Could be... It should also perhaps be noted that it's one thing to learn the symbols in isolation, and quite another to actually learn how to read whole words fluently. The former I don't recall struggling much with in Cyrillic (although I had at least one friend who took like two years of Russian and never did manage to learn to remember what <ж> looks like... ), but the latter very much yes. It's been over fifteen years since I started Russian and I may still stumble on longer words.
Actually, one thought I've sometimes toyed with would be to create a version of Cyrillic which would maximize mutual intelligibility with Latin, which you could write languages like, say, Karelian in. Maybe I'll post it here some day, but I'd need a few days to refine the idea, and right now I'm facing too many deadlines for that.
Well, Russian is by far the most widely spoken language written in it, both in number of speakers and (especially) geographically, and this was even more so when it was the official language of a superpower - which wasn't actually that long ago. Plus, many of the languages written in Cyrillic are only written in Cyrillic because said superpower essentially forced it on them, which is the kind of thing that tends to create unfortunate political connotations, no matter what the linguistic merits of using Cyrillic might be.
That said, I do find it frustrating that people can't see past the politics in matters like this, but not the least bit surprising.
Šyndy actually seems to mean 'Christ' for whatever reason; I've seen it in Karelian texts before. The corresponding passage in (the modern translation of) the Finnish Bible seems to be this:
1 Jeesuksen Kristuksen, Daavidin pojan ja Abrahamin pojan, sukuluettelo:
2 Abrahamille syntyi Iisak, Iisakille Jaakob, Jaakobille Juuda ja tämän veljet, 3 Juudalle Peres ja Serah, joiden äiti oli Tamar, Peresille Hesron, Hesronille Ram, 4 Ramille Amminadab, Amminadabille Nahson, Nahsonille Salma, 5 Salmalle Boas,