We’re not surprised by news of religious persecution in China, where Uyghurs and other religious minorities are disappearing into a vast and growing system of gulags and “reeducation” camps from which many may never return. We’re not surprised by news that pro-Russian separatists and Russian military forces have been targeting and killing evangelicals and other religious minorities in Ukraine. After all, China and Russia are dictatorships, unaccountable to their citizens, uninterested in their commitments, unanswerable for their actions, and unconcerned with the truth.
As Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Bishop David J. Malloy have lamented, “Sadly, 80% of the world’s inhabitants live in countries where there are high levels of governmental or societal restrictions on religion.”
But totalitarian countries aren’t the only places where religious freedom is under attack. Increasingly, freedom of religion is under direct governmental attack in democracies despite the fact that they recognize it as an inalienable right.
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