Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer who was imprisoned on trumped up charges after exposing China’s inhumane forced abortions as a result of its one-child policy, is badly in need of medical treatment.

China Aid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers have joined forces to call for the immediate release of Chen and his family so that he can get badly needed medical treatment immediately.

Chen and his wife have been harshly beaten relentlessly, and Chen’s elderly mother and five-year-old daughter have been treated cruelly (see  http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/06/letter-from-wife-of-chinese-blind-activist-reveals-graphic-details-of-torture-16345/).

Chen Guangcheng and his wife

A petition by Women’s Rights Without Frontiers was sent to China’s president Hu Jintao and its prime minister Wen Jiaobao requesting Chen’s release from house arrest and asking that he receives appropriate medical care as a free man.

The letter says, “On February 9, 2011 Chen released a video describing the deplorable conditions of his house arrest. The next morning, Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were “beaten senseless.”

“We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned for the suffering and brutal treatment of Chen and his family. We call upon the Chinese government to free Chen from house arrest immediately and to get him the medical care he so urgently needs,” the letter said on its website.

“Chen’s wife sounded the alarm in a letter recently smuggled out of China. She said that Chen’s health is very fragile and worsening every day because of beatings, malnutrition and an intestinal illness,” Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated.

“She is worried about his survival. Chen sacrificed everything to tell the world the brutal truth about forced abortion in China. He is a warrior for women’s rights. Now it’s our turn to sacrifice on behalf of Chen by fighting for his freedom.”

China Aid also slammed China’s treatment of Chen. Bob Fu, president, said, “The abuse of Chen Guangcheng is unconscionable and contrary to the rule of law. His mistreatment under house arrest is deplorable, including beatings, constant surveillance, as well as confiscation of his computer, cell phone, books, his blind cane and the toys of his young daughter.”

Both China Aid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers are lobbying for help from the international diplomatic community to intervene with the Chinese government on behalf of Chen.

They are also calling on concerned citizens to write to the embassies and consulates in their countries anywhere in the world on behalf of Chen.

Chen was cited by Time Magazine in 2006 as among the Top 100 People Who Shape Our World. The following year, he was awarded the 2007 Magsaysay award, which is considered to be the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, for exposing the ills that are offshoots of China’s one-child policy.

Chen revealed that 130,000 abortions and sterilizations were enforced in Linyi County alone in 2005, against the wishes of the mothers. He was then imprisoned for four years and three months.

Although he was released in September 2010, the act seemed to be mere window dressing as house arrest has been no better than jail, and a video released by Women’s Rights equated the entire village, this time, as his prison.

Under house arrest Chen and his wife have been “beaten senseless,” are kept away from all contact with the outside world, are not permitted to have enough food, are constantly under watch even in their own home, and all their possessions have been taken away, including personal photographs and the toys of their children.

Those who wish to sign the petition may go to http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=chen-guangcheng#petition.

Reverend Ken Autry is the former pastor at First United Methodist Church on the lake yard in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. I say, “former” pastor only because he has now moved on to another appointment. Those Methodists won’t let their preachers sit still for long.

He once shared a letter with his congregation that I have yet to get out of my mind. The letter, while not written to Rev. Autry, had been written by a parishioner who had become quite disgruntled with her pastor. This is not uncommon. Sometimes there is the perception that those of the cloth should be absolutely faultless. When failures occur, and they certainly will, the fallout can be crushing.

This is too bad. Sure, there are some bad apples in the barrel, but most pastors, priests, and rabbis are doing the best they can to honor their calling and to help others. They make mistakes, but don’t we all. This particular church member gave no quarter for such ministerial blunders.

With teeth on edge she poured out a venomous letter to her pastor. She recounted his failures. She demeaned his family. She compared him to other great pastors that had gone before him (always good for your self-esteem), and pretty much read him the riot act.

It was the conclusion of the letter that rings in my ears. She wrote, “I pray that you will come to know Jesus as I do, rather than just knowing Jesus like you do.” When we need ammunition against our enemies, any bullet will do. Even Jesus.

Since his incarnation, Christ has taken on the form we require of him. The zealots of his time wanted him to be a revolutionary with sword in hand. The legalists tried so very hard to make him a traditionalist. The anxious masses, and those closest to him, attempted to make him their king. In fact, Jesus’ eventual crucifixion was due largely to the fact that he would not play by the rules. He would not be the kind of Messiah people thought he should be. He would not conform.

