A 63-year-old Russian Pentecostal pastor received a four-year sentence for preaching against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an Oslo-based news service focused on human rights and religious freedom reported.

On Sept. 3, the Balashikha City court sentenced Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk to four years imprisonment in a labor camp—followed by a three-year ban on administering any website—for an anti-war sermon he preached in 2022, Forum 18 reported.

Prosecutors accused the pastor of urging his audience—in person and online—to obstruct the work of military registration and enlistment offices in a sermon he delivered in September 2022 at Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church.

In the sermon, Romanyuk called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “not our war.”

In his final speech to the court, Romanyuk refused to back down.

“Yes, I gave a sermon in which I touched on military, albeit forced, murder. I do not retract what I said,” he told the court.

“I set forth my personal view and attitude towards the taking of a human life. This is my personal attitude as a clergyman. I do not retract my sermon.”

For criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from a religious perspective, Romanyuk was convicted of “public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the exercise of government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation,” Forum 18 stated.

Romanyuk has spent more than 10 months in a pre-trial detention center in Noginsk since he was arrested and physically assaulted by authorities last year.

Others jail or fined for opposing war on religious grounds

Forum 18 reported Russian courts have sentenced four people to imprisonment and fined three others on criminal charges for opposing Russia’s war against Ukraine on religious grounds. Russia’s Justice Ministry also has added 12 religious leaders and activists to its register of foreign agents for related offenses, Forum 18 stated.

In a July update on Russia, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom identified by name four religious leaders—Pentecostal Bishop Albert Ratkin, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Buddhist leader Erdni-Basan Ombadykov and Apostolic Orthodox Church Archbishop Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko—who were added to the nation’s foreign agents registry. Mikhnov-Vaitenko was fined 30,000 rubles in April for posting an anti-war video in March 2022.

“Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, authorities have targeted anti-war protesters and religious leaders for expressing opposition to the war in religious terms,” the commission report stated.

The Russian government also has prosecuted members of several Protestant organizations for alleged ties to foreign religious communities.

“Russia continued to perpetrate particularly severe religious freedom violations against a wide range of religious groups in Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as civil society activists and human rights defenders who work on freedom of religion or belief issues,” the commission report stated.

Since 2017, the commission has recommended Russia be named a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in “systematic, ongoing and egregious” religious freedom violations. The U.S. Department of State designated Russia as a Country of Particular Concern in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

At Ukraine’s National Independence Day celebration in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky conferred Order of Honor medals on two global Baptist leaders to recognize Baptist contributions toward providing hope and aid to the people of Ukraine.

During a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of when Ukraine regained its independence, Zelensky awarded Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise medal. He presented an Order of Merit medal to Alan Donaldson, general secretary of the European Baptist Federation.

“It was a humbling experience to attend the ceremony and receive this honor on behalf of the Baptist World Alliance. This recognition is a reflection of the tireless dedication and courageous service of Ukrainian Baptists on the front lines, as well as the unwavering support of the entire global Baptist family,” Brown said.

“To receive such an honor in the midst of war is also a poignant reminder that much remains to be done. May we all continue to work together for lasting and just peace in Ukraine and around the world.”

Brown was the first leader of a worldwide Christian fellowship to visit Ukraine in the immediate aftermath of the full-scale Russian invasion of the nation on Feb. 24, 2022.

He met with leaders of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches—the country’s largest Protestant group, with more than 2,000 congregations.

Baptists instrumental in humanitarian aid

As soon as the escalated invasion began, Baptists in Ukraine mobilized churches along evacuation routes to provide food, rest and respite care for internally displaced people journeying from east to west.

Ukrainian Baptists also established “centers of hope” at churches in the nation’s western regions to shelter displaced individuals and families.

With BWA support, the European Baptist Federation coordinated humanitarian relief. The first truckload of humanitarian supplies left Hungary on the day the full-scale invasion began.

BWA reported “the global Baptist family has collectively helped more than 2 million people,” including with temporary shelter, food, medical care, psychosocial support, summer camps for children and mobile serving people near the front lines. Direct BWAid investment totaled more than $4.8 million.

In addition, BWA provided 10,000 Bibles and pastoral support, as well as advocating for strengthened religious freedom protection and support for persecuted people of faith.

Emphasis on prayer for a just peace

The ceremony in Sophia Square took place on the day Ukrainian Baptists and other religious groups urged people of faith internationally to pray for their nation.

“In this time of trials, we need not only political and humanitarian support, but also spiritual solidarity—through prayers, compassion and fraternal participation.” Valerii Antoniuk, president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine and chair of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, wrote in an online letter.

Independence Day ceremonies continued at the Ukrainian National Prayer Breakfast at the Mystetski Arsenal in Kyiv. Brown and Donaldson were among 350 foreign guests from 50 nations who attended.

Donaldson described Ukraine as “a nation of beauty and brokenness—a nation that is fighting for many freedoms.”

“Among its diminishing population are many people of Christian faith who are seeking understanding of their circumstances and direction for how to live, speak and share hope,” Donaldson said.

