Russia, Rwanda and Racism: The Perils of Beheaded Christianity – Sebastian Dortch
Even though bodies filled the morgue, and airstrikes destroyed hospitals, roads, and stores, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine, continued his daily walks, reassuring residents that victory was near.
“What can I say, the 17th day of war, all is well, the mood is excellent,” Kim said of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “We have freedom and we’re fighting for it. And all they have is slavery. We want all our dreams to come true and we’re moving in that direction. Together to victory.”1
Kim’s viewpoint was not limited to him. While six million people have fled Ukraine, those who remain have amazed the world with their resolve. Young and old, weak and strong, have banded together to fight insurmountable odds. A grand narrative captures them: they are free and willing to die to stay that way.
Ukraine’s story echoes a grander story found within the Trinity, where one of its members became human, was sacrificed, and raised from the dead to make way for us to join God’s family. It is a gripping tale – filled with plot twists, misery, and woe. Nevertheless, it is beautiful, winsome, liberating, and ennobling – a story of how light will defeat the darkness we see and experience today.
Victory already has been won. God conquered sin and death: not just the occasional missed mark we call sin, but the deep-seated incurvatus in se that animates our ways, systems, and history, and not just the last heartbeat we call death, but the Genesis 3 fractured relationship between God and ourselves. Once again, God is victorious. It is just many days it does not look that way.
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Sebastian Dortch attends Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is working on a master’s degree in leadership, theology and society.
Notes:
1 “‘I’m Not Scared of Anything’: Death and Defiance in a Besieged Ukrainian City,” The New York Times, March 15, 2022, sec. World, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/world/europe/ukraine-mykolaiv-russia-war.html.
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