Christian Persecution 2019 a Scourge of ‘Mammoth Proportions’

June 2019 is an “especially menacing time” for Christians both on the domestic and international fronts, writes Christian persecution expert John L. Allen in a report Sunday.

The U.S. Catholic Church is facing “one of the most serious potential violations of religious freedom in its history in the form of SB 360 in California,” writes Allen, author of the 2013 bestseller The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution, since the bill would compel priests to reveal information learned while hearing confessions as evidence against possible sex offenders.

“The bill passed the California senate in late May by a 30-2 vote and is expected to be considered by the State Assembly in September,” Allen notes.

On the international scene, “the scope of anti-Christian hostility is staggering,” Allen continues, with the number of Christians facing “harassment, physical assault, arrest and imprisonment, torture, and even death” on a daily basis estimated at around 200 million.

Nobu chef killed after teen driver crashes into parked car in California

Catfight! Insiders Say ‘The View’ Hosts Ticked at ABC After Whoopi’s Hiatus – ‘Every One of Them Wanted [It]’

Breaking: Televangelist Jim Bakker Dies at 86

Trump signs order waiving off-road rule for red-dyed diesel at Nebraska rally

Dennis Hastert, longest-serving Republican House Speaker and convicted child molester, dies at 84

Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre

Luxury fashion designers found shot dead in California as family reportedly reveals troubling lead-up

Text Messages Between Cornell Jane Doe and Alleged Attacker Turn Case on Its Head

Biden DOJ officials warned their school board investigation resembled ‘Anti-MAGA Task Force’

Muslim Flydubai Hijack Suspect Cited Quran, Repeatedly Called for Women to Be Abused, Slapped, Bashed in Head

Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel and Wiles’ calls with lawyers in secret probe: docs

Epstein survivor family claims GOP lawmaker’s staff ignored meeting request

El Sayed denies that Schumer PAC money will influence him in Washington

Supreme Court begins new term with high-profile look at clean air and federal authority

America’s new blue-collar job boom is one nobody saw coming — and it’s just getting started

Christians in North Korea, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and a host of other countries live under a constant threat of active persecution, as documented by Open Doors, a Christian persecution watchdog group.

Even in Latin America, the world’s largest “Catholic” region, the number of Catholic clergy and personnel killed each year frequently tops the list of continents.

While the defense of religious freedom should apply equally to all creeds, Allen asserts, anti-Christian persecution deserves particular focus “given the wall of silence that still too often surrounds the subject.”

“Just as one didn’t have to be Jewish to sympathize with the plight of dissident Jews in the Soviet Union, and didn’t have to be black to be outraged by apartheid in South Africa, similarly today one shouldn’t have to be Christian to recognize anti-Christian persecution as a human rights scourge of mammoth proportions,” Allen writes.

Saturday marked the beginning of the U.S. bishops’ yearly “Religious Freedom Week,” which runs this year from June 22-29.