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The Doorpost · Issue 38 · Thursday, May 28, 2026
Targeted for Your Faith
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18–19)
Father, today three stories arrive from very different places, but in each of them the same thing is happening: people are being treated differently because of their faith in You. In Nigeria, five more Christians were killed in their homes in Kaduna State in the night, and ten were taken captive. In Nepal, the government makes it a crime to share the Gospel or help someone change their religion. In Washington, an undercover video shows a Major League Baseball official quietly sidelining a Catholic pitcher because he objected to his faith being mocked at a ballpark. The severity is vastly different across these three stories, but the pattern is the same. Give us the courage to name it clearly and to stand firm in You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s issue covers the latest terrorist attacks on Christians in Kaduna State, Nigeria; Nepali Christians’ call to repeal laws that criminalize sharing the Gospel; and the Washington Nationals video in which a team official admits to avoiding a Catholic pitcher on social media because of his faith. Go well.
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Top Stories
Three Headlines to Watch
1) Five Christians Killed, Ten Abducted in Fresh Terrorist Attacks on Kaduna State, Nigeria
The Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna has formally condemned a new wave of terrorist attacks on Christian communities in the Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State. In a letter published May 24 addressed to the Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese detailed three separate attacks across three parish outstations over a period of less than three months. The most recent attack struck the outstation of Kurmin Bongo on the night of May 21, between 10pm and 1am, during heavy rainfall. Despite efforts from a local vigilante group, five Christians were killed and ten abducted, of whom two were later rescued. Earlier attacks hit the outstation of Kasaru-B on March 2, where one person was shot dead, another wounded, and eight abducted, including the local community leader. Two of those eight were killed while still in captivity after their eventual release. A third attack on Sabon Gari on May 1 left two wounded and ten abducted, with one abductee killed while still being held.
Father Christian Okewu Emmanuel, writing on behalf of the Archdiocese, described the attacks as “incessant” and called on government and security agencies to intensify protection for vulnerable communities. He noted that repeated violence has deepened fear and instability among residents who see no end to the targeting. These attacks take place within the broader documented pattern of Christian persecution in northern Nigeria. According to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, approximately 70 percent of Christians killed for their faith worldwide in the year ending September 2025 were killed in Nigeria. Kaduna State appears repeatedly in the data as one of the worst-affected areas, where Christians are killed and abducted at a rate that dwarfs what is happening to Muslims in the same region. Read the full story at EWTN News →
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Doorpost Reflection
Three attacks in three months in three outstations of the same parish. Five killed in one night, in the rain, by people who knew where to go. Ten people taken. These are not random events. They are sustained, repeated targeting of specific Christian communities. The local priest has written a formal letter of condemnation. The government has not provided adequate protection. The Archdiocese of Kaduna is watching its communities be dismantled, village by village, outstation by outstation, and the response from the authorities they have appealed to has been insufficient.
Pray for the families of the five killed on May 21. Pray for the ten who were abducted and for those still unaccounted for. Pray for Father Emmanuel and the priests serving those communities, who are documenting these attacks and continuing their ministry under constant threat. Pray for the government of Kaduna State and the federal government of Nigeria to treat the systematic killing of Christians in the north as the national crisis it is. And pray that the international community, including the United States government, applies the pressure it has the tools and the legal obligation to apply.
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Scripture: “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” — Habakkuk 1:2
2) Nepali Christians Call for Repeal of Laws That Make Sharing the Gospel a Crime
The Nepal Christian Society, representing the country’s growing Christian community, has submitted a formal memorandum to Nepal’s government calling for constitutional and legal reforms to protect religious freedom. The memorandum specifically requests the repeal of provisions in Nepal’s Penal Code that criminalize proselytism and religious conversion. Under current law, sharing the Christian faith in a way that leads someone to convert can result in up to five years in prison and fines equivalent to roughly $326. BP Khanal, an interfaith coordinator with the NCS, said these laws “contradict both secular principles and international human rights standards.” The memorandum also calls for amendments to Nepal’s 2015 constitution, which defines the country as secular but explicitly forbids anyone from converting another person from one religion to another or disturbing the religion of others.
Nepal’s Christian population has grown rapidly despite these restrictions, rising from fewer than 100,000 in the 1990s to an estimated 800,000 to 1.5 million today, depending on the source. That growth has happened largely underground, and it has come at cost: Christians have been arrested for sharing faith, convicted for holding meetings, and prosecuted for activities as routine as distributing a comic book about the life of Jesus. The first person convicted under Nepal’s anti-proselytism law was a pastor arrested in 2020 for praying for an end to the COVID pandemic in the name of Jesus. His conviction was eventually reversed on appeal. Nepal sits between India and China, two countries with significant anti-conversion policies of their own, and its government has historically faced pressure from its Hindu-majority neighbor to maintain restrictions on Christian activity. Read the full story at UCA News →
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Doorpost Reflection
Nepal has made it a crime to do what Jesus commanded. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is not a suggestion. It is an instruction to go and make disciples of all nations, and the Nepali state has decided that obeying that instruction can land you in prison for five years. The Nepali Christians who submitted this memorandum are not asking for special treatment. They are asking to be free to share what they believe with people who are willing to listen, without fear of prosecution. That is the minimum that a genuine secular government owes its citizens.
