I found this interesting. With the stream of Putin-Church news articles in recent months this is the first one I have seen that shows anything other than a tightening relationship between the two. I worry about this close relationship turning into something unhealthy - something that might place the Church at odds with the West as a political arm of the State. This is not me being anti-Slavic (Hospodi Pomiluj!). This is me worrying about a return to the rhetoric of old and the growth of a strange new nationalism.
Moscow, Feb. 25, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Russian President Valdimir Putin has announced that Russian Orthodox seminarians are obliged to do mandatory military service, Vatican Radio reports.
Putin's policy announcement appears to put the government on a collision course with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Moscow patriarchate in the past has threatened to expel any seminarians who use firearms or engage in military service.
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"This is me worrying about a return to the rhetoric of old and the growth of a strange new nationalism."
ReplyDeleteYou do realize Pandora's box has already been opened VERY wide on that score...
Yes. Note link to Economist article on a TV event in Russia my wife called "just really wierd."
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ReplyDeleteYour wife (hint, hint) might have also mentioned that the move was a little unexpected, but typical of the R.O.C. of the last nearly 100 years. Also, it emphasizes that the dearth of authority in the R.O.C. has had some negative effect on her leaders, insomuch as its leaders put more stock in secular power and secular leaders (with dubious ideas about human liberty and charity) than in the power of the Gospel and the King of All. Maybe the Russian for "Thou shall not covet . . ." doesn't translate well . . .
ReplyDeleteThat said the Church in Russia (both the Orthodox and the Catholic) has often produced many saints. I just wish that they weren't so often the martyred variety.