Western Europeans see the Orthodox and eastern Christians as satraps and a bunch of smugglers, while the Orthodox regard the Crusaders as barbarian usurpers bent on world conquest.
By Pepe Escobar, posted with the Author’s permission and cross-posted with The Cradle
Under an ubiquitous, toxic atmosphere of cognitive dissonance drenched in Russophobia, it’s absolutely impossible to have a meaningful discussion on finer points of Russian history and culture across the NATO space – a phenomenon I’m experiencing back in Paris right now, fresh from a long stint in Istanbul.
At best, in a semblance of civilized dialogue, Russia is pigeonholed in the reductionist view of a threatening, irrational, ever-expanding empire – a way more wicked version of Ancient Rome, Achaemenid Persia, Ottoman Turkey or Mughal India.
The fall of the USSR a little over three decades ago did hurl Russia back three centuries – to its borders in the 17th century. Russia, historically, had been interpreted as a secular empire – immense, multiple and multinational. This is all informed by history, very much alive even today in the Russian collective unconscious.
When Operation Z started I was in Istanbul – the Second Rome. I spent a considerable time of my late night walks around Hagia Sophia reflecting on the historical correlations of the Second Rome with the Third Rome – which happens to be Moscow, since the concept was first enounced at the start of the 16th century.
Later, back in Paris, banishment to soliloquy territory seemed inevitable until an academic pointed me to some substance, although heavily distorted by political correctness, available in the French magazine Historia.
There’s at least an attempt to discuss the Third Rome. The significance of the concept was initially religious before becoming political – encapsulating the Russian drive to become the leader of the Orthodox world in contrast with Catholicism. This has to be understood also in the context of pan-Slavic theories springing up under the first Romanov and then reaching their apogee in the 19th century.
Eurasianism – and its several declinations – treats the complex Russian identity as double-faced, between east and west. Western liberal democracies simply can’t understand that these ideas – infusing varied brands of Russian nationalism – do not imply hostility to “enlightened” Europe, but an affirmation of Difference (they could learn a bit from reading more Gilles Deleuze for that matter). Eurasianism also weighs on closer relations with Central Asia and necessary alliances, in various degrees, with China and Turkey.
A perplexed liberal west remains hostage to a vortex of Russian images which it can’t properly decode – from the two-headed eagle, which is the symbol of the Russian state since Peter the Great, to the Kremlin cathedrals, the St. Petersburg citadel, the Red Army entering Berlin in 1945, the May 9 parades (the next one will be particularly meaningful), and historical figures from Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great. At best – and we’re talking academic level ‘experts’ – they identify all of the above as “flamboyant and confused” imagery.
The Christian/Orthodox divide
The apparently monolithic liberal west itself also cannot be understood if we forget how, historically, Europe is also a two-headed beast: one head may be tracked from Charlemagne all the way to the awful Brussels Eurocrat machine; and the other one comes from Athens and Rome, and via Byzantium/Constantinople (the Second Rome) reaches all the way to Moscow (the Third Rome).
Latin Europe, for the Orthodox, is seen as a hybrid usurper, preaching a distorted Christianity which only refers to St. Augustine, practicing absurd rites and neglecting the very important Holy Ghost. The Europe of Christian Popes invented what is considered a historical hydra – Byzantium – where Byzantines were actually Greeks living under the Roman Empire.
Western Europeans for their part see the Orthodox and the Christians from the East (see how they were abandoned by the west in Syria under ISIS and Al Qaeda) as satraps and a bunch of smugglers – while the Orthodox regard the Crusaders, the Teutonic chevaliers and the Jesuits – correctly, we must say – as barbarian usurpers bent on world conquest.
In the Orthodox canon, a major trauma is the fourth Crusade in 1204 which utterly destroyed Constantinople. The Frankish chevaliers happened to eviscerate the most dazzling metropolis in the world, which congregated at the time all the riches from Asia.
That was the definition of cultural genocide. The Frankish also happened to be aligned with some notorious serial plunderers: the Venetians. No wonder, from that historical juncture onwards, a slogan was born: “Better the Sultan’s turban than the Pope’s tiara.”
So since the 8th century, Carolingian and Byzantine Europe were de facto at war across an Iron Curtain from the Baltics to the Mediterranean (compare it with the emerging New Iron Curtain of Cold War 2.0). After the barbarian invasions, they neither spoke the same language nor practiced the same writing, rites or theology.
This fracture, significantly, also trespassed Kiev. The west was Catholic – 15% of Greek catholics and 3% of Latins – and in the center and the east, 70% Orthodox, who became hegemonic in the 20th century after the elimination of Jewish minorities by mainly the Waffen-SS of the Galicia division, the precursors of Ukraine’s Azov batallion.
Constantinople, even in decline, managed to pull off a sophisticated geo-strategic game to seduce the Slavs, betting on Muscovy against the Catholic Polish-Lithuanian combo. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 allowed Muscovy to denounce the treason of Greeks and Byzantine Armenians who rallied around the Roman Pope, who badly wanted a reunified Christianity.
Afterward, Russia ends up constituting itself as the only Orthodox nation that did not fall under Ottoman domination. Moscow regards itself – as Byzantium – as a unique symphony between spiritual and temporal powers.
Third Rome becomes a political concept only in the 19th century – after Peter the Great and Catherine the Great had vastly expanded Russian power. The key concepts of Russia, Empire and Orthodoxy are fused. That always implies Russia needs a ‘near abroad’ – and that bears similarities with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vision (which, significantly, is not imperial, but cultural).
As the vast Russian space has been in constant flow for centuries, that also implies the central role of the concept of encirclement. Every Russian is very much aware of territorial vulnerability (remember, for starters, Napoleon and Hitler). Once the western borderland is trespassed, it’s an easy ride all the way to Moscow. Thus, this very unstable line must be protected; the current correlation is the real threat of Ukraine made to host NATO bases.
Onward to Odessa
With the fall of the USSR, Russia found itself in a geopolitical situation last encountered in the 17th century. The slow and painful reconstruction was spearheaded from two fronts: the KGB – later FSB – and the Orthodox church. The highest-level interaction between the Orthodox clergy and the Kremlin was conducted by Patriarch Kirill – who later became Putin’s minister of religious affairs.
Ukraine for its part had become a de facto Moscow protectorate way back in 1654 under the Treaty of Pereyaslav: much more than a strategic alliance, it was a natural fusion, in progress for ages by two Orthodox Slav nations.
Ukraine then falls under the Russian orbit. Russian domination expands until 1764, when the last Ukrainian hetman (commander-in-chief) is officially deposed by Catherine the Great: that’s when Ukraine becomes a province of the Russian empire.
As Putin made it quite clear this week: “Russia cannot allow the creation of anti-Russian territories around the country.” Operation Z will inevitably encompass Odessa, founded in 1794 by Catherine the Great.
The Russians at the time had just expelled the Ottomans from the northwest of the Black Sea, which had been successively run by Goths, Bulgars, Hungarians and then Turkish peoples – all the way to the Tatars. Odessa at the start was peopled, believe it or not, by Romanians who were encouraged to settle there after the 16th century by the Ottoman sultans.
Catherine chose a Greek name for the city – which at the start was not Slav at all. And very much like St. Petersburg, founded a century earlier by Peter the Great, Odessa never stopped flirting with the west.
Tsar Alexander I, in the early 19th century, decides to turn Odessa into a great trading port – developed by a Frenchman, the Duke of Richelieu. It was from the port of Odessa that Ukrainian wheat started to reach Europe. By the turn of the 20th century, Odessa is truly multinational – after having attracted, among others, the genius of Pushkin.
Odessa is not Ukrainian: it’s an intrinsic part of the Russian soul. And soon the trials and tribulations of history will make it so again: as an independent republic; as part of a Novorossiya confederation; or attached to the Russian Federation. The people of Odessa will decide.
This clash comes into sharper focus when one understands
who wants the 2 sides of Christianity destroyed
so Pharisaism (aka Judaism) could remain standing.
http://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/the-war-on-christianity/
There are no ” two sides” of Christianity
This diatribe is IMO too schematical and too geopolitically predisposed. For example Tsar Peter the Great happened to profess great affection for Holland and its notorious freedom of religion. (Holland offered a refuge for all freethinkers like Spinoza or Descartes, or Huguenot intellectuals) In Zaandam (where he learned the craft of ship building carpentry) he visited the Mennonite church on his state visit to Holland. He keenly praised in Dutch the length of the preaching (very short and to the point), contrasting this with the unfocused long-winded sermons of his own Orthodox priest. Indeed, Peter the Great insisted that along the Nevsky Prospekt there should be build churches for a plurality of christian denominations (Dutch reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, Armenian) right next to the Orthodox churches, so that the inhabitants of the new Russian capital Saint Petersburg would be acquainted with the existing Christian plurality of faith within their own place of living. This enlightened program of religious tolerance has become part of Russian statehood. Catherine the Great invited Mennonite and Lutheran Germans to settle along the Volga and in the neighbourhood of Mariupol, because she greatly admired the working ethos of these Protestant Christians.
