Posted on 02/12/2014 9:39:43 AM PST by kronos77
ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- God once used a donkey to alert a wayward prophet that he was on the wrong track. Could it be the Lord is using a bear, a Russian Bear, to do the same with the nations of the West, in particular the United States?
"Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values," Russian President Valdimir Putin said in his state of the nation address in mid-December, The Washington Times reported.
Putin continued, "Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation."
Some have dismissed Putin's rhetoric as nothing more than political posturing. However, leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church have echoed their president's assessment.
Patriarch Krill I of Moscow, the leader of the Orthodox Church, "accused Western countries of engaging in the 'spiritual disarmament' of their people," The Times reported.
"The general political direction of the [Western political] elite bears, without a doubt, an anti-Christian and anti-religious character," Patriarch Krill said. "We have been through an epoch of atheism, and we know what it is to live without God. We want to shout to the whole world, 'Stop!'"
Another leader of the Orthodox Church, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, "suggested that the modern-day West is no better for a Christian believer than the Soviet Union," The Times also reported.
"The separation of the secular and the religious is a fatal mistake by the West," Chaplin said. "It is a monstrous phenomenon that has occurred only in Western civilization and will kill the West, both politically and morally."
(Excerpt) Read more at bpnews.net ...
Waiting for the Putin haters...
Separation of Church and State was in Stalin’s Constitution, not ours.
You can’t strip Virtue/Morals/Christianity from the Constitution, nor is it possible to eliminate “Faith” from any ideology. All ideas contain “assumptions” (Faith). Christianity was the one faith that was aligned with Natural Law Theory because of early Roman Catholic Theologians which affected ALL American Christian’s ideology and the Theories of John Locke on Natural Law Theory.
All Founders believed in God and that there was Design in Nature. To remove that “God” who designed Nature (and man with teleological ends) is to REMOVE REASON and LOGIC from American Jurisprudence. It destroys the original meaning of the Constitution and WARPS all LAW to remove Reason.
Interesting, but Patriarch Krill I of Moscow?
I am slightly appalled to be in agreement with Putin, but so be it.
And I detest 0 for blatantly disrespecting the Olympic host country by his in-your-face sending an official US delegation of homosexuals rather than going himself.
On the other hand, except for the trappings of office, it’s the same thing.
It is pretty well documented that Putin is not a “good guy” by traditional American standards but he is a Russian nationalist who will place his country (with him at the top) ahead of foreign interests. I do not know if he activily approves of a spiritual revival going on in Russia or if he simply tolerates it but the government does seem to take a positive view of the church in many matters.
A Christian spiritual revival will lead to more freedom and a more prosperous nation so in the end, whatever Putin’s motivations, things will get better in Russia because of his actions.
Putin continued, "Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation."
Some have dismissed Putin's rhetoric as nothing more than political posturing.
To hear a Russian president warn Western nations of their departure from Christian values is astounding to anyone that lived through the Cold War. Never in my wildest dreams. Whatever his motive, Putin spoke the words and so I'll accept them at face value with gratitude. I trust Putin more than I do our muslim/commie dictator.
Wow.
Patriarch Krill I is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Antarctic Shrimp.
(-:
Yes.
"Every major religion except Islam is declining in Western Europe
The wages of sin is death. Islam is the Borg. Turn your back on God and you will be assimilated.
Another one??
And things will continue to get worse here in America because of Obama’s actions.
Yea, now if they can only stop knocking people off and assassinating dissenters.
A good example of putinist wile. Right, the Western governments have infiltrated the Church and every ordination is vetted through the European Security Committee for Government Security, while no building permits are issued for churches regardless of demand -- and I only draw comparisons to Brezhnevite USSR.
This is a propaganda piece, not an analytic article. I am not entirely unsympathetic to the cause, but I think that if the West blinds itself to the cultural and political reality of the Russian Federation, nothing good will come from it from the conservative perspective. The West will be saved by the people of the West, not by bears, and it was not saved by Barlaam's donkey either.
Christianity was nearly destroyed in the Soviet Union. Starting from ruin any news from Russia looks like growth; this should not obscure the fact that informed Christians are a vanishingly small percentage of the population in Russia.
Thanks for your input and knowledge; it is always welcome.
I do not like Putin but I liked how he patted that little Russian skater on the forehead. I am sick of the Bill Clinton hugs nd nasty hands of he like of degenerates like Biden.
Well, it is useful for the state to look bo worse than its population’s bad behavior or foreign nations’ bad behavior. Hitler was propped up as an icebreaker that way by communists willing to risk be sent to camps.
The Third Rome is a strange ambitious concept for Moscow aiming not at the West but at the seats of Constantinople and to displace Rome. I do not see much friendship from Moscow there.
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