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Venezuelan Christians forced to eat pages of the Bible, have ‘crosses’ etched into their bodies

At least four Christian men recently suffered serious injuries after they were stabbed, forced to eat pages of the Bible, and had “crosses” etched into their skin by eight hooded men, according to a persecution watchdog organization.
The attack by men suspected to be criminals from a drug gang took place at Restoration House in the city of Libertador on Feb. 16, Open Doors reported Friday. Restoration House is a church-led drug rehabilitation center in Venezuela’s Mérida State.
The charity, which works with persecuted churches in over 60 nations, explained that Christians, who deter people from criminal lifestyles, are often seen as a threat to the illegal activities of drug gangs in Latin America.
“The criminals covered our faces and started to beat and stab us,” a victim was quoted as saying. “They drew ‘X’ on our bodies and forced us to eat the Bible.”
While the four Christians have been discharged from the hospital, one of them remains in poor health due to two broken ribs and injuries to his lungs and head. Two others had casts put on their legs and arms.
“Weeks before the attack, in the middle of a meeting discussing neighborhood issues, two men said they were going to end the Restoration House because they did not agree with this type of program,” Pastor Dugarte, who founded the center with his wife, told Open Doors.
Pastor Dugarte remains strong in his faith, and he will carry on with the ministry in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Calling for an investigation, the Evangelical Council of Venezuela attributed the attack to “hatred towards religion,” according to Premier Christian News.
“The cutting of crosses into the bodies of these young Christians, and the forced eating of pages of the Bible is deeply disturbing,” Dr. David Landrum, Open Doors UK’s director of advocacy and public affairs, was quoted as saying.
“This premeditated attack has all the hallmarks of the local ‘collectives’ of the Maduro regime. This shows how Venezuela has become a dictatorial narco-state which is violently opposed to the drugs rehabilitation work of the church.”
Open Doors noted that while Venezuela is not in its 2021 World Watch List of the top-50 countries where Christians are persecuted, Christian persecution in other parts of Latin America is increasing.
President Nicolás Maduro has been in office since 2013. In 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions against Venezuelan government officials and others accused of “undermining democracy in Venezuela.”
“Under Maduro, the Venezuelan government has deliberately and repeatedly abused the rights of citizens through the use of violence, repression, and criminalization of demonstrations,” the department said in a statement at the time. “At his direction, the regime’s security forces have systematically repressed and criminalized opposition parties through arbitrary detention, military prosecution of civilians, and the excessive use of force against demonstrators. Any member of the opposition or critic of the regime risks being detained, imprisoned, assaulted, tortured, and assassinated.”
Maduro’s victory in the 2018 election was denounced as fraudulent by several countries, including the United States.
Sources:Christian Post
us news
ഇന്റർനാഷണൽ പ്രയർലെെൻ സമ്മേളനത്തില് ഹൃദയ സ്പർശിയായ അനുഭവങ്ങൾ പങ്കു വെച്ച് ഡോ. ബാബു കെ. വർഗീസ്

ഹൂസ്റ്റൺ :ഹൂസ്റ്റണ് ആസ്ഥാനമായി പ്രവർത്തിച്ചുവരുന്ന ഇന്റർനാഷണൽ പ്രയർലെെൻ മാർച്ച് 11 ചൊവാഴ്ച സംഘടിപ്പിച്ച 565-ാമത് സമ്മേളനത്തില് ബൈബിൾ അധ്യാപകൻ, പത്രപ്രവർത്തകൻ, എഴുത്തുകാരൻ, ചരിത്രകാരൻ എന്നീ നിലകളിൽ അറിയപ്പെടുന്ന ഡോ. ബാബു കെ. വർഗീസ്, ബോംബെ മുഖ്യ സന്ദേശം നല്കി
ഇന്ത്യയിൽ ക്രൈസ്തവർ നേരിടുന്ന പീഡനങ്ങളെ കുറിച്ച് നേരിട്ടുള്ള തന്റെ ഹൃദയ സ്പർശിയായ അനുഭവങ്ങൾ അദ്ദേഹം സമ്മേളനത്തില് പങ്കുവെച്ചു.
