Sunday November 2, 2025 marks the annual Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Global violence against Christians has doubled in the last thirty years, and one in seven believers now suffers persecution. Today, “Christians constitute by far the most widely persecuted religion,” in the world.
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 16 million Christians have fled for their lives to escape violence or been forcibly displaced. Congressman Riley Moore has described Nigeria as “the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian.” So far this year in Nigeria at least 7,000 Christians have been put to death. More than 19,000 Christian churches have been burned to the ground or attacked in the last fifteen years. Countless Nigerian women and girls have been raped, trafficked, or forced into child marriages to Muslim men. Boko Haram and other Islamic terrorist groups roam at will with the complicity of a Muslim-dominated government.
In the Middle East, Christians essentially face genocide, according to a review authorized by the British government. In Iraq, the Islamic terrorists who comprise ISIS drove out a 2,000 year old Christian community in Nineveh, while crucifying, torturing and raping women, men and children. ISIS sold Christian toddlers at sex slave markets, burned down churches and videotaped public beheadings of the faithful. In many nations, including Saudi Arabia, public Christian worship, construction of churches and even the display of Christian imagery are all unlawful.
The Chinese Communist Party rules the world’s second most populous nation with an iron fist. Christians in China face imprisonment and hard labor, torture and the destruction of their houses of worship. The Chinese government forces all churches to “register,” regulates all such registered churches for compliance with official Communist teaching and forbids children under eighteen from attending church. Evangelism is forbidden. Church tithes may be confiscated as the proceeds of concocted “fraud,”; ordained ministers, lay leaders and members all face prosecution for “crimes” such as distributing Bibles; and evangelicals are forced underground.
Americans and our government can and should act in the face of this reprehensible repression. First, the President and Congress should defund any nations that terrorize people on the basis of faith. As Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky urged, “regime change” is needed, and “foreign aid should be contingent on behavior.” Dr. Paul has introduced legislation to block foreign aid to nations that imprison and murder people of faith based on their religion. The Senate should vote to pass S.4685, a bill “to prohibit assistance to foreign governments that violate human rights with respect to religious freedom,” posthaste. Not one penny of the earnings of the hardworking American taxpayer should be used to subsidize religious oppression abroad.
Second, Secretary of State Marco Rubio should restore the CPC (Countries of Particular Concern) designation of infringing nations, a label that summons international attention, prompts potential diplomatic consequences and imposes the possibility of economic sanctions. For example, in 2020, President Trump designated Nigeria as a CPC, only to watch President Biden inexcusably reverse that finding the very next year. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom called on Congress to convene public hearings regarding the Biden State Department’s malfeasance. The Trump administration has yet another opportunity to right the wrongs of the past by simply acting as truthtellers for silenced people of faith in many nations.
Third, as Justice Amy Coney Barrett famously reminded us during her 2020 Senate confirmation hearing, Christians “believe in the power of prayer.” Mark November 2 on your calendar. Pray that Christians in all lands may worship Jesus Christ freely, and people of any faith may practice their sincerely held beliefs without fear of reprisal. Send financial support to frontline workers, church ministries supporting overseas missions, and charitable organizations advocating for Christian freedom. Remember that elections are coming: lobby for people of faith with your elected representatives; volunteer your time for those fighting the good fight; and please, vote.
If the Christians of the West could be roused from what too often seems our slumber, we could actively aid our brothers and sisters suffering for the faith around the world.
Tag: Christian
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Pray for the persecuted Christian church
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The Christian school revival
In Texas, empty church classrooms might just become new schools.
On September 1, the state enacted the most expansive school voucher program in America. It will allow eligible families to receive up to $10,900 annually per student to be spent on private school tuition, or up to $2,000 to be spent on homeschooling. Students with disabilities could receive up to $30,000.
The number of states with school voucher schemes is unclear, but governors across the country must decide whether to join President Trump’s new federal private-school choice program – the first national scheme, approved by Congress in July.
