Last year I posted a couple of blogs concerning the support being given by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. We explained how, years ago, Putin made a personal promise to the highest leaders of the ROC: Moscow Patriarch Kirill; Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov; and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokomansk. Putin pledged to those men that if they would publically support his authoritarian oligarchic regime, and refrain from criticizing him or it, he would grant the ROC a special nationalist status and suppress other faith groups (especially evangelicals). The ROC leaders quickly agreed. (Read that earlier blog here: http://www.marketfaith.org/2022/04/vladimir-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/ .)
This alliance of church and state should not be surprising. The Russian Orthodox Church, in the pre-Soviet Union era of Russian history, was closely associated with the imperial ambitions of the Russian Czars. During the Soviet era of Marxist Communist Party rule (1917-1991), which was officially atheist, the ROC, like all other religious groups, was strongly restrained. However, after the fall of communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ROC has regained a prominent place in Russian society.
Now, in the nearly one year since the invasion by Russian troops in Ukraine, the ROC has kept its pledge to support Putin and Putin has kept his promise to favor the ROC. In the past few weeks some Russian government officials have made reckless threats that, if they lose the war in Ukraine (which they are currently doing), it could lead to a wider nuclear world war.
ROC leaders have echoed that threat to some extent in their public sermons. In fact, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was recently quoted as saying, “We pray to the Lord that he bring the madmen (i.e: NATO, the USA, Ukraine, etc.) to reason and help them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world.” The end of the world!? And who is trying to destroy Russia? Nonetheless, Kirill assured his listeners that God will save Russia and punish its enemies. “Today is an alarming time,” state news agency RIA quoted him as saying. “But we believe that the Lord will not leave Russian land.” That’s pretty audacious and scary words coming from someone supposedly leading a Christian body. Apparently he believes God is on their side. Let’s pray he realizes the error of his ways and calls Putin to repent and end his bloody war.