Want to have no church-state barrier? Move to Russia

If we want to see what it looks like when a religious tradition allows itself to become a political pawn of a national government, Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church provide one of the clearest examples.

As this Wilson Center report (a blog of the Kennan Institute) describes it, "Equating political dissent with heresy has become a central tactic of the Russian state, allowing it to silence opposition and enforce ideological conformity based on an orthodoxy of the Russian church and the 'Russkiy Mir' (or Russian World). These efforts are not limited to the geographic borders of Russia. Attacks on religious alternative to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) have become a key part of Russia’s war against Ukraine."

It's been clear for some years now that the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (pictured here with Russian President Vladimir Putin), has become a sycophant of Putin. In fact, the text at the link I just gave you on Kirill's name mentions that he once described Putin's rule as "a miracle of God." Whatever independence from the Kremlin that the church might once have had is simply gone now, and if Kirill isn't on the Kremlin's payroll, he should be.

In a profoundly authoritarian governmental system, there is little or no room for anything that doesn't meet the political needs of the ruler, and in this case that means that both Russia's government and the ROC persecute followers of faith traditions other than the ROC.

As the Wilson Center report notes, "The focus of especially ruthless suppression by the ROC and the Russian state are other denominations of Christianity, particularly Protestantism, which professes the individual’s relationship with God unmediated by earthly authorities. According to the ROC, Protestant churches that skirt the state-driven dictates of the ROC are effectively cults that distort the essence of Christianity. Under the pretext of protecting society from these so-called cults, anti-cult organizations and their representatives intentionally spread defamatory information about these groups in the media and organize campaigns to discredit them."

Mis- and disinformation? Whoever heard of politicians and their backers engaging in such stuff? (Fake rhetorical question.)

Even the 2024 annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in a gently worded way, notes this: "Over time, the Russian government has granted special recognition and privileges to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate." It's what a church gets when it leaps into bed with a secular government. And it's why the ROC leadership has backed Putin's despicable, murderous and criminal war in Ukraine. The Wilson Center report puts it this way: "Patriarch Kirill continues to publicly bless Russian soldiers as they go to battle against Ukraine and frame the invasion as a 'holy war'.”

The problem in Russia is partly Putin's fault, of course. But the ROC itself and its leadership are the real source of the problem because they are the ones that have compromised the church's theology in much the same way that many Christian churches in Germany caved in to Adolf Hitler's evil rule. It was only a small group of Christian leaders known as the Confessing Church that resisted and that published the anti-Hitler Theological Declaration of Barmen.

Similar concerns about almost-unquestioned support for certain brands of politics and the governments deeply influenced by those brands have been raised in the U.S. because of the close association of what's been too-broadly called the "Christian Right" with the Republican Party, beginning roughly with the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Instead of playing the patriotic role of being critical of governmental policies that injure or in other ways burden the poor, the homeless, the elderly and others whom our economy doesn't serve well, many representatives from that branch of the faith have cheered on the very trickle-down economic policies that contribute to poverty, mass incarceration, failing educational systems and more, harming the very people about whom Jesus seemed to care the most.

So there are lessons for America's religious institutions in what has been happening in Russia. As the song "Dance with the Devil" by the rapper and activist Immortal Technique puts it: "So when the devil wants you to dance you better say never, a dance with the devil might just last you forever."

* * *

THE 9/11 PLEA DEAL COMES BACK TO LIFE

The plea agreement between the military court at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay and three of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. seems to be back in play. Thank goodness.

As this Lawdragon article explains, a military judge has ruled "that the (U.S.) Secretary of Defense did not have the legal authority to withdraw from plea agreements reached with three of the defendants by the official he appointed to oversee the court." So it now appears, as the article notes, that "the signed plea deals with the accused plot mastermind, Khalid Shaik Mohammad, and two co-defendants," Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, may move forward.

In those plea deals, the three "agreed to plead guilty to all charges related to their alleged roles in the 9/11 attacks in exchange for the death penalty being removed as a sentencing option." They also agreed to answer questions posed by family members of those they helped to murder in the 2001 terrorist attacks. As a member of a 9/11 family, I had already submitted my questions before the plea deal got cancelled. So we'll see if I get answers to them eventually. (My nephew was among the nearly 3,000 people murdered that day.)

Late in this past week, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he hadn't changed his mind that he's the person who should make the final decision about the plea deals. If he appeals the military judge's decision overturning his action to stop the plea deal, I hope the courts will rule against Austin.

By the way, Lawdragon, the source of the article to which I linked you, was started in 2005 as a digital publication covering legal matters and has come to be depended on as a reliable source of news about the cases at Gitmo, as has the relentless and excellent reporting of Carol Rosenberg of The New York Times. Here is the article Carol wrote about this matter. Here, too, is a link to the August column I wrote for The Kansas City Star praising the plea deal.

* * *

P.S.: Once again, voter turnout in Kansas City this past Tuesday was simply appalling. As The Star reported, "Turnout in the part of Kansas City within Jackson County, which is served by the Kansas City Election Board, saw a voter turnout just under 54%. That’s the lowest turnout for a presidential election since at least 1996." Among the many threats to our democracy -- before and after the election -- low voter turnout is one that is simply self-inflicted and is impossible to justify. Let's gather together election experts, lawyers, social workers and many others to figure out what it will take to fix this. Nothing about our democracy, including religious freedom, is safe if voters simply sit on their hands.