Religious nonprofits who spoke to Fox News Digital warned of increasing cultural and government hostility toward Catholics and other Christians under the Biden administration.
Their warnings come amid skyrocketing rates of church vandalism, legislation targeting church sacraments and the alleged weaponization of federal law enforcement against people of faith.
‘Secular dogmas’
“I think it's just a rise in secularism in the United States,” Arielle Del Turco, assistant director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council (FRC), told Fox News Digital.
Del Turco is the primary author of “Hostility Against Churches Is on the Rise in the United States,” the FRC's report documenting the increasing rate of church vandalism in the U.S. during recent years. In an update published this month, the report noted that 2023 is already on track to log the highest number of church vandalism incidents within the six years FRC has been tracking them.
According to the report, 69 acts of hostility against churches in 29 states have already occurred during the first quarter of the year, including 53 acts of vandalism, 10 arson attacks or attempts, three gun-related incidents, three bomb threats and two other incidents such as assault. The statistics represent approximately three times the number of hostile acts that FRC recorded in the same time frame last year.