Christians are being punished and persecuted simply for living out their beliefs — and all of society loses out as a result. But none of this is inevitable.
W hen President Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday that Christianity is “the most persecuted religion on the planet,” he put blunt words to a grim reality known to millions across the world. The president was correct to highlight the state of Christian persecution worldwide, from criminalization for basic Christian expression in liberal democracies to imprisonment and threat of death under hostile regimes.
While we must be careful not to conflate the plight of Christians in the West with those facing the regular threat of death in other parts of the world, the facts are clear: Christian persecution is a universal phenomenon.
Start in Finland. Long-standing parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen is entering her seventh year of criminal prosecution following a Bible-verse post expressing her Christian view on marriage and sexuality. Two courts cleared her entirely, yet the state prosecutor pressed on, and now the Supreme Court of Finland will hear the case on October 30. When a Western democracy keeps a grandmother and civil servant in court for seven years over Christian speech, we know that something foundational is eroding — the freedom to articulate our basic religious convictions.
In Britain, Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was criminally convicted for the “offense” of silently praying for his deceased son near an abortion facility in the south of England. His appeal is currently pending with the legal support of ADF International. The U.S. Department of State highlighted the abortion facility “buffer zones” under which Smith-Connor was convicted as an “egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty.”
Cross the Atlantic and the pattern persists. In Canada, Jim Demers — criminally convicted in the 1990s for standing silently with a pro-life sign — still awaits justice for his peaceful expression rooted in Christian principles. Demers, with the legal support of ADF International, has appealed his case to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, where he awaits a judgment any day now that, ideally, will affirm his right to freely share his faith-based beliefs.
Then there is the raw edge of persecution, where the consequence is not a fine, but a cell, and often the very real threat of death. Consider Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo, a Yemeni Christian refugee imprisoned in Egypt for three years for hosting a Facebook group for Christian converts. After international pressure, he was freed earlier this year, but his case paints a vivid picture of the persecution facing Egypt’s Christians.
Nigeria demonstrates with tragic clarity what happens when the policing of expression metastasizes into violence with impunity. Year after year, Nigeria leads the world in Christians killed for their faith — horrific statistics that should command urgent international attention. This week, the Supreme Court of Nigeria will hear a case on Kano State’s draconian blasphemy laws in the north of the country. These laws perpetuate societal tensions, including vigilante death threats and mob violence, by targeting religious minorities accused of speaking against Islam. The case before the Supreme Court is that of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi Muslim, accused of blasphemy toward Mohammed. With this case, the court has the opportunity to strike down northern Nigeria’s blasphemy-law regime, and in so doing, pave the way for peace for Nigeria’s millions of religious minorities, including Christians.
In Turkey, the number of Christians has diminished from 20 percent to 0.2 percent of the population in the past 100 years. In recent years, the government has targeted foreign Christian workers despite their lawful and often decades-long residence in Turkey. Between 2020 and 2023, the Turkish government placed entry bans on or expelled at least 160 foreign workers and their families under fake terrorism designations. New entry bans are being issued all the time, and 15 of these cases are pending before the European Court of Human Rights.
Pastor Youssef Ourahmane is one of the leading figures in Algeria’s Evangelical protestant church. Since 2019, 43 Evangelical churches have been forcibly closed by the state, leaving only one with its doors open today. Pastor Youssef received a sentence of two years in prison and a substantial fine for the crime of “illegal worship.” His appeal is pending before the Supreme Court of Algeria.
In a climate of overarching persecution, Pakistani Christian girls face the compounded human rights violations of forced marriage and forced conversion, ripped away from their families and forced to marry Muslim men while the law turns a blind eye. More than 1,000 girls from religious minorities are forced into conversion and marriage every year in the country.
Christians are systematically targeted in Nicaragua by the Ortega regime. Eleven pastors and ministry leaders from Puerta de la Montaña were imprisoned for eight months and ordered to pay millions in fines for sharing the gospel in the country. Released last September, they are now bringing their case before the Inter-American Commission in an effort to end religious persecution in the country.
And this is just a snapshot of our moment. In every corner of the world, Christians are being punished and persecuted simply for living out their beliefs — and all of society loses out as a result. But none of this is inevitable. International law and the laws of almost every country robustly protect our fundamental freedoms. In every one of these cases, the law can be re-anchored to fulfill its basic duty — ensuring equal protection before the law for every person and the fundamental freedom to seek, speak, and live the truth.
President Trump’s provocation to the U.N. was clarifying. Religious freedom is not a special plea for Christians. Protect it robustly, and societies flourish. Let it decay, and no one is safe. We must work toward a world where the inherent dignity of every person is championed and all life is valued, where marriage, families, and communities thrive, and the good news of the Christian message resounds across the globe. For this to happen, we must recommit to putting an end to Christian persecution everywhere.