"PROPAGANDA KILLS" by Jeff Franks

As printed in the Baptist Trumpet, April 7, 2015:

Since the beginning of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine the Russian propaganda machine has

greatly increased its pressure on Baptists. The truth of what it really means to be a Baptist in

Russia or Ukraine has once again been completely distorted by Kremlin-backed radio,

television, and printed media. Persecution of Baptists began in the 19th century under the

Czars. In the 1930’s, Russian Baptists had to report to “The Commission for the Affairs of

Religious Cults”. Now, just as in past repressions, the name Baptist in Russia has come to be

synonymous with “enemy of the people”, “that American sect”, something entirely foreign and

even sinister.

In America it is natural that names and labels should hold different meanings for different

people. Here some happily call themselves “conservative”, and others are pleased with the

name “liberal”. And so it is here with the name Baptist. But in Russia and especially in Eastern

Ukraine, the very survival of believers is at stake. Before returning to the subject of repression,

let us reflect for a moment on just what it means for you and me to be Baptists.

Many of us are proud to be Baptists because of our belief in the Holy Bible as the inerrant and

sole source of truth. What higher standard could there be for life and for the practice of faith? If

anyone among us does not believe that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of

God,” then let him deny this noble name! Is there any among us who does not believe that

Jesus Christ is God the Son, co-equal in his divinity with the Father and with the Holy Spirit?

Let him think what he will, but let him not have the honor of carrying the venerated name of

Baptist!

Therefore, I am grieved today that the highest authorities in Russia have become the source of

the latest repression against this noble name. I am grieved because of the wonderful friends

we’ve made among the Russians both before and during our missionary journey. Though we

have lived in Ukraine, we have friends among the ethnic Russians who live there. How is it that

the world does not know that a great many of them are patriotic citizens of Ukraine? Our

journey has taken us to Russia, and to many of the republics of the former Soviet Union. In all

of these places we have been honored to make friends among those who proudly call

themselves Baptist, and who hold to our cherished values. Sadly, they are once again

becoming the victims of state-sponsored repression.

In a previous article for the Trumpet I wrote about Alexander Turchynov, the Ukrainian Baptist

minister, who became the interim president of Ukraine when Moscow’s favorite, Victor

Yanukovich, was deposed. Perhaps this fact alone became the stumbling stone which led to

Russia’s targeting of the Baptist name.

Recently, a Ukrainian friend told me about a billboard he had seen near Moscow’s international

airport. Posted there were three portraits and the words: Jimmy Carter is a BAPTIST, Bill

Clinton is a BAPTIST, and Alexander Turchynov is a BAPTIST. Three undeniable innuendos

that lead to two wrong conclusions: First, that America was behind the Maidan revolution which

removed Russia's man and placed America's puppet in the seat of power. Second, the Baptist

faith is American and undermines Russia's national interests. Both of these lies have become

the oft-repeated refrain of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

What is at stake? I believe the most condemning answer was in two simple words:

“PROPAGANDA KILLS”, carried on the placards of protesters who rallied against the late

February murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

In Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Baptist pastors and church members have been

kidnapped, tortured, and killed because of their faith. Churches have lost their buildings to

Russian-backed fighters who have converted them into field headquarters, gyms, barracks, and

make-shift hospitals. Others have been completely destroyed.

Finally, for us who cherish our defining values, let us pray that the renewed repressions of our

brothers and sisters in Russia and Ukraine will only showcase the surpassing value of their

genuine faith as Baptists: faith in Christ and in his Word! (1 Peter 1:7)

A SEASON OF WAR by Jeff Franks

A Season of War
By Jeff Franks
BMA Missionary, Ukraine 

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven... A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war,
and a time of peace” (Eccl. 3:1,8).  

May God grant that all towns like this one will soon be free of conflict. Photo by Jeff Franks

Seasons come in divinely ordained cycles and do not ask us if we are ready for them. All evidence seems to show that a “time of war” has come to Ukraine. Alas, the Ukrainians were not prepared for the invasion and takeover of Crimea, and they were not ready for what is happening today in the
Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. 

