War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what is not important? He/she ... them/their ... zie, zim, zir, zis gender pronouns.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Rainbow colors.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Pride parades.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what is not important? Gender identity.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Men participating in women's sports.

War had come to the Ukraine. Guess what is not important? Abortion.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what is not important? Gun control.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Marijuana.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Marriage equality.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Feminism.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Designer clothing.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Fancy cars.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Spacious apartments.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? The liberal/conservative political divide.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Ideology.

War has come to the Ukraine. Guess what's not important? Denominationalism.

The cultural war has been taken over by the ground war and the battle to save the nation. Then hot-button issues fall to the wayside stripped of their urgency.

The Ukrainians are fighting for their land. The Ukrainians are fighting for their nation. The Ukrainians are fighting for their government. The Ukrainians are fighting for their very lives.

Contemporary life, as they knew it just a few short days ago, has been turned upside down.

During the Civil War Mississippians hid out for six weeks in caves during the Siege of Vicksburg. Today Ukrainians are hiding out in subway tunnels even as babies are being born in those below ground spaces because the hospitals are now too dangerous to occupy.

Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing on foot, at the end of winter with snow still on the ground. A chance at freedom draws them. Many have only the clothes on their backs and a few small suitcases in hand, leaving everything behind them: their homes, their jobs, their friends, their belongings, their creature comforts with no guarantee that they will ever return to the land of their birth.

Some are clutching the azure blue and yellow Ukrainian flag which is reminiscent of the cloudless Ukrainian sky and rippling fields of wheat.

Everything is stripped away. The people have been reduced to a survival mode. None of the trappings and conveniences of postmodern life has any meaning when one is not sure of the next breath.

Buildings are being bombed and rubble lines the streets. Food is scarce, gasoline is scarcer, but fear is not scarce. They face a uncertain future of fear and terror.

The government is handing guns out to anyone who will take them and teaching others how to make Molotov cocktails. Anything to push back and slow the advance of the Russian army.

Husbands, fathers, grandfathers, brothers and uncles are tearfully leaving their families at the borders of Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia then turning back into the Ukraine to take up arms and Molotov cocktails to fight for their families and for their homeland. Wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, nieces, grandchildren and babies know that they may never see the able-bodied male members of their family again.

The culture wars can only exist in a society which is not fighting for its very existence. Where differences are exposed, highlighted and taken advantage of. Where bullies and the thought police take the upper hand. Where 1984 becomes a cultural reality.

But culture wars crumble when there is a common goal that all must work together in tandem to achieve. Survival! Then the differences don't matter.

Gays and straights work together to fend off the advancing Army.

Catholics and the Orthodox and Jews kneel together praying and imploring God for His providence and mercy.

Ideology gives way to realism and reality.

It is reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has turned down an offer from the United States of safely being evacuated from Kyiv.

"The fight is here," he said. "I need ammunition, not a ride."

President Zelensky, a Jew who lost family members during the Holocaust, is following in the footsteps of King George VI who refused to leave London during World War II.

For the duration of the War the King always wore a military uniform to emphasize his leadership. The Ukrainian President has reportedly donned military fatigues to emphasize his unity with his fighting forces.

"I stay in the capital, I stay with my people," the President said. "The enemy marked me as Target #1, and my family as Target #2."

In 1939 British Royal Family also faced mortal danger during the bombings raids of London. Buckingham Palace was bombed multiple times once being so severely damaged that the chapel destroyed.

The Royal Family was urged to go to Canada for the duration of the War but Queen Elizabeth, later known as the Queen Mother, said: "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave."

Sometimes events are so cataclysmic such as the Ukrainian War -- which is currently unfolding -- or 9/11 in America (2001); the Grenfell Tower fire in London (2017); the Surfside condominium collapse in Florida (2021); the Paradise wildfire in California (2018); the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia (2004); the rise of the Islamic caliphate in the Middle East (2014); the Holocaust in Germany (WWII); the Galveston hurricane (1900); and the Haiti earthquake (2010) that prayer is simply reduced to: "Lord, have mercy" when thoughts are jumbled and words fail.

Lord, have mercy.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline