Today’s pop quiz: Match the quote with the author. Your choices are A) Pat Buchanan, B) Pat Robertson, C) Ted Haggard, and D) Denis Prager. No internet searches, please.

No. 1: “We reject attempts to introduce these liberal values in our lives.

Our society, our people do not accept them into their souls. Our community does not accept LGBT people. We are different. We have values.”

No. 2: “Our country has a conscience. We have received a message from God. It is faith in light, in goodness. You must pass it on, because it was given to all. And we have in our conscience this God-given message, this light, this warmth.”

No. 3: “We have a specific understanding, in every one of our souls. It’s a very strong belief in truth, in faith, in justice. That is also the source of our understanding of family relationships: That there is a father, a mother, and children. We have no understanding of same-sex marriage.”

No. 4: “Currently there is no understanding that Christian values are trampled underfoot today. You can cheat. You can lie. Having rejected Christ, having rejected the Christian commandments, Satanism is now flourishing.”

The answers are: None of the above. They were all broadcasters on Russian state radio. But let’s be honest: You didn’t doubt my choices for a second. Which is precisely my point.

Because I’m fortunate to live near the Garden of the Gods, I get to walk our Chihuahuas at the “Dargen of the Dogs”. It’s a leash-free dog park near Rock Ledge Ranch, waggishly named by some photo uploaders on Google. Because my commitment to getting news from multiple sources borders on the masochistic, I use that time to listen to Radio “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.

KP used to be a Soviet “newspaper” for the Communist Youth organization. It rebranded itself post-perestroika, and is now an official outlet of the Russian government: “No fake news, only verified information”. Listening is like tuning in to a broadcast from another planet.

Radio KP’S production values are super-slick; Western and modern to the core. Interview subjects are erudite, intellectually sophisticated speakers with impeccable expert credentials. I lifted my quotes from the feature

“Russian Civilization: What will our tomorrow be?” That’s where I learned “Russian civilization is the alternative to a dying world!”

(Readers who think my translations are suspect are welcome to write me at the address below. I’ll be happy to send you the original transcripts. I am always ready to submit my claims to independent fact checkers. Unlike Radio KP.)

What strikes me as largely unspoken in modern discussions of Putin’s war is its just how large a role religion plays. Fortunately, virtually every official Christian church outside of Russia and Belarus has denounced Putin. Denis Prager, who I mentioned above, is a highly regarded Jewish conservative thinker who has been a strong supporter of Ukraine. Still, similarities between the cultural conservatism of Russian society and America’s culture warriors cannot be easily dismissed.

Both see their values as being undermined by liberalism. Both see themselves as under siege. Russian propaganda paints an image of assaults by the West, controlled by a dangerously deluded and arrogant United States. America’s social conservatives, I would suggest, see themselves under attack by a dangerously deluded and arrogant Democratic Party. A characterization I frequently agree with.

So what is to be done? It is hard to know how many of KP’S listeners actually believe in Russia’s unique destiny as the One True Guardian of Christian values against an evil, decadent West led by an evil, decadent America. Any society, including ours, can always find intellectuals ready to spout the party line in exchange for a platform, government grants, and academic prestige. Russia is no different.

Where Russia differs is its idea of the separation of church and state. It has none. If Radio KP is typical, the views of the Russian government are intimately connected with conservative Russian Orthodox Christianity. That in turn has led them to instigate the greatest human tragedy on the European continent since World War II.

Perhaps our evil, decadent authors of our evil, decadent Constitution knew what they were doing after all.