Agents from Moscow sent out on a mission to suppress, torture, and kill religious dissidents. What sounds like a story from Cold War days, isn’t. It’s been happening for the last two years in Ukraine and likely even longer in Russia itself. A recent article in Time magazine described the scale: 

There are over thirty cases of religious clergy killed and kidnapped. 109 known cases of interrogations, forced expulsions, imprisonments, arrests. 600 houses of worship destroyed. And these are just the confirmed numbers. 

According to the ideology that dominates Russia’s most powerful elements, there’s no place for anything that is not actively in favor of the Kremlin. Therefore, evangelicals, who are seen as more American than Russian, are seen as problems to be dealt with. 

It’s a reminder that opposition to Christ does not come from only one direction. Any time a state, religion, or society sees itself as the highest good and the proper holder of our deepest allegiance, oppression is sure to follow.