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- [00:00]
Congressman Riley Moore
Well, the holidays have come and gone once again.
- [00:02]
Isabel Brown
But if you've forgotten to get that.
- [00:04]
Congressman Riley Moore
Special someone in your life a gift.
- [00:06]
Isabel Brown
Well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday.
- [00:09]
Congressman Riley Moore
Offer of half off unlimited wireless.
- [00:11]
Isabel Brown
So here's the idea.
- [00:12]
Congressman Riley Moore
You get it now, you call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose?
- [00:16]
Isabel Brown
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- [00:22]
Gia Chacon
Upfront payment required $45 for three months.
- [00:24]
Isabel Brown
$90 for six month or $180 for a 12 month plan. Taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy see terms.
- [00:30]
Gia Chacon
Hey guys.
- [00:31]
Congressman Riley Moore
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- [00:35]
Isabel Brown
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- [00:51]
Congressman Riley Moore
Just go to goldbelly.com and for a.
- [00:53]
Isabel Brown
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- [00:55]
Congressman Riley Moore
Order with promo code gift. That's promo code gift. I had met two women, one I'd met. She had all five of her children murdered right in front of her as these Fulanis attacked her village. She was pregnant, escaped, had a child in the IDP camp. The Fulani show up and start shooting at them. I met another woman who had had her two daughters and son murdered in front of her during one of these attacks and they killed her unborn child. This is the type of stuff barbaric violence that Christians are facing in this country country.
- [01:33]
Isabel Brown
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day so you would think we would be doing an episode about happy, go, lucky, joyful love things we're not. But we are doing an episode out of love to give a voice to our Christian brothers and sisters all over the world facing extreme persecution right now as you watch this because we've been privileged here in America to have a massive megaphone in and a platform to do so, very few people are taking that platform obligation seriously. And what's happening and continuing to happen in Nigeria is something we need to keep screaming from the rooftops. Today we are giving you an update into just how bad these targeted attacks against Christians have become by radical Islamic terror groups in the country of Nigeria with the sole intention of eradicating Christianity from inside of the country where we stand today and more importantly, what we are going to do about it. Because I know that's the question on everyone's mind. You guys may recall that we did an episode about this last October that did quite well, actually. It reached a whole lot of people that hadn't seen my content before and don't usually watch the Daily Wire or the Isabel Brown show because it is so shocking to people when they hear just how bad things have gotten for Christianity and in a country where half the population is indeed Christian. But in case you guys haven't been familiar with this, we know that in the span of the last few years, tens of thousands of Christians have been systematically targeted and killed by Islamic radical terror groups because of the sin of being Christian. We've watched churches be burned down indiscriminately all over the country. Entire villages are being wiped out. Mass graves have videos going viral all over social media, and the most intense, horrifying, terrible violence against Christian women and children all over the country because they refuse to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ and convert to Islam. One news story went pretty viral this last week in the last few days about a Catholic priest in Nigeria who was kidnapped and three of his parishioners were killed in northern Nigeria. The Catholic Herald covered this just a few days ago, that Father Nathaniel Asuweh was kidnapped alongside 10 of his parishioners at their local Catholic church in the area in northern Nigeria. There the abduction took place at his residence and the villagers who lived nearby said that it was an act of invasion by a group of terrorists. They killed three people in the process. And this of course comes on the heels after just a few months ago and in November, more than 300 children and staff from a Catholic school were abducted by Boko Haram, very, very clearly invoking imagery of what happened in 2014 by the same terrorist group when nearly 300 children, young girls who remain missing today, many of them were kidnapped by Boko Haram and another 100 kidnapped in 2018. That alone, I mean, honestly, when you hear it, by the numbers can feel so unbelievably overwhelming. It's difficult for us to wrap our heads around. But it's important for us to continue speaking about because this isn't a one off occurrence. This isn't a random act of violence by someone possessed by the forces of evil. This is a targeted, systematic kidnapping, abduction, torture, violence and killing of Christians because of our Christian identity happening in Nigeria as we speak today. Today, over the past few months, a few of these images and videos related to what I'm calling the Christian genocide in Nigeria are making their way through social media algorithms because very few platforms have the courage to speak about this in the mainstream media and from positions of influence. You may have seen this video a few months ago of a priest calling desperately out for help to the Trump administration or anyone out there willing to listen to standing inside of a mass grave of individuals that he was the priest of. Listen to this. We are diet to be outside performing burial every day and they expect us to silence now is an order Nigerian government came out openly and denied. There is no massacre, there is no genocide of Princeton in Nigeria. And look at it today. Is there any Muslim here? United Nations.
- [06:19]
Congressman Riley Moore
I know you're watching you American Senate.