In a recent study, economists Douglas N. Harris and Gabriel Olivier of Tulane University found that in the 17 states with school voucher programs, the funds had increased enrollment in private religious, and primarily Christian, schools with small student bodies – often 30 students or fewer. Overall, private school enrollment in voucher states has increased by 3-4 percent as compared to non-voucher states since 2021.
If the trend continues and more states bring in voucher programs, enrollment in private Christian schools is set to rise dramatically.
Emerging evidence shows that voucher programs are, in fact, associated with new private Christian schools opening or expanding. New Hampshire launched a school voucher program four years ago. Today, 11 of the 28 Christian schools in the state are either newly opened, or have grown by 50 percent or more. The same pattern is visible in Ohio. After the state’s EdChoice was launched, schools like Dayton Christian, whose enrollment increased by 106 students to 946, saw rapid growth.
In Florida, voucher programs are fueling demand at religious schools, with schools like Mount Dora Christian Academy adding more classes and holding waitlists for almost every grade. Superintendent of the Miami Archdiocese Jim Rigg has said that the Archdiocese is actively discussing the opening or reopening of new schools, and is “moving into growth mode.”
And while critics claim that vouchers will be used by wealthier parents and schools, private Christian schools in Texas have stated their intention to expand into rural, underserved and low-income communities with voucher funding. Texas, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association, Laura Colangelo, stated that private schools are “ready and willing” to expand into such areas. Similarly, Don Davis, head of school at Second Baptist School in Houston, said that vouchers would allow his school to grow in low-income communities that currently do not have private schooling.
“Our desire would be to provide educational equity to the families in Houston to reach those families that currently don’t have access to Christian Education,” he said.
While critics fear that any expansion could hollow out public schools, it’s important to note that only a small fraction of students in any given state are currently able to use vouchers due to enrollment caps and eligibility restrictions. Even in the largest and most expansive programs, the share of students using vouchers hovers between 4-10 percent. We are nowhere near mass exodus levels.
And building a new school takes years. Accreditation – a requirement for allocation of voucher funds – often takes several years. Even if voucher programs continue to grow, it will take time for private schools to meet demand.
But the savings could be huge. The average smaller Christian school being funded by vouchers charges a tuition of around $5,000 per year – a much lower figure than the $15,000 that states pay per student per year in public schools. Each student who uses a voucher is actually saving taxpayer money and allowing more resources to be given to those students remaining in public schools.
For parents turning to private Christian schools, education is about more than simple test scores. They often feel that public schools are failing their students – not just academically, but morally and spiritually. This is what many parents are seeking through school vouchers. They are not looking for ways to “get their child ahead” of the others, but are instead looking for an education that draws out everything they believe their children were created to be.
Voucher programs, then, are not simply redistributing tax dollars; they are paving the way to the restoration of education as a whole. Through the creation and expansion of private Christian schools throughout the country, voucher advocates hope and expect that more students will have access to institutions that cultivate both academic excellence and moral formation. Such reforms are not just about choice, but about reviving the cultural and civic mission of education itself. -
The mayor of Dearborn called me an ‘Islamophobe’
I didn’t remotely expect to go viral when I walked into the city council meeting here in Dearborn, Michigan, last week. But I’m glad I did. I say that not out of ill will towards the honorable mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, who called me an “islamophobe” for objecting to the name chosen for two intersections. I say it because the incident makes me think of much more serious experiences of prejudice against fellow Christians in so many Islamic countries around the world – and now also in western countries. This problem urgently needs to be counteracted with the type of peace (please, not hostility) and freedom that we have often enjoyed in Christian-influenced countries.
I objected to how two intersections in Dearborn have been named after the prominent Arab American journalist Mr Osama Siblani. I acknowledged that Mr Siblani has made many important contributions to the community, including bringing attention to the suffering of people in Palestine and Lebanon in the past two years. I mentioned that I have lived in Lebanon in the past, and also briefly in Israel, including an area considered Palestine by many.
