Christians are “the most widely targeted religious community, suffering terrible persecution globally” according to a study released this year by University of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture, the Religious Freedom Institute, and Georgetown University’s Religious Freedom Research Project. From the horrific beheadings of Coptic Christians in Libya by the Islamic State, to the mutilation of Indonesian Christians who refused to convert to Islam, it is estimated that 7,100 Christians died for their faith in 2015.

While Christians are certainly not the only community in the world facing violent persecution today, they are the leading community being targeted for their faith. According to the International Society for Human Rights, a secular NGO, in 2009 Christians were the victims of 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world. Historically, the Christian church has at different times been responsible for dealing out persecution on other communities, but that is not our current reality. It is reasonable to give some special attention to the research coming from Notre Dame and Georgetown on how Christian communities are responding to this crisis.