When the Church and Government are intertwined the Prophetic Witness of the Church is Compromised

 

Last week a group of prominent American evangelical leaders wrote a letter to Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church imploring him to intervene and stop the bloodshed in Ukraine. He has fully endorsed the Russian onslaught of Ukraine and fully supports President Putin.

One could wonder why a so called Christian leader could in good conscience support what we are watching in Ukraine: The brutality, the targeting of civilians and the raw use of power to destroy a people and a country. It is a good question and one that religious movements everywhere should pay attention to - including in the United States.

Why would the Russian Orthodox Church support what President Putin is doing, which includes the slaughter of fellow believers in Ukraine? The answer is simple. The Russian Orthodox Church and its leader has made a Faustian bargain with the government of Russia. In exchange for their support of the government, they receive the security of being able to operate unimpeded by the Russian government and even receive significant financial support from the government. Unlike other Christian movements in Russian who are under significant pressure, they reign supreme.

In exchange, the church promises to support the Russian government, endorse their policies, and even join the government to defend Russia against negative Western influences. Understand that this is a partnership between the government, the church and inevitably the Russian intelligence agencies who are intertwined with this whole security issue. 

To complicate issues, in 2019, many Ukrainian parishes left the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with was under the Russian Orthodox Church to form a new Orthodox church of Ukraine. This infuriated the Russian Orthodox Church and Mr. Putin who saw this as a threat to Russia.

David French in an insightful article entitled The Best of Christian Compassion, the Worst of Religious Power says this about the current situation in Russia. "This is the church at its worst, when it weds itself to state power and wields the sword to advance God's kingdom on earth. We are watching the deep darkness of malevolent Christendom, a religious movement that will slaughter innocents to fight "decadence" and bomb hospitals to combat "sin." When you see Putin's armies advance, you can think, this is why our nation rejects established religion."

Ironically, it is also believers who are laying down their lives to fight this onslaught of the Russian government and Russian Church as well as Christians who are providing much of the relief to the refugees that are inhabiting Ukraine or fleeing Ukraine.

It should also be noted that many evangelicals over the past several decades have been seduced by Putin's "religious veneer" as a member of the Russian Orthodox Church and a friend of its Patriarch. Indeed, they are joined at the hip, both benefiting from the arrangement but there is nothing Christian about Mr. Putin nor is he a person of personal faith. He cares about one thing only: Power and his agenda of recreating the Russia that existed before communism. Ironically it would seem that the Russian Orthodox Church wants exactly the same thing and in its proximity to power it also has power. 

None of this, however, has anything to do with Jesus or the Gospel. I think regularly of the hurting heart of God watching what people are doing (in His name) in Ukraine. It is sick and sad and not Jesus in the least. 

All of this should cause the American church and especially evangelicals to be reflective on the dangers of intertwining the church with politics or the church with the political power of the government. And it has done plenty of this. Any of these "bargains" end badly for Jesus and the church. The power of the church comes from the power of the gospel, not from its proximity to political power. The situation with the Russian Orthodox Church is a warning as to where this relationship will end. Power corrupts politicians but it also corrupts religious movements who seek to derive their influence and power from those who are in power and have influence.

The religious right in the United States needs to understand the truth about power that Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'"

The power the church needs and has comes from the gospel and not from political proximity. When the church and government are intertwined the prophetic witness of the church is compromised and its power is diminished. 

See also, Putin is the New Stalin and Russia, Ukraine and the thin veneer of civilization