We continue the tradition. If needed, we will wrap Christ in the red, white, and blue and send him out before our armies waving the flag. We will use his words to strengthen capitalism (or some other “ism”) and justify our greed. We will explain away his hardest sayings in order to get cozy with him or we will drop his name in the right circles if it will garner a few more votes in November.

Yes, it seems we’ve got Jesus right where we want him: Shrink wrapped, canned, freeze dried. In an emergency just add water. The Jesus who walked the Palestinian hills of the first century was a far cry from these things. Certainly he would have shocked us.

The calloused hands of a carpenter; the olive skin of the Middle East; the dirty feet, shaggy hair, and tattered clothes of an impoverished wanderer: He is nothing like the white, middle-class, blue-eyed Jesus that appeared on my Sunday school flannel graph board.

I admit I don’t always recognize Jesus. Just when I think I have him figured out, he does something crazy: Like command me to love my enemies; or tell me to do good to those who don’t deserve it; or challenge me to give away my possessions; or instruct me to turn the other cheek; or allow himself to be crucified.

In his unconventional, eccentric manner he runs roughshod over my preconceptions. He overturns the established order of my life. He surprises me with his fierce grace. He calls me to himself demanding my soul, my life, my all.

Jesus asked his disciples on his last night on earth, “Do you not yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you?” I am afraid the answer is still an embarrassing, no. But thankfully, we’ll have all of eternity to get to know this wild-eyed Jewish rabbi a little better. Maybe, just maybe, that will be time enough.

Ronnie McBrayer is the author of “Leaving Religion, Following Jesus.” He writes and speaks about life, faith, and Christ-centered spirituality. Visit his website at www.ronniemcbrayer.net.

An umbrella group of Christians and other faiths in the Philippines squared off recently against the powerful Catholic Church over a bill that is pending in congress which will allow government hospitals to distribute contraceptives such as birth control pill and condoms, but does not allow abortion nor abortifacients.

Bishop Rodrigo Tano, chairman of the Interfaith Partnership for Promotion of Responsible Parenthood, said in a press conference that debates in congress over the pending Reproductive Health bill are divisive and only delay its passage, ABS-CBN News said.

Tano said, “I think there is too much bad faith, too much condemnation. Hasty generalization. We are tired of that. We are tired of dilatory tactics in Congress,” ABS-CBN News reported.

Tano also assailed the Catholic Church, accusing it of spreading lies and “demonizing” advocates of the R.H. bill, by saying from the pulpit that advocates of the bill are evil, The Manila Standard said.

Tano said, “There has been too much disinformation and advocates of the reproductive health bill have been demonized and called evil from the pulpit,” The Manila Standard reported.

The Catholic Church has asked churchgoers nationwide to double their usual Sunday offerings to help fund the struggle against the passage of the R.H. bill, according to The Manila Standard.

Tano, who is also president of the Philippine Association of Bible and Theological Schools, said the IPPRP supports the R.H. bill because it will help to address the burgeoning population problem in the Philippines, according to ABS-CBN News.

Tano said the Catholic bishops have failed to state the empirical merits of the R.H. bill and have not adequately confronted the issue of overpopulation, according to The Manila Standard.

Tano said, “[A]n average of 11 mothers die due to complications in pregnancy…62 infants out of 100,000 die out of live births and the poor have more kids…there is a relationship between population size and poverty… These should not be a matter of ecclesiastical declarations but a matter of research and science,” ABS-CBN News reported.

The IPPRP is an umbrella organization for religious groups including the locally-grown Iglesia ni Kristo, Muslim groups, indigenous tribes, dissenting Catholics and Protestant churches, The Manila Standard said.

Tano also presented a letter dated Oct. 12, 2010 which was signed by INK head Eduardo Manalo in support of the R.H. bill, The Manila Standard said.

The INK is considered to be a cult which does not recognize the trinity. However, it holds great political sway because of its unified vote during elections which can usually guarantee victory for selected political candidates.

In the letter addressed to Biliran Rep. Robelio Espino, Manalo said, “We are all well aware of the dire situation of our country caused by overpopulation. Many of society’s worsening ills—from homeless families starving in miserable conditions and children not in school but instead begging all day and night in nearly every major street, to the rapidly spreading problems with drug abuse and rising crime rate—can be traced to families growing so large that an increasing number of parents cannot provide the most basic human needs to their families,” The Manila Standard reported.

