Posted on 05/01/2025 3:04:58 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Last fall, Egor Redin was in hiding at a Baptist church in Tajikistan, two thousand miles from home. The pastor advised him not to leave the building because the secret police might be watching. Redin had hoped to apply for asylum in Tajikistan but was warned not to. If Tajik authorities found out he was Baptist, he would likely be deported back to Russia, where he would face criminal prosecution for protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a father of two little girls aged two and four who was also a pacifist (historically Russian Baptists have refused to serve in military positions where they would be required to kill) he should never have had to worry about conscription – religious objectors and fathers of two or more had been exempt under Russian law. But that fall he began to hear of other Baptists being sent to prison for refusing the draft. So, on September 24, he packed a small bag with his laptop, a toothbrush and toothpaste, important documents, and a change of socks, and left his homeland, not knowing when he would return. “This” he recalled later, “is what running to save your life looks like.”
Had Egor Redin not fled Russia, he would likely have become the second in his family to be imprisoned by the state. His grandfather, a Russian Baptist pastor, was sent to the gulag for five years in the 1980s for distributing illegal (Christian) literature. Baptists have a long history of being persecuted in Russia, though many hoped that had come to an end with the fall of the Soviet Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at plough.com ...
“Patriarch Kirill, the current head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has called the invasion of Ukraine “a holy war” and declared any Russian soldier who dies in the fight a martyr.”
Smart man, he knows how to keep on Putin’s good side.
Yeah, well ... historiography is a thing, unfortunately.
Back in the 1990s and early 2000s Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and various flavors of Evangelical type Protestants descended on Russia.
the Russian people were flocking back to their Faith at the time, although after 70 years of ugly repression, were struggling to learn the underlying theology. The aforementioned Westerners only served to confuse and divide — and some were outright hucksters.
There was no repression of Catholics at all when I lived there — and still isn’t. in St. Petersburg, I attended Eastern Rite Catholic Masses with Russian friends who wanted to honor their lifelong ethnic Ukrainian friend who had died and was Eastern Rite Catholic.
As for Stalin — yeah, no more torturing and nailing priests to the doors of their churches, but the repression hardly stopped. See my post here:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4314042/posts?page=5#5
There was this American televangelist outfit I remember from the early 2000s. Some druggie woman with Tammy Faye makeup and hair was always begging for money to buy more “transponders” for Russia, crying rivers of mascara. She loved to show a video of herself at a Russian orphanage handing out cheap plastic toys to the kids and wailing “I love you.” Such idiots do more harm than good.
I don’t blame Russia for discouraging non-Orthodox, non-Catholic, etc., sects. Or even banning them. They take faith formation seriously.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has outlawed the legitimate Orthodox Church. No one seems upset about that, other than Ukrainians we never hear from.
This article is BS
Start to finish. Russia does not persecute Christians. Ukraine leads the way on that front. How many more videos do we need to see that exemplify this. Clown!
The psyop that Putin’s Russian autocracy is conservative and Christian and not neo-Soviet in all respects is pushed hard by foreign agents and stooges.
This is where you lose credibility and your identity as an Ivan becomes merited.
“Meanwhile, Ukraine has outlawed the legitimate Orthodox Church. No one seems upset about that, other than Ukrainians we never hear from.”
Has there even been an article in Western Media on it? Well, well. Thanks, I didn’t think so.
It’s sad to read the message boards of Ukrainian refugees in the US trying to figure out whether their church is canonical and has legit Apostolic succession.
In English, you can read their threads on Reddit, like this one:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OrthodoxChristianity/comments/186ase6/is_ukrainian_church_uaocc_legit/
Actually, it’s pronounced eeger. My church back home sponsored a Russian pastor; his name, Igor, was pronounced eeger.
An Ivan. Oh how priceless. Believing that the world can live in peace earns me such a precious lable. I love it. Go send your children and yourself to die for the war mongers machine and profits.
“ Believing that the world can live in peace earns me such a precious lable.”
Imagine. The world will be as one.
Rather, not all "sects" are those of a "druggie woman with Tammy Faye makeup and hair was always begging for money." Evangelicals are the most conservative significant religious body, far more than heretical Catholicism. And under Putin Russia forbids them Evangelicals acting in public according to their name, while allowing them to meet themselves.
The Yarovaya law (in Russian: Закон Яровой, transliteration: Zakon Jarovoy), also Yarovaya package or Yarovaya — Ozerov package is a set of two Russian federal bills, 374-FZ and 375-FZ, passed in 2016.[1]
The Yarovaya laws at issue forbid Missionary work, defined as defined in as broad a way as possible: “Missionary activity … is defined as activity of a religious association intended to spread information about its doctrines among people who are not participants (members, followers) of the particular religious association, with the goal of drawing those people into the group of participants (members, followers) of the religious association, carried out directly by the religious association or by citizens by the association or by legal entities, publicly, by means of the media, the information-telecommunication network “Internet”, or by other legal methods.”
Such broadly applies to
The activity of a religious association, aimed at disseminating information about its beliefs among people who are not participants (members, followers) in that religious association, with the purpose of involving these people as participants (members, followers). It is carried out directly by religious associations or by citizens and/or legal entities authorised by them, publicly, with the help of the media, the internet or other lawful means"...Citizens are also required to report unauthorized religious activity to the government or face fines.
https://motabredsquare.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/missionary-work-after-the-yarovaya-laws-part-ii-legal-analysis/: The bulk of the effect of this legislation on missionary work concerns the addition of a large section dedicated specifically to missionary work to the federal code concerning the freedom of conscience.
Missionary work is defined in as broad a way as possible: “Missionary activity … is defined as activity of a religious association intended to spread information about its doctrines among people who are not participants (members, followers) of the particular religious association, with the goal of drawing those people into the group of participants (members, followers) of the religious association, carried out directly by the religious association or by citizens by the association or by legal entities, publicly, by means of the media, the information-telecommunication network “Internet”, or by other legal methods.”
Missionary activity thus defined is allowed “without restriction” in buildings owned by the religious organization, and various other specially-designated places such as cemeteries, but (reasonably so) not in other religious associations’ property.
Missionary work is not allowed in residences. If there is one takeaway from the law, it should be this.
In other public situations, only the leader of the local religious association (or a designated alternate) is allowed to engage in missionary activities without a special permit – essentially, a legal declaration by the religious association that the carrier is authorized to perform missionary work. This requirement is notably targeted at Russian citizens, but a similar requirement is also required of foreign citizens. (It is my understanding that it is already the Church’s practice is to issue such declarations for missionaries.) Of particular note is the prohibition against missionary work intended to assist in the performance of “extremist activity.” This has been defined by recent legislation extremely broadly,...
One final provision clarifies that only religious services and rites, not missionary work, is allowed to be performed in people’s homes (by reference to the law governing religious meetings held outside of religious buildings). On the face of it, this suggests that anointing for the sick and afflicted is allowed in homes, and perhaps even holding Sacrament Meeting, but no missionary work. As a preventative measure, the provision also prevents the legal conversion of a residence into a religious space, meaning that you can’t just have someone in the branch register their apartment as a church and hold member lessons there. - https://motabredsquare.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/missionary-work-after-the-yarovaya-laws-part-ii-legal-analysis/
Under Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church and other approved religions became tools of state policy. According to Putin, there are four traditional and “exclusively Patriotic” religions, Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. Since 2012, when the Kremlin started incorporating religious and conservative messages into the government’s rhetoric, these institutions were showered with financial and political benefits due to their close ties with the regime.
