Since 2007, the Pew Research Center has surveyed restrictions on religious freedom around the world. Its latest report confirms it’s getting worse.

In 42 percent of the nations surveyed, religious followers faced high or very high levels of official government restriction and unofficial social hostility. In four out of ten countries, religious believers “face significant hindrance in worshiping God freely.”

That’s putting it mildly in places like Nigeria, where Christians face what can be rightly called “genocide.” 

In all, an estimated 260 million Christians around the world are being persecuted for their faith. And, as Pew pointed out, Christians aren’t the only ones whose religious freedom is being restricted. In places like China and India, for example, Muslims are persecuted because of their religion. 

The Trump Administration made religious freedom a foreign policy priority. Now is not the time for the US to back off that commitment. Or for us to stop praying.