Iran’s Christians And The Media’s Religion ‘Blind Spot’

It was about five years ago, if my memory is correct, that I began seeing waves of social-media messages by Christian activists describing what they believed was a miraculous rise in the number of Iranians converting to Christianity. I received quite a few emails as well.

There were two problems with these pleas for coverage, problems that shaped the discussion in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast, which focused on a news report (and an update to it) published at The Free Press. The original headline: “An Emboldened Iran Goes After Its Christians.”

First of all, these emails and social-media posts were based on information from sources that — for life-and-death reasons — were anonymous or they came from activists passing along information from their own trusted Iran contacts. In other words, this was anonymous information or second-hand information from Iranians who were talking to activists backing their cause.

Second, most of these hooks for news coverage were sent, as far as I could tell, to Christian publications and audio/video networks that were highly likely to pass this information along to their own faithful readers/viewers.

The bottom line: It’s hard enough to get mainstream journalists interested in religion news. It’s even harder to get reporters and editors interested in religion news, on the other side of the planet, based on information from sources that elite professionals will not automatically trust.

However, Iran is currently in the news. Journalists have seen horrific online images — from smartphone cameras, via the Internet — of paramilitary forces linked to the Iranian regime using violence to crush public demonstrations by dissenters.

Now there is a religion angle to all of this. The updated double-decker headline for this Free Press feature by Maya Sulkin proclaims:

Exclusive: Iran Plans to Seize Protestant Church

St. Peter Evangelical is the oldest Protestant church in Iran. Now the regime is threatening to take it over, warning its leaders: ‘We are no longer afraid of America.’

Obviously, America’s military clash with Iran is news. It is also news that President Donald Trump has, in the eyes of many critics (on the left and some on the right), failed to reach a “peace” agreement that achieves many or most of the goals the administration set when justifying attacks on the mullahs in Iran.

Now, sources trusted by The Free Press, leading to additional coverage by The Jerusalem Post, indicate that leaders in Iran are ready to lash out at a large, powerful, strategic congregation. This is precisely the kind of institution that (you knew this was coming) is at the heart of efforts to win thousands of converts and increase the size of Iran’s underground churches.

There’s that question again: How can mainstream media cover this story? Do elite journalists want to cover it? Is it cynical to think that this story could, finally, end up on the front page of The New York Times if, and only if, it can be framed as yet another failure linked to Orange Man Bad?

First, let’s look at the top of the current Free Press story:

For years, the Iranian regime held back from seizing Tehran’s St. Peter Evangelical Church, the oldest Protestant church in Iran. The regime was afraid of what America might do in retaliation, according to three Western Christian leaders with ties to Tehran’s Christian community as well as Sargez Benyamin, executive secretary of the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Iran in Diaspora and former pastor of St. Peter. That fear, these sources say, is now gone, with Iranian officials recently threatening the church’s leaders.

“I will tell you the literal words they used,” Sasan Tavassoli, an Iranian Presbyterian pastor in the U.S. with direct contacts at St. Peter, told The Free Press. “We were concerned about America all these years. America came. They slapped us on the face. We slapped them on the face back. And then America withdrew. So we are no longer afraid of America.”

Last week, the regime told the 20 families living at St. Peter that they have just weeks to vacate. Most of the families are low-income and have lived at the compound for years, Benyamin said.

Once again, note the sourcing for the claims in this overture. The key phrases are “three Western Christian leaders with ties to Tehran’s Christian community” and “Sargez Benyamin, executive secretary of the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Iran in Diaspora and former pastor of St. Peter.”

What does “diaspora” mean? Here is an AI definition that broadens the term out of its history in Judaism. This term now refers to a “dispersed population that lives outside its geographic homeland. It typically consists of people who maintain strong cultural, emotional, or political connections to their ancestral land while adapting to their new environments.”

Notice how this term fits my description of sources that, as a rule, journalists do not trust — unless what is said is crucial to a story to which newsroom leaders are highly committed. Would that be the case with the plight of Christian converts, evangelicals even, caught in the current chaos in Iran?

However, is it simplistic to say that elite journalists are “biased” against this story?

Decades ago, in a lecture to the leaders of a major wire service, I outlined four different forms of “bias” that affect coverage of this kind. Here is a quick summary:

— The bias of space, time and resources. Simply stated: You cannot print a story if you have little space in which to print it, time to write it, or the money to hire a professional to do so. …

— The bias of knowledge. Fact: You cannot write a story if you do not know that it exists. …

— The bias of worldview. Simply stated: It is hard to write a good story if you don’t care that it exists. The result is, at best, a blind spot on religious issues, and the people who care about them. …

— The bias of prejudice. It’s hard to produce balanced, fair coverage of people you dislike, distrust, or whom you feel are irrelevant.