Those who fell outside these four patriotic religions’ freedoms were subject to anti-missionary laws and state surveillance, which eroded their ability to practice their religion openly. This tactical choice targets independent religious activity outside of the Kremlin’s control and allows the regime to prosecute religious groups through incredibly vague laws. Notable groups target under these laws include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, and Evangelicals. Indeed, according to a 2019 report, Evangelicals were the group most penalized under the anti-missionary laws. For example, the Kremlin forced a Russian Christian radio station to relocate from Moscow, Russia to Odesa, Ukraine. In 2022, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended labeling Russia as a country of particular concern “for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”. - https://www.christianpost.com/voices/putin-is-not-the-defender-of-the-faithful.html
Meanwhile, rather than Russians taking faith formation seriously as a whole:
"63% of Russians consider themselves Orthodox believers" and 66% of Russians – the population as a whole, without reference to one’s faith – trust the Russian Orthodox Church." - https://www.pravmir.com/over-65-of-russians-trust-the-russian-orthodox-church-poll/
More findings from that same source are that,
For many people, however, “Orthodox” is basically a cultural identification label and does not necessarily imply adherence to specific religious doctrines—a Levada poll found that 30 percent of those who saw themselves as “Orthodox” did not even believe in the existence of God. To single out the believers from the “culturally Orthodox,” we started by asking whether respondents considered themselves as belonging to any religion at all. Slightly more than half, 55 percent, answered in the affirmative. Of these, 81 percent indicated Russian Orthodoxy. This means that altogether 45 percent of our respondents considered themselves Orthodox believers.
Moreover...we found that Orthodox Christians, despite the ROC’s strong stance on abortions, were only marginally more opposed (48 percent) than the non-Orthodox/nonbelievers (46 percent) (see Table 2).On whether certain other behavior could be justified, 55% of self-declared Orthodox believers affirmed fornication could be, which is actually just slightly less than non-Orthodox/nonbelievers (57%)
Pew research finds that in Russia,
just 6% of Orthodox Christian adults say they attend church at least weekly, 15% say religion is “very important” in their lives, and 18% say they pray daily. Other former Soviet republics display similarly low levels of religious observance. Together, these countries are home to a majority of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/08/orthodox-take-socially-conservative-views-on-gender-issues-homosexuality/
Across all three waves of ISSP data, no more than about one-in-ten Russians said they attend religious services at least once a month.
Note also that the tradition-based Eastern Orthodox reject RC Purgatory, among some other substantial RC distinctives
Sorry, but there is just too much testimony to the contrary.
The World Congress of Families—perhaps the single most important forum for collaborative efforts between West European, American, and Russian hardline religious conservatives... A rebranded WCF VIII went ahead with Russian financing, much of it linked to the ostentatiously Orthodox oligarchs Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin. Now billed as a forum called “Large Families: The Future of Humanity,” the event featured American WCF leaders as planned....A year later, WCF IX was hosted in Salt Lake City, and Russian Orthodox Christians played a prominent role there...
The first sign of fraying relations came when the preparing for a World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians that Graham planned to host in Moscow, in collaboration with the ROC, was quietly put on hold by the Russian side last spring. In August 2016, however, Graham announced that the summit would be moved from Moscow to Washington, D.C. and take place May 10-13, 2017.
Acting as if the initiative to break with Russia was his own, Graham cited Russia’s recent passage of an “anti-terrorism” package known as the Yarovaya Laws (for the key role of United Russia Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya in their passage) as his reason for moving the summit. These laws place severe restrictions on Protestants and other minority religious groups in Russia, essentially banning proselytizing. In effect from July 20 of this year, the Yarovaya Laws are already being enforced. Protestants are being detained and fined for conducting ordinary religious activities.
I reached out to William Yoder, a Belarus-based writer on church affairs who has decades of on the ground experience working with Protestant communities in Eastern Europe and Russia, to get his opinion on the current state of affairs. In his view, “the Yarovaya Laws are putting a damper on the budding relationship between the Christian right in the US and the Orthodox in Russia ... by persecuting Protestants, the Russian state is making it considerably more difficult for American Christian conservatives to count themselves among Putin’s right-wing fellow travelers. - https://publicorthodoxy.org/2016/10/25/yarovaya-conservatives-traditional-values/
Christians in Russia are now banned from discussing their faith outside of churches and other designated places under new anti-terror laws.
Wed 20 Jul 2016 by Antony Bushfield Russia:From Wednesday onwards it is illegal to preach, teach or share faith outside state-controlled settings. Senior Protestant church leader in Russia, Sergei Ryakhovsky, said the law 'creates the basis for the mass persecution of believers'. The new law was passed almost unanimously by Russian MPs and means anyone caught sharing their faith outside church faces a fine of at least £600. Some fear it's a way of clamping down on the growing number of house churches across the country. Currently there are around 1,000 in Moscow alone.
