Author: Shalem John

When Matthew Okeyo heard in 2023 that a religious sect leader had led hundreds of followers to starve to death in Kenya’s Shakahola Forest, he felt “shocked but not surprised.” Okeyo, who pastors African Inland Church Milimani in Nairobi, Kenya, said unchecked heretical groups have tricked and enslaved many Kenyans. Introducing regulations seemed like a good idea. But now he and other church leaders oppose a bill the Kenyan government introduced last year to curb religious extremism, and they say it unnecessarily tightens regulations on legitimate religious institutions, including churches. “I don’t have a problem with regulation,” Okeyo said. “My…

Armenia’s first national prayer breakfast Friday and Saturday comes amid one of the most potent confrontations between church and state in the country’s modern history. In recent months, tensions between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), its independent national church, have escalated sharply. Authorities arrested top clergy accused of taking part in a plot to overthrow Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government earlier this year. Pashinyan, who will deliver the keynote address at the prayer breakfast, has cast the event as part of his broader effort to “renew Armenia’s spiritual foundations” after years of political turbulence and conflict. The…

A 34-year-old missionary, along with 13 prayer partners and short-term missionaries, was praying with a Christian family in a village in the disputed northern state of Jammu and Kashmir on October 23 when eight police officers interrupted the fellowship. The cops informed the group, who were from Tamil Nadu in South India, that local Palal villagers had complained about the gathering and were preparing to attack them. The cops instructed them to leave immediately and offered protection to get them out of the village safely. While initially scared, the missionary was relieved that the police had offered to help them.…