Today’s Martyrs Resources for understanding current Christian witness and martyrdom United States Dr Albert Mohler (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on December 31, 2014 denounced an upcoming front page Newsweek article that calls evangelicals and fundamentalists frauds, said "Newsweek's cover story is exactly what happens when a writer fueled by open antipathy to evangelical Christianity tries to throw every argument he can think of against the Bible and its authority. To put the matter plainly, no honest historian would recognize the portrait of Christian history presented in this essay as accurate and no credible journalist would recognize this screed as balanced"; on May 12, 2020 criticized New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson's condemnation of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse’s COVID-19 field hospital in Central Park: “Now, of all things, just notice what's not here. What's not here is any statement of thanks for an evangelical Christian ministry that not only expended funds but brought an army of volunteers and medical personnel who put themselves at risk on behalf of efforts to try to save New Yorkers in the midst of the pandemic...No one has been able to put any substance to the charge that Samaritan's Purse has ever discriminated when it comes to medical treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or anything else, that's not even alleged here. It is simply the fact that Samaritan's Purse dares to hold to historic biblical Christianity”; on November 18, 2020 denounced a proposal that the Biden administration end religious freedom initiatives at the State and Education Departments: "The Human Rights Campaign demands the Biden administration to ensure that 'non-discrimination policies and science- based curriculum are not undermined by religious exemption to accreditation standards...The Human Rights Campaign is not known for any particular agenda on the creation-evolution front, nor is the group preoccupied with particle physics. The Human Rights Campaign is targeting issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, cloaking them in the language of 'science.' This is an undisguised effort to require Christian schools and colleges to abandon biblical authority or lose accreditation...That is sinister. I’ve not seen any document like this before — the Human Rights Campaign is effectively calling for religious colleges and schools to be coerced into the sexual revolution or stripped of accreditation...In clear text, for all the world to see, the Human Rights Campaign summons the Biden administration to deny accreditation — or, at the very least, to facilitate the denial of accreditation — to Christian institutions, Christian colleges and universities, and, for that matter, any other religious institution or school that does not meet the demands of the LGBTQ orthodoxy. …It would mean that Christian schools are no longer Christian..."; said on March 25, 2021 in response to USA Today sports columnist Hemal Jhaveri's call for Oral Roberts University to be banned from the NCAA because Christianity is "archaic" and "wildly out of line with modern society and the basic values of human decency": "This is language beyond anything we've yet seen, although the logic has been there all the time...the most dangerous letters when it comes to the continuation of Christian higher education are the letters NCAA, because the NCAA is indeed adopting policies and pointing in directions that will make it impossible for Christian institutions that hold to a biblical standard of morality, or even a biblical definition of male and female, to continue in participation...We're about to find out just how many Christian schools are going to be willing to stand on biblical standards...we're about to find out just how many schools are actually serving the cause of sports, and how many are going to serve the cause of Christ...recognize if it's said about Oral Roberts University today, it will be said about you, your school, your church, your organization, your Christian congregation, tomorrow. Count on it) Andrew Walker (Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Director of Policy Studies, signed the joint statement "Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders" which on December 15, 2017 condemned gender ideology: "...We acknowledge and affirm that all human beings are created by God and thereby have an inherent dignity. We also believe that God created each person male or female, therefore, sexual difference is not an accident or a flaw...Children especially are harmed when they are told that they can "change" their sex or, further, given hormones that will affect their development and possibly render them infertile as adults. Parents deserve better guidance on these important decisions, and we urge our medical institutions to honor the basic medical principle of "first, do no harm." Gender ideology harms individuals and societies by sowing confusion and self-doubt. The state itself has a compelling interest, therefore, in maintaining policies that uphold the scientific fact of human biology and supporting the social institutions and norms that surround it...The movement today to enforce the false idea — that a man can be or become a woman or vice versa — is deeply troubling. It compels people to either go against reason — that is, to agree with something that is not true — or face ridicule, marginalization, and other forms of retaliation...") Anne Paulk (former homosexual, criticized Amazon on August 29, 2019 for refusing to sell her book about her conversion story “It is appalling that Amazon has banned books detailing how one struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction can overcome those feelings and steward his or her sexuality in a biblical fashion, while thinking nothing of selling books that celebrate the kind of deviancy Jeffrey Epstein was accused of”) Austin Ruse (columnist, subjected to an FBI investigation on or before July 3, 2018 after his tweet comparing pressure on business owners to place LGBT rainbows in their locales' windows to mafia shakedowns was reported by the Human Rights Campaign as a civil rights violation, the FBI closed the investigation as trivial, wrote that the complaint was akin to "swatting" and added “It works like this: A local restaurant is owned by a faithful Catholic who objects to the gay agenda. He does not want to put up the gay rainbow. He finds it offensive. So, he doesn’t put it up. Gays notice he doesn’t have the gay rainbow affixed to his window. ‘Why don’t you have the rainbow on your window?’ they ask. ‘Are you homophobic? Do you really want the local community to know about you?’ You can see it spooling out from there. He is targeted by the local bully boys who proceed to make his life miserable, perhaps harming and even shuttering his business”) Betty Rendon (wife of Carlos Hincapie, mother of Paula Hincapie, Colombian citizen, seminary student, fled Colombia's civil war in 2004 after receiving threats from guerrillas, applied for asylum; arrested on May 8, 2019 after her asylum request was rejected due to lack of corroborating documentation [which guerrilla activity prevented]; deported along with her husband on May 28, 2019) Bryan Fischer (American Family Association radio host, said on October 14, 2013 that the Christian organization's inclusion in a U.S. Army presentation as a hate group is “libelous, slanderous and blatantly false”) Chip Gaines (husband of Joanna Gaines, cable television personality, attacked in writing on November 30, 2016 for attending a church that does not support same sex marriage) Chris Stone (founder of Faith Driven Consumer, criticized Twitter for halting an October 16, 2014 online petition in support of the Houston pastors who are being subpoenaed by the city for their private communications to congregants on homosexuality, said "There is a deeply troubling pattern of censorship with social-media companies when people of faith speak out") Sr Clare Marie OP (teacher at Marin Catholic High School in San Francisco, left school with four other nuns on April 17, 2015 rather than participate in a student-led 'Day of Silence', students were handing out Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network literature which stated opposition to the bullying of gay students but which also stated “that any church which teaches homosexuality is sinful is an 'oppressor’ and should be opposed”) former Pastor Craig Stellpflug (aged 56, denied a Twitter advertisement on July 3, 2017 to promote his book defending traditional Christian marriage, Twitter wrote that the text "One Man One Woman is about God's original design for marriage carried from Adam and Eve in the garden through today" was 'hateful', said "My book is not hate! It highlights conservative Christian marriage values — therefore it is 'hate.' Have we stooped so low in our country that my freedom of speech is squelched because I promote my Christian beliefs?", Twitter was not reported as having returned his payment) Rev Dr David Wendel (signed the joint statement "Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders" which on December 15, 2017 condemned gender ideology) Denise 'D C' McAllister (columnist, under police protection after receiving death and rape threats following a September 6, 2018 anti-abortion tweet) Rev Eugene F. Rivers III (signed the joint statement "Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders" which on December 15, 2017 condemned gender ideology) Archbishop Foley Beach (signed the joint statement "Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders" which on December 15, 2017 condemned gender ideology) Bishop Francis Y Kalabat (wrote after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detained 199 Iraqi nationals for deportation on June 12, 2017, including many Christians "The Church does not oppose justice, all hardened criminals that are a danger to society should be picked up.