"The Foolish Things of This World" Indeed...
Beyond the faintest, ghostliest, most ephemeral or phantasmal flickering shadow of a doubt, the hands-down, bar-none, no-questions-asked, single stupidest thing it has ever been my misfortune to hear from any U.S. congress-creature, in any discussion on any topic, in any era, from any party, happened as I was researching for my second book. It was when Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), already famous for raising chants and cheers of “Pu-Tin! Pu-Tin! Pu-Tin!” at an earlier rally, publicly praised Russia for supposedly “protecting Christianity”(1) while Russia was massacring children and bombing hundreds of churches (2),(3),(4),(5) all across Ukraine. What's more ironic is that she did this at the very same hour that Russian forces were continuing their centuries-old tradition of torturing and murdering priests(6),(7) in their illegally occupied territories who refused to convert to the Russian State Church.
Nothing I have heard from a U.S. politician, from George W. Bush's claims that he had been “misunderestimated” to Barack Obama's petulant whining that he felt “constrained” by the U.S. Constitution, comes close to this baffling level of blatant reality-denial. It's not that the statement itself was anything new. Russian propagandists had been trying to frame their onslaught against Ukraine's population as a “Holy War” for some time. The Russian Orthodox Church and its Patriarch, Kirill (formerly KGB Agent Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundiayev (8)) recently issued a public declaration to the same effect, calling it a “Holy War” to defend the Katechon, Russia (more on this term later), against an attack by the West, which he claimed had “fallen into Satanism.” (9),(10) The only thing about Taylor-Greene's statement that was new was to hear it being spouted on U.S. soil where I, in my naive adherence to "American Exceptionalism," used to think the public was too smart to fall for anything so patently ludicrous. That was before I learned that there are some in America, such as proudly-professed Satanist @vp-freelance and his boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein's most @valued-customer, whose empty self-esteem is so dependent on maintaining an illusion of "edginess" that they'll swear the sky is green as long as the mainstream news has enough stories saying it's blue, all of whom will swear that they do, in fact, believe such nonsense.
I Don't Think the Word "Christianity" Means What You Think It Means, Marjorie
The quasi-theological concept of the Katechon is, in essence, an antiquated and occult idea, first put forth by an occultist "seer" named Aleksandr Dugin, which states that Russia is the only thing on Earth holding the Antichrist at bay and keeping him from taking over the world. Essentially, it came about when the post-Soviet Russian Federation needed some kind of dogmatic ideological basis to justify their aggressive nuclear posture the same way the former USSR had used Communism to do. The Russian Orthodox Church, which has always been an openly professed arm of the Russian State and has always claimed that the Russian Head of State held God-given authority over the whole Earth (a concept which is certainly not found in any Bible I've ever read, and I've read it in three languages), fulfilled this role nicely. Essentially, this theory is the Eastern Orthodox equivalent to ISIS's idea of the Quranic Caliphate: a pseudo-religious doctrine that seeks to build a State upon the idea of “God gives us the right to slaughter populations if we arbitrarily claim they work for the Devil”(11) and which legitimizes said state by rubber-stamping the name of God upon its decrees.
