North Korea remains the worst nation in the world for Christian persecution, with the situation in Nigeria continuing to devolve, according to a new report on global religious discrimination. Overall, Open Doors’ World Watch List 2024 found 4,998 Christians were killed over their faith, a figure the organization said is likely much higher due to underreporting. Meanwhile, 365 million Christians face intense persecution and discrimination for their views.
One of the most alarming statistics in the latest report is the massive, seven-fold rise in church, Christian school, and hospital attacks, with that total increasing from 2,110 in the 2023 study to 14,766 in 2024. Assaults on Christians' homes also rose from 4,547 to 21,431, with the number of believers pushed out of their houses expanding from 124,310 to 278,716.
One of the most sobering lines from a press release surrounding the World Watch List 2024 reads, "More than 82% of Christians killed across the globe for faith reasons were in Nigeria."
The most recent rankings put Nigeria in the sixth spot for persecution and discrimination. But Nigeria isn't alone, as persecution in sub-Saharan Africa, more broadly, is an area of concern.
"Faith-related killings in sub-Saharan Africa far outstripped those of any other region on the annual list," the release read. "This has been a trend for several years." Watch Ryan Brown, CEO of Open Doors US, describe the report and the full scope of the problem.
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Welcome to "The Newsmakers Podcast," a show where we go behind the headlines each day to bring you interviews with pastors, entertainers, politicians, and other notable figures. Based on the "Newsmakers" show on the CBN News Channel, this daily podcast featuring CBN's Billy Hallowell provides full interviews with one newsworthy person every weekday.
To the newsmakers podcast, I'm Billie Hollowell, and this is a show where we go behind the headlines every day to bring you an interview with a pastor, entertainer, politician, or other notable news figure. And this is a show, again, it's daily, but it's based on our weekly TV show, which is also called Newsmakers. You can watch it on the CBN News channel and also on our YouTube page. And on this show, every day, we dive deep. It's a little more longer form with one of the people who you will often see on our Newsmakers show or across the CBN News platforms. On today's Newsmakers, we're talking all about global persecution. We have Ryan Brown, CEO of Open Doors US, to talk about his organization's World Watch List 2024. This is an annual report that tells us just how bad the issue of persecution is around the globe, almost 5,000 believers were killed for their faith, and there is just so much more in this report. We will talk about the worst offenders of persecution in terms of countries. They rank the top 50 countries and so much more, with no further ado, here is Ryan Brown. I wanted to thank you for coming on today to talk about the World Watch List, which is just out. And this list is very sobering. For those who don't know, this is a list that basically ranks the most difficult places in the world to be a Christian, where persecution and discrimination are at their worst. And let's just start with a general question, where are we right now? With this current report, when it comes to persecution, what does that dynamic look like across the world? Yeah, we're at historic high, record high levels of persecution. The report shows that that number has grown to 365 million individuals that are suffering persecution because of their decision and their faith to follow Christ. At one level, that number in and of itself can be mind-numbing, it is so large. You take a look at just that increase of 5 million people. There are fewer than 25 of our states here in the United States that have a population in excess of 5 million people, and so that type of an increase just in and of alone and recognizing each and every one of those 5 million individuals represents a unique story, a unique story in which Christ is still relevant and present, but a story in which we have a brother and sister that is experiencing severe persecution because of their faith. I mean, it would be akin to every single person in America, right? I mean, it's more than that, right? Being persecuted, 300 and 10 million, however many people we have in this country, it's more than that. I mean, that is mind-boggling, and you just brought up a great point because when we talk about these stories, we often talk about the numbers, which are important, but we forget sometimes, and I know your organization, Open Doors does not forget this, that these are individual human beings, like all of us with stories, and they're facing unimaginable circumstances. When you went through the data this year and you synthesized all of it, what shocked you the most? What was the thing that really stood out to you? I think the piece that stood out to me was how the persecution has increased as we take a look at the specific drivers, the complexion of that persecution has intensified and specifically become more violent. We see that in that number of 1 and 7 Christians suffering persecution, when you start to drill down and take a look at those, that there were nearly 5,000 people that were killed because of their faith this last year, when you take a look at the number of churches or Christian schools or hospitals that were vandalized or destroyed, that number from last year was 2,110, this year was 14,766. You take a look at the number of people that were beaten or suffered that physical violence, and these are just the reported cases, moved from 29,411 up to 42,849. If you take a look at the number of homes that were vandalized or destroyed, there was a 371% increase, it went from 4,547 over 21,431. The way in which violence has characterized that persecution just absolutely staggering this year. Yeah, you went through those numbers, I have them in front of me right now and they're incredibly shocking. You think to yourself, okay, it was bad enough that 4,500 people were driven out of their homes were assaulted in the 2023 report. To see that go to 21,000, why do you think, what is driving that? These are massive, you mentioned historic, these are massive increases in a one year time period, why? Yeah, that great question, well, you had mentioned where so much of this is taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in many cases, this comes alongside general instability in those countries. And because of that, Christians can often be persecuted with impunity, they are easy targets for those looking to further destabilize governments. Christians become an easy target that they can, that they can persecute, that they can act violence upon without necessarily seeing the repercussions from that violence. And so that the broader instability, the political instability that we see in so many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa has really been a fuel for some of this persecution against Christians. It's really heartbreaking to see, and we see these anecdotal individual stories every day in Nigeria in particular, where we're seeing murders and just horrific shootings in these events that are unimaginable