Posted on 08/01/2016 8:12:27 AM PDT by NRx
This autumn Russia will hold the second conference on defense of Christians in the world, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in his interview for the website of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS), reports the TASS news agency.
“In addition to demonstrating by our personal example of the importance of establishing good relations between different faiths, it is also vital to hold special events,” the minister said. “Let us be honest; today Christians in the Middle East region are suffering very serious persecutions, especially in Syria and Iraq. In these countries their number has dwindled dramatically.”
In his view, the exodus of Christians from the region that is the cradle of Christianity “would be, beyond all doubt, an enormous tragedy in the history—for the spiritual side of the Holy Land as well as the whole of the Middle East.” “And so, together with IOPS, our government bodies, we are actively using world organizations in order to call attention to this daunting problem,” S. Lavrov added.
The Russian Federation’s Foreign Minister noted that one and a half years ago, “we held the first conference in defense of Christians” in Geneva (Switzerland) together with representatives of the Vatican and our colleagues from Lebanon and Armenia. “We are currently preparing the second conference, which will be a large-scale one,” he said. “It is scheduled for autumn 2016. We are convinced that the participation of IOPS in its work will make it more effective”.
01 / 08 / 2016
>I assume by “Christians”, the Russians really mean the Orthodox church in Russia and not all other denominations. I suspect the rest will be a risk for persecution.
Got any evidence of this?
“Fully backs” one “segment” of larger Christendom. We shall see how magnanimous (or not) that segment will be.
That is pretty much my opinion on the situation. But I've also got the impression that they and other former communist countries don't want the type of Christianity that is so prevalent in the United States, stuff like that of entertainment, emotionalism, revivalism, kooky end times teaching, and stuff you will find in the charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity. I think the typical former communist countries would rather stay with the old fashion orthodox type Christianity with some State control over it.
To add to this I've heard that Christianity is spreading in China even though technically it is an illegal religion, but gut feeling that China picks and chooses which type of Christianity is allows to exist within it country with out saying it, and punishes and destroys the form of Christianity that is based more on emotionalism, entertainment, and could be considered a threat to the state down the road etc.
But in the end, in the eyes of the Muslims and those who do terrorism, what branch of the Christian faith is it does not matter, you have to be attacked and destroyed.
Anyone who believes Russia, Putin and the Russian Othordox Church wants religious freedom is to dumb to converse with on this subject. Evangelicals can’t even build churches in Russia .
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