Kirill's embrace of this idea of an “Orthodox Caliphate” isn't new. The KGB-Agent-Turned-Priest openly proclaimed his blessing upon the war from the pulpit almost as soon as Putin announced it.(12) Images of Russian Orthodox priests performing blessing rituals over nuclear missiles, fighter jets about to be deployed against kindergartens, and soldiers returning home from acts of mass rape and torture, are everywhere. When an eight-year-old Ukrainian boy was anally raped by a Russian soldier as his bound-and-gagged mother was forced to watch,(13) Kirill blessed the soldier's “holy” work. When Russian soldiers set up torture chambers for children in Russian-occupied Kherson,(14),(15) Kirill blessed this “holy” act. When Wilmer Puello-Mota, a failed U.S. Airman on trial for possession of child pornography, impersonating an officer, obstructing an investigation and flight from justice, defected to join the Russian Army,(16),(17) Kirill blessed him, Just as he blessed the “holy” massacre of any who refused conversion to Orthodoxy (or committed the "sin" of owning a Ukrainian flag, or simply refused to give the contents of their home to Russian soldiers) in Russian-occupied Bucha, and the “holy” slaughter of hundreds of thousands by means of the “holy” destruction of the Nova Khakovka Dam, insisting that the soldiers involved in these acts had “washed away all sins” by serving in Russia's “holy” war against the “Satanic” West.(18)
Now, I'll confess that Sunday School was a long time ago for me, and it's been decades since I had to memorize and recite the Beatitudes, but I don't seem to recall reading where Jesus of Nazareth ever said “Blessed be the rapists and pedophiles, for they shall inherit the Earth” or “Blessed be they who slaughter civilians for sport, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And I certainly don't recall where “Prophets, Priests and KGB Apparatchiks” are listed as the three types of leaders anointed by Heaven.
Must be in the Apocrypha, right?
Sarcasm aside, I don't know what religion Representative Taylor-Greene thinks Russia is “defending” through these acts, (which they're carrying out on foreign soil), but it's got nothing to do with any form of Christianity I've ever encountered.
I Don't Think "Defend" Does Either
Having established that Russia has about as much right to claim they're “defending Christianity” as Nazi Germany did, it is worth examining the first half of Representative Taylor-Greene's claim: “Ukraine is attacking Christians.” Some readers may recall a time, not so long ago, when the U.S. faced a constant threat of Jihadic terror attacks. Some may also recall that the largest organization ever found to link all these attacks together was known as The Muslim Brotherhood. This organization, though it didn't openly or publicly call for acts of violence, habitually supported organizations who did, under the banner of “solidarity” with those who shared their faith.(19) As a result, they were essential in the funding and recruiting operations for Jihadic terrorist activities all across Europe and the United States. This put them under investigation by the U.S. Government,(20) and rightly so. When everyone who is trying to kill us all seem to be connected by the same organization, then that organization bears scrutiny no matter how much they try to hide behind the First Amendment's prohibition on banning religious activity. There were even calls to declare it a terrorist organization in its own right and ban its operation on U.S. soil.(21)
Now, imagine if the Muslim Brotherhood itself had been openly hostile instead of merely arranging meetings between those who were. Imagine if, rather than simply providing a place for Jihadi terrorists to meet up and cheer for each other, or train each other's recruits, instead of simply helping Jihadi terror groups meet people who could raise funds, the Muslim Brotherhood's leader had openly praised Osama Bin-Laden and helped raise funds themselves for ISIS. The MB itself never quite got to the point of calling Al-Qaeda or ISIS's wars a Jihad, but imagine if the Muslim Brotherhood had openly declared Al-Qaeda's war against the west to be a “Holy War.” Imagine if the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood appeared in public to frequently bless suicide-vests and repeatedly assure his followers that participating in a suicide bombing “washed away all sins.” How much greater would the outcry have been? I think we Conservatives, who sought to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization already, would have been, shall we say, a bit more insistent.
Okay, so let's engage in a thought exercise. What if, instead of Islam, the religion under which these attacks were carried out had alleged itself to be some form of Christianity? What if the terrorists, in order to make themselves seem more acceptable to Western eyes and generate sympathy among Conservatives, had decked themselves out in crosses and claimed to be acting in the name of Christ. What if the organization funding them and cheering for them had been called, say, the “Mormon Brotherhood” instead, or “The Seventh Day Adventist Brotherhood?” Or what if it was still the 1770's and the Archbishop of the Church of England praised the slaughter of entire townships by British Regulars, and Anglican parishes all around the colonies were taking up offerings to give to General Cornwallis, calling his work a "holy war?" Would we still have sought to ban their operations, or overlook such a ban simply because the ones blowing up our schools and homes claimed, somehow, to be Christians? I think we'd have been quick to say “you don't get to hide 'aiding and abetting the enemy' under a mask of 'religious freedom,' no matter what religion's name you stamp it with.” Don't you?