ശ്രീ. ജോസഫ് പി. രാജു, പ്രസിഡന്റ് ഗോസ്പൽ മിഷൻ ഓഫ് ഇന്ത്യ, ഡിട്രോയിറ്റ്, മിഷിഗൺ പ്രാരംഭ പ്രാര്ത്ഥനയോടെ യോഗം ആരംഭിച്ചു .വടക്കേ ഇന്ത്യയിലെ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾ നേരിടുന്ന പീഡനങ്ങൾ, ശത്രുത, വെല്ലുവിളികൾ എന്നിവയെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള നേരിട്ടുള്ളതും കൃത്യവുമായ വിവരങ്ങൾ ഡോ. ബാബു വർഗീസ് സമ്മേളനത്തിൽ പങ്കിടുമെന്നും നിങ്ങളുടെ പ്രാർത്ഥനാപൂർവ്വമായ പങ്കാളിത്തം ഇന്ത്യയിലും ലോകമെമ്പാടും വിശ്വാസത്തിന്റെ പേരിൽ പീഡിപ്പിക്കപ്പെടുന്നവരുമായി നിലകൊള്ളുന്നതിൽ നമ്മുടെ ഐക്യം, ഐക്യദാർഢ്യം, പ്രതിബദ്ധത എന്നിവ പ്രകടമാക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള അവസരമാണിതെന്നും സ്വാഗതമാശംസിച്ചുകൊണ്ടു ഐപിഎല് കോര്ഡിനേറ്റര് സി. വി. സാമുവേല് ആമുഖമായി പറഞ്ഞു.തുടർന്ന് മുഖ്യതിഥി ഡോ. ബാബു വർഗീസിനെ പരിചയപ്പെടുത്തുകയും മുഖ്യ സന്ദേശം നല്കുന്നതിനു ക്ഷണിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു.
ശ്രീ. ഫിലിപ്പ് മാത്യു (ഷാജി),ഡാളസ്, മദ്ധ്യസ്ഥ പ്രാര്ത്ഥനയ്ക്കു നേതൃത്വം നല്കി.ഐ പി എൽ സംഘടിപ്പിക്കുന്ന പ്രതിവാര പ്രാർത്ഥനാ യോഗങ്ങളിൽ നാനൂറിലധികം പേര് ലോകത്തിന്റെ വിവിധ ഭാഗങ്ങളില് നിന്നും സംബന്ധിച്ചിരുന്നുവെന്നു കോര്ഡിനേറ്റര് ടി.എ. മാത്യു പറഞ്ഞു.തുടർന്ന് നന്ദി രേഖപ്പെടുത്തി .സമാപന പ്രാർത്ഥനയും ആശീർവാദവും:പാസ്റ്റർ ഡോ. എം. എസ്. സാമുവൽ, ന്യൂയോർക്ക് നിർവഹിച്ചു.ഷിബു ജോർജ് ഹൂസ്റ്റൺ, ശ്രീ ജോസഫ് ടി ജോർജ്ജ് (രാജു), ഹൂസ്റ്റൺ എന്നിവർ ടെക്നിക്കൽ കോർഡിനേറ്ററായിരുന്നു.
Sources:usmalayali
us news
Scotus Takes Case of Christian Counselor Banned From Helping Clients Find ‘God-Given’ Identity

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has agreed to hear the case of a Christian therapist who is challenging Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” that targets conversations meant to help minor clients accept their God-given gender and sexuality.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit legal group, is representing Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor in Colorado.
ADF petitioned the high court in November to hear Chiles’ case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law which “prohibits mental health professionals from providing ‘conversion therapy’ to minor clients.”
A counselor who violates Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law faces fines of up to $5,000 per violation, suspension from practice, and, in some cases, revocation of the counselor’s license.
According to ADF, many of Chiles’ clients seek her counsel because they share her Christian worldview and faith-based values.
“These clients believe their lives will be more fulfilling if they are aligned with the teachings of their faith,” reads a press statement. “Yet Colorado law censors Chiles from speaking words her clients want to hear because the government does not like the view she expresses.”
Their lawsuit alleges that while Colorado’s law prohibits counselors from encouraging clients to accept their bodies, it “allows counseling conversations that aim to steer young people toward a gender identity different than the client’s sex.”
“Such restrictions have ‘left some clinical staff fearful’ of ‘providing professional support’ to young people at all,” reads the petition. “That result leaves detransitioners — those who adopted a transgender identity but now identify with their biological sex — with no counseling support whatsoever in much of the United States.”
