Worldwide Christian News – Tuesday, October 27, 2015

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Worldwide Christian News – Tuesday, October 27, 2015

(Guatemala City)—[CBN News] Guatemalan voters have chosen a comedian with studies in theology as their new president. Jimmy Morales was initially considered an outsider but surprised the nation by leading the first round of elections, easily qualifying for the runoff.

Morales ran on a platform of conservative values, opposing gay marriage, opposing abortion, and opposing the legalization of marijuana.

“According to my belief, my ideology, I would have to veto such laws,” the president-elect told CBN News. “I think in Guatemala we will not have this because of conservative thinking. In case Congress approves such laws, my position would be against them.”

Morales presented himself as a champion against corruption, with the slogan “neither corrupt nor a thief.”

The election followed months of political crisis, including the resignation of outgoing President Otto Perez Molina and his arrest on fraud and corruption charges. With a jailed president, the country teetered on the verge of social and political chaos.

The Guatemalan Church played an important role through the crisis, holding prayer meetings like one held every Saturday morning at the Central Park.

The “Guatemala Prays” movement mobilized more than 700 churches for prayer vigils and fasting. For 40 days they prayed for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

“God put His hand in Guatemala, it’s a miracle what happened,” prayer participant Marco Antonio Ruiz said. “We came together as Church and cried out with one voice. The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. God heard the voice of all those who joined us in prayer.”

“The role of the Christian Church is to be the bride of the Lamb, a role of service and devotion,” Morales told CBN News. “Also to evangelize, train and improve the talents of people. So, it’s a fairly large role.”

The Church’s active participation was also reflected in a debate held days before the election. The event, organized by the country’s main evangelical organizations, was broadcast on national television and by satellite on the Christian network Enlace.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — While Europe has welcomed in thousands of Syrians, mostly Muslims, it’s a different story for Pakistani Christians. In Sweden, many are being ordered to return home — and some may face death.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants have sought a better life in Europe. Pakistani Faisal Javaid became a Christian after he arrived in Sweden.

“I don’t have any more belief in Islam,” he told CBN News.

Javaid fell in love with Eka, a Christian woman from the country of Georgia who introduced him to Christ. He was baptized last April, but unlike many other migrants, Javaid soon faced rejection from his host country.

The word is out: If you are a Muslim and you’re from Syria, you are welcome in Sweden — there’s an open border. But if you are a Christian and you are from Pakistan, you may as well pack your bags and go home.

The Swedish Migration Board issued a deportation order against Javaid and his family. Javaid would be sent back to Pakistan, and his wife and daughter to Eka’s home country of Georgia. The couple is expecting another child in November.

Eka could barely talk about her plight, tearfully telling CBN News she wants her family to remain together in Sweden. Not only would deportation separate a family, but it would also endanger Javaid’s life because Muslims now consider him to be an apostate.

“If we will be deported — our family, relatives, friends, everyone — they just think this is their responsibility to kill us,” he explained. “We want just to save our life. I want to stay with my family.”

Javaid’s lawyer, Gabriel Donner, said, “They didn’t care if he was a convert or not. And the practice here in Sweden has so far been that no Christians from Pakistan need any protection.”

Donner sued the Swedish government, charging it had violated European Union rules that require protection for Muslims who convert to Christianity. He says the court agreed.

“The court said this can’t be done and sent everything back to the migration board and said, ‘You have to do your homework and do this properly this time,"” Donner said.

Eventually Javaid and his family may be allowed to stay in Sweden.

“As long as Faisal can prove that he is a true believer, he’s safe,” Donner explained.

But how does Javaid prove his conversion is sincere, that he didn’t just pose as a Christian to get asylum?

His pastor, Joel Backman of Elim Church, sent a letter to the migration board. He admits gauging faith is difficult.

“I mean, how do you determine my faith and how do I determine yours? So, we write what we can and that is the visible things: They come to church. They pray and they’re part of our Bible studies. They’re part of ministry as a whole,” Backman told CBN News.

“I mean that is what we can say to the government and we can throw in assessment. I believe this is sincere,” he said.

Before Elim, Javaid attended a house church in Eskiltuna led by Gabriel Blad. He said Swedish Migration Board officials have trouble distinguishing between relationship and religion. They’ll often ask Christian converts technical questions.

“We have got very strange questions sometimes,” Javaid recalled. “They will ask about liturgical collars and things like that. If you’ve been meeting in a simple home, discovering Jesus together, read the Bible and discovered Jesus.”

