Russia, the Middle East, and Religious Political Rhetoric

Are you as confused as I am about the situation in the Middle East and the recent Russian involvement? Knowing some history about the Russian involvement there, which goes back deep into the Middle Ages, helps.

This brief history of that involvement appeared today in the NY Times.  I encourage you to read it if you can access it.

Here’s a brief summary of the deep history:

Russia’s ties to the region are rooted in its self-assigned role as the defender of Orthodox Christianity, which it claimed to inherit from the Byzantine Caesars after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 — hence “czars.” The czars presented Moscow not just as a Third Rome, but also as a New Jerusalem, and protector of Christians in the Balkans and the Arab world, which, including the Holy Places of Jerusalem, were ruled by the Ottomans after 1517.

Devout peasants believed before they died that they should make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and dip their shrouds in the Jordan. Until 1917, the czars blessed the waters of “the Jordan” every Jan. 6, in the Moscow, or later the Neva, River.

Political and military power that is supported by religious rhetoric and a sense of destiny make dangerous combinations. Unfortunately, such combinations are also the source of most wars and invasions. When a person/nation is convinced that God, however they understand God, wants them and their understanding of God to take over the world, bloodshed and mayhem inevitably result.

This drive stands behind ISIS now. It stood behind the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the US Civil War, and goodness knows how much more.

Right now, it also stands behind several candidates currently in the race for election as President of the US.

I grieve that as a Christian, I warn against those who call themselves “Christian” and claim that the hand and direction of God has guided them into that office. They trouble me deeply because behind much of their rhetoric lies the theology that God wants them to take over the world and impose their version of Christianity upon it. Much of that version includes the reinstatement of Levitical law upon the nation–and the world.

Politics and religion are inextricably intertwined. I urge us all, as we go deeper into this season of election politics, to exercise wise discernment. Please consider being wary of those who declare that God is on their side. Those are often exceedingly dangerous words.