“Many are grieving the loss of loved ones through displacement, abduction or the loss of life. We meet victims of torture who testify to the destruction of places of worship and the systemic violence experienced by believers in the occupied territories.”

He described the Ukrainian National Prayer Breakfast as “a moment in history where these stories were acknowledged, recorded and grieved—where prayer was offered by people of all ages and a variety of nations who seek to stand in solidarity with Ukraine’s desire to live in freedom.”

With information provided by Merritt Johnston of BWA.

The Russian Supreme Court in Moscow is scheduled Aug. 28 to hear the appeal of an unregistered Baptist church in Kurganinsk whose building was sealed by government officials in May.

In response to a court order issued last October, bailiffs sealed the building on May 16 and denied members access to the Council of Churches Baptist “house of prayer” unless the church submitted to state registration.

However, three months after authorities sealed the building, Baptists continue to meet outside their facility to pray and worship, an Oslo-based news service focused on international human rights and religious freedom reported.

Forum 18 quoted a Baptist in Kurganinsk who “witnessed church members young and old praying on their knees, right on the pavement” outside the building.

Judge Vitaly Yakonov asserted religious activities by the Council of Churches Baptist community in Kurganinsk created “a threat to the security of public interests, national security [and] public order, as well as the rights and interests of an undefined circle of persons involved in the activities of the group through illegal missionary activity,” Forum 18 reported.

Pastor Aleksandr Chmykh unsuccessfully appealed the October judicial ruling both in regional court in November and at the 4th Cessational Court in Krasnodar in May.

Baptists in Kurganinsk continued to meet for worship services and other gatherings, prompting bailiffs to fine the pastor 50,000 rubles for failing to fulfill the court’s demands.

Courts impose prohibitions on religious activity

Russian courts have imposed similar prohibitions on several other Council of Churches Baptist communities, and prosecutors are seeking to bar religious gatherings by at least three other congregations, according to Forum 18.

In the last 20 months, five unregistered Baptist churches in Russia—mostly in the Krasnodar region—have faced lawsuits or had their activities prohibited by authorities, the news service reported.

Council of Churches Baptists formed in the 1960s in opposition to Soviet religious restrictions, such as government regulation of sermon content, pastoral appointments and religious instruction of children.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Council of Churches Baptist—numbering about 2,500 congregations—have asserted the Russian Constitution, the 1997 Religion Law and international human rights law provide them the right to meet for worship without government involvement and state registration.

Council of Churches Baptist congregations often meet in private homes—or houses of prayer—on private land.

Alleged ‘illegal missionary activities’

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cited the government’s closing of the Baptist house of prayer in Kurganinsk for alleged “illegal missionary activities” in its July report, “Russia’s Persecution of Religious Groups and FoRB Actors.”

Russian authorities continue to perpetrate “particularly severe violations of religious freedom against a range of religious groups and freedom of religion or belief actors,” the commission report said. Violations cited include closing houses of worship, as well as assaulting, arresting and even torturing religious leaders.

Russian courts in 2024 considered 431 cases of religion law violations—many related to alleged “illegal missionary activities”—resulting in fines totaling more than 4.7 million rubles (more than $58,000), the report said.

Since 2017, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended Russia be named a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in “systematic, ongoing and egregious” religious freedom violations. The U.S. Department of State designated Russia as a Country of Particular Concern in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In its latest annual report, the commission not only urged the State Department to continue to designate Russia as a Country of Particular Concern, but also impose targeted sanctions on Russian government agencies and officials responsible for religious freedom violations.

(RNS)—After struggling for months to find partners to help them deliver aid to Gaza, the embattled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has picked up a collaborator—Samaritan’s Purse, the international Christian disaster relief organization headed by Franklin Graham.

Since July 26, Samaritan’s Purse has sent eight relief flights for Gaza carrying 169 tons of supplemental food packets that have been distributed through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s four Gaza-based hubs.

In addition, Samaritan’s Purse has sent a medical team of six nurses and paramedics to provide first aid treatment at these distribution sites, a spokesperson for the organization confirmed.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a private, Israel- and U.S.-backed project staffed by U.S. security contractors and funded with $30 million in U.S. tax dollars, with a matching commitment from Israel. It was created to displace the United Nations’ various humanitarian relief efforts, which Israel has prevented from functioning.

But since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began its operations in mid-May, more than 1,400 unarmed Palestinian civilians have reportedly been killed by Israel Defense Forces while seeking food aid at or near the foundation’s distribution sites, known as Safe Distribution Hubs, located in remote militarized zones.

Aid groups and governments around the world have condemned the operation and accused it of violating humanitarian standards and putting civilians at risk at a time when the region is experiencing mass starvation.

Some faith-based groups skeptical about GHF

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Chairman Johnnie Moore, a prominent evangelical and a onetime faith adviser to President Donald Trump, has pleaded with various international aid groups to join the effort.

Many faith-based aid groups, such as Catholic Relief Services, have expressed deep skepticism of the foundation and its methods and have rejected collaborations with it.

But Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan’s Purse, said his organization, based in North Carolina, said he was satisfied with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operations.