Catherine the Great also promoted the ‘Third Rome’ narrative with regard to Moscow, but up to 1917 Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russian intellectual culture. It means that even within Russia one can notice enlightened religious tolerance and plurality of ideas living together with a deep felt Orthodox Christian faith. Perhaps Saint Petersburg was more enlightened than Paris where the Protestant Huguenots were exterminated during the early modern era.
This comment doesn’t seem to contradict anything in the article. Only an extension of the same discussion really.
You will do well to read Sam Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and The New World Order. History of Christianity is 2000 years, and history of Russia and all of Europe is 1000 or a little more. There will be overlaps, but generally it is not a strict division between them and us. People move where peace and money is.
Take for example the muslim bureaucrat in 8th/9th century, Abu Fadhlan, who was emissary of Abbasid ruler to these lands. He talks about the Volga Rus, and the place being melting pot of business via rivers from Northern and Southern peoples. Vikings of those times weren’t as barbaric as Netflix will have you think. That is a collective British and French thinking because that shaped their part of the world. Trade and flow of ideas was as valued in the past as now. People know which idea has supremacy and high probability of survival of species. It changes their fundamental way of thinking, which it did for all these regions around black sea and baltics.
This conflict is outrageous, but it might wake the people up to improve. They just need to switch off their TV for a few months.
Pepe’s article does mention Peter the Great’s name but doesn’t refer to what Peter the Great accomplished: building a new European capital and introducing European culture into Russia via Saint Petersburg. The imagination of Moscow as ‘The third Rome’ is historically not all so important as Pepe is constructing in his article. Catherine the Great sought through Crimea to connect Russian culture with the Ancient Greek & Roman civilisation and the ‘Third Rome’ narrative was helpful in this respect. But it remains an indisputable fact that Moscow was a backwater entity up to 1917. When one takes Saint Petersburg’s position in political, cultural & religious perspective serious, than it is not ‘catholicism’ what comes to mind when one views from Saint Petersburg to Europe, but first: Holland (the 17th/18th century hotspot of freethinking) and Prussia, which was the model state of Lutheranism. Saint Petersburg’s communication network with Europe functioned mostly through these Northern Protestant parts of Europe, which had freed themselves from Catholic ‘hegemonism’ thanks to the Reformation. In the 19th century the connecting network from Saint Petersburg with Europe expanded greatly thanks to the construction of railways. The Russian nobility liked to speak French and visit Paris, but the Saint Petersburg middle class spoke German and English because of the trade connections with Northern Germany and industrialised England. Well, who was more important for Ivan, the average Russian? Not the Russian nobility that detested Ivan and the Russian culture. During the course of 19th century Saint Petersburg becomes the hotspot of Russian nationalism and the revival of Russian oriented culture (away from the nobility orientation on Paris and French ‘haute culture’). Nowhere in these Saint Petersburg centered culture does ‘Catholicism’ or ‘the Pope’ play an important role. Pepe wrote his article in Paris with a single-minded orientation on ‘the Third Rome’, Moscow, forgetting the vital importance of Saint Petersburg, the true hotspot of Russian nationalism and freethinking.
Thanks for the insights, Pepe.
However, it worth mentioning the common root of Ukraine, Bielorussia an Russia on the marshes of Pripyat River as birthplace of Russ peoples. Then Rurikids dynasty which founded Kievan Russ. It was there when Orthodox Christianity became official religion, after Vladimir The Great baptized himself after long contacts with Constantinople as the capital of Eastern Roman Empire. After Kiev was completely wiped out by Mongols if took centuries until Grand Duchy of Muskow became the Russ peoples main hub then under Ivan IV The Terrible became first Russ Czar and expanded Russia close to what we have today. Orthodoxy remains as official religion until today but we should also mention that it is also main religion in Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, close to the heart of Europe. While Serbia and Bulgaria are from Slavic origins, Moldova and Romania are Latin countries.
Again, I appreciate your insights!
Don’t forget Macedonia and Montenegro. That said, although the outward trappings of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian religions are very different, the underlying dogma is virtually the same. It’s more of a style over substance issue and the Western cultural need to centrally control. It’s also more of a turf war than anything else.
I’m born in America, cradle Orthodox, raised on hating the Soviets, which were indeed a menace. These days, I’m finding our Western governments more at fault than the Russians by far. They just can’t let go their expansionist fantasies of turning every nation into vassals of the US Empire.
If they hadn’t tried to annex Ukraine, and Georgia before that, none of this stuff would be happening. They don’t belong in Ukraine and they know it. They’re just too proud to admit they’ve been screwing everything up all around the world.
That is almost the exact opposite of the truth, sorry. Papism is not only schismatic, but also heretical. The idea of the Papacy is heresy, usurping from God the spiritual headship of the Church. The Filioque Procedit they inserted into the Creed is a Trinitarian heresy, there a a number of other examples. In style, they try to ape the true Catholic Church which is Orthodoxy, but in substance they have nothing, nothing at all except spiritual and temporal confusion and authoritarianism.
Form over substance. My Orthodox priest, since deceased, said the same thing. He was from the old country.
http://christianityinview.com/comparison.html
I don’t particularly care about the filioque and stuff like that and I doubt God does either.
Then you will see your Orthodoxy lost, and lost forever. St Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople, once wrote in his ” Mystogogy of the Holy Spirit ” that the Western Filioque Trinitarian Error was most important of the Papist heresies, as did St. Mark of Ephesus, during the Pseudo Council of Florence. Seems to me that unfortunately there are those here who would be of those willing to surrender Orthodoxy to the West in return for their 30 pieces of silver, to drop what ” isn’t important “
The Soviets were never a menace. Already then, Western governments couldn’t let go their expansionist fantasies of turning every nation into vassals of the US (and before that the British) Empire, and the Soviets built a solid obstacle to those fantasies. Europe had its most prosperous time in the time of the Soviet Union, and it was thanks to the Soviet Union, who defeated (British and US sponsored) fascism in Europe and supported strong trade unions and left wing parties that brought wealth to the average people. Without the Soviets, there would be no Putin, Lavrov and Shoigu today (all formed by Soviet KGB) and no strong China either (Lenin helped Mao to come to power and expell the British invaders from China). The reasons why the West hates Russia and China today are not different from the reasons why they hated the Soviet Union, they simply hate any alternative to their monopolistic capitalist system.
Orthodox Christianity has been under attack for centuries and is able to survive. The spirituality is a key threat to western alliance of Christianity & Judaism; the learned ones know that spirituality by nature is far more powerful than the materialism. While the materialistic culture has short term success by encouraging and promoting the ego and self, it cannot be sustained in long run and constantly needs further and further degradation.
The alliance constantly fears that the spark of spirituality can reverse their success in degradation of human culture and enslavement of mankind in the mesh of ego and self. The web of deception will continue till the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ (May peace be upon him).
“…a key threat to western alliance of Christianity & Judaism” ?
This so-called alliance is a misnomer. Jesus the Christ did not combine his
message with the Pharisees.
I wonder if anyone has any insight into the third prophecy of Fatima? I seem to recall being led to believe by Roman Catholic friends long before the break-up of the Soviet Union, that it involved Russia as the saviour of the West faced with an anti-christ Pope. I believe Pope John-Paul blessed Russia with this in mind. Am I imagining all this?
Fatima is a false Satanic apparition pretending to be the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God, a lie from Hell preaching deceptive doctrines to an already deluded Papal sect.
ManintheMoon, by connecting the 3rd secret of Fatima with a salvific Russia, you could be describing the prophecies of Fatima in general, or else—especially by referring to an antichrist pope—you might be alluding more specifically to Fr. Paul Kramer’s interpretations of the Fatima prophecies.
In general, a consecration is a setting apart and a recognition of holiness. To the extent that a pope consecrates Russia, the pope sets Russia apart and recognizes Russia’s holiness. A priest or a monk or even a baptized Christian has a salvific mission from God. The 3rd secret of Fatima has to do with a general loss of faith, and a proper consecration of Russia—which has yet to occur—might well set Russia on the course of restoring this lost Christian faith.
More specifically, Fr. Paul Kramer takes the position that the loss of faith in the 3rd secret involves a unified Christian Church—an ecumenical union of the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant—which incorporates heresy on account of its ecumenism. Thus, Fr. Kramer interprets the loss of faith as being ecumenism.
