Survey Says Americans Expect Their Next President to Address Global Persecution of Christians

It doesn’t matter if the next President of the United States is Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, a survey found a majority of Americans expect their next president to address a major issue.

They want the leader of the free world to address global Christian persecution. In fact, it wasn’t even close. More than three-fourths (76 percent) of those questioned in the Harris Poll commissioned by Open Doors USA agreed with the following statement:

It is important to me that the next U.S. President be committed to addressing the persecution that some Christians face around the world (e.g., imprisonment, beheadings, rape, loss of home and assets).

Open Doors is an organization that has been advocating for and equipping persecuted Christians for more than 60 years. Noting that neither Trump nor Clinton has taken a public position on the rise of global religious persecution, it called on them both to publicly state their plans of action for addressing religious persecution.

“Persecution of Christians, as well as adherents of other faiths, has grown exponentially in recent years,” Open Doors President and CEO David Curry said. “Governments are clamping down on religious freedom of expression, causing millions to face displacement, harassment, imprisonment, beatings and even death. Americans are looking to each presidential candidate for clear and decisive plans to address this growing global crisis.”

Open Doors is asking concerned Americans to express their desire to hear from each presidential candidate by signing their online petition. Last year, the organization said, more than 7,000 Christians were killed for their faith.

In Iraq and Syria, Christians continue to face severe persecution at the hands of ISIS. In Nigeria, Christians are targeted by Boko Haram and other groups. In North Korea, an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians are confined in modern-day concentration camps.

“At Open Doors, our work brings us up close and personal with the suffering of persecuted Christians—and that means we are also a witness to the heartbreaking persecution faced by those belonging to other faiths,” Curry said. “This campaign is an effort to urge the candidates to state clearly their plans of action for addressing the drastic rise in religious persecution faced by millions around the globe.”