Sergey Vdovin, from the Russia Evangelical Alliance, said he'd considered leaving the country because of the new law....I'm staying here no matter what and the Lord is greater than anything people can do, so if you're under His protection what can be people do to you? "What can this law do against real Christians? Nothing. They will just continuing serving together and be more purified, more united and more dedicated." - https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/russia-christians-banned-from-discussing-faith-outside-church
LIVING AS A PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN IN RUSSIA
November 21, 2019Andrei was a youth pastor and contractor in Russia. An oppressive law that passed in 2016 banned the public sharing of one’s Christian faith. After receiving threats from Russian officials on the lives of his two children, Andrei, his wife Galina and their children fled from Russia as refugees, and arrived in Minnesota in 2019. We interviewed Andrei about life in Russia and the persecution he left behind:....
(The Yarovaya law increases regulation of evangelism, including a ban on the performance of “missionary activities” in non-religious settings.) Based on this law, which is active right now, if you declare that you belief this or that or if you publically invite someone to church, of if you share an invitation to a Christian conference or service on facebook, sometimes even if you just attend church you will receive a huge fine or you can be jailed for up to 3 years. If you represent a church as a pastor or leader, then the fine is $1M rubles ($15,700) and up to 5 years in jail, if they can prove that you were promoting your faith....
The (Russian security service) investigators would just show up at a church service and would ask around for more information on specific people. Then they would subtly threaten people by reminding them that kids often use drugs in Russia, and you never know what could happen to your kids. Investigators wanted me to cooperate and inform on other people.I was refused jobs because I am a Protestant. I was working as a contractor on the house of a Russian parliament member (part of the Russia Unite party); when he found out I was a pastor at a church, he took all of my tools, kicked me out, and refused to pay me for any of the work I did on his house. I hired a lawyer to receive payment, but since the justice system is very much in submission to the government, I was found guilty.
Religious Repression in Putin’s Russia By Antonio Graceffo on January 11, 2023
Under the Russian Constitution, though citizens are guaranteed religious freedom, authorities may suspend religious activity in the name of national security. Although the constitution specifically cites extremism as a cause for the suspension of religious freedom, it does not provide a robust definition of which activities could be considered “extremism.” .
Additionally, Russia has strict laws on the registration of clergy and places of worship in addition to staunch prohibitions against missionary work. The term “missionary work” is broadly applied to “preaching, praying, disseminating religious materials, and answering questions about religion outside of officially designated sites.”...
Russian law technically recognizes Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the four “traditional” religions. But, only the Russian Orthodox Church is elevated to the role of representing the ideals and faith of Russia... About 63% of Russia’s population are Orthodox Christian, 7% are Muslim, and 26% identify as agnostic. Buddhists, Jews, other Christians, and animists each comprise about 1% or less of the population. - https://providencemag.com/2023/01/religious-repression-in-putins-russia/
Russian persecution of evangelicals exceeding that of Soviet era, Mission Eurasia president says
By Scott Barkley, posted August 23, 2023 in International News, Persecution
MOSCOW (BP) — The raid by secret police of Russian evangelical leader Yuri Sipko’s home will not silence the former Baptist Union president’s “uncompromised” stance. Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia, promised as much in comments he shared with Baptist Press. (See related story.) “I have personally known Yuri Sipko for a long time,” Rakhuba said. “He is an uncompromised, powerful leader and preacher of the Gospel for whom truth is the most important thing.” Sipko’s home was one of many among prominent evangelical leaders that was raided by the FSB, Russia’s secret police, Mission Eurasia reported on Aug. 8...
Sipko’s opposition to Vladimir Putin extends back to the Russian president’s early days in power, particularly Putin’s past as a KGB officer. Those stances continued with Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. The next year Sipko spoke at a consultation hosted by Mission Eurasia at the Bishop of Canterbury’s headquarters in London to raise awareness over the invasion...
