INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL FINDS CHINESE REGIME STILL KILLING PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE FOR THEIR ORGANS
from: Epoch Times

(4 Mar.) Governments and international bodies can no longer turn a blind eye to one of the "worst atrocities committed" in modern times, experts said — as the world's first independent legal analysis of evidence regarding forced organ harvesting in China concluded that the grisly practice has continued unabated.

An independent people's tribunal, known as the China Tribunal, on March 1 released its full judgment after an 18-month investigation. Panel members reviewed written and oral evidence, including testimony from over 50 witnesses given over two public hearings in December 2018 and April 2019.

Last June, the tribunal delivered its findings in London, concluding beyond a reasonable doubt that state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience had taken place for years in China "on a significant scale," and is still taking place today. The main organ supply came from imprisoned religious believers and Uighurs, according to the tribunal.

The tribunal concluded that the Chinese regime's sustained campaign of forced organ harvesting constituted a crime against humanity. "The conclusion shows that very many people have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason, that more may suffer in similar ways, and that all of us live on a planet where extreme wickedness may be found," it said in its final 160-page report (pdf), which included 300 pages of supplementary materials.

The international panel was chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who previously led the prosecution of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal, and included six other experts, in law, transplant surgery, international politics, Chinese history, and business.

The tribunal considered a range of evidence in reaching its conclusion, such as hospitals offering extremely short wait times — from a few days to weeks — for organ transplants, widespread blood testing and other medical testing of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs, and previous research on the issue. "Such short-time availability [of organs] could only occur if there was a bank of potential living donors who could be sacrificed to order," the judgment said.

It found that blood testing and medical testing, including ultrasound, radiographic, and physical organ examinations, of Falun Gong and Uighur prisoners — which was not conducted on other prisoners — "is highly suggestive of methods used to assess organ function. The Tribunal must ask itself why a prison management system might test anyone in [such] ways ... when such testing was not required for the purposes of internment," it said. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: One wonders: how could such a horrific, grisly, and inhumane monstrosity of "healthcare" be allowed to happen? This is being permitted by the highest medical authorities in China. But it's "big business" - apparently netting the Chinese economy over ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR in "medical tourism": wealthy people with medical problems are able to order up human organs, have them harvested and ready on demand. The abortion industry in the U.S. is also "big business" - it is a known fact that human baby organs are harvested right here in the U.S. for medical experimentation on embryoinic stem cells and transplanting of organ cells.

RUSSIA: MORE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES TORTURED LAST MONTH
by Victoria Arnold: Forum 18 News Service

(27 Feb.) Jehovah's Witnesses have complained that officials have tortured more of their adherents in February 2020. They say prison guards tortured five of their prisoners of conscience in the Urals city of Orenburg, and National Guard officers tortured two adherents in the Siberian city of Chita. The torture included beatings, choking and electric shocks, they add.

Five Jehovah's Witnesses - Aleksey Budenchuk, Feliks Makhammadiyev, Roman Gridasov, Gennady German, and Aleksey Miretsky - imprisoned in Orenburg Labor Camp ("corrective colony") No. 1 have said that they were tortured on arrival on 6 February 2020. The five prisoners of conscience state that, while they were being admitted, guards kicked them and beat them with batons. When they searched the prisoners, the guards also took away the gluten-free food given by doctors to Makhammadiyev. As he has celiac disease, it is essential that he has gluten-free food.

Labor Camp staff then put all five prisoners of conscience in solitary confinement on "ridiculous false charges," Jehovah's Witnesses said on 15 February. One of the allegations was "smoking in the wrong place," even though Jehovah's Witnesses do not smoke for religious reasons. Because of the pain caused by the torture, prisoner of conscience Makhammadiyev "could not sleep on his side and his temperature rose." Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 on 18 February. "After the guards forced him to sign a document that he was injured through his own fault, they immediately called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital."

In hospital, Makhammadiyev underwent surgery and had a drain inserted to drain fluid from his lung. Tests showed that he had also broken a rib and had a damaged kidney. On 20 February, Jehovah's Witnesses stated that the drain had been removed and Makhammadiyev was recovering. He is now being held in the Labor Camp's medical unit.

