Southern Baptist leaders have written to US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a member and former official of their denomination, urging him to support Ukraine in Russia’s war against its Eastern European neighbor.
“As you concentrate on efforts to support Ukraine, we humbly ask that you concentrate on the plight of Christians,” wrote the leaders, who either have ties to the SBC’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary or to Ukrainian Baptists. “The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to focus on Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war.”
The letter, sent Monday, was signed by Daniel Darling, director of the seminary’s Land Center for Cultural Engagement; Richard Land, the namesake of the middle and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC); Yaroslav Pyzh, president of Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary; and Valerii Antoniu, president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine.
Johnson is a former trustee of the ERLC, serving when Land—who is also a former commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom—was its president.
In February, the Senate passed a $95 billion package for funding Ukraine, Israel and other allies, with $60 billion earmarked for Ukraine. But Johnson, whose tenure as House speaker may depend on his handling of the bill, has yet to schedule a House vote on the funding measure.
Conservatives within the House who oppose funding for Ukraine on “America First” grounds, led by US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have threatened to trigger a vote to remove Johnson from office.
“Speaker Johnson has a very difficult job straight away, perhaps essentially the most difficult a speaker has ever had,” Darling said in an interview with Religion News Service. “I feel he does in his heart wish to support Ukraine.”
But Darling noted that Johnson, whose office didn’t immediately reply to the letter, is attempting to balance the differing views of House members.
The Baptist leaders told the speaker of their letter: “We consider that God has put you on this position ‘for such a time as this.’”
Darling said he hopes the letter will function an encouragement to Johnson while also ensuring that he and others are aware of spiritual liberties being violated in areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied since 2014.
“Evangelicals and Baptists are being mistreated within the Russian-occupied territories significantly,” he said. “We’ve lost probably 300 churches. Pastors are really struggling over there, wherever Russians have taken over.”
Hannah Daniel, the ERLC’s director of public policy, told RNS in an announcement that Southern Baptists have long opposed authoritarian regimes’ prohibitions of spiritual freedom.
“The resolve of our lawmakers to face with Ukraine has wavered, despite the brutal persecution of Christians, particularly Baptists, the kidnapping of youngsters, and the destruction of churches due to Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” she said. “Congress must look past any hesitation or obstinance and overcome division to swiftly pass such a package.”
Globally, religious freedom experts are concerned in regards to the war’s effects on Ukraine’s faith communities.
“The Russian military has indiscriminately bombed churches, monasteries, kingdom halls,
mosques, synagogues, cemeteries, and other religious sites,” said Nury Turkel, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a quasi-governmental watchdog group, at a hearing in March, “and the Russian soldiers have abducted and tortured religious figures due to their leadership role.”
Darling said he and the opposite signatories realize “the main points need to be worked out” but they selected to write down to Johnson due to their desire to see continuing congressional and US support of Ukraine, at the same time as Baptist entities have spent tens of millions in donations to support refugees now living outside the war-torn country.
“He has said he’s committed to doing it so I feel he’ll,” Darling added. “But we desired to encourage him as well and never just be one other person just throwing stones at him but to say, hey, we’re supporting you, we care about you.”
