By Walt Garlington, an Orthodox Christian living in Dixieland. His writings have appeared on several websites, and he maintains his own site, Confiteri: A Southern Perspective.
In a scene rich with irony, Tony Perkins – who never ceases to praise the ‘free’ electoral system of the United States – gave a platform to a man who is the polar opposite of that system, President Volodymir Zelensky of the Ukraine. A man whose term of office has expired, yet he continues to rule, refusing to hold new elections.
In that interview (even more irony – it was aired just days before the US midterm elections), Mr Perkins and Mr Zelensky both made a grand effort to portray the Ukraine as a paradise of religious freedom. To wit:
‘Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to critics who accuse his government of persecuting Christians, saying religious groups in Ukraine are free and that American commentator Tucker Carlson has probably never been to the country.
‘Zelensky made the remarks in an interview with host Tony Perkins on “This Week on Capitol Hill” on Saturday. Zelensky asked how Carlson could talk about religious life in Ukraine without having visited.
‘“We are very free,” Zelensky claimed, adding that Ukraine has the largest council of religious institutions in Europe and that its members meet every month at the presidential office.
‘ . . . During Saturday’s interview, Perkins said he met the council and Zelensky during an August visit, prayed for the president on Independence Day and saw religious freedom there. Zelensky replied that thousands of people take part in that work and that they respect one another.’
The charges of persecution against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church were downplayed by both of them, while Russia was smeared as the aggressor/persecutor. For example:
‘Earlier in the interview, Perkins raised accusations that Russian troops had detained and tortured Christian pastors and taken over churches in occupied parts of Ukraine. Zelensky said Russians had killed about 120 representatives of religious institutions and called the killings deliberate attacks on people and churches.’
We’re not going to defend the bad things Russia has done during this war, but claims like this are not the final word on Russia. We will return to this below.
Continuing though, The Christian Post reporter who wrote the article we’ve been quoting from, Anugrah Kumar, loses focus and makes a major blunder:
‘ . . . In 2024, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved a law banning religious bodies tied to Moscow, among them the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, or UOC, and the Russian Orthodox Church. The UOC had historic links to the Moscow patriarch and cut them in May 2022 to oppose the war.
‘Ukrainian officials accused the UOC of acting for the Russian church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, called the invasion “holy.” The ban did not cover the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which most Orthodox leaders worldwide recognized in 2019. Zelensky backed the law as a move toward “spiritual independence.”’
Most Orthodox leaders worldwide have recognized the OCU as legitimate? It is just the reverse: Only a few of the head bishops of the Orthodox Church have endorsed Patriarch Bartholomew’s Frankenstein creation in Kiev; a far greater number do not recognize it.
In Mr Kumar’s defense, he at least did what many others in the media won’t. He acknowledged, albeit with some reluctance, that there is persecution of Orthodox Christians in the Ukraine:
‘Wesley J. Smith, a critic of the law who chairs the Center on Human Exceptionalism at the Discovery Institute, said at the time that the state should not pick which church is legitimate. Kirill had condemned a 2023 vote on the measure as the work of “radical politicians.”
‘By January 2024, Ukrainian authorities had arrested 68 priests as well as Metropolitan Pavel, a UOC leader, and had placed Kirill on a wanted list. Investigators from the domestic security service had looked into dozens of priests and searched church sites.
‘Nina Shea, who heads the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, argued at the time that the crackdown might be extreme but was justified because Kirill supports Russia’s war.
‘Bob Amsterdam, a lawyer for the UOC, told Carlson in an interview that the government was targeting the church for political reasons.’
But the cheering on of Mr Zelensky isn’t isolated to Mr Perkins. Many other Evangelical Protestant leaders give him a warm embrace as well, per the Associated Press:
‘Ukraine has often been called the “Bible Belt of Eastern Europe.”
Under Zelensky, Ukraine has increasingly accepted LGBTQ visibility, with Pride marches held openly in Kiev under police protection. Russia, by contrast, has moved toward severe state-sponsored repression, banning the international LGBTQ movement as extremist, outlawing LGBTQ propaganda, and effectively eliminating the possibility of publicly organized Pride marches.
Though evangelicals account for only 2% to 4% of the population, that amounts to hundreds of thousands of people — a vibrant, influential religious presence. They have an outsized connection to an important constituency: Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States with 13 million members.
