Caution: there is a desire to use the church factor in the political struggle

It’s my point of principle not to touch on political matters. However, when they aim to involve the Church in a political game or use it, it would be wrong to keep silent.

Given the latest resonant events in the media around the Church, all these days I’ve been indwelt with a persistent feeling that the Church is employed to "swing" the situation in the country. Why?

In our media era, the average piece of news "lives" in the information space for several hours. A scandalous item lives for a day. A bombshell – perhaps, for two days. It is very strange that the topic of church-related events in Zaporozhye has been exaggerated for almost two weeks. This topic is heated in the media, which do not only launch new publications, but also make new actions in the development of the situation.

Judge for yourself. The very news about the baby being refused a burial service sprang up three days before Christmas. A scandal broke out in the media and in society before a big holiday. It would seem that Christmas should have killed this information wave. No. It subsided for a short while and after the holiday they began to inflate the wave in the media again.

Since it is impossible to maintain powwow on one topic for long, then you need other actions. As refreshment, here's an action for you.

January 8 – protest action of radicals from S14 is organized near the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Again, an outcry in the media and society comes back to this topic after a big holiday. It is kept in focus for several days. Let’s proceed further.

On January 11, the prosecutor's office opens a completely absurd criminal trial for this church case. Many have already spoken about the absurdity of this action, because the Church is separated from the state; it is not the business of the state to determine and force priests whom to baptize or bury, and whom not to; there are no laws or mechanisms that the state could have in this respect.... This is all absurd, but in this absurdity the situation will develop further.

January 12 – a search is conducted in Zaporozhye of the public organization "Radomir", which is allegedly connected with Zaporozhye eparchy of the UOC. A lot of row once more, but within a day or two the society calms down.

Tuesday, January 16 – a message in the media referring to the radicals: the radicals plan provocations near the monastery. First, there would be a rally at the Verkhovna Rada, and then a march to the Lavra. Isn’t it clear that someone is trying to shake the situation in the country, and church events are just a pretext and not more?

Politicians and political technologists say that the Church is the cheapest way to raise the level of emotions in the country, I wrote about this in one of my previous posts here on Facebook. All other methods are much more expensive. An example with sluggish protests against Saakashvili is very indicative. People are not ready to go to the streets, people are tired, and people do not trust anyone. How to get people to wake up and sing? You need something to make them feel outraged and rise to the occasion. Something like beating students on the Maidan in late 2013.

Church. Religion. It is necessary to sting to the quick, which will cause a storm of indignation and commotion. You need to lay your hand on the holy.

It is a subterfuge.

First, they organize unrest at the Lavra. Then make an attempt to seize it. Believers rise to defend their shrine (and there are a lot of such people). People across the country will begin to resent it and this outrage will be directed against the current government in the country. That is, probably, there is a calculation that national indignation and the power of emotions will at some point lose their religious color and turn into political. Political technologists know how to do this.

Thus, the radicals from S14 and nationalists of that ilk, including even religious organizations such as the UOC-KP, are just a tool in this game and in this attack, and nothing more. They are simply used. The object of the attack is the UOC. But the final target of these “passing moves” is the current power and stability in the country.

For this reason the Church is involved into these developments. In politics, everything is very cynical. No one is interested in the fate or, even more so, the posthumous fate of the child from Zaporozhye, and, furthermore, whether the baptism or funeral service were right or false. These are internal church issues. This is nothing more than an occasion to stir up the people namely today. After all, similar cases have taken place before with other faiths.

For example, in 2015 the priest of the UGCC in Lvov region refused to bury the deceased, whose family owed money to the church. For more details link here.

While in Zaporozhye the priest referred to the church canons, that is, we deal with an ideological and ecclesiastical motif here, then in the Greek-Catholic case above it is only about money. But nothing followed. There was not a big scandal, because there was no hit piece or desire to fan this topic in the media.

The second case was with the same Greek Catholics in August 2017. Their priest in the same Lvov region refused to hear confession before the death of the man who did not go to the temple, and after his death refused to perform the burial order over him, and in addition, began to demand money for the deceased only to be brought to the temple. Link here for more details.

Well, again there was just a small resonance, but there was no scandal as vibrant as the one in Zaporozhye.

However, one could also make up big theology and a wave in the media around this topic of the UGCC. For example, a robber who was crucified on the cross near the Savior was not baptized and repented, and the Savior accepted his repentance and even took him first to paradise with him. On the contrary, the Greek Catholic priest refused to accept the confession from a living person, a baptized person who, even though he did not go to the temple, could want to repent before his death. Moreover, the Greek Catholic priest did not even bury him. That is, should it be desired, it would be possible to inflate the topic, including with the help of religious opponents, as it was in the Zaporozhye case, which representatives of the UOC-KP helped to fan in the media space. Yet, there was no request in this regard.

At the moment the attempts to ignite a wave of hatred against the UOC reaches the point of absurdity. Yesterday I read in the media (I will not give a link) that supposedly the priest of the UOC-MP in one of the cities of eastern Ukraine personally killed a dog (!!!). "Maliciously, sensibly, deliberately, consistently", and at the same time they refer to some blogger with a fictitious name.

Again we return to fakes. What is it done for? To "heat up" our society, raise the level of emotion in the country. And it seems to me that the state should be aware of this danger. It is no coincidence that the other day in Zaporozhye, the National Guard was engaged to protect the churches of the UOC and UOC-KP in order to avoid provocations.

I will be frank: such a possible development of the situation was known before. But there was a hope that these were only opinions, myths. However, these myths are becoming more real day by day. It means one cannot be silent any longer.

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