The Social Construction of Christians As the Most Persecuted Religious Group Worldwide in American International Religious Freedom Advocacy

A perception that Christianity is under attack has animated American political culture, driving domestic policies that advance Christian political power and foreign policies to protect Christians globally. Policymakers, advocates, and scholars have turned to quantification to make claims about the scope of Christian persecution globally. This paper attends to the social construction of Christian persecution—specifically its quantification and amplification as a social problem—within the International Religious Freedom advocacy field. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Washington, DC, I show how actors employ discursive strategies to claim that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide, relying on the perceived objectivity of quantification to transcend their political and ideological motivations. In doing so, however, actors mistranslate data by Open Doors and the Pew Research Center in order to claim that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide. Given their credibility and access to channels of communication, actors amplify the problem of Christian persecution, sedimenting the claim that Christians are most persecuted, impacting both US domestic and foreign policies on religious freedom.