The Church, The State and The Ukraine

Social Issues

  • Author Karl Keranen
  • Published April 6, 2022
  • Word count 2,876

The Church, The State, and The Ukraine

By Karl Keranen

3/11/2001

'Fanaticism is a drug. Let loose on society, it’s like crack cocaine or alcohol, only worse. Fanatics drive through life like alcoholics driving under the influence. They think they're perfectly fine driving. They kill innocent bystanders, sometimes by the thousands or millions.

  • Dr. Jeremy Sherman stated

A religious war is justified because of religious differences;. Philosophical or religious differences may instigate a conflict, although not the only cause of all religious war. Wars are promoted by leaders who are driven to interfere with other cultures, destroy humanity's progress, and retard the development of their own civilization to maintain control. They gather power to themselves and convince their followers their visions of manifest destiny, which is ordained by God, are justified in the name of religious righteousness. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns organized by Christian powers to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land back from Muslim control. There would be eight officially sanctioned crusades between 1095 CE and 1270 CE and many more unofficial ones. In the city of Jerusalem, which was ruled over by the Muslims, all religions, including Christianity, had dwelled in the city for hundred of years, and all we're accepted and all lived in peace. Yes, the last sentence sounds like the starting of a Monty Python and the Holy Grail skit, but they were all doing quite well until the knights arrived, unfortunately.

Eight hundred years later in America, in the land of the free and the brave and the marginalized, due to religious conflicts, on August 6. 1838, about 200 people attempted to forcibly prevent Latter-day Saints from voting in the newly created county's first election. Due to a series of subsequent skirmishes between the county and the state militia, on October 27, 1838, the Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, issued the Missouri Executive Order 44, commonly known as the Mormon Extermination Order. This order led to the massacre of men, women, and children at Haun's mill in 1838. As a result of the massacre, 17 Mormon men women and children died, and 70 families left the settlement under a warrant of death.

In our modern time, issues regarding religious plaints can still be an issue in the midst of a war between religious and ethnic groups. Below I have same simplistically stated currently occurring in our time.

Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, located just east of the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians, the Arab population that hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine; Both believe that Jerusalem is there a holy city, and both feel they have been unrighteously intruded upon by the other.

Nigeria, Since the restoration of democracy in 1999, Christian governments have dominated the country at the federal level, while the Muslim-dominated Northern Nigerian states have implemented strict Sharia law. Religious conflict between Muslims and Christians has erupted several times since 2000.

Sudan's conflict began in 2003 when rebels launched an insurrection to protest what they contended was the Sudanese government's disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population. In response, the government equipped and supported Arab militia. The militias, however, also terrorized the civilians in the region and prevented international aid organizations from delivering much-needed food and medical supplies.

I have read multiple articles researching this article, and there are consistent themes that are repeat regarding the Russian Orthodox Church. They were Authoritarianism, anti-ecumenicalism, intolerance, antisemitism, religious territory, duplicity, manipulation, and desire for money and power. The Russian Orthodox Church's history is one of self-preservation, which has shaped a culture of mistrust. The goal of the church is to hold onto power and promote cultural identity. Power is considered by the ROC a tool of survival that must be skillfully used for the sake of self-preservation. The most famous ROC practitioner was Rasputin. Rasputin was a Siberian-born muzhik, or peasant, who as a teenager converted to the ROC,

and then proclaimed himself a healer with the ability to predict the future. He gained the favor of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra by stopping the bleeding of their hemophiliac son, Alexei, in 1908. Before Rasputin's murder, he was dubbed the silent ruler. His power over Tsar Nicholas was evident when he convinced Tsar Nicholas to take personal control over his armies on Aug. 23, 1915, under his advice; Nicholas became the target of blame for Russia's battlefield defeats.

After the red revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church was persecuted and marginalized until a deal was struck with Joseph Stalin. In 1943, Patriarch Sergius struck a deal with Joseph Stalin to change the policies of the state towards the church and the position of the church towards the state. The church became a supporter of the Kremlin and all the policies and policymakers. After Sergio's death in 1944, Elections were held to elected a new Patriarch, Alexius I,. After the election of Alexius I, theological monasteries were allowed to teach, and thousand of new churches we able to flourish. Alexius I died in 1970, and Alexius II was elected and continued to guide the expansion of the church through the resolving of the Soviet Union. In 2007 Patriarch Alexey II efforted a reuniting of the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church and Constantinople. Alexey II was successful in reuniting the churches, and canonical communion was restored between the Russian Orthodox Church and the church outside Russia.

The current Russian Orthodox Church’s Patriarch Krill, was elected in 2009.

