Crosstalk: January 13, 2017

Tim Muret is the chief communications officer for Open Doors USA, a non-profit organization focused on serving persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries.

When Open Doors speaks of persecution, what do they mean? Tim described it as any sort of animosity toward an individual for their faith in Jesus. He also noted that this includes both violent and non-violent activity against people of faith.

Is persecution greater today than it was a year ago? Tim says that is the case and especially in the past 3 years. This year the point totals for each of the nations on the World Watch List is the highest ever.

How do they know things are getting worse? Open Doors spends the entire year going around the world doing surveys in Christian communities to find out how people are being pressured for their faith. They do this in five different spheres: There's the sphere of private life, the sphere of family life, community, church and national life. Within each of these spheres they ask a series of questions.

Does this greater persecution mean Christianity is dying off in the world? Tim indicated that in some areas there are Islamic extremists whose stated goal is to exterminate Christianity. This Islamic extremism is not only in the Middle East but also in Africa and is spreading into Central Asia as well.

Jim asked Tim about the following nations on the Open Doors World Watch List:

#1—North Korea--It's been #1 for 16 consecutive years

#2—Somalia--formerly #7

#3—Afghanistan

#7-Iran--formerly #2

#10-Eritrea--formerly #3

#26-Bangladesh--formerly #35

#32-Mali--formerly #44

Tim also talked about Turkey and Sri Lanka, nations after the top 50, the state of affairs in the U.S., what Open Doors USA is doing to stop the increasing tide of persecution as well as a petition you can sign to encourage President-elect Trump to place a priority on religious freedom.

Jim took the remainder of the program to have listeners comment on how Christian persecution is affecting them.