- [06:23]
Isabel Brown
You are watching what I'm doing. I'm saying here. Special advisor to Trump now please tell Trump to save our life in Nigeria. They are killing Christians in Nigeria. Massacre Christian if they say they kill Moses. This Muslim are being killed by who? By Muslims. Videos like that alongside photos like this one of just mass numbers of caskets being put into mass graves have shocked the world over the past several months. Why? Probably because no one in a position of actual journalistic integrity is really talking about this. At least not from the trusted legacy media news outlets that are supposed to be telling us what is actually going on rather than putting their own philosophical spin on things. A few months ago, I was in New York on set with CNN on the roundtable show that is hosted by Abby Phillips, and we were speaking about this very issue. It was the week that President Trump had taken a really huge leadership step on this issue to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern. That opens the door for sanctions and other potential violations when they clearly are violating the human dignity of Christians in their country. And when I was articulating just how important this was, not from a political partisan perspective at all, but because President Trump, unlike most other world leaders, was actually taking a stand to defend innocent Christians who are being brutally massacred at the hands of Islamic terrorists. They literally interrupted me on set at CNN to say this actually wasn't the targeted killing of Christians at all. In fact, Muslims are dying as well at the hands of these extremist groups. So clearly this couldn't be religiously motivated in any way. It's probably just a political conflict, or what many people in the media are saying is a conflict between herders and farmers. How dare you even suggest that this has a religious connotation whatsoever? I was stunned on set. Genuinely, I was nearly speechless. I had no idea how these people could possibly be that ignorant and blind intentionally at this point to what was actually going on on the ground in Nigeria, but it's not just happening in the legacy media. And Christians and more specifically Catholics all over the world have had extreme outcry over our lack of attention to this issue in this country throughout the past several months. Especially after the Secretary of State for the Vatican, President Cardinal Pietro Perilin, who I actually genuinely really like. I think in general he has really important leadership on so many different issues. He put out a statement that I didn't like so much a couple of months ago. And Catholics all over the world had an outcry of response to saying this. I think they've already said, and some Nigerians have already said that it is not a religious conflict, but rather a social conflict, for example between herders and farmers. Let's keep in mind that many Muslims who come to Nigeria are victims of this intolerance. So these extremist groups, these groups that make no distinctions to advance their goals, their objectives, use violence against anyone they perceive as an opponent. Essentially echoing the exact same talking points that the CNNs of the world are also parroting. Because it's the approved scripted talking points coming from the Nigerian government that is intentionally turning a blind eye to, to mass violence and genocide against the Christian population that makes up half of the country. Of course there will be residual damage to all humanity regardless of your religious affiliation when radical Islamists attack entire villages and burn down massive neighborhoods. But if we've learned one thing about Nigeria over the past few years, it's this. This is a systematic targeting of Christians and intentionally by some of the most violent radical Islamic terror groups on the planet. Make no mistake about it, this is a genocide that is happening against Christians in Nigeria and it is high time that we start being honest about it. This subject rarely if ever gets honest media coverage, but the truth is Christians are by far by the numbers the most persecuted religious group on the planet today. Today, and hundreds of millions of our brothers and sisters are facing extreme persecution, threat of death, threat of violence, losing their jobs, being treated as second class citizens and more as we speak. While we're fighting for the dignity of life for our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria and all over the world, we also need to be fighting for it here at home. 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So for today's episode, to give you a brief update into what is happening in Nigeria, we thought it would be interesting to sit down with two people who are fighting for this cause on the front lines in whatever way they possibly can. We will later be sitting down with Congressman Riley Moore, who has been tasked by President Trump to take up political leadership of this issue and how the United States government should be responding to the crisis in Nigeria. But first, I'm excited to introduce you, if you haven't met her already, to my beautiful friend Gia Chacon, who is the founder of an organization called for the Martyrs. Annually, they put on a big march here in Washington, D.C. called the March for the Martyrs to to raise awareness about just how terrible the plight of Christian persecution is all over the planet. She has traveled to faraway places like Iraq and Syria and Armenia and countless other countries all over the world to give a voice to the persecuted church here in the United States of America. And I'm excited to hear what she has to say about what we can do to continue fighting on behalf of our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria. Please join me in welcoming Gia to the show. My beautiful friend Gia joins us today on the show. Gia, it's amazing to see you. It's been way too long since I've gotten to hug you in person. But tell us a little bit about your organization for the Martyrs and then let's zoom right in on what's happening here in Nigeria. Specifically.
- [14:21]
Gia Chacon
For the Martyrs is an organization that exists to bring attention to the global crisis of Christian persecution, advocate for religious freedom, and provide aid to suffering Christians around the world. You know, I share this statistic often because it's shocking. Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world, yet less than 3% of Christians in the United States have any awareness that this is happening. So it's all throughout Africa, it's throughout Asia as well. It's even in South America. But specifically in Nigeria, what we're seeing is some of the most violent persecution. Last year in 2025, we had over 7,000 Christians that were killed, millions displaced, thousands kidnapped, some returned. But the issue is increasing every single year and Nigeria seems to not be letting up either as well.
- [15:15]
Isabel Brown
Gia, when it comes to Nigeria in particular, something that's really striking me as problematic is how our mainstream media appears to be diverting this issue away from religious persecution and, and towards some sort of political conflict. I was on air with CNN a few months ago, right, when the president was taking a lot of close look at this and, and making some policy decisions. And I was corrected by the host of this roundtable show that I was on, that this really wasn't about Christian persecution because Muslims happen to be dying at the hands of these Islamic extremists as well. What can you tell us with your expertise about the fact that this is targeted towards Christianity in Nigeria?
- [15:56]
Gia Chacon
So what makes something a genocide versus just indiscriminate mass killing is intention. And these Islamist militant groups. So there's three different groups. We have Fulani militants, which are actually the ones behind the majority of the killing, Boko Haram and I swap, which are terrorist affiliated organizations. Their intention is to eradicate Christianity. In doing that, they also at times attack Muslims who don't adhere to their radical ideology. But their sole intention is to erase Christians, persecute Christians and move Christians out. And I like to draw the attention to ISIS. What we saw in Iraq and Syria, we had 5,000 Christians that were killed. In the entirety of the time that ISIS had a stronghold in Iraq and Syria, Muslims were killed as well. But ISIS had the goal of erasing Christianity from the region. Now I want to bring, you know, Zoom into those numbers I just shared with you. In the entirety of the time that ISIS had a stronghold in Iraq and Syria, 5,000 Christians were killed. Okay. Over the course of the years, last year alone In Nigeria, over 7,000 Christians were killed. So I'm sharing those numbers to really elaborate on the scale of this crisis. It is a genocide. People can try to, you know, politicize it. They can say it's about land, but the reality is the intention of these groups is to erase Christianity.
