What has changed in the global persecution of Christians in the past two or three years? This was one of the questions that Steven Howard of In Defense of Christians put to me in a public zoom interview on Under Caesar’s Sword this past Friday, May 8.
My response is not very much. I cannot think of a single locale where the situation is substantially different. In places like Syria and Iraq, perhaps persecution has subsided in the aftermath of ISIS’s defeat, but Christian communities there remain endangered. China’s crackdown continues apace after a short respite an account of the virus. This story on Nigeria, one of the most ignored sites of violence against Christians, tells of a new report showing that the deaths and persecution of Christians have been intense in the first part of 2020.
Under Caesar’s Sword continues to offer curricula, a film, a public report, and volume of scholarly essays, and other materials for learning about Christian responses to persecution around the world today. The project is sponsored by the Religious Freedom Institute and the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.