I disagree with Fr. Kramer on this matter. A Christian must charitably respect other Christians who adhere to the Christian faith of the bishops of the first three ecumenical councils, the canons of which specify the creed that every Christian must profess and which prohibit every contrary creed. What is the point of stirring up disunion among Christians who adhere to the faith and who profess the creed that canon law specifies? How can you practically make distinctions among such Christians without introducing additional credal statements to which some adhere but which others reject? Are the resulting schisms and sectarianism not contrary to the canons of the third ecumenical council, as well as contrary to the charitable teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ?
What you describe also resembles the prophecy of Rudolph Gekner (died 1675) “A great prince of the North with a most powerful army will traverse all Europe, uproot all republics, and exterminate all rebels. His sword moved by Divine power will most valiantly defend the Church of Jesus Christ. He will combat on behalf of the true orthodox faith, and shall subdue to his dominion the Mahometan Empire. A new pastor of the universal church will come from the shore [of Dalmatia] through a celestial prodigy, and in simplicity of heart adorned with the doctrines of Jesus Christ. Peace will come to the world.”
Numerous ancient prophecies mention such a Great Monarch, many specifying a Frankish descent. (The current king of Spain is Bourbon by primogeniture.) Scripture mentions no such Great Monarch, apart from the second coming of Our Lord. To posit another Great Monarch seems suspiciously similar to following after the Antichrist. This link includes the quote above and much discussion of the subject.
https://www.cogwriter.com/great-monarch.htm
MS, you have a good point about materialism versus the faith—both in the West and in the East. The materialists nowadays do not understand the faithful at home or abroad. When Pepe Escobar says, “Western Europeans see the Orthodox and eastern Christians as satraps and a bunch of smugglers, while the Orthodox regard the Crusaders as barbarian usurpers bent on world conquest,” the depiction of the Orthodox view is right on. Satraps and smugglers, however? What is Mr. Escobar smoking?
The American view of Russia historically is of an Atheistic, Communist dictatorship. Americans view President Putin as a dictator either who is only pretending to have abandoned Communism or else who has abandoned it only because it is a stupid political philosophy that does not work in practice. Thus, Americans see President Putin as an Atheistic dictator who may or may not have abandoned his own stupid political philosophy. They see him as cold, brutal and depraved, much as the U.S. Defense Department spokesman, John Kirby, characterizes him.. Most Americans cannot distinguish the Orthodox from the Catholic and do not think of Russia as Christian anyhow but, rather, as Atheistic.
MS: “How is, “your normal, healthy, sane condition or self”* now a problem?” Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”**
*yourself pronoun
your·self | \ yər-ˈself , Southern also -ˈsef \
Definition of yourself
1b: your normal, healthy, or sane condition or self
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yourself
self noun
\ ˈself , Southern also ˈsef \
plural selves\ ˈselvz , Southern also ˈsevz \
Definition of self (Entry 1 of 5)
1a(1): an individual’s typical character or behavior
her true self was revealed
(2): an individual’s temporary behavior or character
his better self
b: a person in prime condition
feel like my old self today
2: the union of elements (such as body, emotions, thoughts, and sensations) that constitute the individuality and identity of a person
3: personal interest or advantage
4a: the entire person of an individual
b: the realization or embodiment of an abstraction
5: material that is part of an individual organism
ability of the immune system to distinguish self from nonself
self pronoun
Definition of self (Entry 2 of 5)
: MYSELF, HIMSELF, HERSELF
a check payable to self
self adjective
Definition of self (Entry 3 of 5)
1a: having a single character or quality throughout
specifically : having one color only
a self flower
b: of the same kind (as in color, material, or pattern) as something with which it is used
self trimming
2obsolete : IDENTICAL, SAME
3obsolete : belonging to oneself : OWN
self verb
selfed; selfing; selfs
Definition of self (Entry 4 of 5)
transitive verb
1: INBREED
2: to pollinate with pollen from the same flower or plant
intransitive verb
: to undergo self-pollination
self- combining form
Definition of self- (Entry 5 of 5)
1a: oneself or itself
self-supporting
b: of oneself or itself
self-abasement
c: by oneself or itself
self-propelled
self-acting
2a: to, with, for, or toward oneself or itself
self-consistent
self-addressed
self-love
b: of or in oneself or itself inherently
self-evident
c: from or by means of oneself or itself
self-fertile
**https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2012%3A30-31&version=NIV
There is only one Christianity and there is only one morality that Christianity conveys, no harm must come to the innocent. The weak and the innocent must be protected. This is what civilized man does and this is what God wants civilized man to do. The predator goes to great lengths to hide his true nature but he is always there as an adversary to Christ, Christians and Christianity.
Looking around at “Christians ” nowadays,especially those in the USA and its lackeys, none of this protection of the innocent seems to be in evidence.
Hence ‘le inhumane shield’ Azov/Others are using as their preferred method of protection in Mariupol. Stopped Russia in its tracks to its cost materialistically, morally/spiritually though Putin’s protection of the innocent will be recognised when the history books are written with this ‘proven as fact’, among others items such as their respectful treatment of POW’s. They will need their very best PLANNERS , Historians, Biologists/Chemists, Medical Experts & Academics to gather and collate this minefield of information and testimony.
Well said, Robert. You are absolutely bang on.
The innocent must be protected. That is literally The Law of Adomnan, The Canon Law of Adomnan, as proclaimed at the synod of Birr in 697.
St Adomnáin was the ninth abbot of Iona, after St Columba who founded the monastery. It was St Adomnáin who led the Catholic Celts into the Latin Rite.
It was St Adomnáin who put forth the law that is now promulgated by the Russsian Federation, as in protecting the civilian population, in its slow methodical advance towards their eventual success.
That is the Law, or Canon, that the Russians have respected.
May God Bless them
Robert, Christianity conveys that all of humanity is born dead in our sin, nobody is innocent and all are in need of a saviour. David says “I was conceived in sin”. Christianity conveys that our attempts to earn salvation are doomed to failure, hence the Law is revealed to have been a schoolmaster to train us until that saviour arrived. Now, the great good news is that Jesus is that saviour, and he alone is innocent and perfect, that acceptable once for all sacrifice which the Levitical cult could never achieve, and that Jesus also earned his own eternal life as guaranteed by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, and as redeemed by God’s raising him from the dead after completing that perfect work of sacrifice. Be like Jesus is our morality. Yes, we should protect the weak, but we should share this good news, make disciples of all who are willing, baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and send them to do likewise.
A refreshing perspective of an issue rarely broached. It would also be enhanced by reflection on the Franco-British invasion of Crimea occasioned by Napoleon III’s roping in the British – a precursor of subsequent French schemes in 20th Century – into a ludicrous war.
Orthodox and Aramaic Christianity are not understood in Western society which is beset by Neo-Pagan influences and aggressive secularisation which engenders aggressive reaction from other proselyting religions such as Islam in The West.
There is a very aggressive Anti-Religious “Christianity” institutionalised in Western society akin to decadence and degeneracy – the nature of Orthodox Christianity is in direct opposition to this – and Roman Catholicism had a period where a theologian such as Ratzinger attempted to bridge (intellectually with his Regensburg Lecture 2006) where he quoted seventh of the 26 Dialogues Held with a Certain Persian, the Worthy Mouterizes, in Anakara of Galatia, written in 1391 as an expression of the views of Emperor Manuel II, one of the last Christian rulers before the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453
and ended up with hostility of Western media and Muslims – who failed to engage with the intellectual position preferring to tar and feather the lecturer.
Idea of Muslim reaction doesn’t add up.
The Pope was invited and visited several Muslim countries in past few years.
The religion of the West is Communism, not Christianity. Communism (the West) hates Russia because it is demonstrably Christian, (e.g. in its law-making); plus ça change.
The origins of Russophobia go back to 1905, when the British engineered the destruction of the Russian fleet, thus redefining global geo-politics going into WW1.
It really is not Communism. The Far Right/ Nazis having been accusing western imperialists of being communists when deeply ignorant of what communism actually is. In fact its the complete opposite of what these morons think it is!!
They confuse communism with progressive fascism.
The Collective West are in the beginning phase of a Kalergi style fascism, which is a multinational fascism with “progressive” elements.
Yawn. Ok some talking points for your next café séance.
1) Common Good – Mandatory Vaccine
2) State Ownership – Theft of Russian, Iranian, Venezuelan assets
3) State Planning – Imminent famine conditions
4) Bureaucracy – Tzars (e.g. disinfo minister)
5 ) Anti-Christian – Persecution of Church, abolition of Christianity at all levels (from the kindergarten to nations)
6) No Competition – Women’s sports
7) Austerity – Europe told to wear jumpers and eat bugs
8) Single party – self-evident (beneath the lineaments of choice)
9) Repreesion of dissent – Gilets Jaunes, FB, Twitter etc etc etc
Best of luck
Valeu Pepe! Estou acompanhando o thesaker devido a sua participação no 247 com Attuch.
