Posted on 10/01/2014 3:04:12 AM PDT by huldah1776
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.
***Snip***
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbn.com ...
Link to NYTimes article...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/world/europe/evidence-grows-of-russian-orthodox-clergys-aiding-ukraine-rebels.html?_r=0
Not really.
Evangelicals are viewed as American spies at best, and pagans at worst. In the Orthodox church, as with the old school Catholics, if you are not visibly in the Orthodox church you are not a Christian.
They are doing the same to the Catholics in the area by the way. The hatred between the two groups goes back a long time.
In short, it is viewed as evil to go into another church’s area and “poach sheep” so to speak. Even American Orthodox hate Evangelicals for this.
They are doing the same to the Catholics in the area by the way. The hatred between the two groups goes back a long time.
In short, it is viewed as evil to go into another church’s area and “poach sheep” so to speak. Even American Orthodox hate Evangelicals for this.”
So sounds like Hamas.
You are dealing with a land that has been Christian for longer than the Evangelicals have been in existence. A land where if you are not an Orthodox or Catholic, you are viewed as anti Christ.
One of the problems we have as a nation is that we forget that.
Ah yes, the attitudes of dead, godless cultural "Christianity."
If Russia evers becomes affected by Christianity, then it will cease to be the Russia that the world, and it’s own people, has to fear.
For the past two or three generations Americans have never been taught enough history of anywhere other than Washington DC to have ever known "it" so it's not a case of having forgotten anything.
People from I know from Ukraine and Russia look at the Soviet era as a few unfortunate generations in a history dozens of generations long. Americans tend to look at Russian and Ukraine History as something that started with WWI at best. While with Ukraine, that makes a lot of sense in that around that time was when Ukraine as a nation rather than a region other countries fought over was an imposition of German diplomacy, it makes absolutely no sense to look at Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Turkish, and European history in general, as something that only began when America took an interest in those countries.
Like carving Kosovo out of the former Yugoslavia, not paying attention to history makes for extremely bad decisions. Kosovo is US instant gratification at it's finest, arbitrarily granting one group something they haven't been able to take by hook or by crook for over a thousand years and pretending the problem is solved when in reality it's a "solution" guaranteed to make the problem worse in the long run.
Dumb the sheep down and you can sell them any line of BS that's convenient.
Let the Federal government have more say in how your local school is run than you have and that's what you get, dumbed down sheep who have been groomed to put their faith in government rather than in God.
In the Orthodox world or the Evangelical?
Both could apply. The Orthodox view Protestants in general, and Evangelicals in particular, as tools of the GOP and the anti christ. Which is a step above how the view the Roman Catholic Church.
Waltzing in to a place with a 1500 year Christian history and telling them “You are doing it wrong” is asking for an attack. They have debates going on in the Church (the calendar for instance) that are older than the existence of the US.
The other side of the coin is that in the Orthodox churches, they are often ethnic clubs first and churches second or third. For a non Russian to convert to Russian Orthodoxy is pretty rare. Mainly because of the very ethno centric views of the clergy and laity. It varies from rite to rite and see to see, but in general they are Russians first, Christians second (which parallels many Evangelicals)
DC doesn’t know it.
I have family that work in the beltway. They are among the most worldly and historically ignorant people I have ever met. The worldview is so narrow that they are not capable of understanding things like Kosovo, let alone why buddying up with the Turks is a horrible idea.
It proves the hollowness of their message. If it were authentic, they'd be taking the Gospel to those denied it, not to those who dare to interpret it differently than they do.
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