Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Is Vlad mad? Or just sad about his dad?





"Does the world not have a peacemaker right now, who can convince the Russians to lower the temperature? Does war have to be the ultimate and final answer? Biden wants to continue to negotiate with Putin. Note to Joe - it is very hard, if not impossible, to negotiate with someone whose mind is made up."


Here is something to behold. Our neighborhood bully, Vladimir Putin, is a church going Christian. Wait - what? This former KGB guy, who some say was a stone cold killer, who now has almost 200,000 troops at Ukraine's border, ready to unleash hell on Earth - is a Christian? So goes the story. His dad was an atheist, as were many during the Soviet Union period. However, Vlad's momma was a Christian. And Vlad was raised a Christian. In fact, one of Vlad's pet rocks is to rebuild many of the orthodox churches which were destroyed by the Communists.

Wait - hold the phone. Was it not Karl Marx, the grand-daddy of Communism who came up with that now infamous line - "Religion is the opium of the masses"? I am totally confused. But I do know this. Any Christianity which Putin practices, misses some very important points. How do I know? Because if he indeed followed the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, I doubt if we would be in the pickle we are right now. Even though Putin was more inclined to be a momma pleaser growing up, maybe he ended up being daddy's boy after all. 

On the news this morning, it was reported that intel has shown that more blood was being sent to the front lines. Not good, if it is true. That means the hammer is about to fall. The "peacekeepers" in the tanks, might end up being the dogs of war instead. With the UN and the US now being feckless, it will be up to the Ukrainian Army to hold off the Russians. One analyst who is a retired general, said the Ukrainian Army could lose half its forces in the first few days of battle. 

Does the world not have a peacemaker right now, who can convince the Russians to lower the temperature? Does war have to be the ultimate and final answer? Biden wants to continue to negotiate with Putin. Note to Joe - it is very hard, if not impossible, to negotiate with someone whose mind is made up. We are not going to send it troops (thank goodness), sanctions will probably not work, and talk is cheap. Putin thinks he has some kind of grand authority to go into another country, and tell them they now belong to Russia. It simply does not work that way. Putin would not want another country doing that to Russia. Putin needs to read his history books on how close Russia came to falling to the Nazis. Lots of Russian blood spilled back then.

I don't want to sound like a neophyte, but it is time for mankind to stop playing "King of the Hill", and start getting along as civilized people. War accomplishes nothing, except heartache and misery. But here is an idea. Since both Biden and Putin profess to be Christians, there might be an answer. The Apostle Paul writes that we are all to be "imitators of Christ." Paul also said that where two followers have a dispute, it should be worked out (peacefully). The sun should never go down where dispute remains unresolved.

Other than that, I am stuck in coming up with any good ideas how to solve this mess. Is Putin mad? No - but he is confused. Is he sad about his dad being an atheist? Maybe. But Putin (like the rest of us) does have a Heavenly Father who will never disappoint. Maybe it is time for all involved to remember that.  

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