re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Random tweets

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The Ukrainian brigade "Azov" released footage from positions recaptured from Russians in the direction of Donetsk

As a result of the operation, the unit has consolidated its hold on the liberated positions.

The video shows the elimination of a Russian soldier approaching the recently recaptured positions.

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LINK

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In the Vovchans`k direction Ukrainian forces ccontinue to have success. One of the more important things of the situation here, is Ukrainian aircraft are operating more freely with the destruction of most Russian air defenses in the area

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LINK

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That said, I'd vote for his embalmed corpse over Trump.

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Really , give me your zip code. I'm sure there are qualified professionals in your area who can help you before you spiral further into unrecoverable mental and psychological distress.

At this point I'm worried about the well being of the people around you.

The Russian persecution of evangelical Christians is a story that has been largely suppressed in America. As a Baptist who knows other Baptists who've worked in Ukraine, it's heartbreaking to me. The WSJ did a story on it two weeks ago that I haven't posted yet.

LINK

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Religion has long been central to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to halt Ukraine’s westward drift and bring it under his sway. His army is now using violent methods to roll back religious freedoms in occupied areas while bolstering the one faith that openly backs his invasion: the Russian Orthodox Church.

Evangelical pastors have suffered disproportionately. Dozens have been abducted, tortured and exiled from their hometowns, say Ukrainian and U.S. officials and clergymen. After his arrest by the Russians, the deacon of one Pentecostal church in Kherson region was found dead in a forest together with his 19-year-old son in the fall of 2022.

At least 30 Ukrainian clergymen of various faiths have been killed and 26 held captive by Russian forces since the start of the invasion, according to a February report by the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, an international body that promotes protection of religious minority groups.

Religious analysts and evangelical pastors say the crackdown is part of Moscow’s broader push to assert dominance over every aspect of life in occupied areas.

“They have to control everything,” said Dmytro Bodyu, a Ukrainian-American Baptist pastor held captive for eight days in March 2022 by the Russians, who demanded he pass over all his contacts in the U.S. “If you’re a Christian, you are freethinking, and can discern what is good and what is bad. In a country like Russia, they don’t like that.”

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Russia’s crackdown on Ukraine’s evangelicals is a more extreme version of a policy promoted since at least 2016, when the Kremlin banned most forms of missionary work and moved to shut down or co-opt evangelical parishes.

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Not mentioned in the article is that after the 2014 takeover of parts of the Donbas, Russia forcibly closed all 42 Baptist churches in Luhansk and declared the Ukrainian Baptist Union (their association of churches -- similar to a denomination) a "terrorist group."

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When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine adopted one of the most permissive laws on religious freedom of any country in Europe, allowing the Moscow-controlled Orthodox Church and other Christian faiths to thrive once again. “The religious landscape in Ukraine became intensely diverse, and remained so,” said Cyril Hovorun, a Ukrainian-born theologian.

The Soviet collapse left a spiritual vacuum that prompted legions of missionaries from across the world to visit Ukraine, primarily from the U.S., the former Cold War rival. Thousands of Ukrainians flocked to Protestant churches across the country.

The country became a center of evangelical training, with summer camps and proselytizing on radio and TV. Popular science magazines that previously promoted the atheist Soviet worldview began publishing excerpts from the New Testament. Pastors held packed-out concerts at soccer stadiums in eastern Ukraine, with some gathering upward of 20,000 people who swayed their arms in unison as they sang about God.

“The fear of America disappeared, and it happened very fast,” said Hennadiy Mokhnenko, who joined the Baptist church, was ordained a pastor in 1992, and converted a Soviet-era cinema in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol into the Church of Good Changes. “The doors opened from the East and the West, and a breeze passed right through Ukraine.”

The new churches became part of the social fabric that kept communities together, with priests acting as counselors to parishioners suffering from mental health problems or drug addiction. Mokhnenko’s Church of Good Changes soon branched out into a network of religious charities active in Ukraine and Russia, including a group that helps orphans and homeless children assimilate into society.

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Serhiy, a member of a Baptist church in Melitopol, was detained by the Russians in early May. They asked him: “What God do you worship?” Each time he gave an answer they didn’t like, they beat him. They tortured him for 20 days, breaking his leg and ribs with repeated blows and using a metal device that delivered electric shocks. The Russians tore up a Bible his wife delivered to Serhiy’s jail, but he continued reading it to other prisoners, who he said found solace in its words.

Brytsyn ultimately fled Melitopol. Several months later Russian-installed officials in the city published images of what his church had become. On its facade, the occupiers had painted the faces of dead Russian fighters and slogans predicting a swift victory for Moscow. The building that once hosted Christian concerts now hosts awards ceremonies and propaganda events, rebranded as the regional culture ministry.