The Federal Prison Service in Moscow claimed to Forum 18: "Nobody was beaten in Orenburg Labor Camp No. 1. Information in the press does not correspond to reality." However, Orenburg Deputy Regional Prosecutor Andrey Vyazikov told Forum 18 on 26 February that "on the basis of information received about the injuries of one of the inmates, a prosecutorial review has been organized," after which prosecutors would determine whether "unlawful methods of physical pressure" had been used against prisoners. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: Although I, together with most conservative Christians, believe that Jehovah's Witnesses are a pseudo-Christian sect because they do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, they are still human beings who deserve to be treated fairly and humanely. While Russian authorities claim in this case that nothing unlawful happened to these people, this can be understood as meaning that the authorities do not consider them to be real people; therefore, they can treat them like sub-human animals. As a former Evangelical while living in Russia, I saw our church construction project blocked by local authorities after unknown vandals wrote "Death to Baptists!" on the wooden fence around the building site. Theoretically, the Russian Orthodox Church considers Baptists to be Christians but Jehovah's Witnesses not Christians. In practice, however, our experiences showed that they were treated about the same.

ONUFRIY WANTS THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO REVOKE THE OCU’S TOMOS
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(3 Mar.) The Primate of the UOC MP believes that the reason for the current religious crisis in Ukraine is the interference of Constantinople in the affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). In order to "correct this mistake," he proposes that the Ecumenical Patriarch recall the Tomos of Autocephaly of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine "and then everything will be back in its place."

The Primate of the UOC (MP) Onufriy said this in an interview with the radio station of the Metropolis of Montenegreo and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Radio Svetigora, Pravoslavnaya Zhizn (Orthodox Life) has reported.

"The crisis in Ukraine is caused by the legalization of lawlessness, that is, by the interference of the Church of Constantinople in the inner life of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which entailed removal of the bans from those who had fallen into schism, following which Constantinople restored communion with them."

As the hierarch noted, "the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is not just a mistake of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, it constitutes an offense under the canons and ecclesiastical law." The only way to normalize the religious situation in Ukraine, in his opinion, is to correct the mistakes made by the Phanar in Constantinople.

"A mistake was made by Constantinople in an attempt to settle the issue of church division in Ukraine. In order to eliminate the new division that has emerged, one needs to go back to the point where the mistake was made, to correct the mistake, and then everything will fall into place. This is the only way to curb the crisis that has evolved in Ukraine," Metropolitan Onufriy stressed. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: This is another example of wishful thinking. The Russian Orthodox Church wishes that the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine would simply disappear, but this isn't going to happen all by itself - it's taking a massive propaganda campaign and military invasion to try to reverse the independence movement in Ukraine. These efforts, though, simply make the Ukrainians more anti-Russian. It's time to make peace and restore brother-Slav friendships.

GERMANY'S HIGH COURT ENDORSES RIGHT TO ASSISTED SUICIDE, OVERRULING PREVIOUS BAN
from: BioEdge

(29 Feb.) Euthanasia movements around the world have been given a boost by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court. On Wednesday it handed down a long-awaited decision endorsing the legality of assisted suicide.

It ruled that a law banning suicide with professional assistance was unconstitutional, as it deprived terminally ill patients of "the right to a self-determined death." Judge Andreas Vosskuhle, of the Bundesverfassungsgericht, declared that this right included "the freedom to take one's life and seek help doing so."

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are deeply controversial in Germany because of its record of terrible human rights abuses under Hitler. The Nazi regime set up the Aktion T4 program of involuntary euthanasia under which hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people were murdered legally. The government even promoted the cause of assisted suicide with movie melodramas like Ich Klage An (I Accuse).

The existing law, Paragraph 217 of Germany's Criminal Code, was passed in 2015 to stop people from offering the kind of assisted suicide service that is legal in neighboring Switzerland, whether it was remunerated or not. It still permitted assisted suicide for "altruistic motives."

