A Pennsylvania state senator plans to file a resolution condemning the “worldwide persecution of Christians,” asserting that in many instances it rises to “religious genocide.”
Sen. Doug Mastriano—Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor in 2022—announced the initiative in recent memo, citing Open Doors’ estimate that more than 380 million Christians face threats ranging from imprisonment and forced conversion to mob violence and systematic suppression of worship.
Labeling Christians the most-targeted faith community globally, Mastriano said, “This persecution takes many forms — imprisonment, forced conversion, mob violence, and systematic suppression of worship. Yet the goal is the same everywhere: to silence the Gospel and erase its followers.”
“In the near future, I will introduce a resolution condemning — in the most unequivocal terms — the worldwide persecution of Christians,” he wrote.
“What we are witnessing today is not mere intolerance or unrest. It is a human rights catastrophe — and, in many nations, a coordinated campaign of religious genocide.”
Pointing to Pakistan, the resolution argues that blasphemy laws are “wielded as weapons of terror,” often sparking false accusations that inflame mobs and lead to lynchings, arson, and community devastation.
Mastriano’s memo adds that young Christian girls in Pakistan are “routinely kidnapped, raped, forced into marriage, and coerced to convert,” with advocates for justice facing threats or death.
Turning to China, the resolution contends authorities have launched “open war on faith itself,” demolishing churches, removing crosses, imprisoning pastors, and using AI surveillance to track attendance, while “house church” networks are infiltrated and children are barred from services as believers are told to replace images of Christ with portraits of Xi Jinping.
It further depicts Haiti as gripped by lawlessness, with gangs burning, looting, and occupying churches and kidnapping clergy at gunpoint for ransom or murder—citing a raid on a Christian orphanage in Port-au-Prince where children and staff were abducted.
The resolution identifies Nigeria as the epicenter of violence, with thousands of Christians killed annually by groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militias—“more than in all other countries combined,” according to Open Doors.
“Behind every statistic lies a life — a mother shielding her children from a mob, a pastor preaching forgiveness as his church burns, a child clutching a Bible while fleeing through smoke and rubble,” Mastriano added.
Aiming to reaffirm Pennsylvania’s solidarity with persecuted believers and its commitment to religious liberty, the measure formally urges President Donald Trump, the secretary of state, and Congress to act to defend freedom of faith worldwide.
Proposed steps include formally recognizing the persecution of Christians “as a grave human rights crisis and, in many cases, as genocide under international law,” and imposing “targeted sanctions” and other penalties against regimes hostile to Christianity.
