Supplied by International Day of Prayer this Sunday for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), which is organised by the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
- Many experts suggest that more than 200 million people in over 60 nations face violent persecution or detention because of their identity as Christians. At least that many or more are discriminated against on a regular basis because of the faith.
- How many Christians are martyred each year? It is difficult, if not impossible, to say for certain how
many Christians are killed for their faith annually. Queries to those who do such research have shown that their figures are, in fact, projected averages or statistical guesses rather than based on hard figures or actual documentation. Sadly, most martyrs suffer and die anonymously, unknown, forgotten, their deaths unrecorded except in heaven. Even email, which most of us consider a basic everyday tool is a struggle to use in places like Ethiopia, Burma, and much of central Africa. Even where it is more readily available, it is not secure. Much goes unreported or is reported months, even years later. For many Christians, persecution is such a part of life that it hardly dawns on the afflicted to tell the world. They don’t know who to tell anyway and there are only so many organizations with limited staff to seek them out. Even then, many are nervous about sharing what they know for fear of retribution. In short, persecution, by its very nature, defies being statistically analyzed with any degree of certitude. Hence, we are reluctant to give a number that we can’t say, with certainty, is accurate. - Christians are the largest identifiable group in the world today who are denied their basic human rights simply because of who they are.
- In 1960, there were twice as many evangelical Christians in the West than in the rest of the world. Forty years later, there are now four times as many evangelicals in non-western nations than in the West. [The WEA includes Pentecostals in its membership.]
- Evangelicals are growing at a rate three times faster than the world’s population growth rate and are the world’s ONLY body of religious adherents who are growing by means of conversion. In 2000,
evangelicals had an annual growth of almost 5%, while Islam grew at half that rate. - In China, the Protestant church had maybe 1,260,000 members in 1949. Today the church has grown to at least 81 million members (registered and unregistered). The Catholic Church has grown from 3 million to over 12 million during the same 50 year period.
- In Africa alone, the rate of church growth has been nothing short of staggering, skyrocketing from an estimated 10 million Christians in 1900 to 360 million in 2000.
- The church in Sudan is the fastest growing church in the Muslim world; this despite facing some of the most horrendous persecution known to man in recent years.
- In Ethiopia, the church has exploded. In 1960, evangelicals numbered 200,000 and made up 0.8% of the population. In 40 years, by 2000, the church has grown to nearly 12 million, making 20% of the population. This has taken place despite great persecution during the communist era of 1974-1991.
Today, converts in rural areas face great persecution: stoning, bombing of church buildings,
discrimination, expulsion from home, driven from their villages en mass. - India now has 10 churches with more than 10,000 members and 30 that have more than 3,000 members.
In 1999, one church leader reported baptizing 2231 in a single day. Some Indian denominations are
reporting that they are planting a new church every day. - Among the Hmong people of northern Vietnam, there were NO evangelical Christians in 1989. In 11
years, by 2000, they numbered over 175,000. All of this church growth has taken place while being
brutally oppressed by Vietnamese authorities. - One of the main reasons for the persecution of Christians worldwide has been because of its rapid
growth. It is truer to say that church growth causes persecution than that persecution causes church growth. In some countries, such as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and other parts of the Middle East, persecution has actually caused the church to significantly shrink in size over the past 100 years.
Persecution stats from Pew Research
