St. Valentine performed illegal marriages

On February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed,

History.com reports. Interestingly enough, Claudius II died in 270; in 278, Probus was emperor. But hey...

Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families.
To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.

Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine."
For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death.

In truth, the exact origins and identity of St. Valentine are unclear. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February." One was a priest in Rome, the second one was a bishop of Interamna (now Terni, Italy) and the third St. Valentine was a martyr in the Roman province of Africa.

Wikipedia has more information. 

As a comment on this: What would happen today to a pastor or priest who performs illegal marriages? Would they be killed? Probably not, at least in Finland. Other sanctions would occur, however.
But whom are we not allowed to marry today? Do I have to spell it out?...

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Nigeria: Dune James Rike, David Usman, Mark Ojunta, Monday Hassan et al.

Examples of violent acts of the Muslim extremists from the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria during the last months:

4.5.11. Muslim extremists attacked Kurum village (Bauchi state) in a rampage that began at midnight. James Musa Rike, pastor of a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in Kurum, said that after killing two of the couple’s children, Faith and 1-year-old Fyali, the assailants cut his wife’s abdomen with a machete. Dune James Rike was aged 35 when she died.
Pastor Rike next heard the cries of his 13-year-old daughter, Sum, a few meters away. He rushed to her, only to discover that she too was cut with a machete on her stomach, and her intestines were all around her. She said that the Muslim militants told her they would kill her and “see how your Jesus will save you.” The girl told her father that she responded by telling them that Jesus had already saved her, and that by killing her they would only be making it possible for her to be with Him. Pastor Rike prayed for her as she died.
Shooting and setting homes on fire, the Muslim extremists killed 12 other Christians in the attack. Bauchi police reported 16 people dead – one man, three women and 12 children.
Pastor Rike and his son survived the attack, and his adopted daughter, Whulham, was injured and receiving treatment at the General Hospital in Bogoro.

7.6.11. The Rev. David Usman, 45, a COCIN pastor, and church secretary Hamman Andrew were shot and killed by members of Boko Haram in an area of Maiduguri (Borno state) called the Railway Quarters. The area was the base of Boko Haram until 2009, when Nigerian security agencies and the military demolished its headquarters and captured and killed the sect’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and some of his followers.

27.8.11. Mark Ojunta, a 36-year-old evangelist from southern Nigeria who was ministering amid the Kotoko people of Borno state with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO) was shot and killed in Maiduguri by Boko Haram.
CAPRO International Director Amos Aderonmu said Ojunta died “as a martyr on his field among the Kotokos.” CAPRO had learned that all its staff members working among the Shuwa Arab, Kotoko and Kanuri peoples were on a Boko Haram list of people to be killed and had evacuated them, Aderonmu said.
Ojunta had returned to teach a class after the evacuation of his family. He is survived by his wife and two children, besides his parents and sisters. He was buried in his home state of Abia.

17.9.11. In guerrilla style typical of recent Islamic extremist attacks in northern Nigeria, about 15 gunmen stormed three houses in Ungwan Rana Bitaro village (Kaduna state) at midnight, leaving three dead and eight wounded.
Three houses were attacked by before the attackers retreated into surrounding bushes. When they came, they brought out the members of these families and started shooting them and cutting some of them with machetes. Killed were Monday Hassan (55), his daughter Godiya (13), and his nephew, Istifanus Daniel (35).

22.9.11. In the town of Madala (Niger state), suspected militants from Boko Haram went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran. If the Christian traders were unable to recite the verses, the gunmen shot and killed them. The sound of the gunshots compelled Christians to call the police, and officers arrived to find five Christians had already been killed.

Nigerian Pastor’s Wife, Children among Christians Killed in Attack (CDN 10.5.11)
Pastor, Church Official Shot Dead in Nigeria (CDN 10.6.11)
Muslim Extremists from Niger Help Kill Christians in Nigeria (CDN 31.8.11)
Muslim Extremists in Nigeria Kill Christians in Two States (CDN 27.9.11)
Islamic Extremist Group Kills Another Christian in Nigeria (CDN 17.10.11)
Nigeria: Den muslimska sekten Boko Haram dödar kristna (Kalles kyrkliga kommentarer 18.10.11)

Uganda: Susan Ithungu

Susan Ithungu, a 14-year-old girl in western Uganda, was hospitalized in October 2010 after neighbours with police help rescued her from her muslim father, Beya Baluku, who had locked her in a room with almost no food or water for months. He was arrested shortly afterward but quickly released, sources said. Ten months later, she was still unable to walk.

