Last month, the Ukrainian parliament moved one step closer to a ban on the ancient Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which was previously under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Despite a formal split in May 2022, allegations of Moscow’s influence on the church have persisted, and religious leaders the country claims pose a threat to the government have been arrested.
While the news barely made headlines in the U.S., Tucker Carlson, who previously covered Kyiv’s persecution of Christians on his Fox News program, did take notice.
“The Ukrainian government has now banned an entire Christian denomination, and virtually no one in the United States has said anything about it,” Carlson said in a “Tucker on X” monologue.
He probed the issue further with U.S. attorney Bob Amsterdam, who is representing the church.
“The politicians in Ukraine, including perhaps the president, want to take the populist vote of those behind this new church and therefore feel it is in their political interest to destroy this ancient branch of Christianity,” Amsterdam said, referring to how the government has decided the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which became official in 2018, should replace the UOC.
“I absolutely can tell you that the damage that has been visited on the leadership of this church (the UOC), including five year jail sentences for 75-year-old clerics, just astounds you that in the 21st century, a country that wants to join the EU would ban a religion, let alone an ancient Christian form of that religion.”
He argued the “charges are on their face political charges” that violate the country’s constitution.
“There is no basis under the Ukrainian constitution, or under international law or the laws of war or Ukraine’s own resolution in terms of limited rights during the war for the banning of a religious denomination,” Amsterdam said.
The attorney explained how the ban on criticism of the Ukrainian president or his government has stopped much of the world from understanding the truth of what’s occurring in the country regarding this issue.
Still, enough has been reported that U.S. and Christian leaders should be taking a more forceful stand, Amsterdam argued.
"It is shocking to me that a country such as the United States, with such strong Christian leadership, I thought, could allow this to go on,” he said. “Because what the Ukrainians try to tell you that it’s the same religion, this OCU church, is the same religion. But in fact, my clients, the church I represent, their prayers are in Church Slavonic, their liturgy is different. And I can tell you as somebody who is not a youngster, were somebody to come into my church or synagogue and change the language and change the leadership, I would be horrified.”
“There’s nothing more intimate than one’s relationship to his God. And this intervention for callous political purposes is unacceptable and it is shameful that not only Christian, but all leaders of all denominations have not spoken out against the Ukrainian government,” he continued.
Carlson pointed out that all Americans should have an interest in this story given U.S. taxpayers are "effectively solely" funding Ukraine's "functions of government and national defense."
Ep. 34 Of all of Biden’s crimes, backing the Ukrainian government as it throws priests in jail may be the most revealing. pic.twitter.com/ZCVV4uPzs9
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 26, 2023