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.

US, China strike deal to lower tariffs on $30B in goods after Trump-Xi Washington summit

Idaho Prop 1 Isn’t ‘Reproductive Freedom’: It’s a Vote to Kill More Babies

Incoming Democrat Rep. for NYC Arrested for Refusing to Obey Police Orders, Attempting to Get Netanyahu Arrested

Mamdani Celebrates ‘Closing’ the Budget: All He Did Was Move Some Numbers Around, and Constituents Are Still Packing for Florida

Watch: Even Murder Victim’s Family Almost Laughs as Court Plays ‘American Idol’ Killer Suspect’s Terrible Love Songs for Mistress

Dem House hopeful endorsed by activist who said ‘evil Jews run the world’

Trump revives rare budget maneuver to rescind $810M in congressionally approved funds

Illegal immigrants, 89 and 73, accused of armed drug trafficking decades after sneaking into US

Wave of overlooked ‘left-wing’ lawsuits could come with an unexpected price tag for Americans

Mistress may have handed prosecutors missing ‘why’ in ‘American Idol’ alum’s wife murder case: expert

Investigation: ActBlue Got Foreign Cash Then Punished Whistleblower

Watch: Police K-9 Limps Out Hospital to a Round of Applause After Surgery for a Catastrophic On-Duty Injury

Summer school for Ukraine’s future officers

Trump’s Greenland deal shadows Xi visit after years of Beijing eyeing Arctic influence

She grew up under Soviet rule. Now EU’s top diplomat warns Europe against giving Russia what it wants

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.