“Most deny that this is the beginning of a new wave of repression by the Russian regime. [But] we are monitoring churches in the occupied territories in Ukraine through our Religious Freedom Initiative and have discovered that more than 500 churches have been seized, many pastors have been deported, some have disappeared and many have been killed by the Russian regime.” A common thread is emerging in those areas, he noted. Only the Russian Orthodox Church is allowed to remain. Religions and “any foreign religious influences” are being removed from the nation.
Russians are Torturing Ukrainian Christians
STEVEN MOORE NOV 27, 2023
Protestants are 4% of Ukraine's population but account for a third of the cases of persecution by the Russians...As one example, a Pentecostal pastor in occupied Kherson region was abducted along with his 19 year old son. Eyewitnesses to the abduction say the soldiers told the pastor “Your church has no right to exist, as it has connections with America.” Their bodies turned up four days later, almost too mutilated to be identified.
An evangelical Christian pastor from Luhansk was held by Russians for 25 days, tortured with electrical shocks and being beaten with a baseball bat. He says a Russian Orthodox priest was present during his torture and tried to cast the demons out of him in an exorcism that included a taser.
Protestants are targeted disproportionately. While Protestants make up about 4% of the Ukrainian population, they comprise more than a third of the documented incidents of Russian persecution.
Baptists are particularly hard hit. The Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary reports the loss of some 400 Baptist congregations since the beginning of the full scale Russian invasion.
Russians associate Protestants, particularly evangelicals, with the United States and think they are American spies. The Russian Orthodox Church is a working arm of the Kremlin, so Russian troops assume that Baptist and Pentecostal ministers are working for the American government. They arrest them, torture them and sometimes murder them. - https://stevenmoore.substack.com/p/russians-are-torturing-ukrainian
Church leader Dimitry is familiar with fleeing from Russian persecution of Christians. During the course of his life it has happened not once, not twice – but on three occasions.The first of these was as a young man, when his family fled from the former Soviet Union. Years later, as a pastor, he was forced to leave the Crimea when the Russians took over that part of Ukraine. Last year it happened again, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw him once again suffering for his evangelical faith.
‘Lenin initially thought Christians were an asset; but eventually realised Christians were a problem. It was a difficult time under the Soviet Union; many people were killed. Christians were frequently targeted most because they always think freely: because they know the truth that sets you free. Communism is not just political: it is more of a religion – but a religion that hates God and his Son, Jesus Christ.’...
Charge: https://releaseinternational.org/we-hate-americans-evangelicals-and-nazis-and-you-are-all-three-r125/... in February 2022, Dmitry found himself – for the third time in his life – confronted by hostility, as the Russians began their invasion of Ukraine. ‘At 5.30am rockets came to our city. We all woke up and said, “It’s war.” Everything changed. Within a week our city looked like Armageddon. No gas, groceries, telephone lines, internet, electricity. It was crazy: in the middle of Europe! I had a church of 500 people. I had a business. I was doing good until the Russians came to free us up! They freed us from everything. Now we are completely free – we have nothing!’
In the Russian-dominated regions of Donetsk and Luhansk Dmitry was involved in running a rehabilitation centre. ‘The Russians took all of our workers there and put them in a basement. They spent almost a week there. They beat them and finally let them go, but they took the building, cars, everything.’..
On March 19 Dmitry himself was arrested. ‘ They searched the building; took everything: computers, data, everything. Then they put a black bag over my head and took me away.’...Dmitry spent a total of eight days in prison, in appalling conditions. ‘Every time they took me for interrogation they put a bag back over my head and dragged me through the corridors. Every day I thought it could be the last day of my life.’..
Although he could hear screams when other prisoners were being interrogated, Dmitry said the Lord gave him a peace in his heart during his time in custody. ‘I had no fear. It was supernatural. I began witnessing to them and talked about the Bible to them. I had a sleeping bag and a Bible. They said they had watched my sermons online. I said, “Good, let’s talk!...”’
After his arrest Christians were praying for him and Dmitry says those prayers were answered with a miracle when he was released. However, the secret police continued coming to his home and so, for his family’s safety, he made the decision to flee the country. ....From Poland Dmitry now serves and supports an underground network of churches in Melitopol where he once lived and pastored....
