Exploring the Impact of Persecution on Christians’ Interactions with their Faith and the World Around Them

Abstract

Religion is one of the largest social categories to exist, and one of the least tested. Social interactions are one of the most fundamental behaviors we engage in daily. Prior research has investigated the effects of religiosity life satisfactions and goal affiliations, there is little done to explore the impact of persecution on these relationships. This study looked to explore the prejudice and stigmatization of Christian immigrants from notoriously persecuted countries and how it plays a role in private and public practices. Looking at these practiced first on a general level, and then zoomed in to examine the effects of persecution on practices within the United States and participants native countries on an individual level. This analysis revealed notable correlation between persecution and various public and private practices (such as prayer and displaying specific identifiers). These effects were seen on both the general and individual level. We then introduce a series of prompts gauging the social interactions of participants and compared these also to public and private practices of Christianity. This analysis also revealed significant correlations, particularly between faith and relationships on private practices. Overall, this research calls for an increased focus to be placed on persecution, and attention to the role it plays in intrapersonal values and interpersonal relationships.