John Evans

TEHRAN (BP) -- Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor currently imprisoned in Iran, is being threatened with death as the country continues its longstanding pressures against Christians, according to a U.S. organization advocating in Abedini's behalf.

JERUSALEM (BP) -- A young Jewish woman and her mother tearfully plead for Michael Decker's help. They have arrived at the Israeli lawyer's office after an hours-long interrogation by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.

CAIRO (BP) — With Egyptian voters approving a new Islamist-backed constitution, fear has heightened that it will lead toward an Islamic theocracy and undercut the rights of women, Christians and other minorities. Such tensions, however, have led the country’s Christians to pray for God’s hand to be at work. “Please know that God is good […]

TEHRAN (BP) -- An American pastor has been imprisoned on secret charges and tortured in Iran as the country pursues a crackdown on house churches.

NEW YORK (BP) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took to his Saturday show on Fox News to answer the question of where God was during Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct.

DALLAS (BP) -- Shi Weihan dangled from a wall inside a Chinese prison, handcuffed to a hook. His interrogators doused him with frigid water and tormented him with electric shocks. They pried for information: How many Christian books did he give out? What are the names and phone numbers of the pastors he gave them to? "During that time, the outside world did not know what was happening to me." Weihan would not remain anonymous for long. His imprisonment under the Chinese government's religious crackdown -- reported extensively by Baptist Press -- would carry him into national publications and be chronicled in detail by the religious freedom monitor ChinaAid. But Weihan's journey into the ranks of the persecuted faithful began decades ago with no faith at all. "Growing up in a communist country, I didn't believe in God in that time," Weihan said over the course of several interviews with Baptist Press in October. "I thought it was like a story, not true." In 1990, a Chinese man named Joshua -- the matchmaker who brought Weihan and his wife Zhang Jing together -- gave a Bible to each of them. "He told me, 'This book is very good. You take it home to look at it," Weihan recounted. "Because he was a new believer, he didn't know how to preach Gospel, but he told me, 'It's good. You need a Bible. You need the Gospel.'"

DALLAS (BP) -- Shi Weihan dangled from a wall inside a Chinese prison, handcuffed to a hook. His interrogators doused him with frigid water and tormented him with electric shocks. They pried for information: How many Christian books did he give out? What are the names and phone numbers of the pastors he gave them to? "During that time, the outside world did not know what was happening to me." Weihan would not remain anonymous for long. His imprisonment under the Chinese government's religious crackdown -- reported extensively by Baptist Press -- would carry him into national publications and be chronicled in detail by the religious freedom monitor ChinaAid. But Weihan's journey into the ranks of the persecuted faithful began decades ago with no faith at all. "Growing up in a communist country, I didn't believe in God in that time," Weihan said over the course of several interviews with Baptist Press in October. "I thought it was like a story, not true." In 1990, a Chinese man named Joshua -- the matchmaker who brought Weihan and his wife Zhang Jing together -- gave a Bible to each of them. "He told me, 'This book is very good. You take it home to look at it," Weihan recounted. "Because he was a new believer, he didn't know how to preach Gospel, but he told me, 'It's good. You need a Bible. You need the Gospel.'"

WASHINGTON (BP) -- A new national survey reveals widespread support for abstinence education across the political spectrum, with nearly 8 in 10 Democratic parents with school-aged children voicing their approval.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- A new national survey reveals widespread support for abstinence education across the political spectrum, with nearly 8 in 10 Democratic parents with school-aged children voicing their approval.

    In downtown Belfast a group of trees have no lower limbs. The limbs were not lost to fire or drought or city tree-pruners. They were cut off because so many people hanged themselves on them in this city smothered with despair. As evangelist Jay Lowder passed them, he thought about the day twenty-five […]