“The Russian Orthodox Church is used ‘as a political’ tool, he says, by Putin whose history raises questions about the sincerity of his faith.”
The Russian Orthodox Church has always guarded its territory zealously. No further explanation is needed to explain the expulsion of a Baptist missionary.
Many Americans would be insulted if the Russians started sending missionaries here. We’re the ones who send missionaries, not the ones who need them. Why wouldn’t the Russian Orthodox feel the same way?
Missionaries spreading what? They’ve been sending them since at least the 30’s.
I’m Catholic and especially as an American, would never advocate the same to happen to an Orthodox priest. (Quite the contrary I attend Orthodox liturgies on their holidays.) I sometimes attend Evangelical Bible studies also.
“...not the one who needs them” Your assumptions are wrong. While the US sends out the most Christian missionaries, we also receive the most missionaries.
And yes, we need all the help we can get.
There are many Lutheran missionaries in Russia. A few I support (or did till he passed away late last year of heart issues).
This law has not been talked about. Granted, they are in historically Lutheran areas, and in Siberia. And as an Orthodox once told me, they have a history with the Lutherans there that goes back to Catherine the Great.
Russian Orthodox behave in a very respectful fashion to other Orthodox churches, not counting Rome. But the Orthodox churches never went through the Reformation, so to them, Protestant faiths are less than genuine.
That they tolerate them at all on their territory puts them in the same category as Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. But it never implies they see them as equals.
To the contrary, we welcome Russian evangelists here to preach the basic gospel that did so much to save both souls and society in America.
But, not, we would not welcome a dead institutionalized gospel state church which imagines it is the one true church. Besides, your RC brethren are upset that the ROs are proselytizing them.
Really?
US Catholics don't go in big for vocations, so many priests and nuns come from Africa or Asia or Latin America. Nobody seems to object.
I suspect even Hindus and Buddhists send "missionaries" of a sort to the US and nobody seems to bother them.
With Protestants and Mormons it may be a little different, but many would welcome the competition if it got people interested in religion again.