The INK letter expressed support for contraception except for abortion stating, “We support their use as long as these methods are empirically not abortifacient. Abortion and the use of abortifacients involve the taking of life, which God explicitly forbids,” according to The Manila Standard.

Some of the faith-based organizations in the IPPRP are the Salvation Army, Seventh-Day Adventist, Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines, Iglesia Filipino Independiente, Philippines for Jesus Movement, United Methodist Church, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, the United Church of Christ of the Philippines, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Catholics for Reproductive Health, and Episcopal Church of the Philippines, among others, GMA News said.

Two years ago a 15-year-old Christian Egyptian girl wrote a letter to President Barack Obama about the treatment of Christians in her country.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, now 17, wrote in her letter to Obama that Muslims in the U.S. are given much better treatment than Coptic Christians are given in Egypt (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/05/egyptian-father-daughter-on-the-run-for-two-years-because-of-faith-12293#comments).

Things seemed bleak and hopeless for Dina then. She and her father, Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, 58, had been on the run since August 2008, switching from one safe house to the next every month, Catholic Online said.

A miracle

Today, father and daughter consider it a miracle that they are now in France seeking asylum. They are also applying for asylum in the U.S., which is where they really hope to stay. They fear that Muslim extremists may seek them out in France and kill them in response to Fatwas that have been called on them, Compass Direct News said.

They had been on the run for two and a half years in Egypt before the uprising against Mubarak enabled them to flee to Syria on Feb. 22, then France. The revolution that deposed Mubarak also undermined the Ministry of the Interior, which had long hounded El-Gohary, CDN reported.

The uprising set government offices into confusion and when El-Gohary had permission to leave, and they went to nearby Syria. They were still a religious minority and Syria’s unrest impelled them to seek refuge in France, where they moved to on Mar. 30, CDN said.

National ID

El Gohary’s troubles began when he filed a case for his religion on his national identification card to be changed from Muslim to Christian. He did this to spare Dina from undergoing persecution he experienced in his 20s, Catholic Online said.

Dina was set to receive identity papers when she turned 16. If El-Gohary’s ID said he was Muslim, that would automatically go on her ID, too. He wanted her to be free to practice her faith, Catholic Online said.

A recent Pew Research Center poll revealed that 84 percent of Egyptian Muslims consider leaving the Islamic faith as a crime that should be punished with death, CDN reported. This explains why the lawsuit caused pandemonium. Egypt, then under President Hosni Mubarak, was a secular government but not tolerant of apostasy.

A national ID is required in Egypt to rent a dwelling, receive medical treatment, and open a bank account, CDN said. Abdul Aziz Zakareya, a Muslim cleric told Catholic Online that El-Gohary “should be killed by authorities.”

Zakareya told Catholic Online, “Public conversions can lead to very dangerous consequences. The spreading of a phenomenon like this in a Muslim society can cause many unwanted results and tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Dina and El-Gohary were subject to Fatwas by Islamic clerics who wanted their blood to be spilled. People said that they were insane and demon possessed, according to Catholic Online.

Father and daughter, for fear of their safety, went to different churches all the time to receive Holy Communion, Catholic Online reported. They were scorned for their faith. Someone threw acid that landed on Dina’s denim jacket (El-Gohary immediately tore the jacket off his daughter). El-Gohary has been attacked by a man with a knife.

El-Gohary told Catholic Online, “Islam is the only thing Egyptians are 150% sure of. If you reject Islam, you shake their belief and you are an apostate, an infidel…I can see in the eyes of Muslims how much my conversion has really hurt them.”

At the same time, El-Gohary refuses to let go of his faith. He told Catholic Online, “In Islam, if you steal your hands are cut off, but in Christianity you can be forgiven. This compassion is what attracted me.”

Dina said, “I’ve always felt Christian, but my mom has taken me to sheiks to convince me of Islam. She made me wear the hijab and go to the mosque against my will. A man with a beard once grabbed me and told me that ‘if you and your dad don’t stop, I’ll kill you both,’” Catholic Online reported.

El-Gohary is seeking asylum in the U.S. as well as in France. Until France resolves his application, he is permitted an automatic three-month extension on his visa, CDN said.