On Monday, July 14, a Ukrainian military spokesman reported that yet another large column of about 100 armed vehicles, including tanks, mobile artillery and armored per- sonnel carriers (APCs) had crossed into Ukraine from Russia across the porous border. Even the Russia Today news net- work (RT) showed a long column of tanks and trucks, some towing GRAD missile launchers, driving through Luhansk, Ukraine, all driven by anti-Ukrainian militia. Curiously, RT denies that the Russian government has provided any equipment or aid to these apparently well-armed rebel militi- amen. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rightly called RT a
“propaganda bullhorn.” 

The July 15 headlines in Vesti, a local Ukrainian news- paper, read, “Ukraine Stands on the Brink of Invasion.” We are seeing a new gathering of Russian forces, this time with peacekeeping insignia on military equipment and uniforms. Our Ukrainian friends say Russia has already invaded, they continue today and will proceed in the same “plausibly deni-
able” fashion as the recent takeover of Crimea.

Another article in Vesti debunks an outrageous lie recorded on primetime Russian TV of how the Ukrainian “Fascists,” upon liberating the town of Slavyansk, publicly crucified a 3-year old boy before his mother. Then after she had allegedly watched him die and fainted, dragged her three times around the town square behind a tank. Of course, local residents witnessed nothing of the kind, but the interview with “Galya” the self-proclaimed eyewitness, has “gone viral” on the Internet. Russian media has not retracted her story. The accumulative effect of such propaganda is to bring the watching public to its collective feet, tearfully begging Presi- dent Putin to send Russia’s “peacekeepers” into Ukraine to
prevent further such atrocities.

What is real and not imagined is the rise of persecution of Baptists in eastern Ukraine. Separatist rebels have both occupied and destroyed Baptist churches in the Donetsk and
Luhansk provinces. Homes of pastors have been destroyed.

On July 10, pro-Russian militia took over Donetsk Christian University and held Pastor Pavel Minaev, the board

chairman, and 20 other workers hostage. Pastor Sergey Sko-
robagach of Mariupol was on a mission to help orphans
when he was caught and killed in a terrorist attack.

During our prayer meetings, Baptist refugees have re- ported kidnappings, beatings, torture and disappearances of their church members. Partly, anti-Baptist sentiment has risen because Ukraine’s interim president was a Baptist, and partly it is because the Baptists are known have been active in public prayer meetings calling for peace and national unity. In any event, the rebel militia has targeted them as purveyors of an “enemy ideology.” Truly, it is not hard to see “the enemy
of souls” at work here behind the scenes.

Coleen and I meet refugees almost every day because they come to our worship services and prayer meetings. Two families live next door and several others live right in our neighborhood! It is our privilege to help them however we can, but the Lord is most glorified when His local churches extend a loving hand. Praise God that many church members have taken in refugees, and some are even helping them from
their poverty!

Finally, I want to call your attention to the orphanages that are in Ukraine’s conflict zone. Just the other day, Sepa- ratist gunmen confiscated passports and forced the adminis- trators of Orphanage No. 1 in Donetsk to sign documents al- lowing their orphans to be transferred to Russia. The same kind of lawlessness is happening throughout eastern Ukraine.

Please keep the innocent children and their caretakers in your prayers. If someone should approach you to give to this need, please remember that when we talk of abusing little ones, is all too easy for charlatans to play on our emotions. We don’t always help by “throwing money” at a problem. Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster and similar crises have led to fundraising abuses and moral shipwrecks. Rather, let us serve the Ukrainian Baptist churches in their efforts to care for the helpless in the name of Jesus Christ! And if we should do it through our giving, let us entrust our love gifts only into the hands of trusted servants of God, who have a
proven record of faithful accountability.

