Persecution facing Christians across the globe has never been worse.
Religious liberty organization Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List showed that more than 360 million Christians are suffering “high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.”
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Of all the countries, North Korea is considered the most “brutally hostile” toward Christians.
“If discovered by the authorities, believers are either sent to labor camps as political prisoners where the conditions are atrocious, or killed on the spot — and their families will share their fate as well,” the report noted. “Christians have absolutely no freedom. It is almost impossible for believers to gather or meet to worship. Those who dare to meet must do so in utmost secrecy — and at enormous risk. A new ‘anti-reactionary thought law’ makes it amply clear that being a Christian or possessing a Bible is a serious crime and will be severely punished.”
For three decades now, the organization has been tracking persecution around the world and ranking the top 50 countries where Christians experience greatest persecution and discrimination.
“We have seen a tremendous growth and spread of persecution — of high levels of persecution — of Christians,” said Wybo Nicolai, architect and founder of the Open Doors’ World Watch List, noting that the first list in 1993 only considered 40 countries. “Today this number has almost doubled to 76. So that’s a very strong indication of how persecution of Christians has become a much bigger issue.”
Nicolai added that the intensity of persecution is also increasing, “especially in the last decade.”
North Korea returned to the list’s top spot in the 2023 list following an increase in arrests of Christians. In 2022, Afghanistan led the list, marking the only year since 2002 when North Korea did not lead the world in persecution.
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Afghanistan ranked ninth this year. Open Doors noted that the drop in persecution is a result of the Taliban shifting its focus from Christians to searching out people with links to Afghanistan’s former government.
Open Doors indicated that one in seven Christians are persecuted worldwide today with one in five in Africa and two in five in Asia being impacted.
