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"Oh, I'm sorry, but sanormal has informed me that all of those clergy, including the 30,000 Orthodox clergy who were killed, don't count."

My fascination was why the Eastern Orthodox Churches would so quickly become agents of the same murderous Soviet regime that had slaughtered so many.

Why would the Eastern Orthodox clergy willingly and completely become agents of the same Communist Party that had murdered so many Eastern Orthodox clergy just a few years before?

My fascination was why the Eastern Orthodox Churches would so quickly become agents of the same murderous Soviet regime that had slaughtered so many.

Did it ever occur to you that the Soviets may have eliminated all of their most determined opponents and tortured the rest into submission?

Whenever this topic comes up, invariably my opponent suggests that he/she would have gladly endured all of tortures that the Soviets inflicted on the Orthodox clergy many times over, and would have laughed in the Bolsheviks faces and dared them to do worse.

The reality is that not all of the Russian Orthodox clergy could manage to be as fearless and triumphant as their detractors imagine themselves to be, and they returned to minister their flocks as best they could until the time came that they could cast off the Communist yoke.

As to the idea that some clergy became "agents" of the Soviets, most of them were agents that the clergy were forced to accept under pain of death or torture (of course, their detractors would have laughed at such mere torment, brave and noble as they are) or by way of the Soviets holding their family members hostage (once again, the families of their detractors would have delighted in the torment visited upon them as a result of their family member's resistance).

It is a fact that all humans have their limits. As I have learned, it is also a fact that some humans believe their limits, though never tested to any such degree, would far exceed those displayed by these mere mortals.

Why would the Eastern Orthodox clergy willingly and completely become agents of the same Communist Party that had murdered so many Eastern Orthodox clergy just a few years before?

Some did but most did not..either because they were killed or because they decided to go underground. The myriad of tales about the underground church abound and would make your hair curl in agony and compassion. Lest you forget- the Church has survived up to 1400 years after the onslaught of Mohamedans. How did it survive? By being coopted partially---dhimmitude--and by silently bearing the Cross of faith and by death instead of betrayal of the Lamb, etc.

We in the West cannot even begin to fathom the herculean struggles of Christians to survive amongst the beasts: Communism/Nazism and Mohamedanism.