Chris Mitchell of CBN News wrote, “Perhaps it’s fitting that this story of an escape from Egypt came out during the week of Passover. Thousands of years ago, the Israelites fled Egypt to escape Pharoah’s bondage on their way to the Promised Land.

“Thousands of years later, Maher Ahmad El-Gohary, 58, who converted to Christianity from Islam, and his 17-year-old daughter, Dina, escaped from Egypt. It’s a reminder — especially this Easter weekend — of the persecution Christians are subjected to in Egypt and throughout the Middle East — especially Muslims who convert to Christianity.”

A teacher in California who was convicted in a suit filed by a former student for disparaging Christianity in class said recently that the tapes that the student used as evidence were edited.

James Corbett, a European history teacher at Capistrano High School in Orange County, stated in a letter to The Orange County Register that the tapes presented as evidence by his former student, Chad Farnan, were edited and out of context.

Corbett lost the case in the lower court, and it has been appealed by both sides. He also blamed his previous lawyer for advising him poorly, he wrote in his letter which was also reprinted in the blog, Scholars & Rogues.

Farnan sued Corbett in 2007 when he was a student in Corbett’s Advanced Placement European History class. According to the website Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which is representing Farnan, the student taped several of Corbett’s lectures for study purposes.

In one of the tapes Corbett said, “When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth.” Farnan felt that this was a
violation of his First Amendment right, and considered it an expression of hostility toward his faith, the Advocates for Faith & Freedom website said.

The Advocates for Faith & Freedom website considered the lower court ruling that was made in May 2009, “one of a kind,” when a federal District Court judge determined that Corbett was in violation of the Establishment Clause because he called creationism “superstitious nonsense.”

The Advocates for Faith & Freedom website said, “[T]his is the first case in the country to address this issue directly, it should help to place boundaries on teachers who feel free to improperly express hostility toward religion in public schools.”

The decision was rendered by U.S. District Judge James Selna of Santa Ana. However Corbett felt that he lost the case because he was not well advised by his lawyer, Dan Spradlin, who was assigned to him by the Capistrano Unified School District, The OC Register said.

Corbett wrote in his letter that Spradlin had advised him to ask for a summary judgment. He now regrets following that advice. He wrote in his letter to The OC Register, “Had I gone to court, I could easily have demonstrated that the recordings were edited and that Chad’s claim of ‘damages’ was false.”

In his letter Corbett wrote, “My attorney believed a fair application of Lemon Test would turn in my favor, but the test fails in a case such as mine both as a matter of law and of logic,” according to his letter as reprinted in Scholars & Rogues.

He also said in his letter that of all the statements he made that were raised by Farnan in the case, the one that was found to be hostile was a reference to creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense,” according to The OC Register.

Because he had gone for a summary judgment, Corbett could not cross-examine Farnan under oath about editing the tapes. He wrote, “It was Selna who backed me into a corner with a ruling that, on the one hand made it appear as if Chad had a case, and on the other hand, prevented me from having a day in court,” The OC Register reported.

Not edited

Jennifer Monk of the Advocates for Faith & Freedom, and counsel for Farnan rejected the claim that the tapes were either out of context or edited. She said the outcome would, she believes, have been the same if Corbett did not go for a summary judgment, The OC Register said.

Monk told The OC Register, “It’s very easy and convenient for Dr. Corbett to say that without any proof. I can’t imagine how we could have spliced it to make it sound more or less than what it is.”

Monk said in the Advocates for Faith & Freedom website, “Just as public school teachers are not allowed to promote one religion in the classroom, they should not be able to use their classrooms as a platform to attack religion because the pendulum swings both ways.”

The case has been appealed by both parties and is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Monk is requesting that the Ninth Circuit broaden the ruling of the lower court and declare Corbett’s comments unconstitutional. Corbett has found new legal advisers in the person of Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine’s law school, who is working pro bono, the website of Advocates for Faith & Freedom said.

An 85-year-old Belgian activist priest, who was being pushed for the Nobel Peace Prize, admitted recently that he sexually abused a child 40 years ago.

Francois Houtart, founder of the nonprofit organization Cetri, wrote in a letter to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir that he touched “the intimate parts” of his then eight-year-old cousin, and called the incident “inconsiderate and irresponsible,” the AP said.

