Rosa Parks Would Applaud Pussy Riot

"We're not saying we're ethically flawless."
-Pussy Riot

Ah, but so many others do make such a claim - about themselves! The new documentary Pussy Riot, A Punk Prayer is out and making the rounds, an inspiration for civil rights supporters around the world. If you want to see a story of three shining lights in this world, see this film. The march to freedom is painful and never-ending. Those who fight for it will always be persecuted and maligned even though it's in the best interests of society and the only possible path to a positive future.

Many people claim to have issues with their protest being in a church, that that somehow makes it an offense against God and spirituality, against the so-called believers. But in the entirety of human history there has been no less godly an institution than the church. It's conceived of men, by men to serve men, nothing more. God resides in the truth and art is truth's conveyor, making artists the true priests (and priests true con artists). Pussy Riot represents true faith, they the true believers. There is no religion in heaven.

Two blasphemers, sitting in a tree

"No believer should say, 'This doesn't concern me' or, that this is none of my business."

Patriarch Kirill, head of Russian Orthodox church in regards to Pussy Riot protest

On that statement I most firmly agree. Anyone who professes to believe in freedom and democracy know that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Ignore Pussy Riot's fate at your own peril, lest there be no one to stand for you when your time comes. Kirill, with his rumored KGB ties claims Putin to be a "miracle of God" as church and state merged in unholy matrimony. This, combined with Putin's power grab returning as head of state, is what inspired the protest to shine a light on this hypocrisy. That's when the world turned upside down.

If Jesus (the original church protester) hated the moneylenders in the temple, I'd love to see his reaction to former KGB thugs running an institution taking God's name in vain. In the trial, the state claimed to represent six "believers", literally over charges their feelings were hurt. Yes, the truth often does hurt (but always heals). So we end up with a trial of six Judases as the victims, the church elders who conspire against Jesus as the institution that must be protected, and the state as Pilate the persecutor defending lawlessness in the name of the law. Surreal.

Many people make the mistake of being politicians. "You need to sell your message!" Total, utter garbage. Saying that sets one up as the Enlightened One looking down upon so-called lesser souls. No, what one needs to do is express oneself. Purity of expression does not come at convenient times or have meaning after the fact. Calling witch burning evil now means nothing compared to the inflammatory times of the Dark Ages. The protest had to be in the desecrated church at the height of Putin's power for it to have meaning.

The three women speak so eloquently and from the heart I was moved to tears. Rarely do we hear such beautiful words in the cacophony of modern speech. To those with open hearts their sincerity cannot be doubted. They are not martyrs, they do not wish to be in jail. They show that true freedom fighters need only their words to strike fear into even the highest offices of the land. Thirty seconds with a shaky camera rocked the foundations of a country, exposing its bedrock of lies to the world and in that process, changed the world - all without firing a bullet. Can't we all see the beauty in that?