“Persecuted & Prevailing: Addressing Christian Persecution in the Modern World,”

The Global Persecution of Christians

In an era where faith faces escalating threats — from violent crackdowns in the Middle East to subtle erosions of religious liberty at home — the global persecution of Christians demands urgent attention and unwavering action. This was at the heart of the Washington Policy Institute’s (WPI) Thursday event and panel discussion, “Persecuted & Prevailing: Addressing Christian Persecution in the Modern World,” which took place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Nohelty, board chair and CEO of WPI, cut straight to the heart of the matter: “We realize that there’s a real problem in journalism.” She explained how WPI’s mission is “to encourage, equip, and empower journalists — and especially student journalists — to discover, describe, and document issues and events affecting freedom, faith, and family.” The goal, she stressed, is to restore reporting that equips readers to reach their own informed conclusions rather than being spoon-fed narratives by ideologically compromised outlets.

The panelists powerfully reinforced this vision throughout the evening and in exclusive remarks to The Washington Stand. “Christians are paying a high price for their faith,” declared Troy Miller, president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters. “Churches destroyed, pastors in prisons, families uprooted. Confessing Christ remains one of the most dangerous acts a person can undertake in many regions of the world. More than 380 million Christians live under high levels of persecution, and yet the mainstream media stories account for only about 2% of the coverage.” But “the persecuted church stands firm. They proclaim the gospel with clarity and courage that should humble and stir us.”

Speaker after speaker warned that American believers remain dangerously unaware of these horrors, lulled into complacency by the very freedoms others die to possess. Miller was blunt: “[W]e must confront at home” the reality that “one of the greatest problems is not just cultural hostility. It is … apathetic, lukewarm pulpits. We put a tremendous effort into addressing regulatory pressures, ownership concerns, legislative challenges, and censorship.

That critical question fell to Virginia Prodan, the international human rights attorney, survivor of communist Romania’s secret police, and bestselling author, who shared with TWS a stirring testimony of courage forged in the crucible of persecution itself.

“It’s very important to me to share with people not only in America, but all over the world, what persecution looks like,” she stressed. “Because I survived persecution under communism, under Nicolae Ceausescu, and by the grace of God, I had the opportunity to live in America.” Yet over the decades, Prodan has watched with growing alarm as the nation she once fled to for refuge begins to echo the very ideologies she escaped. She sees America “being changed in so many ways,” with “many people [turning] their backs to God.” She insisted, “I want to make them aware that there is no freedom without Christ. We have freedom in Christ,” but “apart from Christ, we do not have freedom — not even in America.”

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