Next week, Open Doors will unveil its annual World Watch List.
The Voice of the Martyrs has already released its annual Persecution Prayer Map.
And now, International Christian Concern has unveiled its Wall of Shame.
Usually, there are only minor shifts each year. A country may move up or down on the OD list, the VOM map has few revisions from year to year, and those on the ICC Wall are the same, shameful cast of characters.
Not this year.
ICC has added the United States to its Wall.
Are Christians experiencing persecution in the United States or discrimination?
Traditionally, persecution conjures up thoughts of government edicts leading to the imprisonment of pastors and evangelists. We think of executions, mass killings, or an extremist murdering a Christian because of their faith. We also think of the destruction and closure of churches.
Although Christians in the United States rarely experience these acts of persecution, church leaders and constitutionalists are increasingly concerned about an ongoing assault against the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Religious discrimination could easily and quickly evolve into persecution, and already there are reasons for worry.
ICC cites a First Liberty Institute report showing that attacks on religion doubled between 2012 and 2015 and that American "Christians and all religious people are being marginalized by law."
In its Hall of Shame report, ICC mentions the suspension of Christian high school football coach Joe Kennedy for praying before a Bremerton, Washington, football game.
Also mentioned are the cases of the Oregon bakers who were forced to pay a $135,000 fine for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, the pastor who was fired from his Georgia Health Department job because his church sermons were considered offensive, and an Intervarsity Christian fellowship which lost official recognition on 23 California public college campuses because its commitment to Biblical principles violated state policy.
International Christian Concern says, "While there is no comparison between the life of a Christian in the US with persecuted believers overseas, ICC sees these worrying trends as an alarming indication of a decline in religious liberty in the United States."
Christian persecution in the USA? No, at least not to the degree of North Korean Christians who risk imprisonment or death simply because they are Christian. And not like Egypt or Pakistan where followers of Jesus risk jail for speaking the truth about Islam, or for defending their Christian faith.
But all of us should be concerned and keep a watchful eye on this shameful trend against religious freedom in the United States.