Posted on 06/16/2024 11:00:06 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine—Moments after the band struck up a song of praise at a Christian church in a Russian-held city near here, Russian soldiers stormed in wearing full tactical gear.
One of them wove through the crowd, mounted the stage and told the congregation to prepare their documents for inspection.
The service in September 2022 was the last held inside Melitopol’s Church of God’s Grace. The Russian authorities took over the building, adorned it with murals depicting their dead fighters, and converted it into a culture ministry in this part of occupied south Ukraine.
The church’s erasure from view is part of a sweeping crackdown inside Russian-held territory on religious groups that aren’t under Moscow’s control, especially the evangelical Christian faiths the Kremlin considers instruments of U.S. influence in Ukraine.
Mykhailo Brytsyn, the church’s Baptist pastor, said he was questioned by Russian soldiers for four hours and told: “You don’t run a church. You run a nest of American spies.”
Religion has long been central to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to halt Ukraine’s westward drift and bring it under his sway. His army is now using violent methods to roll back religious freedoms in occupied areas while bolstering the one faith that openly backs his invasion: the Russian Orthodox Church.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Putin does not want any competition against HIS Orthodox Church.
Reverend Graham has mentioned this.
ZEEPER FOLLIES PINGLIST!(((PING!)))
Next he’s going to reply to himself nonstop with copy paste spam all night.
It took him several days to get new guidance after the Ukrainian front line started collapsing.
“Wall Street Journal MSN”
7% accuracy on these types of stories.
It was to a resounding silence that the news broke last December that today's Russian Church's organization was essentially formed under the watchful eye of the NKGB, a precursor to the KGB.
The 1945 Local Council that elected Patriarch Alexy I (Simansky) and adopted the church's current name was organized and conducted by the Soviet political police, documents recently declassified by the Ukrainian Security Service show.
The papers made public by the Ukrainian security agency showed that the crucial meetings of the Russian Orthodox Church and the patriarch selection process were police controlled. But the reaction on Russian social media was along the lines of "What's the big deal?" and "Haven't we heard about this before?"
KGB colonel Georgy Karpov, whose signature is on the letter instructing local KGB chiefs on how to select the delegates, was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for organizing the 1945 council. He was known for extreme cruelty during the Great Purge. He is also part of the church's history: for seventeen years he headed the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church—which is to say he de facto governed the church in a way similar to that of the Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod.
https://www.newsweek.com/why-do-russians-trust-church-set-kgb-802635
Putin’s persecution of Evangelical Christians has been going on in Russia since he first took office.
Three days.
Good.
Pentecostal “churches” don’t have deacons.
Denouncing Putin’s grotesque behaviour is a Christian thing to do. Here is an article from a VERY conservative news outlet which puts the light on the true devilish pro-Islamic nature of Putin and his hate for Israel.
Putin ‘forming axis of terror’ as he welcomes Hamas and Iran to Moscow
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/26/putin-forming-axis-of-terror-welcomes-hamas-iran-moscow/
Probably CIA fronts.
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