Leadership that works, or not

Vladimir Putin is running a destructive war in a foreign country.

Xi Jinping is enforcing a COVID-19 lockdown that is threatening his nation’s welfare.

The living God ordered the people of Israel to “make for yourselves no idols … I am the Lord (Leviticus 26:1-2).”

What’s the difference between the three?

The first two are world leaders who care nothing for the people they oversee. They rule with an iron hand to keep themselves in power.

The third one established laws and decrees for the benefit of the people he leads.

That’s a huge difference.

Putin, Russia

Putin, the president of Russia, is seeking control of Ukraine, a former Soviet Union vassal. He continues to target civilians and their infrastructure, destroying their heating and light sources as winter sets in. Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 hoping for a quick overthrow of the Ukrainian government. That didn’t happen. As a result, millions of Ukrainians have been displaced inside and outside their own country, and huge chunks of civilian centerpieces – apartment buildings, schools, electricity grids and other sites – have been and continue to be destroyed.

Putin has no interest in serving the people he wants to control. Even his own people are resisting their forced deployment to Ukraine as soldiers.

Xi, China

The government of China, led by its authoritarian leader Xi, has implemented an impossible zero-COVID crackdown policy, forcing millions of citizens to isolate in their homes, including barricading neighborhoods and sealing apartment doors, reports Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin.

At the same time, Xi refuses to import successful COVID vaccines, instead opting for less-effective Chinese-made vaccines. And China’s senior citizens are “woefully under-vaccinated,” Rubin reports.

In other words, she writes, “XI Jinping has backed himself into a self-made COVID trap. If he lifts the lockdown, millions of at-risk seniors could die. Keep the lockdown, and the economy continues to suffer.”

It’s obvious that Xi also has no interest in serving the 1.4 billion people living in his country.

God, the world

Let’s start with the 10 Commandments.

The first four demand worship of God – “you shall have no other gods before me,” no idols, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, and keep the sabbath day holy.

Any authoritarian leader could make those demands, I’ll give you that.

The next six, however, are for our good:

• Honor our parents.
• Do not murder.
• Do not commit adultery.
• Do not steal.
• Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• Do not covet.

Many of the laws of the United States are based on these principles. Why? Because they lead to a peaceful, productive society.

If our family structure is stable, then we don’t need to search for love and meaning in life from gangs, drugs, pornography, illicit relationships, or any other form of destructive behavior.

Murder and stealing are criminal offenses in every jurisdiction in this country.

Adultery destroys relationships.

Bearing false witness prevents justice.

Coveting is a state of mind, but it leads to selfish behavior that harms other people.

In the New Testament, Jesus – who came to Earth as fully God, fully man (a concept that no human can understand completely) – not only supported the 10 Commandments, he told us why we should follow them.

Anger precedes murder, Jesus said, so don’t get angry.

Lust precedes adultery, he said, so don’t lust.

Don’t make promises (vows) we can’t keep. Otherwise, people won’t trust us.

Don’t take revenge, but love your enemies. (How’s that for a way to eliminate conflict?)

Give to the poor in secret – not to serve our ego, but to actually help the poor.

Pray in secret for the same reason – to show sincerity to God, not to show off in public.

Forgive others.

Fast in secret – again, not to earn praise from other people, but to improve your relationship with God.

Don’t hoard money, because we can’t take it with us when we die. Therefore, give generously to people and causes that improve their lives.

Don’t worry about food and clothes; God will provide what we need. Other issues are more important.

Don’t judge others; God will judge us with the same measuring stick we judge others with. (Ouch!)

Ask God for whatever is good, and God will give it to us. (Putin and Xi certainly won’t.)

Serving God give us an other-person mindset. I care about you because God cares about me, and shows me how to care about you.

People, our response

That’s the difference. Putin and Xi think only about themselves, and they are destroying the lives of the people under them as a result. They don’t care.

God sent Jesus to show us how to live much better lives than that.

Jesus summed up his Sermon on the Mount with this statement:

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 7:12

God’s instructions demand a response from us. That’s why true faith is public as well as private.

