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The Doorpost · Issue 40 · Monday, June 1, 2026
Holding the Line
“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:27)
Father, we open this week with stories from three very different places that all call the Church to hold the line. In China, 31 house church members have been sentenced to prison for doing nothing more than gathering to worship, and a 77-year-old pastor is behind bars because prosecutors cited his belief that faith in Jesus leads to heaven as evidence of criminal conduct. In Bangladesh, Christians are living in fear after a surge of attacks tied to Islamist political activity following last February’s elections. And in Ohio, a former Baptist pastor who is now a state legislator is pushing a bill to restore the teaching of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage in public schools, named after the late Charlie Kirk. Give us steadiness today, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s issue covers the Suizhou house church sentencing in China, the growing fear among Bangladesh’s Christian minority, and Ohio’s Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act making its way through the state legislature. Go well.
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Top Stories
Three Headlines to Watch
1) China Jails 31 House Church Members in Largest Coordinated Prosecution in Recent Years
A court in Suizhou, Hubei Province in central China issued verdicts on May 22 against 31 members of a house church fellowship in one of the largest coordinated prosecutions of Christians in recent years. The case began in March 2024, when leaders of the fellowship were arrested in a major crackdown. Chinese Communist Party authorities then fragmented the believers into numerous small cases involving only one or two defendants each, a deliberate strategy to minimize public attention and limit international scrutiny. The harshest known sentence was four years in prison for church leader Song Yude. Among those sentenced was 77-year-old pastor Yang Zhijin, who received three years and two months plus a fine of 8,000 RMB, approximately $1,180. Fifteen other believers received sentences ranging from two years and four months to three and a half years.
The charges against the believers reveal how the Chinese Communist Party treats orthodox Christianity as a legal threat. During the trial, the prosecution cited basic Christian teachings as evidence of criminal conduct, including the beliefs that faith in Jesus leads to heaven and that everyone is sinful and must confess and repent. Defense attorneys argued that these are central doctrines of Christianity practiced by believers worldwide, that the group had not deified any individual leader, that it had not restricted members’ personal freedom, and that voluntary tithing should not be classified as illegal fundraising. The court rejected those arguments. The charge most commonly used was Article 300 of China’s Criminal Law, covering “using a cult organization to undermine the implementation of the law,” a charge ChinaAid president Dr. Bob Fu called a “direct assault” on the fundamental rights of believers. Read the full story at Premier Christian News →
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Doorpost Reflection
The Chinese Communist Party cited the belief that faith in Jesus leads to heaven as criminal evidence. Read that again. The most basic claim of the Gospel, that Jesus saves, that repentance and faith bring forgiveness and eternal life, is being used in a Chinese courtroom as grounds for a prison sentence. A 77-year-old man is behind bars because of what he believes about Jesus. This is not an exaggeration or a worst-case interpretation of events. It is what the court documents show.
Pray for the 31 believers sentenced in Suizhou by name before God today. Pray for Pastor Yang Zhijin, 77 years old and in prison. Pray for ChinaAid and the legal teams trying to document and challenge these prosecutions. Pray for every house church in China that knows it could be next. And when you hear about trade deals and diplomatic summits with Beijing, remember that behind those conversations, a government is sentencing people to prison for believing that Jesus saves.
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Scripture: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” — Romans 1:16
2) Bangladesh Christians Living in Fear After Surge in Attacks Following Islamist Election Gains
Open Doors has issued a formal warning about a growing sense of fear among Christians in Bangladesh following a surge in attacks on religious minorities since February’s national elections. The elections, the first since the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024, saw significant gains for the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. Hasina had maintained a zero-tolerance policy toward Islamism during her fifteen years in power. Since her fall, both Christians and Hindus have reported a rise in targeted attacks, particularly against those who have converted from Islam. The most recent documented incident involved a priest, Father Subash Gomes, who was assaulted by robbers who broke into St. Eugene de Mazenod Catholic Church in Dhaka in the early hours of April 27. The thieves stole his passport and approximately $1,000 in cash. Father Gomes intervened, was attacked, and is receiving medical treatment in a stable condition.
An Open Doors partner based in Bangladesh described the situation in direct terms: “Christians in many areas are facing increasing social and religious pressure from sections of the Muslim community. Christian converts from Islam are especially living under fear and threat, as many of them are being directly pressured and repeatedly visited by local religious leaders who demand that they renounce their faith in Christ. In some areas, Christians are being publicly questioned, harassed, and intentionally humiliated. Some incidents are even recorded and shared on social media, where negative comments and threats against believers continue to spread.” Open Doors reports that because of this pressure, many converts and church leaders are limiting their activities and keeping their faith increasingly private. Bangladesh ranks 33rd on the Open Doors 2026 World Watch List. Read the full story at Premier Christian News →
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Doorpost Reflection
Christians make up less than half of one percent of Bangladesh’s population. They are already among the most vulnerable people in the country. The election of a government with stronger Islamist ties has created the conditions for the pressure they are now experiencing, and the pattern is documented: the religious leaders who demand that converts renounce Christ, the harassment recorded and posted to social media, the public humiliation designed to force people back. This is not incidental community friction. It is organized pressure against a small, exposed minority.
