Bible broadcast ends
The radio program Back to the Bible ceased broadcasting in October after 80 years on the air. The program was started in 1939 by Theodore Epp, the son of Russian Mennonites who came to the US as missionaries to the Hopi people. “To be quite frank,” Epp said of the launch on radio station KFOR AM in Lincoln, Nebraska, “I was very afraid.” Back to the Bible grew to be syndicated on more than 800 stations, with a large international audience. Since Epp’s death, its teachers have included Warren Wiersbe, David Platt, and Nat Crawford. In recent years, radio has grown too expensive, a spokeswoman told CT. The ministry will continue as a podcast.
Evangelicals defend religious liberty for Muslims
The National Council of Evangelicals of France is raising concerns that a government plan to crack down on Muslim “separatism” would have a negative impact on religious liberty. The French government, officially committed to secularism, wants to require Muslim children to attend public school, participate in team sports, and integrate into French society. The evangelicals note that their communities are very integrated, but they are nevertheless concerned about the law’s restrictions on freedom of religion, thought, and expression. The proposed law would also crack down on foreign funding of religious groups, which could impact missionaries and church planters from the United States.
Mosul church manuscripts recovered
Police recovered dozens of stolen Syriac Christian manuscripts in the home of an alleged Islamic State (IS) leader. The 32 bound texts were some of the hundreds of artifacts looted from churches in Mosul over a period of three years, as IS turned the city into its de facto headquarters and demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a protection tax. About 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq before the US invasion in 2003. Today there are about 150,000. Some Christians are now returning, and some manuscripts are being recovered. Police found the 32 hidden in a kitchen compartment.
Bible reenacted with Playmobil
A German New Testament scholar at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg has taken a break from hefty academic tomes for a new project: the Bible in Playmobil. Professor Michael Sommer will stage the biblical narrative with the children’s toys in a yearlong series of YouTube videos. His channel has more than 100,000 subscribers. In 2009, another German attempted to tell the Bible story in Playmobil but was told to stop by the company. The pastor had modified some figures, reshaping Christ’s arms for the Crucifixion and adding breasts to Eve.
Churches ask to partially reopen
Evangelical leaders wrote to Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra, requesting a plan to reopen churches safely. The country has been under lockdown since March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With rates of infection declining, Vizcarra started discussing a partial reopening with Catholic officials in October. Evangelicals say they have been “respectful of all the regulations of the state of emergency” but note the restrictions are difficult for poor and rural Christians with limited internet access. The letter was signed by the Assemblies of God, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Pentecostal Evangelical Church, the Evangelical Baptist Convention, and others.
Communist Christ casts the first stone
A high school ethics textbook published by the Chinese government includes a revised version of John 8:3–11. In the Christian version, Jesus is presented with a woman caught in adultery and says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). In the Communist revision, however, Jesus says the law has to be enforced and stones the woman to death himself. An estimated 60 million Christians live in China, half of whom worship in unregistered churches.
