The Weekly is a highlight of the work the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is doing to strengthen you and our churches for God’s glory.

Explainer: Chinese officials burn Bibles and close churches in latest round of persecution

What’s going on in China?

Over the past few weeks, the Chinese government has escalated its persecution of Christians by destroying crosses, burning Bibles, confiscating religion materials, and closing churches.

This week the Beijing city authorities banned Zion Church, one of the largest unofficial Protestant “house” churches in the city and confiscated “illegal promotional materials.” The crackdown started in April, after the church rejected requests from authorities to install 24 closed-circuit television cameras in their building.

Bob Fu, president of China Aid and the recipient of ERLC’s Religious Liberty Award in 2007, told the Associated Press that the closure of churches in central Henan province and a prominent house church in Beijing in recent weeks represents a “significant escalation” of the crackdown.

“The international community should be alarmed and outraged for this blatant violation of freedom of religion and belief,” said Fu.

This Week at the ERLC

As Hurricane Florence hits North Carolina, the North American Mission Board’s Send Relief is mobilized and ready to serve affected communities on behalf of Southern Baptists.
Russell Moore’s new book, The Storm-Tossed Family, releases tomorrow. He’s been doing interviews about it with numerous media outlets and can’t wait for you to read it and share it with those you love!
The ERLC joined with other evangelical organizations to send a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo, Secretary of Homeland Security Nielson, and Ambassador Brownback urging them to carry out a refugee resettlement program that helps defend religious freedom and protect the persecuted around the world.
Russell Moore and the ERLC joined dozens of other pro-life leaders to urge the Trump Administration to halt use of aborted baby body parts for research: “There is nothing pro-life about partnering with the abortion industry for any reason.”
Dan Darling spoke at Welch College on human dignity and the why Christians should treat everyone we encounter and view every public policy issue through the lens of every person being made in the image of God.

What You Need to Know

Many people around us are struggling with mental illness in silence. Often, this is because of shame. But sometimes it’s because they confided in someone before who wasn’t a good friend to them. Amy Simpson addresses this in her latest article, “How to help a friend with mental illness .”

“The truth is, as with other complex troubles, there are many ways to help. Yet, when it comes to mental illness, many of us respond with fear or avoidance. This, in turn, compromises our creative abilities. Once we start thinking beyond the solutions most of us are not qualified to provide, we begin to realize we can do far more than we guessed.”

Leading a congregation can be challenging when you’re constantly competing with a smartphone. Like it or not, those little devices are extremely effective and are here to stay. So, in light of this, Trevor Atwood shares advice from his own experience in his article, Pastoring in light of technology: Shepherding souls shaped by screens, from the latest issue of Light Magazine.

“Our social media use, smartphone addictions, and television-binging sessions are changing us—and not for the better. In fact, we can find plenty of blog posts, articles, statistics, and news reports through those same devices that testify to the reality that we are losing basic relational skills, like empathy and communication.”

News From Capitol Hill

Travis Wussow, vice president of public policy for the ERLC, wrote this week on the persecution of Christians in China for Providence Magazine. The ERLC policy team advocates for the free exercise of faith for all people to be a top priority of our nation’s foreign policy. The American interest in promoting international religious freedom is both moral and strategic. In calling for diplomatic pressure to be applied on China, Wussow writes:

“With a newly modernized International Religious Freedom Act, the State Department has a number of tools at its disposal, including diplomatic pressure, conditions on international aid and trade, and economic sanctions.”

Featured Podcasts

Does the gospel have implications for social injustice? Is justice a distraction from the gospel? Russell Moore addresses these questions on the latest episode of Signposts, “The Gospel and Social Injustice: Part 2.”

" If we are following Jesus, then that means that our consciences are shaped to care about what Jesus cares about, and to care about who Jesus cares about.”

From The Public Square

Pro-life leaders urge end to fetal research
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore has joined more than 40 other pro-life leaders in urging the Trump administration to halt federal use of aborted baby tissue for research.

U.S. appeals court says Missouri can enforce abortion laws
Reuters

A federal appeals court on Monday cleared the way for Missouri to enforce state laws requiring doctors who perform abortions to be affiliated with hospitals and abortion clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.

U.S. Support for Euthanasia Hinges on How It's Described
Lydia Saad, Gallup

Support is at low ebb on the basis of wording that mentions "suicide"

What I Learned from Same-Sex Abuse Inside the Church
Ann Smith, Christianity Today

My church mishandled my case. Yours doesn’t have to.

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