- [17:30]
Isabel Brown
You've traveled all over the world to so many countries experiencing this intense Christian persecution. Why do you think that here in America, we're so hesitant to label it as genocide when we're so quick to throw that word around for so many other global conflicts?
- [17:48]
Gia Chacon
I think it's not popular to talk about Christian suffering. I think that we have fallen victim as a culture to the narrative that Christians are the oppressor, they're the great colonizers. You know, all these talking points that have been pushed on us. And I think even as the church in the west, not only have we fallen victim to, you know, trying to prove that we're not the oppressors or, you know, make some apology for sins of the past, so to speak. In addition to that, we're very inward focused group of Christians. You know, we're focused on what's happening in our community. We're focused on how to build our church. You know, a lot of evangelicals, especially when they're talking about what's happening to the global body of Christ, they're really just talking about the United States. And we forget that our brothers and sisters around the world are, you know, they are our responsibility. So I think it's up to us. It's not just up to the pastors. It's up to us as, excuse me, as laity and as a congregation to bring this issue to our pastors and say that we need to be paying attention, we need to be talking about the persecuted church. And, you know, that public pressure does a lot. This is what we saw with Bill Maher when he spoke out against what was happening in Nigeria, when he was brave enough to call it a genocide for what it was. That sparked a lot of conversation online about the issue, and eventually that was raised to the president and action was taken. So we have the responsibility of talking about it and pressuring our government, pressuring our lawmakers, pressuring TV hosts like Bill Maher and others to talk about this issue with clarity.
- [19:33]
Isabel Brown
Clarity is such an important word there because ultimately, this is such an Issue of morality, right? It's light versus dark. It's good versus evil. No matter how many times I hear you talk about this over the years, and I know we've had you on the show a few times before when you so beautifully articulate, beautiful might not even be the right word, powerfully articulate, that Christians, by the numbers, are by far the most persecuted religious group on the planet. I sit back in my chair knowing everything I know, and yet I don't think people are aware of this. You say less than 3% of Americans are even aware that this global plight against Christianity is happening right now. By the numbers. What can you tell us about where we are in our world so that we here in America, with the abundant privilege that we have, can put that right pressure on people in power?
- [20:22]
Gia Chacon
Each year, the number of Christians facing high levels of persecution increases. So we've seen a steady increase in the last six years. As of today, there are over 385 million. 385 million Christians face high levels of persecution. So what does that mean? It means our brothers and sisters are being targeted. They're being killed, they're being kidnapped, imprisoned. They're also facing social pressure. So oftentimes they're being treated as second class citizens. And we see that in countries like Egypt, where, where it's not always necessarily the violence that we're seeing, for example in Nigeria, but they're being discriminated against, their businesses are targeted. There was a YouTuber, a Coptic Christian in Egypt, who was just sharing his faith online and he was arrested by the government and sentenced to five years of hard labor. So we see this not just in the Middle east, not just in Africa, it's also in China. China is actually one of the most egregious violators of human rights and religious freedom. Pastors are put in prison if they refuse to adhere to the Communist Chinese parties, the Chinese Communist Party's version of Christianity. They've gone in and rewritten the gospel in some cases. And Isabel, even in South America and Central America, in Nicaragua, the government has banned biological Bibles from coming into the country. And priests are often jailed and imprisoned if they're saying anything against the government. So it's happening worldwide. And I know that these numbers and these statistics can be a lot to take in, but what we should really do is pay attention to the stories, the individuals. In Nigeria, we have so much content coming out. We have pastors standing in mass graves, crying out for the world to care. We have stories of students who are being kidnapped. And when we can stay connected to the individuals when we can remember that it's not just, you know, big numbers, but these are our brothers and sisters. This is our family in Christ and we have a responsibility toward them. I think that helps us feel that sense of responsibility when the world out.
- [22:40]
Isabel Brown
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- [25:07]
Gia Chacon
First of all, I want to say I'm so grateful for Congressman Riley Moore, Senator Josh Hawley, Congressman Chris Smith, these champions of religious freedom, who, especially Chris Smith. I mean, he's been working on these issues and is a hero for the persecuted church for so many years. I think we should remember that this is not just an issue for the church. Crimes against Christians are crimes against humanity. I mean, when we're talking about mass killing, we should be looking at this again from the human perspective. These are crimes against humanity. So the same level of urgency, pressure, response should be met when we're talking about these Christian issues, as they would with any other human rights crisis. So I think when we talk about these issues, it's important also to have the right framing that this is not just a Christian issue, that this is a human rights issue. There's so much that we can do when we just look at Nigeria. This is a really good example. This has been going on for decades. This is not a new issue. What's been going on In Nigeria since 2009, the numbers say that over 100,000 Christians have been killed. And that's just what they have documented. This is just what they can prove. Because the government for decades has been complicit in covering up the mass killing of Christians. So for decades, this has been going on. There have been people who have been trying to work on this, but it wasn't until we had it started with Bill Maher, that kind of sparked this trend of people paying attention. Then we had members of Congress starting to talk about it. We had pastors talking about it, podcast hosts, people who are prominent and have platforms realize that this was an issue. And within a matter of months, it went from being a talking point on a TV show to being raised to the president, where the president became aware of it and said, not on my watch. And then, since then, we've seen action taken by the United States not just from the executive branch, but also from members of Congress. So it's. There's. So, excuse me. There's so much that we can do, and we. When the United States says we're paying attention, not on our watch, the world has to listen to that, especially under President Trump's leadership.