Colorado is among roughly half the states that ban people from finding freedom from gender dysphoria or unwanted same-sex attraction.
Colorado Attorney General Philip J. Weiser has criticized so-called “conversion therapy.”
“States have long regulated medical practices to protect patients from harmful professional conduct,” he said in a statement. “Colorado’s law protecting young people from unscientific and cruel gay conversion therapy practices is humane, smart, and appropriate.”
Chiles originally filed a lawsuit challenging the law, arguing that it violates the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses.
ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner said state officials have “no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors.”
“Colorado’s law prohibits what’s best for these children and sends a clear message: the only option for children struggling with these issues is to give them dangerous and experimental drugs and surgery that will make them lifelong patients,” stated Waggoner.
In 2023, to Supreme Court declined to hear a similar case challenging Washington state’s conversion therapy law. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., and Brett Kavanaugh publicly dissented from the court’s decision to not take up that case.
“There is fierce debate over how best to help minors with gender dysphoria,” Thomas wrote at the time.
The high court recently heard arguments in a Tennessee case over whether the state’s ban on experimental transgender procedures on minors violates the Constitution. They have not issued a decision yet.
The justices are expected to hear Chiles’s case during their next term, which begins in October.
Sources:CBN News
us news
5,000 Students Seek Jesus at WVU, Nearly 1,000 Respond to Altar Call: ‘Life-Changing Salvation’

Organizers of a nationwide revival movement taking place on college campuses across the United States say they were “blown away” Tuesday night after 5,000 students gathered at West Virginia University to praise Jesus.
UniteUS is an evangelistic college campus movement marked by salvations, water baptisms, and worship, and last night at the Morgantown, WV campus was no different.
“We are blown away at how God moved tonight at the WVU Coliseum. Before visiting each campus, we pray and ask God to do what only He can do. And we saw that happen as the room filled up tonight with 5,000 students chasing after Him in Morgantown,” the founder and visionary behind UniteUS, Tonya Prewett, told CBN News.
“Over a thousand students saved, set free, and flooding the altar to make a move toward something different than the world has to offer,” she shared.
Prewett continued, “Life-changing salvation. Life-altering freedom. Life-giving connections. Jesus is marking this generation.”
Prewett, along with Pastor Jonathan Pokluda and the founder of the IF:Gathering, Jennie Allen have been spearheading this move on college campuses, and it is changing lives.
“I feel like there is a lot of brokenness on college campuses,” WVU student Savannah Jones told Positively West Virginia. “There’s a lot of people looking for something that they just can’t find without community, without ministry, to give them a little peace and let them know about Jesus.”
Pokluda previously told CBN News many students are coming to these gatherings ready to shed their past mistakes.
“They’re coming in with guilt and shame. STDs, unwanted pregnancies, abortions,” Pokluda said. “And they come here and we’re showing them the one—the only one—who can really deal with their sin, is Jesus Christ.”
As CBN News reported, at the start of this year, 8,000 students gathered at the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena to worship Jesus and hear a powerful message on the Gospel.
Then, an Ohio State revival event saw 6,500 students gather in The Schott, where almost 2,000 attendees responded to the altar call.
WVU student Eliza Hocz says the move of God on the campus is genuine because students have a real hunger for change.
“The cool thing about this movement specifically is that they don’t [just] come to the schools,” she explained. “They go to the schools that students reach out to [them] in desperation for God to do something on their campus.”
WVU UNITE student team coordinator Chandler Haga told WDTV that is exactly what she did.
“Tonya [said] she would love to come to WVU, but she wanted to hear my heart for the event,” Haga told the outlet.
“And so we reached out on a call and I gave her the full rundown of why we needed this here. The goal is to connect them with local churches and local ministries after the event so the ministries on campus then continue to grow,” she continued.
Prewett told CBN News she connects with the students, but they are the ones putting in the work to reach their community.
“The students reach out to us and I work with a student team to put on the event,” she said. “They do all the local work. It’s beautiful.”
The hunger for God’s spirit to touch and change lives is evident. So far, the ministry’s events have reached more than 100,000 college students across multiple campuses.
The next UniteUS outreach will be held at Southern Methodist University on April 8.
Sources:CBN News
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