Violence, Persecution Spread in Eastern Ukraine

Christianity Today ^ | 5/6/2015 | Christianity Today

[lodi90]

Last June, pro-Russian separatists raided a Pentecostal church service in eastern Ukraine and kidnapped four Christian leaders. Some 35 days later, authorities discovered the bodies of the four, who had been tortured, in a mass grave.

The killings in Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine, galvanized Christian outrage. Nearly a year later, pro-Russian separatists still dominate the eastern region and non-Russian Orthodox religious groups face many hardships, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Forum 18, a religious liberty news service, also reports new concerns about religious freedom in Crimea, the former Ukrainian autonomous republic, annexed by Russia in March 2014.

[lodi90]

More evidence of one party fascist state Russia bringing misery to its neighbors.

[elhombrelibre]

Sadly, some of Putin’s supporters on FReeRepublic claim to be Christians who are concerned about the fate of their Faith. In reality, Putin uses his control over the Russian Orthodox Church as a cover for his violence and a rationale for his personal power grabs. “Putin the Paladin of the Faith.” Well, at least he’s not Obama, his fans on FReePublic say, as if that’s the only two options for people who are conservative, lovers of liberty, believers in the rule of law over the rule of man, and advocates of constitutional government. It’s disgusting at times to hear these crimes of Putin’s justified by otherwise good people who fail to think through the nature of their arguments.

[9thLife]

Seems like it’s open season the world over.

[lodi90]

Yep. Bolshevik co-opting of the Moscow Patriarch has been going on for nearly a century. Sad to see a new generation of dupes fall for the same old KGB filth playbook tactics.

[Ivan Mazepa]

There’s little Christianity in the Russian Orthodox Church. KGB links, hate and violence towards other Orthodox, Catholics, protestant and evangelical Christians, poisonings and assassinations, ridiculous corruption - nothing is redeeming about it.

And they’re hard to kick out. A Ukrainian village pulls money together to build a church. Communists come, say the church is now Russian Orthodox. Got a problem with it? there’s a prison camp in Siberia that specializes in those kind of problems. Time passes. The villagers unanimously vote to make their community church a Ukrainian one. But now, they can’t even enter it because there are 30 Russian bikers they’ve never seen before with steel pipes at the entrance arguing the finer points of freedom of religion. Ok. Send 20 Ukrainians to clear them out? That will have Russian nutcases screaming about religious persecution by “fascist junta” (here on FR as well)