With those updates, the Morning News has identified 189 Christian missionaries killed in the past seven years. Of them, 158 were murdered — 84 percent. Only 31 total died in accidents — and 22 of them were LDS. (An updated list of all 189 missionary deaths and causes is available online at the graphic link at the top of this story.)

During the past seven years, a total of 25 missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were identified as killed — and only three of them were murdered, including Elder Morgan W. Young, who was shot to death this week in Chesapeake, Va.

Danger can affect all faiths. Of the 189 missionary fatalities identified, 126 were Catholics; 25 were LDS; 19 were Baptists; nine were listed only as "Christian"; four were evangelical Christians; two were Wycliffe Bible translators; and one each came from the Lutherans, Mennonites, Methodists and Gospel for Asia.

Theologians say the 189 missionary deaths identified are likely only the tip of the iceberg because many deaths occur in remote areas and are not reported in the press, or are in foreign-language newspapers either not available or easily searched on the Internet.

David B. Barrett, editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates based on 30 years of research that 130 or so Christian foreign missionaries of all faiths are killed each year, and that most are not reported by the press.

He said that number goes up, depending on the definition of "missionary" — which most churches consider to be only full-time clergy serving in foreign lands. He said if all Christian workers (full- and part-time, in home countries and abroad) are counted, he figures about 1,700 of them are killed a year.

And in a larger sense, he says anyone who bears witness of his beliefs is doing missionary work. He figures based on reports collected over 30 years that a staggering 160,000 such Christians are killed for their beliefs each year, becoming martyrs (a Greek word that means "to witness").

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com