• “Shoot me instead”! Myanmar nun pleads with junta forces. As a group of heavily armed police officers sought to stop protests in the Myanmar city of Myitkyina last week, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng knelt before them and begged them “not to shoot and torture the children, but to shoot me and kill me instead”. The accompanying photo has gone viral and has won Sister Ann praise in the majority-Buddhist country. The protests were a call for the return of democracy to Myanmar, and were responded to by the junta using teargas, water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds. Christians are being urged to pray for Myanmar as violence in the country continues to escalate. Read more here.

Society and Politics

• Hate crime bill passes (& blasphemy law abolished) in Scotland. The highly controversial bill - which MSPs approved late on Thursday night - will introduce the offence of intention to stir up hatred – even in regard to words uttered in private homes. Churches, police representatives, academics, lawyers and many other groups have long condemned the bill, warning that it will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression. Because of the staunch opposition, the SNP was forced to make several humiliating amendments to the bill, helping in some way to protect free speech on religion. Read more here.
• Covid-19 vaccine safety concerns. While the great majority of health professionals strongly endorse the various approved Covid vaccines, a number of scientists continue to express doubts about certain aspects of their use. Last week, Geert vanden Bossche, an independent virologist and former employee of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wrote an open letter to the World Health Organisation and to scientists around the world, to share his concerns about the “present massive evidence that viral immune escape is now threatening humanity”. Read his evidence here. Another open letter, written by the Doctors 4 Covid Ethics group, calls for greater scrutiny of those affected by the vaccinations.
• Study finds staunch anti-conservative bias at US & UK universities. A new study exploring political biases in academia over the past decade demonstrates “that a majority of conservative academics experience a hostile environment for their beliefs in US, Canadian, and British universities.” The study, Academic Freedom in Crisis, authored by Dr. Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of London, shows that in the top 100 US universities, 73% of academics are liberal, 22% made no affiliation, and only around 5% are conservative. There was also a growing trend of discrimination against conservative academics, Kaufmann found, with a tendency of younger academics, including Ph.D students, to favour their ideological opponents being fired for holding “controversial” beliefs. Read more here.

Church News

• Luis Palau dies at 86. International evangelist Luis Palau has passed away at his home in Portland, Oregon, following a three-year battle with lung cancer. In a joint statement, Palau’s four sons said he had died "suddenly and very peacefully, just as he had hoped." Born in Argentina, Luis Palau made his home in the United States, and went on to become one of Billy Graham’s most prominent successors. He preached the gospel in more than 80 countries around the world, leading millions of individuals to make personal decisions to follow Jesus. Palau's passing constitutes the death of three of the world's most prominent evangelists in as many years; following Billy Graham's and Reinhard Bonnke's deaths in 2018 and 2019 respectively. 
  
• White evangelicals least likely to get Covid vaccine. White evangelicals are the least likely faith group in the United States to get vaccinated for Covid-19, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. The survey, conducted with over 10,000 US adults in February, found that 54% of white evangelicals “definitely or probably” plan on getting vaccinated, or already have received at least one vaccination shot. This compared to 64% of black Americans, 77% of Catholics, 71% of the religiously unaffiliated and 90% of atheists. When split along political lines, the survey showed that 83% of Democrats plan to get vaccinated or already have been, compared to 56% of Republicans. Read more here.

World Events

• Pope prays for Iraq’s persecuted Christians. Pope Francis visited Iraq last week, to reassure the nation’s dwindling Christian community of his prayers after years of Islamic attacks and persecution. “We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion,” Francis said. The number of Christians in Iraq has shrunk from 1.5 million before the 2003 US-led invasion to 400,000 now, constituting only 1% of the population. Iraqi Christian leader, Reverend George Jahoula spoke for many when he said, “This very important visit will boost our morale after years of difficulties, problems, and wars”. The Pope also met Hungarian ministerial envoy for persecuted Christians, Tristan Azbej, Hungary being one of the few countries in the world with a government agency for persecuted Christians. Read more here.
• Malay Christians can call God “Allah”!. Malaysia's High Court has overturned a policy banning Christians from using the word "Allah" to refer to God, following a decades-long legal battle. In the past the Christian use of “Allah” has sparked tension and violence from Malay Muslims. But Christians who speak the Malay language have long used “Allah”, a Malay word derived from Arabic, in their Bibles, prayers, and songs.
  

Israel & the Middle East

• Christian missionary arrested in Israel. A "Christian" missionary was arrested last month after being caught distributing a religious pamphlet to a 6-year-old child in the coastal city of Ashdod. The arrest is regarded as highly unusual and may even be unprecedented in the country. Freedom of religion in Israel includes the right to spread one’s views freely. While there have been cases of the police detaining people accused of illegal missionary activity, no one has thought to have been charged for this offence. There is, however, a law which forbids persuading or encouraging a minor (under the age of 18) to change his or her religion. 
• Praise and concern over Israel’s ‘Green passport’. Israel has led the way in the vaccination rollout, and is again at the forefront in being one of the world’s first nations to instate a ‘Green passport’ system which will restrict entry to a multitude of public places – including synagogues, gyms and hotels – to holders of a scannable vaccine passport. Students will be unable to attend school or university without the passport. The Israeli Health Minister has also said that employers will be required to have their staff vaccinated, or to undergo coronavirus testing every 48 hours. But some distraught citizens claim that the passport has created a ‘medical Apartheid’, and have shared their fear of publicly raising concerns.