The converts from Islam are in the most danger. They have left the majority religion in a country where that decision carries serious social, legal, and in some areas, physical consequences. Many are now limiting their public faith to avoid further targeting. Pray for them today, that God would give them the courage to hold to what they believe even under this level of pressure. Pray for the church leaders who are navigating this environment. And pray for Open Doors and its partners in Bangladesh who are sustaining the believers there with support, Bibles, and training.
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Scripture: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” — Isaiah 41:10
3) Ohio Pastor-Turned-Lawmaker Pushes Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act Through State Legislature
Gary Click, a 60-year-old Republican state representative in Ohio and former pastor of Fremont Baptist Temple, has shepherded the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act through the Ohio House of Representatives and it is now before the state Senate. The bill, formally Ohio House Bill 486, would authorize teachers in public schools and faculty at state institutions of higher education to provide instruction on the positive impact of religion on American history without making such instruction mandatory. The bill lists roughly 24 examples covering two dozen historical topics, including the religious motivations of the Pilgrims, Benjamin Franklin’s appeal for prayer at the Constitutional Convention, the role of the Ten Commandments in shaping American law, and the influence of faith on the civil rights movement through figures including Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Click named the bill after Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder who backed the legislation before his death last September.
Click described his motivation in simple terms: “I believe that the teaching of our nation’s history is incomplete without the acknowledgment of the role that religion played in it.” The bill does not require the teaching of any religious doctrine and does not impose a state religion. It simply removes the legal ambiguity that has caused many teachers to avoid any mention of religious influence on American history out of excessive caution about church-state separation. Critics have labeled the bill an attempt to introduce Christian nationalism into public schools. Click’s response is that teaching the documented historical fact that the Declaration of Independence references the Creator, that the Constitutional Convention was opened with a prayer, and that Frederick Douglass’s faith shaped his abolitionism is not indoctrination. It is history. Read the full story at The Christian Post →
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Doorpost Reflection
The argument that acknowledging religion’s role in American history constitutes the establishment of a state religion is not a serious argument. It is a talking point used to keep any reference to God or faith out of classrooms that have been reshaped over decades to present history as if secular progressivism was always the driving force. Benjamin Franklin’s call for prayer at the Constitutional Convention is a historical fact. Frederick Douglass’s Christian faith and its connection to his abolitionism is a historical fact. The Ten Commandments’ influence on Western and American legal tradition is a historical fact. Click’s bill simply creates the legal room for teachers to say so.
This is the kind of legislative work the Church should be actively supporting. Pray for the bill as it moves through the Ohio Senate. Pray for Gary Click, a pastor who entered public life specifically to advance the kind of legislation that reflects the values he spent his pastoral career teaching. And encourage Christians in every state to pursue similar efforts in their own legislatures, because the removal of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage from its educational institutions has been a long, deliberate process that requires a long, deliberate response to reverse.
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Scripture: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” — Proverbs 29:2
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Daily Scripture
Verse of the Day
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“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”
Philippians 1:27
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Paul wrote Philippians from prison. He was under Roman house arrest when he told the church at Philippi to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel. He was not writing from a position of comfort or safety. He was writing as someone who knew exactly what it cost to hold to the Gospel in a hostile environment, and his instruction was not to protect themselves or accommodate the pressure. It was to stand firm and to do it together.
The 31 believers in Suizhou are standing firm at the cost of their freedom. The converts in Bangladesh are standing firm at the cost of their safety and their social standing. Gary Click is standing firm in the Ohio state legislature against the label of Christian nationalist, pushing a bill that simply asks for the historical truth to be told in public schools. Three different situations, three different countries, one posture: standing firm in the faith of the Gospel. That is the week’s call to every reader of The Doorpost as well.
Father, we pray for the 31 believers in Suizhou, and for Pastor Yang Zhijin at 77 years old behind bars because he believes what Your Word says. Give him health, give him peace, and give him the fellowship of Your presence in that cell. We pray for the Christians of Bangladesh, especially the converts who are being told to renounce Christ by the very neighbors and leaders they live among. Give them courage. And we pray for Gary Click and the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act, that the Ohio Senate would pass it and that it would encourage similar efforts everywhere. Keep us standing firm. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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