“I visited several Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites and was impressed with how they were secured and the professionalism of the GHF staff,” Isaacs said. “They are working in a very difficult situation, and I am grateful that Samaritan’s Purse has the opportunity to collaborate with GHF and other partners. We want to help as many people as we can.”

Israel’s nearly two-year war of retribution against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has killed 62,000 people and earned it international censure across the world, with leading human rights organizations concluding that Israel is engaged in a genocide.

In early March, Israel cut off all aid for Gaza, a move that Israeli officials said was taken to pressure Hamas into making concessions in ceasefire talks. That cutoff ended in May, when the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began a limited distribution of aid in Gaza.

Distribution of aid problematic

It may have been too late. International observers said starvation had set in. The Gaza Health Ministry has said that at least 271 people, including 112 children, have died of starvation to date.

International observers say that not enough aid is being allowed in and that the distribution system is deeply flawed and unable to reach the poorest people who desperately need it.

“They call them secure distribution sites,” said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University and the author of a book on mass starvation. “Well, the people aren’t secure. A lot of them get killed. But the rations aren’t secure either.

“No voluntary agency would ever hand out food in this way. You simply don’t know who’s coming to get it and people are getting multiple boxes because they’re strong. The strongest get the most.”

On Aug. 7, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, announced a U.S. plan to expand aid distribution operations in Gaza to as many as 16 points. But since then, Israel announced its plan to invade Gaza City, the most populous city in the strip, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to once again uproot themselves.

It’s not clear whether the expanded sites will be opened during a full-scale military incursion of the type the government of Israel has now approved.

This is not the first time Samaritan’s Purse has provided aid in this conflict. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Samaritan’s Purse pledged 42 ambulances to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service. Of those, 22 have already been provided. A spokesperson added, “We anticipate being able to do more in the future.”

21Wilberforce and the Baptist World Alliance are joining other Christian groups in calling for the release of seven church leaders in Eritrea who have been detained without trial more than 20 years.

The #Voices4Justice campaign is urging Eritrean government officials to release seven arbitrarily detained Christian leaders—Haile Naizge, Kuflu Gebremeskel, Million Gebreselassie, Futsum Gebrenegus, Tekleab Menghisteab, Gebremedhin Gebregiorgis and Kidane Weldou.

 “21Wilberforce appeals to the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, to release the seven church leaders,” said Wissam al-Saliby, president of 21Wilberforce, a human rights organization focused on international religious freedom.

“The denial of their freedom for more than two decades is a grave injustice that should end. Let’s keep them, and the whole of Eritrea, in our prayers.”

BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown pointed to widespread persecution of religious minorities in Eritrea.

“Across all of Eritrea, there remain hundreds and hundreds of people whose lives are severely impacted by some of the worst persecution in all of the world,” Brown said in a video message.

He urged Baptists and other concerned Christians to be “a voice for justice” by calling for the immediate release of the seven detained church leaders.

Denied legal representation and family visits

Four of the detained Christian leaders are from evangelical denominations. The other three are part of a reform movement of the Eritrean Orthodox Church that encourages teaching Scripture in a local language.

The church leaders not only have been held more than two decades without being charged, but also have been denied legal representation and family visits.

“All seven are men of extremely good standing. Several played key roles in providing medical and social assistance to fellow Eritreans,” a letter the #Voices4Justice campaign is sending to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated.

In a letter to Berhane G. Solomon, chargé d’affaires of the Eritrean embassy in the United States, leaders of the campaign stated the seven Christian leaders have been “denied both due process and a fair, speedy and public hearing.”

“Furthermore, the conditions of their imprisonment violate the protections afforded to them both under the [Eritrean] Constitution and the international obligations Eritrea has pledged to uphold,” the letter stated.

“These are sons, husbands, fathers and men of good character. Unfortunately, they are representative of many more men, women and even children held in violation of both their constitutional and internationally recognised rights.

“We therefore call on your government to release these men and every prisoner of conscience unconditionally, beginning with those detained for excessive periods without charge, trial, or access to their families or legal representatives.”

Prisoners of conscience suffer mistreatment

In its most recent annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also noted the Eritrean government “continued to incarcerate [freedom of religion or belief] prisoners under egregious conditions in dozens of facilities across the country.”

Many prisoners of conscience “endure particularly severe mistreatment, including physical abuse, sexual violence, torture, and denial of medical treatment, something resulting in death,” the report stated.

Representatives of the #Voices4Justice campaign will rally outside the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, D.C., at 11 a.m. on Aug. 21—the day before the United Nations-sponsored International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief—to pray for the release of the detained Christian leaders and other prisoners of conscience in Eritrea.

21Wilberforce is inviting concerned individuals to click here to endorse the letter to the Eritrean Embassy and click here to sign the letter to the U.S. Secretary of State. Freedom Seekers International is sponsoring a regional East Texas prayer vigil as part of the #Voices4Justice campaign at 11:45 a.m. on Aug. 22 at Bergfeld Park in Tyler.

