In yet another round of violence by gunmen suspected to be members of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, attacks on two church services in northern Nigeria left at least two dozen dead.

Sunday’s deadliest attack took place in Kano at an older section of Bayero University. Worship services held on campus were disrupted after small explosives were tossed into services, forcing the Christians to flee. Witnesses told Vanguard that gunmen waiting at the exits opened fire and killed at least 20.

A second attack in Maiduguri left five people dead. Gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a Church of Christ in Nigeria chapel.

Christianity Today reported in December that hundreds of Christians were killed last year in a surge of violence by Boko Haram. Since then, attacks have continued; the Associated Press estimates that Boko Haram has been blamed for killing more than 450 people since January.

Today, CT posted a report from contributor Sunday Agang, a provost of ECWA Theological Seminary in Kagoro, about how Christians and Muslims can work together to end Nigeria’s fatal deadlock.

Worldwide, Christian leaders who are resisting China's one-child policy and forced abortion were greatly encouraged to hear today's news that lawyer-activist Chen Guangcheng has escaped from house arrest in his rural village.

He has fled to Beijing and there are reports in major news media that he's taken refuge in the US Embassy. Obviously, this is a developing story. But here are comments from Chen's supporters:

From All Girls Allowed, a leading Christian organization fighting gendercide:

"Chen Guangcheng has battled tirelessly on behalf of Chinese women who face forced abortion and sterilization by the government. He has suffered deeply for speaking out against the One-Child Policy and its brutal enforcement. We call on China to abide by its own laws and uphold his rights. We call on the US to keep China accountable, and to protect Mr. Chen if he is indeed at the US Embassy."

Founder and president Bob Fu was in touch with Chen’s friends and family and was told by a source who brought Chen to Beijing that he is not in any danger and is “100% safe.” There is speculation that Chen is in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

ChinaAid was asked on Friday to convey to the outside world Chen’s intention to “fight to the end for the freedom of my family inside China. I want to live a normal life as a Chinese citizen with my family.” Meanwhile, police have arrested one of the friends who helped drive Chen on April 22 from his home in Dongshigu village, Shuanghou town, Linyi city, Shandong province to a safe location in another province. He Peirong was in communication with ChinaAid when she was arrested at her home in Nanjing, coastal Jiangsu province, on Friday at 11:11 a.m. She has not responded to later efforts to reach her.

ChinaAid has also learned that police have also taken into custody Chen’s older brother and his nephew, Chen Guangfu and Chen Kegui, respectively. The father and son were taken from their home early Friday morning. Chen Kegui reportedly had stabbed some government officials who broke into his home early in the morning by climbing over the back wall and Chen, mistaking them for burglars, attacked them.

“We must report the true fact of this case and not let the Chinese propaganda machine spin this story as they see fit," said Fu. “We will stand with Chen and work with the international community and world media to fight for his freedom.”

“We admire Chen’s extraordinary courage and his unwavering desire to fight for the fundamental rights owed every Chinese citizen,” Fu said. “We urge the U.S. government and other democratic nations to show the courage of their convictions and protect this brave rights defender.”

Chuck Colson, who died Saturday, will be buried in the coming days at a private family service at Quantico National Cemetery with full military honors.

Prison Fellowship is working with the National Cathedral to schedule a public memorial service, a spokesperson said. CT will update this post when a date for the service becomes available.

Update: A public memorial service will be held at Washington National Cathedral Wednesday, May 16, at 10 a.m. The service is open to the public and seating is limited. There will be reserved seating for individuals who RSVP to a formal invitation. Others will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. The service will also be webcast live on the Cathedral's website.

Articles on Colson, his death, and his legacy include:
Evangelical Leader Chuck Colson Dead at 80 | The infamous convicted Nixon adviser became famous for prison reform, evangelical-Catholic dialogue, and his Christian worldview.
Remembering Charles Colson, a Man Transformed | The real story of how "Nixon's hatchet man" ended up in, out, and back in prison (and the White House), shaping a movement in the process. Jonathan Aitken
Chuck Colson and the Conscience of a Hatchet-Man | What's behind the snarky obituaries and media retrospectives infuriating many Christians. Russell Moore
Q & A: Karl Rove on Colson | President Bush's deputy chief of staff explains the former Nixon adviser's widespread impact. Interview by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
The Legacy of Prisoner 23226 | After leaving prison, Charles Colson became one of America's most significant social reformers (July 9, 2001)
Colson was a regular columnist for Christianity Today from 1985 until his death.

An international tribunal convicted former Liberian president Charles Taylor of aiding and abetting rebels who committed war crimes during Sierra Leone’s bloody civil war in the 1990s.