Susan and her younger brother lived alone with their father after he divorced their mother. In March 2010 an evangelist spoke at Susan’s school, and she decided to trust Christ for her salvation.
After a month, news reached her father that she had converted to Christianity. He warned his children not to attend church or listen to the gospel message. He also threatened them with a sharp knife that he was ready to kill them in broad daylight in case we converted.
He then locked Susan up in a room for six months without seeing sunlight. Her brother was warned not to tell anyone that Susan was locked up in a room and not being given any food. When their father was away, the brother roasted bananas for his sister and dug a hole under the door to pour water through. Susan could drink the water using her tongue, but most days she could only feed on mud.

Neighbours became concerned after not seeing Susan for several months. After they reported the case, the police went to the house, broke down the door, and took Susan to hospital. Her hair had turned yellow, she had long fingernails and sunken eyes, and weighed less than 20 kg. It is unknown when she will be released. Though she can’t walk, she can now talk. She is still feeding on soft foods, but is still strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. She needs prayers and support, so that she can resume her education soon.

Girl in Uganda Loses Use of Legs after Leaving Islam for Christ (CDN 11.8.11) 

Israel: Serge and Naama Kogen

A hard-line Jewish ultra-Orthodox group in Israel, Yad L’Achim, that singles out Jewish Christians known as Messianic Jews for harassment and abuse is taking aim at a couple it claims is manipulating minors into becoming Christians.
In late June, 2011, the group placed leaflets around the home of Serge and Naama Kogen, 37 and 42 respectively, in Mevasseret Zion, a suburban community located just west of Jerusalem. The same week someone took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper giving the couple’s address and telling residents they were part of a missionary group “targeting” the community. The Kogens are native Israelis and hence not part of any missionary group.
The advertisement invited the public to a protest planned against the Kogens, and on Sunday, June 26, about 20 of the group’s supporters demonstrated outside the couple’s home, where they denounced them over megaphones for 90 minutes.
The protests came after Yad L’Achim lost a court case against the Kogens and their congregational leader, Asher Intrater. The group had accused them of “proselytizing” minors.
During the protest, a distraught 16-year-old girl, the alleged target of the couple’s “missionary” efforts, said all of Yad L’Achim’s claims were false. Donna Lubofsky maintains that she has never converted to Christianity. She wanted to speak at the protest to give her side of what happened, but the organizers wouldn’t let her, she said.
“They are all liars, all liars! Ask them, why won’t they let me speak?” Donna said at the protest. “They won’t let me speak because what they are saying is untrue. They [the Kogens] never tried to get me to believe. They are just good people.”

Read more: Messianic Christian Couple in Israel Accused of Converting Minor (CDN 2.7.11) 

Algeria: Siaghi Krimo

Convicting a Christian convert for insulting the prophet of Islam, a judge in Algeria stunned the Christian community by sentencing him beyond what a prosecutor recommended.
In Oran, 470 kilometers west of Algiers, a criminal court in the city’s Djamel district on May 25, 2011 sentenced Siaghi Krimo to a prison term of five years for giving a CD about Christianity to a neighbour who subsequently claimed he had insulted Muhammad. Krimo was also fined 200,000 Algerian dinars (US$2,760), according to Algerian news reports.
The prosecutor had reportedly requested the judge sentence him to a two-year prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 Algerian dinars (US$690).
The court tried Krimo based solely on the complaint filed by his neighbour, who accused him of attempting to convert him to Christianity.
“He gave a CD to a neighbour, and for that he has to spend five years in prison,” said the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA), Mustapha Krim, trying to contain his disbelief. “The hearing went well, and the lawyer defended well, yet in the end the judge gave him the maximum punishment.”

