Repentance During Lent

 I'm beginning this morning's post with a quote from Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter.

"The U.S., and other countries that belong to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, are supporting Ukraine from outside its borders. For NATO to take on the fight against Putin’s armies directly in Ukraine runs the risk of uniting the currently demoralized Russian people behind their leader, and enables him to start a war against NATO, which would engulf all of Europe.

Tonight, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham crossed that line when, on Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity’s television show, he called for someone to assassinate Putin. He then repeated his comment on Twitter. This was an astonishing propaganda coup for Putin, enabling him to argue that he is indeed in a war with America, rather than engaging in an unprovoked attack on neighboring Ukraine. This is exactly what the Biden administration has gone out of its way to avoid.

It was an astonishing moment… and also an interesting one. It undermines the position of the U.S. and our partners and allies, but in whose service? After initially opposing Trump’s reach for the presidency, Graham threw in his lot utterly with the former president, who has many possible reasons both to undermine Biden and to keep Putin in power. Perhaps Graham’s comment was intended to help Trump. Or perhaps Graham might have simply made a colossally stupid mistake. Whatever the case, the enormous implications of his statement make it one that would be a mistake to ignore.

Graham was not the only one to bolster Putin’s position today. Tucker Carlson tonight told his audience that indeed he was wrong in his earlier defense of the Russian president but then continued to stoke the same racist and sexist fires he has fed all along, blaming his misreading of the situation on Vice President Kamala Harris."

Richardson's perspective as an author, historian, and teacher almost always rings true for me.  I especially appreciate her ability to offer insights about how disparate pieces of world events fit together.  In the above quotation, Richardson zeroes in on several things that seem to be lost on too many of my friends and relatives. as well as on many other Americans.  

One of them is that former president Trump and his domestic supporters bear a great deal of responsibility for empowering Putin and weakening alliances with other European countries.  Both the alliances and resistance to Russian expansionism were specific provisions in the agreements that established NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) after World War II.  Trump wanted to withdraw from NATO. He first expressed that wish during his presidential campaign.  He reiterated it on various occasions while he was president.  It was part of his boastful rhetoric promoting nationalism--the idea that America can be so great that we won't need anything from anyone else and we have no responsibility to anyone else.  MAGA (Make America Great Again) encapsulated this idea.  

Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but Putin is clearly afraid that Ukraine might become a member.  If that happened, he would lose his geographic buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe, and he sees that as a threat.  It's a great over-simplification to present his invasion of Ukraine as an attempt to keep it from joining NATO, but it's not all wrong either.  The major reasons for the invasion seem to actually have very little to do with keeping Russia safe and everything to do with expanding territory, preserving power, and enriching those who are already obscenely wealthy in Russia.  

As president, Trump cozied up to Putin and left Zelensky (president of Ukraine) dangling while he withheld aid for Ukraine that had already been appropriated by Congress--because he wanted Zelensky to first dish dirt on the Bidens during the presidential election season.  Trump was impeached for his behavior in this exchange, but he was not removed from office because the Republican members of the Senate voted against it.  Trump followed up on this by firing most members of the US foreign diplomatic service who had represented American interests in Ukraine, and who had worked to maintain friendly relations with Ukraine. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated in recent weeks, Trump referred to Putin's actions as "genius," and "savvy." 

Another quote from Richardson's newsletter alludes to the little-known fact that Putin is apparently a very religious man.  I have been aware of this for many years, both because I heard my local friend, Harley talk about this a long time ago (he taught in a Russian university for more than 30 years), and because of an article I read recently on that subject.  I believe that recent events demonstrate powerfully that a toxic brew results when religion and nationalism become so firmly intertwined that the advance of nationalism can be construed as a religious duty.   This appears to be how Putin reconciles his religion and his ruthlessness.  I see Americans doing the same thing, seemingly oblivious to  the destructive potential unleashed in this marriage.  Donald Trump knows as well as Putin does that authoritarian government can easily be justified with this "logic."  

"Today the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian media outlets, as well as some of those involved with them, that worked to “spread Russian disinformation and influence perceptions as a part of their invasion of Ukraine.”

Closer to home, a federal court in the Southern District of New York charged John Hanick with violating U.S. sanctions and making false statements concerning his years of work for sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev. Malofeyev was key to destabilizing Ukraine in order to support a Russian takeover. Hanick worked for him from 2013 until at least 2017, establishing TV networks in Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece to spread destabilizing messages.

Hanick was one of the founding producers of the Fox News Channel. He became an admirer of Putin because of the Russian leader’s anti-LGBTQ stance and his belief that Putin was a devout Christian. Apparently, he turned that enthusiasm into an attempt to undermine democracy in favor of Putin’s authoritarianism."

This last mention of Fox News in connection with a person who has been undermining Ukraine while bolstering Russia took me completely by surprise.  It probably shouldn't have.  I hope my Fox-media-loyalist readers take note.  

I'm sure that many of my friends and relatives among these loyalists are praying about the situation in Ukraine.  I would be encouraged if I knew that their petitions were accompanied by prayers of repentance--individual and collective. Lent is as good a time as any to turn away from alignments with political powers and machinations, adopting instead a Kingdom-building strategy of sacrificial love extended to all,  especially to those who suffer.  That's what Jesus did and that's what we should do.  

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Blog posts like this take a lot of time and thought.  I won't be able to spend this much time every morning during Lent, and I won't be able to think clearly enough if I wait till late night to write, so maybe I'll go back to banal subject matter again soon.