The case came to light amid moves by the World Social Forum to nominate Houtart for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work against the impact of globalization on developing countries, the AP reported.

This prompted the victim’s sister to approach Cetri in October, its director Bernard Duterme told the AP. Houtart resigned from Centri’s board last month, The Daily Mail said.

The sister of the victim also spoke to the Adriaenssens commission, the Belgian church group that investigates child abuse cases. She said the abuse took place in 1970 when Houtart stayed at their home in Liege, The Daily Mail said.

Pope of anti-globalization

Houtart founded Cetri, an organization that publishes critical reports about the actions of developed nations in the Third World, in 1976. He was called the ‘pope of anti-globalization’ at the Catholic University of Brussels, where he taught from 1958 to 1990, The Daily Mail said.

In his letter to Le Soir, Houtart said that in 1970 he spent the night with relatives near Liege after attending a conference. “While walking through the bedroom of one of the boys in the family, I effectively touched his private parts twice. This woke him up and frightened him,” The Australian reported.

However, the sister of the victim called it “rape,” and in an email to Cetri, referred them to the church’s report of the incident which includes her testimony, Duterme told the AP.

The AP said that in the church report she testified that an unnamed priest went to her brother’s room twice “to rape him,” after which “my brother went to tell his parents, who kept him in their room.”

The church report said the victim’s father spoke to the priest about the episode after a few days. The priest refused their request for an apology and “told my father that there wasn’t anything more normal,” the AP reported.

Houtart, who is living in Quito, Ecuador, wrote in his letter that he was “personally perturbed, since I was conscious of the contradiction it represented with my Christian faith and my function as a priest,” according to the AP.

Rocked by scandal

The Catholic Church in Belgium has been rocked with sex abuse scandals this past year. In April, the Bishop of Bruges Roger Vangheluwe resigned after admitting that he sexually abused a nephew for years as a priest and as a bishop, the AP said.

In June, the police raided and confiscated hundreds of files from a church, and forced open a crypt in St. Rumbold Cathedral in search of evidence of clergy sexual abuse. The Vatican condemned the act, and a Belgian court ruled that the move was excessive, the AP reported.

Last week Cardinal Godfried Danneels, former head of the Church in Belgium, said that in over 30 years he learned of seven incidents of clergy sexual abuse. This prompted some 475 complaints by victims of clergy sexual abuse, The Australian said.

For three years, Houtart attended the second Vatican from 1962. He was a pioneer of the first World Social Forum in 2001, a convention designed to study different strategies of running democracies, The Daily Mail said.

The Daily Mail said Houtart is the eldest of 14 children. His grandfather, Henry Carton de Wiart, was a pioneer of the Catholic Party and served as prime minister of Belgium from 1920 to 1921, The Daily Mail reported.

Churches across the world and in South Korea are praying for peace even as they protest against the recent attack by North Korea of a South Korean island which left four people dead.

Rev. Des van der Water, general secretary of the Council for World Mission, in a letter to the Presbyterian Church of Korea, said the CWM shares the sentiments of international leaders, global ecumenical and world church communities in deploring the unprovoked attacks by North Korea against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, Ecumenical News International reported.

The CWM letter said, “We regret this loss of life, injuries, and terror experienced by people on the island and join our voice with all who are praying that this latest incident does not escalate into major conflict and war in the region,” according to ENI.

North Korean military fired artillery at Yeonpyeong island, killing two soldiers, two civilians, injuring 15 others, and destroying homes and shops, according to ENI.

Separately, Henriette Hutabarat Lebang, general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia sent a letter to its church members in South Korea saying, “We earnestly hope that there will be a peaceful solution to this tension so that the people of South and North Korea will be able to live without fear,” ENI reported.

Inhumane tragedy

Father Baptist John Kim Hun-il of the South Korean Catholic Church’s aid committee to North Korea told Christian Today, “Aiming at civilians and civil houses is inhumane and it can cause further tragedy,” even as he asked the South not to retaliate, and urged the North to cease further attacks.

Father Johannes Kim Yong-hwan, chancellor of the Diocese of Incheon which includes Yeonpyeong appealed for dialogue between the two Koreas. Rev. Kim Woon –Tae of the Christian Council of Korea said he is praying for peace, cooperation and stability, Christian Today said.

According to Continental News, Open Doors has also called for prayers for Christians in both South and North Korea amid escalating tensions.