🙏🙏🍀🍀🍀
O Pepe Escobar era muito mais interessante quando estava no “Duplo Expresso” e tinha interlocutores mais cultos e melhor informados. Eu também me interessei pela cultura da eurásia (Rússia, China, Irã, Turquia…) por influencia do Pepe. Só tenho a agradecer.
Пепе Эскобар был очень интересен, когда ехал в «Двойном экспрессе» и имел более образованных и информированных собеседников. Меня также интересовала культура Евразии (Россия, Китай, Иран, Турция…) под влиянием Пепе. Я просто должен сказать спасибо.
Huntington’s “ Clash of Civilizations “, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_Civilizations
a book much beloved by American schemers, actually suggests the break – up of the Orthodox nations, then the Catholic , to leave only Protestant Christianity. It also suggests fomenting trouble in Muslim nations , so that the mainly Orthodox and Catholic Christians who are minorities there, be persecuted , and so causing even more animosity between Islam and Christianity . To conclude, exterminate Islam and subjugate Orthodoxy and Catholicism, in all simply the codification of the attitudes held by Western Europeans over many centuries, certainly since 1204 ; the Sack of Constantinople. It also ties into Heartland and Periphery Theories of Central Europe and Eurasianism.
So the Americans as the successors of the Venetians and Franks, have been scheming a very long time to have the whole world in their grip by nefarious means.
“This fracture, significantly, also trespassed Kiev. The west was Catholic – 15% of Greek catholics and 3% of Latins – and in the center and the east, 70% Orthodox, who became hegemonic in the 20th century after the elimination of Jewish [and Polish] minorities by mainly the Waffen-SS of the Galicia division, the [Polish Ukrainian or Volks Deutsch] precursors of Ukraine’s Azov battalion.”
My wife, whose life was saved when the Red Army and Polish Communist partisans liberated Galicia and the rest of Poland including Auschwitz, told me some Polish history. Apparently there were mediaeval Christians called Teutonic Knights who at the point of their sword had converted the Poles — who were already Christian! I found this hard to understand at the time, and thought no more about it until now; but Pepe’s statistics indicate that the Teutonic Knights with their First Rome brand of Christianity must have been stopped at Kiev. Yet another historic Russian victory over invading Germanic hordes, to remember at the 9th May parade.
Of Course, there is always Alexandr Nevsky’s defeat of the Teutonic Knights on the Battle of the Ice, on the Neva River in 1241.
https://orthodoxwiki.org/Alexander_Nevsky
Petar, thanks for enlightening this Britisher about another significant event in East European history which, like Pepe’s article, throws some light on this present intervention by Western armed forces.
And the 1938 film by Sergei Eisenstein, worth watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpVtoUFKZ7w
“Russia cannot allow the creation of anti-Russian territories around the country.”
That was the whole problem, really, that Ukraine became obviously, incredibly anti-Russian! One can’t even understand why (mysterious). Just in case anyone missed it, here is one of the biggest haters, and he/she would agree, Alexey Arestovych, now a “Ukrainian presidential adviser” as wikipedia describes his job.
You may have seen Zelensky’s high heels dance video already. He saw this and said, “Hired!”
https://www.bitchute.com/video/dGc8b21bYL4w/
Wikipedia: “Arestovych is a graduate of the Odessa Military Academy, he has a diploma of military translator.”
“On December 1, 2020, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak appointed Oleksiy Arestovych his freelance advisor on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense.”
Western Christianity is flirting with woke and green ideologies. So there is the big challenge for Russia to stand for true Christianity. Radicalism in Western Ukraine has been fueled by religious pressure from the West. The Greek Catholics celebrate the liturgy of Chrysosthomos, like the Orthodox churches. They are de facto former orthodox communities forced to accept papal rule and the naming as catholic, despite following the Orthodox tradition in the liturgy and celebrating Easter at the date of the Eastern Orthodox calendar. In Ukraine and Romania the Greek catholic churches have been forbidden under communist rule. In both nations these greek-catholic groups are known to be the most devoted nationalists. In Galicia (in remaining present Ukraine) you also have the effects of brutal repression and mass executions by the army of Austria-Hungaria at the beginning of WWI. No wonder there is so much hatred and extremism, that have all been used by the West to direct agression against Russian speakers in Ukraine.
«They are de facto former orthodox communities forced to accept papal rule and the naming as catholic, despite following the Orthodox tradition»
There are no theological differences between catholic and orthodox churches, the famous “filioque” was just an excuse, and mostly arose from mistranslation and misuse of obscure greek philosophical terms, like the difference between catholic and quasi-nestorian churches. Recently even the difference between salvation by faith and by deeds has been papered over with a clever compromise.
The main issue is entirely about the primacy of the patriarch of Rome over the eastern catholic and Orthodox patriarchs as to matters of church governance (not theology): the eastern patriarchs that accept it call themselves “catholic”, those who don’t call themselves “orthodox”. Another instance of the old debate whether the pope has primacy over the “emperor” (catholic), or the emperor has primacy over the pope (orthodox).
«in the liturgy and celebrating Easter at the date of the Eastern Orthodox calendar.»
As to matters of liturgy and convention, within the Roman patriarchate there are several different “rites”, such as the ambrosian rite in Italy, the mozarabic rite in Spain, etc:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_particular_churches_and_liturgical_rites
You should go and read the series of Christian Vignettes on account of improving your literacy really.
But who is following Christ?
Those who don’t allow same sex marriages ,those who are true to their book – The Byzantines or Greek Orthodox Church if you prefer.
That puts it in a strangely different light – the only Christians fighting each other are the ones opposed to Woke liberalism.
Those who believe what He says and do what He says. I recommend you read the gospel of Luke followed by the book of Acts.
Western church sees God as judge, bible as lawbook and sin as crime, Eastern church sees God as doctor, bible as medical book and sin as disease. Simples.
+1000, here’s what one priest said about the Bible on the radio:
That priest described the Bible as a gift from God. Why is it a gift? It’s a gift because God took the time to put together what is effectively a user’s manual for a human being. If you follow the teachings of the Bible, it’s very difficult to screw up your life. Think of where humanity would be if all of that wisdom didn’t exist and we each had to figure these things out on our own individually. That wisdom was a gift.
So you are correct. The Bible isn’t about creating a set of laws, or crimes and punishment the way I see it. It’s more of a book of wisdom. Maybe I’m looking at it too much like a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book but that’s what I think about it.
“Think of where humanity would be if all of that wisdom didn’t exist and we each had to figure these things out on our own individually. That wisdom was a gift.”
There is not one moral principle there that is new or that didn’t exist before some Hebrew wrote the words. As Immanuel Kant accurately put it, they were a little country of “ignorant shepherds”; they had not conceived a single science, which already existed. They herded sheep and invented stories that never happened. They also did not produce a single moral principle. None of the 10 commandments was something new. Conspicuously absent is “Don’t lie”, and so the O.T. chosen people lied a lot in its pages, since they were only instructed “not to bear false testimony against thy neighbor.” Their religion “triumphed”, that’s true. I think we are suffering the consequences in terms both mental and spiritual. Pepe Escobar has written some great article(s) on religion.
Im not sure about the effort part . Because God Creates by just willing a thing into existence.
At least thats my understanding of the Bible.
Im not christian though.
Athens was a backwater. More like Constantinople and Rome.
Amazing how opinions generated in the west with people who have very little appreciation of historical, cultural religious relationships and the community and cohesion that binds it together!
My background is Slavic, first generation born in America, Balkan origin, raised on being anti-communist and I still am. I used to laugh at some of my extended family members who loved Putin when he first became the Russian leader even though we are not Russian. I enjoyed calling one uncle in particular, a communist.
For me personally, the ice toward Putin started to melt during the Olympics in Russia, when they were trying to bully Putin on gay rights. I really started to warm up to the guy for standing his ground and just being a strong leader in general. Also, what they tried to do to Russia and Putin makes the slang term people are using using these days “globohomo” (or globalhomo) particularly resonant.
I don’t hate gays, I just hate the way it is promoted and even encouraged in this country. Look at the latest statistics where 21% of millennials now identify as LGBTQ. That is an unheard of number. This is like the biblical times of Sodom and Gomorrah and is emblematic of the cultural rudderlessness of the west.
I joke with all the USA flag waving jingos on some of the other boards, I bet 21% of Ukrainians aren’t confused about their sexuality.
Thanks for the history, especially about Moscow being the third Rome. I stumbled on this fact about a decade ago, and was flabbergasted. Nobody I know had ever heard of it. As I dug into the history, I found it fulfilled biblical prophecy flawlessly, and I thought the following info might be an insightful addition to this article:
Christian emperors ruled over the western half of the Roman empire as follows:
312 to 572 = 260 yrs
plus over the Holy Roman Empire:
Dec 25, 800 to Apr 7, 924 = 45,028 days
Feb 2, 962 to Dec 13, 1250 = 105,506 days
Sep 28, 1273 to Aug 6, 1806 = 194,613 days
Jan 18, 1871 to Nov 9, 1918 = 17,461 days
Feb 4, 1938 to Apr 30, 1945 = 2,642 days
For a total of 365,250 days, or exactly 1000 years on a Roman calendar.
