Posted on 04/19/2016 7:00:30 AM PDT by marshmallow
Moscow, April 19, Interfax - Head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk draws a parallel between the USSR and present-day Europe.
"It is surprising that today Russian and European civilizations have exchanged their roles in a certain sense. The Soviet Union was the country of the official state atheism, while all of us perceived the West as the Christian region," the hierarch said on air of his program Church and the World on Rossiya 24 television.
According to him, now it is quite the contrary: faith and the Church are revived in Russia, new churches are being built, monasteries and theological schools are open, while "religiosity is decreasing in the West, churches are closed, some church buildings are just sold."
"Secularism and atheism have in fact become a new ideology of the Western Europe. Certainly, the Church is not persecuted there the way it was persecuted here in the Soviet times when churches were blown up and destroyed. But ideology of modern secular Europe practically excludes the Church and religion from the public sphere, so you can be religious as a private person, but your religiosity should not influence your public role, your professional activities," the metropolitan said.
He also believes that religious revival in Europe will go through "being drunk with freedom, with permissiveness and people will understand what it leads to and start coming back to their Christian roots."
Sometimes stating an obvious truth is important, especially when many refuse to see it.
Axios!
True!
Reminds me of that video here yesterday where the school superintendent went to a park near the school to stop Christians from having a free lunch table for kids.
Serious question, in Russia would a school go after a bunch of Christian mothers handing out sandwiches nearby?
We are in the clutch of a sickness in America and Europe.
The progressives who have abandoned Christianity probably think they can stem the tide of Islam, but that is far from given.
Look at Turkey, which once had one of the most secular governments. At Iran and Egypt which also had secular rulers. Indeed, look at Syria and Iraq whose governments while dictatorial were religiously plural.
AXIOS!
Well there are more Marxists in Europe than there were in the Soviet Union. Just check the universities and government bodies.
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