Ukrainian Baptists are joining with other religious groups in asking people of faith globally to pray for Ukraine on Aug. 24.

Valerii Antoniuk, president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine, issued the international appeal as chair of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.

“Millions of people in Ukraine continue to suffer today from the war caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation,” Antoniuk wrote in an online letter.

“In this time of trials, we need not only political and humanitarian support, but also spiritual solidarity—through prayers, compassion and fraternal participation.”

Pray for religious freedom

The date was selected because it marks the 34th anniversary of when Ukraine marked its freedom from Soviet domination and regained its freedom, said Ivan Kunderenko, head of the Baptist Union of Ukraine’s apologetics department.

“As Ukrainians, we have democracy in our blood,” Kunderenko said, noting Ukraine was a sovereign nation long before it was part of the Soviet Union.

Since Ukrainian Independence Day falls on a Sunday this year, Ukrainian faith leaders saw it as an opportunity to involve the global church in interceding for the people of Ukraine and praying for a just and lasting peace, Kunderenko said.

The prayer initiative culminates the next morning with the National Prayer Breakfast in Kyiv, an event sponsored by the Office of the President of Ukraine.

For Kunderenko, that means a future in which Ukrainians maintain their heritage and unique identity as a people, and a future in which their right to exercise their faith freely is protected.

“In Russian-occupied territory, religious freedom is gone,” he said.

Pray for God to strengthen hope

When asked how Texas Baptists could pray specifically for fellow Baptists in Ukraine, Igor Bandura, vice president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine, he asked for prayer “to support our resilient witness for peace.”

“We want to see Ukrainian Baptists, with thousands of churches, remain a beacon of revival, baptizing many despite war,” he said.

Bandura mentioned three specific requests:

• Hope amid suffering. “Pray for Ukrainian Baptists facing war, displacement and loss. With millions affected, pray God strengthens their hope to continue ministries like providing food and spiritual care despite exhaustion.”
• Faith under persecution. “Pray for Ukrainian Baptists enduring persecution including church closures in occupied areas. Ask for steadfast faith to minister boldly and share the gospel with love.”
• Peace amid nuclear tensions. “With fears of nuclear escalation rising, pray for Ukrainian Baptists to find peace in Christ. Ask for wisdom for leaders to prevent catastrophe, ensuring a future peace.

Pray for the children of Ukraine

The Ukrainian government has identified about 20,000 children who have been deported forcibly to Russia. Save Ukraine, a ministry led by Mykola Kuleba, seeks to rescue abducted children and return them to their families, as well as evacuate vulnerable people from combat zones.

“The Global Day of Prayer for Ukraine on Aug. 24 comes at a critical moment,” Kuleba said. He pointed to the abduction and forced relocation of Ukrainian children “one of the most painful and urgent tragedies of this war.”

When asked how Texas Baptists could pray specifically for Ukraine’s children, Mykola identified three requests:

• The rescue and return of abducted children. “Pray that God opens the doors for more children to come home, softens the hearts of those holding them, and protects the teams working to bring them back safely.”
• The emotional healing of children affected by war. “Many of these children—whether abducted, orphaned or displaced—are carrying invisible wounds. Pray for trauma to be met with grace, for hope to be restored, and for caregivers to have wisdom and endurance.”
• Justice and accountability. “Pray that the world does not turn away from this suffering, but continues to shine a light on these crimes and seeks lasting justice for the children and families affected—to prevent such atrocities in future wars, and to ensure that children are never again used as weapons of war.”

Give thanks for answered prayers

More than 700 sacred sites in Ukraine—churches of various denominations and other religious buildings—have been destroyed or seriously damaged by military actions.

Nearly one year ago, bomb blasts devastated the Kherson campus of Tavriski Christian Institute and destroyed its theological library.

However, Valentyn Syniy, president of the institute, reported an answer to prayer.

“We are planning to open a new library on Aug. 29-30. These dates were not chosen by chance, since they coincide with the third anniversary of the destruction of our old library,” Syniy said.

“By God’s grace, we were able to partially restore it in Kyiv, after the destruction of the premises in Kherson. We thank God in prayer for his mercy and help in this difficult time.”

Prayer for continuing needs, new opportunities

When Christians pray for Ukraine on Aug. 24, Syniy asked that they keep the institute’s continuing needs in mind.

“Please continue to pray for librarians who will come from the U.S.A. and Europe, who will begin the work of cataloging new books this summer, and that in 2026 we will find two or three librarians who would be willing to join us and help continue this work,” he said.

“We have also signed a contract to purchase a building for our new training center. Although smaller, it is located in a safer area of Kyiv. Our goal is to raise the necessary funds over the next eight years to fully pay for the purchase of this building.”

Siniy also reported the institute is launching a chaplain training program in partnership with the Baptist Union of Ukraine.

“This will be the first state chaplain training program, and we ask you to pray for the first group of students who will soon begin training,” he said.

GAZA STRIP (BP)—“A love offering from the Baptist Church in Gaza” proclaims the sign as Christian Mission to Gaza serves hot meals to both Christians and Muslims in the Gaza Strip, where people are starving to death.

