Are the Russians invading Ukraine in Jesus’ name?

Are the Russians invading Ukraine in Jesus’ name? 

Today’s news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is heartbreaking. I’ve taken a little time to try and understand what is going on in the background without simply trusting the headlines of Western news outlets. 

Thanks to Giles Fraser's article for much of the research content mentioned below. 

A Religious war?

Here in the West the harsh reality is that established church is in decline, but in the East it is thriving! Back in 2019, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, boasted that they were building three churches a day. Last year they opened a Cathedral to the Armed Forces an hour outside Moscow where religious imagery merges with military glorification. War medals are set in stained glass, reminding visitors of Russian martyrdom.

The relationship between the state and the church is much deeper in Russia than we imagine and the consequences of such relationships can be a disaster. 

Growing up in Northern Ireland, the ‘For and God and Ulster’ slogan of the Troubles brought a formidable tension that got very messy indeed.  In America, the current debate on the relationship between state and church is red hot right now. Gregory A.Boyd writes in his book The Myth of a Christian Nation, “If a pastor suggests “America is not now and never was a Christian nation, that God is not necessarily on America’s side, and that the Kingdom of God we are called to advance is not about ‘taking America back for God’”- well for some, thats tantamount to going AWOL.”

I can already sense some of you shifting in your seats to defend your position on these statements, but now is not the place to debate N.Ireland or U.S.A but to shine a light on the situation in Russia and the tragic conflict that is unfolding today.

In Russia, Christianity merges with the love of the Motherland to create a powerful brew of nationalism and spirituality.

Tony Campolo once said, "Mixing religion and State (or politics) is like mixing ice cream and manure. It doesn't do much to the manure but it sure does mess up the ice cream”. It creates a toxic brew as we are seeing once again. Make no mistake, there is much more to understand about this conflict than the one-sided rhetoric turned out by the BBC etc. You need to dig deeper. At the heart of this post-Soviet revival of Christianity is Vladimir Putin. Many people don’t appreciate the extent to which the invasion of Ukraine is a spiritual quest for him. 

A wee bit of history:

The baptism of Rus, (in Kiev in 988) is the founding event in the formation of the Russian Orthodox church. This is why Putin is not much interested in a few Russian-leaning districts to the East of Ukraine. His goal, terrifyingly, is Kiev itself.

He was born in Leningrad, a city that has reclaimed its original Saint’s name, to a devout Christian mother and atheist father. His mother baptised him in secret and he still wears his baptismal cross. Since he became President Putin has cast himself as the true defender of Christians throughout the world, the leader of the Third Rome. One reporter on todays BBC lunch time news spoke of his almost ‘Messianic’ convictions. 

So why is it all kicking off?

Had it not been for Covid I suspect this would have started 2 years ago:

Here is the messy Church politics bit: 

Yes, there are big issues with Ukraine applying to join NATO, and for Russia they have a reason to object, but underneath this is a religious intensity and some very angry church politics. In 2019 the Ukrainian arm of the family of Orthodox churches declared its independence from the Russian Orthodox Church, supported by the nominal head of the Orthodox family, Bartholomew I of Constantinople. This was seen as spitting in the face of 90 million Russian Orthodox Christians, not only in Russia but around the world (especially in Africa). At the time the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, described this as “a great victory for the devout Ukrainian nation over the Moscow demons, a victory of good over evil, light over darkness”.

Cue: Red flag to a Russian bull 

Strong words! And Putin’s response, writing only last year, “In the words of Oleg the Prophet about Kiev, ‘let it be the mother of all Russian cities’.”

It’s heating up…this all led to an historic split within the Orthodox family with the Russian church rejecting the primacy of Bartholomew, and declaring that they were no longer in communion with the rest of the Orthodox family. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, denounced Bartholomew as “an American stooge” as people took to the streets  cheering “Thank you, Putin! Thank you, Patriarch Kirill!” 

(Patriarch Kirill or Cyril is a Russian Orthodox bishop. He has called Putin “a miracle of God”).

Mad, innit!? 

So here is the tragedy and reality: A bunch of sanctions isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference. “Ukraine is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space” Putin said. That’s what this is all about, “spiritual space”, a terrifying phrase steeped in over a thousand years of Russian religious history.

Tragically, history repeats itself. Selfish power over people tries to shoe-horn God into their agenda, but the key message of Christianity sadly continues to fall on deaf ears around the world:

Mark 12:30-31

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’

Luke 1 makes it very clear who our neighbour is: everyone God put in front of you and I today. 

For the church to be a community that does not need war in order to give itself purpose and virtue puts the church at odds with nations.... The battle is one we fight with the gospel weapons of witness and love, not violence and coercion.

HAUERWAS AND WILLIMON

So how do we respond:

To clarify, I’m not saying the conflict doesn’t have political motivation,  nor am I saying Christians should stay out of politics, but there is a deeper narrative to consider. I’m just shining a little more light on the situation so that we can all examine ourselves as well as the issues between Russia and Ukraine. 

As Christians we must remember to keep the Kingdom of God radically distinct from all versions of the kingdom of the world, and we need to pray this Kingdom down everywhere. A Kingdom that calls us to ‘Love our enemies, do good to those that hate you, bless those that curse you, pray for those who abuse you.’ Luke 6:27-29

Finally, a reminder to those who want to use this article as leverage to blame God for a religious war and ‘throw stones’ at Christianity around the world, you are missing the point!  The God of Christianity is a God of peace. It is the evil within a man that starts war and the same evil that stores up weapons and uses God’s name for their own pathetic agenda.

Are the Russians invading Ukraine in Jesus’ name? Maybe but NOT with His blessing thats for sure!

Every war ... with all its ordinary consequences ... the murder with the justifications of its necessity and justice, the exaltation and glorification of military exploits, the worship of the flag, the patriotic sentiments ... and so on, does more in one year to pervert men's minds than thousands of robberies, murders, and arsons perpetrated during hundreds of years by individual men under the influence of passion.

LEO TOLSTOY’

Let’s keep praying, keep learning, keep loving and remember nothing takes Jesus by surprise. A brief read of Bible end times prophesy highlights much of what we see before our eyes each day in world events;  but also reminds us: JESUS WINS

Onwards!

Mitch