Bulletin column from March 13, 2022

Dear Friends at Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Frances Cabrini Parish:

Praised be Jesus Christ! Our hearts continue to be saddened and even horrified at the major escalation of conflict in Eastern Europe into what has essentially grown into a world war overnight. No small amount of electronic ink is going to be spilled in the analysis of this situation from every sector of society, making my brief comments here merely a tiny voice in the mix. I offer them for the sake of providing further perspective on an undeniably troubling situation that defies tidy solutions or commentary.

The reality of war is a manifestation of living in a fallen world. God does not create war, and God does not want war. It exists because hearts are hardened by sin. It is especially scandalous and destructive when it occurs between groups of baptized Christian believers as is the case with this situation. It is a stark reminder to an often over-confident modern world that the solutions to humanity’s problems are beyond our mere abilities to solve without divine grace. Grace is not magic because it operates through the imperfect channels of human free will, meaning that evil has to be overcome again and again until Christ returns in triumph. All of the Gospels speak of the fact that against sin there will always be a battle.

Since the world is fallen, the Church has said almost from the very beginning that fighting in wars to defend the innocent, the vulnerable, and to stop out-of-control aggressors is entirely justified. It would be difficult to deny in this case that the Russian attack and the violence against civilians and armed forces alike needs to be stopped with any appropriate means at our disposal. We are right to pray for and support anyone taking up arms right now in order to halt the Russian forces.

More difficult is the deeper analysis of the moral positions of Europe/America verses that of Russia (and China) in the objective plane of right and wrong if one attempts to ask and answer the question of “whose side is God on?” In recent years, Vladimir Putin has made external gestures to situate himself and his nation on the side of the Christian faith. Putin has very carefully forged alliances with the Russian Orthodox Church to cement his position of power and in order to lay claim to a title as a type of Christian Emperor. With his church-state alliance he has exerted tremendous public pressure against anti-biblical agendas (such as gender theory and legalizing same sex marriage) that have great power here in the West. There is no way the rainbow flag would ever be tolerated in the Russian territories under his rule. His violent methods of maintaining a semi-Christian/Orthodox empire are not to be endorsed, and are not of the Gospel. However, the Christian doctrines that are enshrined in the Russian legal cultural framework are of the Gospel, even if they might exist there due to motives that are mixed. On the level of the external, Putin sees himself as a defender of Orthodox cultural Christianity in opposition to a militantly secular West.

All this by way of saying that in this ever-deepening conflict, America and Europe would be wise to view our position as the great savior of authentic human rights with some critical nuancing. Vladimir Putin has chosen to run over a neighboring sovereign country with armies and weapons in a manner that is egregious and needs to be stopped. In this way he represents the face of evil as do those who march with him. It makes his claim to the title of the defender of Christian Orthodoxy overwhelmingly hypocritical at best. He has used Christianity as a cloak to hide what has turned out to be his deeper, sinister intentions of conquest.

However, in our fallen world where no one is free of the taint of evil or sin, America and Europe are going to have to come to terms at some point with the fact that we have chosen to mow over the rest of the world with our mistaken, secular ideological agendas for decades now. None of that justifies a violent reprisal against us, but it does provide some understanding to the anger against the West that is widespread. For all of the tremendous good that America does stand for, not all of the values that we defend, protect, and export are good ones. Our coercion of other nations to accept pro-abortion policies and to redefine marriage and family life are especially destructive, as is our prevailing secularism of the public square.

The bottom line is that the outbreak of war is a call to conversion for all sides, all of the time. Faithful Christians in Russia, and beyond, must search their hearts to question how any believer could support the Putin regime that is violating human dignity in the awful way that we are all witnessing. Faithful Christians here in the West have an obligation to search our hearts and question our decadent excesses and morally bankrupt cultural exports that do not give honor to God. We are on the side of right and good, and I dare say God, to oppose Putin even with force. However, we will not be on the side of right, and good, or God, if when God-willing we liberate the Ukraine we try to pressure them to fly a rainbow flag over their capitol, as though we are the enlightened ones and they are the backward, Christian ones. Guns are only one way among many to do violence to persons, cultures, and to the moral law. Real peace is rooted in conversion of all hearts, and in the truth of revelation that is meant for all the world.