Posted on 02/04/2014 1:52:22 PM PST by Sopater
MOSCOW — At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.”
More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West.
“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”
In his state of the nation address in mid-December, Mr. Putin also portrayed Russia as a staunch defender of “traditional values” against what he depicted as the morally bankrupt West. Social and religious conservatism, the former KGB officer insisted, is the only way to prevent the world from slipping into “chaotic darkness.”
As part of this defense of “Christian values,” Russia has adopted a law banning “homosexual propaganda” and another that makes it a criminal offense to “insult” the religious sensibilities of believers.
The law on religious sensibilities was adopted in the wake of a protest in Moscow’s largest cathedral by a female punk rock group against the Orthodox Church’s support of Mr. Putin. Kremlin-run television said the group’s “demonic” protest was funded by “some Americans.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Correct...
We now live in a media-driven idiocracy where 30,000 people stand in the snow for hours, for a chance to be seen on TV, in city after city (American Idol), as but one example.>
And I largely see this as OUR fault (yes, I mean Freepers, too.)
When we had the chance to stop this decline, most of us decided they were too busy living their lives, to be inconvenienced by protesting, like the left always finds time for.
Now are children will pay a dear price for that.
While I don’t necessarily have a beef with your premise, I don’t think agreeing with it in part means that I should give Obama a free pass. Yes, a flawed populace installed him, but he is the man acting out in a manner that is very destructive for our nation. Can’t absolve him of that.
He is evil. He needs to be recognized as evil. His antics as they are known, should all be fully exposed to the public.
What’s more, I’ll blame him for every bit of it!
Just because a man seduces a decent woman, we don’t blame her for what he does next, if it is pure evil.
Did she make a mistake. Sure. Should she be destroyed for it? No.
Our nation shouldn’t be destroyed either. (I know you agree with this. Just sayin’)
This from a Czech Newspaper editorial last year sums up what most Europeans now think of us.
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.
The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
I have been observing, for the past several decades, a decline in public morality and a steep coarsening in society that has made the unthinkable "election" of the likes of Obama possible. He is the hammer in the hands of the Left to destroy this country. The 60's were at least honest about what they wanted to do to America. Now, all of those seeds have come to harvest.
by all appearances Russia is walking the walk:
churches are full
helping persecuted Christian churches
Russian background in Communism makes it all suspicious - but still????
A woman’s sense of liberty should not be defined by having the right to kill.
And the homos derive their sense of liberty by forcing the photographer and baker to service their desires.
And the Libertarian Party thinks it’s supporting liberty by promoting the aforementioned.
None of this is liberty. It’s liberal statism; a.k.a., Leftism.
Okay, lets use your logic. (And I’m not doing this to put you down, because I think you have a valid argument. I’m just not sure it’s quite as valid as you think. So this is to help clarify my thoughts, our difference of opinion.)
If you’re comments here are reasoned, then the exact opposite would be valid too.
It would therefore have been reasoned in Reagan’s day and even now, that we should have avoided giving him credit for his work to overcome the Soviet Union, and get free market enterprise going again.
It was really the people who elected him who should get the credit. Reagan? Not so much!
Sound about right? It doesn’t to me. I think you agree with this too.
I agree the populace has been hoodwinked. I agree they aren’t paying attention too. I agree they should be taken to task too. I just think it should be separately, and Obama should be forced to own what he’s doing 100% also.
Many good people in Reagan’s day did the right thing. Sure they should get credit for that. Society has changed, and I agree with you there. However, we are not lofting leaders as our nominee, who will reach for the Reagan cup.
I place the blame for that sqarely on the GOPe, who defeats us across this nation by withholding funds that would help Conservatives win in our local districts.
The Left pulls out all the stops to help their fellow travelers, and the GOPe pulls out all the stops to defeat it’s (supposed) fellow travelers.
As Andrew Breitbart said: Politics is downstream of culture.
And the popular culture of the US has been in the toilet for decades now.
God has been rejected, and that is never good.
