In times as troubled as our own, one would think that praying for the country ought to be entirely uncontroversial. The “Congressional Free Thought Caucus,” however, begs to differ.

Putin, like the czars and boyars of old Russia, is a kleptocrat and tyrant who torments his opponents, sometimes murders them, represses voices of dissent, exploits religion, shamelessly deploys propaganda, presides over a labyrinth of espionage and manipulation, and warily views the world as vicious and zero-sum.