Patriarch Krill shared a common vision with Aleksey II (reigned 1990–2008) and believes that the church should play a dynamic role in Russian life. Aleksey II work reuniting with Constantinople that was undon when October 11th., 2018 the synod meeting in Constantinople formally recognized the new Ukraine Kiev Metropolitan Orthodox Church. The UKMOC was now a separate autonomous church no longer under the Russian Orthodox Church. This Infuriated Patriarch Krill. Patriarch Krill called Kiev Metropolitan Church fake, a false church, and it should not exist. In October 2018 the Russian Orthodox Church severed its ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the honorary primacy of Eastern Orthodoxy, after the latter approved the independence of an autocephalous church of Ukraine; Bartholomew I, formally recognized the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church in January 2019.

To understand Russia’s, the ROC, and the war in Ukraine, you must accept through the decades the ROC blended with the militaristic nationalism of the Soviet Union. Putin believes that the greatest catastrophic event of the 20th century was the devolving of the Soviet Union. 2020, on full display, Krill, Putin, and the Military Elite dedication the Church of the Russian Armed Forces Cathedral. The massive, khaki-colored cathedral, which is in a military theme park, celebrates Russian might. Conceived by the Russian defense minister after the country’s illegal annexation of the Crimea in 2014. The cathedral embodies the powerful ideology espoused by President Vladimir Putin, with strong support from the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Krill, as reported by the media, is aligned with the state's vision, which becomes a powerful pairing to encourage the population to give their lives for a cause. Since the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill described the conflict as part of a struggle against sin and pressure from liberal foreigners to hold “gay parades” as the price of admission to their ranks. This last Sunday, March 6th., Russian Orthodox Patriarch Krill endorsed Putin’s narrative on Ukraine in a sermon. According to him, the West essentially organizes a genocide campaigns against countries that refuse to stage gay parades. I believe the State, Primer Putin is following the lead of Patriarch Krill just as most of the religious followers of Russia do.

Patriarch Krill is in control of hundreds of millions of Russians. Patriarch Krill’s social and political power runs deep in his culture. Marx said that 'Religion is the opiate of the masses’, although I don’t think he thought the most powerful man in Russia to wheeled such control would be a religious man. Cultures that have advocated their self-will to religion and the state, become the harbinger of potential energy, which can be directed towards destroying perceived rivals at the direction of the leader. The Russian culture is so intertwined with the Orthodox Church that a curious new church has been dedicated on the outskirts of Moscow on June 2020; The Main Church of the Russian Armed Forces. The massive cathedral located in a military theme park celebrates Russian might. It was originally planned to open on the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in May 2020. Unfortunately, it was delayed due to the pandemic. The Kremlin's vision of Russia connects the state, military, and the Russian Orthodox Church in a holy trinity. I believe militant religious nationalism is one of the elements in Krills and Putin's motivation for the invasion of Ukraine. It also goes a long way in explaining Moscow's behavior toward the collective "West" and the post-Cold War world order. Putin still blames the west with a dissolving of the Soviet Union.

According to the official website, "the church was designed in a monumental Russian style, organically incorporating modern architectural approaches, and innovations unique to the Russian Orthodox church creation." The façades of the building are finished with metal; the arches are glazed. The walls of the church, decorated with murals, include battle scenes from Russian military history, and Bible scripture texts. Stained glass mosaics in the cathedral's vault feature various Red Army orders, accompanied by their respected ribbons that denote their class. Many of these orders display the faces of prominent military leaders from the ‘Imperial Russian Army’. The decision to include some of the most revered Orthodox Christian saints, who had served in the historical armies of Russia, coincides with the Soviet Union's brief wave of nationalism during the Great Patriotic War. Included is the September 5th, 1943, historic meeting in the Moscow Kremlin took place between Metropolitan Alexius and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. After the meeting, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union allowed the Orthodox Church to legally function and operate after experiencing nearly two decades of severe oppression. Many churches began to reopen across the Soviet Union. The floors of the cathedral are metal. The metal has come from the melting down of Nazi trophies, weapons, and tanks that were seized from Wehrmacht forces. As visitors walk across the floors of the cathedral, it is intended to symbolize "delivering a blow to the fascist enemy."

The war at Hand:

What type of war is this? Could the type determine how it will end? I am proposing the war has been caused by hurt feeling. The unjustly perceived demotion of Patriarch Krill by Bartholomew I. Patriarch Krill and Premier Putin (Putin being Patriarch Krills Paladin) truly believe they are justified because their beliefs agree with their actions. If the ends justify the means, then this war will not end well for all involved. All and any actions are justified, and all through the war any weapon used is lawful. I am reminded by a quote from CS Lewis' "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their conscience." This quote

examines the depth the mind can justify the righteousness of its actions, blind to the great suffering cast on others. This is the dark side of philosophy that agrees only with itself to the exclusion of foreign thought.

