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Blasphemy in the Moscow Art Theater, Stopped by Public Preaching
Russian Faith ^ | 6/21/19 | Fr. Dmitry Smirnov, Igumen Vitaly Utkin, Fr. Andrei Strebkov, Fr. Oleg Stenyaev, Fr. Michael Frantse

Posted on 06/21/2019 6:54:28 PM PDT by marshmallow

Orthodox Christian activists interrupted a play, pointing out the blasphemy and calling for viewers to leave in protest. Part of the audience got up and left.

Orthodox activists interrupted the play "The Ideal Husband" at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, having stepped on the stage at the moment when the actor who played the homosexual priest was praying to a naked woman hanging above the stage, portraying the crucified Jesus Christ.

They went up to the stage and, for about 5 minutes, told the audience that what was happening on the scenes was blasphemy, and it could not be acceptable in public space.

The activists concluded their speech with a call for caring viewers to leave the play in protest. Part of the audience got up and left.

After that, security guards of the Moscow Art Theater began to beat the young people, forcibly removing them from the scene.

Orthodox public organizations filed lawsuits and wrote applications to the internal affairs bodies for insulting the feelings of believers. That initiated a collection of signatures, seeking the termination of the performance and the termination of employment for all those guilty of blasphemy on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater.

(Excerpt) Read more at russian-faith.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Orthodox Christian; Religion & Culture
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1 posted on 06/21/2019 6:54:28 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Hmm. I’m still thinking about it.
This was a private performance. It’s not as though this was a monument in the public square. They are fine to protest it- from outside, but those who wanted to see this work written by Chekhov should have been left alone to see it.


2 posted on 06/21/2019 7:01:43 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: marshmallow

I certainly won’t go to see this play and would recommend the offended person to skip it too. The guy did what leftists do and the fact that the cause is seemingly reversed doesn’t make it right. I hope the guards teached them a lesson and it hurts.


3 posted on 06/21/2019 7:17:52 PM PDT by NorseViking
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To: lee martell

Maybe memory doesn’t serve me well anymore but I don’t remember if Chekhov wrote anything like that.

You make a perfect point though. Even the Russian Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression. It was a theater of ‘modern art’. Their circus and their monkeys.

Nothing was stopping that noble gentleman from going to a Christian theater to see Jesus and Apostles in more classic rendition and to listen hymns in peace.

I understand the idea to see so-called modern art as a form of cultural warfare with the right side trying to hit their side with their own weapon but it is not noble thing to do for a list of reasons which is too long to explain.


4 posted on 06/21/2019 7:36:59 PM PDT by NorseViking
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To: marshmallow

“The Ideal Husband”, is that the Oscar Wilde play? If so, I don’t remember anything particularly objectionable in it, though I’m sure a modern production would stick something where it doesn’t go with glee, particularly in a Wilde work.


5 posted on 06/21/2019 8:27:53 PM PDT by cdcdawg (Politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from ...)
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To: cdcdawg

The Russian producer is known for producing extreme and bizarre interpretations of plays.


6 posted on 06/21/2019 9:07:41 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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