MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release
August 18, 2022

CONTACTS:
Hamilton Strategies, [email protected],
Beth Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 105,
or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102

The Demonization of America’s Christians

STPC panel of experts to discuss how growing rhetoric casting conservative Christians as potential domestic extremists is a pathway to persecution in webinar Thursday, August 18 at 4:30 pm ET

WASHINGTON, D.C.— America’s Christians are combatting growing rhetoric from mainstream media and even U.S. agencies seeking to disparage their views and paint them as “domestic violent extremists.” This “othering” of America’s Christians is of grave concern to Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC), which advocates for Christians at home and abroad experiencing discrimination, harassment, and violence because of their beliefs.

“In too many countries worldwide, we have seen how the marginalization, discrimination, and harassment of people of faith eventually leads to violent persecution,” said Dede Laugesen, executive director for STPC. “When Christians and other believers are pushed from the public square, they become vulnerable to persecution — and that is precisely what is happening in America.

“Indeed, even as we have seen the numbers of the persecuted faithful continue to rise globally, we have also seen a troubling increase in the marginalization and demonization of Christians in America. As one of our partners observed, persecution develops in stages: There is the ‘squeeze,’ the ‘silencing,’ and then the ‘smash.’”

Laugesen continued, “This pattern is very familiar elsewhere and we must be alive — and prepared — to counter its manifestations here. What begins with the marginalization, discrimination, and ‘othering’ of the targeted population, unless challenged, inexorably morphs into censorship and ‘cancelling.’ Unless such non-physical suppression is stopped, there can quickly follow violation, desecration, seizure, and destruction of properties like churches and other sanctuaries. From there, it is an all-too-short step to violence against communities of believers.”

The rhetoric in America pertaining to Christians — especially Christians who stand in solidarity with Israel, believe in traditional marriage or a biological basis for gender recognition, oppose abortion, or simply hold that America was founded as a nation based on Judeo-Christian values and teachings — is increasingly inflammatory and discriminatory. American Christians have been unfairly targeted by the IRS and the Departments of Justice, Defense and Health and Human Services. They have increasingly been censored and cancelled on social media platforms, excluded, and punished for their beliefs, and radically maligned by the progressive Left. Conservative Christians in America have been described by their own government as “Christian nationalists” and “likely” domestic terrorists.

“American Christians allow this rhetoric to continue and build at our own peril,” said Laugesen. “Will American Christians become the world’s next victim of persecution?”

STPC believes the right of Christians to believe, worship, and associate freely worldwide must be protected or we risk losing the ability and moral courage to exercise our own constitutional right to religious freedom at home and America could cease to be what the Bible calls a “shining city on a hill,” playing its historical role as a beacon of freedom to the world and a guarantor of it here.

WHAT: Webinar | The Demonization of America’s Christians

WHEN: Thursday, August 18, at 4:40 pm ET

WHO:

• Charles “Sam” Faddis, Former CIA operations officer — “‘Christian Nationalists’: Do You Have Items on the FBI’s List of Symbols for ‘Domestic Violent Extremists?’ Most of Us Do”
• Trevor Loudon, Producer, “Enemies Within the Church” — “Demonizing the Church from Within — with A Little Help from Known Communists”
• Jonathan Alexandre, Director of Government Affairs, Liberty Council — “Purging Christians from Civic Life, Discourse, and the Public Square”
• Liz Yore, esq., President and founder, Yore Children — “‘Gun-toting’ Catholics Maligned by The Atlantic as ‘Rosary Radicals,’ ‘Rad-Trads,’ and the ‘Church Militant’”
• Pastor Jorge Parrott, President, Christ’s Mandate for Missions — “Warnings for America from Countries Where Being a Christian Could Get You Killed”
• Dede Laugesen, Executive Director, Save the Persecuted Christians — “Pathway to Persecution: How ‘Othering’ of American Christians Stews Violence Against Them”

HOW: Register to attend at SaveThePersecutedChristians.org

* * *

To interview representatives of the Save the Persecuted Christians, contact [email protected], Beth Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102.