Trump threatens military action against Nigeria over Christian persecution
President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria over the persecution of Christians, and said he will immediately stop all aid and assistance. He said: “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” Methods of collecting data vary, but a report by International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) says 7,087 Christians were killed and around 7,800 abducted in Nigeria between 1 January and 10 August 2025. In June, gunmen killed at least 200 people in a Benue State Catholic mission. And in August, militants killed at least 27 in Katsina State during a mosque attack during early morning prayers. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, has welcomed President Trump’s decision to make Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern”, as it relates to religious freedom. USCIRF is also concerned that blasphemy laws are enforced in 12 Nigerian states.
Work to begin on white loop ‘Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer‘
Work to build “The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer”, a 53-metre-high construction in the shape of a giant white loop, is expected to start tomorrow, after a £40 million fund raising target has been met. The structure, a Möbius strip in a continuous loop, is on land in Coleshill on the outskirts of Birmingham, and will be visible from the M6, M42 and Birmingham airport. It’s the brainchild of Richard Gamble, a pastor from Leicester and the former Leicester City football club chaplain, who says he had a vision from God to build the monument more than 20 years ago. The project has been financed mainly by donations from the public, who have been asked to submit information about prayers that have been answered – examples are here. Mr Gamble told a Religion Media Centre briefing back in 2020 that that it would be made from one million bricks representing people with answered prayers. He said the prayer wall would be unashamedly Christian and would not include prayers from other faiths: “There are sensitivities around that, for which we need to be wise. At the end of the day, this is a piece of public art, and the purpose is to provoke a conversation about prayer.” This week he said: “This is the moment to build a landmark of hope—a lasting testimony to the power of prayer, preserving the Christian heritage of our nation.” More information here
Faith groups meet in Brazil for ‘People’s Summit’ at COP30
Faith groups are participating in a “People’s Summit”, in parallel with COP30, the international gathering in Brazil, which is reviewing climate change and the global response. Anglicans are raising issues on oceans, forests and ice landscapes as vital ecosystems, a position formed after consultation with Anglican indigenous peoples. A ‘Tapiri’ , meeting place for discussions, will be held at the Catedral Anglicana de Santa Maria, with other ecumenical and inter faith leaders. Activities will include a People’s March, a vigil and a boat parade. Laudato Si, the Catholic climate change movement, has published a calendar of events which it is staging during the event, starting on Monday 10 November.
Christians Against Poverty urges Chancellor to act on household debt ‘crisis’
Christians Against Poverty is warning that more than nine million adults are struggling with debt they cannot repay and a similar number do not have enough income to cover essential costs. It says the country is seeing a “profound household debt crisis that demands urgent government intervention” and is urging the Chancellor to use the budget to tackle the core ‘drivers of poverty’ – committing to ensuring liveable incomes that cover essentials, abolishing the five-week Universal Credit wait, and removing the two-child limit. CEO Stewart McCulloch says: “We are calling for a cross-departmental strategy focused on critical reforms – from ensuring liveable incomes and accessible public services, to boosting financial resilience and tackling systemic inequality. Alongside this we are strongly urging an immediate push for funding to be better targeted towards the provision of face to face debt advice for the most vulnerable.”
The philosopher who argues The Enlightenment got it wrong
Dr James Orr, Cambridge theologian and senior adviser to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, took part in a discussion at the UnHerd Club last night with Bishop Graham Tomlin. The event explored ideas of the Enlightenment and the relationship between reason and faith. Bishop Graham, speaking about his new book “Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World”, reflected on Pascal’s belief that reason has its limits. Dr Orr argued that René Descartes – often called the “father of the Enlightenment” – was not a sceptic about God, nor a secularist or rationalist: “He was in many ways a mystic. For him, reason was grounded in the sense that God underwrites our confidence in our knowledge about the world”. He suggested that later thinkers who claimed Descartes’ legacy, had taken his ideas in a different direction, and the Enlightenment had gone wrong. How such philosophical reflections translate into the cut and thrust of Reform’s political campaigning and policy-making is not yet clear. With a double first in Classics from Balliol college, Oxford, and appointments at Oxford and now Cambridge, he told The Telegraph that he sees Reform as including “posh as well as bosh”. His role includes identifying people to stand as MPs and he is reported saying that he has met “hundreds” of highly able students who would make suitable allies.
