One year after deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, Send Relief partners continue ministering in the region
PETAH TIKVA, Israel (BP) -- Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel one year ago, Send Relief has been working with Christians and churches in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The generosity of Southern Baptists has provided hot meals and basic food boxes, medical supplies, trauma counseling and even bomb shelters, impacting more than 22,000 survivors of the war.
Baptist witness continues in Gaza, Israel year into war as fighting expands
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (BP) – Gaza Baptist Church is heavily damaged, perhaps beyond repair. Its 50 or so members have all fled to safer ground.
Pressley, Leatherwood send letters to Biden, Congress in support of Israel
NASHVILLE (BP) – Ethics & Religious Liberty President Brent Leatherwood and Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley submitted a joint letter today (Oct. 2) to both President Joe Biden and U.S. congressional leaders expressing Southern Baptists’ continued support for Israel. The letter comes on the heels of escalation in Middle East conflict and a few days before the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Mass rapes, torture, humanitarian crimes, church closures in Sudan war
SUDAN (BP) – War crimes are evidenced among harrowing human rights violations including gender-based violence in the Sudan war, an independent United Nations Fact-Finding Mission found, while the war has forced as many as 165 churches to close.
ERLC applauds reauthorization of global religious freedom commission
WASHINGTON (BP) – The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission applauds the reauthorization of a bipartisan government group created to monitor and help improve religious liberty worldwide.
‘Pray for transformation of our nation,’ Ukraine seminary leader implores
NASHVILLE (BP) – “Pray for the transformation of our nation,” Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary President Yaroslav “Slavik” Pyzh implored Southern Baptists at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s trustee meeting Sept. 10 in Nashville.
Members of shuttered Rwandan churches gather in homes as leaders quietly protest
KIGALI, Rwanda (RNS) — On a recent Sunday morning, a dozen people congregated in a home in the Nyabisindu neighborhood of Rwanda’s capital to ponder their next steps after the government shuttered numerous churches for noncompliance with health and safety regulations.
Shock, anger as China ends adoptions impacting hundreds of U.S. families
BEIJING (BP) – The Chinese government has officially ended its international adoption program, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning announced Sept. 5, ending hopes for hundreds of U.S. families who were matched with children before the COVID-19 pandemic but had adoptions put on hold in 2020.
Mexico Protestants march against forced displacement, church burning
OAXACO, Mexico (BP) – The last Protestants in an indigenous Mexican community where Catholicism is the only religion allowed were forced from their homes Aug. 6, their lone church set ablaze, CSW reported Aug. 22 ahead of Protestant protests in the street.
ERLC challenges IOC to evaluate closing ceremony content
NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is challenging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to evaluate its plans for the upcoming closing ceremony (Sunday, Aug. 11) and remove any content that would disrespect Christianity.
