Global Christian Relief Red List 2025

Outlook: Three Reasons for Hope
Those who seek to defend the rights of religious believers do not despair in the face of the challenges ahead. Indeed, there are some strong trends that bring unexpected hope. For one, it has been utterly remarkable that, in the face of deadly wars and conflicts involving very powerful states-in two cases, nuclear powers-international politics has refused to allow deadly escalations.
 
Iran holds off from open war with Israel, preferring to back its more beleaguered proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. The Gulf States have remained remarkably neutral, with the Abraham Accords holding firm. And there is evidence that China's President Xi Jinping is keen to prevent his Russian counterpart from escalating the conflict with Ukraine.
 
For another, it is strangely encouraging that mighty leaders of powerful states seem so thin-skinned and sensitive to criticism. China, for example, spends millions trying to head off human rights criticism at all its forums. As a Chinese house church leader mused, "You would wonder why they bother? It must be that they are paranoid and scared, and that is our opportunity." Christian NGOs believe afresh in the power of criticism to influence outcomes as many powerful dictators spend so much time and energy trying to quell it. Veteran Indian journalist, John Dayal, confirmed this by adding that "Hindu extremists do not fear the domestic church, because it feels they can bully them and starve them of money. What they do fear is the international church, which really got the story out about Manipur in ways that infuriated the leaders of the ruling party.”
 
Finally, the trust deficit that marks the modern world is also an opportunity. Outfits like the Bellingcat investigative journalism group, specializing in fact checking, exercise influence by utilizing open source research tools to hold nations to account. If the right evidence can be presented, it goes farther than before, especially with Artificial Intelligence tools emerging to help with their generation.
 
As a Washington policy maker confided, "If a Christian NGO uses figures ... let them offer evidence that is open source- or undeniable and they have more leverage than they dream." For this reason, GCR is pioneering the funding of open source research in the realm of persecution, the fruits of which are seen in this article and the analysis of the 2025 GCR Red List. The invitation is to collect undeniable information, fight better, share more, and work across all barriers to serve the persecuted of the world today.
 
Dr. Ron Boyd-MacMillan. The 2025 Global Christian Relief Red List. Washington, D.C.