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For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Gal 5:13)

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Governments around the world continue to increase restrictions on religious belief and practice, according to a survey published Thursday.

The Pew Research Center study found that 28 percent of all countries have significant legal restrictions on the exercise of faith, up from 25 percent the previous year and up from 20 percent in 2007, when the Washington-based think tank began tracking the trend.

“Most countries around the world have some form of restrictions on religion — whether it is through laws that limit actions like public preaching or conversion, or actions that can include detaining, displacing or assaulting members of religious groups,” the report found. “A subset of countries, however, has particularly high levels of government restrictions on religion.”

The survey comes as the Trump administration has pushed to bolster religious liberty around the world. The State Department issued its annual Report on Religious Freedom last month, targeting a number of regimes that deny their citizens the right to live by their faith.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also announced the inaugural Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, a global summit that the department will host in Washington from July 25-26….

“Most countries around the world have some form of restrictions on religion — whether it is through laws that limit actions like public preaching or conversion, or actions that can include detaining, displacing or assaulting members of religious groups,” the report found. “A subset of countries, however, has particularly high levels of government restrictions on religion.”

The survey comes as the Trump administration has pushed to bolster religious liberty around the world….

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also announced the inaugural Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, a global summit that the department will host in Washington from July 25-26.

Many of the countries singled out in the State Department report appeared at the top of Pew’s Government Restrictions Index, which assigns each nation a score, 1 to 10, assessing the level of official hostility toward religion. (Excerpts from Bradford Richardson article in The Washington Times)