BEING HUMAN

#BeingHuman. Why We Speak… Friends, our voices rise not from privilege but from wounds… When American people (sorry for being “specific”) ask me why we focus so intensely on Ukraine while “conflicts” rage in Congo, Sudan, Myanmar, Gaza (we do not forget about Israel, no), and other countries suffering from the wars, they misunderstand our purpose… We speak precisely because we were once silenced…

From 2014 to 2022, many Western voices urged our Ukrainian evangelical church and theological leaders to quietude… “Don’t provoke, do not speak bad against Russia, don’t look up…” they cautioned. “Don’t escalate…” As bombs fell and territories were annexed, they counseled patience and “moderation.” We learned then what silence costs… as the betrayal of the prophetic voice of the Church…

We speak of Ukraine not to elevate our suffering above others’… but to illuminate all suffering that convenient politics and international church structures often render invisible…

Russia’s war against Ukraine is not merely about Ukraine. It reveals a world being carved anew between powers that trade in human lives. What happens here foreshadows what will be permitted elsewhere… in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia… The map is being redrawn with blood, and the question hanging in the air is this: Who will bear witness?… Who…?

Will the Global Church choose latent silence? Will it practice strategic amnesia? Will it sacrifice prophetic truth on the altar of geopolitical convenience and dominating “peacetime theologies”?

We, from Ukraine, speak because we have seen what happens in the shadows where cameras don’t reach and headlines don’t venture… We have witnessed theology bending to the Russian empire and pulpits growing silent when speaking might cost something…

Our concern for Congo isn’t abstract… Our prayers for Sudan aren’t performative… Our grief for Myanmar isn’t theatrical… Our anguish over Gaza isn’t political… We understand that all oppression is connected… and that each instance where power crushes vulnerability follows the same terrible logic.

The Global Evangelical Church stands at a crossroads… Will it be the conscience of humanity or its chaplain? Will it bless the powerful or protect the vulnerable? Will it speak truth to power or power’s convenient truths?

We Ukrainian theological leaders choose to speak because silence has become unbearable… Because the comfortable distance from suffering is not a luxury Christ’s followers can claim… Because what happens to the body of Christ in Congo, in Sudan, in Myanmar, in Gaza, and yes, in Ukraine, happens to us all…

We refuse to accept a world where some suffering matters and some doesn’t… Where some deaths merit outrage and others merely statistics… Where some refugees deserve compassion and others suspicion…

Our voice is not about Ukraine alone. It is about what kind of world we, as “Christian Christendom” with dehumanized Christian values, will inherit when these “conflicts” end, what kind of Church will emerge from these trials, and what we will tell our children when they ask: “Where were you when the innocent suffered?”

And from Ukraine and with some partners, we will respond: “We were not silent. We will not be silent. And we call the Global Church to stand with all who suffer under the shadow of violence… not with convenient words, but with costly solidarity…. yes, with costly collaboration…”

In Christ’s name, we speak… Peace be with you and keep your children away from war, as we enter another cherry night that will bring more deaths, injuries, destruction, and damage… while the right of power banns us from just peace… Taras D, Albania (ICETE 2025)