SENTINEL WATCH August 25, 2008 Issue

RUSSIA: A SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

WALTER RODGERS

NONE OF US , wherever we live, should allow ourselves to argue that evil can overpower goodness, or that good is impotent in the face of malevolence. I've found the temptation to succumb to a mindset that typecasts people according to certain primordial qualities is a mental straitjacket that needs challenging and rejecting. This happens in thought.

For example, I lived and reported from Moscow in the twilight years of the Soviet Union, and recall how easy it was to slip into cynicism about Russia. The apparent retrogression toward political totalitarianism and corruption is tragically documented in Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia, republished last year, shortly after she was murdered. Indeed, it's widely held she was gunned down because she courageously reported the deeply corrosive corruption of Russia's oligarchs, their mafias, and a growing sense of political hopelessness that reminds people inside Russia and elsewhere of the sinister aspects of Stalinism.

To counter such trends, it's helpful to turn to the Bible, which contains many examples of evil foiled. Esau's hostile intents toward his brother, Jacob, were neutralized by prayer in their last encounter. Saul repeatedly tried to kill David and failed every time when David asked God what to do. Once, Pharisaical hatred of Jesus drove his enemies to attempt to push him over a cliff at Nazareth, but their efforts were thwarted because Jesus recognized the impotence of evil and the mighty reality of God, who is wholly good (see Luke 4:14–32). In every instance, whether Biblical or contemporary, the real solution is spiritual, not material.