Attacks on churches in the United States have skyrocketed in recent years, and the trend appears to be rapidly accelerating, according to a new report from the Family Research Council.
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reportThe book, written by Ariel Del Turco, director of the FRC’s Center for Religious Freedom, identified at least 915 acts of hostility against the American church between 2018 and 2023. These despicable acts range from vandalism and arson to gun-related incidents and bomb threats.
The state that reportedly had the most church-related hostilities over the past six years was California, with 91 incidents. There were 62 incidents in Texas. There were 58 incidents in New York. and Florida with 47.
Things seem to be getting worse.
At least 436 similar attacks were reported to have occurred between January and November 2023, eight times more than in 2018, making 2023 the worst year in the six years studied by the FRC. became.
FRC observed 315 incidents of vandalism last year. 75 counts of arson or attempted arson; 10 gun-related incidents. And 20 bomb threats.
Among the various vandalism examples recorded in 2023 was one that occurred in January 2023.
break a stained glass window at Holy Nation Church in Memphis, Tennessee. June shredding bibles and hymns at the historically black Fowler United Methodist Church in Annapolis, Maryland.and july Reversal of the cross Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Paso, Texas, was also bombarded with satanic imagery.
Regarding arson, attacks ranged from small to large-scale fires.of
easter sunday fire For example, this incident at Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts not only resulted in the church’s steeple being removed, but also caused significant damage.
“While the motives for many of these hostilities are unclear, their influence is unmistakably one of religious intimidation,” Del Turco said.
For example, the beheading of a religiously significant statue could be “upsetting and upsetting” to believers. Other hostilities could “make believers and church leaders feel unsafe,” thereby disrupting the church’s normal activities, the report said.
“They send a message that the church is not needed in the community and generally not respected. Our culture is showing a growing disdain for Christianity and its core beliefs. and hostility against the Church could be a physical manifestation of that,” Turco continued. “Regardless of the motive for these crimes, everyone should treat the church and all houses of worship with respect and affirm the importance of religious freedom to all Americans.”
The report said growing hostility toward the church could be indicative of “larger social problems that marginalize core Christian beliefs, including high-profile political issues related to human dignity and sexuality.” There is.
The church is often a target of extremists because of its faithfulness to the traditions of its members, but it also appears to be a reflexive scapegoat for leftists and other extremists.
radicals in the usa In response to the death of George Floyd in 2020 as an excuse for utter abusive language Their perceived enemies often turned out to be Christians and their places of worship. The left did the same in 2022, ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling, and afterward. dobbs decision, Attack churches and pro-life pregnancy centers similar.
This reflex can also be seen in other parts of the West. For example, in Canada, at least 68 There was a church demolished, desecrated, or destroyed 2021 after activists, northern liberal media, and political elites touted the mass grave hoax.
The hoax, fully endorsed by the Trudeau government, claimed that a mass grave had been discovered at the site of an Indian residential school run by a Christian group. Initially a dubious claim, then
Error exposedbut not before extremists torched Catholic and Episcopal churches across the country.
Tony Perkins, president of the FRC and former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said of the report’s findings, “There is a disconnect between growing religious persecution abroad and rapidly growing hostility toward the church here at home. There is a common relationship.” : Our government’s policies. ”
“The indifference abroad to basic religious freedoms is matched only by the growing hostility to the moral absolutes taught by Bible-believing churches here in the United States,” Perkins continued, adding, “That is why the “It’s fostering a hostile environment.”
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