The Heresy of Indifference; Nepal Christians suffer great losses: Persecution in Egypt...more

Islamic State claims responsibility for Texas attack outside Muhammad cartoon show ...The authenticity of the claim — announced on a Syria-based radio station operated by the militant group — could not be immediately verified. It represents the first time the Islamic State has announced links to a high-profile attack in the United States...

Nepal Christians Return to Worship after Quake Turns Churches into Tombs ...“The evangelical churches have suffered terrible tragedies,” Kala Bahadur Rokaya, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Nepal, told CT. “It will take time to count the deaths among Christians across Nepal. Many areas are still cut off.” He feared more bad news was yet to come from mountainous and remote districts such as Gorkha, Sindhupalchok, and Nuwakot, which have many evangelical churches...

Sowell: The Inconvenient Truth about Ghetto Communities’ Social Breakdown Among the many painful ironies in the current racial turmoil is that communities scattered across the country were disrupted by riots and looting because of the demonstrable lie that Michael Brown was shot in the back by a white policeman in Missouri — but there was not nearly as much turmoil created by the demonstrable fact that a fleeing black man was shot dead by a white policeman in South Carolina.

Totally ignored was the fact that a black policeman in Alabama fatally shot an unarmed white teenager, and was cleared of any charges, at about the same time that a white policeman was cleared of charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. In a world where the truth means so little, and headstrong preconceptions seem to be all that matter, what hope is there for rational words or rational words or rational behavior, much less mutual understanding across racial lines?...

Urban school closures help students academically
Shutting down poorly-performing urban charter and traditional schools in Ohio helped students, according to a new study published by the Fordham Institute.

School closures are often denounced as hurting public education. The results from Ohio give reason to question this conventional wisdom. The disproportionately black, economically disadvantaged, or low-achieving students affected may actually be fortunate their low-performing schools closed...

The Heresy of Indifference
Doctrine matters—it matters in life and in death. Our doctrine determines our destiny. It not only affects our view about God but our view about everything. We are doctrinal beings by nature. Everyone holds to some sort of doctrine; the question is whether or not our doctrine is biblical. Consequently, we dare not be indifferent about doctrine. Indeed, there is a reason we’ve never heard of a Christian martyr who was indifferent about doctrine. Indifference about doctrine is the mother of every heresy in all of history, and in our day indifference about doctrine is spreading like wildfire in the pulpits and pews of our churches. Ironically, the assertion that doctrine doesn’t matter is in fact a doctrine in itself.

When people tell me they are into Jesus but not into doctrine, I tell them that if they are not into doctrine, they are, in fact, not into Jesus. We cannot know Jesus without knowing doctrine, and we cannot love God without knowing God, and the way we know God is by studying His Word. Doctrine comes from God, it teaches us about God, and by faith it leads us back to God in worship, service, and love...

State Department Doesn't Want to Hear from Nun About Christian Persecution   ...Why is the United States barring a persecuted Iraqi Catholic nun — an internationally respected and leading representative of the Nineveh Christians who have been killed and deported by ISIS — from coming to Washington to testify about this catastrophe?

Earlier this week, we learned that every member of an Iraqi delegation of minority groups, including representatives of the Yazidi and Turkmen Shia religious communities, has been granted visas to come for official meetings in Washington — save one. The single delegate whose visitor visa was denied happens to be the group’s only Christian from Iraq...

Coptic bishop claims Egyptian authorities are behind Christian persecution ...In an interview for Arabic satellite TV station AlKarma TV by Dr Mona Roman, reported by Coptic Solidarity, Bishop Agathon instanced a meeting between Copts and government officials about the possibility of building a church, during which one of the officials contacted the Muslim leaders of the village instructing them to send people to protest against the plans.

He also said that state security forces were complicit in attacks on Christians. There are currently 21 Christian boys and girls from Minya alone who have been abducted, the youngest of whom had just started elementary school. Bishop Agathon said that whenever these attacks occur, Copts prepare documents, including photos and other verification, pointing to the culprits. These then are placed into the hands of top officials to ensure they are not "lost" or "misplaced" by underlings. The bishop said he had put documentation into the hands of the Director of Intelligence himself. "Absolutely nothing was done," he said...

After fresh tragedy, Syrian Christian leader warns: ‘We could disappear’
Crux: How many Christians are left in Aleppo?

Jeanbart: Before the war we were around 170,000. We don’t have reliable statistics today, but we may be around 100,000, maybe less. Most [who have left] aren’t very far away, in the southern part of the country or in Lebanon. On the other hand, some have gone to Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, Sweden, and so on. We worry about these people, because we’re not sure they’ll ever come back.

After what happened on Easter, people don’t know what to do. They’re afraid we’ll have the same scenario as Mosul. (Mosul is an Iraqi city under ISIS domination where virtually all Christians have been driven out, and where militants destroyed Christian gravesites over Easter in an effort to eradicate remaining symbols of the faith.)...