Why do we listen to the ignorant and the wicked?

Dumenko and Fylypovych. Collage: UOJ

The DESS expert, professor, and Doctor of Philosophy, Liudmyla Fylypovych, publicly declared that the fate of UOC churches (regarding their “transfers” to the OCU) can be decided not only by parishioners, but by all residents of the city where these churches are located.

“I think a community – you know – is not only a church community. After all, the Church isn’t separated from society. If you have a parish, you’re in a city, you have a church – you influence, in one way or another, the residents around that church,” Fylypovych stated.

This is simply astounding, because the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" says the complete opposite – that meetings of a religious community to decide on jurisdictional change and to make any such decisions may be held only by members of that community. But according to Fylypovych’s logic, tomorrow the residents of Kyiv could gather and vote to transfer, say, the central synagogue to the OCU, and the main mosque – to the UGCC.

Thus, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, and “expert” Fylypovych is either appallingly ignorant, or she deliberately lies to serve the OCU and the authorities. And she is by no means an exception – she’s part of the system. Today, we are told how to live, even ruled, by people who have no right to do so – neither professionally nor morally.

And this is plainly visible even in the religious sphere.

The head of DESS, Viktor Yelensky, once worked at the Institute of Atheism: he wrote antisemitic books, glorified Lenin for his struggle against the Church, and derided Ukrainian patriots in every possible way. In short, he embodied the same criminal communist system that the Ukrainian state now officially condemns. Yet it is this man who today defines our national policy in the sphere of religion.

The same Epifaniy Dumenko, “professor of the theological academy,” confidently calls Christ’s words “sayings,” and blesses and instigates mob attacks where Christians are beaten and robbed.

The leaders of Ukraine’s major religious confessions, members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO), who are supposed to be the moral conscience of the nation, travel the world on the government’s behalf and lie that Ukraine is a model of religious freedom – that no Christians here are persecuted or oppressed.

None of this means that all Ukrainians have become dilettantes or people of low morals. It’s simply that, at some point, those who floated to the top were the very ones who best illustrate the Psalmist David’s words: “Every man is a lie.”

In moments like this, we understand with special clarity whom we should place our hope in – and whom we should not.

Put not your trust in UCCRO, in “experts,” or in false shepherds – for in them there is no salvation. Blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.

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