Juha Meriläinen, church historian at the University of Helsinki, has written a forthcoming book titled Putin’s Altar Boy. In it, he sounds a warning about the dangers of a church under the influence of the state. Patriarch Kiril, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia, have an iron grip on the nation and its people.
We should examine closely the moves this religious/political partnership has made to better prepare for the likelihood of such an alliance in America. As Kenneth Burke said, “Let us try to discover what kind of ‘medicine’ this medicine man has concocted,” so we can “forestall the concocting if similar medicine in America.”
Burke’s warning still applies even though the “similar medicine” has been concocted and consumed by an entire segment of American Christians known as MAGA evangelicals. Here is an attempt to discover the Putin/Kiril distortions of religion as the light to a better path for America.
On May 1, 2022, Pope Francis had a 40-minute Zoom conversation with Patriarch Kiril. Kiril told the pope Russia’s war in Ukraine was justified because of the violence against Ukraine’s ethnic Russian population and the broken promises NATO would not expand further eastward. Francis was stunned by the patriarch’s political justifications for war against Ukraine, saying, “Brother, we are not state priests. We cannot use political language, but the language of Jesus.”
“Brother, we are not state priests. We cannot use political language, but the language of Jesus.”
In a later interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Francis said, “The Patriarch cannot become Putin’s altar boy.” The pope’s analogy reminds me of Michael J. Mooney naming Robert Jeffress “Trump’s Apostle” in a 2019 Texas Monthly article.
The pope’s words were intended as a warning for the Patriarch not to become Putin’s altar boy. Francis seemed to remind Kiril that his job is not to carry the cross in front of the president or hold open the lectionary for the president to interpret God’s will to the people.
Putin’s altar boy
Meriläinen argues, “Putin’s wars (are) underpinned by Orthodox political theology.” Patriarch Kiril has defended Putin’s invasion of Ukraine using Putin’s political arguments. Putin’s state and Patriarch Kiril’s Russian Orthodox Church have “embraced each other” in a pure identification. Burke called this being consubstantial. They are together through a series of symbolic identifications ranging from patriotism to shared practices of violence.
The Russian Orthodox Church aligns with Putin to sow fear and suspicion. The church exploits people who falsely believe globalization has left them behind. Most flagrantly of all, the Russian Orthodox Church defends Putin’s war against Ukraine. The patriarch employs religious language to describe the war in Ukraine as a “metaphysical war” against sin and the West as “satanic.” Putin has borrowed Orthodox religiosity and traditional family values to reinforce his power.
In the foreword of Putin’s Altar Boy, Professor Cyril Hovorun of University College Stockholm observes, “The Russian Orthodox Church, under Kiril’s leadership, has become a protagonist of Putin’s wars and the dictatorship he has established domestically. In the past, the church played a more passive role. It was like the wagon at the end of a train. Now, in Russia, the church is more like a locomotive. Some of its hierarchs are more Putinists than Putin himself.” Putin’s dominant religious performance is his presentation as the father of his country. He convinced the Russian people he was the only ruler capable of protecting them. Putin posed as a populist, religious leader. This role was confirmed by Kiril.
A conservative political/religious foundation to a special nation
Putin aligned with Kiril and the Russian Orthodox Church to enforce “a certain dose of conservatism.” He blasted tolerance as “sexless and infertile” and a danger to Russian greatness. The political/religious alliance coalesced around the issue of homosexuality. Western ideology and gay pride parades were used as examples of how “Gay Europe” (Gayropa in Russian) threatened to undermine Russia’s traditional values.
Here, Putin’s bond with Kiril is the strongest. Putin’s pro-family, anti-gay agenda has been used to justify his oppressive politics across the board. Putin claimed men and women should be different so they will make more babies. The population, especially children, must be protected from any teaching or discussion of “non-traditional sexual relations” (LGBTQ+ people). Putin claimed they were threatening to come to Russia and undermine the country’s “historic” values.
Putin makes common cause with Kiril, who has claimed same-sex marriages are “a very dangerous sign of the Apocalypse.” Ironically, Orthodox opposition to gay rights “still appears when the Russian Orthodox Church defends Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” according to Meriläinen.
Additionally, one of the key issues of Russian identity is the centuries-old notion of its special role in the world. The mission is apocalyptic in the deepest meaning. End times and messianic to the core, this idea was connected to the coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Kiril’s notion of the special mission is linked to the state. As Meriläinen puts it, “Kiril seems to associate the idea of mission with Russian civilization and history and in a substantive sense, with morality.”
State-mandated religious teaching
With Kiril’s support, Putin established the teaching of the Orthodox Church in the schools with Orthodox priests as instructors. The result, according to Meriläinen, is “the consistent promotion of Russian religious nationalism and so-called family values.”
Patriarch Kiril and the Russian Orthodox Church are the Russian equivalent of the Seven Mountains Dominionism of independent Pentecostals in America, with the advantage of a single hierarchical, authoritarian leader. Putin and Kiril idealize Russian history to create a nationalist identity that would unite Russians. The church is seen as the protector of the Russian world.
A people determined to impose its values on all others is only one step away from using violence to take control.
In all these ways, Kiril sees the mission of the church to combat the values propagated by Western civilization. The Russian Orthodox Church is presented as the holy force that makes Russia a nation known as the “God-bearer.” The constant themes of the mission of the church: traditional values, patriotism, the Russian way of life and the symphony of church and state, combine with mythological ideas of a chosen people with a millennial mission and an innocent and righteous people opposed by the forces of evil.
Perhaps Putin’s Altar Boy will serve as a wake-up call for America. The dangers of a church/state alliance promoting nationalist, patriotic, anti-gay traditionalist theology are the same dangers faced in the U.S. from the new fundamentalists — MAGA evangelicals. A people determined to impose its values on all others is only one step away from using violence to take control.
Our anti-Putin task is making sure as many Americans as possible see clearly Putin’s distortions of religion in order to make sure preachers and politicians are unable to perform a similar swindle on America.
Rodney Kennedy
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.