Patriarch Kiril, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, makes the all-too-obvious observation that Western elites seek to destroy Christianity–but he also, in the process, states something very wise and true: that prayer is stronger than weapons or money or political power.
Additionally, the Patriarch harkens back to the period of darkness that came upon Russia one hundred years ago when the Bolsheviks seized power, a time when the country’s people passed through “the difficult stages of full denial of God’s existence,” when “any presence of God in people’s lives” was very nearly extinguished by the government.
I’m often struck by the full reversal that has come about–that is to say by how Russia and the US have essentially changed places. The darkness that the Bolsheviks brought to Russia a century ago has now been brought to America by the neocons. We can expect the same disastrous results. We are in fact already seeing it.
A bit earlier I posted a commentary by Paul Craig Roberts that included the words, “America is disappearing. The country I live in today bears no resemblance to the one into which I was born.”
He is right. The days in which Americans, or most of us at any rate, were guided by the principles of our faith have vanished. Instead we have become a nation of order-followers, terrified to speak out, swallowing the lies and propaganda that are fed us, locked in the bonds of political correctness.
It is a tragedy especially for our youth.
“No generation of young people was subjected to such temptations, such attempts to distort moral nature as this generation,” says Patriarch Kiril.
He is presumably referring to the generation which fell under the yoke of communism, though of course the same can be said of young Americans today: the society they are part of celebrates and embraces conventions that run contrary to human morality–endless war, political corruption, limitless greed, transgender insanity.
And all this as Christianity is attacked on many fronts, from Hollywood to the legal system. Recently, Greg Bacon put up a post entitled Attacking Christianity, but Protecting Judaism which discusses a recent case in which a federal appeals court ordered removal of a Christian cross from government property. The cross comprises part of a World War I memorial that sits on a highway median in Bladensburg, Maryland. The monument has been sitting there for the past 92 years. But the court ruled that it must come down. It “excessively entangles the government in religion,” the three-judge panel ruled.
The suit was brought by an Atheist group–but apparently such groups don’t have any problem with the presence of Hanukah menorahs on government property, including the so-called “National Menorah” that makes its appearance each year on the White House Elipse. Where are the Atheist legal challenges here? They don’t seem to mount any. This in fact is noted by Bacon in his commentary: apparently the US courts regard menorahs as “a secular symbol and not a religious symbol.”
And this has come about despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of US citizens are Christians.
But as Patriarch Kiril notes, “prayer is stronger than money, stronger than power, stronger than weapons.” He is correct. Why do you think the elites are trying so hard to stamp out the Christian faith?
Jesus made us a promise: that he would send the Holy Spirit, whom he referred to as “the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father.” In prayer, the Holy Spirit comes in an explosion of light in our hearts. An explosion of love and truth. This is the promise.
And this too is the promise made by Jesus: “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.“
The prince of this world can indeed be driven out. This has been demonstrated by Russia. The Russian people, as the Patriarch notes, “have turned to God, and what we see is wonderful. We see big changes, including in our young people’s consciousnesses.”
This can happen in America too. It simply means returning to our Christian roots and to the faith and joy that becomes ours when we serve God. When the elites can no longer uproot our faith from our lives–this is when our recovery will come.
Uprooted Palestinian 
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