- [27:28]
Isabel Brown
Powerfully, said Gia. My last question for you brings it closer to home a little bit. You know, there I'm getting a lot of questions from people in my community and people who watch the show about their increasing fear related to the obvious Christian persecution we're also starting to see at home. And it doesn't look quite, quite as intense or violent as we're seeing for our brothers and sisters around the world, thanks be to God. But sometimes it does. You and I both watched a friend be assassinated on a college campus right after answering a question about the gospel and proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ five months ago. You're watching Christians be regularly targeted through political motives all over the country at the local and state level. Right now, thankfully, not at the federal level anymore. But we did see that in the last few years under the Biden administration, labeling people like you and me radical terrorists on par with ISIS and Boko Haram and all these groups were talking about for going to Latin Mass. Can you give us a message of hope and encouragement about how to live through persecution and always keep our eyes fixed on Christ? In the process.
- [28:32]
Gia Chacon
I think we can look to the persecuted church for inspiration and for courage. When we're sharing, sharing these stories of, you know, unbelievable atrocities, we have the understanding when we, maybe as Christians in the west, it's. Our initial reaction is to feel sorry for them, is to think that they're, you know, a people of despair, that they're downtrodden and hopeless. But actually, it's quite the opposite. What we see time and time again, whether it's in Nigeria, China, even North Korea, where it's illegal to be a Christian, the higher the level of persecution, the greater the courage and the boldness. And we see just defiance coming out of the persecuted church. I love sharing the story that Islamist militants shot up a church. I know that's graphic to say it like that. They burned it down, and within a matter of days in Nigeria, those churchgoers went back to the ashes and the rubble and. And held a church service. So what we can learn from that as Christians in the west, while we're not facing violent persecution, but we are facing intimidation, we need to not be afraid to boldly proclaim our deeply held religious beliefs. And we also still have the power to fight these things in the court. So our votes matter, our voices matter. And we need not be afraid of the culture or social pressure or even legal pressure in some cases. Because what we're seeing is that when Christians take a stand, whether it's with the culture or even in court, we're seeing things go in our favor. So I would encourage Christians, hold tight to your faith. Look at the persecuted church also for boldness and courage. And don't be afraid to speak out.
- [30:24]
Isabel Brown
Do not be afraid as we are reminded 365 times in scripture. Gia, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. Where can people find you and your organization for the martyrs to keep supporting all of the amazing work that you are doing?
- [30:40]
Gia Chacon
The best way to keep in touch with us is on Instagram. You can follow me at Genuinely, Gia, if you want to stay connected to the persecuted church. I encourage everyone to follow Arch for the martyrs on Instagram. We're sharing stories, statistics, and what everyone can do to get involved and take action against persecution.
- [31:00]
Isabel Brown
Wonderful. God bless you, my beautiful friend. Can't wait to give you a hug very soon.
- [31:05]
Gia Chacon
Thanks. Isabel. So good to see you.
- [31:07]
Isabel Brown
She's right, you know, by the way, when powerful people are using their platforms and using their time to speak out on behalf of those who lack the megaphone that we have here, here in America, it really does make a difference. She referenced Bill Maher in our conversation and I think that's an interesting reference because we actually covered what Bill Maher was saying back in October when we did an episode of our show about this. He, to this day, to my understanding, remains one of the only left wing individuals that has remotely given any sort of deference to this subject whatsoever or provided any airtime to cover what's really going on. In case you haven't heard what Bill has been saying, take a listen, Jerry. I mean, the fact that this issue has not gotten on people's radar, right? No one's talking about it. It's pretty amazing. If you don't know what's going on in Nigeria.
- [31:54]
Congressman Riley Moore
Your media sources suck.
- [31:57]
Isabel Brown
You are in a bubble. And again, I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over 100,000 since 2009. They've burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more Islamist Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this? Thank you. Thank you. No one will talk about it, so thank you.
- [32:30]
Congressman Riley Moore
Absolutely.
- [32:31]
Isabel Brown
So we know what we have to do. For those of us with platforms, we have to continue speaking out. And we also know what we have to do as Christians in any sphere of influence. And we have to keep praying. But many people have been asking me over the past few months, what is the government doing about it? Because we certainly have an obligation as the United States of America to use our position of influence and power to be protecting those who desperately need to be protected from radical Islamic terrorism. President Trump has addressed this issue many times over since October. Thanks be to God. And just recently at a Christian event that the White House was putting on, he addressed the violence that was happening in Nigeria directly. Take a listen.
- [33:10]
Congressman Riley Moore
Did you know about that?
- [33:11]
Gia Chacon
They were killing Christians.
- [33:13]
Congressman Riley Moore
You can't do that.
- [33:17]
Gia Chacon
When Christians come under attack, they know.
- [33:21]
Isabel Brown
They'Re going to be attacked violently and.
- [33:23]
Gia Chacon
Viciously by President Trump.
- [33:25]
Congressman Riley Moore
I know it's not a nice thing to say, but that's the way it is.
