EKD Council President accuses Kirill of blasphemy

Created: 06/22/2022, 18:48

Kirill I, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

© Mikhail Metzel/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/dpa/archive image

The chairwoman of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Annette Kurschus, has accused the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, of blasphemy.

"I am outraged when the Patriarch of Moscow presents a war of aggression as a means willed by God to impose his own view of Christianity and his view of history," said Kurschus on Wednesday evening in a speech at the EKD's traditional St. John's reception in Berlin.

Berlin - "I think it's blasphemy to put God in front of one's own cart in this way."

Conversely, Kurschus also warned against idealizing the Ukraine.

One should be skeptical "if the defense of Ukraine is idealized as a blanket defense of Western values," said Kurschus after the text of the speech had been distributed in advance.

"Here, too, I sense a historical-theological exaggeration of the war, which I suspect." It is true that the defense of freedom and justice is worth a committed argument.

However, this should not be associated with a hateful devaluation of those who think differently.

“And our language must always be free from demonization and dehumanization.

Nobody becomes a saint because he defends his own life, his own freedom and that of his loved ones.

And no one becomes the devil who - obstinate and seduced, power entangled and lost,

stupid and in love with evil - attacks freedom, justice and the lives of others.

Even then, he will still be a human being.” dpa