Are right-wing religious "culture wars" a precursor to atrocities and War Crimes?

[barbaraann]

Last edited Sun Apr 3, 2022, 04:55 PM - Edit history (1)

Today from the Guardian:
"Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has given theological cover for Vladimir Putin’s murderous assault on Ukraine"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/03/the-guardian-view-on-the-russian-orthodox-church-betrayed-by-putins-patriarch

https://uacrisis.org/en/how-russian-orthodox-church-promotes-military-aggression

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-orthodox-clerics-stop-war-ukrane/31730667.html

https://www.theledger.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/03/26/russian-orthodox-leader-complicit-crime-ukraine/7125116001/

https://finance.yahoo.com/finance/news/patriarch-urges-soldiers-defend-peace-140325408.html

Some background:
When Vladimir Putin rose to the presidency of Russia in 2000, he inherited the remains of a once-fearsome communist-atheist imperial state.
In the intervening 19 years, he has transformed Russia back into an imperial power with global ambitions. One of his key tools in that transformation has been the Russian Orthodox Church.
...
Many conservative figures in America, including Pat Buchanan and Franklin Graham, have been attracted to Putin’s rhetoric, with its heavy emphasis on traditional Western-Christian values and its seeming rejection of the culture of “degradation and primitivism,” which Putin says has produced “a moral crisis in the West.”
...
Since the year 1686, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow. But last October, the Ukrainian church announced that after 332 years, it was splitting with the Patriarchate of Moscow in an attempt to gain independence from Russia. This split was facilitated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and approved by the head of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, based in Turkey.
https://www.heritage.org/europe/commentary/how-putin-uses-russian-orthodoxy-grow-his-empire

Are Putin's culture wars responsible for the War Crimes in Ukraine? I can't help but wonder where the culture wars in our country will lead. Recently, I saw a window decal of a female Dem politician being raped from behind by a stick figure.

Edit: Added right-wing to thread title.