I find that I object to people routinely offering the following comment on YouTube videos about the slaughter Russia currently carries forth: “Prayers for Ukraine.’”
No doubt these comments mean well. But Vladimir Putin, like Donald Trump, like so many murderers before them, owe much of their power to religious credulity.
Just as so many evangelicals in America were unable to see that a man who can’t quote a single passage from scripture or who cites “two Corinthians” might be conning them, Putin mouthed words believers wanted to hear to position himself in Russia and in Euope as a traditional defender of “Christian values.”
If Christian values were anything like what those who trumpet them claim them to be, or if the flock were not so easy to exploit by killers who seek power, Mr. Trump would never have become President and Mr. Putin would have far less hold on Russia than he does.
So while “sending prayers to Ukraine” may intend to say, “best wishes” or “stay strong” or “I am on your side,” it is also says: “I don’t really understand the problem.”
That people in positions of authority who kill indiscriminantly usually fool those around them into thinking they are divine is hardly the only problem with Putin or in Ukraine; in the sirens of today a YouTube comment matters little.
But since sooner or later someone who claims god on their side will drop bombs on the public square, that public square is safer with fewer appeals to what should remain a private matter: belief.