,000 copies of the CCB will be printed and will be made available through a ministry approach. In addition to the Chinese Contemporary Bible, Biblica has produced New Testament books Matthew and Acts in DVD format. In the spring of 2011, the CCB Audio New Testament will also be available. The Student Bible is being translated into the CCB text, and the Life Application Bible will be adapted into the contemporary text to equip the Chinese people with a strong foundation in God’s Word.

It’s been nearly a year since a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, killing more than 230,000 people. But Haiti’s rebuilding is far from over. In fact, more problems are arising, including a recent cholera outbreak that claimed the lives of an additional 2,000 people there.

While the nation saw an initial rush of help, some ministries have since moved on to the next disaster. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), however, is still on the ground in Haiti to offer help—and plans to offer even more support in 2011.

“This country is still struggling, even though there have been some great things that have happened this past year,” says Franklin Graham, president and CEO of BGEA and international relief agency Samaritan’s Purse. “We want to do everything we can to not only help the people of Haiti, but to reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

BGEA is reaching out to the people of Haiti to share the hope of Christ in a real, tangible way through various ministries, including the Rapid Response Team, the Franklin Graham Festival, and My Hope-Haiti.

The Rapid Response Team remains in Haiti and its crisis-trained chaplains have prayed with more than 17,000 people to date. Meanwhile, the Franklin Graham Festival will take place in Haiti this weekend to bring the hope of Christ to the masses. And the My Hope evangelism project encourages equipped churches and Christian families to open their homes to friends, family, and neighbors to share the Gospel using television broadcasts produced by BGEA in the local language. Since the program was launched in 2002, more than 9.7 million people in 48 countries have made decisions to follow Jesus Christ.

“I call on the churches of America to pray for the people of Haiti, our neighbors just a few hundred miles from our own shore, who have suffered so much this year,” says Graham. “Out of the abundance that we have been given, we should share with those who have so very little.”

In many ways, 2011 is starting off just like 2010 ended.

Indeed, Christian persecution promises to remain a running theme this year as Charisma magazine receives one of the first reports out of Afghanistan that a judge has given an covert from Islam to Christianity one week to renounce his faith in Christ. If he does not reject Jesus before men, he will be sentenced with 20 years of imprisonment at best—and death at worst.

International Christian Concern (ICC) is watching the case and expects Shoaib Assadullah to hear the verdict in his case today. Assadullah was arrested on October 21 in Mazar-e-Sharif for giving a Bible to a man who later reported him to local authorities. He remains in a prison in northern Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif.

“If Assadullah is executed, his death will signify the failure of the United States and her allies to liberate Afghanistan from the radical ideals of the Taliban after investing millions of dollars to reform the country’s judicial system,” argues Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East. “We urge the international community to demand the immediate release of Assadullah and to hold Afghanistan accountable to its commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Pamir Productions spoke to Assadullah on December 31. At that time, he said he was quite certain that court officials would give him the death penalty. At his last court appearance, the judge gave him one final week to renounce his faith otherwise he would be hanged or killed. Shoaib stated he has given his life completely into the hands of Jesus.
 
Afghanistan is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). According to article 18, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

In case you don’t already have enough ways to read your Bible—online, on your smartphone, on your desktop, and, of course, in old-fashioned print—Immersion Digital is offering yet one more way to connect with the Word of God.

Immersion Digital is working to  add an entirely new dimension to the growing Bible market. The Glo Bible presents the oracles of God with zoom technology and a touch interface. The software comes with an interactive database of historic and contemporary information, images, animations, video, maps, and 360-degree virtual tours.

“Moving forward, we need to exploit the full potential of interactive digital media,” says Nelson Saba, CEO of Immersion Digital. “Glo is a digital publishing platform that offers an enhanced user experience of content through media. Slates combine mobility, rich media and intuitive multitouch interface creating an ideal platform for experiencing our enhanced media Bible.”

The makers of the Glo Bible will showcase a touch-enabled digital Bible on tablet devices at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas later this week. Microsoft actually hand picked Glo as a prime example of applications touch-tuned for a more interactive experience on Windows-based tablet devices.

“Our goal is to stimulate learning through unique and engaging interaction with immersive interactive media,” Saba says. “Our versatile digital publishing platform has potential for the extensive Bible study market and well beyond in education, entertainment and business publishing for today’s and tomorrow’s desktop and touchscreen mobile devices.”

