From the Institute on Religious and Public Policy news section.
News reports like this leave no doubt that the Church in Turkey is still being oppressed. Of a certainty not on par with the cruelty of the Ottoman Empire or shortly after its fall (Google the Armenian Genocide), but the supposedly secular state continues to treat the remnant still living there as if they were red-headed step-children. His All Holiness has to get travel visas for his staff because the government won't recognize his need for staff from Greece. No one can convert to Christianity, but they are all free to convert to Islam. Today I will prayer for wisdom and understanding upon the heads of these leaders. One hopes that this will not get me in trouble for insulting the "Turkishness" of the government.Washington, D.C. – A Turkish court Tuesday declared that the Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarch is only the head of the city's tiny Greek Orthodox community and not the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.
While this has no impact on the status of the Patriarch outside Turkey, it strengthens Turkish internal resistance to acknowledging the greater role of the Patriarch and the Orthodox community in Turkey.
"This decision is yet another indication that Turkey has no interest in advancing a fair and balanced approach to freedom of religion," commented Institute on Religion and Public Policy President Joseph K. Grieboski.
Turkey maintains tight controls on the Orthodox community, including rules requiring that patriarchs must be Turkish citizens. This sharply limits the potential pool of candidates to one day succeed Bartholomew. The patriarchate also has pressed Turkey to allow the reopening of a seminary that was forced to close more than two decades ago, which under Turkish law further limits the pool of potential successors to the 67 year old patriarch.
The court ruled that "The Patriarchate, which was allowed to remain on Turkish soil [emphasis added], is subject to Turkish laws…There is no legal basis for the claims that the Patriarchate is ecumenical."
"No government has the right or the authority to determine the ecclesiology of a religious community," Mr. Grieboski stated. "Both international and European laws are clear that a state cannot interfere in the organizational structure of a faith. Turkey is once again showing that freedom of religion is not a priority or concern, and that it has no true interest in joining the European system."
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I've never understood Turkey being a member of the EU anyway... they are not a European nation.
ReplyDeleteSadly, however, Europe will be predominantly Muslim in a very short time unless Europeans wake up and pull their heads out of their secular butts.
There is something to be said for letting "the new guy" be part of the team with the hope that he'll shape up into somebody worth tossing the ball to. But this kid doesn't want to follow the same rules as everyone else and won't take any ribbing.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess it's less "Hoping accepting them with open arms will lead to improvements in the rules of law." and more "Letting the black sheep into the fold and expecting it to turn white."
Turkey is on the European continent. It just hasn't been apart of Christendom for nearly 6 centuries, lest we forget that Constantine made it his 'Roma nuova' and the capitol of the Roman Empire.
ReplyDeleteTurkey's unsuitability as an EU member has as much to do with its status as a Muslim nation and the treatment of members of other religions as it has to do with all the malarkey they liken to democracy. To suggest that because a nation has 'free' elections and yet there exists no freedom of religion, expression, or equality for more than half it's citizens (women, Christians, et cetera) is absurd.
While the EU limps along attempting to create a European super-state, they ought to take two steps back and recognize that it is a common rule of law that has be the underpinning success of the US, not inclusive-melting-pot-garbage philosophies.
How about another Crusade? Then maybe we can talk about Turkey's entrance into the EU.
Apolluson Konstantinoplon.