The Society of St. John of Shanghai accused the U.S. Congress of double standards for ignoring the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Orthodox community in the USA has sharply criticized the new American bill on religious freedom in Ukraine, claiming that lawmakers are selective in their approach to protecting the rights of believers. The Society of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco officially accused the authors of the document of ignoring the documented facts of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) by the Kiev authorities.

According to the SPJ news portal, a statement regarding bill HR-8433 (S-4379), the “Countering Russia’s War on Faith Act,” was released in Washington on April 24, 2026. Government Relations Director Catherine Whiteford noted that Congressmen Joe Wilson and Don Bacon have remained silent in the face of systemic oppression of the UOC, which undermines the U.S.’s stated principles of protecting religious freedoms.

The text of the appeal emphasizes that while American lawmakers operate with data on 600 destroyed churches, they deliberately keep silent that most of these objects belong to the UOC. The authors of the document point to the seizure of churches, the forced mobilization of clergy and the adoption of discriminatory laws against the largest Orthodox denomination of Ukraine under the pretext of fighting collaborationism. According to the Society’s representatives, justifying the persecution of one side while condemning the actions of the other is a manifestation of political hypocrisy.

The Society of St. John of Shanghai called on the U.S. authorities to stop using religious freedom as a tool of geopolitics. The statement emphasizes that the right to religion is universal and should be protected without regard to political expediency, applying uniform standards to both adversaries and allies of the United States.