According to the 2024 report by Open Doors, an advocacy group, at least 365 million Christians worldwide suffer persecution and discrimination because they believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. At least 5000 Christians were killed for their beliefs last year. Many Christian congregations designate either Nov. 3 or Nov. 10 as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, a commemoration for those who suffer injustice at the hands of the state and mobs due to their faith.
On Nov. 20, Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic ministry, marks Red Wednesday as a day to raise awareness of Christian persecution. It encourages Catholics to don red, recalling the blood of the martyrs.
The Interim joins Christian groups and churches in marking these days to remember those for whom practicing their faith can be a life-or-death decision. In too much of the world, Christians are imprisoned and tortured because their religious beliefs run afoul of state ideology or other religious groups. “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3)
As this paper noted in a review of Life in the Negative World last month, western culture is increasingly secular and hostile to Christianity – its beliefs, practice, and adherents. But the white martyrdom of the inconveniences we may suffer pale in comparison to the persecution many Christians face in large parts of Asia and Africa, most notably in communist and Islamic countries. Open Doors reports that Christians in more than 70 countries experience persecution, including one in five African Christians and two-in-five Asian Christians. Open Doors says that North Korea is the most repressive regime when it comes to persecuting Christians, followed by Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and India. Other countries listed as “of particular concern” include Red China, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam, with Egypt, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Turkey making the “special watch” list. Voice of the Martyrs reports that a Christian is attacked every 24 hours in India.
International Christian Concern (ICC) lists Marxism, radical Islam, social and cultural discrimination, and demonic or supernatural evil as the primary drivers of Christian persecution. ICC says that direct forms of persecution include attacks on life and property, imprisonment, torture, officially restricted access to churches and religious materials including Bibles, and forced conversion; indirect persecution includes educational and employment discrimination, legal restrictions, and denying religious rights.
Communism (Marxism) is a direct threat to the Christian Church around the world. Voice of the Martyrs notes that in Cuba, permits are routinely refused for the building of new church facilities; in Red China religious regulations outlaw unregistered churches leading to the forced closure of churches, the arrest and detainment of pastors, and banning the teaching of religion to children under 18 (even by parents); in North Korea, an estimated 30,000 Christians have been sent to prison and labour camps where they face starvation and torture.
In one of the most under-reported stories of the last few years, the communist dictatorship of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has exiled and imprisoned Catholic clergy and evangelical pastors. The regime’s hatred of Christianity is so deep that police have arrested Christians who were reported to have prayed for the imprisoned priests.
We are not entirely free of violence against Christians in Canada. The True North Centre reported in September, “112 Christian churches in Canada have been vandalized, burned down or desecrated since the announcement of the supposed discovery (never confirmed) of graves found near a residential school in Kamloops, B.C.” in 2021. While not officially sanctioned, neither has such violence been unequivocally condemned by the Trudeau government.
All Christians — Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and evangelicals — should remember their martyred brothers and sisters and those who brave threats against their lives and livelihoods for practicing their faith.
