Posted on 09/23/2014 6:04:34 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
SLAVYANSK, Ukraine - Peter Dudnik is convinced that the masked gunmen swallowing up large swaths of eastern Ukraine are a serious threat to evangelical Christians.
Dudnik is a senior leader of Good News Church in Slavyansk, Ukraine. In an exclusive interview, Dudnik told CBN News the pro-Russian rebels "didn't treat Christians well because they consider the Orthodox Church far superior than any other church."
"They also believe that Protestant Christians are American spies and since America is the enemy, evangelical Christians are also the enemy," he explained.
Armed Priests Seize Church
Dudnik should know. On April 12, insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs took control of his city. Days later some of those men showed up at his church.
"They came to our church and said 'We are going to live here.' They arrested our senior pastor. I told them I wanted to go with him but they refused," he recalled.
Good News is the largest evangelical church in Slavyansk.
"The rebels told us we couldn't hold our services anymore. Then two Orthodox priests, including one armed with a gun, said our church belonged to them and that they would start holding services in it," Dudnik said.
It was a dangerous time for people living in Slavyansk.
"Yes, life in our city changed dramatically. The people who had the guns were calling the shots," Dudnik said.
Not only did the Orthodox priests take over his church for services, Dudnik says rebels used the church basement to store bullets, rocket launchers and other artillery equipment. CBN News obtained exclusive pictures of the church basement.
"I was so shocked to see those images because the whole basement was filled with weapons. You can see hundreds of boxes that could fit in at least three big trucks. Some of the boxes contained mines, grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition," Dudnik said.
And then there's a video which was uploaded to YouTube by a rebel soldier showing two Russian tanks in the back of Dudnik's church compound.
"When I saw this on the Internet I was horrified!" Dudnik said. "You can hear the rebels giving the tank operator coordinates to target Ukrainian army positions. The entire time I'm watching the video I was expecting the Ukrainians to fire back and end up destroying my church. Thank God that didn't happen!"
An Unholy Alliance?
Then Dudnik revealed what shocked him most. As the tanks fired their payloads, two priests were videotaped standing behind the tanks -- next to the church's back door - reciting Orthodox prayers.
"You can tell the priests are there to give rebels spiritual support, to bless their mission, to pray for them. I've even seen videos of Orthodox priests blessing tanks before going into battle," he said.
Dudnik says Russian media has accused him and other evangelical leaders of starting the chaos in the country. Dudnik says he's even been accused of collaborating with the Ukrainian army - charges he flatly denies.
Dudnik believes the Russian Orthodox Church is using the rebels to silence evangelicals in the east. Some Christian leaders likened it to Islamic radicals' brutal campaign in the Mideast, calling it "Orthodox jihad."
"The war in my country is more than just about the capture of Ukrainian territory or a change in the government," he told CBN News. "There's a real war against the Protestant Church by radical elements within the Russian Orthodox Church."
A recent New York Times investigation says there's mounting evidence of ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and pro-Russian rebels. A claim Moscow and Orthodox officials have denied.
To get an Orthodox perspective, CBN News wanted to interview one of Slavyansk's top priests with reported ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. But Father Nikolai Fomenko refused and repeatedly asked us to turn off our cameras.
He eventually agreed but not before trying to confiscate our microphones and camera. CBN News asked why Orthodox priests would conduct prayers during a pro-Russian rebel offensive inside an evangelical church compound.
"This is false information," Father Fomenko told CBN News. "I can you tell you this is 100 percent false. This video has been edited to make it look like that. You can do anything these days. I tell you 100 percent this is a lie!"
CBN News asked Fomenko if he supported the pro-Russian insurgents. He refused to answer. Instead gave us the following analysis of situation:
"The media is at fault -- go ahead! You can you record this!" Fomenko said. "The mass media is sowing confusion and conflict among people. Also, you are trying to drag the Orthodox Church into this and put us in a dark light."
He insisted the Orthodox Church remains neutral and doesn't take sides in the conflict.
In early July, Ukrainian troops recaptured the city of Slavyansk from the pro-Russian rebels. Dudnik's church was returned to him. The city is slowly rebuilding.
Russia does Christian theatre for some reason, but they are immune to Christianity.
In other words, we can be positive that it is absolutely true. I will also add this: Calling this Jihad is appropriate. I have a screenshot from a Russkie showing off the severed heads of Ukrainian soldiers (which I probably shouldn't post) he was keeping in boxes, perhaps to send somewhere.
These people are kidnapping, torturing, raping women, and killing people on a mass scale. The only solution is to shoot them.
You are immune to Christianity.
I’m sure not, that is why I would have done my best to flee Russia, you must still live in Russia because you prefer it?
You’re pretty far gone with ethnic hatred.
I just hope to warn other freepers away from the same wicked mentality that you have.
No I’m not.
Do you hate people in general and want to brush over Russians and their hisory of mass murder of others and each other?