Near the start of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”

Matthew 5:17

“The law and the prophets” refers to the Old Testament, which was the only written Scriptures Jesus had to work with. And it was enough for him.

New Testament laws build on Old Testament laws. Jesus’ death on the cross replaced the sacrificial system described in Leviticus, providing once-for-all forgiveness rather than the repeated individual animal sacrifices that God required earlier.

All of it was, and still is, for our benefit.

Jesus came to serve, and to show us how to serve. Jesus wants the best for us. That’s the hook that drew me to him a long time ago. He is not like world leaders who are serving their own interests.

No. Jesus wants the best for you and for me.

There’s a reason Jesus is still a popular leader 2,000 years after he lived. His ideas transcend time. For the good of all. For the good of individuals.

Test my theory yourself, and see if I’m right.

Going back to school

We live in the UNITED States of America. Someone forgot to tell our leaders that.

The Florida spat

Republicans in Florida are upset that Walt Disney World executives criticized a new state law that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

Both sides are wrong. There’s a much better solution that no one is talking about.

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not early elementary school issues. Period. Six-year-olds don’t think about such things at all. A law shouldn’t be needed to state the obvious.

On the other hand, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, also does not have the best interests of 6-year-olds in mind – only himself. Swinging hard against Disney over kindergarten sex ed is firing an AK-47 against a snail.

According to The Associated Press, “The 43-year-old Republican (DeSantis) has repeatedly demonstrated an acute willingness to fight over the course of his decade-long political career.”

That’s not how this nation was founded. Our country began with multiple political parties, and with three governing branches to dilute power among all of them. Today, we are destroying country from the inside out, because we care only about ourselves.

We are wrong when we act like this. Every time.

Sex ed is a thing, certainly. Just not for early elementary students. Republicans and Democrats (and teachers) should figure out not only what should be taught in sex ed, but when.

When parents can’t control themselves at a youth softball or baseball game, we shouldn’t be surprised when they can’t control themselves in a public arena either. Parents or politicians forcing their selfish values on others does not benefit children – or anyone else.

When Jesus said “unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” He knew what He was talking about.

Little children play. They don’t care who else is in the room, or the sandbox. They accept everyone.

Unless the adults in the room teach them not to.

Our leaders should return to kindergarten, literally, and learn how to play together, and to solve problems together.

The Ohio mess

In the same way, Republicans have made a fiasco of the state-law-required redistricting of political maps in Ohio, where I live. GOP members have ignored Democrats on the redistricting commission completely and submitted severely gerrymandered maps four times – all of which an Ohio court has rejected.

There’s a simple solution here, too. Lock the commission members in a room together, all of them, and don’t let them out until they come up with a plan that all of them can live with. No showers. Food delivered through the door. Cots in the room to sleep on. Access to a bathroom, and that’s about it. No windows, no sunlight, no cellphones, no access to the outside world.

I’m serious. Force the issue. They might beat each other up first, but they would come up with a workable plan. Sooner rather than later.

And next time, they’ll come up with a workable plan much faster.

We are the UNITED States of America. We need to start acting like it.

The national disaster

Here’s a third example. Two years ago, COVID threatened not only our country, but the world. A fast-spreading, highly contagious, deadly disease that we initially didn’t know how to treat entered the scene, literally overnight.

Former President Donald Trump had a golden opportunity to unite the United States around a common enemy, COVID. He refused to do that. Instead, he blew it off – and immediately divided the nation against itself. We became enemies to each other as COVID raged.

Trump could have been a hero. He could have taken a prominent place in the history books – for drawing the country together to overcome a deadly pandemic.

Oh, he will have a prominent place in the history books, that is true. But not as a hero. He was the big bad wolf trying to devour the little pigs, who were just trying to save themselves.

In so doing, millions died – and millions more suffered, many with long COVID, the effects of which we are still trying to understand. Much of that could have been avoided, if our nation had joined together to defeat a common enemy. The scientific evidence for this is overwhelming.

Not to mention the political and social destruction we have endured during the past two-plus years.

