Church Without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukrainian Revolution, 2013-14, Joshua T. Searle, 2016

20). Proper obedience is demonstrated in the payment of taxes, in answering to the institutions of power, and in complying with existing legislation. Disobedience or resistance is demonstrated in criticising transgressions, in denouncing injustice, in the withholding of bribes, in peaceful meetings and civic rallies, and in the refusal to take up arms against peaceful citizens. During the Revolution of Dignity the vast majority of Ukrainian Baptists recognised that they were called to resist the power of the corrupt state. However, all revolutions have a shadow side. History teaches that revolutions inspired by noble virtues, such as Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, can quickly show signs of the same social and political pathologies that they were intended to eradicate.” Therefore, if revolutionary resistance to the state is to avoid acquiring a destructive character, it must be imbued with a Christian content, well-defined limits, and appropriate, non-violent modes of engagement. Alongside their duties to the state, Baptists also have responsibilities toward the broader church and to society as a whole. In a world divided into spheres of religious influences, Baptist communities can create a place of meeting, dialogue and communication among the established historic churches. Such a healthy ecumenism means no more and no less than the acceptance of genuine ecclesiastical diversity, good neighbourliness and the preservation of openness to others. Baptists can be loyally and wholeheartedly committed to their own unique tradition without believing that it embodies final and exclusive truth, and without thereby abandoning the hope that there is more to be learned from other traditions.°° Being a small minority, Baptists can relate to the established churches in Ukraine by considering each person (Orthodox or Catholic) individually, taking into account the specificity and diversity of each person’s convictions in a way that conveys honour and respect. Baptists can relate to Orthodoxy in the context of the history of the church, rather than through prejudiced beliefs concerning autocratic policies or national chauvinism. Baptists can relate to the state by respecting the law and fulfilling their political duties and responsibilities to all people. Baptists can relate to society by demonstrating solidarity with the legitimate aspirations of ordinary people for freedom and dignity. *® Slavoj Zizek, Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism (London: Verso, 2012), 318-23. °° Joshua T. Searle, “The Ecumenical Imperative and the Kingdom of God”, Journal of European Baptist Studies (September, 2013), 5-23. Above all, Baptists must avoid the temptation to become too closely aligned with the interests of the state, which can lead to a dangerous sacralisation of state power. To Baptists, the “harmony” between church and state, which is regarded by the Orthodox Church as a sacred archetyp