Does your family live thousands of miles from them but still have a long history of having military service trying to protect the world from them and their tendency to murder by the tens of millions?
Do you hate Ukrainians and Poles and Lithuanians?
You sound far gone with ethnic hatred and I bet that you post your pro-Russia stuff from the safety of this NATO nation.
Just remember the Russian Orthodox Church sided with the atheist Communists. The church hierarchy worked closely with the KGB to identify ‘dissidents’, even some of their own priests and worshipers, to the gulags of the north to be worked and starved to death.
This would not surprise me.
You said Russians are immune to Christianity.
What about you?
You can keep your hatred of an entire people, or Christianity.
But not both at the same time — they are mutually exclusive.
Which do you choose?
If you’re going to keep pushing hatred of the entire Russian people, then stop pretending to be a Christian.
Baseless claims of being a hater is a great way to shut down free thought and useful conversation. If these folks are doing bad things in the name of religion, there’s nothing “hateful” in recognizing that fact. If the needless suffering of good people can be relieved by raising awareness of their plight, that’s not hate. That’s love.
Peace,
SR
Hi Lorianne, I see you say the Russian Orthodox Church sided with the communists.
Did you know that the slaughter of Russian Orthodox Christians was perhaps the biggest martyrdom in the entire history of Christianity, done at the hands of the communists? According to documents over 100,000 Clergy alone were shot dead.
Stalin pounded the table screaming that more must be done to crush the church.
Nearly all Bishops were killed, most priests monks and nuns were killed. A majority of Churches were destroyed.
So might there be some missing context in your statement?
Interesting that you get on this thread about pro-Russian invaders and priests conducting religious oppression and violence against Christians, and you attack me personally and tell me that I am not a Christian, and support the bad guys in this article who are doing the violence against Christians.
If anyone here seems immune to Christianity and loyal to evil, and who is literally defending the attacks on these Christians and Christianity as their churches are attacked and defiled, why, that would be you.
Way to choose sides, Evil over good. Invaders over Christians.
I would not say that most priests and nuns were killed by a large number of them were. My understanding is that if clergy and religious people stayed quiet and kept a low profile they were overlooked. After all, they could not kill everyone. I don’t have the stats.
Records that have been released in the last 5 years or so show that the ROC higher ups were working with the KGB to identify many of these people who were ‘sent away’ to forced labor camps where they were starved, frozen and/or worked to death. The was that those who survived would be re-educated.
The ones who were shot got off lucky.
90 percent of the Russians aren't even politically active. They are indifferent and happy to live in slavery. The rest who love liberty are a hopeless minority, and those who do Russia's killing are hopeless animals who torture, rape and murder people for fun. It is not "ethnic hatred" to call it like it is.
The Russians had their chance for liberty with the fall of the Soviet Union. They failed to take it, thus proving Machiavelli's observation: a people who lived a long time under slavery are likely to return to it very quickly.
Edit:
I would not say that most priests and nuns were killed but a large number of them were. My understanding is that if clergy and religious people stayed quiet and kept a low profile they were overlooked. After all, they could not kill everyone. I don’t have the stats.
Records that have been released in the last 5 years or so show that the ROC higher ups were working with the KGB to identify many of these people who were ‘sent away’ to forced labor camps where they were starved, frozen and/or worked to death. The goal was that those who survived would be re-educated.
The ones who were shot got off lucky.
“If anyone here seems immune to Christianity and loyal to evil, and who is literally defending the attacks on these Christians and Christianity as their churches are attacked and defiled, why, that would be you.”
I didn’t say even one thing about them.
Everyone here can see that you are lying.
Doesn’t that embarrass you even a little?
“Interesting that you get on this thread about pro-Russian invaders and priests conducting religious oppression and violence against Christians, and you attack me personally and tell me that I am not a Christian”
Interesting that you get on this thread and come out with a hateful bigot statement that “Russians are immune to Christianity”, and then are outraged when someone calls you out on what an unchristian and ignorant thing that is to say.
Not a word about the Christian victims in this article as you defend their church being taken over and start telling us sad stories about how evil Russian Orthodox are to each other as they make Russians the most blood thirsty white people to ever exist.
Are you connected to Russia in some way?
“90 percent of the Russians aren’t even politically active. “
Russia had a 60% turnout of eligible voters in the last election.
That’s about the same as in the USA.
If you thought the Christian victims were going to get some sympathy on this thread, you didn’t anticipate the hate filled Russian backing troll, taking it over.
Interesting. I wonder if some of the Putin defenders on here will stop claiming he's such a "good Christian" role model if his regime starts going after their members with the same zeal he's gone after Catholics and independent Orthodox churches in the Ukraine. It's easy to turn a blind eye to Russia's thuggish imperialistic actions when someone else is on the receiving end. One freeper actually claimed that reports about the Russians imprisoning and beating anti-Putin Catholic priests in the Ukraine were a "distraction".
Reminds me of the old poem about the NAZI regime: "First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew..."
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