Above all, please keep the pastors and churches in your prayers. Just as this season, this “time of war” took the Ukrainian Baptist churches unaware, so it may be with any of us in the United States. Seasons do not ask our permission. Therefore remain alert because “to everything there is a sea- son and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

SHATTERED ILLUSIONS by Jeff Franks

As published in the Baptist Trumpet, Little Rock, Arkansas,  Photo:  Nikolaevka, Crimea on the Black Sea



I will admit we were caught up in a dream of sorts.  Here we were, living in a peaceful Ukraine where churches had the freedom to preach the gospel publicly and train their leaders in seminaries.  Though the Baptist churches were relatively few, their pastors and leaders could continue to pray and work toward their visions of multiplication.  I really didn’t see it coming, that in November of 2013 our idyll of a peaceful future here would shatter.

Throughout the winter Maidan square in central Kyiv became both a protest site and a battleground.  The Yanukovich administration sent in riot police and introduced draconian laws which restricted the public’s freedom of movement and speech.  The citizens pushed back, reinforcing their number of protesters.  Nationalist, right wing elements, though percentage wise were few, took full advantage and led a more violent resistance.  As missionaries, Coleen and I were shocked to hear that we were now required to register as “foreign agents” and display those words on our official documents.   Our illusion of a peaceful Ukraine had been shattered, but things didn’t stop there.

After the change of power in Kyiv in February 2014, Russia craftily engineered a takeover of Crimea in March.  Then Russian armed forces amassed on Ukraine’s eastern border.  Eerily reminiscent of the seizure of Crimea, armed men in unmarked uniforms began to take over government buildings in the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Donetsk.  

Throughout April and May we have witnessed the largely feeble attempts of the new Ukrainian government to wrest back control militarily.  Civilians who are brave enough (or in some cases paid) to go on the street take videos of these clashes and post them on Twitter and YouTube.  They are hard to watch because of the civilians’ extensive cursing, shaming and name-calling of the Ukrainian soldiers, the most common of which is “fashisty,” meaning fascists.   

Yesterday, on Sunday, May 13, the pro-Russian separatists held an illegal referendum in the Donetsk province, seeking to call themselves independent and autonomous from Ukraine’s Kyiv-based government.  This was also a repeat of the Crimean scenario, and we fear a similar outcome eventually in Ukraine’s eastern provinces.

It is not clear whether Ukraine will be able to defend its territorial integrity, but even if that is the case, many changes will take place in government and society because of the deep divisions between Ukrainian citizens.  At some level the new government will need to account for them.  Moreover, the new government will have to deal with Russia’s long-range plans and strategies from this point forward.  Much has been written about Putin’s Eurasian game plan, but I will summarize the current Ukrainian conflict with one phrase: Russia cannot tolerate a pro-Western Ukraine.

The crisis in Ukraine means different things to different people.  For some it is East vs. West, the reinstatement of the cold war between Russia and the USA.  Some say it is the revival of the old USSR.  For those who live in the conflicted regions who have bought into Russia’s propaganda  it means a choice between civilization with strong executive power and reasonable salaries (Russia) or being under the boot heels of an oppressive neo-Nazi junta, as Russia characterizes Ukraine’s interim government.    For those who know better it means an opportunity to build a new nation state on transparency and rule-of-law.  

But for Christians this crisis means a call to prayer, to greater dependency on God, to greater unity among believers, and to standing for the truth of the gospel.  We must remember that even if the worst possible outcome should occur, nothing in this conflict could change the God-given mission of even a single local church!  Our marching orders come from the Lord Jesus Christ who has all power in heaven and on earth!  Therefore, our dream remains for the success of the Ukrainian churches, only now unfettered by our former rosy illusions!

Coleen and I are praying to know God’s will during these troubled times.  We ask you to join us in praying for peace for our Ukrainian friends, not the idealistic kind, but the kind that involves compromise, understanding, and a willingness to listen to one another.  Thank you for your prayers!

#UKRAINE FOR #EUROPE

This video is women of Ukraine.  Ukrainian women who speak Russian as their first language.  We speak Russian in Ukraine.  We have for 20 years without any discriminatory problem.  Many in our church speak Russian and Ukrainian.  Many have Russian as their first language, a leftover from Soviet Russification.  Though their words are in Russian, it is translated below so you can understand their hearts.

