A New Perspective on Constantine

In what the plaintiffs’ lawyers described as a “triumph for religious liberty,” California has agreed to never again impose discriminatory restrictions on houses of worship, and to pay a total of $2,150,000 in attorney’s fees in settlement of separate lawsuits filed by South Bay United Pentecostal Church and Catholic priest Trevor Burfitt, Christian Headlines reports.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that Iran will lose its voting rights in the General Assembly after failing to pay its dues to the multilateral organization’s operating budget.

Seven animist relatives of Christian pastor Ramesh Bumbariya in India’s Rajasthan state have been charged with murder and attempted murder after they first killed his father with an ax and then tried to kill him too during an attack at his home on May 18, Morning Star News reports. 

A Christian woman in Pakistan was abducted on April 1 by Muslim men who drugged, beat, and raped her during the 20 days they held her captive, International Christian Concern reports. Pakistan ranks 5 on the US Open Doors watch list of 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted; Christian girls and women are frequently abducted and murdered with no action being taken against the perpetrators.

The University Baptist Church in Bloomington, Indiana has ordained a transgender woman, Church Leaders reports. The ordination of Laura Bethany Buchleiter took place on May 23, a few weeks after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected its first transgender bishop.

Two passenger trains collided Monday in southern Pakistan, killing at least 35 people and injuring dozens more, authorities say.

David Dushman, the last surviving soldier who participated in the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in January 1945, has died. He was 98.

The leader of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, whose group killed or kidnapped thousands of Christians, has committed suicide, rival Islamist militants say.

As the European Union slowly emerges from coronavirus lockdowns, thousands of delegates gathered to tackle another perceived crisis: pollution. The EU Green Week 2021 included a virtual conference amid concerns that millions of people “prematurely die” because of pollution.

Political tensions are rising after thousands of Hungarians marched through Budapest against government plans to build the European Union’s first Chinese university campus here.