Total of emperors in the west = 1,260 years.
Emperors in the east:
A.D. 573 to 1204 = 631 yrs
1261 to 1453 = 192 yrs
1480 to 1917 = 437 yrs (Russian)
For a total of 1260 years of emperors in the east.
And so the Roman empire and its successors were ruled by Christian emperors for 1260 years in both the eastern and western branches. (I mean Christian in name, not practice or reality.)
The times when Christians within these empires were oppressed by pagan foreigners who took control of their capital are as follows:
A.D. 33 to 311 = 278 years (pagan Romans)
476 to 493 = 17 yrs (German rule of Rome)
493 to 536 = 43 yrs (Ostrogoth rule)
572 to 755 = 183 yrs (Lombard rule)
800 to 1945 less 1000 yrs = 145 yrs (Vikings, Mongols etc terminate the Holy Roman Empire)
1945 to 1967 = 22 yrs (Berlin to communists)
1453 to 1967 = 514 yrs (Turks over Constantinople)
1472 to 1480 = 8 yrs (Moscow ruled by Tatars)
1917 to 1967 = 50 yrs (Moscow ruled by atheists)
Total = 1260 years of oppression.
Students of history should recognize all of the above dates and their significance. The reason for 1967 as an end date is that it was in this year, according to Christ Jesus himself, that the time of the Gentiles was fulfilled (Luke 21:24).
A full explanation of the above dates, and also how these numbers fulfill biblical prophecies may be found here:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B088S7DRCJ
1967, like 1054, 1203, and 1449, are significant dates for the Orthodox church and its dealings with the Roman Catholic church.
The West, since 1967, has been on the whip lash trajectory of having rejected christianity. Here in Canada it is safe to say Christians (even including liberal and nominal Christians) are a small minority of the population and have little influence any longer in politics.
I think you spend far too much time with numbers and not enough time with words. Words convey thoughts and ideas which can be examined and compared in a search for truth, whereas numbers can be arranged to mean whatever you desire.
Let Saker decide.ZZ
Very interesting exposition, Thomas.
The Holy Roman Empire of the west, and the Russian-Greek Orthodox empire of the east, with Moscow the 3rd Rome, constitute the two legs of Nebuchhadnezzar’s Image and the corresponding Daniels 4th Roman beast.
We are now in the foot and toe kingdoms, which the stone representing Jesus Christ will eventually/soon shatter upon his return to set up his kingdom, ruling from Jerusalem as David’s greater son, fulfilling the covenant promises to Abraham and David – Daniel 7:23-28; Daniel 2:40-45 : Luke 1:32-33; Gen 12 & 15; 2 Sam 7:12-16.
We are probably near the last days of man’s misrule of the earth.
The Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles Creed, the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments define the essence of Christianity and contain 100% truth, without any unnecessary added baggage from theologians of the West or the East.
This article from mr. Escobar is very true in many respects. I however have a view that is critical in some measure with some of mr Escobar’s emphases expressed in the article.
I don’t care about Imperial Romanov restoration, that this city or that territory belong to some German royal, some Westernizers who tried to change Russia and change Orthodoxy to suit some Jesuitical Latin agenda. Some Uniate Bandera wants to destroy Russia, they must be beaten as the threat they are. But I wouldn’t want to see an almost-a-Uniate or almost wanna-be Westerner in charge of Russia either.
Were actual Russians better off because of Cosmopolitan Odessa or Cosmopolitan St. Petersburg, where tens of thousands of Russian people died building this artificial Venice up from a cold swampy bog to satisfy the mad dreams of Antichrist Tsar Peter?
Or Odessa, built up with Russian labor for Greek and German and Jewish merchants at the orders of some foreign German woman?
By all means, crush the foreign existential threat, yes, but also the inner existential threat against Russia and Orthodoxy to turn it all into facsimile of the West, in the soul and body. Turn away from the Baltic and the Black seas so much, look South and East. Make a second capital in Siberia of a great city there, and turn away from and seal the frontier in the West until in finally dies and rots from within. The only proven allies worth having and trading with are peoples like the Serbs, test everyone else. Return to Orthodoxy before Nikon and innovations and novelty from the West, and raise up and elect a true Russian and Orthodox Tsar to be God annointed Sovereign, with a just social order to strengthen and protect.
As always, an enlightening analysis from Pepe. It’s a welcome antidote to the simplistic view of many in the Russophile camp who seem to think the West in general, and the anglosphere in particular, habours a longstanding atavistic hatred of Russia and all things Russian. Having grown up in England at the height of the Cold War, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is totally prejudiced against Russians as people, whereas I’ve met many who harbour strong prejudices against Germans, French or Americans. The differences between Russia and the West are a result of incomprehension which is happily exploited by those who wish to stir up enmity. I often recall a conversation I had in the 70s as a very young and naive student – but politically precociously aware – with a French friend, who was a few years older and both of whose parents were of white Russian stock. Russian was spoken at home and he had been brought up brought up totally bilingual and bicultural. He had just spent several months in Moscow and seemed to me unduly sympathetic to the Soviet point of view (this was a few years after the invasion of Czechoslovakia). He tried to explain to me that there was a Russian view of the world which transcended the current regime and dated back long before the Bolshevik seizure of power (not that most Bolsheviks regarded themselves as Russian). As for Pepe’s analysis and the various commentaries on it, I am sure they would be totally lost on our present day moronic rulers, whose knowledge of history – if the have any at all – is based on comic books and historical dramas, while they probably reckon spirituality implies a preference for brandy, whisky or Bourbon over tainted vodka. We have fast moved from an already meaningless “Judeo-Christian” civilisation to a “post-Christian” one that worships a whole series of unchallengeable woke dogmas. Europe of the near future will bear as much resemblance to the pre Great War world as modern Egypt does to that of the Pharaohs. God help us.
«our present day moronic rulers, whose knowledge of history – if the have any at all – is based on comic books and historical dramas, while they probably reckon spirituality implies a preference for brandy, whisky or Bourbon over tainted vodka.»
They don’t govern, their “sponsors” do, and in any case they have many very learned, very clever advisors who know all these things inside out, many of them european immigrants.
The USA elites use these immigrant advisors as the romans used their highly educated greek slaves.
«Europe of the near future will bear as much resemblance to the pre Great War world as modern Egypt does to that of the Pharaohs.»
There were many different periods in the eras of the Pharaos, such as the invasion and rule by the “Sea People”, and Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were unified or split several times…
I am an unbaptised Englishman born out of wedlock in 1963 currently a resident of Mexico. I am interested to know more about orthodox christianity but do not want to read a diluted westernised rewrite. Please, where online can I find the “real deal” undiluted genuine teachings of Russian Orthodox Christianity in English?
Thanks
The Saker made a series of “Christian Vignettes” last year – which you can find at the bottom of the home page of the site. You may find these helpful. Mod.
Thank you. I should have paid more attention and explored the site.
In this brilliant article by Pepe Escobar,
Very good comments and views are obtained. But I can not remove a concept among all the lines written.
“Jesuits”.
Investigate its origin and true power.
Zionism is created by west Christianity. “Templarios”
“The Priory of Sion”
Indeed, their machinations against Russia are well known, as are their attempts to covertly unite Europe under Pope and Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation once more as with the first 30 years war 1618-1648, and the second of 1914-1945.
Do you also believe that this conflict in Ukraine has something to do with religion? In the West the Pope any day to see a full Church has to go to the Philippines. And it’s not even the main religion in the Anglo-Saxon world. Whether in the USA or England. And just as serious, if not more, is the way many Europeans continue to look at Russia as a communist country and Putin as Stalin. Or a revisionist who wants to recover the USSR or the Russian Empire. In the West there is a lot of ignorance about Russia. And western propaganda managed to sell very well the idea that it was Putin’s despot who started this war against the Ukrainian saints. And Russia will never be able to beat the western media. Pepe escobar argues that this can only be done through influencers who explain Russia’s motives. I think Putin should speak more to the European people as he did in the Oliver Stone documentary! Which a lot of people in the US also liked. Although I think that the US relationship with Russia will always be more difficult. Russia is a big European country and most Europeans think they were treated badly after the end of the USSR by the US. It was actually looted.
I forgot to say that for me the reasons for the conflict are the departure of NATO which Russia cannot bear because nobody likes to wake up with a gun to their head. Like the US in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Which was just a response to the American missiles in Turkey. And the second reason the neo-Nazis in Ukraine. And the best conflict can have for the world is a New World Order. A multilateral world! Thanks.
