Window on Eurasia

Russian Orthodox Say Non-Christians Must Study Orthodoxy

 

Paul Goble

Vienna, September 1, 2006 – The increasingly successful efforts of the
Russian Orthodox Church to make the study of the Foundations of
Orthodoxy a compulsory subject in Russian schools even for
non-Christians is generating a backlash among Muslims and has sparked a
debate over the proper relationship of state and church.

In more than 15 regions of the Russian Federation, the Patriarchate and
its eparchs have secured the agreement of local educational officials
to introduce “Foundations of Orthodox Culture” as a required subject.
In many other places, this course is an elective
[https://ec.ut.ee/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://religion.sova-center.ru/events/13B7455/13DF6DE/7DE904F].

Now, a Pskov eparchate official has made explicit what many
non-Orthodox have feared: Father Andrei Taskayev says that all of the Russian
Federation’s students, including non-Christians, must compelled to
take this course because Russia “was and is an Orthodox country”
[http://www.annews.ru/news/detail.php?ID=18133&print=Y].

That this is not just Taskayev’s view but reflects a view widespread
among the Church hierachy was reported in an article on the
Islamnews.ru site on Thursday citing “Novyye izvestiya.” That paper said the
Church opposes allowing this course to be offered on a voluntary basis
lest even those nominally Orthodox refuse to take it.

Indeed, the Moscow paper said, the Church believes that “in
contemporary circumstances,” students are so “overloaded” with
work from their core requirements that few would be willing to add a
religion course to their already stretched schedules
[http://www.islamnews.ru/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3234].

Not surprisingly, the Orthodox Church’s approach has both disturbed
both human rights activists and representatives of non-Orthodox
denominations. Among the most outspoken have been Muslim groups, who
view what the Orthodox are trying to do as a threat to their
Constitutional rights.

But having lost in their fight to prevent the Foundations of Orthodoxy
from becoming a subject in many schools, they appear to be refocusing
their efforts in two directions. On the one hand, many Muslim leaders
have declared that they are not opposed to a voluntary course on that
subject.

And on the other, some Muslim leaders have have called for the
introduction of a course on “The Foundations of Muslim Culture” in
those areas of the Russian Federation where there are significant numbers of Muslims as a “forced” response to what the Patriarchate
is doing.

Yesterday, Marat Murtazin, rector of the Moscow Islamic University and
deputy head of the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR), said that because
of the successes the Orthodox had achieved, Muslims must insist on the
introduction of analogous courses for their children and fellow
classmates
[http://www.islamonline.ru/m/nov/?I=1060&j=745].

Courses on the Foundation of Muslim Culture are already taught as
elective subjects in Chechnya, Ingushetiya, Dagestan, and Tatarstan,
but now, Murtazin said, the SMR is preparing a textbook designed for
similar courses in other areas of the country where Muslims live in compact
groups.

Introducing such courses will not be easy or quick, the Moscow rector
said, because it “will require a great deal of work with local
educational organizations.” But he expressed the hope that “we will
find that form which will satisfy all sides –educational
administrators, parents, and ourselves as repsentatives of the Muslim
religion in Russia.”

This sets the stage for a series of legal and political conflicts in
the future, but it is already one of the reasons for a widening debate on
the proper relationship of church and state in a country which has
experienced both a state church and state sponsored anti-religious
campaigns in the past but whose Constitution mandates their legal
separation.

In the September issue of the Moscow religious affairs monthly
“FOMA,” six different religious and political officials involved in
debates on this issue present their views over how the Russian state
and religious organizations should relate to each other (The article is
available at
[http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=print&div=4244].

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the deputy head of the Patriarchate’s
External Affairs Department, says that the separation of church and
church is “fine if of course it is not understood as the exiling of
the Church and faith from the life of society.” And he argues that
even where separation is constitutionally mandated, many forms of
cooperation, including chaplains in the military, are allowed.

Andrei Isayev, the chairman of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social
Policy, seconds that view, suggesting that while separation is
“unqualified a good thing under contemporary conditions,” one must
not equate a secular state with one that promotes atheism.

Archbishop Antonio Menini, who represents the Vatican in Moscow, noted
that the Catholic Church has always supported “a healthy
cooperation” with the governments of the countries on which its
believers find themselves. Indeed, such cooperation is necessary for
the optimal development of both church and state.

Sergei Popov, the chairman of the Duma Committee on Public
Organizations and Religious Groups, said that from his point of view, “the real
separation of the Church from the state which took place 16 years ago
was good for Russia.” That separation, which eliminated KGB control
of the church, is the basis for progress.

Oleg Matveychik, a consultant to President Vladimir Putin on internal
affairs, said that the relationship between Church and state is
inevitably complex and cannot be dealt with simply by a constant
repetition of the need to keep the two separate. Each needs the other,
and the state desperately needs the Church as a source of moral
regulation.

And finally, Natal’ya Narochnitskaya, a Russian nationalist Duma
deputy, said that the separation of Church and state must be “only
one thing”: no one must be compelled to follow a faith not of his own
choosing. But otherwise, she said, the Church must assume a most active
role in the life of the state.

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