The hostility to Christians in Turkey and Michigan is no surprise. While the immediate context of the hostility in these cases are diplomatic games between countries and abortion laws, respectively, the ultimate reason for the hostility is unbelievers’ war against God in their attempts to dethrone Him.

Until about two weeks ago, American Pastor Andrew Brunson been held in a Turkish prison without charges. Now he has been indicted for being a member of a group led by exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen which the Turkish government says is responsible for a failed July 2016 coup attempt.

CBN News reports:

The American Center for Law and Justice, which is helping Brunson’s Turkish attorney, says the charges effectively make sharing the gospel an act of terrorism.

“Turkey has literally taken the position that Christianization is terrorism,” ACLJ Senior Counsel Cece Heil told CBN News. “They have no specific evidence that Pastor Brunson has committed any crime. The fact that he is a Christian, and specifically a Christian pastor, is what they are equating as terrorism.”

“They use terms that he ‘acted as an agent of unconventional warfare while under the mask of being in an evangelical church pastor.’ Some of those activities that they claim are terrorist acts are humanitarian aid, education, and training,” Heil added.

Meanwhile, Christian anti-abortion activists in Michigan are being hailed by a local prosecutor as being a “threat [that] the community needs to be protected from.”

According to the Oakland Press News:

A group of pro-life supporters have been sentenced to probation and are prohibited from picketing abortion clinics following recent convictions for trespassing and interfering with police at a West Bloomfield facility in December.

Bloomfield Township’s 48th District Judge Marc Barron handed down the sentences Wednesday afternoon to Monica Migliorino Miller of South Lyon, Robert Kovaly of Hastings, Patrice Woodworth of Minnesota, Will Goodman of Wisconsin and Matthew Connolly of Illinois for the Dec. 2 incident at the Women’s Center on Orchard Lake Road, where they offered roses, prayed, sang and urged patients in the waiting room not to terminate their pregnancies. They were led out by police, arrested and charged after refusing to leave the clinic when asked to.

During the trial, Michigan District Judge Marc Barron prohibited the defendants from mentioning abortion or their pro-life views. He then sentenced them to “12 months probation, eight days of community service, court fines, and restitution to the abortion center. He also ordered them to stay 500 feet away from every abortion center in the United States and refrain from contacting each other.”

Prosecutor Larry Sherman had no problem with the harshness of the sentences. According to Sherman, the activists have “shown no remorse, demonstrate no potential for rehabilitation, and continue to pose a threat. … The community needs to be protected from them.”

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