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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Putin, the ROC, and Pussy Riot



A post at dotCommonweal about Pussy Riot asks why the group would protest against Putin in Christ the Savior Church. I had a past post about that church here, and also a past post about the Russian Orthodox Church and its relationship with women here. Here's a bit from that last post that may help explain why Pussy Riot would choose that church for its protest against Putin ...

Putin's Reunited Russian Church
(TIME, 2007)

The Russian Orthodox Church was torn in two by revolution and regicide, by the enmity between communism and capitalism, nearly a century of fulmination and hatred. That all formally ended on Thursday in Moscow. Thousands of the Russian Orthodox faithful — including several hundred who flew in from New York — lined up under heavy rain to get into the Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. There, they witnessed the restoration of the "Canonical Communion and Reunification" of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) .... While the sumptuous ritual was clearly an emotional and pious event, the reunification has political resonance as well because the Russian Orthodox Church is increasingly a symbol and projection of Russian nationalism.

Indeed, rather than first give thanks to God in his speech, the head of the ROC, Patriarch Alexy, paid homage to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Patriarch emphasized that the reunification could happen only because the ROCOR saw in Putin "a genuine Russian Orthodox human being." Putin responded in his speech that the reunification was a major event for the entire nation.

Nationalism, based on the Orthodox faith, has been emerging as the Putin regime's major ideological resource. Thursday's rite sealed the four-year long effort by Putin, beginning in September 2003, to have the Moscow Patriarchate take over its rival American-based cousin and launch a new globalized Church as his state's main ideological arm and a vital foreign policy instrument. In February press conference, Putin equated Russia's "traditional confessions" to its nuclear shield, both, he said, being "components that strengthen Russian statehood and create necessary preconditions for internal and external security of the country." Professor Sergei Filatov, a top authority on Russian religious affairs notes that "traditional confessions" is the state's shorthand for the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Church's assertiveness and presence is growing — with little separation from the State. The Moscow City Court and the Prosecutor General's Office maintain Orthodox chapels on their premises. Only the Orthodox clergy are entitled to give ecclesiastic guidance to the military. Some provinces have included Russian Orthodox Culture classes in school curricula with students doing church chores. When Orthodox fundamentalists vandalized an art exhibition at the Moscow Andrei Sakharov Center as "an insult to the main religion of our country," the Moscow Court found the Center managers guilty of insulting the faith, and fined them $3,500 each. The ROC had an opera, based on a famous fairy tale by the poet Alexander Pushkin, censored to the point of cutting out the priest, who is the tale's main protagonist. "Of course, we have a separation of State and Church," Putin said during a visit to a Russian Orthodox monastery in January 2004. "But in the people's soul they're together." The resurgence of a Church in open disdain of the secular Constitution is only likely to exacerbate divisions in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious Russia. ....


And more recently, and with Kirill I chosen Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009 (an ex-KGB agent - can this be true?), things don't seem to be getting any better .... Art under arrest: A blasphemy trial shows the limit of Russia’s cultural freedom


2 Comments:

Anonymous Victor said...

(((One picture showed a Russian general raping a soldier with the caption “Glory to Russia”; another placed an Order of Lenin medal in place of Christ's head)))

Crystal, I don't want "IT" to sound like "I'M" sticking UP for Putin, the ROC, and Pussy Riot the all-female band of Russia NOW but even here in Canada, we have problems of freedom to an extent.

There seems to be a new crack dawning in our freedom. Don't get me wrong, I would never change my Christian Canadian Citizenship for the world. What "I'M" trying to say is that I mean there's seems to be in Canada a new crackdown even in some of our own Cathedral.

For example, I thank GOD (Good Old Dad) that "I'M" not an official prophet of any kind but about two years ago, I was under the impression that dogs in the flesh should not be allowed in true Christian churches during Holy Mass.

Long story short, spiritually speaking if dogs were allowed in church for whatever reason, then same-sex-marriages would eventually become legal and you know that "I" believe that marriages should only be between a man and a woman so I made "IT" clear to our Cathedral that I would not accept "IT".

I don't want to get into "IT" again but I was literally thrown out of church on http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/92/Pentecost_Feast_The_Gifts_and_Charisms_of_The_Holy_Spirit.html

because they had allowed a dog in during the Ceremony after most knew how me, myself and i felt about "IT".

Longer story short and you may think me a crazy paranoid skitso but sometimes I believe that our government is being indirectly forced to curtail free expression of the majority of Canadians.

For example, after same-sex-marriages became legal in Canada, I wrote to our NOW Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Stephen Harper saying in so many words that if there was a GOD in Heaven, I believed that he would be our next new Prime Minister and although he was down well over 30% in the poles, he wrote back thanking me for my letter.

I hear ya! They did allowed you back in to fulfill your duties as a sponsor during the Confirmation, did they not?

Only in Canada you say?

Pitty! :)

Crystal you will keep praying for this Annoying Super Sinner.

Peace

5:28 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

I agree that some of the art stuff is objectionable, but in the west we usually don't arrest people because we don't like their artwork.

8:25 PM  

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