What’s your reaction to an interactive Bible? Are you into these new technologies or do you prefer a printed copy of the Word of God?

LOS ANGELES, (CDN) — At least 21 people were killed and scores were wounded on Saturday (Jan. 1) when a bomb outside a church in Alexandria, Egypt exploded as congregants were leaving a New Year’s Eve Mass celebration.

The explosion ripped through the crowd shortly after midnight, killing instantly most of those who died, and leaving the entrance-way to the Church of the Two Saints, a Coptic Orthodox congregation, covered with blood and severed body parts.

The blast overturned at least one car, set several others on fire and shattered windows throughout the block on which the church is located.

Egyptian authorities reportedly said 20 of the victims have been identified. At least 90 other people were injured in the blast, 10 seriously. Among the injured were eight Muslims. Many of the injured received treatment at St. Mark’s Hospital.

Burial services for some of the victims started Sunday (Jan. 2) in Alexandria, located in northern Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea.

Witnesses reportedly said a driver parked a car at the entrance of the church and then ran away seconds before it exploded. Government officials have claimed they found remnants of the bomb, filled with nails and other make-shift shrapnel, at the site; they suspect an unidentified suicide bomber, rather than a car bombing.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the attack comes two months after an Islamic group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) issued a threat stating that, “All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers are legitimate targets for the muhajedeen [Muslim fighters] wherever they can reach them.”

Claiming they would open “rivers of blood” upon Christians, the group specifically threatened Egyptian Christians based an unsubstantiated rumor that two Coptic women, both wives of Orthodox clergy, were being held against their will after converting to Islam. The statement came after ISI claimed responsibility for an attack on a Baghdad church during mass in which 58 people were killed.

The Egyptian government continues to suspect foreign elements mounted the Alexandria attack, but an unconfirmed report by The Associated Press, citing anonymous government sources, said an Egyptian Islamic group is being investigated.

Bishop Mouneer Anis, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Egypt, said in a written statement that he thinks the attack was linked to the Iraqi threats. He added that his church has taken greater security measures at its downtown Cairo location.

“We pray with all the people of Egypt, Christians and Muslims, [that they] would unite against this new wave of religious fanaticism and terrorism,” he said.

For weeks before the ISI issued its threat, Alexandria was the site of massive protests against the Orthodox Church and its spiritual leader, Pope Shenouda III. Immediately after Friday prayers, Muslims would stream out into the streets surrounding mosques, chant slogans against the church and demand the “return” of the two women. Before that, as early as June, clerics from at least one central Alexandria mosque could be heard broadcasting anti-Christian vitriol from minaret loudspeakers during prayers, instructing Muslims to separate themselves entirely from their Christian countrymen.

The Alexandria bombing comes almost a year after a shooting in Nag Hammadi, Egypt left six Christians and one Muslim security guard dead. In the Jan. 6, 2010 attack, a group of men drove by St. John’s Church, 455 kilometers (282 miles) south of Cairo, and sprayed with gunfire a crowd leaving a Coptic Christmas Eve service.

Three men were eventually charged with the shootings, but the case has yet to be resolved.

Egypt wasn’t the only place in the Middle East plagued with anti-Christian violence over the holiday season.

The day before bombers struck the Alexandria church, an elderly Christian couple in Baghdad was killed when terrorists placed a bomb outside of their home, rang the doorbell and walked away, according to media and human rights reports. The bombing happened at the same time other Christian-owned homes and neighborhoods throughout Baghdad were being attacked.

Estimates of the number of people wounded in the attacks in Iraq range from nine to more than 13.

What were the top religion and political trends in 2010? And how might they shape our future? That’s the topic of a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study. The trends are important to note because they group expects them to continue into 2011 and beyond.

Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI, outlined the following 10 trends:

1. Nearly half (47 percent) of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement also identify with the Christian right.
2. Pew found that 18 percent of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim, and PRRI found that 51 percent say his religious beliefs are different from their own.
3. Fifty-seven percent of Americans are opposed to allowing NY Muslims to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks from ground zero, but 76 percent say they would support Muslims building a mosque in their local community if they followed the same regulations as other religious groups.
4. Americans are about five times more likely to give an “F” than an “A” to churches for their handling of homosexuality. Two-thirds see connections between messages coming from America’s churches and higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth.
5. Forty-five percent of Americans say the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life, while a plurality (49 percent) disagree.
6. If another vote similar to Proposition 8 were held now, 51 percent of Californians say they would vote to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
7. At least seven-in-10 Americans say that protecting the dignity of every person, keeping families together, and the Golden Rule are important values that should guide immigration reform.
8. In his new book American Grace, Robert Putnam found that between one-third and one-half of all American marriages are in interfaith marriages, and roughly one-third of Americans have switched religions at some point in their lives.
9. Despite high levels of religiosity, Pew found on average that Americans only answered about half of 32 questions correctly on their Religious Knowledge Survey.
10. The 2010 congressional election revealed relatively stable voting patterns by religion compared to past elections. GOP candidates held an advantage among white Christians, while Democratic candidates held an advantage among minority Christians and the unaffiliated.

And an 11th for 2011. Nearly 6-in-10 Americans affirm American exceptionalism, that God has granted America a special role in human history. Those affirming this view are more likely to support military interventions and to say torture is sometimes justified.

What say you? Do you see these trends as shaping our future?

Some call it Civil Rights Day. Others call it Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Whatever you choose to call it, the Christian civil rights leader’s birthday is being remembered during the Festival For Life on Jan. 17 at the Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Miss.

A group of black pastors is organizing the event to draw attention to what they see as the next wave of the civil rights movement King helped pioneer: dignity and equal protection for unborn children.

Festival For Life will show five pro-life videos, including “Maafa 21,” which features pro-life activist Dr. Alveda King, King’s niece. The event is sponsored by American Family Radio and Pro-Life Mississippi.

“It is very important to point out that the Life issue is one of, if not the most serious civil rights issue that any people, African Americans or any other people, have ever faced,” Pastor Joseph Parker of Campbell Church African Methodist Episcopal church in Pulaski, Tenn., told LifeSiteNews. “If ever there was a civil rights issue worth standing up for, this is it!”

Pro-Life Mississippi is also holding an event called “The Gospel and the Cry of the Fatherless” on January 21-22. The two-day conference will focus on abortion, adoption and the plight of fatherless children.

Wrapping up January’s agenda, the group is holdings its 24th annual Pro-Life Mississippi “Candlelight Prayer Vigil for the Unborn” on January 22 at 6 p.m. at the Mississippi State Capitol Building.

What’s your take? Do events like these make a difference?

As Lee Grady noted in his “Year in Review” article, Christian persecution increased around the world in 2010. Now, a new list has emerged chronicling the top 10 anti-Christian acts in America last year.

DefendChristians.org, a ministry of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, just offered up its list based on an online poll of Christians. According to Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of DefendChristians.org, the results demonstrate a double standard is being applied against Christians and their faith, values, and liberty.

“If these same types of actions were taken against other groups one would call it bigoted,” Cass says. “We are exposing the shameful behavior of bashing Christ and biblical values for what it is, ‘Christophobia,’ the irrational fear and hatred of Christ and His Word.”

Here are some highlights of the top 10 list:
       
1. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act: A proposed federal bill that would require ministries, including churches, to hire people who oppose their beliefs or who live in open defiance of their values.

3. Julea Ward and Jennifer Keeton persecution: The two Christian students were expelled from their respective Master’s programs in counseling at two different universities because they wouldn’t deny their faith and affirm the validity of the homosexual lifestyle.

5. Civil rights violations Christians were denied their civil rights and falsely arrested for disorderly conduct at an annual Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan for sharing the Gospel. This happened the previous year, too. The Christians were acquitted both times of all charges.

9. The Southern Poverty Law Center labeling: The organization has continued to label many mainstream Christian organizations that promote traditional marriage as “hate groups” and “anti-gay” in lists that include violent racists groups.

“Every year the list of attacks grows as godless secular values are inflaming the minds of many against Almighty God, Jesus Christ and Christianity,” Cass says. “Most of the attacks are merely rhetorical. Increasingly they are becoming codified into policies that encroach on Christian’s academic freedom and liberty of conscience. Freedom of speech is denied to Christians while they are slandered by radical organizations. In extreme cases the hatred boils over into violence.”

What’s your take? What anti-Christian movements did you see in 2010 and what do you expect in 2011? Share with me in the comment box below.