Incompetence and corruption of authorities forces Ukrainian Christians to fight at the grassroots level against omnipotent crime
The multifunctional structure of the church
The American Joel Brown came to Ukraine a few years ago to carry out missionary work. He was invited by a large Kyivan evangelical church. It is likely that the missionary had no idea that his accidental acquaintance with a “currency” prostitute, who offered the presentable Joel her services, would end deplorably. When it became clear that she was forced to work in such a profession because pimps took her documents, the American decided to meet with them. It cost the missionary broken ribs and three thousand dollars for the girl’s documents. It is unlikely such nuances are written about in missiological books.
In fact, this representative of “Religious America” is part of the complicated history of the antagonism – directly and indirectly – of the church and organized crime. And there is reason to believe that this confrontation will be appreciated by citizens of all countries. Judge for yourself: The church, for example, opposes immorality. As a result, it sets itself against liberal-minded youth and free intellectuals. Religious institutions have responded negatively to homosexuality – wait for the negative reactions of Western human rights organizations. The “the church vs. criminals” clash, however, is supported by all since each suffers equally from the consequences of social sins.
Gennadiy Mokhnenko, whose work was the subject of a film that recently won first place in a Ukrainian film competition, has an interesting experience in the fight against illegal structures. “Makarenko from Mariupol” made national news for bringing the attention of the country to the following question: How long will drugs (including tramadol) be openly sold on the streets of the city? In 2006, along with healing children, the pastor held a campaign called Obrydlo to draw the attention of the government and law enforcement agencies to the drug situation. “We were realists and understood that we can not eradiate evil, but restrain it by force,” said the pastor from Mariupol. “We have deprived these agency workers, who “protect” drug business in the city, of their ranks, and on the legislative level tramadol has again become illegal.”
“Dizziness with success” in the fight against drugs was compensated by appropriate unequivocal steps in crime. Mokhnenko, who says he was receiving death threats at the time, is convinced that the church and crime cannot coexist.
In a conversation with RISU correspondent Pavlo Federov, former press secretary of the Embassy of God Church confessed that his church’s idea about an open battle against drug trafficking in Kyiv is borrowed from the Mariupol pedagogue. Despite the rather odious reputation of the religious association, “The Embassy of God and the Battle against Drug Trafficking” was a topic discussed for a long time. Federov explains that in 1997 the church began working actively with criminal groups in Kyiv. As a result, former criminals joined the Embassy of God, and the church catalyzed a personnel shortage in the criminal environment. Yurii Verkhman, one of the “former criminals,” is today the director of the civil organization Sports Against Drugs; on YouTube video he speaks about himself: “Many people who belong to the church were outcasts, criminals who did bad to others.”
Furthermore, drug addicts began to repent in this church, which cost drug retailers a lot. Serhii Sulyma, one of the pastors of the New Life Church in Kyiv, says that Sunday Adelaja was threatened without intermediaries. According to Sulyma, he was brought funeral wreaths after a divine service. The hint was simple. Although, according to Fedorov, this can be attributed to the category of church “mythology” in a philosophical sense: “I never heard one of the groups or authorities come and say, ‘You are disturbing us.’” Nevertheless, churching former addicts or alcoholics is an indirect challenge to the circles controlled by criminal business.
What they fight with
One can respond to the instances mentioned above either like to a romantic condemnation or to successful PR steps by church organizations, usually Protestant. The believers, however, understand the limits of their capabilities. “The task of the church is not to replace corrupt police officers, in the fight against crime there is nothing more radical than preaching the true gospel,” says Gennadiy Mokhenko. Accordingly, the following question about the church’s task is raised: Why must religious organizations engage in these affairs instead of the appropriate social services or law enforcement agencies? The answer to this confirms the not undisputed assumption that the higher the social-political level of the state, the less church organizations engage in the fight against socially structured crime. Theologians in this case speak about Christian antagonism and structured sin.
Thus the church opposes crime. This is the fate of partially developed, corrupt countries with lazy and incompetent legal institutions that are not willing to provide safety to their tax payers. Unfortunately, post-Soviet countries are falling under this definition without using a procrustean bed. Speaking about religion’s fight against criminality, Federov underscores: “This is not an affair of the church, which can only provoke and inspire, but counter criminality.”
If the direct confrontation of the church and the unique perception of evil are real only in anti-Christian movies like in the “Priest” starring Paul Bettany, then the indirect confrontation in “commercial” terms is the number one question on the agenda. Illicit drug and alcohol trade, illegal prostitution and human trafficking (including minors), fighting gambling and other addictions – each of these spheres is based on “work” with one person. He serves either as a consumer of the product or a source of particular goods that represent something of interest for criminal structures. The church, which supports rehabilitation centers or helps drug addicts, reduces the clientele base of criminal business and cuts the ground from under their feet. The price of the question, in the case of illicit drugs is enormous. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2008 the gross profit in the cocaine market in the U.S. totaled $35 billion. MP Gennadiy Moskal, who worked in various police structures from 1975 to 2000, calculated that the annual drug market in Ukraine is 180 billion UAH. The church cannot counteract structures that have such large funds. However, Mokhenko is convinced that at the grassroots level, at the level of communication between people, believers can gradually destroy the criminal market by eliminating the demand. “No one will ever be better than the church in engaging in social work.”