Sign of the Times: Attorney Who Defended Christians Arrested at DMV Fled Romanian Persecution With Family

By: Heather Clark 
Watch videos Below

Murrieta, Calif. – An attorney for two Christians who were vindicated in court this week after being arrested in 2011 for reading the Bible outside of a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office in California says that the case resembled more of his childhood memories of communist Romania more than the USA.
As previously reported, Pastor Brett Coronado of Reconciled Christian Fellowship in Hemet and church elder Mark Mackey had been on trial the past week and facing misdemeanor trespassing charges for reading the Bible aloud in the DMV parking lot without a permit. On Tuesday, a Riverside County judge declared the men “not guilty,” opining that the prosecution failed to prove that they had violated the law.
Nic Cocis is one of the attorneys that defended Coronado and Mackey at trial. While he has served as a criminal defense attorney in Murrieta, California for the past 14 years, Cocis grew up in communist Romania, and has witnessed persecution firsthand at the hands of tyranny. He recounted to Christian News Network what he experienced in Romania as a child, and explained why he believes that Christians in America must fight for freedom today to keep the nation from plunging into the same fate.

Cameroon Government Shuts Down Over 50 Pentecostal Churches, Plans to Shutter 100 Total

Filed under: FeaturedLaw & GovernmentPersecutionWorld | By: Garrett Haley

CAMEROON – The government of Cameroon is severely cracking down this month on Pentecostal churches, vowing to shut down nearly 100 congregations.

Paul Biya, the president of the western African nation, says the closures are an attempt to prevent Pentecostal pastors from conducting “criminal practices” that allegedly threaten Cameroon’s national security. Thus far, at least 50 churches have been shuttered by government officials, but more forced closures are on the way.

Cameroonian officials claim these Pentecostal churches are a menace to their country’s well-being because of fake healing attempts and other controversial spiritual activities. For instance, the government is citing the death of a 9-year-old girl during a prayer session last Sunday, when a Pentecostal pastor was attempting to cast out demons from her body.

Mbu Anthony Lang, an official with the Cameroonian government, told CNN that only 50 of the 500 Pentecostal churches in his country are technically legal.

US Congressmen Demand Romania Returns Church Properties And Ends Persecution of Churches.

There have been demonstrations for the return of church properties and against a Romanian court decision to halt the return of a school to the Hungarian Reformed Church, while detaining restitution officials.

BUCHAREST/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Twenty U.S. congressmen have urged Secretary of State John Kerry to pressure Romania's government to end "persecution" and "fully restitute" properties that were "illegally confiscated" from churches and other religious groups under Communism after 1945.

In a letter obtained by BosNewsLife Saturday, June 15, the American legislators also express concern about three members of the Romanian Property Restitution Committee who were sentenced to long prison terms after returning the Székely Mikó Reformed High School in the town of Sepsiszentgyörgy, or Sfantu Gheorghe in Romanian, to the Hungarian Reformed Church.

"On June 28, 2012, the Buzău Court of Appeal reversed the original decision to return the [school], retroactively fined the church and sentenced three members" of the Committee "to three years imprisonment solely for performing their duty while trying to serve justice," the congressmen wrote.

Urgent prayers needed for Egypt as churches attacked

OPEN LETTER BY THE MOST REVD DR MOUNEER HANNA ANIS

BISHOP OF EGYPT WITH NORTH AFRICA AND THE HORN OF AFRICA

PRESIDENT BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN JERUSALEM AND THE MIDDLE EAST.

WRITTEN AUGUST 14TH 2013

---

Dear Friends,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

As I write these words, our St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Suez is under heavy attack from those who support former President Mursi. They are throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the church and have destroyed the car of Rev. Ehab Ayoub, the priest-in-charge of St. Saviour’s Church. I am also aware that there are attacks on other Orthodox churches in Menyia and Suhag in Upper Egypt (photo above), as well as a Catholic church in Suez. Some police stations are also under attack in different parts of Egypt. Please pray and ask others to pray for this inflammable situation in Egypt.