{"id":449,"date":"2019-01-23T22:45:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T22:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/2019\/01\/23\/christians-experience-severe-persecution-in-2019\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:06:27","slug":"christians-experience-severe-persecution-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/impact-news\/christians-experience-severe-persecution-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians experience severe persecution in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ODOpen Doors International has published its 2019 World Watch List<\/a> which shows\u00a0the 50 countries where Christians are persecuted the most. In 40 of the 50 countries, persecution is rated extreme or very high. Afghanistan ranks second, and Iran ranks ninth in the list.<\/p>\n

Explore the country profiles<\/a> to find information, stories and prayers for each of the countries on the World Watch List, along with ways that you can stand with your persecuted church family in prayer and action.<\/p>\n

The World Watch Monitor offers this commentary<\/a> on this annual persecution list:<\/p>\n

“It reports that new laws in China and Vietnam seek to control all expression of religion.\u00a0It says that in China, it\u2019s the worst religious repression there\u2019s been in more than a decade; some even say since the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976.\u00a0In the north and Middle Belt of Nigeria, meanwhile, at least 3,700 Christians were killed for their faith \u2013 almost double the number of a year ago (an estimated 2,000) \u2013 with villages completely abandoned by Christians forced to flee, as their armed attackers then move in to settle, with impunity.\u00a0Nationalistic governments such as India and Myanmar continue to deny freedom of religion for their sizeable Christian minorities, sending the very clear message that to be Indian, one must be Hindu, or to be Burmese one must embrace Buddhism.<\/p>\n

Extreme persecution also comes at the hands of radical Islamic militias, such as in Egypt \u2013 where the Islamic State in Sinai vowed in 2017 to \u2018wipe out\u2019 the Coptic Church \u2013 as well as in Libya, Somalia and many other sub-Saharan countries. South-east Asia has seen suicide bombers in Indonesia attack three churches in one day.\u00a0In Mexico and Colombia, persecution mainly comes when church leaders challenge corruption and cartels.<\/p>\n

But, globally, it also comes from family and friends, from fellow-villagers and work colleagues, from community councils and local government officials and from police and legal systems. Christian women and girls face more persecution pressure in family and social spheres; men and boys are more likely to experience the brunt of pressure from the authorities or militias.<\/p>\n

In summary, Open Doors estimates that at least 245 million Christians experience \u2018high\u2019 levels of persecution in 73 countries \u2013 up from 215 million in 58 countries in the previous year.”<\/p>\n

See the full World Watch Monitor article,<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open Doors International has published its 2019 World Watch List which shows\u00a0the 50 countries where Christians are persecuted the most. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact-news"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019.jpg",450,248,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019.jpg",450,248,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019.jpg",450,248,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019-300x165.jpg",300,165,true],"large":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019.jpg",450,248,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019.jpg",450,248,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/OD-World-Watch-List-2019.jpg",450,248,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Richard Papworth","author_link":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/author\/dick-papworth\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Impact News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Open Doors International has published its 2019 World Watch List which shows\u00a0the 50 countries where Christians are persecuted the most. […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1542,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/1542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofchristmedia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}