Late last week, ISIS-affiliated terrorists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rounded up 70 Christians, corralled them into a church, beheaded them, and left their bodies for others to find later. The facts are disturbing, and we naturally recoil from contemplating this barbaric display of Islamist violence. This horror seems a world away—not to mention a thousand years in the past.

But underneath the revulsion, if we force ourselves to stare at this evidence of human depravity a moment longer, what other emotions does it stir within us? One natural response is pity for the weak and defenseless villagers who were massacred unresistingly for no good reason. This may be quickly followed by a flash of thankfulness that we enjoy much greater security in America, that we may never face the business end of a sword for our faith.

But, when I suggest these are natural responses, I mean partly that these reactions come out of our fallen human nature. God’s Word would lead our thoughts in quite a different direction.

Firstly, we cannot indulge the fantasy that our situation is all that different from these Congolese Christians—at least considered from a perspective limited to this present age. We too are called to live self-sacrificial lives, walk blamelessly before a hostile world, and endure opposition for following Christ. If the Lord tarries, we too will die with our greatest hopes unrealized. Paul writes that, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

But secondly, Scripture declares that these defenseless Christians are not pre-eminently pitiable, but blessed. “Blessed are you,” Jesus taught, “when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account” (Matthew 5:11). He added that anyone who heeds these words would be established like a house on a rock, which is able to withstand the oncoming storm (Matthew 7:24-25).

In His next discourse, Jesus rachets up the warning, “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22).

After repeating this call for endurance (Revelation 14:12), John records a heavenly confirmation of the blessedness of martyrs. “And I heard a voice from Heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!'” (Revelation 14:13).

Why does Jesus consider persecuted, defenseless Christians to be “blessed”? One reason is that they are following in His footsteps. The night before He Himself was put to death, Jesus told His disciples, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. … But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause'” (John 15:20, 25).

Of course, Jesus’ death was quickly followed by His resurrection. And those who follow Him into death will also follow Him into everlasting life, since Jesus Christ is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Paul describes it, this is undeniably glorious: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

In the moment “when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory'” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

Yet we live in the period of time between Jesus’ resurrection and the final resurrection, as the Lord patiently waits for all the elect to reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9) and the number of those martyred for the name of Jesus to be complete (Revelation 6:11).

John sees the souls of these slain saints crying out to God for justice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before You will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). When God does answer the prayer, the fortunes will be reversed. These martyrs will rise to everlasting glory, while their persecutors will face everlasting torment. Unless they repent and believe in the interim, the wicked will look for the pity they did not show, and they will not find it.

Thus, the slain in Christ are blessed because they have conquered. In following Christ, they have conquered death, as Paul describes. They conquered satan by their faithfulness, as John writes, “they have conquered him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). And they will even live to see their Lord defeat the very persecutors who gained a temporary victory over their physical bodies.

This is true for all Believers. But it stands out in sharper relief for those who, like these Congolese Christians, God has caused to seal their witness with their blood. However weak, or helpless they appear in the world’s eyes, God calls them faithful, and God calls them blessed. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS

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വാഷിങ്ടൺ: പൗരത്വം നൽകാൻ പുതിയ ഇമിഗ്രേഷൻ നയവുമായി യു.എസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് ഡോണൾഡ് ട്രംപ്. 43 കോടി രൂപ നൽകി പൗരത്വം നേടാനുള്ള പുതിയ അവസരമാണ് യു.എസ് തുറന്നിടുന്നത്. ഗോൾഡ് കാർഡ് എന്ന പേരിലുള്ള പൗരത്വം പദ്ധതി അതിസമ്പന്നരെ ലക്ഷ്യമിട്ടുള്ളതാണ്.

ഗ്രീൻകാർഡിന്റെ പ്രീമിയം വേർഷനായാണ് പുതിയ പദ്ധതിയെ വിലയിരുത്തുന്നത്. യു.എസിൽ ദീർഘകാലം താമസിക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള അവസരമാണ് ഗോൾഡ് കാർഡിലൂടെ കൈവരിക. കഴിഞ്ഞ ദിവസമാണ് ട്രംപ് പുതിയ ഇമിഗ്രേഷൻ നയം അവതരിപ്പിച്ചത്.