- [33:29]
Isabel Brown
President Trump wants to continue dedicating his platform and his time in the White House to addressing this issue, which I'm incredibly grateful for. And just recently, he tasked Congressman Riley Moore, one of my favorite members on Capitol Hill, to lead up the charge in crafting how the United States government should be responding to this from a policy and government perspective. The other day we went up to Capitol Hill to sit down with Congressman Moore to ask him point blank directly about it, and I'm dying for you to hear what he has to say. Let's check it out. Congressman Riley Moore, thank you so much for joining us on the Isabel Brown Show. We are here on Captain Capitol Hill and I'm just so excited to unpack what you guys are up to day in and day out in Congress.
- [34:10]
Congressman Riley Moore
Well, thank you for having me. Hopefully it's impressive what we're doing. If it's not, it's not my fault. So.
- [34:16]
Isabel Brown
Well, there's a lot of other members you can blame that on, which is the good news. I want to start with a really big topic that's dominated somewhat conservative media circles, but the mainstream media has yet to really pay attention to the last few months, and that's the ongoing persecution of Christians that we are seeing in Nigeria. You have been tapped by some of our leadership here in Washington, D.C. to lead the effort as to how we should respond for that. Can you give us a window into what you're finding out and what you plan to tell the president in a Few weeks.
- [34:43]
Congressman Riley Moore
Yeah. So first of all, I think it's just as a scene setter in this to just lay out for folks, one of the things we wanted to happen here is for Nigeria to be redesignated. Everyone said designated. Redesignated. A country of particular concern. Trump had done this. The President had done this in his first term. Biden had taken this designation off. And because he said the violence had more to do with climate change and land dispute and desertification and things like that, which we all know drives people to burn churches down is climate change. Just joking, but it's. That's obviously completely false. It's not correct at all. And so what I had asked the President, the White House, and been pushing on pretty aggressively at the end of last year was to redesignate Nigeria as a country particular concern. I knew as soon as the President got this on his radar, he'd be like, yep, absolutely, we're doing that. And he did that very end of October. And. And since then, we have been moving very quickly. Things have progressed rapidly in all of this. So since then, we've had multiple bilateral meetings with the Nigerian government, myself, the administration as well, on how we're going to address this with the plan, say in loose terms, is that what we're going to do here is work with the Nigerian government in cooperation and coordination to deal with this issue of Christian persecution. And it's a real tragedy what's been taking place and the murder and martyr of our brothers and sisters in Christ in this country. And it's the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian. And it's kind of broken into two parts of where this is taking place. In the northern part of the country, that's where you have iswap, which is isis, Boko Haram. And then the Middle Belt is where you have the Fulani. That. That's where you see a lot of the killing taking place. This is where you see the mass kidnappings, where we had 300 kids kidnapped from a Catholic school, which had been returned, by the way. That was one of our requests. And one of the things we thought would build more confidence in between our two countries is if some of these demands that we'd had requirements to work together needed to be addressed. So that was one of them. So we got the designation October. We had that massive kidnapping. These children have been returned. The other one was one that I had pressed on publicly for quite a while, and that was the freeing of Sunday Jackson, who was on death row for close to 11 years. And I said, you all have to do I mean I was in Nigeria and met with the government and said this has to happen for us to be able to move forward. And they, they've released him, he is free now. And it was right before Christmas he was freed. And that's a good confidence building measure I think on their part for us because I know that was not necessarily easy for them to do. He was somebody, a Christian who was defending himself against one of these Fulani militants and acting in self defense killed the Fulani militant. He gets a death penalty and his wife was pregnant at the time. So he has a child he has never seen and actually spent Christmas with his, with his child for the first time, which is great. It's wonderful, wonderful news. But we are very close to a strategic security framework in between our two countries of how we're going to address this. We are not going to put massive US presence on the ground there, but we are going to fill capability gaps for the Nigerians. We are going to help and work with them to address this. But the President has been very clear this has to stop, this must end, no more. And that has been my position the entire time on this as well. So we're going to be able to address these things together. And I think the Nigerians understand that this is a President that doesn't just say things to say them. And he is very serious, which is why I think he staked out a position. We will go into that country guns of blazing if they don't get this together. And that spurred everybody to action I think. And so we're, we're very close on coming together with an agreement. I'm going to brief the White House here in the coming weeks and so the President will have our findings. We went to Nigeria last month and went to Benway State, which is a state of Nigeria of over 6 million people, vast majority of which close to 90% are Christians. But this is where a lot of people are being killed. You know, over 6 million people in the state, as I mentioned, over 600,000 IDPs living in camps and they are all Christians. Wow. All of them. Each and every one of them. And this is why this whole climate change, whatever the Fulani's are going in and attacking these IDP camps. What does that have to do with. It doesn't, it doesn't have anything to do with everyone's made this about land and them being able to graze their cattle and all that. I think certainly that's a part of it. But you don't kill men, women, children Burn down churches and attack IDP camps because you want to graze your cattle. This is clearly a targeted campaign against the Christian populations that live there in their ancestral homelands. The Fulani are not. That is not their ancestral homeland there in particularly Benway state in the middle belt of that country. So, yeah, that's kind of give you a long answer.
- [41:03]
Isabel Brown
Yeah, No, I think it's important to set the scene though, because honestly, just days after the designation of a country of particular concern was reinstated for Nigeria, I was on a panel at CNN in New York and asked about it. And they interrupted me when I started answering their question saying, well, it's not really just the Christians that are being killed, though. It's a whole bunch of people that are being killed. Which certainly doesn't address the root cause of Islamic extremism that we're seeing here. But the media is really refusing to cover this appropriately and is refusing to tell the world accurately what's happening. Boots on the ground. Having been there yourself, I think it's important that people have this.