Authorities arrested Krimo on April 14 and held him in jail for three days. On May 4 he appeared before the court in Djamel, where the prosecutor requested the two-year sentence in the absence of the neighbour who had accused him – the only witness – and any evidence.
The punishment the prosecutor requested is the minimum for Algerians found guilty of insulting Muhammad or “the messengers of God,” or anyone who “denigrates the dogma or precepts of Islam, be it via writings, drawings, statements or any other means,” according to Article 144 of the Algerian Penal Code.
Krim said that if the courts start interpreting the law as it did in Krimo’s case, then the future of Algeria’s Christians is grim.
“If they start applying the law like that, it means there is no respect for Christianity,” Krim said, “and pretty soon all the Christians of Algeria will find themselves in prison. If the simple fact of giving a CD to your neighbour costs five years in prison, this is catastrophic.”

The court delivered its verdict the same week that the governor of the province of Bejaia ordered the closing of seven Protestant churches.
Asked if he thought the court had instructions from higher officials to hand down such heavy punishment to Krimo, Krim responded with no hesitation: “It’s certain!”

Algerian Christian Sentenced Beyond Prosecutor’s Request (CDN 30.5.11)

Mexico: Josué Ramírez Santiago

On Sunday, April 10, 2011, some 500 worshippers were gathered for a worship service at the Christian Center El Shaddai in the Mexican city of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacan at about 8:15 AM when four masked men burst in firing machine guns into the air. Before the frightened believers realized what was happening, their pastor, Josué Ramírez Santiago, had been whisked away. The following day, the pastor’s family received news that the criminals wanted a ransom of 20 million pesos (US$1.7 million). Even if the family could raise such an immense sum – considered doubtful – payment would not guarantee that the victim would be returned alive.

Organized crime syndicates and drug cartels have targeted Christians because they view churches as revenue centers and because churches support programs for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and alcoholics. Furthermore, some 100 Mexican or foreign pastors who lived in Ciudad Juarez have had to abandon the city because of the threats and demands for money, and many pastors and their families have been victims of extortion, threats, kidnapping and homicide. 100 Mexican clergymen have been kidnapped in recent years, with 15 of them losing their lives to organized crime. 
Michoacan, the state where the abduction of Pastor Ramirez Santiago took place, has been a center of much criminal activity and also of severe reprisals by elements of the Mexican army.

Suspected Drug Traffickers Kidnap Pastor (CDN 15.4.11)

Saudi Arabia: Yohan Nese and Vasantha Sekhar Vara

Two Indian Christians imprisoned without charge in Saudi Arabia for attending a prayer meeting have been released. Yohan Nese (31) and Vasantha Sekhar Vara (28) had been arrested on January 21st, 2011 when religious police raided an apartment where they were attending a prayer meeting with other Indian nationals.
The two Christians were interrogated, beaten and pressured to convert to Islam. The next day they were sentenced to 45 days in prison on accusation of converting Muslims to Christianity. Both men were detained for much longer than their initial sentence, however, although no further charges were brought against them.

Vasantha was released on May 30th after 129 days of detention, whilst Yohan was released on July 12th after 172 days in prison.
The conditions in the prison were horrible. Cramped into a cell with 700 other prisoners with hardly enough room to stand, the two men had to sleep in shifts, taking it in turns to sit.
Soon after both Christians were released from prison, they left Saudi Arabia and returned to India.

Sources: Friends of the Martyred Church, Compass Direct 

Sudan: Omar Hassan and Amouna Ahamdi

In Khartoum, (North) Sudan, a Christian couple with a newborn son said they have come under attack for converting from Islam to Christianity. Omar Hassan and Amouna Ahamdi fled Nyala, 120 km southwest of Al-Fashir, for Khartoum in June 2010, but knife-wielding, masked assailants on May 4th, 2011, attacked the couple after relatives learned that they had converted from Islam to Christianity. Hassan and his wife were renting a house from her uncle in Khartoum, but he ordered them to leave after learning they had left Islam. His wife was injured trying to protect him during the attack.
“I have been in Khartoum for six months, with no job to support my sick wife,” Hassan said. “Muslims invaded our house and, in an attempt to kill me, they knifed my wife Ahamdi in the hand.” Ahamdi said her brother had stabbed her three times in the stomach nine months ago, seriously injuring her spleen, after she told him she had become a Christian. “I feel pain, but my husband is alive, and we are praying that we get money for treatment for both my hand and the spleen,” she said.

