A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – The U.K. Home Office has decided to take another look at an Iranian Christian man’s application for asylum, which it initially rejected based on his claim that Christianity was a “peaceful” religion.

The man’s caseworker, Nathan Stephens, cited “a much wider problem to be addressed here,” publishing on his Twitter account several similar rejection letters from the office that derided Christian applicants for not having the faith to believe Jesus would save them from the regimes they fled.

The rejection sent to the Iranian man, moreover, cited violence in the Bible which it called “inconsistent” with his claim that he had converted from a violent religion, Islam, to a peaceful religion, Christianity.

Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, upbraided the Home Office for marshaling decontextualized verses from Matthew, Leviticus, Exodus, and Revelation to smear Christianity, saying he was “extremely concerned that a Government department could determine the future of another human being based on such a profound misunderstanding of the texts.”

The bureaucratic harassment of the Iranian convert follows a trend of Western nations and organizations being loath to address the issue of Christian persecution.

Testimony before Congress last month by the director of Jubilee campaign found that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand placed a higher burden of proof on Christian Pakistanis seeking refugee status, while last week the Idaho House of Representatives shot down a resolution condemning the global persecution of Christians.

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(Worthy News) – Joni Eareckson Tada’s ministry said prayer support would be “deeply appreciated” yesterday after the inspirational Christian sufferer was hospitalized due to complications from her second cancer diagnosis.

Having passed through a similar ordeal in 2010 that resulted in a mastectomy, Tada recovered and was declared healthy by doctors in 2015, remaining cancer-free until the disease returned in November of last year.

“What good is it if we only trust the Lord when we understand His ways?” she asked upon receiving the bad news, which has led to chronic pain, sleeplessness, and difficulties in her breathing, according to Joni and Friends.

Tada became famous after a diving accident at 17 paralyzed her from the shoulders down, a seemingly senseless cruelty that led her to question the ways of God more deeply than most and propelled her into a speaking career.

After a series of unsuccessful forays into the world of faith-healing embittered her about the possibility of full recovery, Tada finally cultivated a confident faith in the eternal decrees of God that underpin suffering.

“God only shares His joy on His terms,” she once wrote.

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(Worthy News) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday he had a ‘productive working dinner’ the previous night in Beijing, kicking off a day of talks aimed at resolving the bitter trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer were in the Chinese capital for the first face-to-face meetings between the two sides in weeks after missing an initial end-of-March goal for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign a pact.

“We had a very productive working dinner last night, and we are looking forward to meeting today,” Mnuchin said as he left his hotel to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who is due to visit Washington next week to continue the talks. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Congressional investigations over voter irregularities expanded Thursday with Democratic lawmakers requesting information from state officials in Kansas and Texas.

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent letters seeking communications related to the decision by Ford County, Kansas, to move the only Dodge City polling site outside of city limits for the 2018 midterm elections. It also is seeking communications about efforts in January by the Texas secretary of state’s office to purge voter rolls amid disputed claims that registered voters may not be U.S. citizens. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The US has approved the sale of nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday.

Citing a copy of a document it had seen, the global news outlet said US Energy Secretary Rick Perry had granted six secret authorizations to companies to sell the know-how to the desert kingdom as part of a hoped-for broader deal on nuclear power.

Reuters said that the US was looking to build at least two nuclear plants and that Russia and South Korea were also vying for the project. An announcement on the winning bid was to be made later this year, it said. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Israel prepared for a broad military campaign in Gaza Thursday, as Egypt worked behind the scenes to ensure that Palestinians marking the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return this weekend do not spark a new IDF-Hamas war.

The Hamas-led event, which began on March 30, 2018 with a focus on weekly border riots, has kept the potential of a renewed IDF-Hamas conflict simmering for the past year.

The march has drawn thousands of participants and Palestinians are expected to gather en masse this weekend as well. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Trump administration is preparing to update all US government maps to include the Golan Heights as part of Israel, after the president formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

A State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Persian service that the map changes would be “consistent” with the shift in longstanding American foreign policy that now “recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel.”

In the emailed statement Wednesday, the spokesperson declined to answer whether the US sees the Israel-Syria border as along the 1974 ceasefire line or along the western edge of the demilitarized zone that is patrolled by a UN observer force. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Four U.S. senators on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to prohibit the transfer of F-35 fighter aircraft to Turkey until the U.S. government certifies that Ankara will not take delivery of a Russian S-400 air defense system, a statement on the move said.

Turkey is a production partner in the trillion-dollar F-35 fighter jet program but Ankara also wants to purchase a Russian missile defense system, which the United States says would compromise the security of F-35 aircraft, which are made by Lockheed Martin Corp.. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido will be barred from public office for 15 years, the government comptroller said on Thursday, as it seeks to crack down on the U.S.-backed rival to President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaido has been recognized as head of state by most Western countries after invoking the constitution to assume the interim presidency, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate and that he became a usurper when his second term began in January.

Maduro dismisses Guaido’s claim to the presidency as a Washington-backed effort to seize power in Venezuela, which is struggling under hyperinflation and crippling blackouts that have left millions of citizens without power this month. [ Source (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A member of a black church in Mississippi has pleaded guilty to burning the church, which was also spray painted with “Vote Trump,” a week before the 2016 presidential election.

The Delta Democrat-Times reported Thursday that 47-year-old Andrew McClinton pleaded guilty to arson. His sentencing is set for late April.

Investigators said McClinton, who is African-American, belonged to the church that was vandalized and burned, Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville. [ Source: US News (Read More…) ]

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