Charisma News Brief: Pastor Stoned, Beaten Unconscious for Sharing Jesus at Funeral
A 39-year-old Christian pastor in Uganda was beaten unconscious late last month by Muslim extremists while officiating a funeral in Uganda. Witnesses say the event was terrifying to see as the preacher spoke about Christ.
Pastor Davidson Okirori told Morning Star News that Muslims began to throw stones at him and then beat him after “differentiating the power” and ministry of Jesus and explaining the importance of Jesus’ resurrection.”
Later, the assailants began tearing pages from his Bible.
The extremists apparently took exception to the belief that Jesus is more powerful than Muhammad and resorted to violence.
“The deceased, being a Muslim who converted to Christianity, I carried with me the Koran, Hadith of Bukhari and the Bible to show the mourners the fact of the unique and powerful resurrection of Jesus as the Son of God,” Okirori told Morning Star News. “While at the same time mentioning that Muhammad, being just a prophet of Allah, did not resurrect.”
The pastor of Covenant Church of God in Buwenge saw the funeral as an opportunity to witness to the love of Christ to Muslims who had gathered there.
But as he began to preach the Christian gospel, the Okirori said someone called him an infidel and accused him of blasphemy. That’s when it got violent.
“When I started mentioning verses from all these books, I heard a young man shouting, ‘You kafir [infidel], stop misleading us—if you came to bury your people, bury them, but don’t use the Koran without getting ablution,” the preacher said. “This is blasphemy to our Allah.”
After Bible pages were torn, the stoning began, and Okirori was struck in the head and fell to the floor. The beating ensued.
“A Muslim man hit me with an object on my mouth, and from there, I do not know what happened again,” he told Morning Star News. “I found myself in Mulago Hospital with blood all over my body and my clothes.”
Christian persecution is taking place everywhere. Read Michael L. Brown’s book The Silencing of the Lambs to see how to overcome it. {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
