Pastor Krists Kalniņš: What will we say to the Son of God?

Elita Veidemane schedule23.dec 2020

"Imagine: the ocean, a crazy storm raging on its surface, tossing ships, but we descend deep into the ocean, and there is peace and quiet, and there we have no idea of a storm raging on the surface. That is why I call on people to take this step - to descend deep by trusting in God. He will give a feeling of refuge and security, which is very important at this time,” says Lutheran pastor Krists Kalniņš, who serves in the Old Gertrude Church in Riga.

He himself has descended deep too, releasing his collection of poems Niekkalbīša dzejoļu grāmatiņa (Little Windbag's Book of Poems) into the light of the world. "I don't write poems, I write them down. There is an event that hits me, echoes deeply, resonates. And then those words come, and I am learning to write them down, to catch them,” says Krists on the lsm.lv portal. The day before Christmas Eve, our conversation about things happening in the world and in people.

You have a birthday on December 23 - 50 years.

Yes. I look at these 50 years and think - they can't be mine. There can't have been that many. How did they pass so fast?

It's only the middle of life.

Of course. Now I feel like I’m at a new place, and as I have been going through this year, I have thought a lot about it - also when creating my book of poems. About two years ago, I had the feeling that life would soon come to an end, retirement would come, and the kingdom of heaven would follow...

The past year has been harsh, even very harsh. How has the pandemic affected people? What do you think has happened to them? Have they grown harder or, on the contrary, more open?

People don't change fast. They get used to the conditions, adapt to them. Of course, there are some people who fall to extremes, such as completely isolating from everyone, not leaving their house. However, I do not think there have been any significant changes. But we have realized that the world can change beyond recognition in an instant, it, in my opinion, has become less safe for people. We do not know what will come tomorrow. If a person does not have deeper roots, if there is no spiritual support, then this time will be very alarming, often even difficult and terrible.

But what can be done to make it not so terrible?

For us as believers, the answer is clearer. Believers sooner or later come to the realization that the world around us is changing, but the security we are offered is more than an illusion, and true security is in our relationship with God, who is unchanging. And not because we are unchanging in some way: we continue to be human, whatever we are — sometimes we are afraid, sometimes we doubt and do not believe, but if we are accustomed to relying on God in our spiritual life, then the storms on the surface no longer worry us that much. Imagine: the ocean, a crazy storm raging on its surface, tossing ships, but we descend deep into the ocean, and there is peace and quiet, and there we have no idea of a storm raging on the surface. That is why I call on people to take this step - to descend deep by trusting in God. He will give a feeling of refuge and security, which is very important at this time.

Someday this pandemic must end...

It's a bit like wishful thinking... Each of us has hope that this pandemic will end. But will it really end? And how will the world continue? I have little faith that we will return to the world we knew before the pandemic. The virus is transforming, we will probably have to live with it. We are already living in a new world, we cannot return to the old world. There is only one question: how quickly will we be able to adapt to the demands of this new world? And more importantly, do we need to adapt to this new world? I sense that everything new that will come will be very challenging, and it will be difficult for everyone to accept the strict, restrictive rules of the new world that will affect freedom of movement, assembly, and even freedom of expression. Will we accept it all? Will we want to accept it? Will we be prepared to sacrifice what this new world will take of us?

The passing year brought not just the pandemic, but also other disasters, for example, the judgment of the Constitutional Court that the family, as we have known it for hundreds of years, is no longer a family, but something else - completely incomprehensible...

Yes, we are feeling shocks not only through the disease that has created a war-like state in the world. We also see that the genderless ideology, which was not so widespread in Latvia until recently, declares war against the basic values of our nation, against the values of society and human identity. In fact, this is an even more dangerous war than covid. We can hope that scientists will develop a vaccine that will help humanity stay afloat, but the ideological war will be much more tragic and its consequences will be much more unpredictable because we are already reading about the nonsense in countries where genderists have achieved what they wanted.

We are beginning to see these consequences now: gender ideology destroys our ability to be rooted in the fundamental values that are natural, human, and divine, through which this world has lived and looked to the future with confidence. We are provoked by this genderism, we are led to think that white is black, that the truth is a lie, that biologically there are no more men and women, that a family where the father is a man and the mother is a woman no longer exists, that all perversions must be allowed to manifest in reality, whatever the bloated and depraved mind of man can conceive... We see this absolutely minority group of genderists seeking opportunities to legalize their damaging and morally destructive genderless ideology nationwide, forcing it on others through the media, pushing it into schools and even kindergartens. Recently, Latvian Television has been constantly broadcasting unnatural advertisements of gender ideology, showing films and programs of this direction, polluting people's minds with lies. All this together leads society, nation, and state toward destruction. It is a spiritual leprosy that causes the moral core of society to rot and the nation to perish.

This ideology, with pretty words and smiles, infects people in the same way that the covid virus does, and people do not feel infected at first. But then at some point, people can no longer distinguish where there is truth and where - lies, where there is good and where - evil, where there are natural relationships that are recorded in the human sex, and where they are unnatural. This new ideology is aimed at enslaving the free will and mind of the people and has the characteristics of a totalitarian regime. If this criminal ideology breaks into strategically important public sectors - the courts, the media, the armed forces, public institutions - then there will be a change of power, and it is currently being attempted in a disguised way.

Not even disguised... You just said that public television broadcasts genderist ads and programs. In turn, the Constitutional Court, by interfering with the Constitution, has ruled that the family is no longer a family.

