Winston
Churchill once described Russia as a "riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside
an enigma." Churchill's words ring true today as we see Russia,
almost mysteriously, emerge onto the world stage as a military adversary; a
geopolitical rival; and a vexing riddle that nobody in Washington, D.C. has quite
figured out. Obama got it wrong when he mocked Mitt Romney's
concerns that Russia was a menace to world order, calling the Russians a "regional
power."
D.C.-based
Russian foreign policy experts have a dismal track record as
prognosticators. Mr. Leon Aron, in Foreign Policy magazine,
writes: "Every revolution is a surprise. Still, the latest
Russian Revolution must be counted among the greatest of surprises. In the
years leading up to 1991, virtually no Western expert, scholar, official, or
politician foresaw the impending collapse of the Soviet Union.
After
the Soviet Union's collapse, the conventional wisdom was that Russia would
become an inconsequential, backward nation easily ignored by the developed
world. But somehow it didn't work out that way.
We now
see Vladimir Putin on CNN gleefully
pushing a button launching a hypersonic nuclear missile into the stratosphere,
claimed to be "unstoppable" and capable of reaching any city in the
United States. Rather than fading away, Russia is confronting the
United States, and the two countries have returned to a simmering Cold War-like
state of coexistence. Princeton professor Stephen Cohen says that
for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, a nuclear war
threat is real.
A greater mystery than Russia's
newfound political prominence is Russia's sudden role as the world's
leading defender of Christianity. It seems inconceivable that former
KGB operative Vladimir Putin now chastises Western
nations for abandoning their Christian roots. Putin says:
The
people in the West are actually ashamed of their religious affiliation and are
indeed frightened to speak about them. Christian holidays
and celebrations are abolished or neutrally renamed as if they were
ashamed of those Christian holidays. With this method one hides away
the deeper moral value of theses celebrations. And those countries
try to force this model onto other countries, globally. I am deeply
convinced that this is a direct way to the degradation and primitivization of
culture. This leads to a deeper demographic and moral crisis in the
West.
Putin
has not only talked the talk of defending Christianity; he has backed up his
talk with military intervention. Russia has
repeatedly made the assertion that his country's move into Syria to support the
embattled government was, in part, motivated to protect Christians sects who
were victims of genocide at the hands of ISIS.
The disturbing irony of the spiritual
awakening in Russia is the sudden embrace of religious bigotry by United States
media and many powerful members of Congress who represent this country with the
motto "In God We Trust." "The dogma lives loudly
within you," opined Senator Feinstein, unhappy that the person she was
speaking to was Catholic. Senator Kamala Harris went in for her own
kill shot by expressing her outrage toward a judicial nominee for being a
member of a Catholic volunteer organization that would dare to have religious
beliefs.
This is
Bolshevism – bigotry, plain and simple. Left-leaning
intellectuals in this country would scoff and such labels – they are the "tolerants,"
after all, the ones with those awful neighborhood signs about "welcoming
all" – but then so did members of the Russian Revolution, who had
great slogans as well before they started killing priests and blowing up
churches.
Today, the United
States government is taking away religious freedoms and moving forward into the
future with a toxic relationship with people of faith. Major
corporations have gathered their torches and pitchforks alongside government
and joined the rebellion. Facebook censors images of the
crucifix; TV hosts call Christianity a "mental disorder" and
everybody laughs; major universities hold classes mocking Christianity with
topics like "Christian privilege." Pro-life organizations
are labeled as "hate groups."
In contrast, the Russian government is
funding the restoration of Orthodox churches with public dollars. Russian Orthodox
bishops are regularly seen at military installations conducting religious
ceremonies, chanting prayers, carrying icons of the Virgin Mary, and madly
tossing holy water everywhere. At a ceremony at the opening of a new Russian Orthodox
cathedral, Putin said, "It is impossible to imagine Russia without
Christianity." The Christian renewal taking place in Russia is
a real event with incalculable geopolitical consequences, so it is imperative
that USA policymakers understand Russia's total commitment to
defending its culture, a culture that begins with Russians' belief that
Christianity is the foundation of their country.
Putin
two weeks ago expressed his outrage with secretary of state Pompeo for
interfering in a major dispute between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the
Russian Church. Pompeo said, "This political move is not good news for religious
freedom. This is a clear and flagrant violation of
freedom of religion. The split could turn into a heavy dispute, if
not bloodshed." In July of last year, at a ceremony celebrating
the 1,030th anniversary of the adoption
of Christianity, Putin said: "Christianity was the
starting point for the formation and development of Russian statehood."
The table has been
set. Today we see two nuclear powers with tenacious commitments
to their own righteousness – one spiritual, the other
secular. Ominously, it seems that Russia and the United States are
on some inevitable path toward conflict guided by an invisible, sinister force
determined to usher in the apocalypse.
Stephen
Ryan is the author of the Amazon bestselling political thriller The Madonna Files and
is the founder of MysticPost.com, a Catholic online news magazine.
Source: American Thinker