For Brytsyn, whose century-old church was twice taken over by the Soviet government in 1939 and 1946, its latest reinvention as a monument to Russia’s war is evidence that the past has come full circle.

“The devil has not changed his face, or his goals,” said the pastor, who now helps other evangelicals persecuted in occupied territory build lives elsewhere as part of the Mission Eurasia nonprofit. “They’ve learned nothing from history.”

Some evangelical churches continue operating after pledging fealty to the Russians. Others, like Brytsyn’s church and parishes in the villages surrounding Melitopol, continue to meet in secret at followers’ houses, scrambling to hide their Bibles and their instruments as soon as they hear a dog bark or a gate creak open.

One evangelical minister who now leads clandestine prayer services at his home said: “We have gone underground.”

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All of this religious persecution is because of NATO? Come on. No way. It’s the Commie way.

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All of this religious persecution is because of NATO? Come on. No way. It’s the Commie way.

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And yet, Tucker and Putin's other fanboys managed to twist the narrative such that many on the American Right perversely think that Ukraine is the one oppressing Christians!

And that's simply because the Russian Orthodox Church actually uses its priests in Ukraine to spy for Russia and undermine the Ukrainian war effort. Tucker and his ilk conveniently ignore that Patriarch Kirill was a KGB agent (duh, that's the reason that he was made Patriarch), and the Russian Orthodox Church actively supports the Russian invasion, with Kirill actually calling the invaders "martyrs."

The Ukrainian parliament has been considering a bill to further restrain the ability of these Russian agents to spy for Russia and spread Russian disinformation, but they have repeatedly postponed it, so as not to be seen as hurting "religious freedom."

By the way, Ukraine will have its National Prayer Breakfast tomorrow -- the first one to be an official government function. The NPB is a big deal in the US, and some prominent American evangelical GOP leaders are expected to be in attendance, though names have been kept secret.

If you want to read a lefty freaking out about this and talking about "theocracy," you can do so here.

And those are the guys who made it back alive. This one didn't:

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The Russian persecution of evangelical Christians is a story that has been largely suppressed in America. As a Baptist who knows other Baptists who've worked in Ukraine, it's heartbreaking to me. The WSJ did a story on it two weeks ago that I haven't posted yet.

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There are a lot of reasons why things are so bad in the West right now, but it is not a coincidence that conditions are worst in Protestant countries, and generally much worse. In the West it is only the Catholic states that have been able to defend their own cultures to some degree, and look somewhat traditional.

The schismatic and heretical Protestant movements shattered the unity of society, and made it impossible to defend any sense of orthodoxy and healthy values. How can you defend it when you’re always one argument from splitting in two again. The answer is, you can’t. And it’s how you end up with Unitarians. And that’s is the major reason why social decline is so much worse in Protestant states. What has happened to the Episcopalians and now the Methodists is the logical and inevitable end to the process as well.

The creation of the OCU goes back to Langleys attempt to break Ukraine from the Orthodox world, and so they’ve created this farcical apostate church which isn’t considered a real church by the people, because it’s a transparently political creation. And that’s why the services at these new churches are so badly attended.

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As a Baptist who knows other Baptists who've worked in Ukraine, it's heartbreaking to me.

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I don’t say this to offend you or anyone, but you belong to a heretical church, I use to as well, and they’re defending their faith and their society.

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Putin kills the Russian economy

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5% GDP growth, low unemployment, and wage growth that’s well above inflation. They’re doing okay.

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Russian mortgage rate is 18% yet people here complain about inflation and 7% mortgage rate.

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They have one of the highest home ownership rates in the world, it’s around 85%. They also have one the highest second home rates, because of the dacha tradition. Although these are really simple country houses.

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There are a lot of reasons why things are so bad in the West right now, but it is not a coincidence that conditions are worst in Protestant countries, and generally much worse. In the West it is only the Catholic states that have been able to defend their own cultures to some degree, and look somewhat traditional. The schismatic and heretical Protestant movements shattered the unity of society, and made it impossible to defend any sense of orthodoxy and healthy values. How can you defend it when you’re always one argument from splitting in two again. The answer is, you can’t. And it’s how you end up with Unitarians. And that’s is the major reason why social decline is so much worse in Protestant states. What has happened to the Episcopalians and now the Methodists is the logical and inevitable end to the process as well. The creation of the OCU goes back to Langleys attempt to break Ukraine from the Orthodox world, and so they’ve created this farcical apostate church which isn’t considered a real church by the people, because it’s a transparently political creation. And that’s why the services at these new churches are so badly attended.

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Tldr

You aren’t a Christian. That requires practicing Christian acts. All you do is spew medieval anti semitic tropes and lament the loss of Stalinism. Scientology is closer to the spirit of Christianity than anything you preach.