A group of activists connected with the Russian Orthodox Church are
setting up a center against atheist extremism which, according to them,
is promoted mainly by foreign-sponsored organizations.
The decision was announced this week at a meeting between city
residents and deputies of a district council that was held near
the pilgrimage center of the Moscow Patriarchate, in south-west
Moscow.
“The atheist extremism is currently rearing its head. It is
sponsored by various funds and NGOs with roots outside Russian
borders,” reads the first statement released by the new
movement.
The group claims that their enemies are opposing citizens’ lawful
right for freedom of thought, conscience and religion, guaranteed
by the Constitution.
In particular, the activists listed incidents when certain people
protested against the construction of new churches, “creating
an artificial psychosis and pumping up hysteria by intimidating
the public”, quoting non-existent laws and
declaring all public discussions unlawful.
The statement emphasized the fact that atheist extremists were
often acting on behalf of local residents by creating grassroots
groups, but the real masterminds preferred to remain in the dark.
The Moscow City authorities together with the Russian Orthodox
Church are currently implementing the so called “Program-200” – a
plan according to which 200 Orthodox churches must be erected
throughout the capital in the next 10 to 15 years. Russian mass
media estimated the overall budget of the program at about $1
billion and financing comes from a non-government fund. The
authors of the program claimed that after it is implemented there
will be a church for every 20,000 residents located 1 kilometer
or less from residential areas.
The program is popular among the religious lobby but it has
already met resistance. The Communists and the veteran
pro-democracy party, Yabloko, officially voiced protests against
new churches and ordinary citizens also often claimed that such a
large scale of construction was unnecessary.
In addition, the Program-200 is being carried out in times of
especially sharp discourse between religious and agnostic parts
of the Russian society. It first started in mass media but became
much more real after several girls who called themselves feminist
punk band Pussy Riot launched a short gig against the merger
between the church and the state in Moscow’s main Cathedral of
Christ the Savior.
The punks were put on trial and sentenced to two years
each for aggravated hooliganism. After the incident Russian
legislators passed a law on protection of believers’ feelings –
making any public insult of an official religion a criminal
offence punishable with up to three years behind bars.
The Pussy Riot trial and the fresh law prompted an even broader
wave of protests across the country – sometimes taking radical
forms, such as the felling of memorial crosses in several
villages. More often, however, journalists and bloggers gave
critical appraisal to the lush lives of church hierarchs and even
ordinary clerics, like the case of Hegumen Timofey – a dean of
one of Moscow churches who gained notoriety in mid-2012 by
causing a major car crash while driving drunk in a BMW Z4 with
diplomatic license plates.
In September 2012 the head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
Patriarch Kirill said in a public speech that Christianity was
under a concerted attack from forces who opposed the national
revival of Russians, noting that the alleged merger between the
church and the authorities was a deliberately created myth.
rt.com
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