Two members of the United States House of Representatives, part of the government’s legislative branch, have proposed House Resolution 958, which includes condemning Russia for the unjust imprisonment of our brother, Dennis Christensen. The resolution is the latest rebuke by government officials against Russia for persecuting our brothers and sisters because of their religious beliefs.

Brother Christensen was arrested and imprisoned in May 2017 simply for participating in Christian meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The resolution, introduced by Representatives Eliot L. Engel and Michael T. McCaul on May 8, 2020, urges the Russian government to immediately release Brother Christensen.

“Dennis Christensen, a Jehovah’s Witness and a Danish citizen, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment on February 6, 2019, in a decision condemned by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,” states the resolution, “as part of the broader pattern of the Russian government ‘engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.’”

On May 25, 2020, Brother Christensen will have spent three years in prison. He is one of 32 of our brothers and sisters imprisoned in Russia, 9 of whom have been convicted and 23 are in pretrial detention. An additional 18 fellow believers are under house arrest. Since 2017, Russia has raided nearly 900 of our brothers’ homes. As a result, 331 Jehovah’s Witnesses are facing criminal charges.

Government officials in the United States and Europe have strongly criticized Russia for its religious persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Regardless of whether House Resolution 958 is adopted and effects change or not, we know that Jehovah will continue to help our brothers and sisters in Russia to endure with joy. We look forward to the time when Jehovah will do away with all those “framing trouble in the name of the law.”—Psalm 94:20-23.