As the world witnesses a deranged Vladimir Putin, who has put the world on the brink of nuclear war it will be easy for those who profess religious faith to fall back on the old standby “God is in control” or “God has a plan” (though no-one knows what that plan is). While prayer is an indispensable aspect of a religious life, the church must wrestle with its notion of God. Sometimes the church needs to put aside its sunday school notion of God and recall the stance of biblical heroes such as Habakkuk who asked ”why does God not respond to the evil in the world”, Gideon who asked God for proof of his omnipotence as he fought against the Midianites and even Jesus who asked ”Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani”.

There have been religious statements calling for peace and all sides to deescalate. Statements which call for all sides to deescalate is eerily reminiscent of the infamous “good people on both sides” remark. As hospitals are attacked, nuclear reactors are bombarded, residents are forced to leave their homes, grandmothers and grandfathers pick up arms and men have been called to defend their country there will be a barrage of generic prayers designed to offend no-one and whether by design or default assign responsibility to end the violence to the perpetrators and the victims.

Those that call on all sides to deescalate should remember that only one side is engaged in an invasion and atrocities. Both sides are not engaging in war crimes and both sides are not creating an humanitarian crisis. These distinctions apply to the Russian government headed by war criminal Vladimir Putin. Ukraine is defending itself. The church has a responsibility to speak with moral clarity. In its call for peace church leaders need to call out Putin as the war criminal he is. While people of faith believe in redemption there is no redemption as Putin despite his coddling of the Orthodox Church will not have a road to Damascus experience. Calls for peace without an equal call for justice is empty and quite frankly obscene. Prayers for peace that do not emphasize calling upon their God for a complete victory of Ukraine over Russian forces is an empty exercise of spiritual warfare.

Throughout the centuries the church has shown its willingness to acquiesce to the status quo. The church was silent during the holocaust, debated during slavery, and scripture records religious leaders as willing to sacrifice the Christ to save themselves. The church has a tendency to fear tension. Martin Luther King’s letter from a Birmingham jail was a response to religious leaders both Christian and Jewish who in lacking moral clarity criticized King for his planned protest for social justice. Nonetheless, the church is also able to display bold leadership. During South African apartheid, Christian denominational leaders called for disinvestment of their pension funds. For example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America ordered its pension board to divest itself of stock relating to South Africa. While some pastors who valued mammon over morality sued the ELCA (Basich vs. ELCA) over this policy nonetheless, church leaders showed moral clarity. 

It is a shame that black denominational church leaders have not to date made a collective public condemnation of Russia and its immoral actions. Given its glorious history of connecting prayer with action it has been a vanguard and model of faith in action. Indeed it was the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church who hosted and counseled the Lutheran martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the terror reign of Adolf Hitler. It was Martin Luther King  who in his criticism of the Vietnam war was condemned for his remarks by national newspapers, organizations such as the NAACP and leaders such as Ralph Bunche.

Some have rightfully called attention to reported instances of African and Indian students not being allowed to leave ahead of Ukrainian residents in a clear case of racism but it would be a travesty if this becomes the main focus given the fact that many countries marched for justice for George Floyd including Ukraine. It is important that this issue be addressed by leaders including President Zelenskyy but unfortunately there will be ambulance chasers who will leverage this for their own personal self-interests and airtime on cable tv.

The church is not the only weak voice.  Nations such as China, South Africa, Mali, Mozambique, the Central African Republic, Angola, Algeria, Burundi, Madagascar, Namibia, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe have engaged in a Faustian bargain or cowardice by abstaining from condemning Russia. Other nations such as Eritrea, North Korea, Syria and Belarus in supporting Russia have displayed complete disdain for international law and morality. Sports leagues have been silent as well. With the exception of Alex Len and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, the NBA which pretends to pride itself in social justice has been embarrassingly quiet as it continues its cowardice and remains deaf and dumb reminiscent of its passivity in regards to the travesty of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs. Star athletes such as Rodger Federer and Rafael Nadal have remained quiet. Those who do not speak up because they don’t see people who look like them in the conflict should remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller “First they came for the socialist and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionist and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me”

If the church believes in its narrative about good and evil, it should be naming the evil that is occurring. Atrocities are occurring with India’s Prime Minister Modi’s campaign against Muslims, Prime Minister Abiy of Ethiopia against the Tigrays and yes the US has committed atrocities especially its ill informed invasion of Iraq. Unfortunately, the atrocities committed by the Russian government can have unintended consequences never before imagined by the world’s populations. The world is watching evil unfold in real time.

The church is obviously not to blame as the world watches what may be a slow extermination of the nation of Ukraine. While there is no doubt the church will do a lot through its various agencies to assist people who have been devastated by the Putin created humanitarian crisis, the church must also speak with a strong voice of condemnation without equivocation against Vladimir Putin. With its call for peace it can call upon the people of Russia to continue their protest and civil disobedience. It can join with voices calling on the United States to stop buying Russian oil. It can show their support for the more than two hundred pastors of the Russian Orthodox church in calling the war fraticide. It can once again call upon its pension boards to disinvest in those companies which invest in Russia. The church can also teach its parishioners about the history of Ukraine’s independence. The western church can call out how Putin in his rambling speech the night before the invasion listed as one of his goals the protection of orthodox Christianity. Putin’s co-opted aspects of the Orthodox church is why some extreme right wing evangelicals actually support Putin and the mainline church should call out those evangelicals who have sided with Putin.
On Sunday April 17th the western Christian church will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It will be joyous with shouts of amen and hallelujah but the sad reality is that while the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated it should be remembered that evil never has to be resurrected because it never dies, it just waits for a more opportune time.

The church does not have weapons of mass destruction but it does have its weapon of prayer, moral clarity and an ability to speak truth to power. The call for prayer is a safe action but should sometimes put on the vestments of the church militant, paraphrase the words of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and proclaim

God damn Vladimir Putin

God damn Sergei Lavrov

God damn those who worship Putin

and God lead Ukraine to victory

Let the church say amen