“They [converts] don’t know about church traditions, nothing,” he explained. “They know about Jesus. They love Jesus.”

In another case, one Pakistani’s love for Jesus nearly cost him his life. Former teacher Herman Fernandez, who changed his name from a Pakistani one, taught Western ideas to students in northwest Pakistan.

That’s when he started having difficulties with hardline Muslims.

“I got threats from two students whose parents were — what do you call them? — imams in the area,” he recalled.

Fernandez said they were concerned he was teaching the children Western ideas. They told him that he was “a kaffir” who is “bringing kaffir thoughts” to their society.

In addition to being called a kaffir, someone who has rejected Islam, Fernandez was also accused of being an American spy because he assisted some Western organizations. He said he and two colleagues were kidnapped in September 2011.

Herman claims he witnessed their murder.

“On the second or third day they beheaded one of my colleagues…and they forced me to watch it. I’m trying to get over this,” he said.

Fernandez said a second colleague was beheaded several days later. The murder was videotaped.

He said eventually one of his captors helped him escape. Afterwards, he fled to Sweden where the migration board denied his asylum request.

“They don’t see that my life is in such a danger in Pakistan,” he explained.

And what if he is deported back to Pakistan?

“They will get me either from the airport or, oh, that would be the last of me,” he gasped.

Donner also represents Fernandez. He wants the Swedish government to do a better job of considering the plight of Pakistani Christians when deciding cases like Javaid’s and Fernandez’s.

“And give them the same benefit of the doubt that they are giving today to other refugees coming into Europe,” Donner said.

From Benjamin P. Sisney from the American Court of Law and Justice

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[ACLJ] India is taking major steps to stifle, and even criminalize conversion to, Christianity. (Photo via ACLJ.org)

Parliamentarians have announced plans to introduce a bill, ironically called “the Religious Freedom Bill,” which would reportedly “prohibit conversion from one religion to another by the use of force or allurement or by fraudulent means.” In this context, force is defined as the threat of injury “including threat of divine displeasure.”

In other words, basic Christian doctrine, including the need for a Savior, Heaven, and Hell, would lead to direct violations of this proposed law.

With a population of 1.2 billion, India is the world’s second largest nation. In 2014, the U.S. State Department estimated approximately 80.5% of India’s population are Hindu and according to Indian government officials, this number is declining:

“For the first time, the population of Hindus has been reported to be less than 80 per cent. We have to take measures to arrest the decline,” said Upper House MP Tarun Vijay, a key proponent of the bill, in a recent interview. He continued, poignantly identifying the purpose of the anti-conversion legislation: “It is very important to keep the Hindus in majority in the country.”

Some suggest that a national anti-conversion law would violate the Indian Constitution, and academically, they’re probably right. Yet, in spite of the national Constitution’s religious freedom protections, the U.S. State Department reports that “[s]ix out of 29 state governments enforced existing ‘anti-conversion’ laws.” Some of these laws require would-be converts to obtain permission from local officials. The State Department acknowledged that state-level anti-conversion laws limit religious freedom.

Christians constitute 2.3% of India’s population. That’s 27 million Christians. Already, Christians and pastors “remain under intense pressure,” and many fear that with the passage of a national anti-conversion law, this pressure is sure to increase. 

While the Hindu religion is generally viewed as peaceful and tolerant, stories of violence against religious minorities, and arrests, suggest otherwise. For example, news reports have surfaced that a Christian pastor, his wife, and another church member were recently “beaten unconscious and left badly injured when Hindu extremists raided a prayer meeting last month” in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The same source also reported that “[a]t least 19 Christians in the state were arrested last month in three separate incidents where extremists attacked or threatened Christians.”

In its 2014 Religious Freedom Report, the U.S. State Department cited an Evangelical Fellowship of India’s statement that there were between 145 to 151 incidents of anti-Christian violence in 2013 nationwide. According to the report,

There was “structural and institutional violence” against Christians in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Gujarat. According to EFI, local district councils and police in these areas were responsible for arresting Christians, denying them land rights, and harassing churches, often on the basis of nonexistent laws. Many incidents involved the seizure of land from tribal people who converted to Christianity.

In states with existing anti-conversion laws, the U.S. State Department noted that “[p]olice arrested Christians and Muslims for alleged ‘coerced conversion’ of Hindus.” The report specifically described five accounts where alleged violations of state-level anti-conversion laws led to arrests. Christians were the targets of several of these described incidents and you can be sure this list is not exhaustive. 

