Pennsylvania Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano announced that he would be introducing a new resolution drawing attention to the “worldwide persecution of Christians.”
An Oct. 20 memo from the lawmaker announcing the move noted that “more than 380 million Christians live under the threat of persecution” around the world.
That reality makes followers of Jesus Christ “the most targeted faith community on Earth.”
“This persecution takes many forms — imprisonment, forced conversion, mob violence, and systematic suppression of worship,” the memo added. “Yet the goal is the same everywhere: to silence the Gospel and erase its followers.”
Mastriano, who was the 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania, provided several examples of nations which enforce or allow the persecution of Christians.
The lawmaker noted that in Pakistan, authorities use blasphemy laws to threaten Christians with imprisonment or death.
“Christians have been lynched in public squares, their homes burned, their communities razed,” the memo said. “Entire Christian neighborhoods — like Joseph Colony in Lahore and Gojra City — have been set aflame while authorities stood aside.”
Chinese authorities meanwhile work to dismantle “the visible symbols of Christianity,” such as crosses and church buildings.
They also arrest dissident pastors, who are often forced to lead secret house churches.
“In some provinces, Christians are ordered to replace images of Christ with portraits of Xi Jinping,” Mastriano said. “Pastors who refuse are detained and disappeared into China’s prison system, many never heard from again.”
Mastriano also spotlighted Nigeria, which is experiencing some of the worst Christian persecution in the world at the hands of Muslims.
“Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered by Boko Haram terrorists and Fulani extremist militias,” the memo said. “Churches have been bombed during Sunday worship; entire villages burned to ash; priests executed in front of their congregations.”
The resolution would reaffirm the solidarity of Pennsylvania with Christians around the world facing persecution, and would renew the “historic commitment to religious liberty as the foundation of human dignity” as a distinct tradition of Pennsylvania.
The effort would also call upon President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the United States Congress to “formally recognize the persecution of Christians worldwide as a grave human rights crisis” and in some cases a genocide.
It would encourage the imposition of “diplomatic and economic measures, including targeted sanctions, against regimes and organizations that enable persecution.”
Mastriano called for increased humanitarian aid to persecuted Christians and proposed that the United States “lead global efforts to bring perpetrators of religious violence to justice.”
“Let us stand for those who suffer for the name of Christ,” he said. “And let us ensure that Pennsylvania’s voice rings clear — on the side of freedom, faith, and human dignity.”
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