Thank you, without a doubt, for the great history lesson and the great tour of Christianity by Pepe Escobar. With whom I even share Portuguese as my mother tongue. But this time I am forced to disagree about the role of religion in this conflict. What is at stake in this conflict for the West as in all conflicts is money! Only this time the World Order is also at stake and the end of the Unipolar World as Putin is tired of saying! No one has ever challenged this unipolar world as Russia is doing today in Ukraine. A US proxy war. And just to give you an idea of the disinformation campaign, in the West Russia is accused of not respecting the UN, but who truly killed the UN was the US when it invaded Iraq without the authorization of the UN Security Council. Because the US has wanted for many years to move the headquarters of World Multilateralism from the UN headquarters to the headquarters of Nato with only 30 vassals. For the US to continue to be the world’s policeman. But the world does not need a policeman but multilateralism. And Russia’s alliance with China even made the US crazier than Russian hypersonic missiles!
And every day I experience the same misunderstanding in Lisbon that Pepe did in Paris regarding this conflict. But religion in the West is practically dead. Even facebook and twitter have more believers. And the great cathedrals of Western consumer societies are shopping malls and large food distribution chains such as Walmart. And what definitively corrupted the West was neoliberalism and the deregulation of financial markets. The conflict or the SOV in Ukraine, whichever one prefers, is being sold in the West as a war between Democracies and Autocracies. But a true Democracy does not organize color revolutions and coups d’état in other countries like Ukraine. Like the US that has already robbed the world of everything. Including Russia in the 90s! A true democracy respects all sovereign states and the regime of each country concerns only each country.
O que desequilibra muito este conflito no Ocidente é a campanha de desinformação de quem detém o sof power, as big techs, as redes sociais e todas as grandes plataformas mediáticas porque vende a propaganda que quer. Guerra que a Rússia nunca vai conseguir ganhar no Ocidente como também já ouvi Pepe Escobar falar. E como eu também penso que a Rússia nunca vai conseguir ter uma boa relação com os EUA penso que Putin devia falar mais para os europeus. Não para os líderes da UE vassalos dos EUA mas para todos os povos europeus porque a Rússia também é um país europeu. Ok, com um pé na Europa e outro pé na Ásia. Que a Rússia até poder ver só como um continente, a Eurásia que nenhum Oceano de água separa. Bastava que Putin falasse isto: https://www.thepostil.com/author/jacques-baud/ para todos os europeus perceberem que não foi a rússia que começou este conflito armado e que o SOV russo é justo! E era muito importante que todos os europeus recebessem a informação correcta porque a maior parte das pessoas em todo o mundo têm um coração justo. A Nato é o braço armado da política externa de Washington e nunca devia apontar rampas de misseis à Rússia em tempos de paz. Todos os europeus concordam com isto! A Nato já devia ter saído da Europa desde a queda do Muro de Berlim! Já a UE precisa muito de uma potência energética como a Rússia. Na Europa ninguém quer inflação ou a gasolina mais cara por causa dos EUA. Em todos os países da Europa se veem paredes pintadas com NATO GO HOME. E FMI GO HOME. A UE precisa muito do Nord Stream II. Mas sem os petrodólares é o fim do mundo unipolar. Eu acredito.
https://dossiergeopolitico.com/2022/03/17/las-razones-y-detalles-de-la-guerra-de-ucrania/
I’d like to add an rather unknown aspect from his-story, where an “alliance” between (true) Islam and Russia is prophecised in the sura AR RUM. “Rum” is most likely the heir of Constantinople, though Russia:
“…The other part of those things, which interestingly enough were described in detail in the Koran sura 30 “Ar Rum” (Rum is not at all “Rome”, as is often claimed!) already 1.400 years ago, concerns Russia:
In 1907 France and Great Britain began to ensnare Russia and promised the Tsar for joining their alliance – Constantinople! To this end, the idea of national romantic “Pan-Slavism” was brought out of the woodwork to provide the tsar with the necessary pretext in the form of the Serbian assassination, which was instigated by various internationally interwoven “brotherhoods”.
After WWI, in which Russia had to bear the biggest blood toll of the Entente, and the Ottoman/German empire had been trimmed again, the Russian army was about to take the promised city, all of a sudden the Bolshevik revolution breaks out – financed from the City of London and – the successor empire of GB and following host house of the “Financial International”(FI) – Wall Street. The interwined “brothers” in Russia again dutifully followed the orders of their superiors and plunged the dagger into the back of Russia’s Tsardom.
The German Empire – not knowing what they were getting into – supported the venture, probably in order not to have to fight a war on two fronts and to be allowed to be considered later in the official historiography (Alexander Parvus) as the mastermind for the October Revolution..”
More:
https://farsight3.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/fi-wir-treiben-einen-keil-zwischen-deutsch-und-russland/
I wager Odessa was started by Greeks, millenia ago, as they were sojourning in the Black Sea since antiquity
Most cities still bear Greek names
Sevastopol, Simferopol, Mariupol, Cherson, Crimea…
Rick, thanks for that reminder of the Black Sea’s pre-Christian Greek roots; and hence for reminding us of Christianity’s roots in pre-Christian Greece. As witness St.Paul’s successful defense of Christianity by quoting Greek Wisdom Literature during his trial in the Areopagita.
What a store of historically informed readers and writers has the Saker gathered to throw light on modern affairs!
I must say sincerely, a brilliant and succinct synopsis. Just the right amount of background that allowed for coming to the very sharp point. Well done, Pepe!
Jesus said –
“Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.”
“Love thy brother”
Neither principle has been practiced by those in the “Christian West” for 1500 yrs.
The reality is those in the west going back 2000 years have always been thieves and vandals.
Vikings, Celts, Barbarians, Franks, Spanish, British. Stealing from each other and others (Sth America Africa, Asia). Going off raiding and colonizing.
As i said in another post recently the whole notion of western colonization of Russia is flawed from the outset because those in west could not handle the cold winters and would die or otherwise be badly effected of it or return home. Not only in 1812 & 1941 but now. Only a deal to access Russian resources – employing Russians, in joint ventures or other arrangements where Russia get at least 40% of the cake in some form, will work.
But it is the rulers of the west who are to blame and the ordinary people there will turn on them in the end.
The role of a Christian minister of any denomination is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted and to raise the question of how come you are suffering? That and to raise the profound religious questions.
That’s it!!!
St. Paul however, said something pertinent:
The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24
Put this into its proper historical context and that was certainly true for him and for his hearers who were mostly Jewish. St. Paul knew all 650 laws of the Old Testament and was guided by them because he was trained therein and by it. As much as St. Paul would agree with the words ‘we are not under law but under grace’ he would never have agreed that the law isn’t important any longer. The law still guided him because we learn don’t we what holiness is by way of God’s law. But alas we do need to be baptized into His Spirit which is supposed to move us into an obedient holy life. It’s by his spirit that we move and have our being!!!
Regardless how many of us can say the same thing that the law was our schoolmaster? How many of us can actually recite just the Ten Commandments alone? Stop and think about that for a moment and one will quickly realize woe some serious education needs to occur?
When I was a child the Catholic Church almost to the point of abuse made us kids memorize the Lord’s Prayer and while I hated it at the time and for some time afterwards today I am actually quite grateful. The Ten Commandments however, was neither there nor here? It never received the same kind of discipline upon us?
Stop and think about that.
Europe is sort of like “two-headed beast” with Orthodox on one side and Protestant/Catholic on the other.
I would add Europe is also like Janus, the Roman God with two faces – one which looks at the past and another which looks at the future.
A layman’s clarification of Pepe’s statement is that the Russian Orthodox Identity honors the past and prefers to orient himself based on the past. In contrast, the west Latin protestant identity is not concerned about the past that much and prefers to orient itself based on the future. To simplify it more, these 2 groups of people are “divided” because some prefer the past and others prefer the future… hardly a cause for conflict but it is what it is.
As for Janus *wink wink* , the ancients said about him that He presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, over war and peace, and much more.
@ Zahra & Pepe
“Wink Wink” Maybe what the Catholics and Orthodox needs is to learn a song?!?!?!?!
