“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles,
they call empire; and where they make a desert,
they call it peace.“ -Tacitus
Two thousand years ago each of the Roman Empire’s legions maintained a crucifixion team. Their task was to put death those individuals believed to be seditious to Caesar. This punishment was not merely an instrument of execution but a means of terror to intimidate subjected populations. It was one of these teams that crucified Jesus and, along with other such groups, did the same to thousands of other Jews.
A modern version of a legion crucifixion team has emerged. But instead of nails, wooden crosses and spears they use the language of disinformation in order to cloak the brutality of nationalistic aggression with religiosity. They hijack Christianity in order to justify the actions of a modern day would-be Caesar – Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Putin is a former KGB agent who still harbors grievance over the fall of the Soviet empire. But based upon recent utterances by the Russian president his goal is not to recreate bloc of Communist states but revisiting the legacies of both Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.. Both these rulers were famous for expanding Russian territory at the expense of their neighbors. Indeed, Catherine was the conqueror of much of Ukraine, particularly Crimea.
Putin has displayed a penchant for violence and a cold-hearted disregard for life. While running for president in 1999 there is strong evidence that a series of apartment bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities that killed more than 300 and blamed on Chechen separatists was actually a false flag operation. Private investigations suggest that the bombings were carried out by the GRU and FSB at the behest of then-Prime Minister Putin who was running for president at the time. Putin used the incident to frame himself as fierce anti-terrorist. The result was the brutal Second Chechen War in which the city of Grozny was reduced to rubble.
Yet in spite of displaying the heart of a cold-blooded totalitarian, there are those strongly identified with advocating “traditional religious values” that admire the Russian strongman. For them he is a defender of supposedly traditional Christian values – as infamously displayed by Russia’s official hostility towards its LGBTQ citizens. Certain of these Putinist Christians embrace the idea of Russia becoming the “Third Rome”, successor to both the Roman Empire of the Caesars, sacked by Barbarians, and the subsequent Byzantine Empire toppled in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror. In doing so they ignore, or worse, justify the new emperor’s corruption and all-too-casual approach to violence and international lawlessness.
The Putin regime’s anti-modernity, intolerance and nationalistic views draw heavily upon the historical Russian concept of symphonia – where church and state are not separate, but complement each other in establishing social norms. It is a very appealing idea to advocates of reactionary religious supremacy– so much so that several influential individuals of the religious right are willing to sacrifice democracy, individual liberties and even the sovereignty of nations, notably Ukraine. Russia claims that it’s neighbor to the south is not a sovereign state, but a fictional entity. Within this twisted logic lies the new tyrant’s justification to invade, murder its citizens (as well as sending his own soldiers and unwitting conscripts to their deaths) and to lay waste to its cities and towns.
Who would admire such ideas, such behavior?
Six men immediately come to mind.
Let us start in Russia. There is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Moscow whose official title is Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. He has recently given religious cover to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by citing gay pride parades as a “‘loyalty test’ to Western governments, which Ukraine’s breakaway republics have ‘fundamentally rejected.’” Documentation has emerged that as a priest during the Soviet era Patriarch Kirill was a KGB agent. Perhaps that may help explain his failure to condemn Putin’s obviously unChristian activities
There is also Alexandr Dugin, the modern-day Rasputin to Putin, the philosopher-moralist whose grievance-laden Fourth Political Theory approaches the fanaticism of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. His hatred of Western tolerance, his claim that Russia is the guardian of Christian values, and his calls for a Eurasian ascension of world power are centered on China, India, Iran and Russia – all whose governments are led by, in varying degrees, authoritarian-minded leaders. Dugin sees the tolerance of liberal democracy as a threat to a “traditional” values-based society. The Fourth Political is replete with fascistic themes of justified conquest and religious supremacy. It is in Dugin’s writings we find the origins of Putin’s claim that Ukraine’s government needs to be “de-nazified.”
Moving on to Rome, in the Vatican there is the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Carlo Maria Viganò, the ultra-conservative archbishop and culture warrior who plots and schemes behind the back of the inclusive-minded Pope Francis. Viganò, who, at the very least, admires Putin’s authoritarian policies. Like Dugin, he peddles New World Order global conspiracy theories "against God and humanity" He too sees the Russian president as the protector of Christianity and he has blamed NATO for the invasion of Ukraine.
In the United States there is the evangelical leader Franklin Graham. He too has embraced Vladimir Putin as some sort of Christian protector of traditional values. While he is providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine, he has yet to forcefully condemn the Russian president for his invasion of its neighboring state. A decade ago when Russian helicopters were barrel-bombing innocent Syrian civilians his course of action was to ask his followers “to pray for President Assad.”
Then there is Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host who has openly declared that he is “rooting for Russia.” Carlson has also been spreading Russian propaganda about supposed American-sponsored biochemical weapons stored in Ukraine. The Biden administration has expressed concern that the Russian military is preparing a false flag excuse to employ chemical weapons in Ukraine and that this misinformation spread by Carlson could be used to lay the groundwork for such an operation. Carlson is another self-proclaimed defender of “traditionalist Christian values.” His anti-immigrant and white nationalism is out-of-sync with the Biblical teaching of welcoming the stranger.
Finally, there is American conservative firebrand Patrick Buchanan. He is endless in his admiration for the would-be Third Rome emperor. He too clothes himself in the garb of religiosity extolling a very traditionalist but highly exclusionary form of Catholicism. His description of Putin as a modern day defender of the faith suggests a disturbing understanding of Christian values: “In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity.”
These six men, these six men. They share an admiration for a society in which illiberal social norms are determined by symphonia. It is an illiberal mindset, one that is not in the spirit of of religious freedom but of religious supremacy. Putin, it should be noted, has harassed the free practice of various religious groups such as certain Protestant denominations as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.
These six men.
This Third Rome to which they aspire emulates the worst aspects of the First Rome. That empire conquered other nations and then utilized terror as a means of controlling their unwilling subjects. Today’s rising Caesar – or more appropriately, the Russian word for that title, czar – – brings to mind the historian Tacitus’s quote describing the methods of the first Rome, “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call it empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.“
In their aversion to LGBTQ people God made, these six men not only sacrifice democracy but bless brutality. They use their positions to act as the new crucifixion teams of the Third Rome. Their words and mendacity are the new nails, the new cross and the new spear to crucify the innocent.
For me it is impossible to imagine a good and gentle Christ approving of such behavior. And as a Catholic Christian I believe that those so marginalized, as LGBTQ people often are. The atheist that treats them with dignity and respect is far more Christ-like than these six men.
Two thousand years ago a Jewish man was executed for advocating peace, tolerance and a kingdom beyond this world. Such advocacy was found to be seditious to the Caesar of the First Rome. He, like thousands of other Jews of his time, were victims of acts of terror. Within thirty-five years of his execution, his fellow countrymen were forced into a Diaspora. The First Rome brutally ravaged and destroyed the lands of Galilee and Judea: the would-be Caesar of the Third Rome similarly targets Ukraine.
These six men. Two bear false witness by claiming that the Jewish president of Ukraine who lost family members of the Holocaust needs to be denazified. All six admire the rising Caesar in Moscow for his antiabortion and anti-LGBTQ policies while he murders children in hospitals and other innocent civilians all for the greater glory of his empire. All of them turn a blind eye towards the assassination of political opponents while stifling basic liberties such as free speech and freedom of assembly.
As a Catholic Christian I believe that each one of us will have to appear before God’s throne and account for our transgressions. The essence of faith is how we treat each other. I tremble at the thought of that coming moment. Do these six men not have the same apprehension?
May God have mercy on their souls.