The head of the “OCU” Epiphany Dumenko once again stated that “all parishes in Ukraine belong” to the “OCU”.
Such statements are obviously aimed at justifying the seizures of temples and creating ideological grounds for such seizures.
Note that the choice of the word “belong” in relation to living people (after all, the arrival is, first of all, people) is absolutely unceremonious. As if the parishioners of the UOC were some kind of things for which Epiphany suddenly had the right to dispose of as he pleases.
However, this is not an accidental slip of the tongue, but a well-thought-out manipulation by Dumenko’s speechwriters. After all, the “reification” of believers in the UOC is an effective tool for dehumanizing them. Because you cannot feel compassion for things or abstractions and assign them certain rights, the ability to choose and other human qualities.
Using this manipulation, the leadership of the OCU is trying to conceal violence against UOC believers and avoid accusations of violating their rights. And also lead away from reflection on numerous cases of such violations.
In this context, depriving UOC believers of their property, physically abusing them, bullying their children in schools, etc. are presented by the speakers of the “OCU” only as a “property”, “paper” issue, in which living people turn into statistical units.