അതിസമ്പന്നരായ ആളുക​ളെ യു.എസിലേക്ക് എത്തിച്ച് ​സർക്കാറിന് വരുമാനമുണ്ടാക്കുകയെന്ന ലക്ഷ്യം മുൻനിർത്തിയാണ് പുതിയ പദ്ധതിയെന്ന് അധികൃതർ അറിയിച്ചു. ഇ.ബി-5 ഇമിഗ്രന്റ് നിക്ഷേപക വിസക്ക് പകരമാണ് ഗോൾഡ് കാർഡ് എത്തുക. 800,000 ഡോളർ നിക്ഷേപിക്കുന്നവർക്കാണ് ഇ.ബി-5 വിസ ലഭിച്ചിരുന്നത്. യു.എസിൽ ജോലികൾ സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നവർക്കും ഈ വിസ ലഭിക്കും.

ഇ.ബി-5 വിസ പദ്ധതിക്ക് അവസാനിപ്പിച്ച് ഗോൾഡ് കാർഡ് കൊണ്ടു വരികയാണെന്ന് കൊമേഴ്സ് സെക്രട്ടറി ഹൗവാർഡ് ലുട്നിക് പറഞ്ഞു. ഒരു കോടി ഗോൾഡ് കാർഡുകൾ വിറ്റ് യു.എസിന്റെ സാമ്പത്തിക പ്രതിസന്ധി ഒഴിവാക്കുകയാണ് ട്രംപിന്റെ ലക്ഷ്യം
Sources:globalindiannews

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Soon, the investor-favourite EB-5 visa will be replaced by a far costlier ‘gold card’ visa. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a programme that would offer residency and a path to citizenship for investors willing to pay $5 million (approximately Rs 43.7 crore). This move introduces a new avenue for legal immigration while the administration continues its crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Trump said the programme, dubbed the “gold card,” would launch in two weeks. However, the details of its implementation remain unclear.

“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office as he signed executive orders alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you green card privileges,” he added, referencing the permits issued to US permanent residents.

Lutnick indicated that this would replace the existing EB-5 programme, which allows immigrant investors to acquire green cards by investing a certain amount in a US business.

Asked whether applicants would need to invest a certain amount to qualify, Lutnick said, “Yeah, exactly,” but suggested that the funds might be paid directly to the government instead.

“The president said rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 programme, we’re going to end the EB-5 programme. We’re going to replace it with the Trump gold card,” he said. “They’ll be able to pay $5 million to the US government—not to skip vetting, of course. We’re going to make sure they are wonderful, world-class global citizens.”

“They can come to America. The president can give them a green card, and they can invest in America. We can use that money to reduce our deficit,” he added.

EB-5 visa

The employment-based EB-5 visa provides a direct pathway to a green card. Over recent years, interest in the programme had grown among Indians. “With the uncertainty surrounding H-1B policies and long waiting times for green cards, many professionals, particularly those already in the US, are looking at EB-5 as a more secure, long-term solution,” said Akshat Gupta, director of business development at US Immigration Fund (USIF), in a discussion with Business Standard.

What would change with EB-5 visa removal?

Currently, EB-5 investors fall into two main categories:
High-employment area projects: These are in major cities such as New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Miami. They include multi-family residential buildings, mixed-use developments, and commercial real estate projects.
Rural projects: Located in areas with populations under 20,000, these allow investors to benefit from larger visa set-asides. They often include hospitality developments, multi-family projects, ski resorts, and industrial parks.

Both high-unemployment area projects and rural projects fall under targeted employment areas (TEA) designated by USCIS and require a minimum capital investment of $800,000. The usual costs include:

Investment amount: $800,000 for TEA projects, $1.05 million for non-TEA projects
Regional centre administrative fees: $70,000 – $80,000
Immigration attorney fees: $20,000 – $25,000
USCIS filing fees: $25,000

It also requires investors to create at least 10 new jobs. By contrast, Trump’s gold card visa would cost investors $5 million, almost five times more than an EB-5 visa.

At a US House Judiciary Committee hearing on January 22, 2025, immigration expert Jessica M Vaughan argued that some green card programmes were reasonable in concept but needed stricter rules and oversight to curb fraud and abuse.

“Others, such as the visa lottery, OPT, and EB-5, should be eliminated entirely because they serve no legitimate national interest in their current form and invite fraud,” she said.

Lutnick echoed this on Wednesday, saying EB-5 had become an avenue for fraud. He suggested the administration would be more selective in granting gold card visas, though further details were scarce.

Asked whether a Russian oligarch might qualify for a gold card, Trump replied, “Yeah. Possibly.”