The tribunal found Taylor guilty of 11 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other international violations, though it said the prosecution failed to prove Taylor had command of rebels. Rebels murdered, raped, and mutilated civilians and used child soldiers during the war.

The conviction is the first for a former head of state since the Nuremburg Trials after World War II. Taylor’s trial began in 2007; he will be sentenced next month. International criminal law does not have a death penalty, and any prison sentence would be served in Great Britain, The New York Times reported.

Taylor was elected president of Liberia in 1997 after a peace agreement ended a brutal civil war started by an uprising from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, which Taylor led. By 1999, anti-government fighting had resumed in Liberia, and other neighboring countries, including Ghana and Nigeria, accused Taylor of backing rebels in Sierra Leone.

In 2003, international pressure forced Taylor to step down as president, and he went into exile in Nigeria. That year, Pat Robertson stirred up controversy for supporting Taylor on his show The 700 Club after President Bush and other U.S. officials called for Taylor’s resignation.

“We're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country,” he said. “And how dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, ‘You've got to step down.’”

Robertson’s critics noted his financial interest in Liberia; at the time, Robertson had a four-year-old, $8 million agreement with Taylor to mine gold in the country. Robertson told the Washington Post that the mining operation, called Freedom Gold, was meant to fund humanitarian and evangelical efforts in Liberia.

In the upcoming June issue, Christianity Today will look at the effort to declare Liberia a "Christian nation" in its constitution. The country was founded as a "Christian nation" by freed American slaves--and has a long (and troubled) history of figuring out what that designation might mean.

After Taylor’s exile, CT connected with churches and religious organizations in Liberia, who were beginning the process of rebuilding and recovering after the war. Though churches have reported improvement since then, tensions between Christians and Muslims were brought to the forefront after the killing of a Christian student led to violence in the north.

Last week, CT interviewed Leymah Gbowee, a founder of the Christian Women’s Peace Initiative and one of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners for her reconciliation work in Liberia.

A shooting outside a Colorado church left the pastor’s mother and a suspect dead on Sunday afternoon.

Police told KCNC in Denver that the driver of one vehicle chased another vehicle into the parking lot of The Destiny Center in Aurora after getting into an argument. Josephine Echols, the mother of church pastor Delono Straham, left the church as a service was ending to see what was happening and was shot.

An off-duty police officer attending the service shot the shooter. Both Echols and the shooter later died at the hospital.

Yolanda Marant, the church’s spokeswoman, told the Denver Post that the shooter was unknown to the members of the church.

In 2009, CT reported on the recent surge in church shootings. A year earlier, CT addressed the changes churches were considering to their security plans following the December 2007 shootings at Youth With a Mission's training center in Denver and at New Life Church in Colorado Springs

"God is so good," Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber said this afternoon moments after he threw a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners.

It's not a line he says only after winning--or after doing something amazing like throwing the 21st perfect game in major league history. Want proof? Just look at his Twitter feed. "If you're looking for answers, you've come to the wrong place," he says in his Twitter bio. "But, Jesus has them! Love Him and my beautiful wife. Also, I play for the #WhiteSox." Among his tweets:

Pro 16:18 When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.#whereisyourfocus

— Philip Humber (@Philip_Humber) December 1, 2011

Jeremiah 17:5-8 is speaking to me right now. Recommend this if you are getting caught up in trying to meet expectations of men. God is good!

— Philip Humber (@Philip_Humber) March 23, 2012

First bible study of the new season.So thankful for a family of believers within our baseball family.#blessed

— Philip Humber (@Philip_Humber) February 28, 2012

Frankly, Humber had a hard baseball career until the White Sox picked him up last year, and he hasn't had enough of a high profile to draw the attention of usual Christian athlete media like BP Sports and Sports Spectrum. But journalist J.C. Derrick apparently had a short profile ready to roll, and World magazine published it this afternoon.

"For so long, I was trying to make it about me," Humber told Derrick. "I was going to make it happen because of how hard I was working. … But because of the road I took, I couldn’t deny the fact that it was God doing it, that God had a plan. ... . Wherever we’re at, whatever we’re doing, that God will be glorified in what we’re doing. And he can be glorified in our low moments or in our best moments."

Christianity Today recently covered Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow, and other Christian athletes--and journalists' new interest in their faith.

As war looms between Sudan and South Sudan, Christians of southern origin living in Sudan fear retribution from its Islamic government.

As of April 8, at least half a million ethnic southerners (the majority of whom are Christian) living in Sudan are now considered foreigners if they have not registered for citizenship. Officials in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, gave southerners another 30 days to register or leave the country.

