The 3 - August 18, 2024

This week's edition of The 3, featuring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, features a significant ruling late last Friday from the U.S. Supreme Court, blocking changes in Title IX from going into effect.  Also, hundreds of church leaders are speaking out against Christian persecution in the nation of India. Plus, closer to home, there has been another development in what has become a narrative surrounding Christian persecution in Nicaragua. 

High court prevents Title IX rewrite from taking effect

Ever since the Administration announced its new rules for Title IX, extending anti-discrimination protections, originally intended to protect women, to also include so-called "gender identity," challenges have been filed in court.  Among other things, this would allow biological males to play in women's sports. 

As Lathan Watts of Alliance Defending Freedom had reported on the Friday Meeting House program on Faith Radio, that Christian legal organization had successfully argued for five temporary injunctions to be put in place to prevent these policies from taking effect while the litigation continues. 

Late Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld temporary injunctions out of two federal appeals courts against the new Title IX rules.  The Daily Signal reported:

Tennessee and Louisiana are leading two lawsuits against the Education Department and its Biden-appointed secretary, Miguel Cardona, seeking injunctions to block the application of the law. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 5th and 6th Circuits granted preliminary injunctions, blocking the new rules from going into effect.

Cardona appealed to the Supreme Court, and the high court denied the emergency appeal Friday.

This prevents the new rules from taking effect in 10 states. The article notes:

Tennessee, Louisiana, and others who joined the lawsuits argued that the administration’s Title IX rules unlawfully redefine sex discrimination and violate students’ and employees’ rights to bodily privacy and safety. They argued that a definition of harassment based on the creation of a “hostile environment” violates the First Amendment by requiring students and teachers to use preferred pronouns.

Persecution of Christians in India draws response from hundreds of church leaders

Sectarian violence in India, including against Christians, has been widely reported, and a consortium of church leaders have decided to speak out against it.  The Stream reported:

Over 300 Christian leaders in the U.S. have petitioned the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) following an unprecedented escalation of state-sanctioned violence against Christians there.

The article noted that the letter was directed to Secretary of State Blinken and "signed by three archbishops, 18 bishops, 166 clergy from diverse denominations, eight current or former presidents, deans from five theological schools, and leaders from over 40 Christian organizations."

The article goes on to say:

“This surge in violence is propelled by a Hindu ethno-nationalist or Hindutva supremacist political ideology, which conflates a militant Hindu ideology with Indian citizen identities,” the letter explains, leading to a distortion of both Hinduism and India’s constitutional democracy accompanied by “alarming levels of violence” against Christians, lower-caste Dalits, and other religious minorities.

Rev. Neal Christie, executive director of the Federation of Indian-American Christian Organizations in North America (FIACONA), is quoted as saying, “This is the first public letter of its kind penned by U.S. Christian leaders addressing persecution in India..." The article says, "'As Christians do not practice caste and practice a minority religion, they are considered a national threat,' the signatories write, expressing solidarity with a petition more than 3,000 Indian Christian leaders signed in January. Those leaders boycotted a Christmas lunch hosted by India’s Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year."

Religious persecution in Nicaragua faces growing concern

Earlier this year, I became aware of what appeared to be a series of impactful evangelistic events in the nation of Nicaragua, conducted by a ministry called Mountain Gateway.  Its website, in a report filed in January, stated:

In 2023, Mountain Gateway held eight mass evangelistic gospel campaigns in the country, with the support and assistance of the Nicaraguan government. Mountain Gateway fiscally operated under strict accounting from Mountain Gateway staff and budget reviews by the Nicaraguan government to account for every dollar associated with the events. No members of Mountain Gateway have personally profited from funds sent to Nicaragua for ministry functions.

Nicaragua has revoked the registration of hundreds of non-profit and faith-based organizations in the last five years, including most recently, expelling numerous members of the Catholic Church and seizing church property. In these cases, the government often includes the charge of money laundering or other financial charges as the reason for revocation.

Three U.S. citizens in leadership of the ministry, as well as 11 Nicaraguan pastors, were charged with "money laundering and organized crime."  In March of this year, according to Mountain Gateway's website:

The Nicaraguan courts found 11 Nicaraguan Mountain Gateway pastors guilty on charges of money laundering. The pastors were not allowed to be physically present during the proceedings; they were only allowed to attend over a video livestream. At the time of the sentencing, all 11 pastors received sentences ranging between 12 and 15 years. In addition, the pastors were each fined over 80 million USD. Between the 11 pastors, they were fined almost 1 billion USD.

1819 News reported that Mountain Gateway was founded by Britt Hancock, who is from Alabama. In June, according to the website, Senator Katie Britt took to the U.S. Senate floor calling for action from the Administration; the article says:

"Let's be very clear. These Christians are imprisoned today because of their faith," Britt continued. "Their very freedom has been taken away because they chose to preach the gospel and the regime doesn't seem to want to stop there."

Britt reminded Senators the Nicaraguan government has also threatened Hancock and his family with arrest if they return to the country. Britt said Biden must utilize all sanction powers.

"Any options that are in the toolbox should be used to force Nicaragua to remedy the situation," Britt continued. "Today, I want to emphasize that we cannot and we will not stop speaking up against this religious persecution in Nicaragua."

"We are calling on the Biden administration to do more now," she added. "This regime must stop targeting American citizens, and it needs to begin faithfully upholding religious freedom and compliance with international law and universal standards of human rights."

Recently, Crosswalk Headlines reported that:

Nicaragua recently detained around a dozen priests as part of a “renewed crackdown” on the Catholic Church. As reported by The Christian Post, the majority of leaders detained were in the diocese led by exiled bishop Ronaldo Alvarez, a strong critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government who was sentenced to 26 years in prison last year for “undermining national integrity.”

The article states that Christian Solidarity Worldwide, described as a "United Kingdom-based Christian persecution watchdog," "is calling for the release of religious leaders detained by the authorities in Nicaragua." It quotes from CSW Founding President Mervyn Thomas, who said, “The continued detention and arrests of religious leaders by the Nicaraguan government are both unwarranted and unconscionable..."