WASHINGTON - Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical magazine founded by Billy Graham, has published 13,764 articles on the MAGA movement but only 76 on the Fulani herdsmen responsible for widespread violence against Christians in Nigeria, according to a new analysis by International Christian Concern fellow Greg Cochran.
The disparity extends across the outlet’s coverage. A search of Christianity Today’s digital domain returned 4,116 results for “persecution” and 3,717 for “Christian persecution,” compared with 6,393 articles on race, 3,044 on President Trump, 1,454 on ICE agents, and 105 on Taylor Swift. Rep. Chris Smith, one of the most vocal members of Congress on persecution, appeared in 33 articles — the same number as Tucker Carlson. Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl kidnapped in Nigeria, was the subject of 17.
Cochran, a PhD and ICC fellow, framed the numbers around a persistent “blind spot” first identified in an ICC article two years ago. He cited French philosopher Regis Debray, a former leftist rebel who fought alongside Che Guevara in Bolivia, who warned that “anti-Christian persecution falls squarely into the political blind spot of the West.” Debray’s concern, Cochran noted, was not rooted in Christian faith but in opposition to “the dehumanizing dangers of allowing injustice against marginalized people.”
The analysis also surfaced a pointed observation from Jewish commentator Dennis Praeger, who spent years advocating for persecuted Soviet Jews. Praeger recalled that Christian clergy attended “every one of the scores of Soviet Jewry rallies at which I spoke” but “were nearly all silent regarding — or even simply ignorant of — the dire plight of Soviet Christians.” Praeger added: “Though my work was with Soviet Jewry, I had no trouble acknowledging that Soviet Christians often had it worse.”
Using AI tools, Cochran identified seven dominant themes across Christianity Today’s content: theology and Bible; church and ministry; politics and public theology; culture and media; sexuality and gender; ethics and social issues; and global church and mission. Persecution fell under the last category. CT’s own stated priorities, Cochran noted, are theology and church, public theology, and culture — placing global persecution well down the editorial hierarchy.
World Magazine and The Christian Post, the two other outlets examined, showed different patterns. World Magazine organizes its content by category, with 306 entries under Faith & Religion, 135 under International, 133 under Politics, 122 under Family & Society, and 117 under Culture & Arts. Cochran credited World with regular radio and digital coverage of “faith under fire” addressing global persecution, and noted The Christian Post approaches its journalism with its own qualitative distinctions.
Cochran acknowledged the searches were “admittedly not strictly scientific” and that sheer article counts do not capture qualitative depth, but argued the numbers are “indicative” of editorial priorities. ICC, which monitors persecution of Christians worldwide, published the analysis as part of its ongoing effort to press Western Christian institutions toward greater awareness of suffering believers abroad.