Orthodoxy riled over 'St. Rasputin'

London Daily Telegraph via The Washington Times ^ | Julius Strauss

[FormerLib]

MOSCOW ? A bitter rift has opened in the Russian Orthodox Church over a campaign to canonize Rasputin and Ivan the Terrible.

The campaign, which leading Orthodox officials have sought to quash, is spearheaded by a growing revisionist movement in the church.

[FormerLib]

"What believer would want to stay in a church that equally venerates murderers and martyrs..." -- Patriarch Alexy II

Some folks I thought were my friends could give him an answer, I'm sure!

[FormerLib]

An Orthodox Christian ping.

[eleni121]

Anti semitism rearing its ugly head yet again. One of the
reasons it's hard getting the Russians to be on the same page vis a vis the Middle East.

[Stavka2]

Rediculous, the FSB and Massod are working closely. This is a radical splinter group, something the US is equally full of. The US supports some extremely anti semitic regimes: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Egypt to name a few....

[FormerLib]

Excuse me, but the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has clearly and publicly repudiated this effort. What more would you have him do? Starting up an Inquisition isn't in our tradition! ;)

[don-o]

Complete and utter balderdash.

But, interestingly, on another thread, someone flamed me, (I guess he/or she took a look at my profile) with a Rasputin dig.

This is National Enquirer level stuff. No there, there.

[FormerLib]

Oh, I agree. Kind of nice to have a quote from the Russian Patriarch repudiating it all, though. Any false witnesses who attempt to smear the Orthodox with this will be quickly revealed!

[crazykatz]

"Viktor Malukhin, the church's chief spokesman, said that if Ivan the Terrible ? Russia's first tsar, formally known as Ivan IV Vasiljevich ? were canonized, it would automatically mean that his many victims, including Moscow's Metropolitan Philip, the prelate of the time, would be de-canonized."

" 'You cannot give glory at the same time to martyrs and their persecutors. This goes against God's laws and human law,' Mr. Malukhin said."

That settles it for me.

Yes, there are some folks who come here and CLAIM to be Orthodox and then, help to bash the Church. I have seen this over and over again.

Those same folks never miss a chance to SIDE WITH so-called "evangelicals" or "religion invaders" of Russia against The Russian Church. AMAZING, huh?

[eleni121]

Did I write that the Church hierarchy was anti semitic or espoused anti semitic propaganda? Better check again before you jump the gun...

That said, there are too mamy Russian Orthodox who are anti semitic just as there are too many Catholics and far too many Muslims too.

[FormerLib]

Did I write that the Church hierarchy was anti semitic or espoused anti semitic propaganda? Better check again before you jump the gun...

Jump the gun? Huh? I don't see how I did any such thing by pointing to the fact that Alexy repudiated this effort.

Perhaps you could explain this to me?

[Conservative til I die]

Those same folks never miss a chance to SIDE WITH so-called "evangelicals" or "religion invaders" of Russia against The Russian Church. AMAZING, huh?

Yeah, imagine believing in religious freedom. HOw demonic. Maybe we should just put the Evangelicals in the gas chamber, eh? Throw the Catholics in for good measure. They're always up to no good, you know, evil things like having a different religion than you do.

[Conservative til I die]

Starting up an Inquisition isn't in our tradition! ;)

No, just pogroms.

[FormerLib]

While pogroms certainly did occur at the hands of those whose motivations were other than Christian, pogroms were never order nor sanctioned by the Russian Patriarch.

I know the same cannot be said of the West.