Excellent statement from the Czech newspaper. Right on the nose.
Man-woman marriage is a procreative union. Same-sex and other perverse liaisons are not. They do not provide a stable foundation for the most important unit in society, the natural family. Therefore they have no claim on the honors and benefits associated with marriage. It's really as simple as that.
Since 1962. And it has been all downhill since then, as evidenced by numerous statistical trends.
http://www.blogadoon.com/statistical-morality-results-of-supreme-court-1962-prayer-ban/
Putin has a good point. But in another ten or twenty years, Russia won’t be that different from the US or Western Europe, assuming it doesn’t collapse entirely.
I heard a missionary to Russia, two days ago, say that less than 2% of Russians are Christian.
What he meant by Christian and what Russian Orthodox would mean may not be the same thing.
What "all appearances" are you referring to? "Religious Freedom" does not mean freedom of religion if not part of the basically State church in Russia. While the US has become antagonistic toward Christian conservative faith in general as it deifies the government (as, like God, it never needs to show gratitude to or dependance upon anything greater than itself, but increasingly presents itself as giving us this day our daily bread), Russia has been building a State church, and which promotes many of the errors of Catholicism, including the use of the sword of men for its purposes, which early Prots had to unlearn.
Moscow church destroyed in sign of new Russian repression Posted on Sep 26, 2012 | by Jill Nelson
MOSCOW (BP) -- It was in the early hours of the morning on Sept. 6 when Pastor Vasili Romanyuk's phone rang. A group of men backed by local police were demolishing his Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church, housed in a three-story building nestled in a Moscow suburb. As word spread, congregants arrived at the scene hoping to save the building, but their efforts were futile. By dawn the church was in ruins and some of its most valuable contents were missing.
An isolated incident? A misunderstanding? Analysts watching the current climate in the former Cold War country don't think so: "This destruction of the church is about as concrete of evidence as you can get that something very bad and very troubling is taking place," said Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "This could not have happened without the backing, support, and implicit blessing of the police."
The incident is just one sign of deteriorating freedoms in Russia, and behind the scenes a cozy relationship between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church has raised more than a few eyebrows. As President Vladimir Putin digs into his third term, a number of Kremlin crackdowns involving vague interpretations of the country's extremism law and other human-rights abuses are troubling signs that the country has slipped into a familiar, repressive era.
"When you have unknown people backed by the police coming out at midnight to begin tearing down a church, you know something doesn't smell right," Lantos Swett said.
Officials evicted Holy Trinity Church from its original building in 1995 and relocated the church to the eastern Moscow suburb. The congregation used its own funds to construct a new building and repeatedly battled officials over permits. The church demolition and its history reflect an emerging pattern: Authorities confiscate land from non-favored religious communities and force the congregation to relocate to a remote suburb, the religious leaders apply for permits that are subsequently denied, and officials confiscate (once again) or demolish the relocated congregation, citing lack of proper documentation.
Pastor Romanyuk and a small group of the church's 550 congregants arrived on site around 3:30 a.m. as about 45 men claiming to be civil volunteers blocked them from the building and threw stones. "When I arrived, I just burst into tears," 25-year-old Natalya Cherevichinik told The Moscow Times as she surveyed the destruction. "I couldn't believe that something that had been built over several years could be destroyed in a few hours."
Russian Evangelicals Leery of Orthodox Church, Friday, December 30, 2011:
class="adjusted">MOSCOW, Russia -- For decades, the Russian Orthodox Church was persecuted under the Soviet Union's Communist Party.
Since the early 1990s, the church has grown in size and influence as its relationship with the Russian government has improved significantly.
However, that cozy relationship worries the country's evangelicals.
Threats Against Evangelicals
For eight years, Yuri Sipko ran one of the largest Baptist organizations in Russia. Now, 20 years after the fall of Communism, he worries about the growing threats against the country's evangelical movement.
"The collapse of Communism was supposed to usher in an era of greater religious freedom, but I'm concerned we are moving in the wrong direction," Sipko said.