Worst escalation of violence

Earlier this year, North Korea torpedoed and sank a navy vessel from South Korea. However, the attack on Yeonpyeong is viewed as its worst violent attack since the 1953 armistice between the two Koreas, Continental News reported.

According to Continental News, the aggressions from North Korea come as Kim Jong-Il recently anointed his son, Kim Jong-un as his successor. The attacks, it says, is a way for Jong-un to show strength and extract much-needed aid and concessions.

North Korea would like to create “a sense of urgency for the Six-Party Talks,” to discuss a peaceful solution which is vital for the North’s survival, even as it is anxious about military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea, Continental News said.

For the last eight years North Korea has topped Open Doors’ World Watch List of countries where Christians are most severely oppressed. There are some 400,000 Christians in North Korea, Continental News said.

President Barack Obama said the U.S. stands “shoulder to shoulder” with South Korea. The two countries are slated to begin military exercises soon, Christian Today said.

North Korea has warned that there will be more attacks if South Korea should provoke it. ENI said that South Korea plans to beef up its military on five islands near North Korea.

A U.S. commission charged with overseeing religious freedom has appealed to President Barack Obama to intercede on behalf of a Christian pastor who is facing a death sentence in Iran.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom asked Obama to seek the release of Youcef Nadarkhani, a pastor in Northern Iran, who was verbally told he would be executed for apostasy. Present Truth Ministries, which helps persecuted Christians, said it is possible Nadarkhani has not yet gotten a written verdict in order to further coerce him to renounce Jesus Christ, the Baptist Press reported.

Nadarkhani was arrested in October 2009 because he challenged Muslim authority over religious instruction in the school that his children attend, a USCIRF report stated. The pastor noted that under Iran’s constitution, parents are allowed to raise and train their children as Christians. Because of this his wife, Fatemeh Passandideh was also charged and imprisoned for four months, according to BP.

A letter that was written by Nadarkhani last June from Lakan Prison in Rasht was posted recently at Christian Persecution. In the letter, which was translated into English, the pastor thanked church members for their loyalty and said, “blessed is the one who has faith, for what has been said to him by God, will be carried out. As we believe, heaven and earth will fade, but his word will still remain.”

Nadarkhani said that for the true believer, “it pleases him to participate in Christ’s suffering,” and referred to the beatitude that says, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets, which were before you,” in his letter posted at Christian Persecution.

The pastor also quoted the gospel of Paul and said, “In every temptation, God himself will make a way for us to tolerate it.” He added, “We conclude that troubles are difficult, but usually good and useful to build us.” He noted that Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels,” according to his letter at Christian Persecution.

To read Nadarkhani’s letter, go to http://www.christianpersecution.info/index.php?view=9710.

USCIRF chair Leonard Leo, in a written statement said, “This case is further evidence that there is no transparency or justice in Iran’s so-called legal system for religious minorities. The Obama Administration must continue to speak out, as Secretary of State Clinton did in August, for Iran’s religious minorities. International pressure impacts Iran, and the regime has shown leniency in some cases where there is international scrutiny,” the BP reported.

Leo stressed the importance for quick action from the government and the international community on behalf of Nadarkhani. According to BP, Iran ranks among eight “countries of particular concern,” as among the world’s leading violators of religious human rights by the U.S. State Department. A USCIRF report said in the last year, religious liberty has deteriorated further.

The USCIRF report noted, “[P]hysical attacks, harassment, detention, arrests, and imprisonment [have] intensified. Even the recognized non-Muslim religious minorities — Jews, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, and Zoroastrians — protected under Iran’s constitution faced increasing discrimination and repression,” according to BP.

Leo said the increased arrest and harassment of people of minority faiths, along with provocative statements by President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and other leaders, has been unprecedented since the start of Iran’s revolution. In particular, Ahmadinejad has denied the holocaust and threatened to destroy Israel, the BP said.

On Sept. 29, Obama issued sanctions against eight senior officials in Iran for “serious human rights abuses” that were committed before or during the country’s presidential election in 2009. The eight officials will be facing visa and economic penalties. These were the first sanctions under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, which was passed in July, the BP reported.

A Dallas-based talk show host has requested the court judge who is handling a sexual abuse case of the bishop of a megachurch, to compel the bishop to undergo medical testing to see if he has any sexually-transmitted disease.

