Most of my readers will remember that on February 28, 2025, there was a meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice-President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that turned what should have been an easy signature of a mineral rights deal to secure American interests in Ukraine into a political disaster. I posted my opinion to Facebook on that day, which was apparently way more controversial than I would have ever thought among the conservative political community in America. It’s amazing how absolutely polarized we have become: we’re forced to be either in one camp or the other—there can be absolutely nothing other than black or white, and it seems as if we’ve lost our ability to think critically about much of anything. Any nuance is verboten.

I even had family members come at me swinging over what I posted on this issue. One family member subsequently posted a meme indicating that my support for Ukraine made me “[expletive] stupid” when clearly I had never been to Ukraine before… (I couldn’t believe the audacity of a post that would assume that no American had been to Ukraine.) In 2004, I visited Ukraine as part of a team of people from the Association of Vineyard Churches who were helping Ukrainians plant indigenous churches in three different cities: Kyiv, Kremenchuk, and Odessa. Even though I stayed less than two weeks, the friendships I made during that time cemented a special love that I have for the Ukrainian people and their desire for freedom and the Church’s desire there to see the Gospel go out as a light in the darkness of their nation.

So, I recognize that I have a bias in this area. I also happen to be of Slavic descent on my father’s side, and I've studied a great deal of history, so I know how the Slavs—and particularly the people of Ukraine and Poland—have been treated like a poker chip by the leaders of the United States since WWII. These things perhaps allow me to see past the current political landscape in a way that highlights the humanity of the situation, which is what I want to highlight in this blog post.

In my Facebook post, I explicitly stated that I was in support of Trump’s deal that was intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Ukraine-Russia war; in subsequent comments as well as other posts, I recognized that the government of Ukraine is corrupt, and that Zelenskiy most certainly is involved in that corruption; I voted for President Trump in every election where he ran; and everyone who knows me knows that I almost always align with American conservative policies on every issue. Despite my feelings about the way President Trump and VP Vance handled the situation, I support their overall approach. But none of this apparently matters; the reaction to my opinion painted me as though I were a Marxist, left-wing, goose-stepping goon—even by some of those who know me well enough to know better.

This is what bothers me. The Scriptures tell us that in the last days, the love of most will grow cold. Those on the Republican side of the issue absolutely refused to believe that somewhere inside of Zelenskiy, just maybe, there might be a person who is truly concerned about the welfare of his country, is tired of seeing his country used like cattle by bigger nations, and knows the ramifications of signing this deal will most likely result in the permanent loss of a large portion of Ukrainian territory that so many of his people shed their blood to regain. No—we have to paint him as the absolutely corrupt, evil dictator who is a disrespectful warmonger, and who is disrupting the process of peace; and in doing so, he doesn’t even know what’s good for him. And God forbid that I should have any criticism for how President Trump handled the situation…

The backlash that I received confirmed for me the fact that regardless of our political affiliations, we have entered a dangerous time where we are losing our compassion for one another. We are being forced to align ourselves with the narrative of one side or the other on almost every issue in our society, and we must hate with absolute virility all those who dare to ask questions or cross the carefully constructed DMZ line.

When I confronted my relative about her meme, instead of capitulating to the obvious fact that it can’t be true of everyone who supports Ukraine, she doubled down on her assertions and preferred to damage our familial relationship rather than accept that she could possibly be wrong in any way. And the crazy thing is, I agree with her ideologically—we’re on the same political side! What’s more, to top it off, she’s a believer in Jesus!

How can we ever expect to share the Gospel with people when we can’t reach beyond our conflicting perspectives of the facts to see the humanity of those we are supposed to reach? Even if we continue to believe they are incorrect—even if we are correct in every way, it is crucial that we can express empathy for the person. And the Ukraine thing isn’t even a big hurdle to jump: how are we supposed to share the Gospel with a dude in a dress if we are unwilling to even ask ourselves how he got to the place where he thinks that’s ok—outside of just brushing him off as mentally ill or irreconcilably wicked? We don’t have to accept that behavior as normal, or give acquiescence to his desire to share a bathroom or locker room with our daughters, teach little children to question their identity at a library, or to call him by his preferred pronouns; but how is he supposed to come to know the love of Yeshua and have his masculinity healed if we refuse to engage with him as nothing more than a weirdo? If you don’t care, your love has grown cold.

Image from a door in the stairway of an apartment building in Kremenchuk, Ukraine July 2004

Everyone who reads any of my material should know that I absolutely abhor the Islamic faith and the damage that it is has done to people throughout the centuries, and that I unequivocally support the right of Israel and Jews to return and own their ancestral homeland as given to them by God; but how are we supposed to reach Muslims if we refuse to learn what motivates them to sacrifice their own children as human shields and agents of jihad, and address those underlying needs with the love of Messiah? If you don’t care, your love has grown cold.

Every person in the whole world is looking for freedom—the shalom that only YHWH can give through covenant with Him in Messiah. If we are in covenant with Him, our primary reason for continuing to live in this world is to share that shalom with those who are lost as a priest between them and Him. When all the rest of the world dismisses the lost in their hate, we are the ones who are supposed to extend our hand. This is the Great Commission—the New Covenant understanding of tikkun olam. Yeshua said that we would be known as His disciples by our love for one another—if we can’t see past what jersey we happen to be wearing, or if we can’t give enough latitude to our fellow man to see them as something more than a tool, a number, a punching bag, or an enemy pawn, then maybe our love has grown cold.