Most of those affected were refugees that fled north during the long civil war between the mostly Islamic north and the largely Christian south. The war, which ran from 1983 until the signing of a peace deal in 2005, killed nearly 2 million people. Most ethnically southern Sudanese living in Sudan have no strong ties to South Sudan, AllAfrica reported.

However, Compass Direct News reported Thursday that the Sudanese government has cut off all flights and land routes to South Sudan, trapping southerners in the north. Those attempting to board planes bound for Juba, capital of South Sudan, were turned away after officials said they required documents from Juba in order to leave.

Tensions have been escalating over the control of oil fields located along the disputed border between the two countries. South Sudan seceded peacefully last July, taking 80 percent of Sudan’s oil in the split. But now the two countries have resumed fighting.

The BBC reported last week that both sides have ceased negotiations. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir declared Sudan would give South Sudan a “final lesson by force. We will not give them an inch of our country, and whoever extends his hand over Sudan, we will cut it.”

Compass reported that Christians in Khartoum have already faced threats by Muslims in the area and that many Islamic groups are calling for the deportation of ethnic southerners. On April 9, an Islamic mob threatened to demolish a Bible school with a bulldozer, but police managed to send them away.

Christianity Today has previously covered the religious violence in Sudan, including a report on South Sudan’s vote for independence in early 2011 and a report on the signing of the peace agreement in 2005.

Just a few months after it reported opening more than a church a day last year, the Pentecostal denomination Assemblies of God announced a “strategic restructuring” that involved the elimination of 47 positions at its national office.

“This was a necessary business decision affected by culture and technology of which we have been aware for months, and hoped would turn around,” said George O. Wood, Assemblies of God general superintendent, in a press release. “But we are overstaffed and equipped in some areas, and this is a necessary step to reallocate resources for the continued positive health and growth of our mission and ministry services.”

Part of the restructuring includes shift from print to digital resources; the majority of the positions eliminated were in the printing department. The cuts affect around 6 percent of the workforce at the Assemblies of God National Leadership and Resource Center.

The Assemblies of God, which has more than 3 million members in the U.S. and 64 million worldwide, has more than 12,000 congregations in the U.S. Nearly 40 percent of its membership is 25 years old or younger.

Richard Land’s recent comments regarding the killing of Trayvon Martin have given the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) a PR headache months before likely electing its first African American president. Now the denomination's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has formed an ad hoc committee to investigate accusations that Land plagiarized his controversial comments.

Land, the president of the ERLC, accused black political leaders, including President Obama, of trying to “gin up the black vote” on his radio show on March 31.

“Instead of letting the legal process take its independent course, race mongers are anointing themselves judge, jury, and executioners,” Land said. “The rule of law is being assaulted by racial demagogues, and it’s disgusting, and it should stop.”

Land also stated a black man is “statistically more likely to do you harm than a white man.”

The comments raised concerns that the SBC’s efforts to improve its diversity would suffer setbacks. Maxie Miller, a church-planting expert in the Florida Baptist Convention, told The Tennessean he was “incredulous” after hearing about the comments.

“I think the [SBC] is doing a great job with diversity … but Land’s comments definitely will make my work harder—encouraging African Americans to be a part of Southern Baptist Convention life,” he told The Tennessean.

Land stood by his comments for more than two weeks before issuing an open letter to SBC president Bryant Wright apologizing for his comments on April 16.

“I am writing to express my deep regret for any hurt or misunderstanding my comments about the Trayvon Martin case have generated,” Land wrote. “It grieves me to hear that any comments of mine have to any degree set back the cause of racial reconciliation in Southern Baptist or American life. I have been committed to the cause of racial reconciliation my entire ministry.”

Fred Luter Jr., a prominent African American pastor expected to become the SBC’s first black president, told Baptist Press in a statement that he had accepted Land’s apology.

Tony Carnes, Christianity Today senior writer and founder of A Journey Through NYC Religions writes about the sinking of the Titanic:

In every large tragedy New Yorkers' religious faith has been a key element in the city’s perseverance and recovery....

...

As we come to the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, we thought that it would be useful to remind ourselves of the role that religious faith has had during the catastrophe and, in the aftermath, of its impact on New York City’s moral culture. We have excerpted British poet and songwriter Steve Turner’s The Band That Played On The extraordinary story of the 8 musicians who went down with the Titanic. Turner has made frequent appearances at art gatherings here in the city. In addition to the Titanic book, Turner has written an extraordinarily good book on Johnny Cash.

On the evening of April 18th in the New York Evening World Carlos F. Hurd wrote the first article with eyewitness accounts of the sinking of Titanic: “The ship’s string band gathered in the saloon, near the end, and played ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.”