Well, in the case of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, that is precisely what is happening!
Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has openly and unabashedly done all the things I asked you to imagine if the Muslim Brotherhood had done.
He has publicly performed blessing rituals over the missiles and bombs dropped on Ukrainian civilians.
He has openly preached that he considers these acts of rape and murder to be “holy” works.
With that in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that Ukraine's leadership took measures (albeit not without controversy) to limit the operations of Kirill's church (a church which openly professed itself to be in support of Russia's war against Ukraine) on Ukrainian soil.(22)
To clarify, since 2018 there have been not one but two completely separate (and mutually antagonistic) organizations in Ukraine operating under the name “Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” There's the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and there's the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. The former is the Russian Orthodox Church's subsidiary on Ukrainian soil.(23) The latter was created in 2018 to prevent a massive swath of Ukraine's population from being torn between allegiance to their homeland and ecclesiastical allegiance to a patriarch who denies their homeland's right to exist and praises the work of a man who seeks to slaughter them,(24),(25), similar to the hypothetical situation I described above with Anglican priests in Colonial America who were still under the ecclesiastical authority of the head of the Church of England. Ukraine's legislation bans the former, that is, the Moscow Patriarchate (which is under the authority of Patriarch Kirill in Moscow). And as evidence of its necessity, they cite the number of Orthodox Churches in Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate where the ecclesiastical authority of the Patriarch of Moscow has been used to coerce Ukrainian parishioners into aiding the invading army because they think they'll burn in Hell for eternity if they don't.
Let me slam that one home again. A Russian “Church,” led by a former KGB agent, has used the authority of the pulpit over Orthodox Christians who follow its tenets, to tell Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, “aid the soldiers who are burning your homes, raping your daughters, slaughtering your neighbors, torturing your family and threatening to murder you, or you will spend eternity in Hell.” You know, just the way ISIS did. They're doing this while torturing any priest who refuses to recognize their religious authority (like ISIS did),(26) banning any religion except their own (like ISIS did),(27) and forcing the residents of occupied territories to attend services where their murdered neighbors and children are posthumously excommunicated, and then being forced to perform corvee labor for the soldiers who murdered them, all "in the name of God," or so Patriarch Kirill claims.
Does “you shall know them by their fruits” ring any bells?
Kirill's "God" Isn't Above, But Below
Kirill's proclamation of his blessing upon some of the most brutal war crimes the world has seen since World War 2, a proclamation denounced even by other priests within the Eastern Orthodox Faith,(28) makes it pretty clear that Russia is not “defending Christianity,” but rather "defending a State Cult that hides behind Christian iconography." Rampaging through a country that has never attacked you, slaughtering their population, raping their women and children, and torturing any who refuse to convert to your religion sounds less like Christianity and more like ISIS with a handful of Christian images and some highly-stylized quasi-Christian rhetoric. That's what ruZZistan has become: an Orthodox ISIS. Perhaps "RUSIS" would be a better name for them.
If one of the two countries in this war is “defending Christianity,” it's the one protecting their churches from being bombed, their priests from being murdered, and their own population from gunpoint conversions by an army of murderous fanatics bent on what they think is a “holy war.” Just as we Americans refused to allow the facade of “religious tolerance” to serve as a screen for an organization funding and cheering for mass murder (the Muslim Brotherhood) so too has the Ukrainian government refused this trap by banning this State-backed cult that supports a campaign to slaughter them (the Russian Orthodox "Church"). What the Moscow Patriarchate (led by one of Vladimir Putin's former KGB colleagues) is doing is rather openly trying to use the pretense of Christianity as a justification for genocide and the re-establishment of the Soviet Empire, and his pet priest just tipped his hand by using an openly occult doctrine to do so and killing anyone who doesn't convert to said doctrine. And you know, it occurs to me that I was mistaken before. I said that's not found in any Bible verse I'm familiar with, but I realize now that the image of a corrupted church leader using the pretense of Christianity to justify a madman's genocidal campaign to rebuild a destroyed empire while enforcing fanatical loyalty to said dictator is, in fact, found in the Bible.
