Every day the world grows a little colder to the plight of persecuted Christians, and nowhere is that cruelty more obvious than in Nigeria’s blood-soaked countryside. Hardworking believers are being targeted for their faith while too many in power look the other way, and American patriots should demand the truth be told and justice pursued.
President Trump’s blunt warning that the United States could deploy troops or conduct air strikes if Nigeria does not act to stop the slaughter shows the moral clarity Washington has lacked for years, and it should be applauded. The president also ordered the Pentagon to prepare options and threatened to cut aid over Nigeria’s failure to protect Christians, a necessary lever to force accountability from a government that has tolerated chaos.
The scale of the bloodshed is not conspiracy or hyperbole; villages like Yelwata were massacred earlier this year with scores killed and thousands displaced, a pattern echoed across the Middle Belt and northern provinces where Islamist militants and armed herders operate with impunity. Boko Haram and affiliated groups have terrorized communities for years, and conservative Christians everywhere must recognize this is not isolated criminality but an assault on faith and civilization itself.
Let’s be blunt: the Nigerian government has failed its people. Reports show President Tinubu and other officials disputing foreign characterizations even as attacks continue, and the United States has again flagged Nigeria on religious freedom grounds — a wake-up call that should shame any leader who values his country’s stability. International institutions that once talked tough have been content to issue bland statements while Christian blood is spilled; rhetoric without consequence only emboldens killers.
On the ground, communities like those in Benue, Plateau, and other states have seen homes, churches, and entire livelihoods destroyed by coordinated raids and massacres that leave survivors traumatized and displaced. These are not anonymous statistics for people in comfortable living rooms; these are fathers, mothers, and children butchered or driven from their land, and free nations must not pretend neutrality while religious minorities are being erased.
America’s role should be to stand with the oppressed, not to coddle regimes that cannot or will not protect basic human rights. Conservatives rightly distrust foreign entanglements, but defending persecuted Christians is a moral imperative that transcends partisan caution — it is about defending the dignity of life, freedom of worship, and the rule of law. If the United States uses its leverage — diplomatic pressure, targeted sanctions, and support for credible security partners — we can force real change without compromising our principles.
Faithful churches, conservative activists, and everyday Americans must raise their voices, support humanitarian relief, and pressure policymakers to keep the spotlight on Nigeria. Pray, give, and demand that those in power act: silence is complicity when millions of Christians are at risk. Our nation was founded on the idea that freedom is worth defending — that includes the freedom to worship without fear, whether in Ohio or in a village in Nigeria.
We owe it to the martyrs and to future generations to act now with courage and conviction. Let the defenders of liberty in Washington and across our country remember that protecting the persecuted is not foreign meddling, it is the restoration of decency in a world that desperately needs it.