Talk Show host Reuben Armstrong sent a certified letter to Judge Johnny Panos of the DeKalb County State Court to issue a mandate requiring Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to undergo testing for syphilis, hepatitis and HIV, according to a press release.

A copy of his letter, which was sent to the Underground clarified that Armstrong is not saying that Long has any sexually transmitted disease. Instead, he is concerned that if the allegations against Long are true, Long and others may have been exposed to disease, and the tests could help him and others to seek immediate medical help.

Armstrong wrote, “My requests come from the knowledge of the alarming statistics of these diseases within the community. These statistics are on the rise and if behaviors such as the ones found in the allegations levied against Bishop Long are found to be true in your court, then this type of sexual behavior has put these young men in danger of becoming part of the statistics.”

Armstrong, author of the bestselling 2006 book Snakes in the Pulpit, has been a strong critic of Long. However Armstrong said he is not being vengeful. Instead, “I am writing to you as a concerned citizen and a social advocate. I stand as the voice of the children that cry out in silence due to sexual exploitation. As a human being, we are all mandated reporters when it comes to the abuse of children. This is not a position exclusive only to the teachers, counselors, or medical personnel.”

The concerns outlined by Armstrong are as follows:

• The sexual allegations imply that it had gone on for years with many partners. If true, and if tests are positive, all possible victims would need to be tested.
• If the tests show Long is positive for a sexually transmitted disease, Armstrong has requested that the bishop’s court case is advanced “so that his connection to the community would be limited.”
• Armstrong noted that such would help to prevent death. He cited the case of the late Bishop JD Husband from the Church of God in Christ in Atlanta. Both the bishop and the young man involved died from aids.

Armstrong began exposing Long after he was approached by two youth pastors from New Birth who said they had seen Long and other ministers of the church engaging in sex with young boys, the press release said.

For background on the Eddie Long story, go to http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/09/two-men-accuse-megachurch-bishop-of-sexual-abuse-13795.

A group of high school football players in Tennessee have decided that they will pray anyway–no matter what the Freedom From Religious Foundation wants.

The football team of Soddy Daisy high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee plans to continue to pray before the start of the football game, even if the prayer before kick-off that is usually heard over the loudspeaker is no longer allowed, WTVC News said.

The prayer became a point of contention when the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained about the Christian prayers that were being broadcast before football games, the UPI reported.

The foundation claimed that they were acting on a request from students from Soddy-Daisy High School when they sent the letter of complaint to Hamilton County School Superintendent Jim Scales, according to the UPI.

As a result, Scales announced that prayer would no longer be accommodated, whether by district employees or over the loudspeakers. The football team learned the news about thir longtime prayer tradition while they were at practice, WTVC News reported.

In the letter, the foundation wrote that the prayers before football games and during graduations pose a “serious and flagrant violation of the First Amendment.” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the organization, said prayer is “perfectly ridiculous,” and the students are a “captive audience,” UPI reported.

Gaylor said, “This is the harm of religion in government, that the people who are religious believe they are the true citizens and the other people have no rights. It’s very dangerous, someone will always be on the outs,” according to UPI.

Gaylor said the Supreme Court had already determined in many cases that it is unconstitutional to pray before football games. “When there is a violation like a prayer at a school, they’re really vulnerable. It’s a violation of their civil rights,” Fox News reported.

Of the new rule, senior offensive lineman Tyler Rinehart told WTVC News, “Honestly, I’m mad about it.” Senior receiver Daniel Crawley said the team pray together on an almost daily basis in the locker room before games and after every practice.

Crawley told WTVC News that the team has even been going to church together at Abba’s House in Hixson on Wednesday nights. He said, “We believe that the way that we pray actually helps people.”

Rhonda Thurman, who is with the county board of education said those who don’t like the prayer have the freedom to cover their ears, adding, “Everybody is offended by something,” according to UPI

Fox News cited an opposing view by Jim Rogers who viewed public prayer as a right of free speech adding, “Our country was founded on the principle of religious suffrage and the freedom to express that religion.”

Although their coaches will not be allowed to pray with them, the football team of Soddy Daisy high plans to exercise their right to free speech by continuing to pray together, and they don’t think anyone will be dangerously left out if they do.

Rinehart said to WTVC News, “Whether you’re a starter or a fourth or fifth string that’s never gotten in, everybody’s family–no matter what.”