By Christy Barritt

Christian Organization Calls on World for Help

The Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) is calling on the international community to pressure governments and those in authority to declare Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Militants from the group have been blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths since they began waging Jihad in 2009. The group has also been responsible for bombing crowded churches and killing Christian university students, among other things. Many claim the group has ties to al Qaida.

Representatives from CANAN, who include clergyman and Christian professionals, have been pressuring the U.S. to designate the group as terrorists but have been unsuccessful so far.

“We all know that when good men keep quiet, evil prevails,” said Laolu Akande, Executive Director for CANAN. “But when good people speak up, by the fact that we have the morally superior position, we will defeat the work of terror.”

Christian College Now Included in Grant Program

The Florida Department of Education has agreed to a settlement that will allow students at Florida Christian College to participate in a state grant program.

The grant was open to students at other religious and nonreligious schools, yet Florida Christian College was excluded. The Department of Education said the college had to have a “secular” purpose in order for students to receive the grant. Officials at the Kissimmee-based college asserted that the college did teach secular subjects, as well as prepare students for secular jobs.

The school’s legal counsel said that singling out the college by excluding its students for the grant was discriminatory and violated the First Amendment.

As a part of the settlement, the Florida Department of Education will now issue grants for the 2012-2013 school year to the FCC students who filed the lawsuit.

China Largest Producer of Bibles

The world’s largest communist country is also the world’s biggest producer of Bibles.

Amity Printing Company has printed 100 million Bibles since the company began in 1987 as a joint venture between the Amity Foundation and the United Bible Societies. It’s the only company in the country permitted to print Bibles.

Ironically, Christian missionaries constantly smuggle Bibles into the communist nation as China remains one of the top countries on the World Watch List, an index of nations where Christians are most persecuted. Much of church growth in the country has been underground.

Of all of the Bibles printed there, only three million are sold in mainland China each year. Most are printed in other languages and exported to more than 60 other countries.

British Court Rules in Favor of Christian Man

The British High Court has ruled in favor of a Christian man who posted his opposition to gay marriage on Facebook.

Adrian Smith posted that gay weddings in churches were “an equality too far.” After a fellow staff member at the taxpayer-funded Trafford Housing Trust complained about his comments, he was called into a disciplinary meeting with his employer.

Afterward, he was removed from his managerial position and his pay was cut by 40 percent. His employer claimed Smith broke its code of conduct by expressing religious or political views.

In November, the High Court ruled that Smith had been taken to task for “doing nothing wrong” and found his employer guilty of breach of contract.

Christy Barritt is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and speaker living in Chesapeake, Virginia. She and her husband Scott have two sons. 
www.christybarritt.com