Over 400 hostile acts against US churches since 2018; at least 57 tied to abortion in 2022: report

At least 420 acts of hostility against churches occurred in the United States over the past five years, while 57 of those hostile acts between January and September 2022 have been related to abortion, an analysis suggests.

The new report by the Family Research Council, a Christian conservative activist organization based in Washington, analyzes publicly available data between January 2018 and September 2022 to document acts of hostility targeted at 397 individual churches across 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

Those acts include vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents and bomb threats. The report finds that the severity and frequency of such attacks can potentially intimidate the Christian community.

“There is ample reason to be concerned about rising hostility to Christianity by a Western culture that increasingly rejects Judeo-Christian values,” reads the report, written by Arielle Del Turco, FRC’s assistant director of the Center for Religious Liberty.

In 2018, there were 50 incidents of hostility against churches, the report says. In 2019, the number increased to 83 and dipped to 54 in 2020, likely due to government restrictions and a general decrease in movement during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, there were 96 incidents of hostility against churches; and between January and September 2022, there were 137.

For example, in March 2022, the building of Main Street Baptist Church in Bartow, Florida, was destroyed in an arson attack. Journey Church of Sonora …. (Excerpt from The Christian Post)