Posted on 07/25/2009 3:23:34 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
In a move welcomed by the Orthodox Church, Russia is introducing religion classes in its schools, but Catholicism is not one of the four creeds to be taught.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill praised the initiative announced Tuesday by President Dimitri Medvedev, which programs a choice of classes on Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism or Judaism, or on a combination of these four creeds, or on secular ethics.
Medvedev explained that children under 10 in 12,000 schools of Russia's 18 regions would receive these classes.
Patriarch Kirill praised the proposal: "All of the worries that society expressed will be taken care of with this free choice."
The Russian Orthodox Church has been encouraging the proposal to teach religion in schools, though Church and state are officially separate. Three years ago, some regions took up the proposal and began offering classes on Russian Orthodoxy.
Medvedev pointed to the choice between classes as a response to nonbelievers who opposed the plan.
"Any coercion or pressure would be absolutely inacceptable and counterproductive," he affirmed. And he added that the proposal is "only" for the four creeds mentioned.
The pilot program to begin next year will cover some 20% of Russian schools.
It is calculated that some 80% of Russians are members of the Orthodox Church, though perhaps only as many as 15% to 20% are practicing.
Some minority Christians have lamented being excluded from the program to teach religion in schools.
If Christians would start pushing Christianity instead of pushing brands of Christianity, they would be better off.
Imagine the gall of the Russian government to exclude the supposed one and only true universal church.
I wonder what brand of Islam they are teaching as the official Russian islam? Sunni islam? Or will they teach both sunni and shiite? Is Christianity the only religion they decided to teach only one sect’s version of? Do they teach both Theravada and Mahayana buddhism? Orthodox and reform judaism?
I am a member of the Christian faith. I am a Catholic.
And I really don’t know why the Russian Orthodox Church feels so insecure about its own legitimacy within the Christian fold that it has had all Catholic missionaries expelled from Mother Russia. Begun under Yeltsin, no less, and continued by Tsar Vladimir the First.
Sounds almost Islamic, JMHO.
Does that make me a heretic?
Many Catholics think exactly that way.
I imagine the centuries old schism between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church might have something to do with Mother Russia feeling so insecure
Protestants are even less welcome in Russia than Catholics.
You wrote:
“If Christians would start pushing Christianity instead of pushing brands of Christianity, they would be better off.”
The Catholic faith is true Christian faith. Your sect, for instance, was started by a mere man sometime after 1500 - most likely in the last few decades of the last century in fact. Our Church was established by Christ.
1 Peter 2:17
Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
You wrote:
“1 Peter 2:17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.”
That, of course, is Peter, the first pope, writing to his fellow Catholics. And I do love the brotherhood of believers - the Catholic Church; I do fear God. And I do honor proper authority (which is darn hard since January).
Writing to fellow believers, not Catholics. Catholics take one line out of context from the Bible and create a whole Pharisees set of beliefs. Jesus spent most of his time fighting the type of beliefs such as the Catholic church has established. Jesus freed us from the law and the Catholic Church reestablished a whole new set of laws.
You wrote:
“Writing to fellow believers, not Catholics.”
One in the same. All the believers were Catholics. Remember, sects like yours didn’t show up for more than 1500 years.
“Catholics take one line out of context from the Bible and create a whole Pharisees set of beliefs.”
1) I didn’t take anything out of context.
2) You quote the Bible. If you’re now going to label your efforts an out of context effort, then by all means do so, but don’t claim I did something I never did.
“Jesus spent most of his time fighting the type of beliefs such as the Catholic church has established.”
Completely untrue. Christ established the Catholic Church. Christ opposed the Pharisees (who insisted on the Mosaic Law - which the Church opposes). Christ opposed the Sadducees (who denied the Resurrection - which the Church has always taught).
“Jesus freed us from the law and the Catholic Church reestablished a whole new set of laws.”
Christ gave us new laws. It was Christ Himself who denied divorce and remarriage - although few Protestants believe Christ on that matter. It was Christ who said adultery can be committed in the heart. The Church merely accepts what Christ taught and makes the logical conclusions in difficult matters. We believe Christ.
There was no such animal as the Catholic Church. All believers were the Church as they are today. I belong to that Church, which Jesus established.
1) I didn’t take anything out of context.
I did not say you did. But now you have distorted what I said. I was referencing the Catholics gross distortion of Matt 16:18.
As I understand it, only Orthodox Judaism. The "Reform" made a big stink about it, IIRC.
You wrote:
“There was no such animal as the Catholic Church.”
Christ established the Catholic Church. He established it in about AD 33.
“All believers were the Church as they are today.”
That’s logically impossible since there is no unity among those you call “believers”. Christ established ONE Church and not tens of thousands of competing sects.
“I belong to that Church, which Jesus established.”
You belong to a sect established in recent years. If you were to name the sect we could all easily discover about when it was established. Lutheran? 1520. Pentecostal? 1896. It’s not hard.
“I did not say you did.”
Yes, you did. You wrote: “Catholics take one line out of context from the Bible and create a whole Pharisees set of beliefs.” I’m Catholic. Thus, you are accusing me of taking one line from the Bible out of context.
“But now you have distorted what I said. I was referencing the Catholics gross distortion of Matt 16:18.”
1) There is no distortion on the part of Catholics and history (and even many Protestants) show that.
2) I distorted nothing you said. If you meant Matthew 16:18, don’t you think you should have mentioned it rather than have posted another verse?
yes, since it's practiced by the majority of the Russian traditionally muslim ethnicities.
Near my home there is Christian non-Orthodox church, Evangelist, may be, priest there is Korean, and it was built by Koreans. I know another non-Orthodox church, Evangelic, I think. There is Catholic or may be Protestant Church, I am not expert in religious questions. There is German cultural center in that temle, sometimes organists from Germany play music there.
Post-Communist Russia appears to be returning to the religious patterns that existed prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.
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