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Ukraine Names Baptist Pastor as Acting President
Christianity Today ^ | 2/24/2014 11:07PM | Timothy C. Morgan

Posted on 02/26/2014 6:05:08 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com

Oleksandr Turchynov, a well-known Baptist pastor and top opposition politician in Ukraine, took office on Sunday, Feb. 23, as acting president after the Parliament voted to oust President Yanukovych.

The collapse of the Yanukovych regime follows three months of growing protests that exploded in last week's violence, which claimed more than 88 lives. Many of these protests took place in the Maidan, or Independence Square in the capital city of Kiev.

At issue was Yanukovych's decision to move Ukraine into a much closer economic and political relationship with Russia. This move triggered outrage among younger Ukrainians who wish for their nation to cast its lot with the European Union. After the vote to oust him, Yanukovych fled Kiev and is reportedly in Crimea, an autonomous republic in southeast Ukraine. According to media reports, the new government has charged Yanukovych with murder and has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Monday night in Kiev, Turchynov, 49, spoke publicly for the first time since taking office as acting president. According to an unofficial translation, he said, "Unprecedented cruelty and brutality of the dictatorial regime did not stop citizens. They selflessly gave their lives to defend their rights—and won.

"Our first task today is to stop the confrontation, to regain control … to ensure peace and tranquility, to prevent new victims, local rivalries and lynchings. Another priority is returning to European integration. We must return to the European family. We recognize the importance of relations with the Russian Federation, and are ready for dialogue with the Russian leadership to build relations with this country on a new, truly equitable and good-neighborly basis, which implies recognition of accounting Ukraine's European choice."

(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: oleksandrturchynov; russia; ukraine; ukrainebaptist; viktoryanukovich; yuliatymoshenko

1 posted on 02/26/2014 6:05:08 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

Is this guy a “real” Baptist preacher (in the conservative evangelical sense) or a Jesse Jackson or Jimmy Carter that just calls himself “Baptist?”


2 posted on 02/26/2014 6:11:45 PM PST by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com
Another priority is returning to European integration.

Considering how the sodomite EU treats Christians and imports millions of decidedly anti-Christian Muslims, is this such a hot idea, huh, pastor?

3 posted on 02/26/2014 6:12:41 PM PST by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: Sola Veritas

wow...Ukraine sounding better every day...wonder if they have their refugee policy developed yet...


4 posted on 02/26/2014 6:14:30 PM PST by magna carta
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

The Ukrainian baptists who live down the street from my dad had both of their minister parents slaughtered under communism. They escaped to here carrying babies. They should be hopeful. but, here they vote for democrats because that is who their ministers say they should vote for. V shares my birthday a half world away. I stopped going over at Christmas because they vote democrat.


5 posted on 02/26/2014 6:20:17 PM PST by kvanbrunt2
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To: Sola Veritas

I don’t think there are any fake christians in the Ukraine that survived the communists.


6 posted on 02/26/2014 6:22:35 PM PST by kvanbrunt2
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To: Sola Veritas

take it for what it’s worth from wikipedia.
In August 2007, Turchynov replied to the accusation that his stance on same-sex marriage is typically conservative, “I do not agree. If a man has normal views, then you label him a conservative, but those who use drugs or promote sodomy – you label them a progressive person. All of these are perversions.”[23]


7 posted on 02/26/2014 6:25:58 PM PST by kvanbrunt2
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To: Sola Veritas

You sure know nothing about the struggles of the church in communist countries and their efforts to survive.

More’s the shame because you reveal your ignorance with the question


8 posted on 02/26/2014 7:32:08 PM PST by Nifster
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To: Count of Monte Fisto

Oh that’s right. It is so much better to be aligned with Putin who seeks merely to destroy all churches...

this silly notion that the EU is the same as or worse than the Soviet Union (formerly known as Rusiia) is frustrating beyond all belief


9 posted on 02/26/2014 7:33:24 PM PST by Nifster
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To: kvanbrunt2

Good...I hope he stays first a preacher and then a “politician.” Staying true to his first call will make him better at the latter.


10 posted on 02/26/2014 7:44:05 PM PST by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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To: kvanbrunt2; Nifster

“I don’t think there are any fake christians in the Ukraine that survived the communists.”

Sadly, there are “fake” Christians everywhere...even in the Ukraine. However, I was not questioning his Christianity...but if he was a conservative evangelical as the name Baptist should imply. I did some checking and found the European group of “Baptists” he associates with and part of the larger Baptist World Alliance....from which my Baptist associates (Southern Baptist Convention) withdrew because they had started drifting to the left and accepting as members a LIBERAL scism group that broke off from the SBC. Typically anything out of “Europe” will be liberal when compared to conservative evangelicals (like the Southern Baptist Convention) found in America.

Now does this make this pastor a bad guy? I don’t know, and certainly hope not. I suspect that while his faith in the Lord Jesus is sound, he may not necessary have a “conservative” view of scripture. But again....I have no information to base that upon except guilt by association.

I do pray he can help restore order in the Ukraine and all the better freedoms we have here (religious the most important - although Jan Brewet et. al. aren’t helping that).


11 posted on 02/26/2014 8:16:50 PM PST by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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To: Nifster
this silly notion that the EU is the same as or worse than the Soviet Union

Its worse because so many so-called conservatives can't see the sodomite EU as the anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-free enterprise, anti-Western Civilization, anti-freedom Globalist monster that it is.

12 posted on 02/27/2014 10:44:36 AM PST by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: Count of Monte Fisto

Oh that’s right and the Soviet Union (formerly know as Russia) is so pro-Christian, pro-family, pro-free enterprise, pro Western Civilization....

Common use some logic. Not everything is ‘morally equivalent’. Didn’t we learn that from folks like Jimmy Carter who started with the nonsense of ‘the moral equivalent of war’.


13 posted on 02/27/2014 12:38:37 PM PST by Nifster
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To: Nifster
Oh that’s right and the Soviet Union (formerly know as Russia) is so pro-Christian, pro-family, pro-free enterprise, pro Western Civilization....

More than the sodomite EU.

14 posted on 02/27/2014 12:49:56 PM PST by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: Count of Monte Fisto

pick up the phone Alex is waiting to talk with you


15 posted on 02/27/2014 1:36:34 PM PST by Nifster
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