Jesus Christ always spoke and acted out of love, but He never sugar-coated the truth. His words, beliefs, and actions offended so many people that His enemies ultimately executed Him because of them. And He warned his followers, “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first” (John 15:18).

That warning must have been tough for His disciples to hear. It’s tough for us to hear now.

Yet, we’ve seen that special hatred reserved for people of faith at work in the recent attack on Catholic children and teachers in Minnesota and the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah.

This brand of hatred is oddly impersonal. It’s aimed at truth itself — maybe, at Truth Himself — and all who dare to speak the truth to people who “preferred darkness to light” (John 3:19).

How did our culture get to this place?

Not so long ago, men and women of courage, integrity, and firmly held religious convictions drew praise and admiration. Today, they are labeled “haters” who must be silenced, stopped, even killed — just for believing truth exists outside of what you and I think. For believing truth is rooted in God, objective, and binding for all peoples for all time. For daring to defend religious views on human gender and sexuality or the dignity of unborn children.

To those who have bought into the lie that we can and should “live our own truth,” we who hold these religious convictions are the problem. But it is not religious conviction that is harming society; it is the lack of it. Our culture has never been more secular, and it has never faced so many problems. Why can’t we be honest and admit that pushing God to the margins has been an absolute disaster?

We see this in the collapse of family life, the breakdown of marriage, children being raised without fathers and mothers, and the epidemic of loneliness that leaves so many people isolated and despairing.

At the same time, there has never been a greater acceptance and celebration of lifestyles that run contrary to faith. Yet, instead of producing the promised peace or joy, they make the problems facing young people — anxiety, depression, and despair — far worse. And remarkably, the faithless double down and blame these issues on religion.

Our darkness will never turn to light until we accept the fact that these struggles are fundamentally and profoundly spiritual rather than political. The more we reject God, the more our culture’s anger, confusion, and despair will deepen. We don’t need less of God — we need more.

If the world were not so gripped by darkness, we might see more clearly that what we are doing is not working. Humanity has lost its way, but Christ came to rescue us because of His deep love. Still, many prefer darkness. The Gospel unmasks us and calls us to change. In the end, we must choose: to step into the light or to cling to the shadows.

Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, chose the light.

I met with Immaculée the day after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and though neither of us knew him personally, we spoke sadly of his loss as a defender of the truth.

We also spoke at length about her life’s tragedy: in 1994, after 91 harrowing days in hiding, Immaculée emerged to learn her entire family, except for one brother, had been brutally murdered along with nearly one million of her friends, neighbors, and countrymen. But, by God’s grace, she chose forgiveness and love as her path forward through the sorrow, anger, and unspeakable loss.

Today, Immaculée shares her story as a means of helping others overcome hatred with love through conversion of heart. She radiates the light of Christ, and her life’s story is a witness to the beauty of the truth.

May we, like her, take hope in the promise of the Gospel: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). May this same light shine once again, breaking through our shadows and darkness, bringing God’s peace, presence, and love to our country and our world.

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, is President of Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Our nation just witnessed the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk, who was not only a leading voice for conservatives but was a bold believer and passionate advocate for faith in Jesus Christ and a Christian worldview. It’s been barely two weeks since a mentally ill individual terrorized the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 18 others.

Unfortunately, these two incidents are just the most recent examples of how religious persecution, once a threat continents away, has arrived on the doorstep of faithful Americans.

Over the past several years, religious persecution has risen sharply worldwide. Last year, 380 million Christians around the world faced “high levels” of persecution. According to Open Doors, that number is up 15 million from the previous year. That is the highest number ever recorded. But Christians are not the only religious group facing a steep surge in hostilities. Jews around the world are experiencing a dramatic increase in victimization as well after Hamas’s grisly attack against Israel on October 7. Antisemitic incidents skyrocketed around the globe, particularly in Europe, where reports of antisemitism rose by 1,000% in some countries. 

According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitism has jumped 361% in the United States. That trend began in 2013 but has dramatically increased in the months and years following the October 7 attack. Hostility has also surged against Christians and churches. A report published by the Family Research Council found that incidents of violence against churches have gone up 740% since 2018.

The data alone shows a concerning rise in hostility against people of faith, but people of faith themselves are also feeling the effects. A recent American Jewish Committee survey of American Jews revealed that more Jews in America feel the threat. In the survey, 92% of the participants expressed that antisemitism had increased over the past five years. Among the general public, the survey found that 71% of the participants believe that antisemitism is a growing problem.

Christians are feeling the pressure, too. Over the past 16 years, the Survey Center on American Life has tracked Christians’ feelings of discrimination. In 2009, the survey found that most evangelical Christians rejected the notion that they were experiencing discrimination, with only about four in ten (42%) saying Christians faced “a lot of discrimination.”

Over the next decade, that number had rapidly shifted. By 2023, most Christians said they were experiencing discrimination. The number jumped to 60% when asked if they had experienced “a lot of discrimination.”

I’ve spent years working and ministering in the most dangerous places in the world for Christians to live. I am acutely aware of what religious persecution looks like and what it is like to live under religious oppression. In Northern Nigeria, a place where more Christians are killed for their faith than anywhere else in the world, I see the impact of persecution every day.

Persecution doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a slow, gradual process that takes time. It begins by marginalizing people of faith, rendering them lower-class citizens. We saw this in Nazi Germany when the propaganda against Jews portrayed them as less than human. We can see it today in how people of faith are portrayed in modern mainstream media. Christians and Jews are often portrayed in a negative light and are labeled as traditional oppressors who want to stunt culture’s inevitable evolution. 

These sentiments, in turn, create general hostilities toward people of faith. And when hostilities happen (like the recent Annunciation Catholic School shooting or the Covenant School shooting in 2023), the mainstream media largely ignores them or misrepresents the motives behind the attacks. As hostilities grow and aggressors feel they can get away with acts of discrimination and violence, the cycle continues to spiral to a fever pitch.

I’ve seen this cycle play out time and again in Northern Nigeria. In just 10 short years, Nigeria has become the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian.

What is often not accounted for, however, is the positive effect that persecution can have on the faith community.

Persecution often produces an indelible resolve among people of faith. When experiencing persecution, people of faith can become more resilient and deepen their faith. Tertullian said it this way, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Throughout history, this phenomenon has been observed in both Christian and Jewish cultures. The more they are persecuted, the more resolute they become, growing not only in faith but in numbers as well. The key for people of faith to endure the persecution of our day is to use the hostilities, discrimination, and violence as a motivation to stand firm in their beliefs.

All of us in the faith community should realize that acts of hostility only validate the legitimacy of our Judeo-Christian values and the spiritual battle we are in. Scripture teaches us that true believers will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12, Matthew 5:10). It also encourages us to stand up in those times and resolve never to back down, no matter the cost (Ephesians 6:12).

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Brad Brandon is the founder and CEO of Across Nigeria. Since 2018, he has been actively serving in predominantly high-risk, highly persecuted areas like Northern Nigeria and other parts of West Africa.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.