US lawmakers warn of a growing ‘War on God’ led by authoritarian regimes

US lawmakers and human rights advocates have warned that religious freedom is deteriorating worldwide, with authoritarian governments and extremist violence driving an escalating crackdown on faith communities as international protections and enforcement mechanisms struggle to keep pace.

Speaking at a joint House Foreign Affairs hearing titled Defending religious freedom around the world, Congressman Christopher Smith said what is often described as “America’s first freedom” is under sustained assault, leaving billions of people living under severe restrictions that can result in imprisonment, torture or execution.

Citing the Open Doors 2025 World Watch List, Smith said more than 380 million Christians face high levels of persecution or discrimination because of their beliefs. He also warned of a sharp rise in antisemitism, not only in the Middle East but across Western democracies, including the United States.

Smith accused a range of authoritarian states — including China, Russia, Nicaragua, North Korea, Belarus and Cuba — of actively suppressing religious life. Such regimes, he argued, fear independent faith communities because they allow citizens to organise and speak freely outside state control.

Former US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom Sam Brownback told the hearing that an emerging bloc of authoritarian governments increasingly regards religion as a direct threat to its grip on power. He urged lawmakers to treat religious liberty not as a marginal humanitarian concern but as a core national and global security issue.

Brownback singled out China as a central driver of global repression, alleging that Beijing has spent billions of dollars developing advanced surveillance technologies and exporting them to other authoritarian governments to monitor and control religious groups.

Personal testimony at the hearing focused on the situation in China. Grace Jin Drexel, the daughter of detained pastor Ezra Jin, described what she said was the largest crackdown on an independent Christian congregation since the Cultural Revolution. She told lawmakers her father was arrested in October 2025 along with dozens of other pastors and church leaders from Zion Church, with many still in detention.

Drexel said arrests were carried out in front of young children and called for the immediate and unconditional release of those held. She said the crackdown reflects a broader campaign under President Xi Jinping to bring all religious activity under state authority, including the installation of surveillance cameras in churches, the removal of religious symbols and the imposition of state-approved leadership and doctrine.

She also alleged that her advocacy had triggered transnational repression, including intimidation and harassment affecting her family in the United States.

Stephen Schneck, a former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, warned that the crisis is closely linked to the global decline of liberal democracy and the advance of authoritarian rule. He said religious freedom has increasingly been sidelined by short-term foreign policy priorities and cautioned that reductions in foreign assistance have weakened support for civil society and faith-based advocates, damaging US credibility overseas.

With IANS inputs