|
0 members (),
1,781
guests, and
94
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Forums26
Topics35,508
Posts417,509
Members6,159
| |
Most Online3,380
Dec 29th, 2019
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,994 Likes: 10
Moderator Member
|
|
Moderator Member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,994 Likes: 10 |
Thank you for posting this Father Ambrose. Whether one likes Pres. Putin or not, his words ring loud with truth and logic.
Lord have mercy!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 776 Likes: 24
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 776 Likes: 24 |
Lord have mercy, indeed! Maybe I'm a bad apple, but these kind of websites give me the "willies". Didn't President Putin put aside his wife recently?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38 |
No bad appple at all.
Putin is also on record as considering Lenin's remains on an equal level with the relics of the Kievan Caves Saints.
As the former head of the KGB disinformation unit, he knows what he is doing and he knows how to make even such a one as himself appear very sympathetic to traditional Christians of all stripes.
I'm sure he will convince even the pope of his sincerity as the defender of Christian values.
Lord have mercy indeed.
Alex
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 5,724 Likes: 2
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 5,724 Likes: 2 |
Alex, you nailed this one accurately, I think. No bad apple, indeed.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,226
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,226 |
As the former head of the KGB disinformation unit, he knows what he is doing and he knows how to make even such a one as himself appear very sympathetic to traditional Christians of all stripes. Hmmm. Are you passing your judgement here? Do you think it is not possible for this man to experience metanoia?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,855 Likes: 8
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,855 Likes: 8 |
As the former head of the KGB disinformation unit, he knows what he is doing and he knows how to make even such a one as himself appear very sympathetic to traditional Christians of all stripes. Hmmm. Are you passing your judgement here? Do you think it is not possible for this man to experience metanoia? Of course he can. God alone can judge the heart. I will remain content to judge a man's outward statements and actions. What Putin said in the video was good and his analysis of the condition of the West as accurate.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,685 Likes: 8
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,685 Likes: 8 |
Hmmm. Are you passing your judgement here? Do you think it is not possible for this man to experience metanoia? Before or after he divorced his wife, wrestled a bear single handedly, killed 3 birds with the same pebble and sling, and/or defeated Chuck Norris in judo?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,226
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,226 |
Of course he can. God alone can judge the heart. I will remain content to judge a man's outward statements and actions. What Putin said in the video was good and his analysis of the condition of the West as accurate. My thoughts also. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 41
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 41 |
Hmmm. Are you passing your judgement here? Do you think it is not possible for this man to experience metanoia? Before or after he divorced his wife, wrestled a bear single handedly, killed 3 birds with the same pebble and sling, and/or defeated Chuck Norris in judo? Of course, Chuck Norris won!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,735 Likes: 6
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,735 Likes: 6 |
God Bless President Putin for taking a stand, unlike that poor caricature of a president sitting in the Oval Office, Stephen Harper or any of the EU powers that be. By the way, wasn't the boy darling of our not-so-Russian friends, Yushchenko, also a member of the Communist Party? I guess we only allow Ukrainians to repent, and not Russians.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,226
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,226 |
God Bless President Putin for taking a stand Thank God there is a world leader willing to speak the truth.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38 |
Thank you for your insightful comments on the matter.
Alex
Last edited by Orthodox Catholic; 11/15/13 07:45 PM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38 |
Please see below.
Last edited by Orthodox Catholic; 11/15/13 08:11 PM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 26,405 Likes: 38 |
If President Putin wants to receive thousands of Syrian Christians and otherwise protect them using military and other forms of clout - more power to him.
If he wants to dress down the West on the grounds of Christian values and their revitalization - more power to him.
It would certainly not be the first time in history that a ruler appealed to spiritual values as part of an overall and quite secular geopolitical plan.
This is all conjecture on my part. Putin may indeed be a pious Orthodox Christian who repented of his KGB past.
But if I were a Russian citizen - would I want a weak leader? Such leaders did not fare well in Russia's past and the Russian people turned away from such.
Putin didn't get to where he is today by being weak or naive. He understands what is happening in the world and how to speak to people's sense of outrage and the like.
He is a brilliant politician and a strong leader. That has nothing to do with Christianity or Christian values.
It has everything to do with an "iron fist in a velvet glove" mentality.
To think otherwise is to be woefully naive about Putin and his sense of himself and of the future of Russia.
Like other former communist leaders, he has realized the mistakes of the Bolshevik past in persecuting religion.
Putin is undoubtedly very religious as a person and believes in the role of the Orthodox Church in contemporary Russia.
But to think that that will somehow impact his iron fist when he sees fit to use it . . . is very Western of us.
I don't blame him for being the strong leader that he is - I wish other countries had similar strong leaders that sought their own countries' best interests in the first instance, including, yes, Ukraine.
It is just Western naivete to mistake Putin's appeal to and defence of Christian values for anything other than a wider paradigm that he has a firm grasp of - and the West doesn't, including some of our commentators on this thread.
Am I passing judgement? You bet. Putin is one tough cookie and there is nothing weak about his ambitions and perspective.
We can take that to the bank. And good for Russia. In Putin, it has regained what it lost with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Alex
Last edited by Orthodox Catholic; 11/15/13 08:10 PM.
|
|
|
|
|