‘If people are to be changed they need Christ. Only Christ can change the problem. Until the end we will have more problems – and then Jesus will come. In the meantime we change a nation by changing a person – one by one. Our goal is not the nation; it is people.’
How Russia persecutes occupied Christians; Myroslava housing complex bombed....
Since the beginning of the war with Russia in 2014, Russian occupiers have put pressure on Protestant communities, while favoring Orthodox churches that were subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and, in turn, to Moscow.... Church workers and pastors have been regularly summoned for interrogation in places like Donetsk, and there have been numerous cases of people disappearing.
Evangelical Christians, such as those of the Baptist denomination like Tymur, are frequently harassed by Russian authorities who consider them to be spies. Tymur ended up in captivity only because of a desire to help a friend. ...In the days prior, the Russians had repeatedly accused Tymur of being a spy. He knew he was taking a risk by seeking help. But rather than assist his friend, they detained him and began interrogating him.... "They saw my photos from [church] services, they probably realized that I was just an ordinary citizen,” he said. None of the photos would be useful for espionage purposes. “So the Russians just said ‘Run home.”
But one day their church was visited by more Russians. "They stopped the whole service and started checking [our] documents. But at that moment a heavy firefight started right in our yard. Ukrainian snipers shot them. We had dead soldiers lying in our yard for several days after that, and we didn't know what to do with them," Tymur said. "When the Russian soldiers came, they did not see it as a church, but as a kind of cult...
Another person who has experienced Russia’s disdainful attitude towards Protestants is Oleksandr Vaschinin. He has been a Protestant since childhood...."There were times when they said, 'You are Americans, this is an American church, this is not [a Russian] church. We said we have been in Ukraine for almost a hundred years. But no one believed us," Oleksandr Vaschinin said. And if someone disagreed with something, they could be taken to the basement, where they were tortured or abused, or imprisoned.
"We were treated like dogs. They beat us. Some were killed. Some disappeared. We had a pastor who was beaten very badly. One pastor from Horlivka [occupied Donetsk Region] was kept in prison for 21 days," Oleksandr Vaschinin recalls. The pastor stayed in Donetsk until the so-called Russian authorities forced everyone to get Russian passports. Vaschinin and most of the other pastors refused and decided to leave their hometown. - https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/how-russia-persecutes-occupied-christians
Has Ukraine Banned the Orthodox Church? What We Know
The Ukrainian parliament has banned a branch of the Orthodox church, linked to the Russian Orthodox Church. Kyiv says the church, called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), has been spreading pro-Moscow propaganda and housing spies. Some 265 lawmakers passed a bill banning the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory on Tuesday.The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has previously spoken about the destruction of religious buildings and the arrests and killings of faith leaders in the Russia-Ukraine war.
He told Newsweek: "Today, in the occupied territory, there is not one Catholic priest. All my priests, even the Roman Catholic priests, were all expelled or imprisoned.
Russia is returning "to the time of the Soviet Union where all of those religions were prohibited or overcontrolled, or simply destroyed," he added. - https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-ban-orthodox-church-russia-moscow-1942301
Meanwhile, just who is the legitimate Orthodox Church is a matter of contention. Both Rome and the EO's claim to uniquely be the one true church, while (as in "Protestantism) both formally or effectively exist in divisions of those claims to most truly represent true faith
The only one true church is the body of Christ, (Colossians 1:18) the "household of faith," (Galatians 6:10) to which He is married, (Ephesians 5:25) for it uniquely only and always consists 100% of true believers, "accepted in the Beloved," (Eph. 1:6) seated with Him in Heaven. (Eph. 2:6) And which spiritual body of Christ is what the Spirit baptizes every believer into, (1Co. 12:13) by effectual penitent, regenerating justifying faith in the Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of god and Lord of all, (Acts 10:36-47; 15:7-9; Titus 3:5; Rm. 4:5) thereby being "living stones" in a "spiritual house," (1 Peter 2:5) while organic fellowships in which they express their faith inevitably become admixtures of wheat and tares, with Catholicism and liberal Protestantism being mostly the latter.