Methodist leader tells bishops to be bold as democracy is threatened
The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, Tracy S. Malone, has urged fellow bishops from the worldwide denomination, to be bold and seek justice, as they face an age when “authoritarianism and political violence threaten the foundations of democracy and human dignity”. Addressing them at the start of their annual conference, she said “We are seeing how systems designed to protect and serve the common good can so easily fail when justice and moral courage are set aside, when expediency and greed prevail and when privilege and wealth are placed above the needs of the vulnerable.” She called on them to “embody the radical love of Jesus”, thanking them for stocking food pantries and defending human rights, as ICE federal agents snatch suspected undocumented immigrants from the streets. On the version of Christianity predominant in US politics, she said: “As bishops of The United Methodist Church, let us declare: Christian nationalism is not Christianity. It misrepresents who Christ is and betrays the Gospel’s core message of love, humility and justice.” Report by Heather Hahn of United Methodist News here
Christian nationalism explored
The influence of Christian nationalism on US politics, and how it took hold, is analysed in a broadcast by Dr Robert P Jones, founder of the US based Public Religion Research Institute. Interviewed by Joy-Ann Reid, he said Christian white supremacy can be seen in documents as far back as the 15th century as the world began to be explored by Europeans, and this formed the moral compass of the early settlers. Any other version of Christianity in the US has been a struggle. He discusses the emergence of the Tea Party, restoration of Confederate monuments, and Department of Homeland Security messaging about a white Christian “promised land”. And he says the demographic shift which sees the number of white Christians declining, has “dislodged their perceived place at the top of the pyramid in American culture and politics.” Watch the itnerview here.
Heaton Park synagogue’s rabbi guarded after death threat
Jewish News reports that Rabbi Daniel Walker of the Heaton Park Synagogue, the location of an armed attack last month resulting in two deaths, received a death threat a few weeks before the synagogue was attacked – and he now has security guards to keep him safe. He was speaking at a European Jewish Association conference on antisemitism, and told the audience he didn’t think anything like this could happen: “I think we are all saying we were shocked. We weren’t surprised. We live behind gates. Our kids, our schools are behind gates. The security guards are everywhere.” He said a death threat was left on his answer machine and he responded: “I laughed it off. I am not laughing anymore’”. Remembering the day of the attack, he said the man with a knife shouted through the window “They are killing our kids”, an accusation which the Rabbi said was levelled at every Jew in the world. But he said the men who died were the loveliest people who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Story here
London bus driver suspended after antisemitism claim
A London bus driver accused of refusing to return a bank card of a Jewish customer, has been suspended as police open a hate crime investigation. The man was reportedly trapped on a London bus for more than an hour while negotiating with the driver, after his card feel behind the driver’s screen as he went to pay the fare. The exchange was filmed and posted on social media, including the allegation that the driver said he didn’t like Jewish people. The bus route included Stamford Hill, where there is a strong Haredi community.
Hyphen Online holds first conference in London today
Hyphen Online, the UK and European media platform focused on Muslim life and culture, is launching its first conference today at a venue in Westminster. Former faith minister Lord Wajid Khan will discuss his life and career with Hyphen’s editor in chief Burhan Wazir, during a fireside chat. A panel will discuss the forces shaping Muslim participation in electoral politics, with guests including Shavanah Taj, general secretary of the Welsh TUC; Mothin Ali, co-deputy leader of the Green Party; and Hina Bokhari, who leads the Liberal Democrat group on the London Assembly. This will be followed by a panel on Muslim contributions to the world of sport, chaired by Hyphen reporter Saman Javed and featuring rugby player Zainab Alema; Muslim Sport Foundation data and insights manager Sahiba Majeed; and Jawahir Roble, a football referee and former coach. The conference is available online here.
Future of religion in Britain will be ‘less institutional, more emotional’
A poll by the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life, suggests that young people aged between 18 to 34, regard faith as a tool for personal meaning and psychological resilience rather than as a social inheritance and a medium through which to answer life’s existential questions. The poll was conducted by Whitestone Insight, among 2,774 adults who self-identified as having a change in religious belief. It found the most common reasons for young people coming into faith were a personal connection with God or the divine; a search for meaning, purpose or moral clarity; and a desire for transformation or healing. Those whose faith weakened over time, attributed this to a conflict between personal values and faith teachings, or intellectual and philosophical disagreements. 70 per cent of those who moved away felt life was “increasingly unfair”. Those engaging with faith mainly through social media “are overwhelmingly positive in their faith trajectory, with a 93 per cent likelihood of strengthening or adopting belief.” Rania Mohiuddin-Agir, research associate at IIFL and the report’s author, said the research indicates that the younger generation will shape religion in Britain by depending “less on tradition or institutional presence and more on its ability to meet the practical, emotional, and ethical needs of a generation seeking meaning, resilience, and agency in an uncertain world.”
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