Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street. October 27th is International Religious Freedom Day. It's a date with a long checkered history. It was on this day in 1988 that President Bill Clinton signed the International Religious Freedom Act into law.
Also on this day, in AD three hundred twelve, Constantine the Great had his vision of the cross. That led to his conversion to Christianity and eventually to the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity in the empire. On this day in 1553, Michael Servetus was burned at the stake outside of Geneva for heresy. And on October 27th, in 2018, a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 and injuring 6. Religious freedom is affirmed in many international documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It's a freedom that's recognized in various degrees by nations around the world.
However, religious freedom is in a precarious place worldwide. It's under constant threat. The shocking rise of anti-Semitism around the world is an obvious example, but there are others, and there are In 2014, ISIS committed unspeakable crimes against the Yazidis and actions that meet the formal criteria for being labeled genocide. In 2017, Rohingya Muslims also faced genocide that led many of them to flee to Bangladesh. More recently, Muslims in Bangladesh terrorized the Hindu community there.
And in China, Uyghur Muslims. practitioners of Fulangong continue to face severe persecution. This list, tragically, could go on and on. Especially if we included the most widely persecuted religion around the world, Christianity. According to Open Doors USA, over 380 million Christians, about one in seven globally, face high levels of persecution.
including one in five Christians in Africa and two in five in Asia.
So far this year, in just the first 220 days of 2025, Over seven thousand Nigerian Christians have been brutally killed. and what international observers and advocacy groups are calling a Christian genocide. on June 13th. 200 Christians were killed in a single day in the Nigerian village of Yawalta. In March and April, over two hundred and fifty Christians were slaughtered in co ordinated attacks on churches and villages during Palm Sunday services in northern and middle belt regions of Nigeria.
Survivors there describe gunmen storming worship services, hacking victims with machetes, and burning families alive in their homes. The same persecution of Christians is also happening in other African nations. In February, over 70 worshipers were beheaded in the Democratic Republic of Congo when ISIS-affiliated rebels stormed a Protestant church in Kasanga, North Kivu, during a service. The dead there included women and children. Also in Syria this past June, an ISIS suicide bomber detonated explosives during Sunday liturgy at Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church, killing more than 20 worshipers and injuring dozens more.
Eyewitnesses, including a surviving woman who refused to flee despite threats. described the blast ripping through the congregation mid-prayer. With shrapnel embedding in icons and in pews. Across the Muslim world, Christians and other religious minorities are regularly subject to discrimination. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws are used to target Christians.
Accusations of blasphemy often result in mob action and require little evidence. At least 20 Christians remain in prison there on false blasphemy charges, and a reported spike in abductions has targeted Christian girls, some as young as 12, who are kidnapped, raped, and forcibly converted to Islam. In India, supposedly a democratic nation, the Hindu Nationalist Party has pushed anti-conversion laws that criminalize Christians for sharing their faith.
Now the U.S. does not typically rank on global persecution lists, but there are reports in our country of societal hostility, vandalism, and perceived government bias against Christians. These incidents are often tied to cultural debates over things like abortion, LGBTQ plus rights, and religious expression. The Family Research Council has documented a surge in attacks on churches, over 1,400. since 2018.
Many of these attacks go unreported, and motives vary from anti abortion backlash to general anti religious sentiment. All of this is why the International Religious Freedom Day is so important. The freedom to live out of our deeply held religious beliefs is a good gift that Christianity gave the world. This freedom is constantly being attacked and eroded. And American believers are in a unique position to argue for religious freedom and to support believers in places where it is most in jeopardy.
A great way to celebrate International Religious Freedom Day is to explain to someone why religious freedom is so important. Please take the time also to pray for persecuted religious minorities around the world. especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co authored by doctor Glenn Sunshine.
If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources to live like a Christian today, go to breakpoint.org.