He added, “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are nice people. It’s possible. They’re not as wealthy as they used to be.” Laughing, he added, “I think they can afford five million dollars.”

Trump predicted that the programme would generate substantial revenue, saying that companies would be willing to pay the $5 million fee to secure talent.

“We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that,” he said. “If you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good.”

Investor visas are widely used worldwide. According to Henley & Partners, over 100 countries, including Dubai, New Zealand, and several European nations, offer similar “golden visas” to attract wealthy individuals.
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Panama — Among those deported from the United States to Panama for eventual return to their home countries are several converts to Christianity facing severe persecution in their home countries, according to widespread media reports in a story published by The New York Times.

“Only a miracle can save us,” one deportee said. A persecuted minority who converted to Christianity in a banned underground church, her life — and those of many around her — hang in the balance as they await their fate at the hands of Panamanian authorities.

Ten Iranian Converts

At least 10 of those being held in Panama en route to their home countries are Iranian converts from Islam. If returned to Iran, they will face the death penalty for apostasy — a severe crime under Sharia law. Iranian Christians have been heavily persecuted for decades, despite a long history in the country.

While the government allows some degree of freedom for historically non-Muslim communities, converts from Islam to Christianity are viciously persecuted and are treated as a national security threat.

One of the world’s few theocracies, the Iranian system is built on extreme devotion to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. After the overthrow of the secular but authoritarian monarchy in 1979, Iran swung hard toward Islamist extremism and has continued on that path ever since, with a growing security apparatus designed to suppress religious and political dissent in every corner of society.

Iran’s constitution, finalized soon after the 1979 revolution, is a religious manifesto that quotes the Quran extensively and mandates the military to fulfill “the ideological mission of jihad in Allah’s way; that is, extending the sovereignty of Allah’s law throughout the world.”

For religious minorities in Iran, there is no escape from the extremist policies of a government fueled by an extremist interpretation of Shia Islam that leaves no room even for Sunni Islam, much less religious minorities like Christianity.

A Lone Chinese Christian

The Iranian refugees are not the only persecuted minority being sent back to their home country.

One man in his 50s who had recently fled China held up a Chinese-language Bible and explained to a reporter for The New York Times that he had come to the United States seeking freedom. International Christian Concern (ICC) has worked to support Chinese Christians in the past, including by providing them with secret Bibles.

The Chinese man, identified only by his surname Wang, faces the threat of forced return to a country that has waged a decades-long war against Christianity and aggressively works to extradite and punish religious refugees who have fled the country seeking religious freedom.

China is known to have forced abortions on its citizens, sterilized women without their consent, and murdered religious minorities to sell their organs on the black market. Christian home churches are an attempt to escape government scrutiny, but even they are often raided and their members arrested on charges of working against the interests of the state.

China operates a concentrated campaign of persecution against its Muslim-majority Uyghur population. Donald Trump, at the end of his first term, declared the Chinese government’s actions against the Uyghurs a genocide after detailed research by government and civil society organizations around the world documenting a vast network of concentration camps throughout the Xinjiang region.

China has even reached beyond its borders to suppress religion and silence opposition. Chinese spy rings have been discovered around the world, from Kabul to New York City. The Afghan spy ring worked with the Haqqani network, a Taliban-affiliated terrorist group, to hunt down Uyghurs and bring them back to China. China has also stepped up its efforts to capture escaping religious minorities through the more traditional route of formal extradition requests.

Non-Refoulement

In Wang’s case, though, it does not appear that China has filed an extradition request or engaged actively to seek his return. While the United States has long maintained programs providing paths for refugees fleeing religious persecution, these programs appear to have been disrupted in recent weeks, halting the admission of already-vetted persecuted minorities and making it difficult or impossible for new arrivals to make their case.

According to reports, those recently deported to Panama include persons from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Uzbekistan — a list that includes many of the countries that are most hostile to Christianity.

Refoulement, or the forced return of refugees and asylum seekers to countries where they are likely to face persecution, is prohibited in numerous international treaty bodies, including the Convention against Torture and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). The United States is party to the Convention against Torture but has refused to sign the ICPPED.

According to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, adherence to non-refoulement is “an implicit guarantee flowing from the obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights.”

Justifying its decision to deport these Christians and others, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman claimed that “Not a single one of these aliens asserted fear of returning to their home country at any point during processing or custody.”

While the veracity of her claim is impossible to verify, the principle of non-refoulement applies to “all migrants at all times, irrespective of migration status,” according to the U.N. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Sources:persecution

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