Eleven religious student groups at Vanderbilt University have united to reapply for registered status in the school, even though their religious requirements for leaders violate Vanderbilt’s non-discrimination policy.

The coalition, calling itself Vanderbilt Solidarity, said in a statement that each group “is a faith-based group dedicated to sharing the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on campus. As such, we simply cannot allow those who do not share our faith to lead our ministries, as Vanderbilt now demands.”

The members of the coalition include: Asian American Christian Fellowship, Beta Upsilon Chi, Bridges International, Christian Legal Society, Cru, Every Nation Ministries, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Graduate Christian Fellowship, Lutheran Student Fellowship, Medical Christian Fellowship, and Navigators.

Last fall, Vanderbilt placed several faith-based groups on provisional status for being noncompliant with its non-discrimination policy, Christianity Today reported. It began enforcing the policy after Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian fraternity, was accused of dismissing a student because of his sexual orientation.

Vanderbilt updated its non-discrimination policy in early March, stating that all “registered student organizations must be open to all students as members and must permit all members in good standing to seek leadership posts.” The policy does make an exemption for single-sex organizations, including fraternities and sororities.

“Most perplexing, a university founded by Methodists is prohibiting religious groups from selecting religious leaders while simultaneously allowing fraternities and sororities to discriminate in selecting their leaders and members,” Vanderbilt Solidarity said in its statement. “If Vanderbilt will give fraternities and sororities a broad exemption from its policy, why won’t it give religious groups a narrow exemption?”

A few weeks after the policy was updated, Vanderbilt Catholic, one of the school’s largest student religious groups, announced it would leave campus at the end of the year because of the policy. “Our purpose has always been to share the Gospel and proudly to proclaim our Catholic faith,” Rev. John Sims Baker, chaplain of Vanderbilt Catholic, told The Tennessean. “What other reason could there be for a Catholic organization at Vanderbilt?”

Vanderbilt Solidarity commended Vanderbilt Catholic in its statement, as well as the St. Thomas More Society, which intends to follow Vanderbilt Catholic’s course, the coalition wrote.

UPDATE (April 11): In a post on its blog, InterVarsity at Vanderbilt--which represents the Asian American Christian Fellowship, Graduate Christian Fellowship, and Medical Christian Fellowship student groups--denied being a part of any "protest" movement against the university.

"Our turning in an application for registration along with other student groups who have walked with us through this year has been called a 'protest' move and, unfortunately, could be interpreted as an attempt by us to manipulate the university," InterVarsity posted. "We intentionally invited further dialogue and relationship with the university. Our constitution retains faith-based requirements for leadership because we are a Christian organization. However, our cover letter to the university and our constitution were written from a posture of trying to live out who we authentically are (hopefully lovingly) and not primarily as a power move or protest."

A shooting rampage at a Korean Christian college in Oakland, California, left seven dead and three wounded Monday.

Police arrested One Goh, 43, a former student at Oikos University, for the execution-style shooting and questioned him Monday evening. Goh, who admitted his involvement, allegedly went to the college to confront a female administrator who was not there at the time. He then took a receptionist hostage and went into a classroom, where he shot the receptionist and ordered students to line up against the wall, Police Chief Howard Jordan told CNN. When some of them did not cooperate, Goh opened fire, Jordan said.

“This was a calculated, cold-blooded execution in the classroom,” Jordan said, adding that Goh “does not appear to be remorseful at all.” Police have not yet recovered Goh’s weapon.

Oikos University, which has programs for nursing, theology, music, and Asian medicine, caters to the Korean-American church. Its top institutional objectives are to “demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible and an understanding of Christian doctrine” and “to develop an appreciation for the Korean and Korean-American church denomination heritage.”

Jongin Kim, president of the college, founded Oikos nearly a decade ago, the Associated Press reported. In a welcome message on the university’s website, Kim wrote, “Our main goal is to foster spiritual Christian leaders who abide by God’s intentions and to expand God’s nation through them. … Oikos University has rapidly grown in its quality and size to become an institution that contributes to and positively changes their surrounding environment—and the world in general.”

A similar message from Youngkyo Choi, chairman of the school’s Board of Directors, states that Oikos is “was established specifically to serve the community of Northern California in general and San Francisco and Oakland areas in particular.”

The New York Times reported that the church is affiliated with a nearby church, Praise God Korean Church, and is situated in an area with many Korean-American businesses.

Goh was a former nursing student; he had been expelled and was angry with administrators and students because they “were not treating him respectfully,” Jordan said.

CT will update this story as new information becomes available.