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Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. I'm Damien Thompson.

Christians are being persecuted around the world. That won't be news to you, from time to time,

though not very often, a story crops up in the media, usually related to Islamist attacks in the Middle East. And if you're a

Christian, you'll hear references to the persecuted church. It's one of those things we deplore,

but aren't very curious about. Many people in the West, I suspect most people,

are unaware that Christians are now experiencing a global epidemic of persecution,

perhaps an over-familiar word that actually includes the rape, murder and dismemberment

of pregnant Christian women in Nigeria by Islamist thugs.

The use of face recognition technology by the Chinese government to monitor control and, where it deems necessary,

eradicate Christian worship by demolishing thousands of churches.

The evisceration of ancient Christian communities in the

lands of the Bible, the brutal torture of Christians in North Korea, the burning of Christian

villages by Hindu nationalists in India, and vicious attacks on Christians in Sri Lanka and

Burma by Buddhists, egged on by bloodthirsty Buddhist monks.

Yes, they do exist.

And meanwhile, the Church of England builds helter-skelters and crazy golf courses in its

cathedrals, while the Vatican is manoeuvred by Beijing into signing a concordat that legitimises

China's government-run imitation of the Catholic Church.

It's a scandalous situation, though to be fair to the Church of England, the new Bishop of Truro,

...