Another recurring problem is the government’s failure to efficiently or effectively prosecute those who attacked religious minorities. 

Even in India’s national Parliament, leaders manifest a festering hostility toward minority faiths—including Christians. 

Lower House MP and senior legislator Yogi Adityanath, also a Hindu head priest, recently said that opponents of Hindu customs “should leave India or drown themselves in the ocean.” Statements like this “makes minority communities suspicious about the intentions of this government,” cautioned one Christian organization. 

While the anti-conversion law targets the forced conversions from the Hindu faith, reports of forced conversions to the Hindu faith have also surfaced. Reportedly, India’s Parliament was recently “disrupted for days as opposition members protested against Hindu hardline groups for allegedly forcing religious minorities to convert to Hinduism.” Some of the “hardline” groups are close to the Prime Minister’s ruling BJP party. 

Given the current hostility directed toward Christians in India, we can expect that passage of a national anti-conversion law will lead to a dramatic increase in the persecution of Christians. We must heed the warning of Christians on the ground in India, and oppose the national effort of Hindu extremists to prevent the spreading of the Christian faith. 

As we continue fighting through our office in the region and across the globe to protect persecuted Christians, we urge India to protect and not prosecute Christians. We will also continue working to ensure that our own government implements foreign policies that would encourage nations like India to respect and not repress the fundamental human rights of their Christian populations.

The deaths of hundreds of thousands in Syria is not due to a lack of compassion from the international community, but because people are “under the illusion that this is not their struggle,” Kayla Mueller once told her parents.

The parents of Christian humanitarian aid worker Kayla, whose rape and death while in ISIS captivity was confirmed in February, shared a letter their daughter wrote to them while serving in Syria.

Her father, Carl Mueller, remembered asking her to come home:

“I was angry. I said, ‘This is not your war, these are not your people. You don’t need to die for this. Come home,"” he said, before reading the words she wrote back.

“I do believe this is my struggle,” Kayla wrote. “Really, in the end, the real reason that 100,000 lives have been lost in Syria is not because people don’t care, or don’t have sympathy or compassion. But rather it’s because people are under the illusion that this is not their struggle, it is not their people and it’s not their concern.”

Kayla was taken hostage by ISIS in August 2013 after leaving a hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Although ISIS initially clamied that she was killed by a US-led airstrike, three Yazidi girls who were held alongside Mueller and have since escaped told the BBC in September that she was murdered by jihadists.

Speaking at the event on Friday held to honour their daughter at her old university, Northern Arizona University, Marsha Mueller shared the joy her work brought Kayla:

“It was hard not to let Kayla go to all these places she did because it gave her so much joy. The more she helped, the more she got.”

When Kayla told her parents she wanted to graduate from NAU in two and a half years instead of four, she justified it simply:

“She said, ‘Mom, I’ve got things I need to do. I need to get out there and do things,"” Marsha said.

The couple also shared how, amidst moments of deep sorrow, they had shared moments of gratitude hearing the impact their daughter had and is having around the world.

A local rabbi once visited them, bringing a message from a rabbi Kayla had befriend in Israel, and just moments later they received a text message from a Palestinian group that their daughter had worked with.

“Kayla was like a voice in the deep forest screaming the truth and screaming reality but nobody was there to listen, nobody could hear,” Carl said. “But now she’s being heard, she’s affecting people all over the world.”

Kayla has been awarded multiple honours since her death, one of which was from the Desert Southwest Methodist Conference of the United Methodist Church in June, recognising her and her ministry with the Francis Asbury Award.

“This is in honour, in memory and celebration of what it means to be a disciple and to transform the world and to love others,” said Rob Rynders, chair of the regional United Methodist Board of Campus Ministry as he presented the award.

It’s a big How are the mighty fallen!

We don’t usually think of pastors as mighty, though we know they fall. But the height from which Kong Hee fell is very considerable, and his conviction with five other staff members of Singapore’s City Harvest Church for embezzlement has stunned his 20,000-strong congregation.

According to the Asia One news service, on Sunday morning Kong faced a crowded auditorium at the Suntec convention centre, bowed and said, “Pastor is sorry”. He had used the same words at a service on Saturday night.