Christian Mission to Gaza served about 2,000 hot meals July 24-26 in the name of Gaza Baptists, said Hanna Massad, who served as the church’s first Palestinian pastor before founding the nonprofit organization. But the meals only touch a small fraction of those in need.

Massad continues to hold online prayer services each Sunday with about 30 online connections, including members of Gaza Baptist Church and other Gazans, he told Baptist Press as he prepared to preach and teach at two Baptist churches in Texas July 27-29.

At least 63 people died of starvation in the Gaza Strip this month, the World Health Organization reported July 27, including 25 children and 38 adults, with 24 of the children under age 5. The bodies of the dead bore “clear signs of severe wasting,” the organization stated.

Malnutrition is spiraling out of control in Gaza, WHO reported, with more than 5,000 children under five seeking outpatient treatment for malnutrition in the first two weeks of July alone, about 20 percent suffering Severe Acute Malnutrition, the most life-threatening form.

In June, 6,500 children were admitted for treatment, the highest number recorded since October 2023, WHO reported.

The Christian Mission to Gaza meal distributions have managed to avoid the Israeli attacks WHO said killed 1,060 people and injured 7,200 others at food distribution sites in Gaza since May 27, including friends of the church community.

Massad tells of a friend whose 40-year-old nephew died while trying to retrieve food.

“I have a friend, my neighbor, he lost his nephew,” Massad said. “He went to get a bag of flour to feed his family, and he’d been shot, killed.”

The Israeli government, which had accused Hamas of fabricating news of a hunger crisis and starvation deaths, began food airdrops July 27 and announced tactical pauses in attacks on three highly populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours daily to allow food distributions, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported.

‘We continue to minister to the Christian community’

Two families are living in what remains of Gaza Baptist, Massad said of the church that had dwindled to 60 members because of persecution before the Israel-Hamas War. Its building was heavily damaged by Israeli bombs in late 2023.

“We’ll need to see after the war what to do,” Massad said of the church. “But we continue to minister to the Christian community.”

Massad preached the morning sermon July 27 at PaulAnn Baptist Church in San Angelo, updating worshipers on the war’s impact on Gaza and the work of Christian Mission to Gaza.

He is scheduled to speak to adults at Vacation Bible School July 28 and 29 at First Baptist Church in Garland.

President Donald Trump recognized the starvation crisis July 28, pledging U.S. food aid and urging Israel to secure its distribution.

Israeli attacks continue to strike the Christian community, Massad said, with airstrikes hitting the Latin Church in Gaza July 18, killing three Christians and injuring 10 others, including a priest.

Violent attacks targeting religious communities continue in Nigeria, and the Nigerian government’s enforcement of blasphemy laws significantly restricts religious freedom, a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom states.

 “Attacks targeting religious communities remain a major and ongoing threat to religious freedom in Nigeria and are increasing in frequency,” the commission’s July update on Nigeria states.

The Nigerian government “is often slow to react to violent attacks by Fulani herdsmen, bandit gangs, or insurgents” such as JAS/Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, the report asserts.

“This violence severely restricts religious practice and observance by Christians, Muslims, and traditional religious communities across many Nigerian states in the Middle Belt and in the northeast,” the commission report states.

“Perpetrators of the violence have attacked religious sites including churches and mosques, kidnapped or killed religious leaders, and—in some cases—used violence or threats of violence against religious communities while demanding so-called taxes, invoking Shari’a law as justification.”

The commission reports multiple attacks with fatalities in Benue and Plateau states, particularly highlighting the slaughter of 200 people in June—including internally displaced persons sheltered in a Catholic mission.

The report points out armed Fulani herdsman also are spreading to the south, with 55 herder groups active in the region. That, in turn, is leading to increased internal displacement.

“While the south historically has experienced relatively peaceful coexistence between religious groups, this new presence carries a risk of increased instability,” the report states.

“Furthermore, the significant number of Christians killed in the attacks exacerbates the community’s fear that its members will be violently targeted over their faith.”

Blasphemy laws used to restrict religious freedom

The report also highlights how the Nigerian government uses blasphemy laws to restrict religious freedom.

Although Nigeria’s 1999 constitution stipulates federal and state governments cannot adopt an official religion, the nation’s federal penal code criminalizes actions or statements a person could consider “as a public insult on their religion,” the report notes.

“The constitution also grants state governments the authority to adjudicate criminal and noncriminal proceedings through Shari’a courts,” the report states.

Twelve states in northern Nigeria use Shari’a-based law to criminalize blasphemy, allowing stoning, caning and amputation for a variety of offenses, the commission reports.

The commission issued its update on Nigeria one week prior to the day Texas Baptists have been urged to devote to “Prayer for the Persecuted in Nigeria.”

Leaders of the Center for Global Religious Freedom at Dallas Baptist University, Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission and the Baptist World Alliance encouraged Texas Baptists to dedicate time during worship service on July 27—or the first available date in the future—to pray for victims of religious persecution in Nigeria.

