The political Right, religion and war

2022/03/24

For the Christian world this is a time of acute crisis. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is rising to new savage heights but the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in particular is apparently having no problems with it.

Hopefully, this columnist would be proved wrong on this score. Christianity has played a significant role over the centuries in sensitizing the consciences of people to the inhumanity that is central to war and one would expect the Christian world to condemn in one voice the brutality that is conspicuous today in the Ukraine theatre. Innocent blood is being wantonly shed by the Russian forces with nary a care for laws of any kind. The ROC needs to take a lead role in this opposition to the Putin regime but this has not been the case thus far.

However, the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis is on record as stating that he is willing to mediate in bringing peace between Russia and Ukraine and this is the way to go from a Christian viewpoint. To the relief of the humanist, the Pope is at opposite poles from some of his Western predecessors who actively supported war. Unfortunately, the ROC which has the largest following in Russia and is a major presence in Russian national life and beyond is yet to stand up and be counted as an opponent of the invasion.

However, there are a few dissenting voices within the ROC which are critical of the invasion and they do credit to Christianity. Unfortunately, these dissenters are apparently being penalized by the Russian state for their bold stance and this too is a pointer to the repression that is being brought to bear currently on those exercising their fundamental freedoms.

But the sincere Christian would be doing only right by opposing war which time and again has testified to man’s inhumanity towards man. Currently, the central tenets of Christianity are being stood on their head in Russia. Prime among these tenets are man’s obligation to love and respect his neighbour unconditionally and his duty to cherish all forms of life.

Silence on the part of a section of Christianity to the brutality of the Russian invasion and its attendant ills is tantamount to that segment of Christendom collaborating in the perpetration of such evils. Once again, hopefully this commentator would be proved wrong on this question.

Right now, President Putin is in an effort to project the power of the Russian state in Eastern Europe, which in former times, was an integral part of the USSR sphere of influence. As is known, Putin’s obsessive fear is that NATO power and expansionism would relentlessly close in on Russia and in the process deprive it of a vital sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Ukraine is seen by the Russian centre as collaborating with NATO and hence the ongoing invasion.

However, it should not be lost sight of by Russia that the Warsaw Pact, the Cold War military alliance which ensured Russia’s power and influence in mainly Eastern Europe and which was the USSR’s answer to NATO, is no more. Today, what we have instead in the Eastern European theatre, post-Cold War, are independent states that enjoy the right to join any security alliance of their choice.

Essentially, the Putin regime is today in an effort to cobble together again through the application of military force, a Warsaw Pact type international security alliance in Eastern Europe, which amounts to the Russian centre being out of step with the times.

In this effort, it seems to be having the ready complicity of the ROC, which over time, has willingly worked with the Russian state to advance its power ambitions. Unfortunately, conservative opinion in Russia has not looked askance at this phenomenon over the decades and this tendency is being exploited by the Putin regime to further its power designs.

In fact, for substantial sections of opinion in Russia, the Church and State are not separate entities, quite unlike in the majority of Western democracies, and this factor too is proving to be facilitatory of the power ambitions of the Russian centre, which is of course fascistic or Far Right in orientation today.

However, in post-World War Two times, the political Right in the US has done more than its part to pander to fundamentalist religious sentiment in the pursuit of its power ambitions. For example, the notion of ‘evil’ figured in a major way in former US President Ronald Reagan’s policy pronouncements on international politics. As a result, the USSR was seen by him as an ‘evil empire’ and this had the effect of garnering for his administration much needed support from Christian fundamentalist sections in the US.

Similar derogatory terms were used on Iran, which returned such compliments by calling the US the ‘Great Satan’. Likewise, there was similar pandering to Christian fundamentalist sentiment on the part of subsequent US Right wing administrations, such as that headed by President George Bush Jnr. which frequently referred to Iran, North Korea and Iraq as being part of an ‘Axis of Evil’. The point that needs stressing is that such language is central to theology and not Political Science. Clearly, the Christian fundamentalist is being wooed.

In more recent times, it was the Trump administration that earned a notoriety for pandering to religious fundamentalist opinion at home. There is former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for instance, who, on a ceremonial occasion a few months back, reminded conservative US opinion of the need to ‘Maintain peace through strength’, since ‘Weakness begets war’, but went on to stress the need for an ‘Enunciation of faith’ and the importance of seeking ‘Everlasting life’ after this life.

It is all too apparent from the foregoing that the Christian faith has been steadily weakened by influential ruling sections in both East and West, who are in an effort to reconcile their pursuit of worldly power with the humanistic teachings of Jesus Christ. It is up to those whose hearts are with Christianity, properly understood, to stem this rot.