Kong, his deputy pastor Tan Ye Peng, finance manager Sharon Tan and former finance manager Serina Wee, were found guilty with former board members John Lam and Chew Eng Han of misusing $17 million from the church’s building fund to further the music career of Kong’s wife Ho Yeow Sun, known as Sun Ho. A further $18.5 million was used to cover up the scheme through a complicated system of bond issues and ’round-tripping’ transactions in which the church used its own money to pay debt owed to it.

The funds were used to support Sun Ho’s career through CHC’s ‘Crossover Project’, aimed at promoting a Christian voice in the secular music industry – a mission tactic familiar in the West but far less so in the East.

Kong could face as long as 20 years in prison.

Another website, Mothership.sg, quoted extensively from Kong’s address. He told the congregation: “I understand that what I’m about to say has already been widely reported in the local media, since last night. But nevertheless I think it’s important for me as your senior pastor to express my heart to you this morning. So even if you have heard it, give me a chance to say it.

“Over the last few days, many of you have asked me ‘Pastor, how have you been?’ I’ve received hundreds of text messages, emails, and of course I am saddened with the outcome of the trial. But this I do want to say.

“You have suffered much over the past few years because of your commitment to City Harvest Church. And your commitment to me. I am so sorry for all the pain and the turmoil you have had to endure under my leadership, under my watch. You have had to answer questions, and criticisms from family, from friends, from colleagues.

“Pastor is so very sorry. So so sorry. That you have to endure through all this under my leadership.”

He bowed three times in different directions as the congregation stood and applauded.

Kong told the congregation that the church’s future was secure, “because of you and the new leadership that has been put in place”. He added: “Out of the ashes, we will rise.”

The church’s executive pastor Aries Zulkarnain showed extracts from the judge’s ruling on screens. The first acknowledged that the six who were found guilty “loved CHC” and believed they were using church funds for an evangelistic purpose of which the congregation would approve. The second said that they had known they were using the funds in a way they were not legally entitled to do and referred to the “element of dishonesty” in their conduct.

Zulkarnain said: “While we may not understand the full meaning of this judgement, one thing to know is that the judge acknowledged that the motive of the six was their love for the church and they believed they were using church funds for an evangelistic purpose.” He said that the church would improve its governance.

American pastor A R Bernard, founder of the New York-based Christian Cultural Centre, preached at the service, focusing on remaining faithful in spite of difficulties.

Kong and his wife Sun Ho closed the service with a song. Sun Ho said: “Thank you for being here, for being courageous and supportive. Thank you for your love. It has made a difference for all of us and our family members. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The case follows the guilty verdict in the case of South Korean pastor David Yonggi Cho, founder of the world’s largest church, who was found guilty of tax evasion and embezzlement last year and jailed.

 

[Todd Starnes, Fox News] A school district in Washington State has decided to play hardball with a football coach who refused to stop his mid-field, post-game prayers. (Screengrab via Fox News/Liberty Institute)

I received an exclusive copy of a three-page letter sent to Bremerton High School Coach Joe Kennedy from Superintendent Aaron Leavell.

The nutshell? Coach Joe must stop praying or he will be punished.

“Any further violations will be grounds for discipline, up to and including discharge from District employment,” Leavell wrote in an Oct. 23 letter.

I can only imagine what might happen should the coach have to call a Hail Mary play.

“I was really shocked, Coach Joe told me. “I went out of my way to accommodate them. All I wanted to do was pray—and now I can’t even pray at all.”

For years the former Marine combat veteran would walk alone to the 50-yard line and offer a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing after football games. He drew inspiration for his post-game prayers from “Facing the Giants”, a popular faith-based film. Over the years, players and coaches from both teams would join him—on their own volition.

On Sept. 27th Leavell fired off a letter to the coach warning him to cease and desist.

“Your talks with students may not include religious expression, including prayer,” he wrote. “They must remain entirely secular in nature, so as to avoid alienation of any team member.” (Screengrab via Fox News/Liberty Institute)

In his most recent letter, Leavell said the school district would be glad to provide a place for Coach Joe to pray—so long as it was in private—”not observable to students or the public.”

“For example, a private location within the school building, athletic facility or press box could be made available to you for a brief religious exercise before and after games,” Superintendent Leavell wrote.

To be clear, Coach Joe is forbidden from bowing his head, taking a knee or doing anything that might remotely be construed as religious.

“While on duty for the District as an assistant coach, you may not engage in demonstrative religious activity, readily observable to (of not intended to be observed by) students and the attending public,” the superintendent added.