Looking at this story in Iran, bias No. 1 is clearly a source of trouble. Mainstream newsrooms have little or no presence in Tehran, during current conditions. Also, rising tides of red ink have led to major cuts in budgets for international news bureaus and coverage.

As for the “bias of knowledge,” I have already noted that activists seeking coverage of these religious-freedom issues appear to have sent their information to friendly niche newsrooms, not the mainstream. Would The New York Times respond if the Vatican proclaimed its concern? Maybe, maybe not. Remember that we are talking about the plight of evangelicals in Iran, the kinds of aggressive churches that seek converts.

Do journalists “care” that this story exists? That depends, quite frankly, on whether a political angle emerges that is linked to Donald Trump.

Here is some additional Free Press information on what may happen next:

The Iranian regime said it is seizing the property through EIKO — the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, a state-affiliated organization — and issuing a new deed in its own name through the Islamic Revolutionary Court, according to a letter written by Benyamin that was addressed to the international Christian community.

St. Peter was founded by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1872. According to former members of Tehran’s Christian community, it was the first Protestant church in Iran and almost certainly the first Farsi-speaking Christian congregation in Iranian history. For nearly 150 years, it has stood in downtown Tehran, occupying a city block that is currently worth millions of dollars.

Iran’s intelligence services have threatened the church leaders with a formal complaint if they refuse to expel the residents, said Benyamin, who now lives in exile. He said that current church leaders have no legal recourse and that the regime has refused to renew their operating license.

Is it possible to verify the specifics of this alleged “deed” against the church? That’s a crucial question that mainstream journalists will ask. A document or a soundbite from an Iranian leader might improve the odds for coverage.

Meanwhile, it would be important to prove if large numbers of Christians have died in the Iranian regime’s waves of counterstrikes against demonstrators.

The Free Press report draws a link:

Church leaders believe their only hope is to seek help from abroad, the three Christian leaders said. The regime has been unmoved. According to Tavassoli, regime officials told St. Peter leadership that a new complaint would be just one of many.

When the United States struck Iran at the end of February, President Donald Trump called on Iranians to “take back your country.” But any commitment to regime change in Iran was quickly shelved by the administration. After more than 100 days of war, the regime has emerged intact.

How big is the threat to evangelicals and their converts?

Once again, it is hard to verify what is happening inside Iran.

However see this Free Press summary:

The country now has an estimated 1.2 million Christian converts, making it, by some accounts, the fastest-growing Christian nation in the Middle East, according to Corey Jackson, founder and president of Luke Alliance, a U.S.-based organization that advocates the interests of persecuted Christians. Most worship in underground house churches. …

Benyamin said the regime tolerates [ancient] Armenian Apostolic and Assyrian churches for now — but only because their congregations are already vanishing, confined to shrinking ethnic communities with no outreach to Persian speakers. …

The regime has its sights set on at least two other Protestant properties in Tehran — Emmanuel Church in the north of the city, and a former Christian retreat center called the Garden of Evangelism, three individuals with ties to the church told The Free Press.

Also this:

The [Benyamin] letter also reveals that St. Peter is not the regime’s first target. In the early hours of June 4, 2026 — less than two weeks before the U.S.-Iran peace deal was signed — EIKO destroyed the Evangelical Church of Mashhad using bulldozers. The regime said the building was “abandoned.” In reality, according to news reports, regime officials expelled the congregation years earlier, leaving it to decay until it could be demolished.

Meanwhile, according to the claims of these insiders, converts continue to stream into underground congregations. In many ways, the journalism issues surrounding this story are similar to those affecting coverage of the underground church in China — this is a major story that would require risky reporting and major financial commitments by newsroom managers.

At The Jerusalem Post, commentary from a voice at the Institute for National Security Studies added this:

Beni Sabti, an Iran expert and researcher at INSS, explained that there are a number of reports indicating that there was a rise in Christian conversion in Iran, although official figures would not be published by the Islamic regime, leading Iran to take its frustrations out on “the roots” of Christianity.

“There are many reports from private eyes that much more people are converting to Christianity, especially to Protestant versions, and trying to get out of Iran by that excuse, and also just running away, escaping this ideology and Islam. Even if they stay in Iran, they want some kind of better life in their values, so they convert much more in recent years,” Sabti explained.

After the mass killing of protesters in January and the war with the U.S. and Israel in recent months, Sabti said that the regime was “very worried” that conversions would continue to rise, which is why there have been more arrests of Christian converts as of late.

Once again, there are said to be a “number of reports” on these matters.

That isn’t the kind of sourcing that will inspire coverage in newsrooms in which many journalists already appear to be worried about the impact of negative reports about violence and persecution in Iran. Consider this logic: Information of this kind could be seen as ammunition supporting the actions of the Trump White House or the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s bad.

Stay tuned. This story is not going away.

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