That was a huge surprise. Until now, it seemed to me that the Constitutional Court should protect the Constitution, but it turned out the other way around - with this decision, in which the family was redefined as a social construct, the Constitutional Court openly opposed what was written in the Constitution! The Constitutional Court - with its chairman Osipova at the forefront - deliberately politicized the verdict, opening the door to an ideology foreign to our people, thus giving an opportunity to destroy the historical, cultural, ethical, and moral heritage of the Latvian people.

In addition, it was openly threatened that if the parliament did not comply with the verdict, the Constitutional Court would be the one to take over the power in our country and dictate the political and ideological direction of the country. This is absurd: we are moving from a parliamentary, democratic state to a totalitarian state ruled by a handful of people who have already placed themselves above the Constitution and the Saeima.

A minority dictates the majority.

More precisely, an absolute minority. Zero, point, zero... whatever was the percentage. Unfortunately, this handful has already created its own adepts, who protect them, foaming at the mouth. A bunch of young people picketed at the Saeima, waving the flags of same-sex "marriage". But they do not understand what they are defending. I would like to see these young people when they already are parents who have to take their children to school, where these children will not be allowed to mature as identities - from boys to men, from girls to women. Such children will be mentally and emotionally mutilated in their early years! It is genderist ideology that is the most horrific violence against young people's emotional, mental, and physical identities.

In the charity marathon "Dod pieci!" the emphasis is on the fact that only women suffer - at least from advertising it can be seen that way. But the abuser, of course, is a man. I may be wrong, but it seems that this charity campaign is subordinated to the forthcoming ratification of the Istanbul Convention by the Saeima in January.

F64

In this situation, I see a political provocation in which the ground is being prepared for forcing our Saeima to resolve the issue of ratification of the Istanbul Convention in a positive way. The issue of genderism, the acceptance of same-sex relationships, and their unconditional acceptance at all levels are very cleverly intertwined in this convention. Likewise, sanctions against those who do not want to accept this ideology with its destructive, identity-destroying values. It is clear that violence against women is reprehensible and punishable, but the question is, is violence against any person not to be condemned? Is violence against men not to be condemned? And isn't abortion the biggest violence then? The little human cannot defend himself, he is destroyed, he is torn to pieces in an abortion operation! Are these women's rights then? Furthermore. Do you know any help center for men - apart from help for alcoholics and drug addicts? Have you read research on the reasons why the same men become violent? I do not know of such help centers or such studies. There are no centers to help men who have also lost their jobs in this crisis and are no longer able to support a family, who have lost the meaning and thread of life in a society where they are not needed if they cannot give it anything? Where should a man who is burnt out or suffering from a middle-aged crisis go? Or has lost his job due to illness? What is now directed against a man, by declaring him as the only perpetrator in society, is in fact a hidden, ruthless emotional violence against every man living in Latvia!

Tomorrow will be Christmas Eve. We are waiting for the birth of the Son of God. What can we tell him?

The time of Christ's birth is unique. But unique in that people who would like to celebrate this time as a tradition with their family are unlikely to be able to do so, as most churches will be closed. But it is possible that some people will think about what the world would be like if Christ had not been born. If we had not heard the message that Jesus had come to save us. What would we be if we did not know that Jesus had come to give us hope? Then life would be full of hopelessness and darkness and meaningless. Now you see that evil conquers man and the world as it slowly and consistently takes away the most precious, breaks into our homes, takes away our children, takes away masculinity and femininity, kicks apart our family hearth to build a sexless and identityless mass that follows dull, momentary desires and has nothing holy and true.

If we do not pretend not to see it, then we begin to understand how important it is that God has entered this world as one of us, because He knows to what extent it is possible to lead this world. The Christian faith, clinging to the divine truth and life, the saving message that you can be saved from the deep evil that enslaves and destroys your life, is much, much more important than before. I am afraid that the time will come when Christians will be persecuted, and we heard this from a high official - the President of the Constitutional Court Sanita Osipova, who in the program "1:1" said with a smile that she likes it much better that "the first Christians were ready to die for their faith”- does this mean that Christians today should also start preparing for death in the name of their faith?

It remained between the lines...

Exactly. I see that the persecution of Christians has already begun! Everyone wants to be tolerated by Christians, but no one wants to tolerate Christian values and a life of faith. In Soviet times, Christians were expelled from their jobs, and now when a person discovers that someone is a Christian, he or she is often either not hired or is passed over for promotion. But it is clear that there is nothing more precious and higher than to suffer because of one's Christian faith. And remember: God has already overcome through Christ's death and Resurrection. Light has already overcome every darkness. Holiness has overcome every sin. Although the darkness of lies is great and thick, although in man sin is deeper than holiness. Christ has overcome temptation, death, and all hell on the cross, and we, the Church of Christ, are waiting for this to happen completely, for at present it can only be seen where faith is alive. It is now especially important to pray that Christ will enter our homes and have a living and deep relationship with Him. We must, in fact, build the foundations of our lives under His truth, otherwise, the storms and struggles that come will destroy the lives of those who will not know Christ.

So what will we say to the Son of God when he crosses the threshold of our home?

We will say: stay with us and don't leave. Teach me to love you with all of my self and love my neighbor as myself. Give me the courage to face every lie, untruth, the evil people who want to destroy what God has created so wonderful and beautiful in me.