Evangelicals, Pentecostals more likely to experience persecution than other Christian groups, report reveals

A new report has suggested that evangelicals and Pentecostals are more likely to suffer persecution compared to Christians of other denominations partly because of passion to share the Gospel.

The findings of the study, titled "In Response to Persecution," revealed that evangelical and Pentecostal Christians tend to be targeted for persecution more intensely compared to mainline Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, or other Christians associated with ancient churches.

The study, which was released on Thursday at the National Press Club, is part of the University of Notre Dame's "Under Caesar's Sword" project, a three-year research endeavor that is aimed at investigating how Christians respond to persecution.

According to the report, evangelicals and Pentecostals are more likely than other Christians to have a "more antagonist relationship" with governments and social groups that tend to deny religious liberty.

One potential reason for this pattern is that the two groups are comparatively recent arrivals in some countries and they have not established "patterns relating to surrounding populations and government to the same degree with churches with centuries of history in a given region."

The support of like-minded believers in the West is believed to be another reason for the persecution of the two groups, the report noted.

The final reason may be due to their understanding of evangelization and conversion. Pentecostals and evangelicals believe that evangelization and conversion is a "verbal, urgent, and sometimes dramatic processes" that they actually expect to suffer persecution.

As a result, governments hostile to Christianity and non-state actors such as terrorist groups tend to view them as a potential threat.

The report noted that the elements form a pattern but they are not an exact correlation as other churches also evangelize and evangelicals and Pentecostals sometimes form cooperative relationships with the state, but the trend is apparent in several nations.

According to The Christian Post, the persecution of the two groups is particularly severe in Iran, where they have to be discreet about their faith, which they disguise in public with the aim of appearing not very different from the surrounding Muslim culture.

Under Caesar's Sword, which is being supported by a grant from Templeton Religion Trust, will be publishing research-based educational resources, including lesson plans for churches, schools and nonprofit organizations beginning in summer 2017.

The three-year research project is a collaboration of 17 scholars and academic centers including the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, the Religious Freedom Institute, and Georgetown University's Religious Freedom Research Project.