Saint Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Hudson, NY photo © 2022 Ralph Benko

Here are the words of Otto von Bismarck to the German ambassador in Vienna, Heinrich VII Prince of Reuss, in Berlin, 3 May 1888, as translated and published by Rick Twisdale at Russia Insider:

“…The result of a war (against Russia) would never result in the destruction of the main power of Russia, which rests upon millions of Russians of the Greek [Orthodox] confession. Even if separated by treaty, these would just as soon reunite, like the parts of a splattered drop of mercury.”

The assuredly wise purpose of Mr. Twisdale’s article is to echo Bismarck’s counsel that to attack Russia would be, to put it mildly, counterproductive. A second lesson to be drawn from the Iron Chancellor’s observation is that “the main power of Russia… rests upon millions of Russians of the … [Orthodox] confession.”

If Bismarck’s observation applies, over a century later, as I contend it does, it also means that Vladimir Putin has been politically astute in cultivating the benediction of the heretical patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. This also implies that the quisling patriarch’s benediction is more politically valuable, and more politically precarious, than many may presume.

The leading news organizations of the West have devoted many column inches to assessing the support provided to Putin by Patriarch Kirill and evaluating the increasing cost to the Russian Orthodox Church of providing it.

The New York Times has written Ukraine War Divides Orthodox Faithful; The Washington Post has written Russian Orthodox leader backs Ukraine war, divides faith; TIME Magazine has written How the Russian Orthodox Church is Helping Drive Putin’s War in Ukraine; The (UK) Guardian has written The Guardian view on the Russian Orthodox Church: betrayed by Putin’s patriarch [Editorial] and the Wall Street Journal, ‘Russian World’ is the Civil Religion behind Putin’s War. I myself have written, at Newsmax, Confronting a Pariah Church in a Pariah State and Let Spiritual Justice Warriors Lead Crusade to Liberate Ukraine.

One clear implication is that of the latent power of a concerted, worldwide, effort by spiritual justice warriors, clergy and lay, to anathematize the renegade Russian patriarch.Anathematizing him can undermine the pretext of moral legitimacy accorded to Putin by the people of Russia.

Let us not underestimate this means to bring Putin to end his brutality against Ukraine. Undermining the presumption of legitimacy of a head of state is a strategic weapon. It is one that does not obviously invite nuclear reprisal.

TIME’s roundup datelined April 15th most clearly shows the damage the Patriarch Kirill, by supporting Putin and Putin’s “special military operation,” i.e., war, is inflicting:

Putin’s is thus a spiritual, as well as military, misadventure. Similar to Stalin’s pivot at the lowest point in World War Two, his reliance upon the Orthodox Church over the last decade smacks of desperation. … Throughout his rule he has consistently spoken and behaved at odds with normative Orthodox Christian behavior, such as by claiming that choice of faith is unimportant since all religious categories are human invention, or when awkwardly greeting Patriarch Kirill with the gestures reserved for venerating a sacred relic or icon.

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Swift and total alienation of millions of Ukrainian Orthodox is a colossal price for Patriarch Kirill to pay for loyalty to Putin, Ukraine being where a third of his parishes and monasteries are located. The Patriarch’s international standing is also shot, as Orthodox abroad not gagged by the Kremlin’s new ban on criticism of the Russian armed forces have condemned the war—including Kirill’s own bishops inEstoniaandLithuania—along withPope Francisand theArchbishop of Canterbury. Instead of a Russian World, the Moscow Patriarch may soon find his authority stopping at the borders of the Russian Federation.

Quoting from the Washington Post, I wrote:

“’Any war has to have guns and ideas,’said Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm. ‘In this war the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.’ In the process, Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support.”

It is my contention, as I have declared in my recent writings, that attacking a false and falsifiable pretension to legitimacy by a head of state is politically powerful. It is especially powerful as a tool for convincing the citizens not to sustain the actions of their ruler:

Discredit his claims to legitimacy and Putin’s political house of cards collapses. Tom Paine’s stripping the British monarch of any claim to legitimacy legitimized, and thus brought about, the American Revolution.

…

Paine’s main critique was not England’s brutal misrule, nor the tyranny of taxation without representation, nor the virtue of independence. Paine indicted the legitimacy of monarchy in all ways, including spiritual:

“Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honours to their deceased kings, and the Christian World hath improved on the plan by doing the same to their living ones.”

Yes, Paine went on to argue for the practicality and the benefits of America becoming its own, self-governing, continental entity. Yes, he argued for the excellent prospects for American victory.

That said, his kill shot was the illegitimacy of monarchy.

Bismarck, characteristically, showed his unfailing statesmanship and discernment when he observed that “the main power of Russia … rests upon millions of Russians of the … [Orthodox] confession.”As Peter Drucker once famously observed to future Ford president Mark Fields, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

A significant source of Putin’s political authority is at least partly rooted in legitimacy falsely bestowed upon him by a renegade cleric. It’s the culture, stupid!

Challenging the heretic patriarch’s spiritual legitimacy and, thereby, Putin’s moral legitimacy, is an obvious way to induce the Russian people themselves to constrain Putin.Let’s get on with it.

President Biden is discerning to not escalate the military conflict.An end to the brutality can and must be brought about by people of faith, from the pews to the pulpits, all over the world, appealing, to the mystic chords of Russian memory stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone when again touched by the better angels of their nature.

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