I just saw a picture of an old Stuckey’s that was converted into a church, so there is that.
Christians need to avoid despair like the plague. I am not a Protestant any more, but this old Protestant hymn always speaks to me:
And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.
That Word above all earthly powers
—no thanks to them— abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever!
Long story short, God wins and so do the faithful.
I have known many Christians who emerged from the darkness of communist persecution. Albania shut down all houses of worship and all public expression of religion for 35 years. Not too many years after the communists fell, I met a young woman who had come here to work as an au pair. She knew all of the hymns and prayers of the Divine Liturgy by heart. I know other Albanians, along with Russians and Serbs, who are seriously devout Christians. And I will never forget seeing the performance of Rachmaninoff’s music for Vespers in Moscow in the last days of the Soviet Union. The work was thought to be lost, until the score was found in some library in Maine. An American choir performed it, and when they came to “Our Father” — all of the audience, young and old, including Red Army soldiers, sang along.
I spent a couple of hours this morning at a beautiful Eastern Rite Catholic Church that has a wonderful young priest and a great group of people. God is worshipped there. He is among us. Nothing is lost unless we lose it.
I posted this a while back on another thread:
Actually Putin’s mother was a closet Christian, and Putin is very pro the Russian Orthodox Church. He is good friends with the Patriarch of the Church. Putin for years has been instrumental in the restoration of many Orthodox churches throughout Russia that had lapsed into decay when the atheistic Communist regimes ruled the land.
Putin wears a Christian cross that his mother gave him, around his neck. I am sure Putin thinks the war in Ukraine is being fought with God on his side, as so many other warring countries have claimed, including our own. Countries believe their wars are “good” wars of necessity, whether they are or not.
Putin considers his war with the West (NATO) that he feels is surrounding Russia, which it is, is partially to keep the moral decay of the West out of his country. No praise of the gay lifestyle, pornography, transgender affirmation, etc. in Putin’s regime like it is in the West. He holds Biden in contempt, as we all do, actually.