It’s Wednesday, March 27th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Jonathan Clark
161 acts of persecution against Christians so far in 2024
During the first 75 days of 2024, the United Christian Forum documented 161 incidents of persecution against Christians in India. Christians in the Hindu-majority country often face accusations of forced conversion.
The group noted Christians experienced the most persecution in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. It said, “There is clear evidence of state-sponsored harassment of Christians in this state, as the police file false allegations of conversion against pastors, even for praying in birthday parties and other social gatherings.”
One billion people in India expected to vote
Nearly a billion people will head to the polls in India next month. It’s considered the largest democratic election in history.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to win a third term in a row. His Hindu-nationalist party, known as the Bharatiya Janata Party, is also expected to remain in power.
India overtook China as the world’s most populated country last year. India also overtook the U.K. as the fifth largest economy in 2022 and is on track to be the third largest behind the U.S. and China.
Isaiah 40:15 reminds us, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, [the Lord] lifts up the isles as a very little thing.”
Air & Space Museum in trouble for mocking pro-lifers
In the United States, a national museum agreed to a $50,000 settlement with pro-life tourists.
Twelve students visited the National Air and Space Museum last year, wearing pro-life apparel. Museum staff mocked the students and forced them to leave.
Patrick Murphy, one of those pro-life students, appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox show and explained what happened.
MURPHY: “We got done with the March for Life and we decided to go to the Air and Space Museum. We ended up at the Flight Brothers exhibit. At this time, we were addressed by security guards and they tell, ‘All people wearing a pro-life hat, take it off.’ One of the students with us proceeds to say, ‘We use these hats for identification purposes. This is for our group.’
“We were approached by a large man as we were walking out, rubbing his hands together, saying ‘Y’all are about to make my day!’ He tells us he’s got reports saying we said no to taking our hats off and we’re in trouble for some odd reason. I then said, ‘This is a violation of our First Amendment right. This is a government-funded building.’ He said, ‘It’s a neutral zone, and that doesn’t apply here.’ And we were blown away. We had almost no words.”
The Smithsonian oversees the museum and agreed to the settlement, offering the students a private tour.
Jordan Sekulow with the American Center for Law and Justice wrote, “This was a clear-cut First Amendment violation, not only of their freedom of speech but of religion as well. The federal government simply cannot ban speech with which it or its employees disagree.”
Kansas pro-life bill would end chemical abortion
In welcome news, Students for Life Action applauded the roll call vote on Senate Bill 286 in the Kansas Senate, which, if signed into law, will greatly increase pro-life protections in Kansas, stopping dangerous Chemical Abortion pills and ending intentional abortion.
This vote resulted from the hard work of Students for Life Action intern Cheyenne Vandeventer, who helped introduce the law in 2023, and was championed by Kansas GOP State Senator Dr. Mark Steffen.
Ship crashed into Baltimore bridge, causing collapse
A massive, Singapore-flagged container ship, named Dali, bound for Sri Lanka, crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge yesterday at 1:30am in Maryland, causing it to collapse. Watch the video.
The ship was departing from Baltimore, Maryland when it lost power. The collision sent people and cars into the icy Patapsco River. First responders rescued two people from the river, but six more are unaccounted for and presumed dead.
Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore spoke to the press.
MOORE: “This morning our state is in shock. To our first responders, I’m in awe of you. I’m in awe of your courage. I’m in awe of your strength. You saw a crisis and you said, ‘What can I do to help’ to rescue and recover the victims of this collapse literally as we speak.”
Ship traffic to the Baltimore Harbor is suspended for now. The port is the busiest one in the United States for car shipments.
Maternal mortality rate did not skyrocket at all
A new study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found the U.S. maternal mortality rate may have been overestimated.
In 2003, death certificates started to include a box if someone was pregnant near the time of death. This led to the appearance of a 143% increase in maternal mortality rates over the last 21 years. However, researchers found the rate only increased by two percent in reality.
LifeSiteNews noted, “Maternal mortality is frequently used as an excuse to expand legal abortion. … Across the globe, statistics have shown that legal abortion does not lower the maternal mortality rate.”
Alabama defunded “woke” programs
Last Wednesday, Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The state will no longer fund such woke programs at schools, public colleges, and government agencies.
The law put restrictions on “divisive concepts” like the idea that “any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.”
Weekly U.S. church attendance down 12 points
And finally, Gallup released a new poll on church attendance in America.
Overall, 30% of Americans say they attend religious services weekly or almost weekly. Eleven percent attend once a month, and 56% seldom or never attend.
Since 2000, weekly or almost weekly religious attendance is down 12 points for U.S. adults. It’s down 12 points for Catholics and down four points for Protestants.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, March 27th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.