The Bible And The Headlines:

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For eleven of the twelve months in 2022 the war in Ukraine has been in the headlines. It is not surprising that the last week of the year also has headlines from the conflict. What is unexpected are the combatants involved in the hostilities. According to Ukrainian security forces, there are nuns and priests who are enemies of the state.

On Dec 31 the Telegraph had the headline, “Inside Ukraine’s Fight to Purge the Orthodox Church of Suspected Russian Spies.” The article explores the activities of the Security Service of Ukraine (abbreviated SBU in Ukrainian) towards the Russian branch of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The head of the SBU said, “[I]n October his agency charged 33 priests with various forms of collaboration including correcting artillery.” The suspicion of sympathy with the enemy is not new. In 2014 the monks of Sviatohirsk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s holiest Orthodox Christian sites, “…faced allegations of harboring and assisting the Russian militants who tried to seize control of the region.”

A New York Times headline on New Year’s Eve asked, “Clergymen or Spies? Churches Become Tools of War in Ukraine.” This article explains, “To the Ukrainian security services, the Russian-aligned church…poses a uniquely subversive threat — a widely trusted institution that is not only an incubator of pro-Russia sentiment but is also infiltrated by priests, monks and nuns who have aided Russia in the war.” Following a raid on an Orthodox monastery where six athletic military aged men who did not speak Ukrainian were arrested for espionage, a Ukrainian intelligence official said, “’Being a priest is ideal cover for any intelligence agent.”

The Bible shows that priests have been used as intelligence agents for thousands of years. During the rebellion of Absalom against his father, King David, the priests loyal to David played a key role in gathering intelligence. King David told his mole on Absalom’s staff, “The priests Zadok and Abiathar will be there with you. Tell them anything you hear in the king’s palace, and they will send their sons to tell me what is going on” (2Sam 15:35-36). Based on this intelligence King David was able to defeat Absalom.

If the priests and nuns in Ukraine did the things they are accused of by the SBU, they forfeited the usual protection granted to religious personnel by the Geneva Convention. The Department of Defense publication JP1-05 (Religious Affairs in Joint Operations) specifically forbids “priests” (chaplains) from gathering intelligence. This prohibition is to support the Geneva Convention’s recognition of religious personnel as noncombatants.

While this label sounds good to modern sensibilities, there is no example in the Bible of a “chaplain” (priest) as a non-combatant. In fact, the priest often carried the most powerful “weapon” on the battlefield, the Ark of the Covenant (Josh 6:13). Even without the Ark, intercession (prayer) by “religious personnel” was another instrument for tactical victory. The intervention of Moses, Aaron and Hur was the deciding factor when the Israelite army defeated the Amalekites (Ex 17:11-12). The prayer of Elishah blinded the entire invading army of the Arameans (2 Kings 6:18). The lesson for the Ukrainian priests and nuns is, instead of adjusting artillery fire, religious personnel serve their cause best by calling in the Big Gun (God).