I recently read an article on the CNN news site which revealed the real motivations for Vladimir Putin's invasion of the Ukraine. He is, at heart, a conservative (as all dictators are, though their conservatism is entirely self-serving). He is chummy with the ultra-conservative head of the Russian Orthodox Church, known as Patriarch Kirill. Like all ultra-conservative Christians, Kirill sees homosexuality as a sign of social decadence. (It isn't, but I'll discuss that shortly.) Kirill has developed a standard by which to judge the decency of any society: whether or not it allows gay pride parades to be held in its cities. Well, the Ukraine allowed a large gay pride parade in its capital city of Kiev in 2021, and has permitted others in past years. For Kirill and Putin, that may have been the last straw. The Ukraine, which was involved in the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church, and which has been part of Russia at various times over the centuries, may now appear to them to be irredeemably decadent. If you have been watching the news reports coming from Ukraine since the war started, you have undoubtedly seen young people with pink or red hair. Pink hair has become a fashion among young "non-binary" transgender people, so that may also be seen as evidence of decadence by Putin and Kirill.
This explains why Putin isn't just trying to annex the Ukraine, but is trying to murder its population. He is angry at all Ukrainians for emulating the West and for wanting the Ukraine to be a European-style democracy. He is angry at them for rejecting the conservatism of the Russian church and his own twisted morality. Almost all conservative Christian churches are patriarchal. Indeed, Judaism (and thus Christianity, which is an offshoot of Judaism) advises women and children to slavishly follow the dictates of the male head of the household, even if he is cruel. Given that the ideal Christian man is something of a monster, Putin undoubtedly sees himself as just the right kind of male leader in a decadent world: dictatorial, uncompromising, unrelenting, demanding, punishing, unforgiving. Putin is a throw-back to an earlier era when a man could do no wrong.
It should be noted that God himself is portrayed in the Bible as a jealous, angry, judgemental Jehovah, especially in the Old Testament. That is one of the reasons why Christianity could not possibly be the true religion, since such a God could not possibly exist.
To any conservative Christian who may still be reading this article, you may agree with Putin that homosexuality is a sign of social decadence. But how can that be true? Every country and culture has homosexuals, which means that all cultures and countries must be considered corrupt. Most people now understand that homosexuals don't ask to be made homosexual. Indeed, if God created man, then God created homosexuals. That being the case, they deserve the same rights that everyone else has (or should have), which includes the right to live their lives as they please as long as they don't harm anyone, to work, to marry, to have a place to live, to participate in public events, and to demonstrate for their rights. Conservative Christians who want homosexuals to be invisible are simply denying the reality of their existence and applying the double standard that only some people deserve freedom. Such double standards are not fair or consistent with democratic ideals. So if you are a religious conservative who believes such a thing, I suggest that you hightail it to Russia, where Putin and Kirill will welcome you with open arms (and then put you in jail because you are from the West).
A couple days after I started this article, Putin confirmed my interpretation of his character when he stated in public that Russians who want to live a Western lifestyle are traitors to Russia. Of course, there are undoubtedly a lot of conservative Ukrainians. For Putin to kill Ukrainians indiscriminately just because the young are more liberal than their elders is monstrous, to say the least.
This takes me to an aspect of Putin's character that I just don't understand. Is he religious, or is he an atheist? If he doesn't believe in an afterlife, then he doesn't believe that he will ever be judged; and yet here he is, chums with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. If Putin is religious, then isn't he worried for his immortal soul? Isn't he worried that he will end up in Hell for killing people indiscriminately? Personally, I don't believe in Hell, but I do believe in karma, and the karmic debt that he is creating must be enormous. Putin may see himself as a modern-day Jehovah destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, meaning that Putin has a latticework of justifications for his behavior: God condones violence if it is against sinful people; Western values are sinful; so killing people with Western values is right and proper. Actually, this is the way that a lot of conservative Christians feel, which is why it is so hard to respect them as a group. But Putin is forgetting that he is not God. He was a KGB operative who cleverly manipulated himself into power. If he now sees himself as Father Russia, upholding the Christian faith, he is just fooling himself.
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