It’s not about the fight.

The Ukrainian war

At least parts of the world have united behind Ukraine as it was invaded by Russia, directed by its prime minister, Vladimir Putin. See, we can join forces for good against evil. We can band together to do the right thing (even if China, India and a few other influencers won’t).

Whether the United States and other nations in the West are doing enough to support Ukraine is an open discussion, but few among us question the need to do so. Ukrainians did nothing wrong; they were living peaceful lives, just as we are supposed to be doing in the UNITED States.

They were attacked by a ruthless dictator who cares only about himself. This is easy for us to see.

The solution: Teamwork

It’s harder to see our own flaws. We don’t want to admit them. We think that’s a sign of weakness.

It’s not. Admitting mistakes – even better, admitting I don’t have all the answers and I need your input – is a sign of strength. When that happens, we can find a solution that perhaps neither of us sees in the moment.

That’s why teamwork is such a big deal. We are better together.

Stop the finger-pointing. Stop the fighting. Go back to the lessons we learned in kindergarten: Play. Have fun. Get along. Build together.

When the tower falls, build it better. Strengthen the foundation. Use materials that won’t break when faced with stress. Find ways to reduce stress on the materials. Help each other.

Solve problems. Actually solve them.

This is how we will unite the UNITED States of America.

Faith in the midst of war

Is there ever a time when Christians are allowed to hate their enemies?

According to at least one Ukrainian pastor, the answer is yes.

That time is now.

The atrocities that are coming to light in the war with Russia have crossed a line. Repentance among Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, and many Russian soldiers isn’t going to happen, says Andrii Savych.

“How hell do you have to be,” Savych asks, “to see someone raping a girl or killing a child say, Know how to bear suffering. Thank God for everything and accept His will. We must love and forgive our enemies. Always the fault of both of them. Not everything is so obvious … “

Savych quotes Ecclesiastes 3:

“At all its time, every matter in this life has its own time. Time to be born, and time to die. Time to kill and time to heal, time to destroy and time to build. Time to cry and time to laugh. It’s time to be silent and it’s time to speak. Time to love and time to hate. Time for war and time for peace. “

So, there is a time to hate.

Why? Because the war must stop. The killing, raping, torturing, destroying must end. Putin must die or be overthrown. He has been orchestrating these atrocities in multiple countries for years.

This is the prayer of many Ukrainians, and it’s hard to argue with them.

Comparing Russia to Nineveh

Asking a Ukrainian to show mercy to Russians is like asking Jonah to show mercy to the residents of Nineveh, says Ira Kapitonova. [P1] Those Old Testament people committed many of the same atrocities that Russians are committing today, said the resident of Kyiv, Ukraine.

In Kapitonova’s words: “God wanted him (Jonah) to go and prophesy in Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. He wanted Jonah to bring repentance to the nation that’s been Israel’s life-long enemy. Jonah was much too aware of the cruelty of the Assyrian army – impalement, flaying, and amputations were its trademarks to bring terror and make nations surrender at the mere sight of their approach.

“After all of this, God, do you want them to repent? Do you want to show them your mercy? But they don’t deserve it! It is better for me to die than to live and see it happen! This is Jonah’s reasoning when he chooses to disobey God at the beginning of the story.

“Why did Jonah’s story come to my mind today? Perhaps because of the stories I saw today in the news. …

“Knowing even this little bit about the horrible things that are taking place in my country today, would I be able to be obedient to God if He told me to go and prophecy repentance in Russia? I don’t know. Do I want God to be merciful to them? I don’t know. If I am completely honest, I’d say I would follow Jonah.”

When sin crosses the line

Is there a time for mercy? Certainly, yes.

But where in the Bible do God’s people show mercy to their enemies during war?

Throughout the Old Testament, especially during David’s reign, Israel fought many times with the Philistines, often to the death.

Before Israel entered the Promised Land, God gave Moses his marching orders:

But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them – the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites – just as the Lord your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

There is Biblical precedence for the annihilation of wicked people.

We don’t want to become like them. We don’t want those atrocities to become part of us.

