Lord, we as the Church pray for those being persecuted for Your name sake. Comfort them in their hour of need. May the eyes of the persecutor be opened to see the error of thy way.

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And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
(Matt 10:22)

Authoritarianism, religious nationalism, and spreading Islamic extremism fueled the unprecedented growth of persecution against Christians last year, according to a new report from Open Doors. The organization released its annual World Watch List.

The report, which tracks the 50 most oppressive countries for Christians to live in, found 245 million believers now face high levels of persecution, up by 30 million since the last list came out a year ago. Persecution grew worse in many countries, including India and China, while others, like Russia and Morocco, joined the list for the first time.

Open Doors pointed to a number of new tactics against Christians, including the use of technology as a tool for persecution. It also found Christian women and girls face unparalleled danger.

“The data proves conclusively that Christian women are the most exploited group on the face of the earth today,” Open Doors USA CEO David Curry said, noting persecutors target women for forced marriage, sexual violence, abduction, trafficking, and more.

Gender-specific persecution is the easiest and most effective means of religious oppression, said Helen Fisher, the global gender persecution specialist for Open Doors. She said Christian women face a “double vulnerability,” noting, “The ease comes from the fact that persecuting them blends in. You don’t see it. It looks like something any other woman might experience: touching in the streets, discrimination in education, travel bans, domestic violence. And yet, these are all avenues to be able to specifically target the Christian woman.”

Researchers with Open Doors found that in the five worst countries—North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan—Christian women suffered more than men due to the use of sexual violence as a means of power and control. Hundreds of Christian girls are abducted, raped, and forcibly married to Muslims each year in Pakistan alone. But gender-specific persecution of religious minority women is not isolated to those five countries, as survivors of Islamic terror groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and ISIS in Syria and Iraq can attest….

“A church must be a sacred place in China and everywhere else,” Curry said. (Excerpts from Julia A. Seymour article in WORLD)

The Informer January 24, 2019 PDF Version