***UPDATE WITH FOX NEWS VIDEO***
Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani faces the ultimate persecution for his Christian faith in Iran:
CNN: Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, the head of a network of Christian house churches in Iran, could be executed as soon as midnight Wednesday in Tehran for refusing to recant his religious beliefs and convert to Islam, said the chair of a commission that monitors religious freedom around the world.
A statement by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent advisory group appointed by the president and Congress, “expressed deep concern” for the man’s fate.
After four days of an appeals trial for apostasy, Nadarkhani refused to recant his beliefs.
Leonard Leo, chair of the commission, said the pastor “is being asked to recant a faith he has always had. Once again, the Iranian regime has demonstrated that it practices hypocritical barbarian practices.”
There was word that the execution had been overturned by the courts in Iran, however CBN reports that Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice said in an email Thursday that Yousef’s lawyer “firmly denies that the court has agreed to overturn the death sentence.”
In the video, Sekulow of the ACLJ says that today they will call on Hillary Clinton and President Obama to release statements on behalf of this pastor who faces execution. Let’s hope they have the conscience in an election season to do so.
To those of you who are Christians, I bid you to say a prayer for this man even as you finish reading this. After all, it’s only God’s mercy than can really save Pastor Nadarkhani.
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UPDATE: Fox News ran this story this morning with a good discussion afterward:
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