What Will You Do Without Freedom?

The immortal words of Mel Gibson's William Wallace as portrayed in Braveheart ring down through the centuries (okay, they probably weren't actually said, but who cares).

In Eastern Europe, we are seeing the continuation of the revolution of the late 1980s which led to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the liberation of so many countries across Eastern Europe from over forty years of Soviet oppression. Those reformers of the late 1980s stood on the backs of giants. They remembered the Hungarians in 1956 who threw Molotov cocktails at oncoming hordes of Soviet tanks to put down the rebellion which Eisenhower refused to aid. There was also the supression of the 1968 Czech rebellion, not to mention thousands of other dissidents incarcerated in the Gulag....if they were lucky.

Unfortunately, the oppression of the Soviets has in many places merely been replaced by the oppression of autocrats and despotism in other shapes and sizes. Countries like Belarus, for example, still experience one of the most repressive regimes in the world today. In fact, Belarus made the "outposts of tyranny" list in a speech by Condi Rice in January of 2005. But we are seeing a final overthrowing of those wealthy mobsters and tycoons who inherited power from the Soviet Union only to continue to stifle economic freedom and political liberty.

Most recently, in Kyrgysztan in March and continuing into this month, turmoil has ensued in the wake of a parliamentary election which resulted in the resignation of the old president/dictator on April 3, after he fled the country. If you want to follow the continuing revolution there, check out this blog which covers it day to day. Men such as Col. Matt Bristol, retired US Air Force JAG, have been on the ground for years supporting the dissidents in their struggle for the reformation of their country day to day. We will look forward with anticipation to see what comes out of this newest overthrow of despots.

The Church, growing in Eastern Europe at a rate not seen in Western Europe for centuries, has become an instrument of liberation. In Ukraine, during the Orange Revolution in November and December, Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian man who pastors the largest church in Europe (a 25,000 person congregation in Kiev) and oversees another 400 churches in the Ukraine, mobilized tens of thousands of Christians into the squres of Kiev in the massive civil disobedience that saw over a million people in the streets for almost two weeks blocking government buildings and roads. This ultimately resulted in the validation of the election of Yushchenko, the new president of Ukraine, a man who has commented that the absence of men of faith in government in Ukraine is largely responsible for the political corruption present there ever since the fall of Communism. This article tells of how integral to the Orange Revolution were churches of all kinds. Yanukovych, the president who was defeated by Yushchenko, would not tolerate any churches except the officially recognized Orthodox church. A book which according to an aide sits on display on the tesk of newly appointed prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, an outspoken Christian, is Liberating the Nations by Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell translated into Russian by Pastor Adelaja.

The Belarussian President Lukashenko claims that there is no need for one of these "colored revolutions" in Belarus. I'm sure he's nervous though. It's headed his way. His methods and techniques of killing opposition party leaders and stuffing them in holes in the ground will not last forever. He has been weighed, he has been measured, and he has been found wanting...it's only a matter of time.