Posted on 09/17/2014 12:13:10 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
A Sukhoi SU-35 fighter aircraft participates in a flying display during the 50th Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget airport near Paris, June 23, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/PASCAL ROSSIGNOL
(Reuters) - Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was presented with an unlikely gift for a religious leader this week as he toured a factory in Russia's far-east - a single-seater fighter jet SU-35.
Kirill was presented with the jet after giving workers at the civilian and military aircraft plant icons blessed by himself, the church said in a statement on its official website on Tuesday.
The patriarch, with whom President Vladimir Putin has fostered increasingly close ties in recent years, addressed the workers on the importance of protecting Russia.
"Russia cannot be a vassal. Because Russia is not only a country, it is a whole civilization, it is a thousand-year story, a cultural melting-pot, of enormous power," RIA news agency quoted him as saying.
"In order for us to be able to live a sovereign life, we must, if necessary, be able to defend our homeland."
Kirill's church is aligned with Putin's drive to reunite the former Soviet sphere of countries, with the Russian Orthodox Church exerting considerable influence through its 165 million members in Russia and other former USSR republics.
Critics of the Russian Orthodox Church have said it is acting as a de-facto government ministry for Putin, including in foreign affairs, and have warned that such political engagements could backfire.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Make commuting to the Vatican more fun.
Too bad I can’t imagine any important American religious figure, with the exception of the Grahams, saying anything similar about our country.
The last time the triumvirate was army-church-tsar the end results were not very pretty.
“How many divisions does the Pope have?”
“I don’t know, Comrade...but the Patriarch just got an Air Force.”
Now I feel better about how inappropriate my gifts usually are.
Three candles are assuredly better than one!
Moreover, I can't see our government responding in similar fashion. I gotta say this is just too cool for words.
Worth repeating.
Well, we can hope for the day when major religious figures are employed by the government. /s
Gives new meaning to the phrase “Daily Missile”
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;”
I got the need, The need for speed.
I haven’t followed early American religious history, but I would be surprised to hear that early American religious leaders spoke in favor of expansionist American foreign policy.
Manifest Destiny could be construed as an “expansionist” foreign policy, no? Or the “White Man’s Burden” as it applies to the Mexican-American and Spanish-American wars perhaps?
Por que?
For the same reason you haven’t followed Shakespeare. If you have something to share about religious history, feel free. Or continue to stroke yourself to Kirill’s picture (please don’t share).
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