Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Kazan
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

MTG is a joke.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she “hate[s] everybody” who supports Ukraine against Russia and then says she believes Putin wouldn’t invade another sovereign country

"The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians; the Ukrainian government is executing priests. Russia is not doing that; they're not attacking Christianity. As a matter of fact, they seem to be protecting it."

Russia’s War Against Evangelicals

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is accompanied with a strategic effort to repress, control, and crush religious groups outside of the Kremlin controlled Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Orthodox Church. There are over thirty cases of religious clergy killed and kidnapped. 109 known cases of interrogations, forced expulsions, imprisonments, arrests. 600 houses of worship destroyed. And these are just the confirmed numbers, with the real ones in information blackout of the occupied territories will much likely be higher.

Evangelicals are targeted by the Russians disproportionally, and Azat’s story is typical for Russia’s systemic persecution of Protestants in occupied Ukraine. Protestants were the victims of 34 percent of the reported persecution events, and 48 percent in the Zaporizhzhia region where Azat was held. Baptists made up 13 percent of victims – the largest single group after Ukrainian Orthodox. Under Russian control 400 Baptist congregations have been lost, 17% of the total in Ukraine.

There’s a reason for this. Protestants flourished in the democratic decades since the end of the U.S.S.R. Baptists are the third largest denomination in Ukraine. The mayor of Kyiv between 2006-2012 was an evangelical. And for the Russian occupiers they are perceived as agents of America.

Petro Dudnyk, Pastor of the Good News Church, explains that the occupying forces "thought and spoke like this: you are the American faith, the Americans are our enemies, the enemies must be destroyed." Inside Russia Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned, as is missionary work for Mormons. Evangelical groups are constrained by laws banning missionary activity and labelling some groups as “undesirable organizations.” The U.S. Congress Commission on International Religious Freedom considers Russia as one of the world’s “worst violators” of religious freedom, on par with Iran and Pakistan.

https://time.com/6969273/russias-war-against-evangelicals/

43 posted on 04/20/2024 12:31:41 PM PDT by tlozo ( Better to Die on Your Feet than Live on Your Knees )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: tlozo

Good God. Here come Tbozo. He come creepin up slowly to pollute another thread.


48 posted on 04/20/2024 1:04:22 PM PDT by ohioman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies ]

To: tlozo
Anticipating Russian Spring Offensive, Kharkiv Residents Start to Flee

Nearly 200,000 city dwellers remain without power, while 50% of the region’s population still suffers from outages, officials say.

###

At CHP-5, a plant in Kharkiv that generates electricity and heat, the acrid stench of smoke still hangs in the air. Its damaged generator and turbine must be replaced, according to plant manager Oleksandr Minkovich.

The plant supplied 50% of the region´s electricity and 35% of the city´s heating, Minkovich said. It has been attacked six times since the Russian invasion began, but the latest barrage destroyed “any possibility” for power generation, he said.

Spare parts for the Soviet-era plant can only be sourced from Russia, and full restoration would likely take years, he said. But Minkovitch hopes Ukraine’s Western partners will provide modern technology to decentralize power in time for winter.

Without this, he said, he’s unsure how to meet demand.

To keep the lights on, power is diverted to Kharkiv from neighboring regions, but this process overloads the grid and causes unscheduled blackouts. Businesses rarely know when, and for how long, they can rely on the grid.

“We wake up every day and have no idea if we will have power or not,” said Oleh Khromov, the owner of a popular Kharkiv restaurant, Protagonist.

Of dozens of former residents, only 10 remain in Faichuk´s apartment block in Lukiantsi.

###

Before the war, 2,000 people lived in the village of Rubizhne, 14 kilometers from the Russian border. Today, only 60 remain, including Olha Bezborodova. But she is uncertain how long she will stay.

“It’s really hard. If we had light it would be easier,” Bezborodova said, cradling her toddler. She said organizations have helped her to fix her home, “but they (the Russians) are not finished, they are bombing all the time.”

57 posted on 04/20/2024 5:18:16 PM PDT by Kazan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson