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Every dispatch, brief and reflection, newest first. The Watchman, The Advocate and The Discerner in one place.

Engraving in black ink on cream paper with a single crimson accent.

I Have Shaken Hands I Did Not Check Because Someone I Trusted Vouched for Them. On September 11 the Archbishop of Canterbury Gave a Pakistani Cleric an Award for Protecting Christians. Six Days Later She Took It Back. The Bill Lands in Punjab.

Lambeth Palace gave Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi an interfaith award on September 11 and withdrew it on September 17 after his 2007 praise of bin Laden resurfaced. Michael Nazir-Ali says Pakistani Christians fear the backlash. On the handshake nobody checked, and who pays.

Everyone Who Read Bergin in July Heard the Second Circuit Tell Religious Workers to Prove Their Boss Hated Their Faith. On September 15 the Court Added a Footnote. It Is Eighty Eight Words Long, and It Came After Washington Pushed Back.

Everyone Who Read Bergin in July Heard the Second Circuit Tell Religious Workers to Prove Their Boss Hated Their Faith. On September 15 the Court Added a Footnote. It Is Eighty Eight Words Long, and It Came After Washington Pushed Back.

On September 15 the Second Circuit amended Bergin after pushback from the federal government. Two footnotes: no religious animus required, but the denial must be because of your faith and not your late paperwork. We print the eighty eight words.

Engraving of an empty dirt path between dry stone walls climbing to a small village church on the Jos Plateau, black ink on cream paper, one crimson head wrap lying on the path.

He Was Walking to Church at Dorowa Babuje on Sunday Morning. The Night Before, Five Labourers Died on the Road to Gana-Ropp. By Noon the Women and Children Were Leaving the Village, and Nobody in Uniform Was Answering the Phone.

Nine died in Barkin Ladi and Riyom between Saturday night and Sunday morning: five labourers on the road to Gana-Ropp, a pastor on his way to church at Dorowa Babuje. At noon the gunfire had not stopped and the women and children were walking out. By evening, a red alert.

I Would Not Have Gone to the Festival at St. Martin's. On Tuesday Southlake Told the Church It May Not Host It, and Gave No Reason. I Have Argued for Years That the Reason Is the Whole Point.

I Would Not Have Gone to the Festival at St. Martin's. On Tuesday Southlake Told the Church It May Not Host It, and Gave No Reason. I Have Argued for Years That the Reason Is the Whole Point.

Southlake, Texas, voted unanimously on September 15 to deny a permit for a Pride festival on the grounds of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, after its planning commission recommended approval. No debate, no questions, no reason. The Discerner would not have gone, and says why that matters.

Engraving of a chained iron gate in a brick compound wall, an empty sentry box beside it and a church bell cote above, black ink on aged paper, one crimson cloth on the bars.

Six Intelligence Agents Spent a Sunday Inside St. Peter's Compound So the Families Would Get Used to Them. On July 10 the UN Asked Tehran Eight Questions About It. Sixty Days Later the Answer Is a Guard at the Gate.

Two UN rapporteurs wrote to Tehran on July 10 about St. Peter's: twenty families given two weeks to leave, pastors threatened with arrest, six intelligence agents on site so residents would get used to them. Iran let sixty days pass. The letter is public, and the church is shut and guarded.

Everyone Will Call the Eighty One Religious Plaintiffs Suing Over Immigration the Religious Left. Read Paragraph Nine of the Mennonite Complaint. It Cites Hobby Lobby, and What You Do With That Is the Test of Whether You Ever Believed in RFRA.

Everyone Will Call the Eighty One Religious Plaintiffs Suing Over Immigration the Religious Left. Read Paragraph Nine of the Mennonite Complaint. It Cites Hobby Lobby, and What You Do With That Is the Test of Whether You Ever Believed in RFRA.

Religion News Service counts eighty one religious plaintiffs in the immigration lawsuits, most pleading RFRA. Paragraph nine of the Mennonite Church USA complaint cites Hobby Lobby. The Advocate reads it and asks both sides the same question.

Engraving of an empty suspension footbridge over a river in the Chin Hills, black ink on aged paper, one crimson cloth knotted to the near post.

Eighty Prisoners of War Broke Out of a Resistance Jail in Tedim on Sunday Night. On Monday Afternoon the Assistant Pastor of Lamzang Was Shot Three Times at the Kapte Bridge. His Convention's Letter Quoted Matthew 25:21 and Did Not Say How He Died.

Dal Thawn Tuang, assistant pastor of Lamzang Baptist Church in Chin State, was shot three times at the Kapte bridge on September 14. The institute that confirmed his death says the military killed him. The Burmese press says escaped prisoners of war did.