In addition to praying, they also are urging Texas Baptists and other concerned Christians to sign an online letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling for the U.S. Department of State to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

The CPC designation is reserved for nations that commit or permit systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom. Both in its annual report and its July update, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reiterated its recommendation that Nigeria be designed as a CPC.

At the Baptist World Congress in Brisbane, the Baptist World Alliance presented its Human Rights Award to Sano Vamuzo of Nagaland, India. The award recognizes a lifetime of achievement to an individual who has shown significant accomplishments in global advocacy for human rights and the pursuit of social justice and peace. Vamuzo has dedicated more than four decades to promoting justice, gender equity and reconciliation. “This recognition strengthens our resolve to walk with the unheard, speak peace where there is pain, and build bridges where there are walls,” Vamuzo said. She is a founding member and the first president of the Naga Mothers’ Association, the first voluntary women’s organization for all Naga women. In that role, she led the association in confronting social evils, advocating for the welfare of youth, and raising the visibility of women in public life. Vamuzo served as the first chairperson of the Nagaland State Commission for Women for two terms, where she worked to ensure the protection and advancement of women’s rights across the state. Her service was recognized nationally when she was awarded the Padma Shri in 2024—one of India’s highest civilian honors—for her contributions to social work.

At the annual meeting of the Baptist Convention of Tanzania, Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Julio Guarneri signed a memorandum of understanding with Tanzania Baptists, committing to collaborate with six MAP (Missionary Adoption Program) missionaries, with a goal of adding four additional missionaries in one year. MAP connects Texas Baptist churches to indigenous missionaries outside the United States who serve under Baptist entities, associations or conventions. In his “Texas Baptists Weekly” e-mail, Guarneri noted the six MAP missionaries “are starting churches with great diligence and often with great personal sacrifice.” Guarneri and other Texas Baptists who traveled to Tanzania met with the four potential MAP missionaries. “These church starters are passionate and ready to do Great Commission, Great Commandment work,” Guarneri wrote.

Baptist World Alliance leaders called for all parties involved in the most-recent armed conflict in southern Syria “to immediately cease hostilities, exercise restraint, and work toward de-escalation and peace.” BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown noted in a July 20 social media post families living in Sweida who are affiliated with Baptist churches have been affected directly by the conflict between the Druze community and Bedouin tribes. “We pray for the protection of innocent civilians and affirm the dignity and right for every person to live in safety,” Brown wrote. “We pray for those who have been impacted, for the churches as they minister, and for love to prevail over violence, hope over fear, and life over death.”

Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission director Katie Frugé participated in a panel with 21WilberForce President Wisam al-Saliby and BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown in a Baptist World Congress breakout session on technology, faith and human rights. Frugé discussed ethical considerations of artificial intelligence, urging tech users not to lose sight of the importance of humanity in considering ethical uses of AI. Al-Saliby explained ways technology is being used around the world to dehumanize people, including AI being used to make decisions about who to target in a war-torn region, or large-scale surveillance that invades privacy or treats people like data. Brown noted a number of tech sector leaders think they can save the world through technology. But with technology, possibility also comes peril—if transhumanism erodes what it means to be human. Brown urged BWA participants to reaffirm the imago dei—the image of God—in humanity and seek wisdom in how technology continues to be developed and intertwine with life.

(RNS)—Johnnie Moore, the evangelical Christian who chairs the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, defended the workings of his controversial food distribution system to a friendly audience in a July 22 Zoom call.

During the one-hour call, presented by the American Jewish Congress and the World Zionist Organization, Moore described the foundation’s work as “unbelievably effective.”

He said the group is getting meals to about 800,000 people in Gaza, or nearly half its population, while working in an active war zone and facing an onslaught of disinformation.

“We work around the clock in order to ensure safety and effectiveness, to be as principled as we possibly can be,” he said. “We are dedicated to the humanitarian principles of humanity and of impartiality, of independence and of neutrality.”

More than 1,000 killed trying to access food

He did not mention the foundation is a private Israel-supported and U.S.-backed group, whose distribution sites are guarded by private American contractors and, on the outskirts, by Israeli soldiers who have repeatedly opened fire daily on people approaching the food aid sites.

Since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating in May, 1,054 people have been killed trying to get food—766 of them in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near United Nations and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys, a U.N. human rights office spokesman said. The recent bloodshed has led to increasing outrage across the world.

Twenty-one European countries plus Canada and Australia issued a joint statement July 21 condemning “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food” in Gaza.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the statement said.

Moore, who may be best known for serving on President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board during the first Trump administration, said no one has been shot inside the distribution sites.

Moore attributes violence to Hamas

He acknowledged some were killed near the sites but disputed the figures, saying they were given to the media by Hamas. The numbers come from the Gaza Health Ministry.

“We do not deny that there have been civilians that have been killed trying to seek aid in the Gaza Strip while we’ve been operating,” Moore said. “By the way, the IDF doesn’t deny that they are responsible for some of that, and Hamas, by the way, does deny that they’re responsible for it.

“The fact is, Hamas has intentionally harmed Gazans in order to allege that it was the IDF or that it was GHF in order to disincentivize people from coming to our aid distribution site.”

