Hostility against churches in the United States appears to be on the rise, according to a recent Family Research Council report that identified 436 incidents against churches in 2023, more than double the amount reported by the group in 2022 and eight times the number identified in 2018.
Between January and November 2023, FRC reported that at least 315 occurrences of vandalism, 75 arson attacks or attempts, 10 gun-related incidents, 20 bomb threats and 37 other incidents took place at churches. According to the report, 17 of the incidents fell into more than one category, with vandalism and arson being the most common combination.
“There is a common connection between the growing religious persecution abroad and the rapidly increasing hostility toward churches here at home: our government’s policies,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in a Tuesday statement.
“The indifference abroad to the fundamental freedom of religion is rivaled only by the increasing antagonism toward the moral absolutes taught by Bible-believing churches here in the U.S., which is fomenting this environment of hostility toward churches,” he continued.
Although nobody was hurt in most of the 10 gun-related incidents reported by FRC, the report also lists the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, a Presbyterian school in which six people, including three students, were killed by a trans-identified shooter.
Arielle Del Turco, director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty and the report’s author, believes that the effect of these acts of hostility is “religious intimidation.”
“They send the message that churches are not wanted in the community or respected in general. Our culture is demonstrating a growing disdain for Christianity and core Christian beliefs, and acts of hostility against churches could be a physical manifestation of that,” the author stated. “Regardless of the motivations of these crimes, everyone should treat churches and all houses of worship with respect and affirm the importance of religious freedom for all Americans.”