According to the Open Doors World Watch List 2026, 388 million Christians worldwide face high levels of persecution and discrimination — an increase of 8 million from the previous year. One in every seven Christians on earth lives under threat for their faith. In Nigeria alone, more than 7,000 Christians were killed in the first eight months of 2025 — an average of thirty-five per day. Churches are burned. Villages are razed. Women and children are abducted, enslaved, and trafficked. The perpetrators are Islamist terror groups like Boko Haram and radicalized Fulani militias who have publicly declared their intention to eliminate Christianity from West Africa within fifty years.
This is not contained to one country. North Korea remains the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian — discovery means execution or deportation to labor camps. In Syria, the fall of the Assad regime triggered a devastating spike in anti-Christian violence, including a June 2025 church attack in Damascus that killed 22 people. In China, the government monitors churches, forces pastors into indoctrination sessions, and treats believers as ideological threats. In India, Hindu nationalist laws systematically discriminate against Christians. Across the Middle East, ancient Christian communities that have worshiped for two thousand years are being driven to extinction. Ninety-three percent of all Christians murdered for their faith are killed in sub-Saharan Africa. The world has chosen to look away.
Sources: Open Doors World Watch List 2026 · ICC · Aid to the Church in NeedThe United States has diplomatic leverage, economic sanctions authority, military capability, and moral authority. All of it has gone unused. Nigeria has been on the World Watch List for years. The U.S. has continued to provide hundreds of millions in foreign aid while Christians are murdered at a rate of thirty-five per day. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 created a framework for action that has been consistently ignored. No sanctions against the Fulani militia commanders ordering the burning of churches. No conditioning of aid on measurable progress protecting religious minorities. No priority refugee status for Christians fleeing genocide. Statements of concern. Letters of condolence. And then silence.
The tools exist. The Global Magnitsky Act allows targeted sanctions — asset freezes, travel bans, banking exclusions — against individuals responsible for human rights abuses. It has been used against persecutors in dozens of countries. It has almost never been used to protect Christians. Open Doors cited Nicaragua as a case where targeted sanctions may have prevented the situation from worsening. The same tools could be applied to persecutors in Nigeria, China, India, and elsewhere — if there were political will to use them. For decades, the protection of persecuted Christians has been a fundraising talking point, not a genuine foreign policy priority. Chris Gleason will change that.
Sources: State Department · Global Magnitsky Act · IRFA 1998 · Open DoorsIn 2023, an FBI field office circulated a memorandum identifying "radical-traditionalist" Catholics as potential domestic terrorism threats. The memo cited "propaganda from highly partisan sources" and suggested infiltrating Catholic parishes for "threat mitigation." It was retracted only after public outcry. But the attitude it revealed was not an aberration — it was a symptom of an institutional culture that treats devout religious belief as inherently suspicious. Your faith is tolerated, not protected, and only so long as it conforms to approved secular orthodoxies.
Federal agencies have attempted to force Christians to affirm ideologies that contradict their religious beliefs as a condition of employment. The Biden Administration's Section 1557 rule sought to require healthcare providers to perform gender transition procedures regardless of religious objection. Religious charities have faced lawfare for serving immigrants. Parents have been told they cannot opt their children out of instruction that directly contradicts their faith while school districts grant secular exemptions freely. COVID-era vaccine mandates denied religious exemptions while granting medical ones. The pattern is consistent and unmistakable: religious liberty is treated as an obstacle to be overcome, not a right to be protected. Chris Gleason — a veteran who swore an oath to defend the Constitution — takes the First Amendment personally. The free exercise of religion is not negotiable.
Sources: FBI Richmond FOIA · USCCB 2025 Religious Liberty Report · Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025)Religious persecution is the most underreported human rights crisis on Earth. Chris will make it a Senate priority.
“In Nigeria, Christians are 2.7 times more likely to be killed in attacks than Muslims. 93% of Christians murdered for their faith worldwide are killed in sub-Saharan Africa. This is not a natural disaster or a random tragedy. It is targeted violence against our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the world has chosen to look away.”Open Doors World Watch List 2026 · Persecution Research
The persecuted church has been abandoned by the leaders who claim to support it. Rhetorical support. Fundraising letters. But when it comes to real action — sanctions, aid conditions, refugee priority, legislative protection — silence. And at home, the very government that is supposed to protect the free exercise of religion has treated believers as threats to be monitored, marginalized, and compelled to conform.
Chris Gleason is a veteran who swore an oath to defend the Constitution. He is running for the United States Senate because 388 million persecuted Christians deserve a champion in Washington, not a spokesman — and because the First Amendment is not a suggestion.
Help Chris defend religious liberty at home and hold persecutors accountable abroad.
388 million Christians are waiting for someone to act. Chris Gleason will be that someone. He will fight for the persecuted church abroad and defend religious liberty at home. Stand with him.
Read the Full Plan — Eight Policy Planks, Region-by-Region Evidence, and the NumbersEvery dollar fuels the fight. Every volunteer multiplies our reach. Florida deserves a Senator who answers to the people.