“Champion” https://youtu.be/wcDgUIy-lJY
Wrong song. Try “Problem.”
some remembrance then by a return to the crucifixion? If I be lifted up will draw all men to me?
https://youtu.be/c8GG1tPa94Q
The bread Your body
The wine Your blood
Sweet communion
You set a table for us
The crucified Jesus
No greater love
Than the bread Your body
Than the wine Your blood
[Chorus]
Oh, we will remember
Oh Jesus Jesus our Savior
Oh just to know You in Your suffering
Just to get me closer than we’ve ever been
Oh, we will remember
[Verse 2]
The holes in Your hand
The wound in Your side
Thirty nine lashes
Brought me back to life
Before resurrection
There was a grave
In hell there was a battle
And my life was saved
[Chorus]
Oh, we will remember
Oh, Jesus our Savior
Oh just to know You in Your suffering
Just to get me closer than I’ve ever been
Oh, we will remember
[Bridge]
This is our Savior
Look at Him, look at Him
Our Christ Redeemer
Look at Him, (would you) look at Him
[Chorus]
Oh, we will remember
Oh, Jesus our Savior
Oh just to know You in Your suffering
Just to get me closer than I’ve ever been
Oh, we will remember
Sorry, made a mistake. Thought the song you posted “Champion” was the “We are the Champions” song by Queen. LOL So I was meaning “We are the Problem.”
@ Zahra & Pepe
“Problem”?
You know if Christianity isn’t first and foremost a great celebration, huge celebration and accordingly as I have looked at the Vatican that great courtyard in the center, would that not be a great place for a celebration of praise and worship to heaven. Imagine if every Easter and Christmas a huge concert of praise was conducted as a thank you to God and His blessed Son for an entire week. I would go even further and add to that Christ’s very birthday first week of October, the Feast of Tabernacles, in that courtyard!! We could follow in the footsteps of what occurred back in Jerusalem:
Luke 19:40
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Mathew 21:16
“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise?’
Psalm 8:2
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
Yes, this how the Christian silences the foe and avenger. Praise and worship!!!!
But alas only the newly minted forgiven, babes, literally understand this joy they receive from the Eternal.
King David I’d imagine would be right at home with these crazies dancing up a storm?
and Sister Cristina no less! https://youtu.be/WaIQ5P3KL7M
lastly John 4:23
Watch this and imagine in the Rotunda of the Vatican?
https://youtu.be/Q3aP5iuJITg
Rome, Italy would never be the same yes? Heck Europe would be stunned silent! Hopefully to tears?
Testimony? Yes, whats yours hmmmm?
A few things people like to ignore are:
– European history of constant wars. 30 years war and post war struggles between ideas, resulting in French revolution.
– A century of communism, and uprooting of
previous order in these lands and beyond.
– Destruction of family and its central value in anti religious elites. This multiplied the belief in money and shopping as a stopgap measure for true happiness.
– Decimated populations, brutality by states, lack of trust. All resulting from lack of central religious ideology and family ties. Any religious ideology and any level of family ties for that matter.
As a South Asian in West I am apalled at the brutal thinking of common population, and lack of counter argument from a stronger and wiser group of people. It is foregone conclusion that the state is responsible to quash all dissent and set the tone for life’s big questions. Which is quite absurd.
This has resulted in Big Brother type state and hysterical MSM. People understand the problem and its cure, but they are bogged down by details. To me the reason is quite simple – men growing up without a loving father, and women growing up seeing their mother kicking their fathers out.
West’s true destruction has been due to lack of respect between husband and wife. After this, brutality had no limits.
Nada disso é cristão, nenhum lado é cristão, todos são seculares.
None of this is Christian, neither side is Christian, all are secular.
“Odessa is not Ukrainian: it’s an intrinsic part of the Russian soul. And soon the trials and tribulations of history will make it so again: as an independent republic; as part of a Novorossiya confederation; or attached to the Russian Federation. The people of Odessa will decide.”
As an “independent republic”? Maybe it’s an option. I think that those “trials and tribulations of history”, specifically the goals and the cost of the SMO, would foreclose that possibility. What looks safer from the ‘security concerns” perspective that Russia expressed and then acted upon, is for the people of Odessa to choose eventually between being either “attached to the Russian Federation.” or a “part of the Novorossiya confederation.” That if that fails somehow, then an amicable separation might be arranged in a mutually agreed way, but to start with this “independent republic” (which it has never been before, right?) right after a war could be a “security” risk, couldn’t it? If they then allow Odessa to be an independent republic, they might have to do the same with any other region. Like that, it could be that Russia alone has to pay for the SMO.
When Putin said twice that Ukraine might lose its statehood in war, he must have already thought about the best outcome for Russia replacing that ex-state. The meaning of absorbing all of Ukraine into Russia is clear in material and historical terms. Would an independent republic help pay for an SMO? I don’t think so. She might ask for compensation. (The media reported that on May 9 the designation “special military operation” will be changed to “war”, according to British Intelligence.) Having one or more independent republics would mean not deriving all the possible benefits from winning the war, with the risk of having more security problems later. It can’t become more complicated so to speak. The following is also a good assumption: “The victor is strong and smart or ends up losing his gains.”
what I read was a “shift”.
I’ll be interested if the next article by Pepe adds to this thought.
My only contribution to this discussion is that my Muslim friends assure me that Russia will defeat the great Satan and bring a new era of peace. Go figure.
None of this article really had to do with Christianity. Next time try to pin abortion on Augustine’s doctrine of original sin. After all, if someone really believes infants are born horrible sinners then they believe infants deserve to be chopped up in the womb. Or maybe they abort to avoid the infant contracting original sin upon exiting the womb by making sure they don’t exit it alive. Its all Augustine’s fault.
What a load of garbage. Blessed Augustine (as he is called in Orthodoxy)simply taught the truth that we all need God’s life in us to be saved, otherwise the natural propensity to sin since the fall would keep man in the state of being God’s enemy, of always justifying and rationalizing away the wrongs that we do to each other, and Him. His views on Original Sin and grace being necessary for salvation, coming from scripture and earlier fathers, were affirmed by the 2nd Council of Carthage, the canons of which were affirmed by the Council in Trullo. In Constantinople. To say that this view might justify abortion is simply irrational and sick.
“Western Europeans see the Orthodox and eastern Christians as satraps and a bunch of smugglers, while the Orthodox regard the Crusaders as barbarian usurpers bent on world conquest.”
Utter balderdash, western Europeans are secular to the cores of their wallets. This is a class war.
How do you think that secularism becomes so rampant in the West, if not the confusion of spiritual and temporal by the Western alleged spiritual leadership?
History is kind to Russia, distortion of facts is not possible. Russia has to fight like anything for its present and future, Failing which means losing the present and future of Russia forever. Hope Putin and Russia would emerge victorious.
I’m a firm believer the bible says to love your brother and to do righteousness.. The Christian church in America say love everyone and that’s true . But love sometimes can be a quick throat punch when nessacary, that’s the kind of love some need the most. It’s not wrong to stand up a d fight, in fact it’s down right evil for a man not to want to defend a d protect what is his and his family.
The west is trying hard to replace God given rights like freedom of speech, rignt to bear arms, ect with man given rights like sodomy, dope smoking, fornication, moral filth ect. Sorry do not mean to offend anyone but the churches are corrupt in America. No offense but when a church says sodomy is no longer sin and otber moral filth is acceptable then satan is in control of the churches. Satan and you know who those so called chosen ones.
The only thing to save the west is repentance. And then for strong men to lead. We can’t expect for an righteous way of life again without hard work and doing some unpleasant things.
Some would say I’m a trator to my country. No not at all I just knlw America has been taken over like Russia a little over a hundred years ago and history is or will repeat. I keep saying if those ruling America fail in trying to rule the world theres going to be hell to pay and we the peopke will either have to endure it or overcome.
God bless you all.
“some notorious serial plunderers: the Venetians.”
Why this gratuitous slander?
The history of Venice Republic is way more complex than that, and they have never been plunderers napoleonic-style.
Apparently nowadays historical accuracy is an optional for the so-called “journalists”.
“Crusaders against Orthodox… ” So what do you call me, im a Ulrta Pro Russian Protestant – a Boer from South Africa.
Take a look – its little older but there has been no change.
A senior official in Russia says Protestant Christians are part of the country’s traditional religious communities, and praises the important role they have played in Russian society.
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-protestantism-traditional-religion-kiriyenko/28826783.html
Russia has over 100 minority communities and a raft of religions are being practiced. Unlike South Africa, minorities are welcomed and supported. (No special status for you lol)
South Africa has 13 black tribes with their religions and various indian tribes and muslims and all the Christian religions.
I don’t think it’s really between Christians. It’s between Satanists and Christians (and Satanists against the rest of humanity).
Looks like the author totally ignores that “war is a racket”
He is Missing the point that everything in the west is propaganda to dupe the basic chip.. While instead spreading his useless historical knowledge
But if people know the exact people behind the blood shade and chaos in this world against humanity. This world will may be have please
Lavrov brought it out well in the interview with the Italian media. And the way Israel reacted
. somethig is not right
There never has been and never will be a “Christian Pope”. The whole concept of any “church authority” higher than a minister of the Word and Sacraments (two: Communion and Baptism) of a congregation – a church – manifests a demonic lust for worldly power over others. Christians are called to glorify God with their lives by obeying God’s law which applies to mankind for eternity. God’s law is that delivered to Moses minus the sacrificial, ceremonial, and dietary parts that were fulfilled by the advent of Jesus the Christ, Messiah, very God and very man. The work of the Christian today is to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. As I see it, that Kingdom will be when all men acknowledge the only law is God’s law and live directly accountable God – not to some alleged “civil government”, an oxymoron at best. “Government” is that collection of demonic people who call themselves “the government” and claim a right to the lives and property of all the productive people they can terrorize by threat of pain and death into submission to their rule.
