Flags of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic at a celebration of Saint George’s Ribbon Day in Donetsk, Ukraine, December 7, 2018.
Posted on 04/25/2019 8:18:05 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Ukraine has had a tortured political existence as an independent nation, but it has respected freedom of conscience. In 2014 the Orthodox Church, both the Moscow and the Kiev patriachates, made up more than half of the religious organizations in both Donetsk and Luhansk. But there was an abundance of other faiths and churches. For the first time in decades, people enjoyed liberty in faith.
However, that changed when the separatists took control. They sought to eliminate dissent, any hint of backing for the Kiev government. And they claimed that the Russian Orthodox Church had been oppressed, encouraging creation of an Orthodox state. The end result is that “most churches and faith-based communities in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with the exception of Orthodox parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate, are now forced to cease their religious activities or to significantly restrict them and to act in the underground.”
The persecution could hardly be worse. Houses of worship have been seized. Street gatherings are banned. Identification as a believer leads to additional punishment. Public evangelism is impossible. Literature cannot be distributed. Participation in common public activities, including hospital and prison chaplaincies, is barred.
The IRF found that abuses began as soon as pro-Russian separatists took control in April 2014. Anti-Semitic pamphlets first appeared. Then came “kidnapping and illegal imprisonment, emotional abuse, physical torture and even murders of unwelcome clergymen and believers of ‘non-traditional denominations.’” The result is “a real nightmare for local religious communities that did not experience such persecution even during the Soviet terror times. This was also accompanied by the seizure of churches and houses of worship, some of which were used as firing positions and barracks for militants, mercenaries and regular Russian troops
(Excerpt) Read more at cato.org ...
Flags of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic at a celebration of Saint George’s Ribbon Day in Donetsk, Ukraine, December 7, 2018.
Look up the author on this one. What a disgrace for Cato that they publish him.
a lot of rather apolitical, religious news sources like Baptist Press also report the same because that is the word on the ground from missionaries and others.
choosing sources which haven’t gotten caught getting paid to write stories is a good idea
In this case, the truth is the truth. Take it or leave it.
Every Ukrainian and Orthodox reader would spot the errors in two seconds, but the article is good enough for editors at national review and cato institute.
Author is such an authority on the subject that he doesn’t realize the Kiev patriarchate doesn’t actually exist.
“or that belong to the Kiev patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been approved.”
Russian regular troop barracks in seized churches, really?
So unpolitical and balanced, that there is no equivalent mention of the many seizures of Moscow patriarchate orthodox churches. That’s not journalism, that’s propaganda.
And written so carefully to avoid acknowledging functioning catholic and jewish places of worship.
Well, no one has very high expectations of the national review anymore anyway
If those Russians are so Orthodox, then why would statues of Lenin still be standing there?
Yes and Russian State Media will further back you up and claim there is no war in East Ukraine either...or troops.
The whole Ukraine-Russia situation is savage. Crimea is rape, yet the forced importation of millions of Russians after the communist revolution isn’t?
I am thoroughly confused. I know where my heart lies though.
You gonna tell everyone on FR that I think there is no war in eastern ukraine?
Are you this dishonest in your dealings with people every day/
Maybe you could apply to write for national review.
I’m sorry but did this writer intentionally compose this to sound like propaganda? I kept expecting the next sentence to be about babies on bayonets.
With all due respect, the death toll of the Ukraine-Russia conflict since 2014 stands at 13,000 and counting.
If anything, all mainstream media outlets have been dangerously negligent in their reporting of just how devastating the situation is, with or without the religious persecution dimension.
It’s the description of the religious persecution in this piece that seems particularly “over the top”. I’m well aware of the fighting in the eastern Ukraine.
The oppression of protestant sects in the Lugansk “People’s Republic” is a fact. I have family in Alchevsk that confirm it. Now that Russian passports are being issued in the new “Republics” we will soon see that it was all a purely Russian land grab.
The oppression of protestant sects in the Lugansk “People’s Republic” is a fact. I have family in Alchevsk that confirm it. Now that Russian passports are being issued in the new “Republics” we will soon see that it was all a purely Russian land grab.
Unfortunately our media is too focused on Trump collusion garbage and giving Putin the airtime he so craves, that it doesn't cover things like this.
They are in a public square, not a church.
Ukrainian, not russian.
I don’t think Christians are required to vandalize statues in public parks to gather in them.
Anyway, it is not a Christian event in that pic, St george ribbon day is more like veterans day of remembrance to appreciate ancestors sacrifice. It was started by journalist to remember WWII dead.
There are a lot of people in ukraine who are not Christian. Those sympathetic to communists are not such a small percent.
Sadly what this rise in persecution shows is that Russia refuses to acknowledge the millions of Christians who were killed due to Lenin's policies and Stalin's Gulag camps.
Hungary issues passports to Hungarians living in Ukraine on a larger scale. Almost everybody living near Hungarian border is a Hungarian national. It is not Hungarian fault that few people want to associate with the Ukrainian state. Poland and Romania are ussuing passports to their ethnics in Ukraine on a smaller scale too. There is no outrage for some reason. I don’t blame people. It is the government’s fault when half of its people decided to opt for another countries.
“” “” Sadly what this rise in persecution shows is that Russia refuses to acknowledge the millions of Christians who were killed due to Lenin’s policies and Stalin’s Gulag camps.”” “”
It did occur in 1956,then in 1991. How often do you believe they need to apologize?
Ask your family in Alchevsk about the behavior of Aydar and Azov battalions towards regular civilians in Luhansk.
The western press doesn’t like to talk about this sort of thing honestly, because it doesn’t fit the narrative.
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