How Did Ukraine Turn Into a Battleground Between Orthodox and Catholics?

The conflict between the West, led by the United States (evangelicals and Catholics), and Russia (Orthodox), has turned into a battle in which religious terms are exchanged amid mutual accusations of waging a crusade against each other.

US President Joe Biden warned on October 7, 2022, that any Russian use of nuclear weapons would drag the world into the battle of Armageddon, a Christian term meaning "war of the end of the world."

Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "not joking" about tactical nuclear weapons, and the risk of Armageddon was at the highest level since the Cuban missile crisis (1962).

Before that, in a speech in which he threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Putin, on September 30, 2022, denounced the policies of America and the West, calling them "satanic" and citing expressions from the Bible.

"This poisonous fruit has become visible," Putin said, not only to people in Russia but also to many in the West, accusing Western countries of seeking to destroy his country and subjugate it to what he called "nuclear blackmail."

This development prompted the evangelical writer close to the Zionist entity, Joel C. Rosenberg, to ask on October 7, with an article in the website All Israel News: Is Vladimir Putin the evil dictator 'Gog' from Biblical prophecy? He just called America' Satanic' – Now Biden warns Putin risks 'Armageddon'.

 

Doomsday

Because this is the first time that the terms "doomsday" or "Armageddon" have been used between two nuclear states, and the term "nuclear war" has been given a religious dimension through American and Russian warnings wearing a religious cloak, religion seemed to be managing the conflict between the West and Russia, as Western newspapers confirm.

This increased the danger of the participation of the leaders of the Russian Church in the "condemnation" of Russia's war with Ukraine and the West through statements by the Patriarch of Russia, Kirill, as well as by activists on Twitter.

Under him, Putin allowed the church to regain its primacy and glory and provided it with support as no Russian ruler has done since the Bolshevik Revolution.

In return, the Church provided Putin with intellectual and cultural support to provide ground for his vision, expanding Russia's sphere of influence around the world.

In an article in Religion News 24 published in February 2022, US religious historian Diana Butler Bass says Putin has other "hidden" religious reasons for the invasion, including crowning himself as Orthodox Christian emperor of Russia and Ukraine.

Bass added that Putin wants to make the Orthodox Church a spearhead in his project to uphold Russian nationalism and a powerful tool to support his political ideology about Russia being destined to be a great power.

The Guardian said on October 7, 2022, that these statements represent a departure from Biden's usually cautious tone in response to Putin's threats.

A 1984 study confirms that 39 percent of Americans believe that the "Armageddon" predicted by the Bible is a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, in which they believe the forces of Soviet evil will be defeated.

James Acton, director of the Carnegie Endowment for Nuclear Policy Program, wrote: "I think Biden's comments were not just running his mouth off. He's responsible for the safety of hundreds of millions of people during an actual nuclear crisis. His comments tell us about his focus right now."

Acton explained that it is wrong to assume that the idea of the threat of extermination is merely a relic from the time of the Cold War or that the possibility that Russia will use tactical weapons in Ukraine means that this kind of escalation can be contained if Putin resorts to nuclear use.

Journalist Grace Halsell says, in a book on Christian fundamentalist extremism entitled: Prophecy and Politics: The Secret Alliance Between Israel and the U.S. Christian Right, that evangelicals in America are helping "Israel" demolish Jerusalem (al-Quds) because they believe that salvation lies in a devastating war called Armageddon.

Pastor and evangelical evangelist Franklin Graham, a supporter of Armageddon's idea, said on Twitter, "President Biden is absolutely right when he said that the threat of President Putin using nuclear weapons is very real, and we would be facing an Armageddon."

The US National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator, John Kirby, said in an interview with ABC on October 9 that Biden's remarks "accurately reflect the very large risks embodied now.

"When you have a modern nuclear power, and the commander of that force is willing to use irresponsible rhetoric as Putin has done many times in the past two weeks, it means that President Biden's statement is true that 'the stakes are very serious right now.'"

Because Europe will be the scene of this nuclear war (Armageddon), French President Emmanuel Macron has rebuked his US counterpart for arguing that a nuclear "Armageddon" could happen and said Biden should choose his words carefully.

Macron told reporters at an EU summit in Prague on October 7, 2022: "We must speak wisely when commenting on such matters."

 

Evil Forces

Pope Francis warned religious leaders not to use religion to justify the "evil of war," a veiled criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church, which supported Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at the Seventh Conference of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan on September 14, 2022, he urged the religious leaders present in the hall to unite in condemning the war and its religious justifications.

Patriarch Kirill, who expressed support for Putin and the invasion, was supposed to attend the conference but backed down, and instead, a delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church attended.

Kirill justified the Russian invasion on spiritual and ideological grounds, called Putin's opponents in Ukraine "evil forces," described the battle with the West as "spiritual" and "dark and hostile forces," and called on Russian soldiers to fight the war because it was for the benefit of the Orthodox.

A few days after Putin's partial mobilization after his defeats in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Russian soldiers who die in the war against Ukraine will be pardoned and enter paradise.

"Death in the war against Ukraine cleanses all sins," Kirill added, according to the Ukrainian newspaper Pravda on September 25, 2022.

"If someone dies in the line of doing this duty that amounts to sacrifice for the sake of others, all the sins committed by such a man will be washed."

Patriarch Kirill had previously claimed on April 3, 2022, that "young Russians are doing a heroic act of killing Ukrainians."