Assaf Weiss, vice president of the American Jewish Congress, raised the question. Weiss is a former chief of staff for the speaker of the Knesset. The congress is an association of American Jews organized to defend Jewish and Israeli interests and committed to “an improved understanding of Israel,” according to its website.

Throughout the Zoom session, there were repeated calls for the return of some 50 Israeli hostages, some alive, some dead, still in Hamas captivity.

Moore was not asked about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s funding source, which remains shrouded, though in late June, the Trump administration said it would supply $30 million to GHF operations. The Israeli government has publicly denied paying for it, though it is intimately involved in the operation.

A July 21 Washington Post story identified several private U.S. donors, including the Chicago-based private equity firm McNally Capital, which specializes in acquiring aerospace, defense and technology companies.

Moore did not mention the GHF’s own American security contractors.

Foundation designed to avoid diversion of aid

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates four aid distribution sites, three of which are in militarized zones in the far south of Gaza and another in a militarized zone in central Gaza. Moore said he would like to expand to eight distribution sites.

Previously, the U.N. distributed aid through a coordinated delivery system with around 400 locations across Gaza, many controlled by Hamas.

Moore said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was founded to prevent Hamas from stealing, stockpiling and selling the aid, for which Israel blames the U.N.

“GHF was designed from the very beginning to avoid the problem of the mass diversion of aid,” he said. “Unfortunately, our challenge is compounded by the fact that the United Nations, from really the top of the organization, and other NGOs are not getting their own aid where it needs to go.”

He said he has pleaded and begged the U.N. to help it carry out its mission.

“Just earlier today, about an hour and a half ago, I wrote another letter to the head of OCHA (the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Tom Fletcher, who’s the head humanitarian official in the United Nations,” Moore said.

“I wrote to him again, and I expressed our alarm that there is all this U.N. aid that is sitting inside the Gaza Strip. There’s U.N. flour there that’s about to expire—the medical supplies that either have expired or are about to expire. Thousands upon thousands of pallets sitting in the Gaza Strip.”

‘Politics … prevailing over the needs of these people’

Israel has mostly blocked the work of various U.N. agencies. In January, it banned the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, from operating in the country, alleging some of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that started the war. On July 21, Israel refused to renew the visa of a senior U.N. official in the OCHA office.

Other humanitarian groups have declined to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, saying they have concerns about its model of aid. No faith-based humanitarian group has yet to join forces with the GHF.

“The whole international system declines to work with us because of politics,” Moore said. “Despite everything that they say about being concerned about the needs on the ground, it is politics that is prevailing over the needs of these people.”

He did not deny starvation is a fact in Gaza. The World Food Program has said the population of Gaza was at the brink of famine.

“The situation is real, and the world needs to respond to it,” he said.

“I’m a Christian, an evangelical Christian. There’s nothing more Christian than feeding people.”

BUDALANG’I, Kenya (RNS)—Every Sunday morning, Pastor Pascal Ogutu walks barefoot across the cracked mud of what was once the foundation of his church.

He passes submerged gravestones and the sagging roof of the altar, now half-buried in water and overgrown reeds.

“This used to be holy ground,” he said softly, gazing across the shimmering expanse where Lake Victoria has swallowed not only farmland and homes but faith sanctuaries, like his Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya.

In the flood-prone plains of Budalang’i in western Kenya, dozens of churches—some more than 50 years old—have been submerged or structurally weakened due to rising water levels and unpredictable rainfall.

Scientists attribute the changes to climate shifts intensifying across the Lake Victoria basin, one of Africa’s most populous and ecologically fragile regions.

“The water does not just take land,” said Ogutu, of the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya, whose tin-roofed sanctuary collapsed last November after months of flooding. “It takes our memory. It takes our worship. It takes the place we felt closest to God.”

Floods more frequent and destructive

Budalang’i, a rural constituency in Busia County near the Uganda border, sits along a natural floodplain where the lake’s waters spill out during seasonal rains. But residents say the floods have become more frequent, intense and destructive.

In the past five years, the lake’s water levels have risen by more than 2 meters, or just over 2 yards, according to Kenya’s Water Resources Authority.

This backflow, combined with erratic rainfall and clogged drainage from nearby rivers, has displaced thousands of families and inundated schools, churches and cemeteries.

Scientists say the region’s flooding crisis is a visible symptom of broader climate disruptions, some of which are caused by global warming.

“Lake Victoria is a giant climate mirror,” said Godfrey Khamala, a climate specialist who leads the flood victims committee in Maumau Village, Budalang’i.

“What’s happening here is a direct result of regional warming, changing rainfall patterns and human-driven land degradation.”

Deforestation in upstream areas, coupled with poor urban planning and unregulated development, has worsened sedimentation and reduced the land’s ability to absorb rainwater, he said.

‘Casualties of a system under stress’

At the same time, climate change has intensified the Indian Ocean Dipole, a weather pattern that brings extreme rainfall to East Africa.

“These churches are casualties of a system under stress,” Khamala said. “But their loss also reveals how deeply intertwined environment and community life are.”

