Trump warns Nigeria over Christian persecution
PRESIDENT TRUMP has ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action over the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Posting on social media on Saturday, he warned: “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.” That day, the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had responded to President Trump’s earlier announcement designating Nigeria “a country of particular concern”. President Tinubu said: “Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.”
Charges against Finnish bishop and MP revisited
AN APPEAL hearing concerning Bishop Juhana Pohjola, of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (not part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland), and a former government minister, Dr Päivi Räsänen, began in the Supreme Court of Finland last week. Both are charged with “hate speech”. The case concerns a 2019 social-media post in which Dr Räsänen described her views on marriage, and a 2004 church pamphlet that referred to the biblical text “male and female he created them” (Genesis 1.27). Dr Räsänen is charged as the author and the Bishop as the publisher. In April 2024, the Supreme Court allowed the Prosecutor General’s appeal after the pair were unanimously acquitted by the Helsinki District Court and the Court of Appeal (News, 26 April 2024). The Supreme Court is holding new hearings with a new prosecutor.
Stolen skull returned by post to Stephansdom, Vienna
THE archivist of St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, Franz Zehetner, has expressed his surprise at receiving a skull in the post with a letter explaining that the sender — a man in north Germany — had stolen the skull as a young tourist about 60 years previously and now wished to return it. Members of high-ranking Viennese families were buried beneath the cathedral, mostly during a 40-year period in the 18th century. In the letter, the tourist said that he wanted to make peace with himself as he came towards the end of his life.
Arab Evangelical elected to WEA secretariat
THE World Evangelical Alliance, which represents more than 600 million Evangelicals in 161 nations, has, for the first time, appointed an Arab Christian from Nazareth as its Secretary General. The Revd Advocate Botrus Mansour was installed at the General Assembly in Seoul, last week. In his first address, he said: “It means something profound that, in this moment, a Palestinian Christian from Israel has been asked to serve as Secretary General.”