Amid growing alarm over the Islamic State’s (IS) declared campaign to eradicate Christianity from territory under its control, Carl Anderson, the supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, implored the U.S. State Department to “publicly acknowledge that genocide is taking place against the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria.”

Anderson’s comprehensive testimony before a Dec. 9 House subcommittee hearing on the “Humanitarian Imperative: Assisting Victims of ISIS Violence,” marked an intensive ecumenical effort to lobby the Obama administration to explicitly designate Christians, along with Yazidis, as victims of genocide.

The Yazidis’ ancient faith incorporates elements of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Islamic State militants have assailed them as “devil worshippers” and have killed thousands of men and taken women and girls as sex slaves.

The congressional hearing took place as the White House stepped up its military and political response to terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., and Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako called for the introduction of ground troops to defeat IS and protect Christians. The inclusion of Christians in the formal declaration would raise awareness of their plight and potentially increase pressure on the U.S. government to come to their defense.

Read the article “Church Leaders Push for U.S. to Name Christians as Victims of Genocide” on ncregister.com.