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**vicgirl** · 05-04-2010, 03:15 AM

Hearsay about Russia:

As one who spends a lot of time in Russia and has a Russian wife, I can comment as follows:

1. the RO church in Russia is simply Putin's tool and not a whole lot more. Not true at all. Many high-up clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church and ordinary Russian churchgoers have a healthy disregard for Putin and the powers that be in the state

2. Most Russians who go to church there, go because it is the socially acceptable thing to do Not true at all. I have to been to many churches and monasteries in Moscow, St Petersburg all over European Russia. The faithful are genuinely devout.

3. they have very little knowledge of the Bible. This has a very Protestant ring about it. How much knowledge of the Bible does the average Orthodox Christian in Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, have? How much knowledge of the Bible does the average Anglican have? Some Russians know the Bible well - others, I suppose, less so.

4. if you went to Russia you would not recognize the faith as the same one you practice. I have practised my Orthodox faith in England, Greece and Cyprus, as well as in Russia. There is no difference.

5. It is very oppressive, a social things mostly, not spiritual Certainly, it has an authoritarian feel to it compared to Greece, but that is, I think, down to national temperament. It is not at all social - I rather wish it were to a degree. It has far more spirituality than anyone can handle.

Her experience: I cannot comment.

Yes, there are some things about Russia and its Church that I find not easy to live with. But Westerners have no business judging Russian Christians who have given the Orthodox Church more martyrs in the last 100 years than in all the rest of Christian history put together.

05-04-2010, 03:15 AM	#2
vicgirl Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 363 Senior Member	Hearsay about Russia: As one who spends a lot of time in Russia and has a Russian wife, I can comment as follows: 1. the RO church in Russia is simply Putin's tool and not a whole lot more. Not true at all. Many high-up clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church and ordinary Russian churchgoers have a healthy disregard for Putin and the powers that be in the state 2. Most Russians who go to church there, go because it is the socially acceptable thing to do Not true at all. I have to been to many churches and monasteries in Moscow, St Petersburg all over European Russia. The faithful are genuinely devout. 3. they have very little knowledge of the Bible. This has a very Protestant ring about it. How much knowledge of the Bible does the average Orthodox Christian in Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, have? How much knowledge of the Bible does the average Anglican have? Some Russians know the Bible well - others, I suppose, less so. 4. if you went to Russia you would not recognize the faith as the same one you practice. I have practised my Orthodox faith in England, Greece and Cyprus, as well as in Russia. There is no difference. 5. It is very oppressive, a social things mostly, not spiritual Certainly, it has an authoritarian feel to it compared to Greece, but that is, I think, down to national temperament. It is not at all social - I rather wish it were to a degree. It has far more spirituality than anyone can handle. Her experience: I cannot comment. Yes, there are some things about Russia and its Church that I find not easy to live with. But Westerners have no business judging Russian Christians who have given the Orthodox Church more martyrs in the last 100 years than in all the rest of Christian history put together.
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