Leah Sharibu campaign by Christian Solidarity Worldwide in July 2018 calling for the Christian girl's freedom. (SCREENSHOT: CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE)
Leah Sharibu refused to denounce Christ when she was kidnapped by Islamic radical group Boko Haram in February. So she wasn't released with the over 100 schoolgirls who had also been captured from school in Dapchi.
An audio recording was released this week and the family of Sharibu confirmed that it was her voice. In the recording, the 15-year-old pleads for help.
Though her daughter is in captivity, Rebecca Sharibu said she is proud that Leah did not reject Christ.
"And because of that, I know God will never forsake her."
Spike in STDs
For the fourth consecutive year, the U.S. saw a sharp increase in sexually transmitted diseases in 2017, a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed.
Last year, nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were diagnosed, surpassing the 2016 record by more than 200,000 cases.
How Christians are interpreting the report:
It's "a moral crisis and a spiritual crisis" — Evangelist Franklin Graham
"Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in America, and the largest provider of sex-education in American schools. That is your problem right there. Call it Tinder in the classroom. No one should be surprised that STDs continue to soar." — Scott Phelps of Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership
The religious and nonreligious get new names
Pew Research Center decided to come up with a new way to classify Americans by religion, or lack thereof.
Typically, research firms have been using labels such as Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Other Faith, Atheist and None, among others.
But Pew is now cutting across faiths to categorize people by beliefs and behaviors. That means people of different faiths may be part of the same category.
Here are some of the new groupings:
- God-and-Country Believers: Less active than "Sunday Stalwarts" but hold many traditional religious beliefs and tilt right on social and political issues
- Diversely Devout: They believe in God but also believe in psychics, reincarnation and spiritual energy located in physical things.
- Relaxed Religious: They believe in the God of the Bible and pray often but few attend religious services or read Scripture; they say it is not necessary to believe in God to be a moral person
- Religion Resisters: They consider themselves spiritual but not religious; most think organized religion does more harm than good; they're politically liberal and Democratic
Pray for
Rapper Andy Mineo whose mother died after battling cancer
Christians and other minorities in Myanmar who have faced genocidal acts by military leaders and whose access to lifesaving humanitarian aid has been blocked.
New releases
Books:
Letters to the Church by Francis Chan (Sept. 1)
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry (Sept. 3)
