The Rants of Issachar

The New York Times has a piece on the cozy relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government and on the hostility both have towards non-Orthodox faiths.

The article pays particular attention the hostility displayed towards Protestant denominations. It's an interesting read.


My first thought is "that is one dumb move you Russian Orthodox leaders, be sure to let us know how getting into bed with the state works out for you". Actually, getting cozy with the state and having it use it's coercive power to suppress competing Christian denominations might work out fine for individual church leaders, but I don't think it's a healthy move for any Christian church to make. The Church is the body of Christ. It's not the state, nor should it be answerable to the state in any way. (And eventually everyone has to pay the piper).


And of course it won't work anyway. Protestants were smuggling Bibles into Russia when it was behind the iron curtain. They're not going to be deterred by what is only minor harassment when compared to what the communists were doing.


Of course I'm most interested in what my Russian Orthodox friends think. (Edward, Dave & Dan I really would like to hear your thoughts). (I'm not sure if Dan even reads blogs, and I don't think he's ever been to mine). I'm not about to ask you to defend every single little thing an Orthodox priest does in Russia, because that would hardly be fair, but I'd love to hear your perspective.

Posted by:  Marco

The Russian Orthodox Church has, from what I know, always been a little too political. I think in the West we have a much stronger tradition of churches refusing to be part of the government. Sure the Reformation divided Western Europe into religious factions that were still very much political entities, but it was also the time that various anabaptist movements arose with the radical idea that church and state should be completely separate from each other.

Posted by:  issachar

You might say that the western churches learned the dangers of the Church becoming political in an unfortunately bloody way. (And despite it being so bloody the lesson still took a disturbingly long time to sink in).


The more I think about it, I believe in the separation of Church & State less for the state's sake, (although I think it's good for the state), but more for the Church's sake...