to be happening in this century. And yet, here we are, there's a lot of debate and discussion, obviously, around the US State Department and the countries of particular concern list, and how Nigeria, again, was not placed on that list, and lots of speculation and debate around that. But I think a lot of people are looking at this report and looking at this data and thinking, "Why aren't we doing more?" and I know that's probably as a country, America, and the West. What could we be doing in your view, based on this data, based on what you're seeing, what are some ways, even as individual Christians, that we could be engaging to help alleviate these issues? Yeah, I think that it does start with individual Christians, and recognizing that that can percolate up and to reach governments and leaders that are making policy decisions. But it does start with individual Christian men and women that choose to one be aware and then choose to care and choose to recognize that we are part of, as a body of Christ, a global family, and Scripture points out that when one member suffers, we all suffer alongside. And I think too long, there have been too many of us that have been willing to sit within our own relative comforts and be blinded to those realities of the world around us. And so it starts with that awareness and certainly an invitation to lift these things up in prayer, to align ourselves to the heart of our Father, who is, again, moving and advancing in the context of this persecution. His name is being glorified. That was one of our reporters that I was just so encouraged to hear. They said that while the area that he was looking at, the persecution and the violence was increasing in exponential numbers. But he had never seen such an obvious correlation between the church advancing under persecution. And so, again, we need to be joining our brothers and sisters and lifting them up in prayer. And I think it all starts right there. Yeah. Now, that is, we can have the socio-political debates all day and what should be happening. And those are great conversations to have, but that prayer is essential and important. And I would imagine that many people don't even know this is going on. So not only is it on their prayer list, they're not even aware of it. So being educated through the work that Open Doors does and then being able to say, "Okay, now I know about this. I'm going to get on my knees in prayer for the people of Nigeria and the leaders and our leaders as well to know how to deal with this." You know, we mentioned Nigeria, and I want to get into India because India is another one of those countries where I think there's a lot of confusion. People don't really know what's happening, but there have been alarming increases of persecution there as well, correct? There have been. Yes. There in all fairness, there have been some areas that we've seen some encouraging signs as well. And some of those things on governments changing power and being suggestive of some increased protections and opportunities for Christians in certain parts of the countries, but in other parts of India, we are seeing that violence continuing to escalate is Hindu extremism continuing to rear its head at alarming levels and looking to stamp out those that would profess a faith in Christ. Yeah. No, it's incredibly complicated, but when you look at those comparison numbers, again, even on India, that was really helpful to be able to see, you know, driving people out of their homes, each of these metrics, the changes that are going on and what is happening. Before we close out, and I want people to go to Open Doors and I want them to read this report and see it, but one of the things that happens almost every year, there was one year where Afghanistan took the top spot recently, but North Korea, North Korea always ends up being number one, worst place for persecution. Can you talk a little bit about what is happening there, what we know of, because I know it's very reclusive and difficult to get information and what made them number one? Yeah, you're right. I mean, the better parts of 20 years has been sitting right on top of that list and it's an authoritarian regime that sees Christianity as a threat to the state and therefore looks to stamp it out in any form or fashion in which it's observed. It's amazing to think that you're just possessing a Bible equates to, in essence, the equivalent of a death sentence for an individual and their family as well, whether that be through forced internment in prison camps of labor camps or an actual death sentence. You're just the simple possession of a Bible that the cost is great in those areas, let alone looking to come together with fellow believers to worship in community, truly amazing the threat that they live under. In that context, again, it is so encouraging to see though that men and women responding as the hands and feet of Christ, even within the context of that persecution. Open doors, we're privileged to work with different safe houses or trauma centers outside of North Korea for those that have fled the country and be able to minister to them spiritually and physically and emotionally, but to see how many of those individuals desire to then go back to that place of persecution, to go back to be the hands and feet of Christ after they've been ministered to their desires for their country. Yeah, and as you mentioned, when we see this intense persecution, we often see the growth happening at the same time and that compassion and that love. When you talk about loving your enemies, what you just described is the epitome of loving your enemies, the people who have tried to kill you or destroy your life or take everything away, going back to minister to them. Final question for you, when it comes to this report this year, what are you hoping to accomplish? Yeah, great question. And our hope is for the individual men and women here in the US that they would again utilize this to be aware, but throughout this report for each country listed, you'll see a number of prayer points that folks, sometimes it would be difficult to even know how to pray in the face of such evil and difficulty. And so there are specific areas that for every country in which somebody can be lifting up with specificity, their brothers and sisters in Christ's through prayer, it's in a 52-week year. There's an opportunity every week to focus on a specific country through prayer. And so that would be our hope, our desires to see men and women choose to identify with their brothers and sisters through prayer. Well I appreciate you taking the time today, taking us through this. There's so much more in the report and where can people go if they want to download a copy or explore the different country reports that you have. Correct. If you go to opendoorsus.org, you'll see links there for all of these resources. Well I appreciate your time. Thanks as always for joining us today. Thank you. Real privilege to be with you today. Thank you. That's all for today's Newsmakers podcast. Be sure to tune in for the next episode of the show. And also head over to the CBN News YouTube channel and the CBN News channel to watch Newsmakers every week. We'll see you soon. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
