Unworthy Launch Week: Persecution in Russia – and in Our Own Lives
Back when I was editing Unknown, I began researching Baptist missionaries in Russia. (You know, needing to make sure that what I’m writing about might actually exist and all of that.) This was especially important when thinking about Gabe’s parents, who would’ve been serving in Russia during the post-Soviet years, when things in Russia were pretty crazy.
And then I came across this information that spoke of modern-day persecution in Russia. (I wrote a blog post about this a few months ago during Unknown’s launch week, so if you’d like to check that out, it’s here.)
It all began with the “Yarovaya laws,” which really had a lot more to do with online data rather than religious freedom.[1] However, parts of the law proceed to attack missionaries and threaten them with fines. Many smaller denominations, such as Baptists, are pressured by these laws, along with other groups such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.[2]
Of course, when I learned about this, I knew I had to touch on this in Unworthy. Although the situations in the book are highly fictionalized (and there’s way more added drama that is completely a figment of my overactive mind), I think it’s so important to remember our brothers and sisters in Russia that are being attacked. Currently in America, we don’t have widespread persecution that comes upon us by laws.
But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Indeed, the Bible promises, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12.) This might come in different ways—maybe not a literal jail cell, but an order not to assemble in church. Or maybe not from a law at all, but from nasty words someone say about you. A missed raise at work because you speak against ungodly practices. A friend’s disdain because you lovingly speak against their sin.
Or maybe it does mean an arrest where we’ll be torn from our friends and family, and we will have to suffer the consequences for following the Lord.
Terrifying, if you ask me.
Yet since our Savior paid it all, aren’t we willing to give up our lives as living sacrifices—our reasonable service?
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
[1] https://www.lexology.com/commentary/tech-data-telecoms-media/russia/gorodissky-partners/yarovaya-law-and-new-data-storage-requirements-for-online-data-distributors
[2] https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-charges-baptist-pastor-in-a-sign-that-its-religious-clampdown-could-be-spreading/29901315.html