As a result, faith leaders are speaking out about climate justice. In April, a coalition of churches in Busia organized an interdenominational prayer walk calling for action to protect the lake and relocate vulnerable communities.

“We are stewards of creation, not just victims of it,” said Pastor Moses Okello of Assemblies of Pentecostal Churches in western Kenya. “We cannot preach hope while ignoring the rising waters around our feet.”

The Church of Christ, a concrete structure with wooden pews and stained-glass windows in Budalang’i, now sits half-sunken in marshland. Its bell tower is partly still visible from a distance.

“We had baptisms here. We buried our elders here. This was our sanctuary,” said Mary Anyango, 58, a longtime congregant who now worships with her neighbors under a mango tree. “Now, it feels like God is further away.”

Resilient churches find ways to adapt

Like Anyango, across the region, churches and congregants are adapting in creative and resilient ways. Services have been held in classrooms, tents, market stalls and even boats.

Pastors have converted living rooms into altars, where worshippers sit on mats or plastic chairs as chickens cluck in the background.

One Sunday in June, more than 80 people gathered under a thatched shelter in Bunyala village, also in Busia County, to pray and sing.

“This is what church means now—people, not buildings,” said Pastor John Musumba, who leads a Pentecostal community that lost its church to flooding in 2022. “The gospel doesn’t need walls. It needs hearts.”

Still, religious leaders say attendance has dropped. Some elderly members have stopped coming to church entirely, fearing the floods or unable to walk through the mud. Tithes have declined, and efforts to rebuild are stalled by poverty and uncertainty, they said.

For many congregations, efforts to rebuild have been slow or symbolic. Some have erected temporary churches on higher ground with salvaged wood and tarpaulin. Others are fundraising to purchase plots farther away from the flood zone, but many cannot afford to do so.

“We are competing with families who need land for shelter,” said catechist Vincent Okumu, who coordinates emergency aid for displaced families with a local ecumenical relief committee. “Everyone is trying to move uphill. There is not enough space.”

‘This is not just about Kenya’

But faith remains a source of strength and solidarity. Congregants said the loss of physical buildings has not shaken their belief in divine presence, but in some cases has deepened it.

“In this crisis, we have learned that God is not confined to concrete,” said Patrick Okumu, a lay local preacher who now holds weekly Bible studies under a baobab tree. “He is with us in the mud, in the storm, in the rebuilding.”

Still, many hope the outside world will act.

“This is not just about Kenya,” Khamala said. “This is about how climate change is eroding not only coastlines and crops, but culture, heritage and spiritual life. These churches are the canaries in the coal mine.”

Back at the waterlogged remains of Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya on a recent Sunday, Ogutu led his congregation in a song of lamentation.

“Lord, do not pass us by, even when the waters rise,” they sang in Luhya, as children clapped along and elders wiped away tears.

The Center for Global Religious Freedom at Dallas Baptist University, Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission and the Baptist World Alliance have issued a call to prayer for victims of religious persecution in Nigeria.

Leaders at the DBU Center for Global Religious Freedom, the CLC and BWA are urging Texas Baptists to dedicate time during worship services on July 27—or another date in the near future—to pray for persecuted believers in Nigeria.

They also are encouraging concerned Christians to sign an online letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling for the U.S. Department of State to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

The CPC designation is reserved for nations that commit or permit systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom. Several global experts and advocates for international religious freedom have deemed Nigeria one of the most dangerous nations in the world for Christians.

“Due to the ongoing and particularly severe religious freedom violations occurring throughout the country, especially in its northern states, the Trump Administration should redesignate Nigeria as a CPC and take immediate action to engage with the Nigerian government to confront this growing violence,” the letter to Rubio states.

“From April to June, violent attacks by nomadic Muslim Fulani militants on Christian farmers in Benue and Plateau states claimed more than 150 lives, displacing many more.”

Baptist pastor killed this month

In a July 12 video interview with BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown at the Baptist World Congress in Brisbane, Nigerian Baptist Convention President Israel Akanji said, “While we have been here in the past one week, one of our pastors was killed by terrorists who attacked his church.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide identified the pastor as Emannuel Na’allah of the Bege Baptist Church in the Yari Bori community of the Kafur Local Government Area of Nigeria’s Katsina State.

During the July 7 attack, another church leader also was killed, and Maryam Ezekiel, wife of the local Redeemed Church of God pastor, was abducted and remains in captivity.

Eight days later, more than 30 people in the Bindi community Riyom Local Government Area in Nigeria’s Plateau State were killed by heavily armed militia, CSW reported. Davou Musa, the local Christ of Christ in Nations pastor, reportedly lost nine family members in the attack.

In the video interview, Akanji also noted more than 200 individuals—most of whom were Christians—were killed in mid-June in Benue State.

When asked how Texas Baptist can pray for Christians in Nigeria, Akanji responded: “The prayer is that we should not lose our hope in God.

“We have the faith that in spite of the persecution, the church of God will continue to grow. Please pray that our hope will be sustained.”