With the privilege of retirement, I awaken slowly many mornings and enter my morning ritual. I keep quietly in mattress, starting the day with prayer and a few moments of meditation.
Today, I significantly think about the truth that, day by day, that morning ritual is accompanied by the consolation of a good mattress, comfy mattress linens, and a quiet, temperature-controlled setting.
My ideas then transfer to the individuals of Ukraine, with harmless civilians relentlessly bombarded by Russian ruthlessness and subhuman cruelty, coupled with plans for the genocide of Ukrainians.
What greeted these Ukrainian first moments of awakening on this present day? What horrors will they face within the subsequent 24 hours? How will they feed themselves as we speak? How will they shield their kids? Care for his or her aged? Even better, will Ukraine survive?
One query unasked
However one query I now not ask is “Why did this occur.” I don’t ask as a result of I do know the reply. Sadly, it’s but yet another instance of religiously-backed genocide that periodically locations its festering, hate-ridden boils upon the course of human historical past.
On this case, the Russian Orthodox management has satisfied Putin of the future that’s his, and his solely: to restore Russia to its previous world-dominant glory.
The price of the human struggling crucial to attain this objective is immaterial. God has spoken: “Go, conquer, kill, maim, rape and destroy and achieve this all in My Identify.”
I write this as one who has devoted her life to loving God and neighbor in any method I can. I additionally bear in mind my extra militant early days as a current convert, one who was satisfied that the means didn’t matter so long as the objective of changing your complete world to my [very narrow] model of Christianity was reached.
Thankfully, over time, I’ve mellowed and matured. That rising maturity has developed on account of two deep dives: one into theology, the opposite into the lives of these round me.
In every of these dives, intertwining and informing the opposite, I discovered that my narrowness was each killing me and threatening the lives and well-being of these with whom I interacted.
Would I like to see the world totally held within the deep love of God and with a ardour for caring for the opposite? Sure, I’d.
Does the means matter to get there? Why not simply conquer the world and power that ethos upon them? The reply is manifestly apparent: compelled love and compelled obedience imply precisely nothing.
My rising mistrust of some segments of Christianity
I’ve now reached some extent of deep mistrust of anybody who claims to talk for God and who additionally makes use of phrases of conquest, subjugation of others, and imposition of 1 explicit spiritual viewpoint upon native governments or ruling our bodies.
Sure, it’s greater than simple to seek out Biblical justification for such a stance. The Scriptures include story after story of God sending out sure chosen ones to destroy every part of their path.
Really easy for these with the ambition and need for dominance to make use of these tales to justify horrific actions. Such ones will all the time discover followers. The smarmy underbelly of unredeemed and unformed human nature longs for limitless energy and the riches that usually accompany it.
Those that select to interrupt with such a pacesetter will typically discover themselves trampled and destroyed, simply as Putin has performed to his critics, slowly silencing the nation right into a individuals of cowering worry or intentional ignorance.
Any who select to face tall and with integrity will quickly discover their heads blown off. Their solely hope is for all to face concurrently, one thing akin to the mass protests now going down in China. Such an final result is exceedingly uncommon. And exceedingly harmful.
With Russian Orthodoxy so totally on the facet of Putin, individuals should discover the braveness to face not solely in opposition to Putin but additionally, successfully, in opposition to the one God they know. That God has organized for Putin to have energy within the first place. To face in opposition to that takes much more guts and braveness than most can summon.
However now again to my morning ritual: I’m a spiritual particular person. However I completely don’t need to be related to nationalistic spiritual actions–and such ideology is growing in the US as well. Towards this, I’ll stand tall.
We could be a nation knowledgeable by stable Christian values, equivalent to service towards each other, caring for the least of those, deep integrity and honesty.
However we’re not a “Christian nation” with no room for alternate spiritual views or openness to those that eschew faith altogether. If we go there, we do nothing however mimic Putin’s evil.
And that thought finishes my morning ritual and will get me away from bed and able to interact the day. I’ll select good over evil.
Photograph credit score: Photograph by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