What makes the Russian evangelicals very concerned is an emerging relationship between the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church.
"For example, the government recently introduced religious classes based on the principals of the Orthodox Church in public schools," Sipko said.
"Then late last year, the Russian president announced an initiative to appoint Orthodox chaplains to all army units," he said. "Our constitution clearly states no religion can be the state religion."
Russia Church-State Relations
Russia watchers credit two men, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, for elevating the church's prominence. The state media has also played a key role, often showing the leaders attending church services.
Sergey Ryakhovski knows both men well. As head of Russia's Pentecostal Union, he meets regularly with top government and Orthodox Church leaders.
Ryakhovski worries that the Orthodox Church's influence is coming at the expense of religious freedom, especially for minority groups such as Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists.
"There are so many laws and by-laws that regulate religious life in Russia," Ryakhovski said. "For example, evangelical Christians just can't go out and buy a church building or buy a piece of land to build a church."
"Plus, criticizing or challenging the Orthodox Church is not a task for all," he added.
Orthodox Church Revival
The Russian Orthodox Church on the other hand has had it easy in recent times after decades of state persecution.
Church buildings that were destroyed during the Soviet era have been rebuilt with Russian taxpayer money. In the past 20 years, the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars restoring some 23,000 churches.
Most Russians say they belong to the Orthodox Church. Yet CBN News found mixed reactions on the streets of Moscow to the growing bond between church and state
At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Published: April 24, 2008
STARY OSKOL, Russia —
It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here that the troubles began.
First came visits from agents of the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B., who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a “sect.” Finally, last month, they shut it down.
There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.
Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.
Russia's De-Facto State Religion : Persecution : http://www ... www.persecution.org/?p=9350&upm... International Christian Co... Putin frequently appears with the Orthodox head, Patriarch Aleksei II, ... Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ's robes like bandits, ...
Government Returning Land to Religious Organizations to Favor Orthodox Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009: An ambitious draft law on the transfer of property of religious significance to religious organisations may reignite a process begun in 1993.
Pentecostal Seminary Targeted for Liquidation
Pentecostal Church Forced to Meet Outside in Moscow Winter
Russia: Governor Orders Church Land Grab
Perhaps that should be added to this:
►REVEALING STATISTICS (or, Present Costs of the War Against God)
What he meant by Christian and what Russian Orthodox would mean may not be the same thing.
The country has an area of 6,592,769 square miles (17,075,190 km2) and a population of 142.8 million. In practice, only a minority of citizens actively participated in any religion. Many who identified themselves as members of a faith participated in religious life rarely or not at all. There is no one set of reliable statistics that breaks down the population by denomination, and the statistics below are compiled from government, polling, and religious group sources.
Approximately 100 million citizens consider themselves Russian Orthodox Christians, although the vast majority are not regular churchgoers. Fourteen to 23 million Muslims form the country's largest religious minority. The majority of Muslims live in the Volga-Urals region and the North Caucasus, although Moscow, St. Petersburg, and parts of Siberia also have sizable Muslim populations. The Buddhist Association of Russia estimated there were between 1.5 and 2 million Buddhists, who live in the traditionally Buddhist regions of Buryatiya, Tuva, and Kalmykiya. According to the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, Protestants make up the second largest group of Christian believers, with 3,500 registered organizations and more than 2 million followers. There are an estimated 600,000 Jews (0.4 percent of the population); the vast majority live in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Catholic Church estimated that there are 600,000 Catholics, most of whom are not ethnic Russians. In some areas, such as Yakutiya and Chukotka, pantheistic and nature-based religions are practiced independently or alongside other religions.
According to Human Rights Ombudsman Lukin's annual report, the Ministry of Justice had registered 22,956 religious organizations as of 1 January, 2007, 443 more than January 2006. Among the registered religious groups are Russian Orthodox, Orthodox Old Believers, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Evangelical Christians, Catholic, and other denominations. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Russia#Religious_demography
So do most religious polls...
|
Are you still killing your unborn? -- GOD |
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.