Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

by Adam Holland
CEO, Open Doors Australia and New Zealand

This Sunday, thousands of Australians will funnel into church buildings. Perhaps you are one of them.

For many of us, it is our weekly tradition. According to research company McCrindle, 1.8 million people attend a church service weekly – more than the population of the state of South Australia. The churches are varied in expression, some traditional, some upbeat. Some may take communion, while others raise their hands.

But what they have in common is a freedom to gather.

Christians in Australia are free to meet in houses of worship. We have freedom of religion and the freedom to believe what we want to believe.

But as the latest report from Open Doors reveals, freedom is not the lived experience of millions of Christians around the world.

The number of Christians across the globe who are suffering persecution and discrimination because of their faith has risen to 365 million, according to the World Watch List 2024 research report released by Open Doors.

Under Attack

One of the greatest global battlefields over religious freedom occurs in Christian churches, schools, and hospitals, with targeted attacks on Christian institutions rising sevenfold in the last 12 months.

According to the private school lobby group Independent Schools Australia, enrolments in Christian schools have grown nationwide by 50% over the last ten years. The parents of these children would never anticipate that their families and the schools they attend would become a target, simply because of the word ‘Christian’ present in their name.

The question is whether we care about the realities that millions of people are forced to live in, even if it is different to our own experience.

We have a saying in Australia: “We need to look after our own backyard.” At best, this approach brings accountability to the issues in our own nation, and at worst, it excuses responsibility for global injustice.

But this discrimination is within our own backyard.

Not acutely within the borders of our nation, but not too far beyond them.

The rate of persecution and discrimination against Christians is the highest in Asia, where 2 in 5 Christians are suffering.

Countries such as China and India, two of Australia’s most significant trading partners, have been the greatest contributors to a seven-fold rise in church attacks and closures. These two countries make up nearly 83 per cent of attack and closure incidents on churches in all countries on the World Watch List 2024.

They are top of the list in a ranking no one wants to win.

In India, brutal conflict saw violence rise sharply ahead of the looming 2024 elections.

There was a nine-fold increase in the number of Indian Christians killed, with the number of deaths rising from 17 last year to 160 in 2023.

In India, the number of attacks on churches and Christian schools spiralled from 67 last year to 2,228, while the number of Christian homes attacked doubled to 180.

While the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, received what was called a ‘rockstar welcome’ in Australia in May 2023, at the very time he was meeting with Australian leaders, hundreds of churches and Christian homes were destroyed in ethnic violence in Manipur state.

This violence against Christians is happening right under our noses.

Solidarity

In our country, there would be protests and outrage should the government close down a church or house of worship. And it wouldn’t just be the Christians. We all believe in freedom of religion, regardless of our beliefs, as Section 116 of the Constitution provides. Whether we experience a measure of pressure socially, at work or even from our families, the fact remains that our democratic government values our individual right to believe what we choose to believe and practise those beliefs freely.

However, these freedoms are decreasing worldwide, and the persecution of Christians ‘in our own backyard’ is sharply increasing.

China closed over 10,000 churches in the last 12 months through a set of old and new authoritarian measures.

Large unregistered ‘house churches’, which had been meeting in hotels or office blocks, have been forced to splinter into a myriad of less visible house groups, and many of the venues for state-approved churches were forced to close down and merge with larger churches.

We must not ignore this discrimination. It’s time to protect the freedom of our neighbours in our own backyard.

As one body, when one part hurts, we all hurt. Two ways you can support those Christians who face persecution for their faith; pray and give. If you pray, pray. Persecuted Christians all over the world can testify to the power of prayer to help them stand strong in the midst of terrible suffering. In addition, you can support them financially through sponsoring projects like emergency relief after attacks, trauma care for victims, and spiritual training and support. As a global family, this is our moment to say ‘no more’ to persecution happening within our own backyard.

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Image courtesy of Ritesh Arya.

Open Doors Australia and New Zealand is part of Open Doors International, a global membership organisation with 25 national bases that has supported and strengthened persecuted Christians for more than 60 years and works in 70 countries. The full report can be viewed here.