Is There a Global War on Christians?

The question of a global war on Christians can be answered in the affirmative. Worldwide persecution of Christians is a perennial matter and the recent Sri Lanka serial bombings on Easter Sunday (April 23,2019) perpetuated by a group connected to the Islamic State serves as one example of many.

A helpful resource that I came across which outlines the tribulation Christ’s followers experience on a daily basis is The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution (New York: Image, 2016) by John L. Allen Jr., the editor of Crux. “However counterintuitive it may seem in light of popular stereotypes of Christianity as a powerful and sometimes oppressive social force,” Allen’s contention is “Christians today indisputably are the most persecuted religious body on the planet, and too often their new martyrs suffer in silence” (1).

The Global War on Christians is broken down into three parts. The first part is an overview of anti-Christian persecution over the world. It offers “representative examples of the kinds of suffering Christians around the world endure — legal harassment, social discrimination, arbitrary detention and imprisonment, torture, physical assault and injury” (25). Even martyrdom still happens today. Allen covers a sampling of the incidents from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Part two of The Global War on Christian is most interesting, as it deals with popular myths on the subject. Allen expounds on five common myths about Christian persecution:

• Christians are vulnerable only where they’re a minority, rather than being exposed to a danger virtually anywhere, including societies in which they represent the overwhelming majority.
• “No one saw it coming,” an assumption that means act of anti-Christian violence are forever styled as random and unpreventable, rather than the predictable result of a mounting pattern of hatred.
• “It’s all about Islam,” fueling notions that the war on Christians is exclusively a product of Muslim radicalism, rather than a bewildering cocktail of social forces.
• “It’s only persecution if the motives are religious,” rather than seeing Christians as martyrs every time they put their safety at risk on the basis of their faith.
• The war on Christians is a left-wing or right-wing issue, as opposed to the transcendent human rights concern of the early twenty-first century, regardless of ideology or political affiliation (173-174).

Part three of The Global War on Christians looks at the positive outcomes of growing awareness on the persecution of Christ’s followers can bring such as emergence of new leaders and cementing of religious freedom as “the paradigmatic social and political concern of Christian churches,” which “will make Christianity a stronger pro-democracy force around the world” (245). Moreover, the book suggests the growing focus worldwide Christian persecution can spur on an “ecumenicism of the martyrs,” or a “renewed commitment to Christian unity as the result of the common experience of persecution” (245). Lastly, the book offers some practical steps to offer solidarity to victims of the global war on Christians.

I have to admit the global war on Christian feels very distant to me living in the United States where things are relatively safe. There are anti-Christian sentiments in this country too; however, when I openly profess my faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I am hardly at risk for arbitrary detention, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom. However, I also have to offer solidarity to my Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world who do live in places where the global war against Christ’s followers is most fierce.

What happened in Sri Lanka is a bitter reminder that there is a global war on Christianity, and despite all the comforts of being an evangelical Christian in America’s Bible belt, I cannot turn a blind eye to the reality that most believers around the world live as a persecuted minority.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Pet. 4:12-14, ESV).

— WGN