This reason to support Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with the left’s support's of western liberal democracy.
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Christian Right Rises to Save Ukraine as “Bible Belt” for Europe. APR 18, 2024
Former Ukrainian Member of Parliament
Pavlo Unguryan, right, appearing on yesterday’s Washington Watch with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, far right. (Screengrab / Washington Watch
video.)
This Pres. Joe Biden yesterday
threw his supportbehind House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) bill to re-arm Ukraine, signaling to House Democrats to pass it, and probably causing a few House Republicans to oppose it now that they know Satan loves it.
Johnson (R-LA) yesterday said he’s going to allow a vote on re-arming and re-supplying Ukraine because it’s the right thing to do, even if it costs him the speakership.
The Ukraine vote is expected Saturday. Trump had insisted that the Ukraine aid not be a “gift,” and in Johnson’s plan nearly $10 billion, most of it to help Kyiv keep functioning, is structured as a loan. Hilariously — and possibly without Trump’s knowledge, since he may have slept through this part — in Johnson’s legislation, Ukraine’s debt can be
canceled by the U.S. president. Who is Biden.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries(D-NY) said yesterday that he’s convening House Democrats this morning to discuss all the new bills. Johnson will likely need Democratic votes to approve a set of rules under which the House will handle these bills, before they can be approved.
Like the Ukraine bill that already passed the Senate, the House version allocates about $61 billion to give to U.S. weapons makers in return for them sending ammo and other materiel to Ukraine.
As I
reported last week, Johnson met with evangelical Ukrainian leaders in January, and conservative Christian Americans and Ukrainians have been working to push the same narrative they told Johnson — a true narrative,
I should note: that Russia is engaged in religious persecution. And that if Christians help Ukraine today, they’ll get to shape a right-wing, evangelical Ukraine tomorrow.
Here’s former Member of Parliament Pavlo Unguryan being interviewed yesterday by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, one of America’s most influential right-wing Christians. (
h/t)
Perkins starts off by shooting down claims by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene(R-GA) that Russia is defendingChristianity.
Russia, Perkins says, is “creating this propaganda that Ukrainians are persecuting Christians when in fact reports show that they [the Russians] are.”
In fact, they both are. Ukraine has gone after orthodox church leaders affiliated with Russia — for working to help Russia. But Russia has done far, far worse. And Perkins explains, with Unguryan’s confirmation, why Russia targets evangelicals, both at home and in captured Ukrainian territory.
“They tend to see evangelicals as agents for the west?” Perkins asks. “Yes,” Unguryan says. “They call evangelicals American CIA agents.” Which is my cue to remind people that Unguryan is a covert agent — for years he’s been working with the leaders of the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast to decide who from Ukraine gets to go to the event, and get access to U.S. politicians.
The breakfast folks, known popularly as The Family, have a history of working with the State Department, and it’s by no means a stretch to question whether there have been CIA ties there, as well. (Doug Burleigh, The Family’s Russian point man, has spoken publicly about the CIA’s attempt to recruit him when he was a young man.)
But it’s not just defending Ukraine’s evangelicals they’re arguing for. In yesterday’s discussion, Unguryan and Perkins floated a new rationale for American Christians to support arming Ukraine.
“It’s to be the Bible Belt for the European continent, such a liberal continent,” Unguryan explains, touting “pro-family, pro-life issues,” euphemisms for anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-reproductive rights policies.
(In fact, Ukraine is only 2% evangelical, and Unguryan’s efforts at anti-LGBTQ+ legislation largely failed.)
Nevertheless, Unguryan said, preserving Ukraine’s status as a counterweight to “liberal” Europe, is “one more spiritual reason” to support Ukraine. Please note that these are not the arguments evangelicals use when discussing these issues before a general audience.
Perkins asked Unguryan how his viewers — all of them but me right-wing Christians — can help. “Ask your congressmen to help us,” Unguryan said.
“Let’s create strategic partnership between Christians, evangelicals, conservatives in U.S. and Christians and conservatives in Ukraine to do our missionary ministry, global missionary ministry, and to protect our values.” Of course, neither Unguryan nor Perkins mentioned that they already have that partnership. (Perkins has his own ties to The Family and said he’s known Unguryan for “years.”)
Nevertheless, Perkins assured Unguryan, “We will stand with you.”
And Unguryan’s not the only player out there pushing the message.
One past prayer breakfast guest, Ruslan Kukharchuk,
wrote in the Christian Post this week that Ukraine is a bastion of “religious freedom.” But he also signaled to his readers — all of them but me right-wing Christians — that defending Ukraine means defending far-right Christian “values.”
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