(Christian Headlines) According to a new study by Pew Research, government restrictions on religion were at an all-time high before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, released last Thursday, is part of Pew’s 12th annual study on global religious persecution in 198 countries and territories by taking government restrictions on religion and social hostilities into account.
Findings show that government restrictions have maintained at high levels since before the pandemic in 2019, the most recent year with available data. At the time, 57 countries (29 percent) reported “high” or “very high” level government restrictions on religion, matching a peak from 2012 and an uptick of just one country in 2018.