- [41:38]
Congressman Riley Moore
Yeah, I mean, like, I will give you a couple examples. And I've been on CNN talking about this as well, and they kind of pushed back on it and we had a congressional hearing and Democrats are pushing back on it. Are there Muslims being killed there? Of course there are there. The half the country is Muslim, but it is five to one Christian versus non Christian that are being killed there, that are. That are affected by this instability and violence that's going on right now in that country. You have ISIS and Boko Haram. Are they going to kill moderate Muslims? Yeah, of course, they're terrorist groups. That's what they do. But there is a campaign against Christians in that country, very targeted for anybody. It doesn't matter the denomination. If you are professing your faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you are a target. I mean, and ISIS just said it, you either convert or die or you're paying the tax. So that's where we are on that. But I had met two women, one I'd met. She had all five of her children murdered right in front of her as these Fulanis attacked her village. She was pregnant, escaped, had a child in the IDP camp, which is where she lives right now, and which the Fulani show up and start shooting at them. I met another woman who had had her two daughters and son murdered in front of her during one of these attacks. She was pregnant and they killed her unborn child.
- [43:05]
Isabel Brown
Oh my gosh.
- [43:06]
Congressman Riley Moore
And so this is the type of stuff. I mean, just barbaric violence that Christians are facing in this country. And now she survived that. But I mean, as you might imagine, she is a shell of a person right now. I mean, I'm a father. I can't even fathom what something like that would be like. And then to lose your unborn child because you they've intentionally taken that child's life. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Lost for words. You know, like, what do you say?
- [43:42]
Isabel Brown
While we're talking about our Christian faith today on our episode, a little pause for you because newsflash, Lent is just a few days away. And if you are thinking about how you want to approach Lent this year, I could not recommend you join me starting on Ash Wednesday alongside Jonathan Roumie, Mark Wahlberg, Father Mike Schmitz, Chris Pratt and so many others for daily prayer leading up to Easter on my favorite app on my phone, the Hallow app. Lent is meant to stretch us. It's a season where we can really ask, who is God calling me to be? That means deeper prayer, fasting and generosity so that our hearts can be actually filled with God's love. That's why Hallow's annual Lent challenge pray 40 this year, called the Return, is one of my favorite experiences I have in my prayer life every year and is so powerful. It's a 40 day journey to just slow down, to reflect and to come home to what matters the most. At the heart of this challenge is one of the most powerful stories ever told, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. And it's about leaving home, losing your way, and then realizing that no matter how far you've gone, you are always welcome back throughout Lent. Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the Chosen, you may know that. And Sister Miriam James will guide you through beautiful daily prayers and meditations. Every Friday, you'll be challenged to fast alongside other Christians all over the world. On Saturdays, you'll watch powerful faith conversation stories. And every Sunday you'll hear a transformational homily from Father Mike Schmitz, the Goat. Because during Lent, we are not asked to do everything perfectly. We we're just asked to take one small step at a time. And in doing that, we can discover that God's grace meets us exactly where we are and gives us the strength to keep going. The challenge begins Ash Wednesday, February 18, just a few days away and continues through Easter. So if you are ready to lay down those heavy burdens in your life and start coming home to God, our loving, forgiving Father Hallow's Lent challenge pray 40 the return is for you. You can check it out to join us or find thousands of other prayers, guided meditations, mindfulness, reflections and so much more@halloween.com isabel to sign up today and get three months free on the app Truly and I think most people still have such a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of Christian persecution to this degree in the year 2026. Right. We think about martyrdom as associated with the Coliseum and Romans persecuting the early church. But in reality, by the numbers, Christians are by far and away the most religiously persecuted group on the face face of the planet. And millions upon millions of our brothers and sisters all over the world are facing brutal execution and torture, the killing of their unborn children and so much more being displaced from their homes simply because they believe in Christ. We've been fortunate in many ways in the west to not experience that level of persecution. But it is coming to the United States too. And I know certainly you had a very strong relationship with Charlie Kirk, who's a dear friend and mentor of mine over the last decade. And watching someone be killed and assassinated on a college campus after answering a question about the gospel was very jarring for people. This last year in Minneapolis, in the last week, we're watching a church service be stormed by these militant left wing protest groups driving children out of church pews on Sunday morning to start what? Protesting ice. I mean, it's just crazy to watch this persecution start heating up here at home. Is that something that's on Congress's radar and what are you planning to address about that?
- [47:06]
Congressman Riley Moore
It's on my radar personally. I had people protesting me outside of my church last Sunday. That literally just happened. They're out there protesting me and trying to disrupt us from going to our parish. So, you know, this is my whole family. This is the parish we go to. And so it's jarring for the parishioners there and everybody that attends my church. Yeah, it's not great. And you can't forget the Biden administration when they had targeted Catholics specifically and spying Catholic churches and is like extremists, you know, people that are doing, you know, kind of traditional Latin mass or, you know, right wing lunatics. Now it's there. There is a concerted effort on the left to stop us from worshiping this pastor, I mean, you saw him being confronted by Don Lemon of all people, trying to tell you that's not the kind of Christianity I practice. It's like, give me a break. This is, you know, they're There pushing up and saying, this is our First Amendment right. I'd read the First Amendment a little bit closer because there's another protection in there as well.
- [48:24]
Isabel Brown
There sure is.
- [48:25]
Congressman Riley Moore
And that's what makes it country so great. And it's one of the core founding principles. This is a Christian country. It is. And, you know, I think it's why we have religious liberty in this country, is because it is a Christian country. I think it's why it's so jarring whether we're being attacked in our church or Jews are being attacked in synagogues or whatever is happening. Not really seeing a bunch of people being protested outside of mosques, bizarrely. But I guess maybe they'll get there. I don't know. I doubt it.
