Faith & Spirit Quote by Bob Schaffer

Schaffer’s praise reads like a benediction, and that’s the point: he frames a mass political confrontation not as disorder but as disciplined civic ritual. The opening, “One cannot help being impressed,” poses admiration as an unavoidable fact, not an opinion. It’s a subtle power move for a politician: if you’re not impressed, you’re the outlier. Then he spotlights prayer as the protest’s daily first act, a rhetorical translation of street politics into moral language legible to religious and conservative audiences who might otherwise hear “protest” and think “chaos.”

The subtext is defensive and strategic. By emphasizing “respect, kindness,” and a “collective sense” of restraint, Schaffer is pre-empting the usual delegitimizing script: that crowds are unruly, manipulated, or violent. “Peaceful revolution” is the key contradiction he wants to normalize. Revolution is typically coded as threat; adding “peaceful” turns it into a cleansing, almost constitutional reset. That phrase reassures moderates while still granting protesters historical grandeur.

Context matters: Kiev protests (most likely the Euromaidan period) were widely contested narratives, with competing claims about provocation, extremism, and foreign influence. Schaffer’s sentence chooses a side without naming adversaries. He’s endorsing not just a movement but a story about it: that the “real” Ukraine is devout, orderly, and morally serious. It’s advocacy dressed as observation, converting geopolitics into an ethics tale where piety and politeness certify legitimacy.