The Threat of Persecution in Ukraine

https://www.mnnonline.org/news/russian-invasion-brings-threat-of-persecution-to-ukraine/

The warning that a Russian occupation of Ukraine will potentially invite forms of persecution is true enough but at the same time it must be noted that Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Mission Network News (MNN), and many other missions and Evangelical organisations like Door of Hope International (DOHI) are not to be fully trusted. Some radio programs spread more false information than anything else especially when it comes to politics and certainly international relations.

For many years I have followed these organisations and find that at times they are guilty of echoing US policy lines and talking points and their reporting can fall under charges of misinformation.

In other cases, it's much more serious as these outlets are engaged in blatant disinformation and their deliberately inaccurate framing (it would seem) is tied once again to a political agenda, the quest for political affiliations and endorsements, or in other cases a monetary appeal to their North American base. The missions world is hardly alone in this. Unfortunately many Christian organisations that work internationally fall prey to this. Ignorance is not a sin per se, but it doesn't speak well of the organisation and it hardly inspires confidence in terms of making a donation. Blatant deceit which is sometimes at work (I'm sorry to say) is a real problem and reveals deeper problems and the often mammon-related corruption at work in the larger Evangelical sphere.

Returning to Russian motivations for persecution - sadly the fear is Western political and financial infiltration and unhappily it must be admitted that more than a few America-connected Evangelicals have been happy to collaborate with the United States government. Their sending or parent organisations at times work within Right-wing political circles and are connected to a larger body of interests.

This doesn't excuse the persecution but it does corrupt the testimony of these organisations. Their gospel claims are compromised. Putin's relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church is evil – a form of naked sacralism that more or less characterises the whole of Byzantine history. In some respects it's ironic that the sacralist ideal of Church and State working in concert, the very scenario that many Western Christians hope for is rather ugly when you're not the established religion or viewed in a sacral context as subversive.

On that note the Watchtower Society which is certainly unorthodox (and yet in terms of ethics is much closer to the New Testament than the Evangelical world) is certain to face persecution if Ukraine falls to Putin. In their case it's not Western political contacts or money flowing into the country that can be used to stir up trouble. No, it's something much more basic. They are viewed as culturally subversive because following the New Testament they reject Orthodox culture and sacralist givens. Membership divides families and the sacralist state (in seeking a monolithic culture) is frustrated and angered by a group that refuses to participate in public life, rejects social norms and definitions of success and respectability, refuses to vote, participate in military life and so forth. As a consequence of their faithfulness (at least on this point) the sacralist state has turned against them.

Sadly, were the sacralist hardliners to get into power in the United States their treatment of the Witnesses and other groups like the Mennonites would probably be similar.

We need to pray in general terms and also pray specifically that Christians in Ukraine don't succumb to nationalism. It's a critical moment, a chance to keep both the testimony of the Church and individuals right and pure – and the conduct of Christians during these days will say a lot depending on how it's done.

And they need to be sure to break all connections with politicised Western Evangelical groups. They don't need them and frankly these groups have more of a corrupting influence than anything else. I've seen it happen and have received reports of the same. Biblically-minded men come into contact with Western Evangelicalism, make the connections, make the money, and bring back lots of rubbish – extra-biblical innovations, gimmickry, bad traditions, capitalist values, and decadent celebrity culture.

But more likely than not, none of this will happen. Sadly, it's not hard to imagine that many of these folk will take up arms and fight and abandon the faith as they do so – regardless of whatever they profess to be doing. And while Putin's evil actions cannot be justified or defended, there should be a great deal of anger and frustration directed at the corruption in their own government and the machinations of Washington and Brussels that drove events to this crisis moment. It could have been avoided. There could have been peace. Ukraine could have stayed neutral and become a Slavic Switzerland. But no, they chose mammon, and put their trust in the guns of the West. And now, their own government demands they take up arms and fight. There are no 'good guys' in this fight when we speak in reference to governments and armies. It's evil versus evil. The fact that some factions are more evil than others doesn't change the reality. The Christian response should be the same – stay out of it and condemn them all with words of truth and light and sacrificial love.

As far as the Ukrainian Orthodox, their potential persecution at the hands of the Russian state belongs to a different category. As ethnic Christian sacralist bodies they have nothing to do with New Testament Christianity. The newly created autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will undoubtedly face the wrath of the Russian Patriarch and its clergy will probably be persecuted. It will be ugly but it's political, not spiritual. It will be interesting to watch especially as it will place the contest between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Russian Patriarch front and centre. It's a church –related issue (in the broadest sense) and thus worth following and yet it is peripheral, a kind of contest between the Dan and Bethel cults. I expect if things go that way it will be very ugly as passions and fanaticism will be stirred up. And it will be just as interesting to watch and note the response of the Evangelical Right and its further redefinitions of Christianity – tweaked to fit the political moment.

But will Russia even prevail? The war is far from over but at this point in time it doesn't look like that's going to be the way this ends. Let us hope and pray for peace and that something worse doesn't occur.