- [48:59]
Isabel Brown
I doubt Don Lemon would go into a mosque and try to pull the same stuff. Yeah, you never know.
- [49:03]
Congressman Riley Moore
Yeah, probably not. But I think because Christianity is so foundational to Western civilization and our values and who we are as the west, just generally, that's what they're trying to undermine. They're trying to get to the root of it all.
- [49:20]
Isabel Brown
Yeah.
- [49:20]
Congressman Riley Moore
And, you know, this is how. I mean, socialism, communism, things like that cannot exist or persist with Greek philosophy, Christian values, and Roman law. Right. As Maloney said here just recently, I mean, that's kind of it.
- [49:40]
Isabel Brown
Are you concerned at all, from a political perspective about what we're seeing on the left? Charlie articulated this beautifully before his death with the axis that we're watching between communism and socialism and the rise of Islam in our country, we're certainly seeing that across Europe as well. But I think the election of Zoran Mamdani really rattled a lot of people because we were reminded what was possible, and we're anxious to see what that looks like as it manifests in New York City policy. I'm sure a lot of that's coming to Capitol Hill here with midterms as well and some of the upcoming elections and years after that. What are you anticipating on that front?
- [50:13]
Congressman Riley Moore
Yeah, look, unfortunately, I think this is just the beginning. I think this is just the beginning. And anybody watching this, people of faith, don't keep it in the closet, because they're not, you know, I mean, they want. You know, they want me, and I get this all the time. You know, Riley, you know, you're too public about your faith. Separation of church and state, blah, blah, blah. Not in the Constitution, by the way. Just want to be clear. Jefferson wrote some letters about it, and it was actually about keeping the government out of churches, not the other way around. They want us to go check our faith at the door when we walk into this building. How can you do that when that's foundational to who you are? But on the other side of it, it's, you know, we're willing to like bend over backwards for Islam and everything that they want to do here in any of these buildings or, you know, around the country. And you have this, part of me thinks that the Islamic movement in this country and around us, Europe are using them, using these left wing socialists. And they don't. Maybe they realize it, maybe they don't, but because they're not going to convince us of what they want to do. But I think that unfortunately, the herd mentality of the far left, far easier to get them into conformity, into what they, you know, because they're using, you know, whether it's white guilt, clothes, colonialism, this, that, the other, to get them to conform to what their vision of the world is like. Oh, it must be right because it's not Western and it's not da da, da, da. So, yeah, I mean, maybe they're just kind of passive idiots in this whole thing, but the end of the day, they are votes.
- [51:57]
Isabel Brown
Yeah, they are. As a devout Catholic myself, it is always wonderful to see the stance that you take for your faith here on Capitol Hill, especially when that feels very few and far between. And I'm often asked for those that don't work in Washington, they're not very plugged into what's happening in government and politics. If that is a rarity, if that's unusual here amongst all of your colleagues, who are other members of the House of Representatives, who are some of the good ones, and how can we continue encouraging people of faith to run for office?
- [52:27]
Congressman Riley Moore
Well, on the Catholic side, I'd say there are some good ones. Certainly there are, particularly in this freshman class in terms of devout Catholics like yourself and me, Mike Baumgartner, Jeff Heard, Tom Barrett, a few of them that spring to mind. I mean, these are real Catholics. Mesmer's another one. I mean, when we do, like Republican events where we're off campus talking about what our policies are going to be. Speaker Mike Johnson, who's certainly of deep faith, he provides services for all. You know, there's Protestant, Catholic and Jewish services if we're there over a weekend. And so I'll see who's at Mass, because I'm there and we get a really good group. We do. Andy Harris, head of the Freedom Caucus, he's always there. He's a good Catholic. But, you know, we do have a lot of people of strong faith in this building. Certainly Chip Roy is one of them. I've talked to him a lot about this stuff. Mark Harris, he's another freshman who's pastor. So, yeah, I think that there's a real strong crop of Christians in this building in terms of Catholicism. It always feels like, you know, as Catholics, people start running for higher office and they're. Now they're a Christian. Right. You know, it's like when we are Christians, we're the. We're the OGs. We're the originals. But, you know, it's, you know, just referring to yourself as a Christian and not a Catholic as you start kind of like running for higher office. Like, you know, don't. I don't think anybody has an issue with that. And if they did, who cares? But it's interesting. I think that's starting to kind of trend away.
- [54:28]
Isabel Brown
I do, too. Yeah. I mean, certainly with what we're seeing with young men in particular, there's such an embrace of the traditional liturgy and the history of the church, the Eucharist, and it's amazing to see young people care so much about this. I think there is a renewed sense of expectation for our elected officials to be people of faith and to make sure that those who we elect are honoring the foundation of Western civilization. As you so beautifully said, that is Christianity. I think it's fascinating, especially as we start looking into the history of America during this, a 250 year, our 250th birthday, to remember that our elected officials used to have to have a declaration of faith in order to serve in most of the original colonies.
- [55:06]
Congressman Riley Moore
Yes.
- [55:07]
Isabel Brown
Do you think that something like that could ever happen again in America?