The remarkable thing is that the Church in Nepal has grown from nearly nothing to nearly a million people under these conditions. The Gospel advances whether or not the state permits it, and Nepal is evidence of that. Pray for the Nepal Christian Society and their legal advocacy. Pray for the government to receive the memorandum and act on it. Pray for the Nepali Christians who are currently facing prosecution for sharing their faith. And pray for continued Gospel advance in a country where the Church’s growth has outpaced every attempt to stop it.
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Scripture: “For the word of God is not bound.” — 2 Timothy 2:9
3) Washington Nationals Official Caught on Camera Admitting Team Sidelines Catholic Pitcher Over His Faith
James O’Keefe released undercover video footage on May 26 showing Sean Hudson, the Washington Nationals’ Director of Community Relations, telling an undercover journalist that the team deliberately avoids featuring starting pitcher Trevor Williams on social media. Hudson identified Williams as “very Catholic” and explained that the team does not use him in fan engagement videos or social media segments because of his 2023 public objection to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag performance group that parodies Catholic religious imagery. Williams had posted publicly that the honor amounted to mockery of his religion. Hudson summarized Williams’ position as “This is wrong, this is my religion, you all are mocking it,” and then added: “Because of that, we don’t use him on social [media].” Hudson also told the undercover journalist that the team does not include Williams in routine fan engagement video segments.
Hudson subsequently denied his remarks were an admission of discriminatory intent, telling media that his comments were “taken wildly out of context.” The Nationals did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment before publication. Williams has not publicly commented. The video also allegedly shows Hudson discussing the tracking of fans’ Google search history and the holding of separate LGBTQ corporate meetings. Federal employment law prohibits religious discrimination, and legal experts have noted that treating an employee differently because of publicly expressed religious convictions could constitute actionable discrimination if the facts support it. First Liberty Institute, which represents Christians facing discrimination, confirmed it is reviewing the footage. Read the full story at The Christian Post →
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Doorpost Reflection
Trevor Williams objected to his religion being mocked at a ballpark, said so publicly, and his employer responded by quietly removing him from team marketing. That is the story. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence exist specifically to parody and demean Catholic religious practice. Williams said what any faithful Christian would be entitled to say: this is wrong and it mocks what I believe. For saying so, he was sidelined from his own team’s promotional content.
The video is a small but clear window into how religious discrimination operates in professional institutions today. It does not announce itself. It happens quietly, in decisions about who gets featured and who gets left out, in meetings where someone makes a note of which employees’ values are inconvenient and acts on it. First Liberty Institute reviewing the footage is the right next step. Pray for Trevor Williams, that he would be supported and that the truth of what happened would be brought fully into the light.
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Scripture: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” — Matthew 5:11
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Daily Scripture
Verse of the Day
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“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
John 15:18–19
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Jesus said this to His disciples in the upper room the night before His crucifixion. He was not describing a possibility. He was describing a certainty. The world will hate those who follow Him because it first hated Him, and the reason it hated Him was that He was not of the world. He did not share its values, did not affirm its idols, and did not stay silent when what it was doing was wrong. That pattern has not changed. Christians who speak clearly about what they believe, who object to mockery of their faith, who refuse to affirm what Scripture calls sin, who preach the Gospel in places where the law says not to, will face what Jesus faced. Not always in the same form or to the same degree, but from the same source.
Today’s three stories show how this plays out across the world. The Christians of Kaduna State face it at the cost of their lives and their families. The Christians of Nepal face it at the cost of their freedom. Trevor Williams faces it at the cost of being left out of his own team’s promotional content. Jesus said all of it flows from the same source. The Church’s task is to hold together the full weight of what our brothers and sisters face abroad while remaining alert to what is happening at home.
Father, we bring the five Christians killed in Kaduna State to You today, and the ten who were taken. We bring the Nepali believers who are trying to share the Gospel under threat of prosecution. We bring Trevor Williams, quietly sidelined by his employer for saying that mocking his faith is wrong. In each case, they are paying a cost for being Yours. Remind us today that this is not a surprise. You told us it would happen. You told us to expect it. And You told us that the One who chose us out of the world is with us in it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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