The Underground -- Evangelical Iranian pastor facing execution stands strong amid government clampdown

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Evangelical Iranian pastor facing execution stands strong amid government clampdown Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:39 PM PDT An evangelical pastor in  Iran who faces execution for refusing to denounce his faith said recently he has no regrets and urged Christians to be strong amid a government clampdown. Youcef Nadarkhani, 33, said in a recent missive that he has no regrets, and that Christians should remain faithful to Jesus Christ even in the midst of persecution. Nadarkhani wrote in his latest missive that a church must be based “on the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ … for beyond the protection of the Word of God the destroyer destroys,” Worthy News reported. “Let believers, who are heirs of the glory, be examples for others in order to be a witness of the power of Christ for the world and the future.” Nadarkhani was told by Iran’s Supreme Court last month that he could face execution if he refuses to return to Islam. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/07/u-s-state-department-slams-iran-for-forcing-christian-pastor-to-choose-between-faith-and-death-16485/). In a separate development, the families of two Christian converts in Iran, who were arrested on July 15 and beaten up for their faiths, still have no information of their exact whereabouts and state of health. The families of Vahid Rofegar and Reza Kahnamoei, Azeri-speaking Christians who live in Tabriz city, have been trying to establish contact with the men. Most recently, they heard that Rofegar and Kahnamoei were transferred to a prison in Abhar city and are being kept in separate cells. However, they know little else. Arrested and beaten Rofegar and Kahnamoei were riding a motorbike in Kalibar City, in Eastern Azerbaijan province last month when policemen spotted them. When the Christians realized they were being followed they sped up, but lost control of their motorcycle and catapulted to the ground. An eyewitness told Mohabat News, “The police arrested and beat them and finally transferred them into a jail (in Kalibar). Even though Reza’s leg was badly hurt, the officers didn’t care about his injuries and didn’t provide any medical assistance.” Initially, the families of the two men had no information of their whereabouts or the state of their health. It was only when they sought help from organizations that police informed them that the two men would be set free by July 31. Despite this, the two men have not returned home. It has been learned that Rofegar and Kahnamoei were transferred to a prison in Abhar city, and are being kept in separate cells. Stepped up pressure Rofegar and Kahnamoei’s arrests comprise part of an overall effort to step up pressure on Christians in Iran, especially those who speak Azeri. Pro-government websites have stated this, and complain of the “wide spread of Christianity, especially in the city of Tabriz,” Mohabat News reported. The stepped up pressure has been blamed on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration, which views Christianity as a growing threat. In 1979 less than 500 converts to Christianity from Islam were known in Iran. To date, numbers of Christian converts from Islam range at over 100,000.

Anglican bishop saved 1,800 Jews during Nazi era Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:38 PM PDT Rev. Hugh Grimes, chaplain of Christ Church in Vienna, which enjoyed diplomatic immunity, baptized Jews in Austriain droves just before the start of World War II, and shortly after Hitler annexed the country as part of the Third Reich. The church was built mainly for the benefit of staff of the British embassy and other expatriates. When he started to baptize Jews, the lines grew longer for the ritual which could help to save their lives. The annexation was part of Hitler’s plan to unite all German-speaking nations. Initially, thousands lined the streets to welcome Hitler’s troops. But shortly after, Jews were beaten and tormented. Hundreds of them committed suicide. Lucien Meysels, 86, recalling those days told BBC, “As we walked back home, suddenly the mob was coming in – a howling mob, which I’ve never seen before. Smashing shop windows, just barbaric. That moment we knew we had to get out, and had to get out fast.” Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, a British artist based in Vienna, has been studying the work of Rev. Grimes for years. Looking through the old church ledgers, he noticed a clear pattern emerged in 1938. Stanley told BBC News, “You can actually fit the baptisms to the chronology of what was going on in Vienna. On 23 July, the identity card was introduced with a “J” on it. On the day after that, 129 people were baptized here. The following day there were 229. I mean, the church itself only sits 125 people.” The Baptisms were instrumental in helping thousands of Jews flee the country. Historian Giles Macdonogh told BBC, “If you had a particularly stroppy border guard, he might have said ‘You’re a Jew and not an Anglican, and no, you can’t leave the country’. But in many cases that didn’t happen. Providing you had baptismal papers that showed you were not a Jew but a Christian, you could pass into any one of those countries which did not see at that stage – like many countries – that Judaism was not a racial thing but simply a religious matter.” The large increase in number of conversions, however, caught the attention of senior leaders of the Church of England. He was recalled in the summer of that same year, and was replaced by Rev. Fred Collard, who continued to baptize Austrian Jews as did his predecessor. A hope of escape Some 1,800 Jews were given these precious baptism certificates before the Church of England had to end the activity. A descendant of one of the survivors, Randy Schoenberg, lives in California. He discovered his great uncle’s baptism certificate recently. Of Grimes, he told BBC, “He was someone with an extremely good heart who saw desperate people in need and offered them at least a hope of escape from Austria. I think he really is an unsung hero of that terrible period.” The baptism certificate of Schoenberg’s great uncle, Egon Zeisl, will be displayed in the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum. Others who helped Jews to escape include Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who issued Swedish passports to Hungarian Jews in the 1940s; Major Karl Plagge of the German Army who in the 1940s sheltered some 1,200 Jews in a vehicle shop; Nicholas Winton of the British Stock Exchange who in 1939 smuggled 700 children out of Czechoslovakia to help them escape concentration camps; and Oskar Schindler, German industrialist who saved 1,200 Polish Jews by hiring them and bribing Nazis.

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