For us to determine if there could be a softening of Krill and Putin's position, we need to better understand the basic goal of the conflict. The label Genocide has been bantered around, so we will look at this word to see if it is the end to a means. Genocide is trained, and it is something ordinary people do with proper "training" via cognitive restructuring and social conditioning. The act of killing for genocidal purposes is not a distinct category of human behavior. Instead, genocidal killing demonstrates the potential of ordinary people manipulated by proper exposure to the right teachings until they escalate into violence, but only under certain conditions. One of the major mysteries in studying both the occurrence of and prevention is understanding what makes "normal" cognitive processes, both on the individual and collective levels, vulnerable to manipulation by outsiders. Social and political conditions provide a breeding ground for that manipulation to turn violent. Patriarch Krill on Sunday the 6th. Of march 2022 seemed to know that mentioning gay pride parades and tying it with the west liberal ideals would rally his congregants to support the invasion of Ukraine. Using archetypes in the Bible, we can deduce that this is a fight between good and evil since there has been a correlation now presented to the congregants. It may turn out to be like many of the stories in the Bible, where genocide does occur. So religious ideology may be an element of this war, but will it lead to genocide? By all definitions it possibly could.

If nothing is done to persuade Russia from this thinking process, we could see something such as the Circassian genocide but much quicker. Circassia is an area along the coast of the Black Sea in Russia that the Tsarist Empire visited and saw as a strategic necessity. Russia waged war against the Circassians for a century, with more than 90% of the nation being annihilated or deported. According to some historians, this was the largest genocide of the 19th century. With up to 1.5 million Circassians being killed and exiled. Ivan Drozdov, a Russian officer who witnessed the scene at Qbaada in May 1864 as the other Russians were celebrating their victory, remarked: "On the road, our eyes were met with a staggering image: corpses of women, children, elderly persons, torn to pieces and half-eaten by dogs; deportees emaciated by hunger and disease, almost too weak to move their legs, collapsing from exhaustion and becoming prey to dogs while still alive." —

Drozdov, Ivan. "Posledniaia Bor’ba s Gortsami na Zapadnom Kavkaze". Pages 456-457.

So what we have explored should give us pause to think. We walked through the idea that this is more of a religious war, than a grab for territory, or political differences, or cultural differences. I have concluded the events we are seeing transpire in Europe are caused by the pride of a few men, whom only see other men as tools to satisfy their feelings of inadequacy; Set up by almost 70 years of Soviet influence, and the morphing of the Russian Orthodoxy to fit the Soviet mold. Unfortunately, there is only one way I see this ending unless Krill and Putin come to their senses. I think history will repeat itself.

Dr. Jeremy Sherman stated 'Fanaticism is a drug. Let loose on society. It's like crack cocaine or alcohol, only worse. Fanatics drive through life like alcoholics driving under the influence. They think they're perfectly fine driving. They kill innocent bystanders, sometimes by the thousands or millions.”

So how does the was peeder out.

According to Genocidewatch.com, there are ten identifiers of Genocide. These identifiers have been studied, talked about, officially made part of the United Nations studies, although never acted upon upstream to prevent any genocide from occurring since their adoption in the 1980s. Politicians have always been apprehensive of stating that something is a genocide during a military action. If the United Nations did by their charter that what Russia is doing was a genocide, then they would have to intervene and risk U.N. Peace Keepers. The fear of acting and risking people's lives to help the disadvantaged has always been a stumbling block because all nations see their soldiers, or citizens, as more valuable than those who are being persecuted. During the Genocide in Rwanda, a whole regamond of Marines off the coast could’ve gone in and stopped the Genocide when it started. Still, it was deemed not a valid conflict by the United Nations and by the United States government to interfere with. To risk armies and resources for someone else is not something governments do, even for the smallest genocides, because no one has the stomach for trying to be valiant, although the concept is fun to think about. So is this war a genocide? Unfortunately, we will probably only know after it’s over; and after the Ukrainians weaken Russia to NATOs liking. The world will start to turn over rocks and decide it should go to the courts. Then the courts and the lawyers will argue intent, and Genocide, and was Genocide the intent for the war, or did it just occur by chance. Unfortunately, it’s going to be rendered down to being a legal definition. It doesn’t matter how many people are murdered; the world will keep clutching its pearls, saying how horrible this is! Everyone will keep giving the Ukrainians bullets, grenades, and hand held missiles, so they can die for their country, because it is the right easy thing to do.

So see you in court.

I am a student studying philosophy at Fort Hays Kansas.

Understanding What philosophy someone is raised in give you and idea as to what they mean what they say.

borealis737@gmail.com

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