Advocatus diaboli: when falsehood becomes a virtue

Poster for the film The Devil’s Advocate. Photo: open sources

At a meeting with representatives of the World Council of Churches, UGCC head Sviatoslav Shevchuk once again repeated a falsehood perfectly tailored to the needs of the Ukrainian authorities – that Ukraine remains a model of religious freedom and that no Christians are being persecuted by the state.

He dwelt in particular on the law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations” – better known simply as the law banning the UOC.

“Be assured that the state law protecting Churches and religious organizations from encroachments by the aggressor state is not directed against any one particular Church. In accordance with the principle of universality inherent in all civil legislation, it applies to all of us without exception. It is aimed at preventing the instrumentalization of the Church and the transformation of religion into a weapon,” the UGCC head declared.

The sheer absurdity of this statement is breathtaking.

The law explicitly targets the activities of the Russian Church in Ukraine and every religious body the authorities choose to label as affiliated with it. And it is precisely on the basis of alleged “ties to Moscow” that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is now being dragged through the courts in an attempt to outlaw it.

So if this law truly “applies to all of us without exception,” are we to conclude that the UGCC, the OCU and every other religious community in Ukraine also maintain ties with Moscow?

Were the MPs who erupted in applause in the Verkhovna Rada and proclaimed that they had finally banned the “FSB’s UOC” lying?

Was Zelensky lying when he hailed the law as an act of “spiritual de-occupation”?

Or are we simply expected to forget what the law was written for, whom it was directed against and how openly its authors celebrated its adoption?

Listening to Shevchuk and his colleagues in the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, it is difficult not to recall The Devil’s Advocate – the celebrated film in which Keanu Reeves’s character spends years defending evil before finally realizing whom he has truly been serving.

The UOC is part of the Church of Christ – a fact acknowledged even by many of its most implacable enemies. The seizures of its churches, the beatings of believers, the forced mobilization of its clergy, the expulsion of communities and the campaign to eliminate it altogether are therefore not merely a political struggle against supposed “Moscow priests.”

They are an assault on the Church itself.

And behind every attempt to destroy the Church there stand forces far darker than ministers, deputies or presidential officials.

That is why, when Shevchuk and his colleagues in the UCCRO dress an obvious injustice in the language of freedom, security and universal law, they are not merely defending Zelensky or providing public relations cover for the government.

They are acting as advocates for someone else entirely.

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