How dare they promote their discusting way of life in our church?

Bravo!!! To the law.

…and that is exactly the Russian historical precedent, or rather, nasty habit: push dissenters to the limit, beyond the pale of common discourse, where their ideology becomes hardened into destructive revolution in the absence of any hope for accommodation. The 6% of Russians who support PR/Voina more than Putin are being pushed just this way. It’s not inevitable, but when every talking head in the country points out that dissent against Putin’s coziness with Patr. Kyrill is ‘pernicious foreign hostility against the body of Holy Russia’ it becomes clear that those in charge of secular power there would have it no other way. There is no conversation possible with such men. Of course, PR are already highly marginal and toxically radical, so it’s almost too late already. But the Church could exert a positive role over the rest of the people to accommodate their dissent. So far, it looks like that is far off.

Just the other week, Metr. Hilarion Alfeyev spoke in San Francisco’s MP Cathedral of St. Nicholas, and engaged a bit of historical revisionism in the presence of concelebrant Metr. Ilarion Kapral of ROCOR and a gathering of (mostly Russian) faithful. Alfeyev spoke of ROCOR’s previous principled break with Moscow in strictly pejorative terms, calling for thorough repentance of the very critical impulse which led to breaking communion during the Communist dominance of The Russian Orthodox Church. This bold gesture bespeaks a church with the assumed authority to re-write history to prove its current hegemony.

From a non-Russian prospective, that amounts to dangerous hybris.

Forget the National Cathedral. Christians are not an offendable category in American culture. The Muslims are. That is where you would need to go to measure reaction. (I am not advising you do this, BTW.)

When I left the Soviet Union 22 years ago, there were just plain commissars. Now, there are commissars in riasas. “Turn the other cheek” is not the way of the modern Russian Orthodox Church. More like, “Onward, Christian soldiers, smite them with your might!”

I’m often challenged when struggling to write about these things. One sees something that has broad consequences and would lead to great stuff if it were taken on in a systematic way emphasizing the reason the effort is worthwhile, whether or not any punishment dispenser is watching. So how to go about mentioning it? No matter how it’s put the response can always be along the lines ‘leave me alone to continue on this path, noticing that you yourself lack perfection in (insert list here) ways.

What do I know, I’m just a guy who writes software for a living. I just look at maps of Russia and see all that land and all those resources, well the thing is just vast. There are numerous pockets of excellence in education and the arts, so one thinks ‘well this looks poised for real improvement, what’s holding them back?’ So many lives would be better off if their internal pace of progress and construction wasn’t all gummed up in dis-economic political ‘need 15 stamps and several judicious donations to walk one step down the road’.

Harry, completely and heartily agree with you. It’s wonderful to see the Church rebuilt, but it is in vain if it does not shape the morality of the society. Of course, the morality of American evangelical organizations is so regressive – unabashed war lust, rampant health and wealthism, condemnatory moralism, etc, etc – that sometimes I feel reticent about criticizing any other religious culture as an American. But as an Orthodox Christian of Russian background, your observations resonate deeply.

I think Frederica Mathewes-Green, characteristically, hit just the right note on this in her Ancient Faith Radio podcast. She captures the righteous and just outrage, but also I think, the proper response being community service requiring the gathering of stories about the martyrs from the Soviet era.

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/frederica/russian_blasphemy

I have followed the arguments here and elswhere. I think Frederica captures the essence of “both sides.” Brava!

Are those folk in government then above Gospel’s directions?

That’s all well and good, Harry, but in the very next chapter (Romans 13) the Holy Apostle explicitly identifies our earthly rulers as God’s agents of vengeance to do His repaying.

The closing remarks of the immediately preceding Rom12: “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”[a] says the Lord. 20 Therefore

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”[b]

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Thank God, Harry, that He has given us not just the Church but also the state, “to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Rom. 13:4) — in other words, to do the dirty work necessary for the preservation of civilized existence in the fallen world.

As it’s been many years since there was a major war in Russia, and since they’ve thrown off the communist dictator-oppressors, it’s time for the Russian church to re-assess, and to identify with the local people and speak to issues. A serious anti-corruption anti-bribery campaign for reasons of morality, anti-bribery and anti-corruption on the basis of the good places it will lead, and not on the basis of what will happen if you get caught. Of course that’s been called naive as have I, but then really when you look at it the entire Christian project is similarly naive. So, you know, aim high, in for a penny in for a pound, the only way out is through, like that.

And your point?

Harry, you are looking through the eyes of an American. There is a reason that Russian Orthodox spirituality emphasizes podvig.

Russia has been ruled by some of the most spectacularly venal and bloody tyrants in the history of the world, it went from essentially the feudal system to communism without much of a break. The communists didn’t invent the Russian secret police. They’ve been running a black market economy (what we call corruption) for a long, long time. When you combine the number of Russians killed by their own government, WWI and WWII together the numbers are staggering. Most of those killed were healthy, strong, intelligent people. The very ones most countries need to build anything long term. Why should they have any opptimism especially about their govenment or the official economy.

Then there is the weather.