{"id":9162,"date":"2014-04-06T19:01:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T19:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=9162"},"modified":"2014-04-06T19:02:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T19:02:37","slug":"god-and-mr-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/god-and-mr-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"God and Mr. Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patriarch<\/a>Pat Buchanan, writing<\/a> in Human Events<\/em>, appears to suggest that Vladimir Putin may, so to speak, be on the side of the angels:<\/p>\n

In his Kremlin defense of Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin, even before he began listing the battles where Russian blood had been shed on Crimean soil, spoke of an older deeper bond.<\/p>\n

Crimea, said Putin, \u201cis the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized. His spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia is a Christian country, Putin was saying.<\/p>\n

This speech recalls last December\u2019s address where the former KGB chief spoke of Russia as standing against a decadent West:<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values. Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heard any Western leader, say, Barack Obama, talk like that lately?<\/p>\n

\u2026Author Masha Gessen, who has written a book on Putin, says of his last two years, \u201cRussia is remaking itself as the leader of the anti-Western world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the war to be waged with the West is not with rockets. It is a cultural, social, moral war where Russia\u2019s role, in Putin\u2019s words, is to \u201cprevent movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would that be the \u201cchaotic darkness\u201d and \u201cprimitive state\u201d of mankind, before the Light came into the world?<\/p>\n

This writer was startled to read in the Jan-Feb. newsletter from the social conservative World Council of Families in Rockford, Ill., that, of the \u201cten best trends\u201d in the world in 2013, number one was \u201cRussia Emerges as Pro-Family Leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013, the Kremlin imposed a ban on homosexual propaganda, a ban on abortion advertising, a ban on abortions after 12 weeks and a ban on sacrilegious insults to religious believers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the other super-powers march to a pagan world-view,\u201d writes WCF\u2019s Allan Carlson, \u201cRussia is defending Judeo-Christian values. During the Soviet era, Western communists flocked to Moscow. This year, World Congress of Families VII will be held in Moscow, Sept. 10-12.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Vladimir Putin give the keynote?<\/p>\n

In the new ideological Cold War, whose side is God on now?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the corruption of the Russian Orthodox Church: nothing.<\/p>\n

On the bullying of other (non-Orthodox) Christian denominations: nothing.<\/p>\n

And on so much else: nothing. <\/p>\n

People believe what they want to believe and they see what they want to see. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pat Buchanan, writing in Human Events, appears to suggest that Vladimir Putin may, so to speak, be on the side of the angels: In his Kremlin defense of Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin, even before he began listing the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[1069,280,559,560,781],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9162"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9165,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9162\/revisions\/9165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}