It’s Friday, May 8th, A.D. 2020. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Jonathan Clark
COVID-19 leading to Pakistani Christian starvation & more persecution
Although the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has been the cause of millions of unemployment filings in America, persecuted Christians around the world are starving and barely able to survive during this pandemic.
The Worldview spoke to William Stark of International Christian Concern about how the coronavirus lockdowns have caused much suffering for those in countries like Pakistan and India.
STARK: “The COVID-19 virus has brought many challenges to the persecuted church around the world. I can speak specifically to kind of two different ways in which persecuted Christians have faced some pretty dramatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national lockdowns that followed.
“First of all, it’s given a new way in which Christians face persecution and discrimination. The greatest example of this is what we’re seeing in a place like Pakistan. On March 21 the entire country went into lockdown. About 45% of the country’s population lives below the poverty line and earns their money from daily wage or daily labor jobs. So obviously, the national lockdown cut off almost half of the country’s population from being able to receive or to earn funds on a daily basis.”
Stay tuned for a Worldview Special Report immediately following today’s newscast on the further devastating effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on Christian minorities.
United Kingdom economy to shrink by 14%
The Bank of England warned that it expects the U.K. economy to shrink by 14 percent this year and 25 percent in the second quarter alone due to the effects of the coronavirus outbreak response.
This would be the largest economic downturn in the U.K. since 1706.
Next week, the U.K. government is expected to start rolling back the lockdown restrictions.
North Carolina GOP Rep sues Dem. Governor over restrictions on religion
North Carolina Republican State Representative Keith Kidwell is leading a lawsuit against Democratic Governor Roy Cooper over his restrictions on religious activities during the coronavirus outbreak.
Kidwell has the support of about 30 other state representatives and has also introduced a bill to allow churches to remain open during a state of emergency.
President Donald Trump expressed the sentiment of many on Sunday to reporters.
TRUMP: “It’s wonderful to watch people over a laptop, but it’s not like being at a church. And we have to get our people back to churches. And we’re gonna start doing it soon.”
Psalm 122:1 says, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’”
Dallas salon owner fined $7,000, sent to jail for one week for re-opening business
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is calling for the immediate release of Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther who was fined $7,000 and sentenced to a week in jail for reopening her business in defiance of Governor Greg Abbott’s stay-at-home order.
Luther said she reopened her business because her employees were going hungry to feed their children.
Pro-life petition underscores right to advocate for life on sidewalk
Over 16,000 people have signed a petition to support the rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors during the coronavirus outbreak, organized by the Personhood Alliance and LifeSiteNews.
Already the signatures have been delivered to local authorities and states around the country where pro-lifers have been harassed and even arrested for their peaceful work.
You can sign the petition too through a link in our transcript today at theworldview.com.
U.S. drop in religiosity, still ahead of other nations
A new study on American religiosity is out by Lyman Stone, an adjunct fellow for the American Enterprise Institute and a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies.
Stone noted that although the last century has seen a plummet in church attendance and religious affiliation in America, those numbers are still higher than what they were in the 1780s.
Stone also found church attendance in America is higher now than in many nations around the world. Stone listed secular education and the decline in marriage as contributing factors to falling religious affiliation.
Psalm 33:12 reminds us, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”
Homeschool Curriculum Summit 2.0 Ends Today
And finally, you can save time and money by learning from the time-tested, biblically-based wisdom of 25 Christian curriculum creators through video interviews on how to find the right fit for each child and each family.
The Homeschool Curriculum Summit 2.0 will help you evaluate your curriculum options with a Christian worldview to identify the right fit for every student for every subject so you can homeschool with confidence! It runs through today. The curriculum includes math, science, language arts, history, and social studies.
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, May 8th in the year of our Lord 2020, my 54th birthday. 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.
Pakistani Christians treated like modern-day lepers by Muslims
Time now for a Worldview Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.
By Emily Munday
The lockdowns in Pakistan have affected Christians in more ways than others because many Christians there are the ones who work the daily labor jobs and depend on their daily wages.
Listen to William Stark of International Christian Concern.
STARK: “They are more represented in that daily labor force. Not only are they over represented in the group that is in desperate need of aid. ICC has actually documented four separate incidents in which Christians were denied aid because of their religious identity.
“Essentially what we’ve heard happening in the country is that Christians are showing up at government aid distributions; they get to the front of the line; they show their national ID card, and once that’s shown, they’re being told, ‘You are not eligible. You can’t receive this aid.’ And they’re turned away. Often when they ask why they’re being turned away they’re told, ‘This is for Muslims only or this is a Muslim country.’ Or they’re asked, ‘Well if you convert to Islam you can receive this aid.’”
Stark said that they are forcing Christians, who are considered the “dirty ones” to continue to do the sanitation work despite the virus.
STARK: “Christians make up about 1.6% of the country’s overall population, but the sanitation workforce is made up of 80-90% Christians. The reason this is is because there’s this idea that Christians are dirty; somehow they’re spiritually filthy because of their religious identity. So, you give filthy people a filthy job. So, these people are being required to continue to work. That’s cleaning up the hospitals, cleaning up the homes, but they’re not being provided with any sort of protective gear.”
Stark said that he spoke to one of these workers about the situation.
STARK: “I was actually talking to a sanitation worker from a hospital in Lahore, and he was saying, ‘Yeah, management isn’t giving us any protective gear. We are being treated like we’re not human,’ is what he told me. But he was scared, ‘I’m scared of the virus, but if I don’t show up to work I can’t feed my family.’ So it’s a real difficult situation.”
Please pray for these brothers and sisters, that the Lord God would be their sun and shield as it says in Psalm 84:11-12, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!”
This has been another Worldview Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.