{"id":2532,"date":"2021-08-20T16:15:39","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T20:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=2532"},"modified":"2021-08-20T16:15:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T20:15:39","slug":"taliban-is-carrying-out-door-to-door-manhunt-targeting-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2021\/08\/taliban-is-carrying-out-door-to-door-manhunt-targeting-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"Taliban is Carrying Out Door-to-Door Manhunt, Targeting Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2535\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2535\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2535\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2021\/08\/two-members-of-the-afghanistan-military-forces-amf-stand-guard-over-the-village-301234.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2535\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picryl.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Local believers are living\u00a0in immense fear, fleeing to the mountains to escape death.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As the Taliban gains control of Afghanistan as U.S. troops pull out of the area, Christians and other religious minority groups remain in danger.<\/p>\n<p>The leader of the underground Christian church, recognized by his alias Pastor X, released a first-hand ground report on the situation in the country, warning of the implications for Christians in the area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The U.S. Embassy is defunct, and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge,\u201d the statement released Tuesday said.<\/p>\n<p>The report notes that all borders to neighboring countries are closed. In addition, apart from private planes, flights to and from have been halted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are fleeing into the mountains looking for asylum. They are fully reliant on God, who is the only One who can and will protect them,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n<p>The statement also says that the Taliban are \u201cgoing door-to-door taking women and children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people must mark their house with an \u2018X\u2019 if they have a girl over 12 years old so that the Taliban can take them. If they find a young girl and the house was not marked, they will execute the entire family,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIf a married woman 25 years or old has been found, the Taliban promptly kill her husband, do whatever they want to her, and then sell her as a sex slave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pastor X added that fathers and husbands have had to arm their families for protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHusbands and fathers have given their wives and daughters guns and told them that when the Taliban come, they can choose to kill them or kill themselves \u2013 it is their choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rex Rogers, the president of the nonprofit Christian media ministry SAT-7, addressed the dangers many Christians in the area are facing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re hearing from reliable sources that the Taliban demand people\u2019s phones, and if they find a downloaded Bible on your device, they will kill you immediately,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n<p>Global Catalytic Ministries (GCM) and the Underground Church are calling on Christians worldwide to pray for the Afghan Church to have strength and endurance during this dangerous time. Specific prayer requests can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/gcm-and-the-underground-churchs-official-statement-from-boots-on-the-ground-in-afghanistan-301357210.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Local believers are living\u00a0in immense fear, fleeing to the mountains to escape death. As the Taliban gains control of Afghanistan as U.S. troops pull out of the area, Christians and other religious minority groups remain in danger. The leader of the underground Christian church, recognized by his alias Pastor X, released a first-hand ground report&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":2535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1365,10,138,240,1362],"class_list":["post-2532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-christian-news","tag-christian-persecution","tag-christians","tag-taliban"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Taliban is Carrying Out Door-to-Door Manhunt, Targeting Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taliban is Carrying Out Door-to-Door Manhunt, Targeting Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Local believers are living\u00a0in immense fear, fleeing to the mountains to escape death. As the Taliban gains control of Afghanistan as U.S. troops pull out of the area, Christians and other religious minority groups remain in danger. The leader of the underground Christian church, recognized by his alias Pastor X, released a first-hand ground report&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2021\/08\/taliban-is-carrying-out-door-to-door-manhunt-targeting-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-20T20:15:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2021\/08\/two-members-of-the-afghanistan-military-forces-amf-stand-guard-over-the-village-301234.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lesli White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taliban is Carrying Out Door-to-Door Manhunt, Targeting Christians","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taliban is Carrying Out Door-to-Door Manhunt, Targeting Christians","og_description":"Local believers are living\u00a0in immense fear, fleeing to the mountains to escape death. As the Taliban gains control of Afghanistan as U.S. troops pull out of the area, Christians and other religious minority groups remain in danger. 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