I have little time to write, and many words to utter.
The “Kingdom of God on Earth” is in all of us!
Only and only!
Each of us carries a piece of the Kingdom of God, and that is the greatest power God could give to man. No king or ruler, but, in you, the power to be King in the “Kingdom of God on Earth”. That will be you! Have I made myself understood?
We live in an age of the individual, individualism, and it is on the basis of this individualism that we must seek, each in his or her individuality, God!
That is why it is necessary to understand and deepen our studies of the spiritual world. About the functioning of our “electric body”, and how this connects our soul to God.
God bless you and protect you with his holy mantle!
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Tenho pouco tempo para escrever, e muitas palavras para proferir.
O “Reino de Deus na Terra” está em todos nós!
Apenas e só!
Cada um de nós carrega um pedaço do Reino de Deus, e isso é o maior poder que Deus poderia dar ao Homem. Nenhum rei ou governante, mas, em si, o poder de ser Rei no “Reino de Deus na Terra”. Será você! Será que me fiz compreender?
Vivemos uma era do individuo, o individualismo, e é com base nesse individualismo que devemos procurar, cada um na sua individualidade, Deus!
Por isso é preciso compreender e aprofundar os estudos sobre o mundo espiritual. Sobre o funcionamento do nosso “corpo elétrico”, e como isso liga a nossa alma a Deus.
Deus vos abençoe e vos proteja com seu manto sagrado!
Ar-Room is Russia. Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein is right!
Puede que sea así.
Pero tampoco se puede descartar el estado de indigencia y mediocridad intelectual de las universidades occidentales que, en lugar de enseñar a pensar, enseñan a creer que se está aprendiendo a pensar mientras realmente enseñan a obedecer y a no plantearse preguntas relevantes.
Por otro lado, los “gobiernos” (¿Se puede hablar en serio de gobiernos?) occidentales están privatizados y, como ya señaló Michael Hudson para los EEUU, son meros “comerciales” representantes de la oligarquía y puestos en esos “gobiernos” por ellas. La evidencia es mayor cada día pero no se suele hablar de ello.
Así pues, la situación es totalmente penosa.
Los únicos que entiendo que dieron la cara, y se la han roto, fueron los chalecos amarillos. Hay que volver a ponerse los chalecos.
——————-
Google-translate from Mod:
It may be so.
But neither can the state of destitution and intellectual mediocrity of Western universities be ruled out that, instead of teaching to think, teach to believe that they are learning to think while they really teach to obey and not ask relevant questions.
On the other hand, the “governments” (can we be serious about governments?) Western are privatized and, as Michael Hudson already pointed out for the US, they are mere “commercial” representatives of the oligarchy and put in those “governments” by they. The evidence is greater every day but it does not usually talk about it.
Thus, the situation is totally painful.
The only ones that I understand that they gave their face, and they have broken it, were the yellow vests. You have to put the vests again.
Brilhante artigo do Escobar! De seu ouvinte no Brasil 247. com.br
They’re selling Zelensky votive candels now. Might as well light one if you think Augutsine is “blessed.” There is no difference.
Now you’re just showing your political as well as theological illiteracy. You have a problem with who the Orthodox call Blessed, take it up with God on judgment day, see how far your adversary nature takes you.
And I might add, you are no doubt unaware of Orthodox Saints who taught in the West what Blessed Augustine did, such as St. Fulgentius of Ruspe and St. Prosper of Aquitaine.
Bastante elucidativo.
Rasgar a máscara da historiografia “das academias” fundamentadas numa invenção de um “renascimento” cultural hegemônico anglo-latino de uma Grécia ficticia traz a tona as fantasiosas mentiras do poder midiatico financeiro terrorista deste decadente império de uma pirâmide de papel anglo americano.
Quite enlightening.
Tearing the mask of the historiography “of the academies” based on an invention of an Anglo-Latin hegemonic cultural “rebirth” of a fictitious Greece brings to light the fanciful lies of the terrorist financial media power of this decadent empire of an Anglo-American paper pyramid.
I think we will remember V. Putin as the last czar who looked west. The next czar will, for the first time since Peter the Great, look east.
I agree. And that will be the salvation of Russia at a critical moment in time, to be sealed off while Antichrist rages impotently.
I have leaned that we have reached a stage where whatever ideas and thoughts are presented to many people,whether on covid, war or god, a mental incomprehension, an unassailable prejudice falls on the listener who has fallen under the spell of cultural and spiritual lockdown, i.e. global mind control of Satanism. A curtain falls on the stage of reality and rational thought.
Culture is not nebulous niceness, but the ability to perceive, to act wisely and inspire ideals.
To connect culture and God to events happening in the world in a way that reaches people, honours clear thinking and interests and inspires without aiming to control, sway or censor inner sovereignty, this is the only way forward into the future.
Whether you live in Europe or Russia, China, Australia or Greenland, the capacity to find ‘the kingdom of God’ within exists.
Humanity will be transformed ultimately from the inside out, not the reverse, through conscience and being accountable to the God within, the universal, Christ-like conscience.
“the two-headed eagle, which is the symbol of the Russian state since Peter the Great”
Nope. Not Since Peter the Great, but since Ivan the Third (1462-1505), who should properly be named Ivan the Great. Since his marriage with Sophia Paleolog in 1472. So, it was more than 200 years before Peter the Great. 250 years before he officially accepted the title of emperor. By the way, the are some documents of 15th century, where Ivan the Third is already named Czar (that meaning Cesar) and Emperor.
Western people do not know russian history. Even those not hostile towards Russia.
что, если однажды (очень скоро) язычникам востока (дальнего востока) и монотеистическим религиям (православным, католикам, протестантам, мусульманам…) придется сражаться…
Что вы думаете.
Если операция Z и санкции подтолкнут КИТАЙ к его рукам…
И если КИТАЙ когда-нибудь захочет силой забрать наши ресурсы (нефть, почву, воду)…
Thank you again for a thought provoking article.
I have the idea that Western religion(s) are really different power factions of the same religion. There is (supposedly) only one god, all Western religions hold this god as sacred, all knowing and all powerful. The original purpose for the founding of these human institutions called “religion” was to exercise power over the lives of other people. If you review the same history as presented here from the point of view that “religions” seek above all else, power over the lives of all peoples of the world I think it can be quite informative. God is universal in their view the Orthodox want all power for their power faction same with Jews, Catholics and Muslims. The Great Schism in 1054 was a split in the religion over power – who would be the ruler of the religious instution of power.
Much is summed up in this phrase I have never found the origin – There are no gods, there is lust for power.
A view of this history as the “lust for power” by treating human created religious as imperial powers bent on the domination of their sect above all the others one can get an interesting take on the historical record. Western religion is a worship of power – power over human life which is weak, putrid and temporary compared to the pure everlasting power of the lord which is the only sacred thing, not human life.
These human institutions were formed for the purpose of power, power is what is sacred to them they are the foundations of and motivation for Western imperial conquest. The sacrifice of innocent lives to appease a vengeful god and rid the world of evil. Over 500 years of aggressive imperial attempted domination of all life on earth religious aggression never stops the Western religions have in fact been at war, a war of domination over all human life. There are -0- periods of even 10 successive years of peace over the past 500 years including the genocide of the Americas which covered 30% of the land on earth. Justified on religious grounds which just it happened to produce huge wealth for the church.
There are no gods, there is lust for power
They drink in the idea of an omnipotent lord with their mother’s milk.
Imperial war and the lust for power will not stop until parents stop teaching their babies that power is sacred and human life is not.
Strip the “holy” and the “sacred” away from religious institution and take a look at the historical record and treat the religions as countries or nations or corporations, acting to colonize and dominate other nations or regions in the name of the power of the lord – the only concern of any of the religious power blocks is power itself.
The true genius of Roosevelt was to create a Western empire which joined the three great Western religions under one imperial roof.
@ Pepe,
When I was a child every Christmas I always loved the story and song of Little Drummer Boy and now today that Drummer Boy is all grown up. Wow, look at him go!!!! Look at him go!!!
https://youtu.be/7KLQ2AXQmtA
Geeez, I always wanted to be that guy?
Appears the Globalists are trying to also create a schism within the Orthodox Church just as they had done with Islam.
Wretched, divisive, genocidal, Globalist scum.
https://southfront.org/orthodox-crescent-of-instability/