Post by For the Peace in Ukraine.

THE PROPAGANDA WAR OVER UKRAINE! by Jeff Franks

“Now we see through a glass, darkly . . .” (1 Cor 13:12)!



The Russian TV and press have been presenting the Ukrainian revolution as a brazen coup

d’etat led by “neo-Nazi nationalist thugs”. Because Ukrainian nationalists were present and

could be more easily seen at the forefront of violent clashes with riot police, certain producers

have filmed documentaries, complete with interviews, which purport to show the all-

encompassing “true nature” of the anti-Yanukovich protests. “Who do you hate?” asked one

Russian interviewer. “Russians, Jews, and Poles,” answered the activist. Therefore, goes the

line, the Ukrainian revolution was of the exact same spirit as Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. Only

unlike Hitler, these Ukrainian neo-Nazis who gathered “in mass” on Maidan square in Kyiv,

actually forced Victor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s “legitimately elected president”, from power.

How accurate are these Russian media accounts? Whether true or not, they are

overwhelmingly convincing. I have been in several discussions with Russians who can see it

only this way. When ousted President Yanukovich spoke in Rostov-on-Don, he said Euro-

maidan was the work of “right wing thugs”. “We will not let these fascist bullies from Maidan rule

our lives!” cried the fully equipped soldiers in masks and unmarked uniforms who raised the

Russian flag over the government buildings and airports of Crimea. Naturally, their cry finds

resonance in the majority ethnic Russian population of Crimea, many of whom welcome

Russia’s invasion with open arms.


What is wrong with these so-called “anti-Maidan” presentations?   Three things.


First of all, they employ emotional hot-buttons which rouse nationalist hostility and resentment.

“All Ukrainians are so-and-so’s.” Similar arguments were sometimes employed during the

protests to provoke anger against Russians: “We will not be ruled by those Russian so-and-sos

(fill in the blank)!” In order to sound more reasonable, one Russian Christian told me, “You are

like MOST Ukrainians who think such-and-such.” Of course, people who think “such-and-such”

are always wrong-headed, aren’t they?



Secondly, these arguments ignore the factual account of events as they occurred. In November

2013, when President Yanukovich rejected the associational trade agreement with the EU,

“who” first came down to Kyiv’s Maidan to protest? Go back and review the videos and news

accounts. You will find that they were mostly university-age students. Where were the Nazi

symbols? Where were the nationalist slogans? Why were there so many young faces and so

few middle aged people with families? When the riot police attacked them in the pre-dawn

hours, did they offer resistance? Who then came to Independence Square to protest, almost a

million strong? Were they at all concerned about Europe or were they angered at the violent

attack on young people from their own government? “Euro-Maidan” was a convenient label at

the start, but pro-European or anti-Russian sentiments had already given way to the larger

issues of theft, corruption, and abuse of power in the current administration. These are factual

issues which burst the hot-air balloons of propaganda. Nevertheless, the propaganda continues

on both sides and sadly, it seems to work.


Thirdly, these arguments employ a common device used in media and politics, the “straw man”

fallacy. You take your opponent’s legitimate issues, in this case anger at Yanukovich’s

corruption and abuse of power, and present them as ridiculous, obviously absurd, and evil.

“Look at these neo-Nazis who hate Russians and Jews. Is this the kind of government you want

in Ukraine?” That is a classic “straw man” fallacy. “Regardless of the facts, regardless of the

true nature of things, if you hate Nazi’s then you should hate the new Ukrainian government.”

I do not have to convince people of the “true nature” of things, which are always more complex

than I can fully understand. Lord grant that we remember to love our enemies and pray for

those who abuse and persecute us. May we remember to dress in the “full armor of God”,

putting on the belt of truth. May we never find comfort or justification in false accounts, because

they never bear the good fruits of love, peace and liberty, but rather provide a covering for

abusive control, corruption, and theft. As you pray for peace in Russia and Ukraine, forgive in

advance any remarks made in anger by those who have bought into the propaganda of one side

or another.