A Republican congressman from South Carolina is facing backlash from his colleagues and some Orthodox Christian leaders after he accused Russia-aligned Orthodox churches of functioning as “intelligence operations” for Russia.
The controversy began after U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., reacted to an invitation for a “Legislative Day of Action” organized by the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in a Nov. 18 post on X.
Characterizing the event as a ploy by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), which he called “not a separate religious organization but an extension of the Russian state,” Wilson urged lawmakers not to “entertain this intelligence operation,” citing Russia’s suppression of evangelism and attacks on Christians in Ukraine.
The post, which highlighted an email promoting the Nov. 18 gathering to advocate for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) — a body historically tied to Moscow but now asserting independence — drew backlash from Wilson’s own party.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who hosted Orthodox leaders during the visit, called Wilson’s response “alarming and disappointing,” arguing it ignored pleas for aid to imprisoned UOC members.
“It is both alarming and disappointing that @RepJoeWilson, instead of responding to a request for help on behalf of imprisoned Ukranian Orthodox members currently being held in Ukraine, chose to turn this into a press campaign against them,” Luna wrote on X.
“[H]is first priority is to his own country … ensuring that American taxpayer dollars are not used to imprison Orthodox Christians simply because the word ‘Russia’ appears in their church name.”
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., labeled the remarks a “rather bigoted smear,” while South Carolina State Rep. Thomas Beach, responding from Wilson’s home state, decried them as “actual Soviet stuff” that smeared local American converts.
“One of the largest OCA [Orthodox Church in America] parishes in America is in Greenville, SC. These are Americans. … Calling for the investigation of these good Christians? That’s actual Soviet stuff,” Beach posted.
In a follow-up X post, Wilson clarified that his “comments pertain ONLY to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) operating under the umbrella of the Moscow Patriarchate.” He accused Patriarch Kirill, a Putin ally and alleged former KGB officer, of advocating “mass murder and persecution of Christians.”
Father John Whiteford, a Texas-based ROCOR priest and organizer, framed the episode as part of a U.S.-fueled “persecution” predating the 2022 invasion. In a Nov. 19 blog post, he claimed Wilson’s mother was his seventh cousin and lambasted the congressman for targeting “Americans” born in New Jersey, San Francisco and Australia.
“He is not attacking foreigners. He is attacking Americans, and he is attacking them for daring to speak out about the abuse of innocent people,” Whiteford wrote, calling the war a “pretext” for escalation.
In response to what he called growing persecution against the UOC, Whiteford announced a Dec. 16 rally in Washington to affirm “religious freedom and the right to petition our government.”
Despite pushback from his own party, Wilson received support from the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (AEP), a group of influential Greek American lay leaders loyal to Istanbul-based Patriarch Bartholomew, who granted independence to Ukraine’s rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2019.
Referring to the Russian clergy as “boosters of Vladimir Putin’s unjust, immoral and monstrous war against Ukraine,” AEP National Commander Anthony J. Limberakis praised Wilson and condemned the lobbying as a “deceptive attempt to legitimize Russia’s use of the Orthodox Church as an arm of its aggressive foreign policy.”
“The meeting seeks to solicit an American blessing upon its misleading tactics, which result in the persecution of the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine,” wrote Limberakis. “The AEP expresses our heartfelt gratitude to [Wilson] for calling attention to the fact that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is facing ‘increasing pressure and persecution in Ukraine.'”
In 2024, Ukrainian lawmakers passed legislation banning religious groups with ties to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which held ties to the Moscow patriarch but ended those ties in May 2022 after Russia’s invasion began. The ban doesn’t apply to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which many global Orthodox leaders have recognized as independent of Russian influence.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s Security Council has seized the assets of clergy members and banned them from certain economic or legal activities.
Washington-based international religious freedom expert and human rights lawyer Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute contends that Ukraine has a right to restrict what it deems to be “weaponized” religious institutions whose leaders have voiced support for Russian aggression. In an op-ed for the National Review in January 2024, she noted that Moscow Patriarch Kirill is an active participant in Russia’s war efforts.
“Religion was not Putin’s primary reason for invading Ukraine, but Kirill has been his stalwart partner in the fight,” wrote Shea, who formerly served as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“In 1927, after Stalin slaughtered or imprisoned over 50,000 Orthodox religious, and even greater numbers of laity, the Russian Orthodox leadership capitulated with a ‘Declaration of Loyalty to the Soviets.’ Today, the Moscow Patriarchate continues as an active and loyal Putin ally.”