Savych continues: “Raping a woman in front of a child, killing a pensioner who was just riding a bicycle, tying his hands and shooting at civilians’ shelter, undressing and throwing (someone) in a well to die, killing children and teenagers, destroying and robbing apartments …

“It is impossible to forgive a person who does not apologize and does not repent in his conscious evil deeds … Try not to be kinder than God, for though He is willing to forgive sinners, He does not automatically and unconditionally to all, but expects repentance from people. …

“Yet we see neither remorse nor willingness to take responsibility for the consequences of (their) actions, but only excuses, deception and manipulation. That is why now is the time to hate the enemies, pray for our army …

“Forgiveness will be talked about later … not right now … so far it’s not appropriate …”

Tough words.

Justice and mercy

I am not living through the horror of this war, so I cannot speak to it. Savych and Kapitonova are, so they can. I am grateful for their stories – and for others like theirs.

Jesus Christ is all about mercy. That’s why He came to Earth. Every one of us is a sinner in need of forgiveness.

But the living God understands justice, too. He will separate the sheep from the goats and cast the unrepentant into outer darkness permanently (Matthew 25).

Do we have to wait for the Judgment Day to see justice?

Mercy surrounds sin the way a pearl surrounds a grain of sand, but no pearls are forming in Russia at the moment.

Ukrainians have done nothing to deserve the horrors they are suffering now. No human has. It must stop. If that requires Putin’s downfall, then so be it.

Putin is an enemy of all that is good in this world.

Jonah eventually did lead Nineveh to repentance. Is that even a possibility in Russia today?

Only God knows.

Justice and mercy. Ukraine needs both. Immediately.

(Photo caption: Ukrainian army soldiers sit on the top of their tank as a body of a civilian — who according to residents was killed by Russian army soldiers — lies in the street in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 2, 2022. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)

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 [P1]

Ukraine needs our help immediately

(I am not using the last names of Mariupol residents for their safety, as Russian soldiers are kidnapping thousands of them and sending them forcibly to Russian cities.)

This was an aside in a column published March 25 in the Chronicle-Telegram of Elyria by Trudy Rubin, a columnist and editorial board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Rubin recently spent time in Ukraine. She has lost contact with her translator, Alina.

Is this what our world has come to? We refer to kidnapping and forcibly deporting people as an after-thought, a minor point in a bigger story.

‘I had seen so much death …’

A woman holds a child in an improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

Rubin quoted two Associated Press journalists, Mstyslav Chernov and Evgenly Maloletka, who reported from Mariupol. Chernov wrote: “… I had witnessed deaths at the hospital, corpses in the streets, dozens of bodies shoved into a mass grave. I had seen so much death that I was filming almost without taking it in.”

Rubin continued: There are still hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians trapped in the rubble and unable to leave the city because the Russians target humanitarian convoys.

‘We have a war to win’

I also read multiple reports each day from Rick Perhai, a missionary with SEND International, director of advanced degrees at Kyiv Theological Seminary, and professor at the Talbot School of Theology – Kyiv Extension in Ukraine, who has evacuated to Poland to help refugees there. Perhai shares stories from many of his friends and former students. Here’s one from Mychailo Wynnwckyj:

The Russians have now moved to Phase 2 of their war strategy which involves indiscriminate destruction of Ukraine’s urban centers, causing numerous humanitarian catastrophes, flooding the West with Ukrainian refugees. Their “scorched earth” tactics in Mariupol and Kharkiv have caused countless civilian deaths. The world has now become (almost) accustomed to awful images of human suffering flowing endlessly from Ukraine. In a civilized world there should be no tolerance of such misery.

Later in his commentary, Wynnwckyi offers this:

According to most recent opinion polls:

93% of Ukrainians oppose any cessation of hostilities prior to the full withdrawal of Russian forces

89% state that signing a deal with Russia prior to its full withdrawal from Ukraine is unacceptable

82% believe the splintering of Ukraine as a result of the war is unlikely

47% believe victory over Russia is possible during the coming weeks

23% believe the war will last several months

12% believe the war will last 6 months to a year …

My friends, it’s time to catch up to the new reality. Humanitarian aid is helpful. Refugee relief is gratefully accepted. Sanctions are good because they weaken the enemy. Speeches in Parliaments that provoke standing ovations are fantastic …

But right now, we need military hardware – fast. We have a war to win.

