(1) Former Soviet states heighten religious repression |Baptist Press
As Uzbekistan prepares to elect a new president after the death of longtime dictatorial ruler Islam Karimov, Christians in the former Soviet state fear religious persecution will only worsen.
The Open Doors advocacy organization for persecuted Christians already ranks Uzbekistan as the most difficult Central Asian country in which to practice Christianity, but the change in leadership won’t help the estimated 210,000 Christians in the country of 30.4 million people, two pastors and a Protestant layman said in a World Watch Monitor report.
Current prime minister and acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced today (Sept. 16) he will seek the presidency in December amid predictions of a sure victory, the French press agency AFP reported.
“If Mirziyoyev becomes the next president, the persecution of Christians will be even worse,” one pastor said before Mirziyoyev’s announcement, remaining anonymous. “Actually, as it seems, it was he who initiated or was at least involved in the persecution of the Uzbek Protestant church and converts from a Muslim background.”
In neighboring Turkmenistan, meanwhile, the estimated 95,000 Christians also face heightened oppression, with both countries operating under legalized suppression of religious practice among the mostly Muslim populations. Government suppression of radical Islam is said to work against all religious practice, including Christianity.
(2) Franklin Graham Responds to ACC Move out of N.C.
***Christian leaders in North Carolina continue to respond to the Big Business extortion of the state, in the name of progressive sexual ethics.
Franklin Graham, a resident of North Carolina, wrote a letter (excerpted here) to ACC Commissioner John D. Swofford.
…While I recognize this legislation—and legislation like it in other states—is complicated by society’s continued blurring of the lines of gender and sexual identity, I also recognize the profound hypocrisy of the ACC, the NCAA and other companies and organizations who are making calculated business decisions disguised as moral outrage.
…Indeed, the ACC’s member schools compete in 25 sports divided by gender—12 men’s sports and 13 women’s. Though gender issues may be becoming more complicated in higher education and other parts of society, the athletic conference you serve as commissioner doesn’t seem to have any problem distinguishing between the two genders—male and female. Yet, when a state like the one I live in seeks to make the same distinction with regard to use of public bathrooms in an effort to protect its citizens from those who would use the men’s room today and the women’s room tomorrow, the academic elites who comprise your conference fake a moral outrage that is frankly shameful.
…I am a big sports fan. My only daughter married a college football star that went on to play in the NFL. But I would rather defend the biological definition of the two genders as created by the Creator of the universe than to attend—or even watch on TV—a football or basketball game to determine the ACC champion.
…Commissioner Swofford, you maintain your conference’s decision is “one of principle” and that “core values…are of utmost importance.” Well, millions of us who oppose your decision do so as a matter of principle and core values—values of privacy, safety and protection of our sons and daughters in public restrooms, and the principle that God created just two genders and assigned them at birth.
(3) Zika Funding Might Result in Raise for Planned Parenthood, Despite GOP-Controlled Congress |The Daily Signal
***Who would have thought that so little, if anything, would come from all the “undercover videos” that brought new exposure to the darkness of Planned Parenthood.
And now, emergency funding for the Zika crisis may benefit the organization.
Fears are mounting among some conservatives that under a Republican-controlled Congress, Planned Parenthood could soon be getting a raise.
“I hope that pro-lifers will wake up and realize that we have major issues when it comes to the U.S. Senate, when we have our ‘friends’ put us in very tough positions,” Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs for the pro-life group March for Life Action, told The Daily Signal.
McClusky said he and other pro-life groups have been involved in ongoing discussions with House and Senate leadership regarding a government spending measure that is expected to include emergency funding for the Zika crisis. The concern, McClusky said, is the possibility that Planned Parenthood will get more government funding as a result of the Zika spending bill.
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