Globe Trot: Christians worldwide need protection on Good Friday

It is a Good Friday.

Pilgrims jammed the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City for the traditional procession marking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Security was high along the route, as it is in other places where Christians have become an attacked minority—like Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Iraq, and Syria.

Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates at a juvenile detention center in Rome—including at least two Muslims and two women—yesterday as part of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Detainees led prayers and readings during the service as the pope began the Catholic Church’s Easter vigil for the first time.

A Hmong Christian church leader in Vietnam has been beaten to death in police custody. Hmong people fought alongside the United States during the Vietnam War, and many suffered as a result in the subsequent Communist takeover. Many fled to Laos, and church plantings and Christian conversions have been significant among them—leading to persecution.

The independent, bipartisan U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom has handed the Obama administration a roadmap for incorporating religious freedom into a White House human rights strategy.

Remember all that coverage about potential violence and mayhem leading up to Kenya’s March elections (including in WORLD)? And all the coverage of violence and bloodletting afterward? Well, you didn’t hear the latter—or much at all—because it didn’t happen. A good weekend read on how the West gets Africa wrong.

North Korea put its missile bases on standby today to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific—a rare but not unpredictable show of force in the tension following North Korea’s February nuclear test.