More than a dozen Christian leaders — including the executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention — sent a letter to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson April 17 urging Congress to protect religious liberty in Eastern Europe by supporting Ukraine.
“We remind Congress that religious freedom is a basic human right that must be protected everywhere,” the letter states. “We pray Congress has the courage to stand in solidarity with people of faith. Ukrainian Christians deserve the freedom to worship in peace and embrace their faith without fear.”
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“We call on Congress to provide Ukraine with the financial and military support required to defend herself, stop the bloodshed and secure freedom of religion within her borders.”
Previously, the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches made a similar appeal to Johnson in a March 26 letter, and a group of Southern Baptists and Ukrainian Baptists sent an April 8 letter to Johnson urging support for Ukraine.
‘Widespread, vicious persecution’
The April 17 letter from a coalition led by Gary Marx, president of the Defenders of Faith and Religious Freedom in Ukraine, states Evangelical and Protestant Christians in Russian-controlled areas “are being persecuted, harassed, intimidated, imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and killed — simply for worshipping God as they see fit.”
“We are pained and shocked by the widespread, vicious persecution of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine by Russian forces. Russia is waging a war against Evangelical and Protestant Christians at a scale likened to ‘cultural genocide,’” the letter states.
The letter accuses Russian forces of damaging and looting churches and of killing pastors and priests “in cold blood.”
‘We cannot stay silent’
“We cannot stay silent in the face of this evil. … We must rise together to protect and defend our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted and killed for their faith,” the letter states.
“We have a duty to stop Russia from expanding its religiously oppressive legacy to Ukraine. We implore Congress to fight back against the horrors being committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.”
Arkansas Baptist leader Rex Horne signed the letter to Johnson, joining Shonda Werry, president of the Ukraine Orphans Project; Tim Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition; and popular author Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan.
Other signers included Mike Hamlet, senior pastor of First Baptist North Spartanburg in South Carolina; Ty Childers, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Steve Durham, senior pastor of Sunset Hills Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee; Dale Armstrong, director of the American Pastors Network International; and Chad Connelly, president of Faith Wins.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.
