Written while flying away from Kiev
by Clay Quarterman, 20 Feb 2014
As I left for seminary Tuesday morning (Feb 18) in Kiev, all was deceptively quiet. Sunshine. Progress toward compromise. 234 protesters had been released from custody. Kiev city hall, visible across Kreshatik street from our apartment, had been vacated by the protesters and returned peacefully to the city. Erik, my South African colleague, joined me in a taxi ride through 3 barricades, past St. Sophia's cathedral, through St Michael's Square, and through European Square, driving within 150 yards of the riot police on Grushevskogo Street. As protesters directed our taxi to pass through the barricade reminiscent of Les Miserables, all seemed orderly and quiet. But within an hour, 4 people would die there in bloody clashes and hundreds would be injured from gunshots, grenades, rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Unaware of the developments, my seminary devotional was based on Ephesians 2, reminding our students that ALL people on ALL sides of the conflict are sinners in need of God's daily forgiveness and grace, and that we should humbly repent and confess our own sins, instead of judging and hating others.
After my class on Pastoral Counseling, I had to rush home in a taxi to get Darlene, since we were cited to appear at the Interior Ministry at 2 pm, where we would FINALLY receive our official residency permit! As I went to catch my taxi, however, our seminary administrator said, 'Be careful; things have broken out again downtown.'
As my taxi pulled over the hill, I saw downtown Kiev on the hill a mile away, with thick black smoke rising from a burning building. In spite of my warnings,the driver took us back through European Square, and I saw the dark smoke and tear gas in the crowd just 200 yards away. Having been cited to appear at the ministry of internal affairs, Darlene and I headed out warily to meet our lawyer. As we waited for our bureaucratic papers to be completed, we listened to gunshots and grenades exploding nearby. Just as the final paper was signed and we received our long-awaited permit, a functionary ran in to exclaim, 'Martial law has been declared! Close up and let's get out of here!'
As we rushed with a crowd down the hill to the underground, we passed two expensive cars of the government-hired 'provocateurs' with their windows smashed. Traffic was blocked as everyone fled the scene. Two ambulances with victims of the conflict could move no faster than we could walk. It was surreal. As we got on the train, a voice announced that the metro was shutting down. Ours was among the last trains to run, but we made it back to our station and back home -- able finally to enter our LEGAL RESIDENCE! We had thought this would call for celebration, but, how could we celebrate, when people's very lives we're at stake within blocks of our house?
Whereas our TV had been filled with wonderful Olympic events in days before, we now watched as the black helmets and shields of riot police closed in on unarmed protestors, firing shotguns and rifles on the crowd. Some 20,000 people were gathered 3 blocks up our street, and we could see the flashes and hear the bangs as the evening drew on. Fires enveloped the protesters' tents and some buildings nearby. The majestic 'Independence Square' was now under siege, an island of independence in a police state. A major channel supporting the protest was taken off the air. Journalists on the site were targeted and even slain.
We felt much like Francis Scott Key, unable to participate, watching from a distance, but with hearts inspired and breaking for those dying for Justice and Freedom. We knew that even some of our church members, pastors, and seminarians, were on the square.
We could hear the crowd chanting from our windows, singing the national anthem, and shouting not only 'Glory to Ukraine!' and 'Liberty or Death!', but also, 'Glory to Jesus Christ'!!! This is something new, during the past week, as the reality is setting in that this is a life or death struggle with forces of evil: misuse of power, blatant corruption, diversion of public funds, religious hypocrisy, and more. People on the square realized their lives could end in this struggle, and they said the Lord's Prayer on the hour, committing their lives to God's care.
What? You didn't hear this part on your newscast? No, I guess you wouldn't. I sometimes wonder if WE in the West shouldn't take to the streets -- or if we would have the courage and resolve to do so. In this, I must certainly respect our brothers on the Maidan Square.
I realize there are errors on both sides. I realize there has been poor leadership. I realize these are very complex issues. But my heart is rent to hear and see these beloved people's cry for freedom, for liberty, for justice, and to see the West ignore their pleas, giving empty promises of 'possible sanctions'. Where is the resolve that made America great? Does everything have to 'serve the national interest'? Have these 20 people died a martyr's death for naught?
'It's not my fight,' I tell myself, as I fly out of the country for my own safety. In a sense that is true, for foreigners have become the tool of both sides in the conflict, as the world returns to the Cold War. But, what CAN we do?
We are not so na?ve as to believe that Democracy is a panacea that can bring lasting peace and prosperity to Mankind. That is not the solution to Mankind's problems -- especially such a veneer of democracy, a pseudo-democracy as has existed in Ukraine. Nonetheless, as a Reformed Christian, I believe a true Representative Democracy is the best yet of imperfect human systems to balance out our corruptions, protect the weak, guarantee a voice to the minority, and protect human freedoms.
It is these very freedoms that are dying on the Maidan Square in Kiev. Will we merely stand by and watch? As we do, our own freedoms die with them. 'Ask not for whom the bells toll; they toll for thee!'
This is why I could feel hope as I watched the protesters outside my window, chanting, 'Glory to Ukraine!' and 'Glory to Jesus Christ!' as they marched toward the Maidan -- into the jaws of death.
Do we care? What are we willing to pay?
I am not asking us to march in among them. They don't ask for that type of foreign support. They need this from you:
International pressure on such thugs in power, who turn a deaf ear to millions of their own citizens, steal public funds, and invest that money in OUR WESTERN BANKS. They come West to OUR resorts and live among us as kings, paid by the blood of innocent widows, whose pensions they have stolen. It is up to your congressmen to act.
I am not asking for a new Cold War, or a struggle with Russia for the breadbasket of the former USSR. I am asking us to gain a public will to STAND for something besides our own personal financial interests. Do we still have an ounce of greatness left? 'We the people' still have influence; let us use it!
Secondly, we all need Repentance. America's BAD reputation is well-deserved. Don't get me wrong, I am a patriot, and my family was among the very first to suffer for our freedoms. But our nation has made mistakes, and we must swallow our pride, apologize for our errors, instead of trying to cover them up. Let us repent - corporately and individually. Let us repent for loving our comfort more than loving the poor. Let us repent for loving the bottom line so much that our politicians LISTEN TO US and therefore do the wrong things! Let us repent for our covetousness, our pride, our lust, our greed! These are the things that have driven us to many evil acts, isolating us fro the very world we hypocritically profess to 'save'! Yes, it is these things that have created our bad reputation all over the world. We (myself included) need to repent!
Third, we need to pray. One friend posted, 'I would pray, if I were a believer.' What use is that? That comment may be honest enough, but it is useless -- useless to himself, and useless to others. Let's be even more honest. If there is no God, there is no basis at all for morality, and the dictators may as well have sway. But, if there is a God, He is Absolute, seeing all, the basis of Good, and will hold all men responsible. If he is God at all, then He has power to answer our prayers, and the ability even to change the heart of the most hardened despot. This is in fact what the Bible says: 'the heart of the king is in the hand of The Lord'. Should we not then appeal to this All-powerful Sovereign for help? He invites us to do so.
Fourth, we need to trust. Having prayed, we must not fear. An American General in the Civil War was observed to move to advanced positions, sitting boldly on his horse as bullets whizzed past. "There he stands, like a stone wall!' Thus, he earned the moniker of Stonewall Jackson. From whence such courage? His response: 'It is my duty, and God is in control of the rest'. Only when we trust a sovereign and Good God can we have such courage and focus to do our duty, no matter the cost.
Right now, it is my duty to flee the field of conflict -- a tactical retreat, so I can fulfill my duty in other ways. What is your duty?
