Religious Freedom

I have been reading about the large scale resurgence of Orthodoxy in Russia.  Technically, Russia has been an officially Christian Orthodox nation since AD 988, when the government embraced Orthodoxy as the national religion.  With the exception of the small blip of soviet atheism beginning around 1920, Russia has been Christian.  Since the fall of communism, there has been a massive building process currently taking place.  In Moscow, currently, there is an official plan to build 200 Orthodox churches.

But some people are complaining.  The claim is that the government is showing favoritism to the Orthodox, at the expense to the religious minorities in the country.  But I have to ask, “would you expect anything different?”  The country is historically Orthodox.  There are currently no laws in place that forbid any citizen from believing and practicing a different faith.  But there are laws that limit the activity by those practicing other faiths.  Why would it be otherwise?

One important thing to remember in this regard is that Russia is not the US.  Russia was not built upon the supposed religious freedom of Protestantism.  We cannot judge the Russian nation by Protestant standards or ideas.  The nation of Russia is Christian Orthodox.  The depth of that religious practice in its people is not a discussion topic at this point.  I am talking about the official religious status and the structure of the culture.

Should not a nation be free to choose its own religious path and/or be free to practice that faith without interference from other foreign religious influence? No one seems to complain that Saudi Arabia is officially Muslim, or that India is officially Hindu or that Thailand is officially Buddhist, or even China’s official atheism.  All of these places have official positions of religious tolerance, but practically speaking, differing religious practice is difficult.  But it is a situation that one would expect, especially in a nation that takes its religious faith seriously.  Perceived truth ought to be embraced and practiced truth.

I would suggest that “political correctedness” has taken control.  We need to strive to be Orthodox, not culturally PC.  There may be a difference.