That means he’s not even allowed to bow his head behind the bleachers where the kids are smoking pot.

Liberty Institute, the nation’s largest law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is preparing to initiate legal proceedings against the school district—accusing them of religious discrimination.

“They’ve already punished Coach Joe by denying his request for religious accommodation,” attorney Hiram Sasser told me. “Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, they’ve already violated his civil rights.”

Superintendent Leavell stressed in his letter that the district does not prohibit prayer or other religious exercises by its employees.

“However, it must prohibit any conduct by employees that would serve as District endorsement of religion,” he said.(Screengrab via Fox News/Liberty Institute)

Sasser said the district’s argument is outrageous.

“What they are saying is he cannot pray by himself, he cannot simply take a knee at the 50-yard-line,” Sasser said. “That’s like telling a coach he can’t wear a yarmulke if he’s Jewish, he can’t wear a turban if he’s a Sikh, he can’t pray to Mecca if he’s a Muslim, he can’t wear a cross necklace if he’s a Christian.”

Late last week State Superintendent Randy Dorn released a statement backing the school district.

“It’s unfortunate when the actions of one employee affect an entire district,” Dorn said.

As if a football coach who prays for his team is engaged in some sort of criminal enterprise.

Dorn went on to suggest that teachers like Coach Joe are not good role models.

“School staff exercising their right to silently pray in private on their own is fine. But leading a prayer isn’t,” he said. “School officials are role models; leading a prayer might put a student in an awkward position, even if the prayer is voluntary. For students who don’t share the official’s faith, players, the official’s public expression of faith can seem exclusionary or even distressing.”

For the record, Coach Joe never invited anyone to pray with him—especially students. They chose to participate by their own free will.

Sasser said the state superintendent does have a point—there are people in the state of Washington who feel disenfranchised—Christians.

“When they find out a coach can’t even silently pray at the 50-yard-line, there’s no greater message of hostility than that,” Sasser told me. “This is not a school being neutral. This is a school being hostile to religion—and we are going to hold them accountable.”

Provided Coach Joe still has a job on Friday night, he plans to do what he’s done after every other football game.

“I’m going to keep on praying,” he said.

(Los Angeles, CA)—The faith-based football drama WOODLAWN entered rarified air in its opening weekend, earning an accolade from audiences bestowed on only a handful of films each year. (Photo via Woodlawnmovie.com)

The movie, an exhilarating true-life high school football story about revival and reconciliation that offers hope for overcoming the racial crises facing America today, received an A+ rating from Cinemascore, the film industry’s pre-eminent gauge of audience opinion for more than 35 years.

Only a few films annually receive the coveted rating, with faith films being well-represented among the honorees in recent years.

WOODLAWN was directed by Jon and Andy Erwin and produced by Kevin Downes. Roma Downey and Mark Burnett were executive producers under their Lightworkers Media banner.

Downey and Burnett aren’t surprised audiences are responding so positively to the film.

“Clearly WOODLAWN got this extraordinary rating because it’s an A+ film,” the husband-and-wife producing partners said. “WOODLAWN” takes the audience on a sweeping journey, which is both exciting and emotional. The Erwin Brothers made an incredible film, and people are loving it. We are very encouraged.”

WOODLAWN outperformed industry predictions in its opening weekend box office, taking in an estimated $4 million.

But audiences aren’t alone in their high praise. Critics are also raving about WOODLAWN. Michael Rechtshaffen of the L.A. Times says the film “gets high marks for its attention to period detail and committed performances.”

Jackie K. Cooper of the Huffington Post says “WOODLAWN scores big” and “revs up the chill factor, and sends you out of the theater resolved to be a better person.”

James Ward of Gannett News Service says “it’s impossible not to recognize the skill and power of the way the filmmakers tell their story.”

And Variety praised it as a “consistently involving period drama” whose “narrative mix of history lesson, gridiron action and spiritual uplift is effectively and satisfyingly sustained.”

“For me, as gratifying as the Cinemascore rating is, what’s really touched me are the incredible ways audiences are engaging with the film,” Jon Erwin said. “Rival football teams are seeing it together and praying together. They are making the same decision for love and unity depicted in the film.”

WOODLAWN tells the true-life story of Tony Nathan (newcomer Caleb Castille), who lands in a powder keg of anger and violence when he joins fellow African-American students at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, AL, after its government-mandated desegregation in 1973. 