In a violent outburst, her brother also broke her left leg. She was rushed to a local hospital, where personnel were reluctant to treat her because of her conversion. Ultimately she was hospitalized in Nyala Teaching Hospital for three weeks – where she met Hassan, a recent convert who had also suffered for his faith who visited her after hearing how her family hurt her. He said he found no one caring for her in her agony. He called an Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) pastor to help her, and she was discharged after partial recovery – to the hostile home where she had been attacked. “You don’t deserve to be a member of my family,” her angry father had shouted at her. Her family locked her in a room, shackled to a wooden chair, and severely beat her for a month. “I was badly mistreated – they shaved all my hair and my father whipped my head,” Ahamdi said. “But neighbors used to sneak in secretly and provided me food and water.” After freeing her from the chair, they restricted her movement to the property.
“I found a chance to escape to the ECS church, where I got married to Hassan,” she said. “My health continued deteriorating, and the doctors recommended that I be transferred to Khartoum for specialized treatment for my ailing spleen. With a small amount of money, we managed to reach Khartoum by train, where my uncle hosted us not knowing that we were Christians.” In Khartoum, they were unable to afford the medicine prescribed for her spleen. They depend on friends to provide them occasional food, and sometimes go without eating for two days. “We cannot deny Christ – this is a big challenge to us, because we do not have a place to go,” she said, through tears. “We have no food, and we are jobless. I am still in pain, besides having a 2-month-old baby boy to care for.”

(Friends of the Martyred Church)

Bangladesh: Christians Suffer Extortion, Beatings

Two Christian women in Bangladesh’s northern district of Jamalpur said village officials extorted relatively large sums of money from them – and severely beat the husband of one – for proclaiming Christ to Muslims.
Johura Begum, 42, of Pingna village said a member of the local union council, an area government representative and the father of a police officer threatened to harm her grown daughters if her family did not pay them 20,000 taka (US$283). The police officer whose father was allegedly involved in the extortion was investigating a fabricated charge that Christians had paid Muslims to participate in a river baptism on May 26.
Begum had invited seven converts from Islam, including three women, to be baptized on the occasion, she said. Only six men among 55 converts were baptized by the leaders of the Pentecostal Holiness Church of Bangladesh (PHCB), Christian leaders said, as the rest were intimidated by protesting Muslims; the next day, area Islamists with bullhorns shouted death threats to Christians.
Begum said her husband is a day-laborer at a rice-husking mill, and that 20,000 taka was a “colossal amount” for them. She was able to borrow the money from a Christian cooperative, she said.
“I gave the extortion money for the sake of our safety and security,” Begum said. “It not possible to say aloud what abusive language they used against me for inviting people to God.”

Villagers backed by a political leader of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League party also allegedly extorted 250,000 taka (US$3,535) from another Christian woman, 35-year-old Komola Begum of Doulatpur village, whose husband is a successful fertilizer seller.
The villagers claimed that she and her husband had become rich by receiving funds from Christians. After the baptisms, local Muslims beat her husband to such an extent that he received three days of hospital treatment for his injuries, she said.
Komola Begum, who had invited 11 persons including three women to the baptisms, told Compass that her husband’s life was spared only because she paid what the Muslims demanded.
“My husband is a scapegoat – he simply does business,” she said. “But he was beaten for my faith and activities.”

For three days after the baptism ceremony, Jamalpur district villagers announced through bullhorns the punishment Christians would receive for their activities, chanting among other slogans, “We will peel off the skins of the Christians.” They also shouted that they would not allow any Christians to live in that area.
Johura Begum said that when she became a Christian 20 years ago, area Muslims beat her and forced her to leave the village, though she was able to return three years later.
“Local Muslims bombarded us with propaganda – that when I became a Christian, I would have to be naked in the baptism before the Christian cleric,” said Johura Begum. “Recently they are bad-mouthing Christianity with these kinds of disgraceful and scurrilous rumors, and my daughters cannot attend their classes.”

Compass Direct News 2.8.10

Bush and the Iraqi Christians

The British blogger, Mad Priest, writes that Bush achieves the impossible in Iraq - he destroys 2000 years of Christian witness.

From the time of Jesus, there have been Christians in what is now Iraq. The Christian community took root there after the Apostle Thomas headed east.
But now, after nearly 2,000 years, Iraqi Christians are being hunted, murdered and forced to flee - persecuted on a biblical scale in Iraq's religious civil war.

Not quite what "W." had in mind - but then, I suppose, nobody ever told him that there are Christians outside of Texas...