Russophobia Gets Christians In Hot Water

 

Believe it or not, there are hundreds of millions of self-identified “Christians” in America today, who fear their enemies.

Many would even like to do grievous bodily harm to their enemies. Or rather, they would like to see others (say, their government) do harm to their enemies — preemptively — on their behalf.

But in matter of fact, it is much worse than that.

Today, hundreds of millions of “Christians” fear and would do harm to those who they are only led to believe are their enemies, but who are not their enemies at all.

If Jesus were still in his grave, I imagine he would feel like rolling over about now.

Remember, this is the same Jesus who expressly commanded his followers not to fear death, or hate their enemies, but on the contrary, to love, bless, pray for, and do good to their enemies.

According to the 2014 Religious Landscape Study by Pew Research Center, a clear majority (70.6%) of Americans still self-identify as “Christian”.

And yet, you could be forgiven for thinking that a majority of those (roughly extrapolated) 225 million self-identifying “Christian” citizens of the U.S.A. either have not heard, or, have not taken into their hearts, the clear commandment of Jesus most famously taught in his magisterial Sermon on the Mount.

Because according to a 2014 Global Attitudes Survey*, also by Pew Research Center, some 72% of Americans have an “Unfavorable View” of Russia. Indeed, according to a recent Gallup poll, Americans now consider Russia to be their “greatest enemy”, with 49% of survey respondents considering its military power to be a “critical threat”.

Incongruently for a purportedly “Christian” nation, some 54% of Americans believe that the U.S. is not being “tough enough” with Russia, according to another Pew Research Center study whose findings were published last month.

Apparently, having their government exercise their nation’s power to force other nations to support the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia — with a deliberate intent to cause suffering for her people, in hope of prompting them to rise up and overthrow their government — is not “tough enough” for America’s “Christian” believers.

In Europe, this incongruity between proclaimed “Christian” beliefs and manifested un-Christ-like behaviour is even more marked.

According to a 2011 National Survey, some 87.5% of people in Poland claim to be Christian; in Pew Research Center’s 2014 Global Attitudes Survey, 81% of Poles held an unfavorable view of Russia. So much so, that the Polish government has “embarked on a lavish defence spending spree to buy new heavy arms and equipment”, and passed legislation with a view to compulsory military training for all able-bodied men.

Other “Christian”-majority nations of the European Union such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Germany display similar trends; indeed, three out of four of these majority “Christian” Western European nations exhibit a stronger “unfavorable view” of Russia than does France, arguably the most secular nation in Europe.

So what terrible thing, exactly, has Russia done to the people of the U.S.A., U.K., Poland, Italy, Spain, and Germany, that might justify their many hundreds of millions of “Christians” holding such an overwhelmingly “unfavorable view” of her, much less labelling her their “greatest enemy”?

Let us imagine for a moment, that all of the things the “Christians” of the West have been told about Russia are in fact true. Let us imagine that Russia did annex the Crimean Peninsula. Invaded Eastern Ukraine. Provided East Ukrainians with a missile launcher, that was used to shoot down an airliner. Let us imagine too, that Russia’s overwhelmingly popular leader does aspire to recreate the Soviet Union.

Even if all of this were true — a gentle hint, none of it is — would it relieve a true Christian of their divine duty to “fear not them which kill the body…”? Would it relieve them of their divine imperative to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”?

The next time a “Christian” in the Western world experiences a feeling of fear while watching a “world leader”, government official, “expert” “analyst”, or TV news anchor “reporting” on Russia, Iran, Syria, North Korea, or any other supposed boogeyman in a far-away land, they might do well for the future of their immortal soul to consider something else that Jesus Christ had to say:

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

 

 

* Pew Research Center is “a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C., that provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world”.

In light of this, thinking readers will find it noteworthy that “(N)early all interviews were conducted after Putin’s statement on March 18^th that Russia would annex Crimea. A majority of interviews in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom were completed within a week of the announcement”. How convenient.