Religious Freedom

The eviction of a Christian congregation from a private villa used for worship gatherings for the past seven years has some observers speculating whether Kuwait's Islamist politicians are beginning to actively target non-Muslim groups.

An American contractor for the U.S. Army in Kuwait, also a Christian, contacted The Christian Post in mid-April, saying that The Lighthouse Church (TLC) he attends was having difficulty renewing its lease. The man, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said the lease was then suddenly terminated without explanation.

A villa church tied to the TLC congregation was later told by the landlord it had to pay an exorbitant fine each month to use a facility it had been renting, according to the Christian contractor. Church leaders reportedly decided not to argue and moved out. more >>

A Christian student group has dropped a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina-Greensboro after the university agreed to officially recognize the group as religious, therefore making the group exempt from the university's nondiscrimination policy.

The legal group the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed the lawsuit on behalf of the "Make Up Your Own Mind" club, a pro-abstinence, pro-life group, after the university refused to acknowledge it as a religious group.

According to the university's nondiscrimination policy, non-religious groups must offer open membership to all students, regardless of their religious beliefs. more >>

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has remained for supporters a shining example of a faith-filled Christian standing firm in the face of persecution. According to Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Nadarkhani exemplifies a true Christian who is willing to sacrifice everything in this life on earth for his faith.

Nadarkhani, a married father of two, was arrested in Oct. 2009 for protesting the mandatory teaching of Islam at his children's schools. He was then charged with apostasy and attempting to evangelize Muslims, charges for which an execution order was issued in Feb. 2012. He currently remains in Iranian prison awaiting further news on his execution order. Sekulow and the nonprofit ACLJ have been closely monitoring the evangelical pastor's case.

The Iranian courts have asked Nadarkhani to recant his Christian faith in exchange for freedom numerous times. Each time, he has refused. more >>

As Egypt's first democratic presidential elections get underway Wednesday, the choices have narrowed down to two groups of candidates: Islamists and politicians once linked to former President Hosni Mubarak. Historically, neither of these groups have meant good news for the Christian community, but there are two secular candidates, Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, who experts agree would be better for religious minorities in Egypt.

If an Islamist president is elected in light of the mostly-Islamist parliament, religious freedom and the safety of the Christian community would be put in jeopardy, experts argue.

Moussa and Shafiq both served under Mubarak, who was ousted in Feb. 2011 following the Arab Spring revolution. These two non-Islamist candidates have become the most viable options for Coptic Christians, the largest Christian group in the Middle East and in Egypt, constituting about 9 percent of the country's population. more >>

The narrow religious exemption for the Obama administration's birth control mandate is "strangling," and the administration fails to understand the "horror" Catholics feel over the exemption, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."

Dolan said he has spoken directly with President Obama regarding his concerns over the narrowness of the religious exemption, but added that he believes the Obama administration still doesn't get it.

"I worry that members of [Obama's] administration might not particularly understand our horror at the restricted nature of the exemption that they're giving us, that for the first time we can remember, a bureau of the federal government seems to be radically intruding on what the term of a church is," said Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of New York. more >>

A U.S. district court judge in Delaware ruled last week that members of a local city council who had been reciting the Lord's Prayer at every meeting for six years must stop the "Christian" practice because it violates the Constitution.

The decision by Judge Leonard P. Stark comes in response to a lawsuit filed last year by four Sussex County residents who claimed that the prayer violates the First Amendment. The city council had argued that the Lord's Prayer, though widely used by Catholics and Protestants, was not exclusive to Christianity as it does not make a specific reference to Jesus.

Judge Stark explained in his opinion that "the court is likely to conclude that the Council's practice of opening each meeting with a recitation of this distinctly Christian Lord's Prayer violates the Establishment Clause because it constitutes government endorsement of the Christian faith." more >>