“Silence In The Face Of Evil Is Itself Evil. God Will Not Hold Us Guiltless. Not To Speak Is To Speak. Not To Act Is To Act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Name the city is famous for:
Paczli - a Polish pastry (or pastries; we’re not sure).
Vernors ginger ale
Faygo sodas
Bumpy cake – a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting “bumps”
Superman Ice Cream – a swirl of vanilla, blue raspberry, and cherry ice cream
Stumped?
Try…. The historic home of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Still stumped?
Try… The home of the Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons and Lions or the “Big Three” – General Motors, Stellantis and Ford, and Motown.
Yup! Detroit is the historic hometown of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
And that’s our starting point.
Writing in Social Compass (February 1977), Ken Jubber, who specialized in the sociology of religion, observed:
"Viewed globally, this persecution has been so persistent and of such intensity that it would not be inaccurate to regard Jehovah's Witnesses as the most persecuted group of Christians of the twentieth century."
On April 20, 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization should be closed down and no longer allowed to operate legally in Russia. The rule affected more than 100,000 Johovah’s Witness worshippers across Russia and stood as serious contradiction to any Russian claim to respect and protect religious freedom.
On January 9, 2020, Human Rights Watch reported:
“’For Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, practicing their faith means risking their freedom,’ said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ‘There is nothing remotely justifiable about this. It’s time for President Putin to ensure that law enforcement stop this harmful persecution.’”
More than two years after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, National Public Radio broadcaster Scott Simon (“Weekend Edition Saturday,” March 30, 2024) observed:
“The Russian government considers Jehovah's Witnesses extremist. Devout may be a truer word. Witnesses do not believe in the authority of the state, any state, above God. They refuse to participate in war, or a draft, or even vote….”
On May 20, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at the Jesuit Fordham University released “Religious Communities Under Pressure: Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia 2022-2025,” noting:
“The persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses represents the most severe and numerically significant case, with 143 members currently imprisoned in penal colonies and detention centers – far exceeding the number of incarcerated religious figures in all anti-war cases combined. This ongoing campaign, which began in 2017 when the group was labeled and ‘extremist organization,’ has subjected hundreds of believers to searches, interrogations, and legal prosecution, demonstrating the Russian state’s established pattern of targeting religious communities that operate outside state control.”
Without being sarcastic, we’ll observe that Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev (also known as “Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus’ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church” has a unique message for Russian soldiers sent to fight in Ukraine: Soldiers killed in action are absolved of their sins.
What a great deal!!!
On June 3, the bipartisan think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported:
“Russian fatalities and casualties have been extraordinary. Russia will likely hit the 1 million casualty mark in the summer of 2025 - a stunning and grisly milestone. Overall, a high of 250,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine, with over 950,000 total Russian casualties, a sign of Putin’s blatant disregard for his soldiers. To put these numbers into historical perspective, Russia has suffered roughly five times as many fatalities in Ukraine as in all Russian and Soviet wars combined between the end of World War II and the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. In addition, Russian fatalities in Ukraine (in just over three years) are 15 times larger than the Soviet Union’s decade-long war in Afghanistan and 10 times larger than Russia’s 13 years of war in Chechnya.
That same day, The Guardian reported:
“While precise wartime casualty figures are notoriously difficult to verify, the independent Russian outlet Mediazona has identified the names of more than 111,000 Russian military personnel killed, using official records, social media obituaries, and images of tombstones. The outlet believes the true death toll is significantly higher.”
Citing South Korean sources, the Associated Press reported (April 20, 2025) that “North Korea had suffered 4,700 casualties, including 600 deaths, on the Russian-Ukraine battlefronts….”
Does Kirill’s absolution from all sins apply to them?
Just asking.
Unfortunately, there’s a flipside to the Patriarch’s version of plenary indulgences: ROC priests, non-ROC religious leaders and laity who oppose Putin’s bloody war - even by daring to pray for peace – are in BIG TROUBLE!
In July 2025, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued an update (“Russia’s Persecution of Religious Groups and FoRB [Freedom of Religion or Belief] Actors”) on Russia’s “intensified” enforcement of its laws against “perceived offensive expression toward religion, religious texts, and religious leaders.” The commission had previously noted that under international human rights laws “freedom of religion or belief includes the right to express a full range of thoughts and beliefs, including those that others might find blasphemous.”
That’s not the case in Russia.
Open Doors, a self-described “evangelical Christian ministry,” maintains The World Watch List – an “annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.”
The organization’s January 2025 report “Russian Federation: Persecution Dynamics” explains:
“Since the military mobilization in 2022 [following the invasion of Ukraine], the government has consistently expanded the mobilization age bracket and has jailed and fined individuals for refusing to participate due to conscientious objections…
“After the launch of the attack on Ukraine on 25 February 2022, Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe. Due to this, victims of human rights violations committed by the Russian Federations lost protection under the European Convention on Human Rights. The country’s diplomatic isolation from those states which had been supportive of human rights and civil society in Russia, made it increasingly difficult for Russian human rights defenders, religious activists and civil society organizations to engage with the international community. It has also meant that international monitoring in Russia has been cut…
“When the instigators of persecution are state agents at any level (which affects practically all Christians – even critical ROC [Russian Orthodox Church] church leaders and ordinary Christians)… It is risky to speak out against them. State agents can act with impunity and – since the judiciary in Russia is not independent – any complaints will result in detention or fine. This has only become worse in recent years….”
Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center offered a “detailed analysis” of “over 100 cases of systematic persecution targeting religious voices opposed to the war in Ukraine.” The study explores
“…how Putin's regime has weaponized civil society institutions to crush dissent, transformed the Russian Orthodox Church into an instrument of repression, and created an exportable model of authoritarian control that threatens religious freedom worldwide.”
Drawing on “multiple reliable sources” to present “a conservative estimate of the actual scope of religious persecution” since the onset of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the report describes
“a systematic campaign of religious persecution in Russia targeting faith leaders who speak the truth regarding the war in Ukraine… a coordinated effort to silence religious voices of conscience through an escalating pattern of administrative, criminal and ecclesial pressure.”
While acknowledging the decades-old persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the report asserts:
“Religious communities remained among the last spaces for independent moral discourse - a situation the state now appears determined to undermine.
“The theological and ecclesial significance of this crisis extends beyond politics. What we are witnessing is a fundamental challenge to the prophetic vocation of religious communities - their calling to speak moral truth regardless of political consequences. As Christ taught, we must
‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's"
(Matthew 22:21).
“The current persecution directly targets believers' ability to discern and uphold this crucial distinction….”
In reporting, “a systematic pattern of increasing pressure on religious communities and individuals who refuse to support Russia's military actions, or who maintain pacifist positions,” the Fordham report offers specific examples:
“8 religious leaders and Christian activists were labeled as ‘foreign agents’ without any substantiated evidence, subjecting them to severe political, civil, and financial restrictions that fundamentally undermine their ministry and basic rights…
“At least 38 Orthodox clerics went before ecclesiastical courts (17 were defrocked, 14 suspended from ministry, 7 retired from active service)…
“Evidence indicates significant coordination and cooperation between the state and ecclesiastical authorities both in Moscow and in the Russian regions. This dual persecution system represents a distortion of Orthodox canonical tradition, which was never intended to enforce political conformity but rather to preserve the integrity of faith and moral witness…
“A new restriction implemented with calculated timing on April 21, 2025 - the day immediately following Orthodox Easter - further prohibits participation in ‘any educational and enlightenment activities.’ This sweeping prohibition effectively criminalizes core religious functions including preaching, catechesis, spiritual direction, and pastoral counseling…
“Despite constitutional provisions for alternative service based on religious beliefs, evangelical Christians Vyacheslav Reznichenko and Andrei Kapatsyna were sentenced to 2.5 and 2.8 years respectively for refusing military service on religious grounds. This represents a particularly cynical mechanism for punishing religious pacifism, as it forces believers to choose between their faith commitments and criminal penalties…
“Digital surveillance permeates religious persecution, with nearly 60% of documented cases stemming from or including online expression - social media posts, published sermons, or even private messaging. This pattern reveals the extensive monitoring of religious figures' digital communications by state and ecclesiastical authorities. Even a single social media post becomes sufficient grounds for initiating the full machinery of persecution against clergy and believers…
“We must also recognize Alexei Navalny as a Christian who died as a result of his moral stance. Though primarily known as a political figure, Navalny was an Orthodox Christian who spoke openly about how the Gospel inspired his resistance to injustice - convictions that led directly to his imprisonment and death in February 2024.
‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’ — Tertullian
“These deaths mark a grim escalation in the human cost of persecution against those whose conscience, informed by faith, leads them to speak truth to power. These modern witnesses remind us that the cost of discipleship remains high for those who refuse to compromise their faith…
“A particularly troubling aspect is the central role that fellow parishioners play in initiating cases against clergy. Evidence reveals a pattern of ‘vigilant parishioners’ filing formal complaints about anti-war sermons, prayers for peace, or even private conversations. This revival of denunciation practices bears a striking resemblance to Soviet-era tactics that encouraged citizens to report ‘anti-Soviet’ statements by clergy, creating environments of suspicion within religious communities.”
Under the heading “The Critical Role of Parishioner Informants” the Fordham report offered an especially chilling “Case Study.”
“Priest John Koval in Moscow in January 2023 was reported by his own altar server for changing just one word in the mandatory prayer, replacing ‘victory’ with ‘peace.’ This betrayal by someone who worked closely with him during liturgical services demonstrates how the culture of informants has penetrated even the most intimate religious spaces. The altar server reported him to church authorities, who first suspended and later defrocked Koval.”
The Fordham report opens with the admonition
Throughout Church history, moments arise when Christians must choose between comfortable silence and costly witness. Since February 2022 Christians in Russia stand at such a crossroad. The evidence presented in this report documents a systematic campaign against religious voices of conscience in Russia - a campaign that threatens not merely individual believers but the very integrity of religious life and witness.
‘What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.’
Matthew 10:27
“These words of Christ remind us that truth disclosed in private must sometimes be proclaimed publicly, especially when those proclaiming it face persecution. This report represents such a proclamation.
“As Christians concerned with both spiritual truth and empirical reality, we must approach this situation with both pastoral sensitivity and analytical rigor.”
No matter what some in the Trump White House and the Kremlin have said in the past, no matter what they say in the future, the truth is simple: Putin’s war is “an exportable model of authoritarian control that threatens religious freedom worldwide.”
Putin’s war against Ukraine is a war of aggression. It is a war against religious freedom. It is an unjust war. It is sin.
And Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus’ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, cannot wipe away that sin with holy water, candles, bells, incense and absolution.