A new survey report issued by the Pew Research Center confirms that government sponsored religious persecution and suppression is at a record level around the world. The report, titled In 2018, Government Restrictions on Religion Reach Highest Level Globally in More Than a Decade, was published online on November 10th. Read it here: PEW RESEARCH REPORT. The report shows that 56 countries, or 28% of all the nations in the world, put high or very high restrictions on various religions within their borders. Some of the worst offenders include China (which has the highest recorded level of all), Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, and Myanmar. For some reason, North Korea, which is infamous as the worst religious persecutor in the world, apparently was not included in this survey. I could not find an explanation why not. Perhaps the isolation of that country made getting accurate data impossible.
Clearly the greatest number of these restrictive nations are predominantly Islamic. In fact, twenty-one nations make it a crime to apostatize (defect) from Islam. One of the most revealing facts found in the report is that nearly every country on the list of offenders is governed by an authoritarian dictatorship, hybrid regimes, or, as the survey puts it, “flawed democracies.” Only one fully democratic country, Denmark surprisingly, was listed as “high” on the scale (none were “very high”). Overall the worldwide level of government sponsored religious restrictions is the highest it has ever been since the Pew Research Center began tracking it in 2007.
Despite the restrictions, the growth of Christianity has continued in many of these countries. For instance, in China the Protestant church has grown from only 1.3 million members in 1949 to at least 81 million members today (a 620% increase in 70 years). The Catholic Church in that communist ruled land had 3 million members in 1949 (when the Communist Party took power) to over 12 million today (a 400% increase). That means over 93 million people in China now identify as Christians!
Christian church growth remains steady in other areas where persecution runs high. It is clear that the Lord continues to expand His kingdom regardless of efforts of the powers of this world to obliterate it. As American Christians, we should pray for our brothers and sisters in those lands where they currently experience great tribulation. We must also pray for our own land. Being a Christian is becoming more difficult as cultural and legal trends are forcing us to swim above the waves in the intensifying riptide of immorality and secularism.