Redbrickbear said:
whiterock said:
RMF5630 said:
Harrison Bergeron said:
Redbrickbear said:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/zelensky-vs-the-ukrainian-orthodox-church/
[The UOC has opposed the invasion and supported the Ukrainian cause. So why is the government calling them Russian agents?]
"On January 2, an Orthodox church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, was covered in blood. In the morning, a man burst into the church and turned the crucifix over, broke several icons, threw banners on the floor, and finally cut the priest's throat with a razor. A few days earlier, in the city of Chornomorsk, parishioners of an Orthodox church only at the last moment disarmed a man who was about to stab the priest with a knife. In the village of Chechelnyk, a man in camouflage brutally beat a priest right on the street, breaking his nose and shouting curses.
There is a backstory to the above. Stand-up comedians at Kvartal 95, the film studio co-founded by now President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, recently released a video where they obscenely insulted Orthodox priests and publicly wished them death. The video is a news parody in the style of The Daily Show that mocks the church and refers to its clergy as "Russian agents." Many experts see a direct connection between the appeals of the actors and the recent violence..."
"If you think that the United States stood aside while this was unfolding, you are mistaken. The State Department and politicians of both parties carried out work to promote the new church. Two months before the creation of the OCU in 2018, Filaret and Epifaniy met in the United States with Joe Biden, who declared his gratitude for their work. State Department Ambassador for Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and special representative for Ukraine Ambassador Kurt Volker declared their support for this project.
Immediately after its creation, the OCU received its first official congratulations from the State Department and the U.S. Embassy. At the same time, Ambassador Brownback and the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyattwho was also ambassador to Ukraine from 2013 to 2016visited church leaders and Mount Athos to urge them to recognize the OCU. Both Ambassador Volker and Secretary Pompeo met with Epifaniy many times. All facts indicate that the promotion of the OCU was part of U.S. policy in Ukraine."
"Zelenskyy's secret police have raided monasteries across Ukraine, and even a convent full of nuns, and arrested dozens of priests for no justifiable reasons whatsoever and in clear violation of the Ukrainian Constitution, which no longer matters. And in the face of this, the Biden's administration has said nothing. Not one word. Instead, they continue to push to send Zelenskyy more tax dollars."
So, the whole world, besides Russia and Putin's followers, turn a blind eye to this. The guy comes to Congress and not one major news outlet has pictures, a story, an interview question? Or, are they part of SPECTRE too? Is Robert Shaw training somewhere to steal the Lektor?
It's the RUSSIAN Orthodox Church. Which has been a vocal supporter of Putin and the Russian cause in the war. And it's not some contrived threat to national security we're talking about. It's a hot war for survival.
Have to cut Zelensky some slack here.......
He has banned opposition political parties, now harassing/attacking religious denominations, his security forces are arresting and holding without trial people they dislike...some times disappearing them for good.
How much slack does Zelensky get when his side is supposedly the one "fighting for democracy"?
when foreign armies are camped on your own sovereign territory lobbing artillery rounds at your cities, you are afforded a fair degree of latitude to keep the enemy from undermining your country from within. And in the Ukrainian scenario, centuries of Russian control means layers of Russian influence, fifth columns, sympathizers, even entire institutions who have Russian sympathies.
The Russian Orthodox Church has officially blessed the Russian invasion and damned near views Putin as a saint. That it's taken Ukraine this long to sequester the problem is actually a sign of restraint, given the context.
In one sense, this war is a civil war between the eastern slavs. Kiev was the first flowering of the Eastern Orthodox world in the 9th century. A couple centuries later, the center of power evolved to Novgorod (later Moscow). And for the ensuing thousand years, Eastern "Slav-dom" was a Russian thing. That is the context of Russian policy toward Ukraine. Ukraine is to Eastern Slavdom what New England is to America - the cradle. To see it aligned with western Europe is highly discordant with Russian worldview. That is easy to understand and sympathize with. unless one is Ukrainian.
If Ukraine is to survive, things Russian must be deracinated.
War is a hard thing. Winning requires doing a lot of hard things.
You have to do those hard things to earn the right to work on democracy.
If you don't, the Russians will get to tell you how the cow ate the cabbage.
