FRC's "Hostility Against Churches in the United States" analyzes incidents from 2024 and compared those findings from the previous six years (2018-2023). Last year saw 415 documented acts of hostility against churches in the United States. It was the second year in a row that the number exceeded 400 and the third year in a row it was more than a hundred. Over the entire seven-year period, 1,384 acts of hostility were identified.
Travis Weber of the Family Research Council says it's no coincidence that Roe v. Wade was overturned in the middle of 2022. "We did observe more hostility on the life issue directed at churches perceived as being pro-life or representing the pro-life position," he observes.
Most of the attacks in 2024 were vandalism (284 of the 415 incidents), followed by arson, gun-related cases, and bomb threats. Weber says anger is on the rise in the United States.
"I think the data show us that you have enough hostility in our culture to find its way into the form of 415 hostile actions directed at peaceful places of worship," he summarizes.
Weber predicts unless it's mitigated that anger will spill over into more violent attacks on churches going forward. "What never found its way into a hostile act is represented in the culture out there – brewing perhaps in a person's heart, thoughts, intentions, some hatred."
He says the days of looking out at other countries where it's dangerous to be a Christian are slipping away.
"In a country like the United States, where many of us think of ourselves as Western, freedom-loving, a free country, you've got peaceful places of worship being attacked in this way," he notes. "It's unacceptable and we need to bring it to light and address it."
Weber made his comments on Monday on Washington Watch.
While not itself a church or a formal place of worship, FRC headquarters in Washington, DC, was the victim of a violent attack in August 2012 when an armed man entered the facility clearly intending to kill innocent bystanders. One year later, Floyd Lee Corkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison on three felony charges: committing an act of terrorism while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, and interstate transportation of a firearm and ammo.
