Jul 4, 2025
Christian persecution remains a global crisis in 2025, affecting more than 380 million believers worldwide. While advocacy and awareness have grown, accurately measuring the scope of persecution continues to be a significant challenge. Unlike martyrdom, which is visible and quantifiable, most persecution is systemic, hidden, and difficult to track. According to Open Doors’ World Watch List, the number of Christians killed for their faith has decreased slightly—from 4,998 in 2024 to 4,476 in 2025. At first glance, this may appear to be progress. But it obscures a darker truth: persecution is evolving. Today’s methods are less about visible violence and more about social, psychological, and digital repression.
The forms of oppression Christians now face are broad and insidious—arbitrary detention, forced displacement, church demolitions, online surveillance, and economic marginalization. Governments and extremist groups are growing more adept at using technology and policy to silence believers without drawing global attention. Authoritarian states like China use facial recognition to monitor churchgoers, while others leverage legal systems to deny Christians employment, education, and housing. Persecution also varies dramatically by region. Though Christian killings have declined in Nigeria, they have increased in places like the DRC and Burkina Faso. Meanwhile, in closed countries like North Korea and Afghanistan, the lack of transparency makes it nearly impossible to measure the full extent of suffering. As persecution becomes more chronic than catastrophic, it requires a broader lens—one that sees not only the graves of martyrs, but also the silent suffering of the oppressed who live in fear, exile, and erasure.
Stay Awake. Keep Watch.
SOURCE: International Christian Concern