In India, mainline churches stress justice and non-violence, while evangelicals and Christian Zionists favor Israel
Global Christian unity has been a major collateral victim of Operation Epic Fury — launched on Feb. 28, triggering a raging missile war and an oil blockade — which is seriously impacting the global economy. While there is a united call for a ceasefire and peace, condemnation of the assassination of Iran’s supreme political and spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes remains muted.
The 86-year-old cleric, who had ruled since 1989, was killed along with his wife, a son, and key officials, including the defense minister and Revolutionary Guards commander.
US President Donald Trump justified the action as necessary to dismantle Iran’s threats and liberate its people, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as neutralizing an existential danger. The conflict, also called the Ramadan War, had by March 12 claimed over 1,300 civilian lives and triggered Iranian missile attacks on Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv. The assassination of Iran’s leader amid ongoing diplomatic talks was perhaps intended to foment regime change through a popular uprising. That, however, did not materialize. The act has drawn condemnation even from some Western countries for violating international law and sovereignty norms. The UN Charter bans such extrajudicial killings, reminiscent of the 2020 drone strike on Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
India is among many countries facing a fuel crisis that has spread across Asia, marking the first major impact of the war. Yet India is among more than 125 countries that have criticized Iran’s counterattacks on US bases in Gulf countries and its strangling of oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz.
Within Christianity, reactions reveal a deep rift.
A small group of evangelical leaders, closely tied to the Trump administration and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, have endorsed or rationalized the assassination.
In contrast, Catholic, mainline Protestant, Anglican, Episcopal, and Orthodox leaders have advocated diplomacy and peace.
Outside these politically aligned voices, support for the assassination is absent in the Christian world.
Instead, there is a unified emphasis on moral accountability, the sanctity of life, and just war principles, rejecting unilateral violence.
Despite allegations of repression and persecution under two Ayatollahs following the overthrow of Shah Reza Pahlavi in the Islamic revolution, Christianity — both overground and underground — has thrived, with an estimated 800,000 believers in a population of 89 million.
Leading the opposition is Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, elected in 2025. His Angelus addresses focus on Catholic teachings about the sanctity of life and the principles that wars must be defensive, proportional, a last resort, and must spare civilians — standards these strikes violate, especially given their timing during negotiations.
In his March 1 Angelus, he said, “Stability and peace are not built through mutual threats or with weapons that sow destruction, pain, and death. But only through reasonable, authentic, and responsible dialogue. Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I make a heartfelt appeal to the parties involved to assume their moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”