Background to the Russo-Ukrainian War
Its a fact of history that often large scale conflicts begin as smaller ones that can go overlooked. The smoldering crisis in Ukraine may be one of those moments in history. Only time will ultimately tell, yet for the people of this contested region, war and conflict brings human suffering and takes a terrible toll. Like conflicts around the globe, too often, powerful interests take center stage and there are too many victims of conflict that suffer needlessly or suffer for the interest of the powerful and wealthy.
In summary, it has been widely reported that pro-Russian separatists factions and pro-Ukrainian government factions in portions of Eastern Ukraine have escalated their conflict into war in the Donbas region. This region is recognized internationally as part of Ukraine, yet Russian backed separatists held a referendum to declare its independence from Ukraine. An unpopular president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, has fled the country and was replaced by the Ukrainian parliament, and Russian president Putin took control of Ukraine's Crimea region. Violent clashes between Russian backed separatists and Ukrainian troops have continued with thousands of casualties. (To learn more read the summary on the Global Conflict tracker: Council on Foreign Relations web site, the link is located at the bottom of this article).
The Russian Orthodox Church released this statement regarding the conflict:
"The mission of the Church, the sacred duty of all her children, is to strive for peace on the land of the people of Holy Rus, to call for the rejection of the language of hatred and enmity. Whatever might happen in the sphere of inter-government relations, however political conflict there may be, the unity of faith and brotherhood of people who have emerged from a single baptismal font cannot be erased from our common past. We believe that it cannot be erased from our common future, in which the fraternal Belarussian, Russian, Ukrainian and other nations must live in peace, love and solidarity.
"The Russian Orthodox Church has many times called for the prevention of violence, bloodshed and internecine strife on the Ukrainian land. Unfortunately, we have not been able to avoid tragic events: people have died, many have suffered. That is why today, again and again, we call upon everyone for whom the Ukrainian people and peace in Ukraine is dear: violence cannot continue."
"Lifting up our prayers to the Lord with one mouth, we are called upon to heed the words of Holy Apostle Paul, to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 1:3).
"Lifting up our prayers to the Lord with one mouth, we are called upon to heed the words of Holy Apostle Paul, to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 1:3).
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church:
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has its history tied closely to Moscow. There is a pro-Ukrainian church based in Kyiv which broke away from the Moscow Patriarchy in the 90's. I was unable to find a statement either from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church or from those Christians that are still in the majority Russian-aligned church in Ukraine. Nevertheless, one report on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church cites examples of the complexity of the politics that divide pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian Christians in Ukraine.
The reality is that we live in a fallen world. Each nation likes to think that they each are in the political right when political conflicts erupt, but the reality is that more often than not global politics are not motivated by the kingdom of God, but various human interests some legitimate and others that are not. There often are no easy answers in these conflicts and our ability to see objectively is always in question. We are reminded of not just this tension in Ukraine, but global tensions involving many different nationalities, religions, and ethnic cultures. So let us not only pray for the crisis, or work to bring humanitarian aid to those caught in the cross hairs of the conflict, encourage government to work towards peaceful solutions to conflict, but also to reflect on the words of the Proverb that gives us a new orientation on how to treat our 'enemy'.
"If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink." (Prov 25:21)
"If the gesture of conflict is forbidden, what attitude am I to take up towards the enemy? I must surely do the irrational, impossible, and altogether unpractical thing: If thine enemy hunger, feed him! If he thirst, give him to drink!... These actions demonstrate that precisely in the enemy the Kingdom of God Himself and of God only has been recognized. They draw attention to the fact that the enemy has presented us with a problem that presses upon us too hardly for us to regard him as some one who can be attacked whilst we ourselves remain unbroken. And yet, we have to be careful here. Suppose that we do feed the enemy. Suppose that we do give him to drink. There arises at once the temptation to make of these actions a new human possibility, a new, plausible, human behavior, a new practical goal to which we can direct our energy. We know, however, how fruitless it is to yield to such temptation. We must not, therefore make of the love of the enemy' that is here required of us a visible human action which is in itself ethical.
click here to access Pravmir.com an orthodox church site
click on this link to access site for Ukrainian Orthodox Church USA
Consider the following excerpt from Karl Barth's "Romans"; in it we are challenged to think beyond the simplistic categories of loving our enemies, to truly realizing what it means to stand both under the love and judgement of God with our enemies; to take to heart the deep seeded command to love those that hate or persecute us. In seeking to love our enemy we do not begin with ourselves or with an ethical moral superior position but with something that God is doing in our world, and in our lives. It is something that proclaims a coming kingdom.
