As Deadly Global Christian Persecution Rages, New Effort Seeks to ‘Awaken the Church’

As global persecution rages, a watchdog is launching a first-of-its-kind, open-sourced database allowing people to track incidents of violent religious persecution across the globe. Global Christian Relief and the International Institute For Religious Freedom have teamed up to create the Violent Incidents Database (VID), which is being dubbed the "first and only events-based global religious freedom dataset."  David Curry, CEO of Global Christian Relief, told CBN News the database will help give a voice to persecuted Christians and others across the world, as it tracks killings, abductions, forced marriages, arrests, and other acts of persecution, allowing users to search by religion, country, and perpetrator. "I'm concerned about ... this enormous growth in religious persecution, be it the persecution of Christians, which is the largest minority group, as far as numbers, that faces severe persecution, or if it's antisemitism," Curry said, warning that there are diabolical "governments, and dictators, and extremists" who want to control peoples religious inclinations.  He pointed to the plight of not just Christians but also groups like Uyghurs whom the Chinese have rounded up and put in concentration camps. Plus, nations like Nigeria face escalating persecution crises, with Christians being slaughtered by Muslim extremists at a rapid rate. Persecution, Curry said, is a plight that must be called out and halted. "I'm a follower of Jesus, and I want to support the church, the persecuted believers, wherever they may be, to practice their faith, to worship Jesus, to read their Bible in peace, civilly, within whatever country and context they're in," he said. The VID database tracks thousands of incidents of persecution starting with 2022 data, though Curry cautioned that the dataset isn't "exhaustive," as it's impossible to capture every incident, particularly in countries where communicating persecution comes with intensive barriers. Listen to him discuss violent persecution in China, Nigeria, and other nations.  -- Welcome to "The Newsmakers Podcast," a show where we go behind the headlines each day to bring you interviews with pastors, entertainers, politicians, and other notable figures. Based on the "Newsmakers" show on the CBN News Channel, this daily podcast featuring CBN's Billy Hallowell provides full interviews with one newsworthy person every weekday.