2018 Moscow-Constantinople schism The 2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism is an ongoing schism between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which began on 15 October 2018
| Name | Type/Description |
|---|---|
| The Wanderer | Traditionalist newspaper |
| The Remnant | Traditionalist newspaper |
| Church Militant | Media/apologetics outlet |
| SSPX | Largest traditionalist priestly society |
| FSSP | Traditionalist priestly society, in communion |
| ICKSP/ICRSS | Traditionalist priestly society, in communion |
| IBP | Traditionalist priestly society, in communion |
| SSPX Resistance/SSPX-MC | SSPX breakaway groups |
| CMRI | Sedevacantist group |
| IMBC | Sedevacantist group |
| SSPV | Sedevacantist group |
| ICR | Sedevacantist group |
| MHFM | Sedevacantist group |
| Palmarian Catholic Church | Conclavist group |
| Traditional Franciscan Third Orders | Lay/third order groups |
| Traditional Carmelite Third Orders | Lay/third order groups |
| Confraternity of St. Peter | Lay association (FSSP) |
| Lay Society of ICKSP | Lay association |
| Obra Mariana Carmelitana | Religious congregation (Mexico) |
| Sisters of Mary Immaculate Queen | Religious congregation |
| Religious Congregation of Mother of God | Religious congregation |
| Church Name | Notes/Region |
|---|---|
| Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople | Turkey, "first among equals" |
| Patriarchate of Alexandria | Egypt, Africa |
| Patriarchate of Antioch | Syria, Lebanon, Middle East |
| Patriarchate of Jerusalem | Holy Land |
| Russian Orthodox Church | Russia, largest by population |
| Serbian Orthodox Church | Serbia, Balkans |
| Romanian Orthodox Church | Romania, Moldova |
| Bulgarian Orthodox Church | Bulgaria |
| Georgian Orthodox Church | Georgia |
| Church of Cyprus | Cyprus |
| Church of Greece | Greece |
| Church of Poland | Poland |
| Albanian Orthodox Church | Albania |
| Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia | Czech Republic, Slovakia |
| Orthodox Church in America | North America |
| Church of Finland | Autonomous, under Constantinople |
| Church of Estonia | Autonomous, under Constantinople |
| Church of Japan | Autonomous, under Moscow |
| Church of Ukraine | Disputed autocephaly |
| Church of Moldova | Autonomous, under Moscow |
| Church of Latvia | Autonomous, under Moscow |
| Church of Korea | Autonomous, under Constantinople |
| Church of Mount Sinai | Autonomous, under Jerusalem |
| Mount Athos | Monastic community, under Constantinople |
We can’t say we weren’t warned:
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
2 Timothy 3:12
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
Luke 6:22
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:35
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Matthew 5:11
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Matthew 5:44
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Mark 10:29-30
Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Romans 12:14
Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4
Okay, so you hate Catholics and Orthodox and think they’re heretics. Well, Catholics and Orthodox think you’re technically a heretic, but the vast majority are too polite to say so. And they don’t play “missionary” to Protestants and go around bugging them trying to “save” them.
If you think it’s so important for every flavor of religion to go play missionary in Other People’s Countries and get all wound up about it, fine. You do you. in my book, if you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian — why try to convert someone just because they belong to another denomination? That person is already a Christian and doesn’t need me to “save” him. You see it differently, and you’re entitled to your opinion. Just as I’m entitled to mine.
There are lots of “cultural Christians” who don’t believe in God or Jesus right here in the USA, but they like Christmas trees and carols, Santa and the Easter bunny, and all the warm fuzzy stuff. Plenty of churches here that have gone New Age and are more about “feel goods” and socializing than following Christ.
I don’t care whether Russians are Orthodox or Catholic or Protestant. Trying to convert Christians who belong to another denomination makes no sense to me — they’ve already got Jesus. Why run off to the Philippines to “save” Catholics or to Russia or Ukraine to “save” Orthodox — when there are plenty of atheists and non-Christans of various types right here? Oh yeah, you think they’re “heretics”.
...except we’re not giving tons of WEAPONS and MONEY to Russia, so, like the Cold War, I don’t care what people claim Russia is doing on Russian soil.
Daniel1212, that is a really good reference.
Thank you.
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