Abortion and Population

[Fake Messiah]

1) Using religion as a "justification" is, from the Russian perspective, a very minor thing. This war is much more about "Make Russia Great Again" followed by the false allegations of Ukrainian naziism. Calling this a "religious" war is misleading.

I didn't call it a religious war (altough maybe it is) but that Putin uses religion. And even in non religious wars, religion almost always plays a part and makes it worse.

I also would not say that religion plays a very minor thing in the Putin's war. Here is an article that I pasted some months ago:

Russia’s apparent reversion to warlordism has been abetted by a strain of Russian religious fundamentalism that openly celebrates death. Some Russian clergy have been telling their congregations that they can “become themselves” only through the act of killing. The “special military operation” in Ukraine, they are told, is a struggle for “all of God’s creation.” As one of Putin’s chief propagandists, Vladimir Solovyov, said in a New Year’s message on Russian television:

“Life is highly overrated. Why fear what is inevitable? Especially when we’re going to heaven. Death is the end of one earthly path and the beginning of another. Don’t let fear of death influence decisions. It’s only worth living for something you can die for, that’s the way it should be ... We are fighting against satanists. This is a holy war, and we have to win.”

Likewise, Magomed Khitanaev, a Chechen theologian and Russian army commander, portrays Ukraine as a latter-day Sodom and Gomorrah: “We’re asking: Oh, Ukrainians, why did you permit gay parades in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odessa? Why did you permit it? Why didn’t you come out against them, against your government that was overtaken by fascists? Without shame before God, people, they are openly, manifestly spreading their filth.”

[...]

According to Evans, this earlier Vladimir Solovyov called for, “a universal theocracy under a Russian czar, to hasten humanity’s ‘long and difficult passage from beast-mankind to God-mankind.’” Once accomplished, adherents to the faith would “become immortal spiritual beings – only Christ has reached this stage so far, but all humanity will soon follow.” While Solovyov believed that this evolution could be advanced with magic, Fedorov himself advocated scientific means. But both ultimately “agreed that humanity would be saved by Russian theocracy.”

As we watch ideological madness play out in Russia, we must be mindful of its roots in Russian Orthodoxy.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commen...ek-2023-02