The story of 17-year-old Christian (formerly Muslim) convert Fathima Rifqa Bary is far from over according to the Orlando Sentinel, as she is getting surgery for cancer and will need several rounds of chemotherapy afterwards.

Rifqa Bary

Last year Bary converted to Christianity, then fled to Florida because she was afraid her parents or people from their mosque would kill her.

Now she is back in Ohio due to a court order, but lives with a foster family.

Even as her parents continue the court battle over how she should be raised, Bary has had two surgeries for cancer, and will undergo a third operation on Thursday, the Orlando Sentinel said.  Read more... (466 words, 2 images, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Human trafficking. Sex slaves. Child slavery.

It’s something Americans associate with a few European or third world countries. But the U.S. State Department’s 2009 “Trafficking in Humans” Report documents problems in 175 nations.

Girls, women, children and even teen boys are being deceived, kidnapped, trapped and shipped everywhere from America to Africa.

And it could be happening at our neighborhood mini-market.

The wholesale trafficking of humans

From California to New England, the problem is spreading within the United States. It’s becoming as uncontrollable as the drug war that has raged for decades, despite the government’s best efforts.  Read more... (625 words, 2 images, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Mississippi has become the most recent state to join 13 others in pursuing a “Personhood Amendment.”

A press release by Personhood Mississippi states they already have enough votes to put their measure on the 2011 election ballot as an Amendment to the Mississippi Constitution.

Fetal sonogram

What is a Personhood Amendment?
“Personhood” amendments are pro-life measures being proposed at state-level legislatures.

The goal is to recognize, within the states’ constitutions, that every unborn child has the same inherent rights, dignity and value as every living human from the beginning of their biological development.  Read more... (286 words, 2 images, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

A Methodist Church in Loxahatchee, Fla. incorporated recently the stretching movements of yoga and Pilates with Christian prayer and meditation, through a class called Praisemoves, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The class is forwarded by the Community of Hope which always opens in prayer and then ends with a New Testament bible verse such as 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me,’” as their ending meditation, the Sun Sentinel said.  Read more... (351 words, 2 images, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Santa Rosa County, FL – This past Thursday, two Christian school employees were cleared of all criminal contempt charges that arose after they prayed over a meal. See the Underground’s original article on this case, “Arrested for Praying in Public.”

Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman of the Santa Rosa County School District in Florida had been held in contempt of an earlier ACLU/ Santa Rosa County School District “Consent Order” which demanded that no Santa Rosa school employees attempt to influence anyone to their faith or exercise their faith in public. Although the luncheon honored people who had donated to a school-associated athletic project, the defense claimed there were no students at the luncheon (the ACLU claimed there were); the two educators were on their own time and felt no one in attendance objected to the meal blessing.  Read more... (446 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)