Ammon News - Once again, the plight of Christians across the world gives rise to profound concern. In a number of countries, this vulnerable segment of society has once more become the target of discrimination and violence. One might have thought that humanity had already passed the stage in its history when an individual’s religious convictions could serve as grounds for criminal prosecution, dispossession of rights, ostracism, or even death. Yet reality has shown otherwise. Freedom of conscience and belief —proclaimed as one of the fundamental values of civilization — has once again been trampled underfoot.
It has long been customary to speak of the grave circumstances in which Middle Eastern Christians have found themselves: in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon. This cannot but cause us sorrow. After all, the Middle East was the original cradle of Christianity: the land where Jesus Christ and His disciples preached, where the seeds of Christian theology first took root and flourished.
Today, however — unexpected as it may seem — we are far more alarmed by the state of Christian confession in Eastern Europe, particularly in Ukraine, where we are witnessing unprecedented persecution of certain Christian communities driven by political motives.
In 2024, Kiev adopted a law prohibiting the activities of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Clergy and monastics face criminal charges; they are expelled from their churches, which are seized by individuals in military attire. Believers attempt to defend their sanctuaries. Communities are pushed to the margins, stripped of their right to enter their houses of worship and to pray where generations of their ancestors once prayed. Only recently it seemed inconceivable that such events could take place in the twenty-first century, in the very heart of the Old World. And yet, regrettably, they have become part of our new reality.
The actions of the Kiev authorities violate not only international law but also universal human rights. Ukraine declares itself a secular state, and therefore cannot intrude into ecclesiastical affairs. These are self-evident truths which, sadly, appear no longer to serve as moral beacons in the contemporary world.
In this respect, Jordan offers an example worthy of emulation. Here, representatives of all confessions and national minorities coexist in harmony. Everywhere one feels that they are united in a shared national endeavor for the sake of the country’s future and the well-being of their children. Many leaders elsewhere would do well to study carefully—and learn from—the experience of the Kingdom.