Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

The head of the Lutheran World Federation urged religious leaders from around the world to renounce Islamophobia during a conference convened by the president of Kazakhstan.

As the 20th anniversary of the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre approaches, Chinese Christian leaders in America – many of whom were directly involved in the pro-democracy protest – are heading to Washington, D.C., to pray for a new era of hope and justice in communist China.

The entire population of evangelical Christians in the West Bank and Gaza could fit into one large church in the United States, one pastor from Jerusalem realized after a recent visit to the U.S.

American journalist Roxana Saberi was freed Monday from prison in Iran after an appeals court reduced her eight-year jail sentence to a two-year suspended sentence.

China released its first ever human rights action plan Monday that contains actual benchmarks for improving the treatment of minorities and doing more to prevent abuse of detainees.

Eight human rights groups in China have issued an unprecedented open letter challenging the Chinese government to account for its rights violations against Chinese citizens.

Roommates Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, and Maryam Rustampoor, 27, were arrested March 5 by Iranian security forces who accused them of being “anti-government activists,” reported Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), which recently received news about their detainment.

A Christian religious freedom organization has launched an online petition to free China’s most famous lawyer, the group announced Thursday.

The Africa Assemblies of God Alliance (AAGA) has set out to baptize 10 million believers within a ten year period, the denomination’s news agency reported this past week.

A new survey found that about 5.3 million Iraqis, or about 19 percent of the population, watch the Christian satellite programs on SAT-7, the ministry reported Friday.

North Korea has refused to accept future U.S. food aid and has also expelled five groups that distribute American aid in the country, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

Nearly 50,000 signatures were collected for a petition asking China to grant refugee status to North Koreans fleeing famine and persecution in their country, reported a U.K.-based ministry.

The Chinese government did not officially support a meeting between its church body and house church leaders as a January report claimed it had, according to participants of the gathering.

In stark contrast to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s softer remarks on China’s human rights, the U.S. State Department report on Wednesday had sharp criticism for the eastern superpower over rights violations ranging from religious repression to extrajudicial killings.

Several U.S. Congressmen expressed "dismay" this week over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement that human rights would not be a top priority for the United States in its dealings with China.

The church needs to be the prophetic voice that confronts the moral crisis underlying the world’s economic crisis, said global church leaders this past week at a public hearing.

A U.S. government body that monitors religious freedom urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to raise human rights issues in China when she visits the country this week as part of her four-nation Asia tour.

A Christian Chinese couple who has been persecuted for years by authorities for their faith is pleading with officials for one final meeting as the husband is said to be near death by medical doctors and the wife is imprisoned for “fabricated charges.”

A large number of churches from around the world this past week joined the international call for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel as the conflict entered its second week and the death toll approached nearly 1,000 lives lost.

South Korea’s Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant leaders have together declared 2009 as the Year of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The son of a top Hamas leader has converted to Christianity and prays someday his family will also accept Jesus Christ as their savior, an Israeli newspaper reported.

The problems in Africa cannot be solved with aid money alone, but Africans need to know God, contends an atheist journalist and former politician.

The raging arms conflict between Hamas in Gaza and the Israeli military must stop “immediately,” declared a global church body on Monday.

Globalization needs a “solid basis of values” to succeed, contended former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a major address this past week.

A Christian group that supports the persecuted church presented First Lady Laura Bush with the 2008 Freedom Award for her efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Burma, the organization announced Friday.