Silent Suffering: Christians Face Persecution as Americans Remain Unaware
A classroom at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Agwarra local government, Niger state, on Nov. 23, 2025. At the time, 50 of the more than 300 children snatched by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria had escaped their captors. On Nov. 21, gunmen took 303 children and 12 teachers—(Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye/AFP via Getty Images).
They’re killing Christians in other countries with impunity. Many Christians in America seem either ignorant or apathetic about this crisis. Perhaps we fail to act because we are unsure how to help. Yet religious freedom is exceedingly important.
America began because of anti-Christian persecution. Original colonies were populated by Christians seeking freedom to worship Jesus without government harassment. As the New England Confederation wrote in 1643: “WHEREAS we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace.”
The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1621 followed persecution. William Bradford, their longtime governor who voted him in about 30 times during annual terms of duty, noted in Of Plymouth Plantation: “It is well known unto the godly and judicious, how ever since the first breaking out of the light of the gospel in our Honourable Nation of England what wars & oppositions ever since Satan hath raised, maintained, and continued against the Saints, from time to time, in one sort or other.”
These persecutions four centuries ago triggered mass migration—Separatists, Puritans, Quakers, Presbyterians, and others yearning for freedom. Remove religious liberty, and other freedoms follow. Thomas Jefferson observed: “The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”
This conviction is etched in stone at Jefferson’s memorial in Washington, D.C. Yet many Americans today seem unaware of our founding principles. During a radio segment with Charlie Kirk—just before his death—I asked him: “If you boil down the essence of the Declaration of Independence, why we exist as a nation, it gets back to ‘the consent of the governed’ who have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
Kirk replied: “The idea of inalienable rights is totally at odds with the woke. They don’t believe in God. They don’t believe in eternal purpose. There’s no meaning. And the Woke is just a filler term for what we’ve fought on the spiritual front for millennia.”
Recently, I interviewed National Religious Broadcasters President Troy Miller about global anti-Christian persecution. Miller and Christian leaders recently spoke at the Museum of the Bible: “It’s estimated that 380 million Christians worldwide are at risk. This is not only a religious issue—it’s a human rights crisis we must care about.”
Dr. William “Bill” Donohue, president of the Catholic League, wrote: “As 2025 closes, it’s sad to note Christians face persecution globally—the extent deeply troubling. Two faces of this crisis exist: violent extremism and invidious hostility. All are perpetrated by extremists—religious fanatics and secular fanatics.”
Even Bill Maher, a longtime critic of Christian faith, recently condemned the mass killing of Christians in Nigeria as a humanitarian crisis. We should pray for the persecuted church and urge our elected leaders to address their plight.
Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries. He has written/co-written 33 books, including George Washington’s Sacred Fire (with Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.).
