[Asec] Corrected link to theme issue on Ukraine

[Mark Elliott]

Friends, family, and colleagues, My mistake in the link for the OPREE
Ukraine theme issue. It should be:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox/edu/ree/. It is corrected in the text
below.  Mark Elliott


*Religion as a Weapon in Russia’s War against Ukraine*

*Mark R. Elliott*

            Russia today is a quasi-religious fascist state presuming
legitimacy on the basis of its morally compromised Orthodox Church. That is
the sense of the phrase, “clero-fascist [or clerical-fascist] state”
employed by Father Leonid Kishkovsky, ecumenical officer of the Orthodox
Church in America, upon his return from Moscow following the enthronement
of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kyrill back in 2009. Paul Mojzes, founding
editor of *Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe *(*OPREE*),
recalls Father Leonid’s pained “clero-fashist state” observation in his
introduction to* OPREE’s* just-released theme issue on Ukraine (vi-vii;
https://digitalcommons.georgefox/edu/ree/*).* Isn’t it ironic that 13 years
ago a leading figure of American Orthodoxy would already have perceived his
confession’s support for Putin as a prop for a fascist autocrat who today
claims he must rid Ukraine of non-existent Nazis?

            In this same *OPREE* issue I have been given the opportunity to
plumb the depths of Patriarch Kyrill’s complicity in Putin’s fratricidal,
Cain-and-Abel war against Ukraine (“Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine; What’s
Religion Got to Do with It?”). An accompanying “Chronology of
Church-Related Public Protests against Russia’s War on Ukraine” will
require additions almost daily because of the continuing flood of
faith-inspired laments, appeals, and petitions against Putin’s criminal
assault on Ukraine. Isn’t it also ludicrous that a homicidal kleptocrat in
the Kremlin, with a power-obsessed patriarch in tow, poses as protector of
Christian values against a decadent, secularizing West? So to “save”
Ukraine from its Western “temptation” Russia’s military, I argue, “is about
the destruction of a democratic, religiously tolerant state that is home to
arguably the most robust Christian population of any country in Europe.”

            Also in this Ukraine theme issue, *OPREE* co-editor Beth
Admiraal points out, “There are other religious dimensions to this crisis,
too many to enumerate adequately in this space.” She is right, and in time
each one she notes should receive its due:

·       “Religious groups…actively working within and outside of Ukraine to
help citizens who are fleeing Ukraine;”

·       “faith organizations…leading vigils for peace and raising funds to
support Ukraine;”

·       “the Jewish faith of Volodymyr Zelensky [which] has become a part
of his patriotism;”

·       and sadly, “some evangelical leaders in America [who] have come out
in support of Putin’s invasion” (“Religion and Russia’s Invasion of
Ukraine,” xi).

        *OPREE* co-editor Admiraal also highlights an article treating a
new religious movement that is frequently the target of state and societal
discrimination. In this instance Jehovah’s Witnesses are the “litmus test
for religious freedom in a given state.” The conclusion of four Ukrainian
scholars is that members of this much-maligned religious minority, “with
few exceptions…have been largely unhindered in practicing their faith in
Ukraine” (Admiraal, xi; Roman Bogachev *et al*., “Activities of the
Jehovah’s Witnesses Organization as a ‘Litmus Test’ for Religious Freedom
in Ukraine”). The authors tellingly contrast Ukrainian tolerance with
Russia’s treatment of Jehovists where they have been banned since 2017 and
where over 600 have been prosecuted for practicing their allegedly
“extremist” faith. If anything, in the Russian puppet states of Luhansk and
Donetsk in eastern Ukraine treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses—and in fact all
non-Moscow Patriarchate believers—religious discrimination has been worse
than in Russia proper. Dr. Admiraal and I agree that it is ominous to
contemplate the level of disregard for freedom of conscience that will
obtain if Donbas-style persecution expands into additional territories
Russia may manage to wrest from Ukraine (Admiraal, xii; Elliott, “Putin’s
Invasion,” 40-42). Lord have mercy.


-- 
Dr. Mark R. Elliott, Editor Emeritus
East-West Church Report
Asbury University
One Macklem Dr.
Wilmore, KY 40390
859-858-2427
emark936 at gmail.com
www.eastwestreport.org
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