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The change in attitude has affected the media as well. New York Times columnist Nick Kristof has written of American evangelicals as "the new internationalists" who are "saving lives and reshaping American foreign policy."

Sadly, persecution of Christians may have lessened in some parts of the world, but it is alive and well in many others.

House church leaders are being detained in China. Filipino Christian workers run the risk of jail in Saudi Arabia. In Sri Lanka, Buddhist-inspired mobs sometimes attack Christians and their churches.

What the last ten years indicate is that where evangelicals are focused, consistent, willing to compromise—and willing to be prodded, if necessary, by a Jew—important things can be accomplished.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today has a special section on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

PersecutedChurch.org lists organizations support persecuted Christians.

The 2006 United States Committee on International Religious Freedom's report is available as a pdf.

Recent Christianity Today articles on the persecuted church include:

Equal-Opportunity Offender | Uzbek government crackdown on Muslims worries evangelicals. (January 18, 2007)

Riding the Pope's Coattails | Protestants hope to share in the benefits of Turkey trip. (January 11, 2007)

Fleeing Nineveh | Threatened by persistent violence, Assyrian Christians in Iraq want to govern themselves. (December 18, 2006)

Cross Dress | British airline sends employee home for wearing crucifix. (November 20, 2006)

Marginalized Again | Evangelicals protest mandatory Christian curriculum in Israel. (November 17, 2006)

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February 2007, Vol. 51, No. 2