Members of religious groups faced harassment by either governmental actors or social groups in a record number of countries and territories as a new Pew Research Center analysis finds acts of hostility against Christians are on the rise. 

The release of Pew’s report, “Government Restrictions on Religion Stayed at Peak Levels Globally in 2022,” marks the 15th time it has conducted research examining government restrictions and social hostilities toward religion in 198 countries and territories. Imagine what a 2024 report will show as persecution has escalated in 2023 and 2024. Significant other Biblical end-times prophecies have already been fulfilled particularly the re-establishment of Israel as a nation back in 1948 and now the falling away from Biblical faith by most of the institutional churches (apostasy).

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:9-13

The research revealed that in 2022, “harassment of religious groups by governments or social actors occurred in 192 out of the world’s 198 countries and territories.” This constituted “an increase by two countries from 2021 and a new peak level for the study.”

“Governments harassed people for their religious beliefs and practices in 186 countries in 2022, up from 183 in 2021,” the report states. “Social groups or private individuals harassed people due to their religion in 164 countries, the same number as in 2021. Governments and/or social actors harassed religious groups in 192 countries, including 158 countries where both governments and social groups or private individuals engaged in harassment.”

As has been the case in every installment of the study, Christians experienced harassment in most countries, reaching a record high of 166 in 2022. 

One example cited in the report was the arrest of a man whose son brought Bibles and other Christian literature across the border into Mauritania from Senegal.

Another example is a Syriac Catholic Church leader in Bartella, a historically Christian town in Nineva province rebuilding after the defeat of the Islamic State, who said militias “sought to ‘seize and occupy Christian properties’ in an attempt to drive out Christians and alter the religious composition of the town.”

The study identified property damage, assaults, detentions, displacements and killings as examples of physical harassment experienced by religious groups. It highlighted how at least one instance of physical harassment toward a religious group occurred in 145 of 198 countries, marking an increase from the 137 measured in 2021.

Governments used physical force against religious groups in 111 countries, while social groups or private individuals were determined to have engaged in such harassment in the same number of countries.

The most frequent form of physical harassment directed at religious groups was property damage, occurring in 61% of countries. Detentions occurred in slightly less than half (47%) of countries, while the share of countries where physical assaults, displacements and killings occurred were measured at 45%, 26% and 25%, respectively.

According to a detailed appendix accompanying the report, the only countries where absolutely no harassment of religious groups occurred at the hands of the government in 2022 were Cape Verde, Fiji, Grenada, Macao, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Portugal, San Marino, Senegal and Suriname. The United States was listed as one of 110 countries where there was widespread intimidation of religious groups “by any level of government.”

Religious groups in the U.S. found themselves subject to property damage and physical assaults, while no displacements, killings or detentions were recorded. Another adverse experience faced by religious groups in the U.S. involves organized groups using “force or coercion in an attempt to dominate public life with their perspective on religion, including preventing some religious groups from operating in the country.”