Open Doors, a watchdog group born out of an operation to smuggle Bibles into communist-occupied Poland, states in its report:
Latest annual report One in seven Christians around the world face “high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” This equates to more than 365 million Christians being targeted. Five years ago, it was one in nine people, but the situation seems to be gradually worsening.
The 10 worst countries for Christians are reportedly North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Christians are more likely to face torture, imprisonment, rape, and death for their faith in repressive countries, but the situation is not much better even in the supposedly civilized countries at the top of the rankings.
For example, China’s 96.7 million Christians have been victims of harassment in recent years.
torture, detentionand execution. Christianity is considered a religion, so foreign threat Under the influence of the communist regime, churches are frequently desecrated, vandalized, and closely monitored.
Anti-Christian attacks are on the rise in India, often carried out by Hindu nationalists.
according to It informed the Evangelical Alliance of India’s Religious Freedom Commission that large numbers of pastors and believers, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, were being arbitrarily detained and subjected to severe beatings while their churches were vandalized.
The persecution of Christians is not just a foreign phenomenon. This is a problem in the United States, too, and another watchdog group says it could get worse.
forbidden prayer
Jeff King most recently served as president of International Christian Concern, based in Washington, DC.
was suggested He told The Christian Post that American Christians are right to raise their hackles.
“Essentially, we are the frog in the kettle and the bubbles come up from underneath us,” King said. “Too many people are so politically unaware and so used to thinking about how things were that they don’t understand where the bubbles come from and don’t realize that the bubbles are being cooked. is.”
Dr. King’s sense that the situation in the United States was deteriorating was reportedly informed in part by the Stacey Barber incident in Texas.
Barber is a teacher who spent the past eight years of her 26-year teaching career in the Katy Independent School District near Houston.according to her
lawsuit A lawsuit filed by the American Law and Justice Center against the school district in March on Barber’s behalf alleges that she, who previously sponsored a chapter in Alief ISD, wants to start a chapter of Students for Christ at Cardiff Middle School. I was longing for it.
Principal Scott Lowndes is said to have repeatedly silenced her. But for the 2023-2024 school year, she will launch a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, with the support of Mr. Barber and some of her Christian students, and Mr. Lowndes appears to have reluctantly approved. is.
In September, there was a prayer event on campus called “See You At The Pole,” which was scheduled to be held before class. Prior to the event, Lowndes allegedly sent a memo emphasizing that “district employees may not facilitate, lead, or participate in student group meetings that are not related to the curriculum.” The principal also appears to have sent an email to Mr. Barber, stressing that he is unable to participate as the event will be visible to students on campus. [her] Role as an employee. ”
Ms. Barber finally gathered at the pole to pray on Sept. 27, 2023, before work hours, and two other teachers joined her.
According to the complaint, the principal accused Mr. Barber of “forbidding teachers from praying in front of students,” and that the purpose of the ban was to avoid the risk that students might participate. suggested.
After Prohibition, Barber apparently faced further hostility from the government.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that there is no question that student and teacher prayers, including prayers at SYATP events, are a form of protected speech that school officials cannot prohibit,” the complaint states. There is.
American Law and Justice Center
Said “The primary purpose of this lawsuit is to have the school’s policy amended to reflect what the Constitution actually requires. It deprives people of their fundamental rights and should be struck down,” he said in a statement. We need your help in our legal battle over your right to pray. ”
King told The Christian Post that Barber’s case only “underscores the depth of ignorance, even at the school board and principal level, about what rights the Constitution gives people.” He said it also highlights widespread hostility toward Christians.
“The big picture, and what people need to understand, is that that’s what’s happening here in the West, and a lot of people who hate Christianity are proposing it and trying to promote it.” Dr. King said.
hated because of his name
Martin Luther King Jr. said countries whose leaders are anti-Christian and enjoy politically weaponized influence over their judicial systems suppress Christian speech and even force them to withdraw from public debate. He suggested that it could be encouraged.
The head of the watchdog group emphasized that in India, for example, freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitution, but “that is not the issue.”
“That actually happens,” King continued. “So when pastors are frequently attacked on the streets and in their churches, who do you think is going to get arrested? It’s the pastors. What will happen will happen if you keep your head down. This is what we are doing in the United States. That’s what I see.”
“People learn that you don’t hold your head up and they start to quiet down because the process is a punishment,” King added.
In addition to an increasingly hostile judicial system, Dr. King suggested that Christians face lawmakers who seek to silence or linguistically handcuff them. He cited hate speech laws in other Western countries, as well as Democratic proposals, as examples. equality law.
The Equality Act would be similar in spirit to the recent rewrite of Title IX announced by the Biden Department of Education, which would define sex to include gender ideology.
“This is strategic, this is a banana republic, and these are the political enemies of Christianity,” Dr. King said. “They have seized power and are using the very law, the very power of democracy, against their political opponents.”
While anti-Christian forces are active in parliaments and courts across the country, they are also active in the streets.
Ariel Del Turco, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Freedom, wrote in a February paper:
report Between 2018 and 2023, there were at least 915 acts of hostility against churches in the United States. Attacks ranged from vandalism and arson to bomb threats.
Blaze News previously reported that there were at least 436 such attacks from January to November 2023 (eight times more than in 2018), making 2023 the worst year of attacks in the six years tracked by the FRC. It emphasized Turco’s findings.
FRC observed 315 incidents of vandalism last year. 75 counts of arson or attempted arson; 10 gun-related incidents. And 20 bomb threats.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Tony Perkins, president of the FRC and former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said: “There is a strong correlation between growing religious persecution abroad and rapidly growing hostility toward the church at home. There is a common relationship.” : Our government’s policies. ”
Looking beyond law and politics for remedies, King said, “This is really about recovery, and it starts with us as individuals.”
“We all have to go back and cry out to the Lord about the religious state of this country, not the political state,” the observer said. “We are in dire need of revival, and it all starts with us personally turning to the Lord and saying, ‘Call me back. I am completely yours. It doesn’t matter what you do for me. My life is all yours.”
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