What Russia's Patriarch just did, is found in Revelation 13:11-12.
Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.
He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
Now then...
...still think Russia is "defending Christianity?"
Works Cited
(1) Mordowanec, Nick. “Marjorie Taylor Greene Applauds Russia for 'Protecting Christianity.'” Newsweek. 8 April, 2024. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-applauds-russia-protecting-christianity-1888145
(2)“Russia bombs 1526 historic church in Donetsk, Moscow reacts: Here's who set it on fire.” Sot.com.al. 4 June, 2022. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://sot.com.al/english/bota/rusia-bombardon-kishen-historike-te-vitit-1526-ne-donetsk-reagon-moska-ja-k-i517607
(3) Sengupta, Kim. “‘This is the house of God’: Russian Orthodox church near Kyiv bombed by Russian forces.” The Independent. 15 March, 2022. Accessed 9 April, 2024. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/makariv-russian-orthodox-church-bombed-ukraine-b2035571.html
(4) United Nations Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. “Over 115 Holy Sites Damaged in Ukraine Since Start of Russian Invasion, Top UN Official Tells Security Council, Urging Respect for Religious Freedom.” UNHQ (United Nations Official Media). 26 July, 2023. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15366.doc.htm
(5) Arhirova, Hanna & Morton, Elise. “Russian strike on Odesa badly damages landmark cathedral of Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” PBS News Hour (U.S. State Media). 23 July, 2023. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russian-strike-on-odesa-badly-damages-landmark-cathedral-of-ukrainian-orthodox-church
(6) Rudakevych, Ivanna. "Clergy report torture in occupied Ukraine." The Tablet. 4 March, 2024. 9 April, 2024.
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/18436/clergy-report-torture-in-occupied-ukraine
(7) Voichuk, Iryna. “Russian troops kill Ukrainian priest who refused to convert to Moscow patriarchate.” Euromaidan Press (Ukrainian State Media). 17 February, 2024. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/02/17/local-priest-in-occupied-kherson-oblast-killed-by-russian-forces/
(8) “Le patriarche Kirill travaillait pour le KGB dans les années 70.” Radiofrance. 6 February, 2024. Accessed 6 April, 2024.
https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/sous-les-radars/le-bruit-du-monde-sous-les-radars-du-lundi-06-fevrier-2023-3015938
(9) Vorobyov, Timofey. “Official: Russian Orthodox leader declares a Holy War on Ukraine.” Quora. 29 March, 2024. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://onlytruthaboutrussia.quora.com/Official-Russian-Orthodox-leader-declares-a-Holy-War-on-Ukraine
(10) Васильєва, Лариса . Facebook Status. 28 March 5:11 AM. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02MJcdViqGqE178E5Ckog3t9tyLqNURqEwRcWaSLSPSFGXkaFYGXsdbMEiKssfdhrzl&id=100000973248746
(11) Engstrom, Maria. “Russia’s Worldview: Katechon and Atomic Orthodoxy.” Hungarian Conservative. 11 August, 2024. Accessed 9 April, 2024. https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/politics/russian_doctrine_katechon_orthodoxy_anomia_europe_west/
(12) Vorobyov, Niko. “Patriarch Kirill: Putin ally faces backlash after ‘blessing’ war.” Al-Jazeera. 28 March, 2022. Accessed 9 April, 2024.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/patriarch-kirill-putin-ally-faces-backlash
(13) Softie Homes (@Softie_Draws). Twitter. Tweeted 1 May, 2022. Accessed 7 April, 2024.
[~~~ embed:1520745329959882752] twitter metadata:c29mdGllX2RyYXdzfHxodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL3NvZnRpZV9kcmF3cy9zdGF0dXMvMTUyMDc0NTMyOTk1OTg4Mjc1Ml18 ~~~
(14) Erik Møse, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. "Update by the Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council."
