EDITORIAL - When religion supports war

Yesterday was Easter Sunday for the Orthodox Church, a movement that has a great following in Eastern Europe. While many people were hoping religious leaders in Russia would use the occasion to call for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this was not to be.

In fact, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, actually expressed support for the war in Ukraine, calling it a “holy war” to protect Russia from what he called the western scourge.

This has led to divisions among the 15 different branches in the Orthodox Church, and even created some division in the Moscow Patriarchate itself. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has stopped mentioning Patriarch Kirill in their prayers even as it was Orthodox tradition to pray for each patriarchate leader during their observances.

History shows us what happens when religious leaders call for war. The different Crusades waged throughout two centuries by Christendom against the Islamic kingdoms were the result of such a call, the long-term effects of which are still being felt today in the Middle East. During times of war imams called for jihads or holy wars against their enemies.

Religion has a way of making a call, just about any call, more urgent.

And while Patriarch Kirill didn’t call for and initiate this war. His continued support of it can be interpreted as also actually encouraging it. Is he not aware of what some Russian soldiers are doing to their own brothers and sisters in a nearby patriarchate?

Russia’s religious leaders missed their chance to call for an end to the war. Easter Sunday would have been the perfect time to do so, being a time of rebirth and renewal. Far from it they even encouraged war and now they are going to cause misery and death for even more of their supposed brethren in the faith.

While it may seem blasphemous of us to assume how the God that binds all faiths together thinks, we can be quite sure that he will not look kindly upon this.