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Christian recovery programs in Vancouver respond to opioid crisis

Freddy’s addiction started with alcohol and moved up to methamphetamines and heroin. He was in and out of juvenile detention as a teenager and ended up in jail as adult. After trying four other rehab programs, he came to Luke 15 House, a faith-based recovery center in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“I always felt like there was something missing,” said Freddy, 33, who asked that his full name not be published. “Other programs don’t talk about God or faith.”

Why Michigan's Iraqi Christians thought Trump would spare their loved ones

(The Christian Science Monitor) Like many thirtysomethings, Alen Hirmiz has tattoos. His large tattoo of a cross and one of Jesus on each arm bear witness to his Christian faith. His sister and family are now afraid they could endanger his life.

On June 11 immigration agents de­tained Hirmiz in front of his shocked parents at the family’s home in suburban Detroit and sent him to a holding facility in Youngstown, Ohio. There he waited to see if he would be sent back to Iraq.

A Jordanian city offers lessons on peace among Christians and Muslims

(The Christian Science Monitor) Maher Habashneh had just one thing in mind when militants from the self-described Islamic State seized the Crusader castle in Karak, Jordan, in December.

Braving stray bullets from a firefight in the city center between ISIS and an alliance of security forces and city residents, Habashneh rushed to the home of Waddah Amarien, where he stood guard until his childhood friend returned from Amman early the next morning.

Habashneh is Muslim and Amarien is Christian.

British strive to build interfaith bridges amid terrorist attacks

(The Christian Science Monitor) When British prime minister Theresa May responded to the London Bridge terrorist attack this month with the words “enough is enough,” it wasn’t just campaign rhetoric.

The phrase summed up the loss of patience across Western Europe, which has endured more than a dozen major terrorist attacks in the past two and a half years.

Chaldeans ask why U.S. Christians aren't speaking out against deportations to Iraq

c. 2017 Religion News Service

(RNS)  Some Chaldeans and their supporters are wondering why more American Christians—their co-religionists—are not speaking out against the impending deportation of hundreds of them from the U.S. to Iraq, which many call a death sentence.

About 200 Chaldeans, members of a group of Christians indigenous to Iraq, were rounded up by ICE agents in past weeks, including 114 in the Detroit area on Sunday June 11.

Pastor and psychology professor to lead Reformed Church in America seminary

Micah McCreary, who is a pastor, professor, and psychologist, will be president of New Brunswick Theological Semi­nary, beginning in the role on July 15.

The seminary’s board appointed him unanimously. He follows Gregg Mast, who served as president of the seminary for 11 years before retiring. The school, located in New Jer­sey, is one of two seminaries affiliated with the Reformed Church in America.

Ukrainian pastors aid neighbors on both sides of front line

When armed men arrived at a Light of the Gospel church in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, they searched the basement for weapons. There were no weapons; instead one of the men found a file with the names of people the church is assisting.

“He saw that we help veterans, disabled people, and large families,” said Pavel (whose last name is withheld for security reasons), bishop of the Light of the Gospel, a group of about 20 Baptist churches. “I think that touched the hearts of these fighters.”

Southern Baptists decry white supremacy, call for 'moral character' in public officials

Southern Baptists have adopted a statement denouncing “alt-right white supremacy” as antithetical to the gospel.

The move on June 14 at the denomination’s annual meeting came after the Southern Baptist Convention’s Re­solutions Committee declined to bring to a vote the previous day a Texas pastor’s proposed resolution condemning the alt-right movement, whose members include white supremacists.