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. 23 September, 2022. Accessed 11 April, 2024.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/09/update-chair-independent-international-commission-inquiry-ukraine-51st-session
(15) "Ukraine: Rape and torture by Russian forces continuing, rights experts report." United Nations Media Office. 25 September, 2023. Accessed 11 April, 2024.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141417
(16) Kinney, Jim. "Holyoke City Councilor Wilmer Puello-Mota rejects plea offer in Rhode Island child porn case." Mass Live. Advance Local Media LLC. `2 June, 2023. Accessed 7 April, 2024. https://www.masslive.com/news/2023/06/holyoke-city-councilor-wilmer-puello-mota-rejects-plea-offer-in-rhode-island-child-porn-case.html
(17) Panova, Elena. "В Югре американец заключил контракт на службу в российских войсках (In Ugra, an American signed a contract to serve in the Russian troops)." RGRU. 4 April, 2024. Accessed 7 April, 2024. https://rg.ru/2024/04/04/reg-urfo/v-iugre-amerikanec-zakliuchil-kontrakt-na-sluzhbu-v-rossijskih-vojskah.html
(18) Christian, Gina. “Russia’s persecution of faith in Ukraine part of ‘cultural genocide’ campaign, say analysts.” Catholic Review. 12 April, 2023. Accessed 11 April 2024.
https://catholicreview.org/russias-persecution-of-faith-in-ukraine-part-of-cultural-genocide-campaign-say-analysts/
(19) Baran, Zeyno. “The Muslim Brotherhood's U.S. Network.” The Hudson Institute. 27 February, 2008. Accessed 11 April, 2024.
https://www.hudson.org/national-security-defense/the-muslim-brotherhood-s-u-s-network
(20) Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “The Muslim Brotherhood's Global Threat.” U.S. Government Publishing Office. 11 July, 2018. Accessed 11 April, 2024. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg31367/html/CHRG-115hhrg31367.htm
(21) “Sen. Cruz: We Must Hold the Muslim Brotherhood Accountable for Funding and Promoting Radical Islamic Terrorism.” Office of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) – Press Releases. 12 February, 2020. Accessed 11 April, 2024. https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-we-must-hold-the-muslim-brotherhood-accountable-for-funding-and-promoting-radical-islamic-terrorism
(22) Klein, david I. & Casper, Jayson. "Ukraine Passes Law to Ban Russia-Linked Orthodox Church." Christianity Today. 23 October, 2023. Accessed 11 April, 2024.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/october/ukraine-law-ban-russian-ukrainian-orthodox-church-uoc.html
(23) Nikolajew, Jerzy. “Ukrainian Inter-Faith Relations after 2014.” Polish-Ukrainian Cross Border Cooperation. Torum, 2019. John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. (p. 16 & 21)
ISBN 978-83-8180-223-9
(24) Васильєва, cited in footnote 10
(25) Nikolajew (p. 22)
(26) Rudakevych, cited in footnote 6
(27) Nikolajew (p. 22 & 24)
(28) Efthimiou, Efi. “Pressure on Kirill intensifies – 400 priests call for condemnation by world Orthodoxy.” Orthodox Times. 14 April, 2022. Accessed 11 April, 2024.
https://orthodoxtimes.com/pressure-on-kirill-intensifies-400-priests-call-for-condemnation-by-world-orthodoxy/
Dear @patriamreminisci !
Rob!
I don't think state is Christian!
The nations of God and Caesar must be separated.
Indeed, I agree!
But there are people in the West (mostly on the fringe of the Republican Party) whose so badly hate the Left for mocking Christianity, that they're desperate to find a country that fulfills their ideal of the way America used to be, the old-school "God-And-Country" image. And a few on the fringe of that fringe, like Marjorie Taylor-Greene, are stupid enough to think "we've found that country! It's Russia!"
Putin knows this, and he has carefully crafted his public persona to feed this narrative. I too was fooled once upon a time.😅