New numbers show attacks against churches in the U.S. are on the compared to the previous year.
The Hostility Against Churches report from the Family Research Council (FRC) says there were more than 436 acts of violence against churches in 2023. That number is double the previous year, 2022, and eight times more since 2018.
From 2018-2023, the report found identified 915 acts of hostility against U.S. churches. The most common were vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, and bomb threats.
135 arson attacks took place, followed by 22 gun-related incidents, 32 bomb threats, and 61 described as other acts such as assault, threats, and interruption of church services.
Some in Congress are laying the blame on the Biden administration, accusing them of being anti-Christian after it was revealed in 2023 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was secretly gathering evidence that could link Catholics in Richmond, Virginia, to being “far-right nationalists.”
But it didn’t stop there. GOP House members said a few were sent out to spy on Catholics who were worshipping at churches and chapels in other states like California and Oregon.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, also said the Biden administration’s Department of Justice went after pro-life Christians, charging them for violating federal law after they protested an abortion clinic in 2021.
“There is a common connection between the growing religious persecution abroad and the rapidly increasing hostility toward churches here at home: our government’s policies,” said Tony Perkins, FRC president. “The indifference abroad to the fundamental freedom of religion is rivaled only by the increasing antagonism toward the moral absolutes taught by Bible-believing churches here in the U.S., which is fomenting this environment of hostility toward churches.”