‘Russia has escalated repeatedly’

When Vladimir Putin’s goal is the death and destruction of Ukraine, no compromise is possible. The people of Ukraine, who have done nothing wrong, want peace – and to live their lives in freedom. Putin wants to take all that away, for his own selfish gain.

Perhai himself on March 22 offered this comment:

As Russia has shot over 1,100 missiles into Ukraine their missile supply vanishes. What next? Bombers using conventional bombs hitting every apartment, house, school, kindergarten, shopping mall, and hospital in Ukraine?? How much until NATO says enough is enough and closes the skies over Ukraine? The argument of not wanting to escalate is mute. Russia has escalated repeatedly with mostly symbolic, nonproportional response from the west.

A woman reacts as paramedics perform CPR on a girl who was injured during shelling, at city hospital of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

‘One continuous war crime’

And this, from friend John E. White, on March 21:

Russian troops, violating international law, took thousands of children from Mariupol to Russia.

This was announced on the air by (Ukrainian) Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

“We have specific evidence that they took thousands of children from Mariupol to Russia. This is a violation of international law,” said the Minister.

According to Kuleba, Mariupol is not just a tragedy of Ukraine, it is a tragedy of the whole world. It is one continuous war crime committed by the Russian Federation.

‘Pray for the military defeat of Russia’

Here are excerpts of a report from another friend of his, Roman Soloviy:

The war from within and the war from the news look different. …

There is no “conflict in Ukraine.” … Ukrainians do not fight with Ukrainians. We have a violent, violent invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine.

There is also no “special military operation” as Russian propaganda falsely calls this war. There is a cruel and pessimistic war with the use of all kinds of weapons, except for nuclear (for now). The biggest war in Europe since the Second World War. The purpose of this war is not some mythical “denazification” unless under denazification means the physical destruction of us, our state, our cities, our culture, our identity.

Why is it so important to be accurate in the formulas? Because it affects our actions and prayers. Abstract prayers for peace in Ukraine can mean that Ukrainians must reconcile with their share of “historical mistake,” the lost ethnicity of the great Russian people from “Kamchatki to the Carpathians” and agree on the status of the working and intellectual foundation for the revival of an empire. I think most victims of this war don’t want peace at the cost of giving up freedom and identity. We are the pursuit of peace! War destroys our cities and destinies, our families and lives. But we strive for peace that will allow us to remain free as people who have the right to choose their path.

Therefore to pray for peace in Ukraine and to be honest with Ukrainians – means to pray for the military defeat of Russia, for the collapse of its state power, for the destruction of its economic slanderer. …

‘People are beyond pain, hunger, cold’

On March 20, from another Perhai friend, Jerry Benge:

While the rest of the world debates concerning how to respond to the war in Ukraine, the people of Mariupol who have not yet been able to escape are facing the imminent prospect of genocide. A friend of mine who serves with the Ukrainian Baptist Union wrote this alarming appeal:

“Everyone who has the strength! And those who do not have it! Mariupol !!! Mariupol !!!

Shout out loud where you can hear, write where you can read, and just pray!!! People [are] beyond pain, hunger, cold.

20 thousand dead, – the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol testifies. – If humanitarian [aid] does not arrive – all will perish. 350 thousand Ukrainians!

[Inhumane people] bombed the last grocery store. No water… [In the] 21st century! In the Center of Europe! People are dying of hunger, cold, dehydration and constant bombing.

This is a famine. Genocide. EUROPE! WORLD! Do not be silent! God! Stop this madness! Have mercy and save Mariupol …!

20 thousand dead? Without help, the entire city – 431,000 people, according to Wikipedia – wiped off the face of the earth?

This is what Putin is doing. This is why the West must defend Ukraine. Now.