The government says it needs to study the ruling before redrafting the legislation. The court has conceded that some restrictions are still possible – as long as "sufficient space remains for the individual to exercise their right to a self-determined death and to pursue and carry out the decision to end their life on their own terms."

The right-to-die movement, especially in western Europe, will be "cock-a-hoop" [boastfully elated] with this development. Portugal is on the brink of legalizing euthanasia; the Spanish parliament is due to debate it later this year. Activists in countries like the United Kingdom and Sweden will use the court's reasoning to push for change. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: What is appallingly novel about this ruling is that it establishes euthanasia as a basic human right. The Netherlands and Belgium legalized assisted suicide in 2001 and 2002 respectively, but only when the patient's medical condition warranted it. Germany lowers the bar to merely a person's choice. And we already know that if people are declared mentally incompetent, such a choice can be made for them by someone else: relatives, doctors, or legal authorities. In other words, this is simply a new legal fiction for eliminating "undesirable" or "deplorable" or "too expensive" human beings: it is legalized murder.

VIRGINIA DELEGATES WALK OUT AS PASTOR PRAYS FOR PROTECTION FOR PREBORN CHILDREN
from: LifeSite News

(14 Feb.) A recent invocation at the Virginia House of Delegates drew controversy this week. Rev. Dr. Robert Grant, Jr., of The Father’s Way Church in Warrenton was invited to pray, and as he did so, some lawmakers walked out or heckled him, expressing ire over what they perceived as an inappropriate and overly political prayer.

Grant expressed traditional evangelical views on marriage in his prayer, and this angered many. But he also took the time to plead for the lives of preborn human beings in a state where abortion extremism seems to be the order of the day. Grant asked that lawmakers would “not provoke God’s anger by making laws that can destroy the fabric of this great state and our wonderful country,” adding that “God is love and God is merciful. God is holy and God is also judgment.” He pleaded, “Please do not provoke His anger and bring wrath upon this state by what you create as law.”

Grant then prayed for the protection of preborn children: "I pray that you may understand that all life is precious and worthy of a chance to be born. God is the giver of life and people have no right or authority to take life. The unborn has rights and those rights need to be protected. They should never be denied the right to exist, the right to develop, or the right to have a family."

"The Word of God has given us a warning: 'Woe to anyone who harms an innocent child.' Every one of you sitting here today can guarantee these rights to these little innocent children of Virginia. They are in their trimesters as we speak. Please do not ignore their little voices. I pray for a heart change today and may the Lord God have mercy upon this leadership."

Rev. Grant also addressed in his prayer issues of concern to the Black community, such as prison reform and even the targeting of the Black community by the abortion industry: "Why are there so many abortion clinics near African-American communities? This is planned urban genocide and you can change this. This needs immediate attention." [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: I find it strangely ironic that leftists can play the religious card when it suits their cause, but they feel highly offended when a Christian applies Biblical principles to the political and cultural situation at hand. It's high time for traditional Christians to speak up and take an active role in society: if we don't, we abdicate our civic responsibilities and will lose by default.

PESKOV ON MENTION OF GOD IN CONSTITUTION: RUSSIA WILL NOT STOP BEING SECULAR STATE
from: Interfax-Religion

(3 Mar.) Mentioning God in the Russian Constitution will not change the secular nature of the Russian state, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russian President Vladimir Putin presented new amendments to the State Duma on Monday. One of the amendments reads as follows: "The Russian Federation, united by a centuries-old history, which cherishes the memory of its ancestors who passed on ideals and trust in God to us, as well as succession in the development of the Russian state, recognizes historical state unity."

Journalists asked Peskov whose ancestors Putin meant exactly. "Ours. The ancestors of those who populate the Russian Federation," he said. As to what these ideals are, Peskov said, "Our common [ideals]. This is implied by the text." Another journalist wondered which God Putin was implying. "That will be clarified in due time," Peskov said.