‘Baptists from both countries beseeched Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — a Southern Baptist and former denominational official — to support Ukraine aid earlier this year, even though his party’s right flank threatened to oust him if he did.
‘Pavlo Unguryan, a prominent Ukrainian Baptist leader, met with Johnson several times.
‘ . . . Southern Baptist churches have a long history of missionary work in Ukraine. After the war began, SBC representatives voted to “stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.” The SBC’s humanitarian organization, Send Relief, said it has served 2 million people in the region since 2022. And Brent Leatherwood, head of the SBC’s public policy arm, has urged continued American support of Ukraine.
‘In April, Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, signed a letter with Pyzh and other prominent Baptists, urging Johnson to support aid to Ukraine.
‘“For the most part, when I talk to Southern Baptist pastors — rank-and-file pastors — they really do want Ukraine to prevail,” Darling said. “Many of them have ties there with missions. And so, I don’t think it’s as controversial as it often appears to be.”’
Maybe it should be controversial, considering not only old news about the Zelensky regime (the dissolute past of Mr Zelensky himself and the corruption of his administration), but about recent revelations, like the network of torture chambers his administration has set up around the country, Tim Kirby reporting:
‘Kirill Budanov is Ukrainian presidential office chief and the youngest ever head of Ukrainian military intelligence, who obviously has very close ties to Zelensky. He is considered to be a terrorist by the Russian side officially and a blood enemy unofficially. On the dark streets of Kiev, speaking into the blinding lights of cameras he told the Ukrainian public about the situation around an unofficial (potentially Azov) prison near Kiev, referred to as ‘The Pit’ where military-related, i.e. force conscripted, prisoners are unlawfully being held in the finest traditions of the enlightened West.
‘New Resistance had the following breakdown of the story which concisely explains everything:
‘Several people were beaten to death in a basement used as a torture chamber near Kiev, where dozens of men were being held – this was stated in the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada).
‘The deceased are being registered as “missing.” This is happening in over a hundred other similar torture chambers across Ukraine, emphasized Deputy Dmytruk:
‘People are being kidnapped and tortured. Some are sold to military units, others to their relatives. Those who are weaker simply die from torture and the conditions of their confinement. This is how the entire “mobilization” system currently operates…
‘… Budanov says that uncovering a torture chamber in Kiev “harms the unity of Ukrainians” and to “prioritize the interests of the nation”
‘Budanov framing the exposure of violence as a threat to unity rather than addressing the abuse itself mirrors the classic dynamic of fascist states, where perpetrators view public accountability, not the cruelty itself, as the true offense.’
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Why is it that Protestant Evangelical leaders ignore or excuse things like this, or the neo-Nazi Azov brigades, etc., in the Ukraine? The answer would seem to be tied up with their worship of America. Its ideals of religious freedom/pluralism and individualism are the highest apogee of Protestantism as applied to politics. Spreading these ideals to the rest of the world is part of their effort to regenerate it in their view, for salvation comes not from being part of an authentic Apostolic Church whose Head is Christ, but to a political body like the United States. A nation whose holy scriptures are political documents like the Declaration of Independence and the federal constitution, and whose saints are political leaders and others who lived and died to promote the post-Christian ‘church.’ In a supreme inversion of Christianity, a nation whose head is the body of believers/voters.
For these True Believers in Americanism, Orthodox Russia (and to a lesser extent other civilizational states like China or Iran) is an obstacle to spreading their false religion all over the world. Weakening the Orthodox oikumene by battering the Orthodox Church in the Ukraine and Russia is very helpful for the purpose of the evangelization of the world with the Antichristian gospel of Americanism. Thus, while we do not agree with every action on the battlefield that Russia has taken in the Ukraine war, we do hope she will be victorious in the broader goal of stopping the forward progress of the Orthodox-hating US/Western Empire by defeating its proxies in the Ukraine.
But even if Protestant leaders like Russell Moore, Tony Perkins, and others want to promote a beastly regime in the Ukraine, it doesn’t mean all Protestants must follow suit. Many of them have been leaving the Protestant denominations for the authentic Christianity found in the Orthodox Church, which their pastors are intent on undermining. For those who find the actions of their leaders off-putting, we invite them to explore the Orthodox Faith of the Apostles, Martyrs, and Prophets.
As for those leaders like Mr Perkins who lionize corrupt men like Mr Zelensky, may they be remembered with the obloquy deserved by liars and toadies of dictators like Walter Duranty if they do not repent.
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