I heard two prominent people the other day make equally asinine comments about the war in Ukraine. One came from the mouth of Russia’s infamous president and the other from the microphone of an American TV political commentator who shall remain unnamed.
Vladimir Putin call the war “noble and necessary.”
Let’s talk about “noble” from a biblical standpoint, which speaks of those who have a “noble heart,” people with a “noble character,” the advisability of thinking on “whatever is noble,” the “noble task” of the spiritual leader, and finally the “noble name of him to whom we belong.”
Does any of that square with the sociopathic leader of Russia and his reprehensible genocide in Ukraine? Is it even remotely possible that what he’s doing could be considered “noble”? I think not.
As for this same Russian power-monger’s description of his murder of thousands of innocent civilians as “necessary,” necessary for whom? Certainly not for the citizens of his neighboring country! Similarly, Hitler framed his “final solution” as necessary for the betterment of Germany, not to mention for his own ego.
Now for the American populist and popular pundit (so-called). “We are the victims here,” he had the audacity to assert on cable news. (Doesn’t really qualify as “news,” but let us not get sidetracked.) Gas and groceries cost Americans more than they did a year ago, quite a bit more. So, Ukrainians aren’t the victims, we are! What kind of dim-witted thinking is that!
(By the way, I’m not divulging his name because I don’t want to garner any more attention to him than he already gets from his fans and flatterers. I’m tempted to hint that his name rhymes with a bad word that I haven’t called anyone in a long long time. That is, I hope it’s a long time, but my memory is waning more and more these days, so it might not be as long as all that.)
There are tens of millions of true victims in this war and it’s not a multimillionaire TV personality who can afford the gas and groceries into the next millennium! Those that have lost their health, their lives, their loved ones, their homes. They’re the victims! It’s shameful to say otherwise.
Let’s talk biblical references to actual victims.
We’re told that a person “kidnapped” and eventually murdered is a “victim.” Sounds about right. Someone hit in the head with a rock, an ambushed person, starving people during a “famine,” those “crushed and devoured” by a stronger evil superpower, and those overtaken by “the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims.” Sound familiar?
No, Americans aren’t the victims in this war. So, we have to drive a little less often and shop the deals at Safeway. Poor us! While over 10 million Ukrainians had to leave their homes, the majority of which are women and children and he had the audacity to call us victims in this war!
I am profoundly offended by both of these impudent declarations. To me, both the Russian and the American spewed equally appalling assertions. As though tens of thousands of civilian deaths weren’t enough, now we’re hearing about rapes by the Russian military. “Noble and necessary” this is not! Calling Americans “victims” is disgraceful! Both of which, to my mind sound like sociopathic fantasies of true nobility and legitimate victimhood.
God help us all!
You might have read an earlier post of mine about how I pray for people like these two. It goes like this: Lord, SAVE him. If he won’t be saved, STOP him. And if he won’t be stopped, SEND him away. (And just to put a point on it, sometimes I add, “send him as far away as possible!”) Putin and our anonymous blowhard are in my prayers. You might consider joining me in prayer. Couldn’t hurt!
In addition to prayer, you might think about donating to ministries and NGOs that are assisting in the massive refugee crisis in Europe. Here are some of my favorite orgs that are doing phenomenal work in that area:
- World Vision
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services
- Good Samaritan
- We Welcome
- Doctors Without Borders
- Save the Children
barney wiget 