However, Mr Siblani openly and constantly promotes Hezbollah and Hamas, even though, as I mentioned, Hezbollah was behind the past bombings of many Americans in Beirut. I read two quotes from Mr Siblani in 2022, one of which glorifies violence and the blood “that irrigates the land of Palestine”.
The other quote could even be interpreted as inciting violence in Michigan:
“We are the Arabs who are going to lift Palestinians all the way to victory, whether we are in Michigan and whether we are in Jenin. Believe me, everyone should fight within his means. They will fight with stones, others will fight with guns, others will fight with planes, drones, and rockets, others will fight with their voices, and others will fight with their hands and say: ‘Free, free Palestine!’”
I clarified that I was not promoting a strongly pro-Israel militaristic stance, but instead that as a Christian I would like to encourage peace and not violence. I referred to Christ’s warning that the person who wields the sword dies by the sword. I described Christ as the Prince of Peace who said “The peacemakers are blessed,” and whose death opened the door to peace between Jewish and non-Jewish people.
My comments were met with significant pushback, but it was the mayor’s response especially which went viral, including the words:
“ … you are a bigot and you are a racist and you are an Islamophobe. And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city, because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence. …”
I responded by saying, “God bless you Mayor, God bless you sir.”
Three years before in 2022, I had experienced a similar interaction with the mayor. Dearborn is a city in which enormous Islamic events occur on public premises – 40,000 people in one day, or 55,000 people over one weekend. Of course I don’t object to these. It’s a free country, and people should have a right to do that. What I do object to is double standards: a friend was getting serious resistance while applying to have movie nights showing the life of Christ in a small park shelter. Our team were being slandered as “preying on children” simply because we were offering popcorn and hotdogs for the movie.
I thought it was wrong that he had to defend himself against these accusations at multiple city council meetings while seeking permission for his events, when enormous Islamic events are approved at the click of a finger. I went to the city council and said that I feel as though I live in a Muslim country. I mentioned that I have lived in two Muslim countries: Pakistan for four years, and Lebanon for a year, and that Christians are not allowed freedom of speech and freedom of faith in Muslim countries.
On that occasion too the mayor dramatically shut me down with accusations of “bigotry” and “Islamophobia”. He publicized the encounter to thousands of constituents, many of whom applauded him. But I was also pleased to see that a sizable minority of Muslim Arab neighbours defended my stance publicly on social media.
The mayor’s words on these two occasions are for me personally water off a duck’s back – because I live in America, where my rights are ensured. I hope to become an American citizen this year, in addition to my Canadian and British citizenships.
I choose no longer to live in Canada, or Britain, because my freedoms of speech and of faith as a Christian are no longer fully protected even in those western countries. If we lose these freedoms here in America, then we will have lost them everywhere.
The original Islamic country, Saudi Arabia, where the mayor went on the hajj to Mecca a few months ago, still does not allow even one church in the entire nation. A friend who has been cheering me on by email in the past week has shrapnel in his body from a church suicide bombing in Pakistan. Another friend’s brother was killed after becoming a Christian in Pakistan. Both fled here to America. I have met about five different missionary men who were captives of the Taliban – one of them was murdered. Even the comparatively lenient Lebanon rarely allows the privilege of citizenship to foreign residents. I know a gentle missionary who was expelled from Lebanon after 35 years. Immigration, citizenship and societal influence are a one-way street. It needs to become a two-way street.
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud has been a highly capable, inspiring and accomplished mayor in many ways. These include some very impressive parks and playgrounds. (In one of these, the mayor pushed my happy young son on a roundabout, whom the mayor had met the week before when visiting the Christian pre-school.)
My sincere hope is that Mr Hammoud, and Mr Siblani, will add to their accomplishments by achieving global reputations for promoting, not oppression and hostility, but freedom of faith and peace.
I urgently hope that Dearborn’s example will reverse the trend of closing doors – that the doors of peace and freedom will be opened starting here, continuing back into other western nations, and then out towards oppressed Christian minorities in Islamic countries around the world.