"If the gesture of conflict is forbidden, what attitude am I to take up towards the enemy? I must surely do the irrational, impossible, and altogether unpractical thing: If thine enemy hunger, feed him! If he thirst, give him to drink!... These actions demonstrate that precisely in the enemy the Kingdom of God Himself and of God only has been recognized. They draw attention to the fact that the enemy has presented us with a problem that presses upon us too hardly for us to regard him as some one who can be attacked whilst we ourselves remain unbroken. And yet, we have to be careful here. Suppose that we do feed the enemy. Suppose that we do give him to drink. There arises at once the temptation to make of these actions a new human possibility, a new, plausible, human behavior, a new practical goal to which we can direct our energy. We know, however, how fruitless it is to yield to such temptation. We must not, therefore make of the love of the enemy' that is here required of us a visible human action which is in itself ethical.
We are here in the presence of the ethical paradox of the One in the other. On the head of the enemy we must heap coals of fire. That is to say, that the other must be driven by our actions out of his position as an enemy. The other, being secretly the One though he is the enemy, must be compelled to come out of this concealment and stand forth as the One. If this is to be so, I must see him as one of those who hungers and thirsts, I must perceive that, though, when viewed from outside, he goes on still in his triumph, yet in fact he is naught but a sacrifice to his own tragic fate, naught but a man smitten by the anger of God. I must be led to apprehend that the objective righteousness, which I sought to establish by opposing him, has been established already. In the enemy smitten by God the other no longer remains unknown. In the parable of death he is One. This apprehension is, however, genuine only if it has passed into action. Therefore feed him! give him to drink! Thou and the enemy smitten by God are one. Between thee and him there is complete solidarity. His evil is thy evil; his suffering thy suffering; his justification thy justification. Thy redemption can only be that by which he is redeemed. Ever 'action' which effectively makes known the correlation between thee and him is good.
Measured by the standard of what Titans are won't to do to one another, such doing can only be described as not-doing. When, therefore, thou dost ascend the high place of 'love of the enemy' remember that thou art in fact descending to what is lowly, and that thy action is no more than a significant action. The question, What shall I do? is capable of no material answer. It simply raises the question of the ground and purpose of all human action, and then the question, What shall I do? is transformed into a question to which the action of God Himself provides the only answer. The peculiar interest which in Christian ethics attaches to the love of an enemy is that it is a significant action which announces the Coming World " Romans pp 474-475 trans by Edwyn C Hoskyns: Oxford Univ Press.
What I believe Barth is challenging his readers is to stay vigilant from a pious moralism that takes pride or some other motive in either doing good deeds, or sticking it to our enemy by making them feel guilty. Human manipulation is not the goal of either the proverb or Jesus' teaching. Instead, the true heart of the proverb invites us to realize the common ground we share in our humanity with our enemies. This does not absolve people of inhuman crimes. It does however, seek common ground, and a recognition of the fact that no one is above the cruelty of human evil. As God is our final judge, actions that we take against our fellow humans out of greed and self interest will one day be brought to light. In our time, we can only respond to evil with good and in a spirit of humility, knowing that God who sees all will one day judge.
The lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian war may also be coming to a neighborhood near you. We are seeing other examples of polarized politics, of the use of religion against each side to justify war, of an escalation of the culture wars in the United States, of a new rise of racism, xenophobia, the increase of autocratic regimes, growing nationalism, anti-immigration and political destabilization in many parts of the world. Regimes use false political stories planted in the media to divide along ethnic and religious lines. Propaganda is still a tool used in conflicts. This signals that what is happening in Ukraine with polarized factions of pro government and pro Russian factions may be a microcosm of what is happening in other regions of the world. The church's mission of peace and charity, standing for truth, and promoting tolerance, has never been more important.
Links to the conflict in this region:
click on this link to access site for Ukrainian Orthodox Church USA
Global Conflict Tracker article from the Council of Foreign Relations:
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