Expert Persecuted Christians in Nigeria and Beyond Need Our Help

Joining us to discuss the latest since President Trump's announcement on combating the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is Jason Jones, the president and founder of the Vulnerable People Project. Good to have you with us today, Jason. Your organization operates in Nigeria and other countries around the world. What are you seeing of the persecution of Christians that the president has spoken of? >> Well, the president's correct. Nine out of 10 Christians in the world that will be murdered this year will be murdered in Nigeria. In fact, our organization, the Vulnerable People Project, provides security uh for vulnerable churches facing Islamist attacks. And just this past July, a young security guard, a 23-year-old man, while attempting to defend three seminarians uh from a violent attack was was murdered. So, we've lost our employees ourselves in the recent months in Nigeria. It's catastrophic. And the fact is the United States should weigh in on this. We are a nation of Christians and we were seeing record number of abuse of Christians in Sudan, in Nigeria, in in the West Bank, brutal settler attacks on vulnerable Christian communities, in India, in Turkey, you know, Turkey a NATO member. So when the president makes a strong stand to defend vulnerable Christian minorities in Nigeria, we're hoping that these other countries get the memo and say that this open season on Christians is over. In China, we've seen over 10 bishops disappeared by the CCP. This is something that's unimaginable. The CCP is appointing bishops for the Catholic Church with the one hand and with their other hand, they're disappearing bishops that don't tow the line. So, I think it's very important as a Christian. We are the most powerful Christians in the world, American Christians, and we should leverage our influence to defend not only our co-religionists, of course, but other vulnerable ethnic and religious minorities as well. And what do Christians and other vulnerable religious believers specifically in Nigeria, what do they need right now? >> They need security and we should partner with the Nigerian government and we should respect their sovereignty. We don't want unintentional blowback. We saw with a lot of our military actions in the Middle East that that what started out with the best of intentions led to the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Iraq and Syria. We would hate for unintended consequences to be worse than We would hate for the cure to be worse than the disease. So, we should work with the government of Nigeria. Something we could simply do immediately, is begin arming and training uh local police. Our organization provides security, but we're not even allowed to give them weapons, let alone um body armor. We're right now working very hard to get body armor to our our security teams, but they should be armed. They should have body armor. We need targeted sanctions and these sanctions should transcend Nigeria. There are a lot of a lot of money is flowing in to Boo Haram uh from around the world and in fact thanks to the Trump administration we've discovered that the US State Department under the Biden administration was sending funds to Boo Haram. This is something unimaginable. And so we should have targeted sanctions uh work with the Nigerian government but especially uh encourage train and support local policing uh in within the guard should come from within these communities and then we should monitor that our actions don't have unintended consequences to the vulnerable communities that we have been moved through the brutal videos that are flooding you know all of our social media platforms are moving us that there should be action but we should really be disciplined to make sure that our actions um don't in the long run injure the communities we want to defend. >> Now, on Sunday, the Nigerian president said, quote, "The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality and he said he's willing to work with the US." What do you make of his response and also President Trump's assertion that he may send troops in if um the government doesn't put more of an effort into addressing this persecution? >> Well, I think unfortunately the response for the president of Nigeria was disingenuous. I would say that historically speaking uh that would be true but um tragically we now see that political leaders in Nigeria are weaponizing religion to hold power. This is something that's obvious. You know the boo haram um does not exist without government corruption and support from people with wealth and power within the Nigerian government. And this is where those targeted sanctions come in and where the weighing in with the might of the US military. It's it's important to know we're a $26 trillion economy. The the the budget of our intelligence community is equal to the GDP of the budget of Nigeria. Um our the the budget of our defense department is about six I think four four times that of the GDP of the the government of Nigeria. We we should be very sophisticated and use the full weight of our economy of our intelligence community and when it comes to the use of the US military it should be targeted it should be strategic and it should be to the best of our ability with the cooperation of the government of Nigeria and it's tricky because there is corruption and there is support for these thugs and terrorists within the government of Nigeria and those folks need to be identified and at the very least targeted with sanctions. Jason. Now, as you may know, NTD's founders started this company, NTD, in response to a persecution of faith in China. They practiced fallen gong, a peaceful spiritual practice, which was and is still outlawed by the Chinese communist dictatorship there. What have you observed about the possible underlying reasons that governments and other groups persecute people of faith? >> That is really a great question. And when you look at the the persecution of fallen practitioners by the CCP, uh it it it is these falloff practitioners are really reaching into the roots and traditions of their civilization. What how in the world can the CCP see this as a threat? Well, brutal thugs and dictators deny truth and any practice, any religious tradition that points to a truth above state power is perceived as a threat. And it is a threat because there is a truth above and beyond power and state power. And so in in Nigeria, what you're seeing is a harnessing of religion um to prop up the a corrupt exploitative government. And this is something that transcends this present regime. The real problem in Nigeria is you need an opportunity society. You need a rule of law. You need fairness. And and at the end of the day, only of those who point to a transcendent reference point can really reorder Nigerian society, but they need to root out corruption. They need to work for the common good. And when you have a culture of exploitation and a culture of brutality like you see in the CCP, um then the regimes are going to wage a war against anyone who shows a concern for the weak, the outcast, the abandoned. And that's why people of faith are so important. And this is why I'm so grateful to NTD. You are always reflexively on the side of the vulnerable. You always order yourself to those who have been abandoned and are suffering violence. And this is birthed in empathy and in truth. And I'm grateful for you. And >> we're so grateful for you coming on and helping to share the truth that you know and you've seen out there on the ground. What's your message to people of faith around the world who may want to help with this or other religious freedom causes? Yeah. Well, you can always go to vulnerable peoplepro.com and and get uh uh reporting from the field on the needs of the most vulnerable people in the world. And we at the vulnerable people project seek to serve them and know those of us of faith who point to truth, love, compassion have to have fortitude for and endurance to stand with these people. Uh many of us watching the show are blessed. We live in countries with security and peace and we have opportunity, prosperity. Many people watching this show are in the midst of a great struggle and we all need to work together to leave our children and our grandchildren and our descendants a civilization of love. That's what inspires me. The destiny of the children of Nigeria, the destiny of the children of China and the destiny of of my children and grandchildren. It's a shared destiny. And so I can't just carve out a safe space in my little place in the world and think that my descendants will have peace. No. Either our descendants together will all have peace and prosperity and freedom or they will all be subjugated to abuse and tyranny. Jason Jones, the Vulnerable People Project, thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate it. >> Thank you for having me on.