Source: World Watch Monitor, January 16, 2019<\/p>\n
In its latest annual survey of 150 countries monitoring how difficult it is to live as a Christian, the 2019 World Watch List showed extreme, very high, or high levels of persecution [in 73 countries]. A year earlier, it was 58 countries.<\/p>\n
[Open Doors] reports that new laws in China and Vietnam seek to control all expression of religion. It says that in China, it\u2019s the worst religious repression there\u2019s been in more than a decade; some even say since the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976.<\/p>\n
In the north and Middle Belt of Nigeria, meanwhile, at least 3,700 Christians were killed for their faith\u2014almost double the number of a year ago (an estimated 2,000)\u2014with villages completely abandoned by Christians forced to flee, as their armed attackers then move in to settle, with impunity.<\/p>\n
Nationalistic governments such as India and Myanmar continue to deny freedom of religion for their sizeable Christian minorities, sending the very clear message that to be Indian, one must be Hindu, or to be Burmese one must embrace Buddhism. Extreme persecution also comes at the hands of radical Islamic militias.<\/p>\n
In Mexico and Colombia, persecution mainly comes when church leaders challenge corruption and cartels. But, globally, it also comes from family and friends, from fellow-villagers and work colleagues, from community councils and local government officials and from police and legal systems. Christian women and girls face more persecution pressure in family and social spheres; men and boys are more likely to experience the brunt of pressure from the authorities or militias.<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a> and see the 2019 World Watch List Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: World Watch Monitor, January 16, 2019 In its latest annual survey of 150 countries monitoring how difficult it is to live as a Christian, the 2019 World Watch List showed extreme, very high, or high levels of persecution [in 73 countries]. A year earlier, it was 58 countries. [Open Doors] reports that new laws … Continue reading WORLD: High Levels of Persecution in 73 Countries<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8304,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8302\/revisions\/8304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}