As Open Doors has just released its latest World Watch List and accompanying trends analysis — the annual snapshot of Christian persecution around the world — we are once again confronted with a sobering and humbling reality: our brothers and sisters in Christ continue to suffer greatly for the name of Jesus. The full report highlights shifting patterns of persecution that demand both our attention and our prayerful response.
At the very top of the list, North Korea remains the most dangerous place on earth to follow Christ. There, secret believers live in constant fear; to profess faith publicly — or even to be discovered with a Bible — can bring arrest, torture or worse. In that totalitarian shadow state, Christian faith is driven underground and worship is a daily, costly act of obedience.
Yet the story does not end in East Asia. Syria — once home to vibrant Christian communities stretching back to the earliest centuries of the Church — has now soared into the top ten countries on the list as violence and instability have driven thousands of believers from their homes and into exile. Attacks on churches, killings of believers, and forced displacement have increased sharply with the collapse of stable governance.
