15 Comments
Apr 21Liked by Jonathan Larsen

Dan Darling from the Southern Baptist Convention reached out in a formal appeal to Moses only two weeks ago, right on the eve of his pilgrimage to Mar A Lardo. The pressure on Moses to keep christians from dying was surely the tipping point. Ukraine may have proven to be fortunate in the struggle to not have more Muslims and Jewish faith members, or Moses might have let them all perish. Darling also gave him an out , stating Moses had “ many people to please”.

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Thanks!

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Apr 20Liked by Jonathan Larsen

TheFuckingNews bomb! I had multiple skin flushing nerve tingling waves reading this report the first time, 10 days ago. I’ve just now re-read it and concur with my first impression - that you’ve captured an exceedingly important thread in the wild tapestry of competing yet sometimes unexpectedly convergent interests in re: beleaguered Ukraine.

Now to make sense of it, as an orthodox Christian myself. HA! The Lord’s mysterious ways are far beyond my reach. I know only a couple things. 1) I will gratefully accept the unalloyed good of helping to secure U.S. funding for Ukraine. 2) There isn’t one trustworthy, morally coherent or theologically qualified player in the entire lineup you’ve presented (unless Unguryan is a sort of double agent, which I do not entirely dismiss). A bunch of self righteous zealots and fanatics is all I see. Yet… 3) They’re skilled in the political and culture-warrior arts that seem to rule our present times. 4) They’re dangerous, absolutely. But they don’t have ballistic missiles. They speak Fundy and pray with swaying hands and fluttering eyelids and they’ve got established pipelines of influence. So HAVE AT IT, boys.

Strange bedfellows, uneasy alliances & coalitions and all that stuff. Fascinating! Thank you very much for the excellent reporting. I’ve subscribed and will anxiously await the next installment.

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Thank you, Sally. I better get to work on that next installment…!

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Apr 11Liked by Jonathan Larsen

Admittedly framing Putin's invasion as a war on evangelicals seems like an effective way of getting through to Mike Johnson.

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And for Johnson to get through to his caucus! I mean, it's not a bad plan -- we should just probably know the price that's being extracted...

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Excellent report. Thank you!

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Let's glorify patriarchy by meeting with a bunch of white guys. And, where are the Russian Orthodox big boys that Zelenskyy should be talking to? Religion has no business entering the politics of violence unless it chooses to follow the religion of Jesus, which is to turn your weapons into plowshares. eg don't do violence! Lastly, doesn't Johnson look a little like S. Colbert?

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Apr 10Liked by Jonathan Larsen

I'm a big girl & I understand how the world works. If Zelenskyy can knock loose an aid package by glad-handing Magic Mikhail Johnsonsky, more power to him. Ukraine starts getting handsy with the Republican need to browbeat women, POC & LGBTQ+ folk, I'm gonna have a problem.

This is really great reporting. Major news outlets need to be picking this up.

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Thanks for your words, TM. I am an old fart. What does POC mean?

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It's People Of Color.

I am also an old. It's very nice too meet you.

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Same here, TM. I like your crown & sense of humor.

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Thank you!

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