More than 400 “acts of hostility” against churches were recorded in 2024, according to a report from the Family Research Council.
While the total number of incidents, 415, is lower than those recorded in 2023 (485), this year’s total is still higher than the number of incidents recorded between 2018 and 2022. The report drew upon open-source data, assessing acts of vandalism, gun-related incidents, and bomb threats.
“In 2024, hostile acts against churches were identified in 43 states. As in previous years, states with larger populations tended to have more incidents,” the report noted, detailing that “California had the most, with 40 incidents, followed by Pennsylvania with 29, Florida and New York with 25, Texas with 23, and Tennessee and Ohio with 19.”
Vandalism was the highest-recorded act of hostility, with 284 incidents. There were 55 recorded instances of arson, 14 bomb threats, and 47 events marked as “other.” Although the total number of hostile acts for 2024 was lower than 2023, the number of gun-related events was more than double those recorded last year. Twenty-eight gun-related activities were noted in the report, in comparison to the 12 listed last year.
The report went on to note that one of the most significant differences in this year’s report is the “decrease in incidents motivated by pro-abortion sentiments.”
In Europe, hostility against Christians increased by 44% between 2022-2023.
“In 2022, OIDAC Europe documented 748 anti-Christian hate crimes in 30 different countries, ranging from arson attacks, graffiti, desecrations, and thefts to physical attacks, insults, and threats,” the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) said in its annual report, adding, “Between 2021 and 2022, there has been an increase in anti-Christian hate crimes from 519 to 748, including arson attacks, which rose from 60 to 105. OIDAC has identified an increasing trend in hate crimes perpetrated by radicalised members of ideological, political or religious groups that follow an anti-Christian narrative.”