- [55:10]
Congressman Riley Moore
Maybe in West Virginia? I don't know about the other states, but I think we could probably do it. I'd love to see it, but, yeah, I mean, West Virginia is a little bit different. Like, if you want to live in America, you know, kind of 30 years ago and 40 years ago, for that matter, come to West Virginia. I mean, and this is a state that after Dobbs, I mean, I think we're the only state. Maybe there's a couple others I'm not thinking about, but we outlawed abortions 0 weeks in West Virginia. Like, we passed a law, and I worked on this one really hard, obviously, the abortion one. But assisted suicide, we have enshrined that into our state constitution. That is legal in West Virginia. Assisted suicide. Yeah. And it's, you know, banning boys and girls, sports, government funded transgender surgeries, all this stuff, we've done all these things in West Virginia. And so, yeah, I don't if any state might do it, it might be us.
- [56:18]
Isabel Brown
But Wyoming might give you a run for your money.
- [56:21]
Congressman Riley Moore
You never know.
- [56:21]
Isabel Brown
You don't. I know you are incredibly busy this week on the Hill, so I got one more question for you before we let you go. But we are approaching a midterm election cycle. Certainly everyone has a very big microscope on Capitol Hill and understanding what's going on with some of the internal politics here. And young people in particular, I think are feeling so fatigued by what we've seen in Congress throughout my lifetime with a lot of these members who have been here longer than twice the time I've been alive. Not even an exaggeration, actually. And I think what people are really looking for is a return to basics from our elected officials on things like single issue legislation and trying to pass as many bills as possible. Reviving the concept of term limits, which I know is something you supported coming into office. Do you think we'll see any headway that in 2026? And how can we encourage other members to be outspoken about it?
- [57:07]
Congressman Riley Moore
Yeah, I mean, look, you're, you're going to see a lot of retirements this cycle that's happening. I think the nature of this business, business now of being in elected office at the federal level, you even see it in the Senate. Yeah. You got the folks that are, you know, 80 years old, whatever been there for, you know, before I was born. But then you see more often than not, which never used to happen, these one, two term senators and they just hit the road. I think you're going to see that more in particularly the House as well. I don't think you're going to have people as rooted in, I mean, think about, you know, from Florida, Brian Mast. Right. He's not been here that long. He is the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that used to be a committee, which is not an A committee. That means like the top committee where people would wait 20 years to become. And so the cycle is moving. And I think part of that is long, long time ago, Contract for America, Newt Gingrich, where we had put term limits on House chairman, House chairmanships has now started to finally bear fruit in terms of its ability to kind of move people down the chain. You know, so people are getting chairmanships faster once they've done that. Most have kind of reached their limit, you know, go on, do whatever it is they want to do in their life. So I think that that's actually helped speed along this process. We're getting new blood, new ideas into it and all that. So, yeah, I mean, it's interesting. You know, I'm. I'm not the youngest one here, but I'm one of the younger ones, so it's. That's probably not, you know, where we want to be. You know, we want to get some more new blood in here. But this is not an easy place to have a young family and serve. It is just not. There's going to be sacrifices and all that, unfortunately. I have three kids, and, you know, you are going to lose time with them. That's just kind of the way it's going to be, unfortunately. And if you're going to do that, it better. You know, myself, just speaking for myself, I have to believe it's for a greater purpose. And if it's not, then I will no longer be here.
- [59:27]
Isabel Brown
Yeah, that vocation is so, so important. And we sure are grateful to you for your service to our country and your continued leadership of that new generation of ideas here on Capitol Hill. Congressman, thank you so much. We are anxious to follow all of the updates from Nigeria in the next couple of weeks, so we'll follow up with your office very soon on that.
- [59:44]
Congressman Riley Moore
No, thanks so much for having me on. Appreciate it.
- [59:46]
Isabel Brown
Awesome.
- [59:47]
Congressman Riley Moore
Thanks.
- [59:48]
Isabel Brown
I'm incredibly grateful for people who don't care about what the backlash is. People like Jesus and Congressman Moore and President Trump and so many others who are realizing that Christian persecution is not some sort of conspiracy theory. It's not something that people are making up for. Viral clickbait. In fact, the opposite. You would be ridiculed off the Internet regularly if you do talk about Christian persecution, but are recognizing it for what it is. The single greatest targeting of a religious group on the planet today in Nigeria and in many other countries around the world at all, exactly the same time. It is so easy when we see these images of mass graves and see all of the violence continue to percolate all over the world, to start feeling hopeless and to start being rooted in despair. And as we've watched Christian persecution really start to take root in America as well, watching our friend Charlie Kirk be radically assassinated on a college campus mere moments after answering a question about the gospel and proclaiming his faith in Jesus Christ. I think it's easy for us to start feeling hopeless about the future of Christianity, even in our own country. But let's not forget that despair itself is a sin. It's the opposite of our continued faith in the promises of God where we know in the end he will win. And I love what Gia said just a few moments ago about the persecuted church being maybe the biggest light on the face of the planet and finding the most beautiful, authenticity, authentic, real faith, that when everything else is stripped away, our jobs, our home, our church buildings, we can continue rejoicing in the promises of God. To round out our episode today and to give you a little hope going into Valentine's Day, I love this clip and I want to share it with you. Of persecuted Christians in Nigeria after their church has been destroyed and burnt down and many of their congregants have been very targeted by all of this violence. They continue to worship the Lord.
- [62:05]
Congressman Riley Moore
Take off to guide us, Lord, to see us through.
- [62:16]
Isabel Brown
To give us hope in the name of Jesus, keep having hope because God is still at work. Good will out in the end. And I really do believe that. And ultimately it's all up to us to continue praying, to continue staying rooted in what is good and true and beautiful and. And to continue speaking out on those who lack the potential to do so themselves. We'll keep tracking the story as you guys continue to request. And thank you, especially to the Trump administration and Congressman Moore taking on such an important leadership role on this issue.