Sept. 11, 2019: Episcopal seminary sets up $1.7M reparations fund, church vandalized, Christian girl's forced conversion
Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019:
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— Episcopal seminary sets aside $1.7 million for slavery reparations fund
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An Episcopal seminary in Virginia is setting aside $1.7 million for an endowment fund to pay reparations for slavery.
Virginia Theological Seminary, founded in 1823 and based in Alexandria, announced last Thursday that it was creating the fund largely in response to the institution having direct ties to slavery.
Money from the fund is expected to go to projects to help emerging congregations linked to the seminary, aiding African American clergy, and helping to support work by historically African American congregations.
— Church vandalized with satanic graffiti after pastor protests Drag Queen Story Hour
A church in California was vandalized last weekend after its pastor and members of the congregation protested a library's decision to host a “drag queen story hour.” Police are now investigating the attack as a hate crime.
South Bay Pentecostal Church of Chula Vista has been openly critical of the Chula Vista Public Library for sanctioning the event where drag queens read to children.
Two suspects vandalized the church building, spraying graffiti on the walls reading, “Lucifer,” “Satan,” and “king of Hell.”
Executive Pastor Amado Huizar told local news outlet KGTV channel 10 that he had “no doubt” his church was targeted for campaigning against the drag queen event.
— School principal abducted 15-y-o Christian girl in forced Islamic conversion, father says
A school principal in Pakistan is accused of abducting a Christian student and taking her to an Islamic madrasa to forcibly convert her to Islam.
The Press Trust of India reports that the girl's father filed a complaint at a local police station in the Punjab province after his 15-year-old daughter failed to return home from school last Wednesday.
When the family called the school, the class teacher told them that the school's principal had taken their daughter to an Islamic madrasa to be converted to Islam.
After the father filed a complaint, the police raided the madrasa and rescued the girl who was then taken to a shelter. The family is now appealing to authorities to allow the 15 year old to return home.
— Over 120 churches attacked since start of Syria's civil war: report
124 attacks on churches in Syria have occurred since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad being responsible for about 60% of those attacks, a new report claims.
The Qatar-based Syrian Network for Human Rights released the report last week. It found that the Assad regime is responsible for at least 75 attacks against 48 churches in the eight years since the civil war began.
Before the war began, Christians made up 7.3% of the Syrian population, or 1.7 million people among a total population of 23 million. But today, Christians only make up an estimated 1.9% to 2.5% of the population, which is fewer than 450,000 people.
— Myanmar military drops criminal case against pastor who told Trump about abuses
The Myanmar military has dropped a criminal complaint against a Baptist leader who told President Donald Trump in July that the Christian community has been “oppressed and tortured” by the Southeast Asian country’s military government.
Radio Free Asia reports that a judge announced Monday that a request had been submitted to withdraw a criminal lawsuit he lodged against the Rev. Hkalam Samson, president of the Kachin Baptist Convention
As a result, the court will not proceed with a prosecution of Samson for alleged criminal defamation.
Samson’s Kachin Baptist Convention has provided aid and shelter to thousands of people displaced by the violence between the military and rebel fighters in the northern Kachin state.
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