The Woodlawn Colonels football team is a microcosm of the problems at the school and in the city, which erupts in cross burnings and riots, and Coach Tandy Gerelds (Nic Bishop) is at a loss to solve these unprecedented challenges with his disciplinarian ways.

It’s only when Hank (Sean Astin), an outsider who has been radically affected by the message of hope and love he experienced at a Christian revival meeting, convinces Coach Gerelds to let him speak to the team that something truly remarkable begins to happen. More than 40 players, nearly the entire team, black and white, give their lives over to the “better way” Hank tells them is possible through following Jesus, and the change is so profound in them it affects their coach, their school and their community in ways no one could have imagined.(Photo via Woodlawnmovie.com)

The Colonels make a run at the state playoffs led by Nathan, who achieves superstar status in Birmingham and attracts the attention of legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant (Jon Voight). It’s the miracle, Hank says, of what happens when God shows up.

“You always hope audiences are entertained and moved by the films you make,” Producer Kevin Downes said. “We couldn’t be happier at the response WOODLAWN has received.”

Construction of the first-ever underwater Orthodox church began October 2 off the Crimean coast.

According to Christian Today, Archimandrite Tikhon has authorized the project and hopes it will become a tourist attraction. Tikhon is an avid diver himself and has recruited the support of the ‘Mother of the Beaver’ diving club in Sevastopol, as well as the Night Wolves motorcycle gang.

Both groups are helping with the project.

The church will be built around 20 meters under the water, 100 meters off the coast of Cape Fiolent which is near Sevastopol.

A three-meter tall cross with an anchor design has already been erected underneath the waves and is the first piece of the church in place.

Divers also plan to install a table and massive concrete candle holders before the summer diving season comes to an end.

“Inside there will be images, icons–everything that you would find in a church,” Tikhon stated.

Christian Today reports that Tikhon also wants the unique church to feature relics from the Crimean War, famed for the Charge of the Light Brigade.

The church will be named after St. Nicholas who is the patron saint of sailors.

Worldwide Christian News – Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Worldwide Christian News – Tuesday, October 27, 2015

CBN News(Bremen, Germany)—[CBN News] Germany was the birthplace of the Reformation and was once a base for world missions. But much of Germany today is covered by a profound spiritual darkness, as are most Western nations.Those who refuse to compromise on the teaching of Scripture pay a price.Bremen Pastor Olaf Latzel knows full well that there is a cost for speaking out boldly—especially in today’s Germany, where traditional Christian teaching is viewed by many as bigoted, hateful, and even “un-Christian.” Latzel has been attacked in the media, investigated by the local government, and even denounced by fellow pastors. His crime? Refusing to bend a knee to political correctness. “I’m only preaching the Gospel in a clear way,” Latzel said. “I think it is my duty to do this preaching in this way for our Lord.” In his sermons, Latzel cuts no corners. He soft-pedals nothing. To some, he might sound mean when he attacks other religions. But Latzel is standing against what he sees as a spirit of compromise that seems to have swallowed Germany and the German state church. In the process, he has angered the German establishment and even a lot of German pastors. Latzel said the chief battle in the German church today now is over who God is. According to Latzel, some Christian pastors have said “Allah and Jesus Christ, the Christian God, is the same god.” “But if you ask a Muslim, ‘Does your god have a son?’ he would say no!” he continued. “Our (Christian) God has a Son; His name is Jesus Christ. So, they are not the same.” “If you speak out loud and clearly about the truth of the Bible, that there’s only one way to Heaven and this way is Jesus Christ, there is only one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and there is no other god beside Him, then you have a problem,” he said. Seventy German pastors gathered in Bremen this year to denounce Latzel behind a banner celebrating “diversity.” The public prosecutor investigated him for hate speech and then cleared him, and the Bremen parliament passed a resolution against him. It was reportedly the first time a German pastor has been condemned by a German parliament since World War II. But far from backing down, Latzel said the real problem is that, in his estimation, most pastors in Germany’s state church have not been born again. “I think over 80 percent of the pastors in the national church in Germany are not reborn,” he said. “And that’s a great problem, and because of this, they make their own doctrine. The Bible is the Word of God; it’s our law, chapter by chapter, book by book, sentence by sentence, letter by letter.” Latzel pastors at the historic St. Martini (St. Martin’s) Church in Bremen, where around 1679 the church’s pastor, Joachim Neander, wrote the great hymn, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.” Latzel enjoys saying that Pastor Neander also got in trouble for preaching the Gospel boldly.