Putin to protect Christians?

One should always take a ruler's pronouncements with a grain of salt and "put not your trust in princes...", but the words he says, one can at least hope that he means it and will get some good result. However, is it possible you could refer to Putin's words without pointing at such a... nutty website? Rothschilds and NWO etc? That's conspiracy theory nonsense talking right there.

I certainly hope he is, as I have no doubt that he is a faithful Christian. however, I must also agree with gzt that he is an elected official, and I would amend gzt's comment to say to take a Lot's wife of salt.

ArmyMatt said:

I certainly hope he is, as I have no doubt that he is a faithful Christian. however, I must also agree with gzt that he is an elected official, and I would amend gzt's comment to say to take a Lot's wife of salt.

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Agreed

I'm Cynical with what Putin is doing I'm sure he will protect Christians but to advance his own agenda he is a leader of a nation-state after all but I shouldn't judge what is in his heart. I think we need to look at our own Orthodox history the early Kings and monarchs of the Roman Empire didn't legalize Christianity because they felt sorry for persecuting the Christians in the Catacombs they had their own interests however no matter the reason Christianity was protected and paganism was even for a while suppressed. By the way don't get me wrong their were Christ loving Kings and Queens I don't mean all of them.

It is not 'why' one becomes Orthodox, but 'that' one is Orthodox.

I think of Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine, though the motivations to adopt Christianity may be viewed cynically, his conversion was a valiant victory for the Way of Christ.

I pray Putin may permit the church to be well nourished in this present world so it may blossom in coming generations.

"I have no doubt that he is a faithful Christian."

That gave me a chuckle today

Putin may be good or bad, for any number of reasons. Is he doing what others are unwilling to do, however? I mean, you look at the USA and its politicians cannot wait to send arms into the latest conflict, and for some reason are sure they know the good from the bad on the ground of places they only ever visit with armed convoys (*cough* McCain). So I don't really see how Putin is so terrible for openly stating, as he has on several occasions, that Russia is intervening on behalf of the legitimate government of Syria because the "rebels" are mostly Islamist scum. He's not wrong, even if he is authoritarian and bad (by hypocritical western standards, that is), and even if people did die in the Nord-Ost attack. (Funny how that's spun, by the way..."130 die from gas on his orders!" What about the Chechen terrorists who had taken them hostage in the first place? Is it better that they get to blow everyone up or shoot everyone so that everyone dies, instead of 130? There were 850-900 hostages.)

When you are in situations that don't have clear cut "good" outcomes like that, sometimes it's necessary to consider all possible outcomes and settle on one that is not good, but is not as bad as the worst possible ones. I'm not even saying that's what Putin or the Spetsnaz did in this case or any other particular case, only that 130 dead is 'better' (again, only comparatively; you could never say that if you consider the enormous weight of 130 dead on their families and such) than 900 dead. And also, they killed 40 of the terrorists. That is something I would say is actually a clear cut good, as that is 40 terrorists who can't hold another theater hostage.

Unfortunately I think the only protection Christians will get in these war-torn areas, presently or in the future, is to leave. There are too many radicals indoctrinating children, and spreading this hateful ideology. I don't see a time without instability and fear for the native population of Christians.

" the Church couldn't put any trust in Emperor Constantine either?"

Yes, Christ is our only hope. The saints manifest the life of Christ, and our trust in them is insofar as they manifest that life, but they are still fallen human beings.

Point is, we do not put our trust in political systems, persons, etc. I do think some of the language used here by some commentators borders on a almost knee jerk response to an idealized image they have of Putin and his policies because they fall in line with their own political ideologies. Sometimes, especially with Americans, the two (Christianity and politics) become conflated with one another Please see my post about 10 ways you can tell if your Christianity has been Americanized.

And just by the way - I am EO, my family is EO, my MOM from territory which is currently called Ukraine, my Grand-Mom is from territory which is currently called Ukraine, my Grand-Fa and some other relatives are grave-yarded on territory which is currently called Ukraine, my Great-Fa lost his life on WW2 in fighting against Hitlers scum and his local racist-facist scum, which is currently glorified in/on Ukraine ( "Heil Ukraine- Heil Heroes" is about them) and a lot of other ppl, who are EO,from Ukraine are agree with me.

"Constantine was a bloody guy at times as well. Yet he's a saint. Go figure."

Yes, but by the grace of God, not because of his policies.

I see a problematic conflation of Putin's political actions with Orthodoxy. I see quite a few of my Orthodox FB friends almost say things that could be construed as treason (wishing for the downfall of the West/America, wishing for Putin to be victorious in his actions, etc)

That in my opinion is overstepping the bounds.

Please guys

This has gone very political - and should not be here.

Could I suggest we all step back and leave things for a bit ?

we can't talk about politics?

talk - yes

this is developing into a fight - not a good idea

Everything you need to know about relation between UA and RU in on 1 picture.
Yellow - presents of TSARS, blue - Bolsheviks presents, Green - Stalin's, Crimea- after stalin ukranian Commie, and rest of it is possible to disclame as kinda-kinda Ukranian land, not a country.

BukiRob said:

http://www.newsweek.com/putin-cracks-down-christians-crimea-337412

Is this the actions of one who is a believer?

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Not much different from the actions of Christian emperors enforcing the decisions of the Ecumenical councils, is it?

Russia's stricter rules on foreign religious personnel have forced the closure of a small Roman Catholic convent in Simferopol. In January, a Polish Roman Catholic priest was fined and forced to leave for ministering in Yalta while on a tourist visa.

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The priest should have got a work visa. He broke the law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
133 of his own people were killed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege
over 383 confirmed dead including 186 children

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I don't understand how you shift responsibility from the Moslem terrorists onto Putin. How do you think these hostage situations could have been resolved without loss of civilian life?

You might as well try and convince me that Hitler was a christian. Putin is acting right out of Hitler's play book citing the same justification of invading Ukraine that Hitler cited as a reason to invade Czechoslovakia namely that he was protecting "ethnic people" which is an utter load of bunk.

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Putin is most assuredly protecting Russian interests in Crimea. It is the only warm water port they have. Everywhere else freezes up in Winter.

I might as well get some mileage out of this...

Admin Hat...

It seems many can post more prolifically than they can read.

This thread has been cleaned up. There was a whole bunch of posts that violated the congregational rule; and all were off topic.

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Concerning topic:

Putin is not angel, but isnt devil also. He realizes interests of mob by which he is controlled. Sometimes it brings profit to Christian, sometimes - nope. Currently Christians will get profit from winning Asad (if he will win with Putin).