Thoughts on Russia

I mentioned yesterday that our speaker, John, spent many years in Russia. He was invited there by the Russian government to teach ethics classes to their military officers, and he was free to use the Bible as a source. He also had home Bible studies and discipleship opportunities with many of the Russian officers who wanted to participate.

John said that when he and his team first went over to Russia, they used materials and methods that had been developed and worked fairly well in the U.S. to talk about spiritual things, for example the Four Spiritual Laws. They had no impact whatsoever in Russia, and gradually he realized that he was dealing with an entirely different type of culture. Here in America, we've always been primarily a guilt-based society. Most people know things that they are doing wrong, even if they are not particularly religious, because our country has a strong moral foundation and moral laws that transcend various religions. When people go against these things, they feel guilty, and they look for things to absolve them of their guilt. So something like the illustration of Christ being the bridge between a holy God and us sinful people works.

In Russia, however, they are a shame-based society, and they don't have a concept of "what I did wrong", but rather "who I am" that makes them unworthy. This especially affects men. Russia is a matriarchal society, and the years under Communism basically stripped men of their manhood. A police state works because people live in fear, and men have no power to save those who they love, so they just anesthesize themselves, with alcohol being the drug of choice. Also, they make very little money, and it is hard to support their families, so again, they are beaten down and hopeless. Women there think that men are useless, and the men accept that, and to compensate, they have a false machismo such that they are more violent and abusive, because then they are acting "manly". John said the officers he dealt with were very aggressive and confrontational, both with him and with each other, because that's just how they operate.

So how do you approach a shame-based society? Like Jesus did, you meet their needs. You model Godly relationships, you give them scripture, and you allow the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. The stories John shared were really amazing. Every 2 weeks they would have a big dinner and Bible study in their house, and any officer and his family could come. John's wife Rachel would cook tons of food,because first they would fill their empty stomachs. The officers would bring their whole families, knowing that this was one time that week that their kids could have a full balanced meal. Then they would have a Bible study for a few hours, and then they would have dessert and socialize for a few hours. John made it a huge point to serve his wife and the others. He would serve dinner, and then he would jump up and start clearing the table and washing up. That really got the women's attention, since they felt that all men were useless, and then they were glad to send their husbands off to spend time with John, even if they themselves were atheist! The men were astounded too. No one had ever seen people serving each other. Their society is very much "take care of yourself", so this was pretty radical. After seeing how John and his wife related to each other, the couples had a model for how marriages are supposed to work, and it was very attractive.

One phrase John lived by was this: "Radical responses to personal injustices earn us the right to speak truth." He based this on Matt. 5:39-42 (the "turn the other cheek" passage). He gave several examples. Bribery is a huge industry in Russia, since policemen and other groups in power are not paid well at all by the government. Before John went over there, he felt very convicted to follow Biblical standards and not pay bribes. So he would be walking down the street as a typical Westerner, and he would see the policemen ahead lock up on him. They would ask for his papers and then tell him there was a problem (this was signal to pay a few dollars of a bribe). John would say there was no problem, so they would take him off down to the station. After harassing him for several hours, they would finally let him go. Then he would turn back to the policeman and ask if it was hard to provide for his family. "Oh yes," the man would answer. "Very difficult with little money." "I want to give you a gift," John would say. And then he would pull out a roll of rubles and give it to them to the man, who would be absolutely astonished. So John didn't pay the bribe, but he understood the system and the problems, and wanted to help them. This shocking response led to ministry opportunities.

He also used a lot of humor to relive tense situations and put people off-guard, because of course, after an aggressive statement, they were expecting him to escalate the argument with more confrontation. He told of one man, a military colonel on the fast track to general who was a leader in his class. The man felt compelled by his position to try to intimidate John, so each week he would stand up at the start of their class (the ethics one), and say some aggressive statement out of left field ("My MiG-31 is better than your A10." [? I think that's what he said!]) Then he would stand there, glaring with arms crossed, and John would answer something like, "Well, I appreciate your observation, and I am glad we have never had to put your theory to the test!" Everyone would start laughing. After many weeks of interacting with this man, he came up after class and suggested that they trade pictures of their aircrafts. John took the picture and looked at it later on the subway, and the man had signed it "your brother in Christ". How neat!

Another man came to John's house one night for Bible study, and introduced himself by saying, "My name is Sergey, and I am an atheist!" John gave him a big old hug and said, "Great! I love you, man! Come into my house and eat a good dinner!" This was not the response Sergey had expected! John took a photo of Sergey and his family that first night. He and his wife are just sort of staring into the camera with absolutely no expression (John said that basically no one smiles there--everyone just tries to stay blended in). Several months later, he and his wife became Christians, and John took another picture. Wow, what a difference--they are smiling, he had his arm around her, and they have a look of hope.

He had a lot of other great stories, but John made an interesting point at the end of the session--he said that when he came back into the States, he noticed that we are becoming a shame-based society as well. People no longer feel any guilt based on what they have done wrong, in part because they have no real moral compass, or they feel the rules don't apply to them. But because of the high incidence of abuse, broken homes, etc., people feel very shameful, as if these things happened because of who they are, and they have no hope of feeling worthwhile. This would change how we minister to people, since going at them from a "forgiveness" aspect entirely is not going to be very effective.

Sunday John talked a lot about spiritual warfare, and I'll have to come back later to talk about those points.