|
 |
|
|
|
|
PERSPECTIVES:
Russian Orthodox Church and Foreign Missionaries
September 26, 1997 Episode no. 104
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BOB ABERNETHY: As we reported earlier in the program, religious leaders, the U.S. government, and human rights advocates are all condemning new legislation in Russia, designed to protect the Russian Orthodox Church against competition from foreign missionaries. We want to explore the controversy with Father Victor Potapov of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad; Patrick Gray, an Episcopal priest and religious freedom advocate; and John Finerty, a congressional aide who monitors human rights in Russia.
Father Victor, your branch of Russian Orthodoxy broke with the Orthodox Church in Russia in the '20s over communism. But you still understand what's going on there and what motivates people. Here is a thousand-year-old church, state church; why does it need protection against a few foreign missionaries?
Father VICTOR POTAPOV (St. John Baptist Cathedral): Well, I don't think it needs protection, but the hierarchs of the Church in Russia do think that they need protection. I'm against this law because I feel that it's a government meddling into the eternal affairs of the Church or churches -- stifles real spirituality. But we have to understand the sensitivities of the hierarchs of the Russian Church. They feel very vulnerable because the Orthodox Church in Russia has borne the brunt of the terrible persecution under the communists, and they need time, space to sort of get up from their knees to begin doing what they're [told] by God to do.
ABERNETHY: If the bill does -- if the law is enforced as it is written, who would be affected? What American religious groups would be affected?
Reverend PATRICK GRAY (Religious Freedom Advocate): Well, it would be a wide range of religious bodies that would be affected. Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, but also mainline denominations like the Episcopal Church.
Father PATAPOV: And the Orthodox Church.
Rev. GRAY: And the Orthodox Church, who were not there 15 years ago at the end of Brezhnev's rule.
ABERNETHY: Yes. As the law says, if you weren't there ...
Rev. GRAY: As the law calls.
ABERNETHY: Yes. What's the mood up at Congress, if you can judge it? The Senate has a provision in if this thing passed, it will cut off $2 million in aid.
JOHN FINERTY (Congressional Aide): Absolutely.
ABERNETHY: Is that still alive?
Mr. FINERTY: Absolutely. That amendment to the foreign operations bill, the Senate version, is still alive. The entire bill has not been worked out between the House of Representatives and the Senate, and I can't exactly predict how the House will come down on this, but I should say the entire issue of religious persecution and religious practice abroad is very important to the House of Representatives. Now, you see a number of bills on that subject; I think this will have a very important aspect to the consideration.
Father POTAPOV: May I say on the Russian side, it's going to be challenged in the Constitutional Court by the dissidents and by the various religious denominations.
ABERNETHY: Father Victor, in Russia, does the Russian Church understand the degree to which lots of Americans believe [they are] called by Jesus in the great commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Do they understand how strongly people here feel about that?
Father POTAPOV: The Russian Orthodox Church in Russia considers Russia to be its canonical territory and that this -- Russia is a Christian country. Therefore, there is no need for missionaries to come into a Christian country to proselytize among Christians. That's their feeling.
|
|
|
|
Rev. GRAY: Father Victor, it seems like it would be a short step, though, for the state to control what's said on the street about religion to then go to start controlling what's said from the pulpit.
Father POTAPOV: You're right. And as I said in the beginning, I feel that this coziness between the state and the churches is bad for the Church.
ABERNETHY: Is it a human right to proselytize?
Mr. FINERTY: It is certainly freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. And I should also add that there is also this sort of conflict, as Father Victor has entirely said, some Russians who feel they're an Orthodox state, but also, Russia has signed and agreed to certain international instruments and agreements like the Helsinki Accord, the UN documents on faith, freedom of religion, and some of the provisions of the law are clearly in violation of these international agreements.
ABERNETHY: It should probably be pointed out that Russia is not the only country worried about foreign religious groups.
Father POTAPOV: Greece, Spain, the Scandinavian countries.
ABERNETHY: In Germany, the Church of Scientology.
Father POTAPOV: The patriarch of Moscow has pointed to the Aum Shinri Kyo, a sect in Japan, as being a destructive cult which the Russians should be protected [from].
Mr. FINERTY: But they're trying to throw them in with denominations like the Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Mormons, or even many of the Baptists during the communist era did not register. And the First Baptist Church and the Russian Empire go back to 1867. Many of these have been there for a long time and they're peaceful.
ABERNETHY: There's more here than just religion, isn't there? I mean, there's a great fear, apparently a great fear of foreign influence, of western influence.
Father POTAPOV: Of course. We know that Russia is going through a very troubled time economically, spiritually, and a lot of people are looking for scapegoats, and a very easy target, of course, are foreigners. And also I think President Yeltsin, he knows that in 2000 there's going to be another presidential election and his party needs the support of 80 million Orthodox Christians.
Rev. GRAY: But if Russia is going to be a democracy, it must play by the rules of democracy, which include freedom of speech.
Father POTAPOV: That's going to take a long time.
Mr. FINERTY: I think also, Father Victor, isn't it true, though, that we've been hearing by many of the specialists that the years of the missionaries and the flood of the missionaries coming in, that's sort of passed.
Father POTAPOV: You're right.
Mr. FINERTY: I think it was about '92 or '93. Russians who come to faith are actually turning back to Russian Orthodox churches or Protestant churches.
Father POTAPOV: Yes, they are.
ABERNETHY: Are the missionaries becoming a little more sensitive maybe?
Mr. FINERTY: I believe they are. Yes.
Rev. GRAY: Well, it's a political alliance. It's not only beneficial to Yeltsin, but also to the patriarch as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
