"If One Member Suffers": Lamenting the Slaughter of Nigerian Christians
- Jeremy Bratcher
- Sep 30
- 5 min read
I stepped back from the noise for a few weeks. I came back to headlines I wish weren’t real—and none of them have to do with Charlie Kirk, Israel-Palestine or Donald Trump.
Villages torched in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, congregations grieving their dead, families selling land to ransom kidnapped loved ones.
This is not a niche story. It is a grief the global Church must own.
Christians are being killed, kidnapped, and driven from their homes across Nigeria—especially in the North and Middle Belt—by jihadist groups (Boko Haram, ISWAP), criminal “bandit” networks, and armed Fulani militias.
Monitoring bodies continue to rank Nigeria among the deadliest places in the world to follow Jesus, and U.S. human-rights officials again urge stronger action and accountability.
This isn’t a call to perform our outrage. It’s a summons to Christian mourning that matures into durable love.
The Numbers We Don’t Want to Read
2025 Open Doors “World Watch List” reports 4,476 Christians killed worldwide in the latest period; about 3,100 of those deaths occurred in Nigeria—still “disproportionately deadly” for believers. Nigeria again ranks in the top tier for persecution (no. 7 in 2025).
USCIRF (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom)—an official, bipartisan watchdog—states plainly that in 2024 religious freedom in Nigeria remained poor, with authorities failing to prevent or punish many deadly attacks by non-state actors across the Middle Belt and Northeast. USCIRF again recommends Nigeria for the State Department’s “Country of Particular Concern” list.
The high-profile Christmas 2023 massacres in Plateau State left well over a hundred villagers dead; that holiday horror was not an isolated episode but part of a multi-year pattern of mass village attacks.
In 2025, attacks continue. In May, at least 42 were killed in Benue; this same region has seen repeated assaults on predominantly Christian farming communities.
Kidnapping has become an “industry,” devastating churches, schools, and families. UNICEF reminds us that a decade after Chibok, mass abductions of children continue; human-rights groups documented dozens of mass kidnappings in early 2024 alone.
Open Doors summarizes it bluntly: more believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else on earth.
None of these numbers include the sleepless nights, the empty chairs at dinner tables, the congregations worshiping beside fresh graves.
Is It “Genocide”? Words and Warnings
Different groups use different labels. Some observers and advocacy organizations warn that the violence against Christians in Nigeria is genocidal (or “unfolding genocide”), pointing to patterns of targeted mass killing and village erasure; Genocide Watch has repeatedly issued genocide warnings, and a UK parliamentary report framed the crisis as “unfolding genocide.”
Others emphasize complex overlapping drivers—land conflict, banditry, state weakness—while still noting the distinct religious targeting that often marks these attacks.
USCIRF threads this needle carefully: whether or not one adopts the legal term, the facts—regular, deadly attacks with impunity—are not in dispute.
As pastors and churches, we do not need to settle international law to obey Scripture.
What Scripture Requires of Us
Three texts shape our posture:
“Remember those who are in prison… and those who are mistreated.” (Hebrews 13:3, ESV) — The command is active remembrance, a solidarity imaginative enough to feel the chains as if they were our own.
“If one member suffers, all suffer together.” (1 Corinthians 12:26, ESV) — The global Church is one Body; Nigerian grief belongs at our Midwestern prayer meetings and Sunday intercessions.
“Give justice to the weak… rescue the weak and the needy.” (Psalm 82:3–4, ESV) — Lament must lean toward action; prayer must open our hands.
And yes, we cling to Jesus’ promise: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4, ESV) — not a funeral slogan but a Kingdom beatitude for people who tell the truth about a broken world.
A Word From the Early Church
Tertullian, writing under Roman pressure, famously observed: “The blood of Christians is seed.” He meant that persecution cannot extinguish the Church; it often purifies and multiplies it. That line has traveled the centuries because it rings true in suffering communities, including Nigeria today.
The point isn’t romanticizing tragedy. It’s recognizing that Christ’s life flows through His Body even—especially—when it is wounded.
What’s Actually Happening on the Ground?
A few realities you’ll see repeated in credible reporting:
Who is attacking? A shifting mix: Boko Haram and ISWAP (explicitly jihadist), armed Fulani militias in farmer-herder hotspots, and heavily armed bandit networks who kidnap for ransom. Motivations vary, but religious identity often marks who is targeted—particularly in rural Christian communities.
Why so deadly? Impunity. Survivors, journalists, and rights monitors consistently describe slow or absent security responses and rare prosecutions. Impunity invites repetition.
Why so many kidnappings? Ransom economics. Church leaders describe “intergenerational bankruptcy”—families selling land and assets to free abducted relatives. Schools shutter, churches thin out, and communities scatter.
How recent is this? Very. The Christmas 2023 Plateau massacres, the Benue killings in May 2025, and ongoing mass kidnappings in 2024–2025 are only the most visible spikes in a long trend.
Lament That Learns: How a Christian Responds
1) We set our faces toward honest mourning.
Our services make space to weep, not merely to worry. We name villages. We pray for widows and orphans, pastors and catechists, young men in hiding and young women who’ve survived assault. (Heb. 13:3; Matt. 5:4)
2) We educate, not inflame.
We help our people understand both the religious nature of much of the targeting and the messy interplay of land, politics, and crime. Compassion can hold complexity without diluting moral clarity. USCIRF’s reports and Open Doors’ dossiers are good starting points.
3) We practice consistent compassion.
We refuse selective outrage. We grieve for massacred Christians in Benue and Plateau, and we grieve any murdered neighbor made in God’s image. When Scripture says “weep with those who weep,” it doesn’t ask for a party ID first. (1 Cor. 12:26)
4) We support proven partners.
Ministries that combine trauma care, relief, discipleship, and advocacy—especially those already rooted in Nigerian churches—are worth our prayers and generosity. Open Doors’ Nigeria programs (trauma care, survivor support, economic empowerment) are one example among others.
5) We pray for just governance.
Psalm 82 is a direct rebuke to rulers who “show partiality to the wicked.” We pray for Nigerian authorities—federal, state, local—to protect the vulnerable and punish the guilty, and for international actors to use their influence wisely so impunity ends. (Ps. 82:3–4)
Framing this through Faith
We lament Nigeria. We lament fathers shot in their fields and mothers carrying children through the bush at night. We lament pastors taken from parsonages and teenagers marched into the forest. We lament the way fear empties classrooms and pulpits and markets. And we lament our own numbness when we scroll past the names.
But we do not grieve as those without hope. The Lamb who was slain will wipe away every tear; this is not the last word over Nigeria or anyone in Christ. (Rev. 21:4)
And while we wait for the day of perfect judgment and perfect comfort, we act: praying specifically, giving generously, platforming trusted Nigerian Christian voices, and telling the truth. If one member suffers, all suffer with it.
Though American airwaves ignore the problem, God is heaven sees their suffering.
Though no help has come from political neighbors and global leaders, your help comes from the Lord.
He is your strong tower and your avenger!
A Prayer You Can Use (or Adapt):
Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
Remember Your Church in Nigeria.
Heal the brokenhearted, bind up the wounded, and bring home the captives.
Give courage to pastors, wisdom to elders, and bread to the hungry.
Restrain the violent; convert the persecutor; strengthen weary officials who protect the innocent.
Teach us to remember the mistreated as if we were with them in chains.
Make us one Body that truly suffers together—and hopes together—
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Heb. 13:3; 1 Cor. 12:26)
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