Fog of War

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. — Matthew 5:9

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. — Isaiah 5:20

In times of war, truth sometime becomes a casualty, as in this case with Russia and Ukraine. When religious leaders bless violence and frame conflict as holy, we must ask: Whose voice are we following?

The voice the Russian Orthodox Church is following is that of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). He has publicly framed the invasion of Ukraine as a “Holy War”, defending what he calls the “spiritual space of Holy Russia”. The ROC has aligned itself ideologically with the Kremlin, portraying the conflict as a battle against Western values and “Satanism”. Very family oriented and much more conservative than the west,

This rhetoric taps into the concept of “Russky Mir” (Russian World), a nationalist idea that sees Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia as spiritually and culturally inseparable. In other words Putin wants the old power of the old So it Union.

The ROC claims the war is necessary to protect Orthodox Christians and preserve religious unity across the former Soviet space. Patriarch Kirill has invoked historical and theological narratives to justify Russia’s actions, suggesting Ukraine’s independence threatens the spiritual integrity of the Orthodox world.

In essence, the Russian Orthodox Church has become a spiritual arm of the Kremlin’s geopolitical ambitions, using religious language to justify military aggression. It’s a sad example of how faith can be weaponized in service of nationalism. Seek God through the right glasses so that He may be found. Glasses of His true mission. To save mankind from sin.

Blessings


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