Peskov could not answer a question as to whether a federal law will be adopted to that end. As to whether Russia will stop being a secular state after the amendment is adopted and how the state will treat atheists, Peskov said, "I cannot answer this question right now. Obviously, the state will not lose its secular nature."

Peskov promised to clarify questions related to the amendment "in due time. I cannot give you the precise time and the precise format of this clarification just yet," he said, noting that an interpretation would be given before nationwide voting. "Before the adoption [of the amendments], before the voting, there will be a massive campaign to explain the amendments and the text. Both the president and members of the working group have said so on multiple occasions," he said. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: The struggle between religious faith and secularist ideology is a shaky balancing act: eventually one side or the other will win out. Russia's situation is much like that in the U.S. where we have "In God We Trust" on our money but applying that commitment in our laws is strangely lacking. Both Russia and the U.S. have high rates of legally sanctioned abortion and hidden levels of euthanasia which we have witnessed. So it would seem that mentioning God merely puts a relgiious veneer covering up the reality of things.

FAMILY SAYS CHURCH TRIED TO DENY BOY WITH AUTISM HIS FIRST COMMUNION
from Disability Scoop

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE IN MONTENEGRO THWARTED SCHEME TO DISCREDIT THE NAME OF ITS STATE AND CHURCH
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

NEW LAWS IN FEBRUARY RESTRICT CHINESE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EVEN MORE
from Mission Network News

ONE IN FIVE RUSSIANS PREPARED TO GIVE UP MEAT DURING LENT - POLL
from Interfax-Religion

COURT REVOKES LICENSE OF MOSCOW THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS-BAPTISTS
from Invictory.org

METROPOLITAN HILARION: CONSULTATIONS IN "AMMAN FORMAT" WILL CONTINUE
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

FINNISH CHURCH CONSIDERS GLUTEN-FREE EUCHARIST FOR THOSE WITH CELIAC DISEASE
from Orthodox Christianity

INVOLVE THE KIDS IN EUTHANASIA, ADVISES CANADIAN DOCTOR
from BioEdge

Concerning our first news article, INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL FINDS CHINESE REGIME STILL KILLING PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE FOR THEIR ORGANS, when I first saw an online news article about organ harvesting from Chinese prisoners earlier, I was immediately skeptical: "This is too sensational, too horrific to be true," I thought to myself. So I did an internet search, and it came up with several articles from mid-2019 onward from reputable news sources on this topic, for example, CHINA FORCEFULLY HARVESTS ORGANS FROM DETAINEES, TRIBUNAL CONCLUDES from NBC News on 18 Jun. 2019.

China's "call-in and take-out" organ transplant trade is worth $1 billion a year, according to the tribunal. The wealthy can order a needed organ, then the Chinese search their prisoner database for a suitable donor, so this is "big business." Why hasn't this been discussed and debated at the U.N.? It should have been on television for days on end. This under-reporting is the same the kind of leftist cover-up that China committed last December and continues to commit with the COVID-19 outbreak. Recall that the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic and the 2016 Bird Flu pandemic (40% mortality rate!) also began in China due to unsanitary conditions in their open-air markets: see the Nov. 2017 article "Is China Ground Zero for a Future Pandemic?" at the Smithsonian website. It's the same sort of inhuman behavior as Hitler's genocide of the Jews before WWII, the USSR's Holodomor and gulags... or the U.S.'s ghastly but very profitable abortion industry.

This is the same kind of secularist, materialist worldview in both East and West that dictates power and profit over living human persons. The first step in this process is to vilify "the other" in the state-run media, calling them terrible names such as anti-Soviet or anti-Chinese or "Westerners" (in the East), or anti-Democracy or fascist or racist or sexist (in the West). This places the targeted people in the something-less-than-human category. After several months of this mass indoctrination, the majority of the people have absorbed this mentality and will go along willingly with the next step: treating the targeted people in a less-than-human manner. The masses might actively help the authorities, or they may simply ignore what's going on, allowing it to happen by saying "We didn't know" and doing nothing to stop it, fearing they may be next. It takes a special kind of courage to stand up against the maltreatment of despised minorities.