Russia appears to be the only Christian country where artists face legal penalties for blasphemy. The curators of a recent exhibition featuring depictions of Jesus as Mickey Mouse and V.I. Lenin were convicted yesterday for “inciting religious hatred” at a 2007 exhibition. “The verdict in the highly publicized case appeared to satisfy no one, with the artistic community seeing it as an infringement on free speech, and Russian Orthodox believers, who had hoped for a prison sentence, saying the fines were too lenient,” the Moscow Times wrote July 13. The Russian website added:
The church appeared to share this sentiment. Tikhon Shevkunov, the secretary of the patriarch’s cultural council who is thought to be Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s personal priest, said he was disappointed with the “purely symbolical” fine.
But Russia’s chief rabbi, Berl Lazar, and ombudsman Vladimir Lukin spoke in support of the defendants. Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev also backed the curators last week, saying the exhibit merited public criticism but not criminal charges.
In other respects, Russia appears to be the most socially conservative country in Europe. Today’s New York Times complains about Russian prudishness, specifically about the hurdles facing the nascent sex industry. “Two decades after government-imposed prudishness ended with the Soviet collapse, Russians still shy away from embracing European-style sexual mores. Despite a burst of licentiousness in the early 1990s, when pornography and prostitution surged through the country, the sexual revolution has never really taken hold here,” the Times writes.
Under former Prime Minister (now President) Vladimir Putin, the Russian government revived the Kremlin’s traditional alliance with the Orthodox Church. The social consequences of three generations of Communist rule threaten to prove fatal: By 2000 Russia’s fertility had fallen to only 1.25 per female, one of the world’s lowest, and Russia’s population began declining. The United Nations Population Database estimates that fertility will have nudged up to 1.37 by 2010, still on track for rapid population decline. With constant fertility, Russia’s population will fall from a peak of 147 million in 2000 to only 105 million in 2050.
Westerners will view the Church-State revival in Russia with mixed feelings. One hears about supposed KGB influence in the Russian Church. But Russian leadership is the former KGB. The Communists killed everyone else. The state security services ran Russia for three generations, which means that anyone with leadership ability was working for the state security services. Everyone else was a toady who survived by cultivating mediocrity. As I wrote some years ago, “The only leadership left in Russia by the terrible adverse selection process of the communist system was the former secret guardians of the state, men whose unique position required them to live by their wits.”
Without a return to religion, it seems unlikely that Russia will reverse the social decay that has become an urgent existential threat to the country’s future, and it is hard to envision how Russia could accomplish such a return without reviving Christianity in its traditional form. The Russian Orthodox Church, though, employs its standing with the state to harass other Christian denominations in Russia. And as George Weigel reported on this site May 25, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is threatening the position of the Greek Catholic Church in communion with Rome.
Nonetheless, according to the respected Vatican-watcher Sandro Magister, Pope Benedict XVI envisions a “holy alliance” between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches for the re-evangelization of Europe. Writing about Patriarch Kirill’s visit to Rome late last May, Magister comments, “one great ally has already united with the pope from outside of the Catholic Church, in this enterprise of a new evangelization. This great ally is the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Should we want Russia to survive, or disappear? Latvia, Moldova, or even Italy might be expendable, but the decline and fall of Russia would have consequences that I wouldn’t wish on a Tiberius. If Russia succeeds, she will succeed on her own terms. It isn’t a comfortable situation for the West. But it is the hand we have been dealt. With the triumph of secularism in Western Europe, it is not inconceivable that Russia will become the continent’s most Christian country, and veer away from the demographic point of no return toward which the rest of Europe is headed.
July 15th, 2010 | 3:18 pm
Great analysis as usual, Mr. Goldman, but Putin is the Prime Minister and Dmitri Medvedev the President since the “elections” of 2008.
July 15th, 2010 | 3:31 pm
Perhaps by encouraging childlessness, secularism will fail to continue itself into the next generation.
July 15th, 2010 | 5:44 pm
read about Russia, China etc
http://www.underminingdemocracy.org/
July 15th, 2010 | 8:47 pm
Russia, Europe’s Most Christian Country?
No. Come on, superficial alliances between Church and State do not a Christian nation make. Are you inviting charges of Caesorpapism?
Has anyone at the New York Times walked around the country and seen how they dress? (men too?) Russia is not a terribly prudish nation, but this hardly means that they are not a sexist nation (admittedly, the Times might confuse the two).
As for Benedict: he is trying to repair a schism that is a thousand years old, as well as to make war on an aggressive secularism. The Russian Orthodox Church is quite possibly the most powerful & influential in the Orthodox Communion; making common cause with them helps on both fronts.
July 15th, 2010 | 9:53 pm
I don’t like Caesero-Papism. And I also note, as a Jew, that the Russian Orthodox Church never has shown the remotest interest in talking with the Jews. “Like” has nothing to do with it. Faith sometimes is born of desperation, and the Russians are desperate–and they’re certainly not stupid. The Western Europeans are lazy, stupid, complacent and useless. That is why we cannot exclude the possibility that Russia will become Europe’s most Christian country.
July 15th, 2010 | 10:14 pm
I didn’t mean to say that you liked Caesaro-Papism; I merely wish to point out that collaboration between Church and state does not a Christian nation make. It does, however, seem to be a strong thrust in your (and/or the Times’) article.
Whatever a Christian nation may be, it ought to have a culture where Christianity has a measurable impact. I have family in Russia, and have attended Catholic and Orthodox services there. I like Russians a great deal, and I find a great deal to admire in Russian Christianity. But if you were to compare Russia to Malta, Poland, or even Italy you would find that, as a Christian nation, Russia has a long, long way to go.
July 15th, 2010 | 11:11 pm
What woke you up? Go back to sleep. It will soon be over.
…no disrespect intended.
July 16th, 2010 | 2:06 am
Well, Fr Neuhaus should have been pleased by this. Russia’s once stark-naked public square has been clothed resplendently by Orthodox Christianity… Except that, umm, it’s also anti-Catholic. Hmm. Could be there are arguments in favour of this “secular state” shtick after all? (as Stanley Hauerwas once noted in this journal, using the example of Christians in Muslim Palestine and Hindu India).
July 16th, 2010 | 4:57 am
The chief rabbi in Russia Berl Lazar defended the anti-Christian art exhibits. I wonder if he would have defended anti-Jewish art exhibits on the same grounds of secularism, obviously not. Just another Jewish attack on Christianity.
July 16th, 2010 | 12:56 pm
Concerning the Alliance between the Holy See and the Russian-Orthdodox church, it is interesting that Pope Bendedict has disclaimed wearing the title “Occidentis Patriarca” (latin for engl. “Patriarch of the West or Patriarch of Rome and All the West”). I would consider it as a major step towards the Orthodox Churches.
Please take also note that the birthrate of France has ascended above 2,0, with the birthrate of native French women above 1,7. Except Germany, the birthrates are currently rising everywhere in the EU.
So it isn’t all that bad in Europe…
Greetings from a lazy, stupid, complacent and useless Western European.
Windhorst
July 16th, 2010 | 1:11 pm
Mr Perry,
I think the rise of the Russian Orthodox Church can be taken seriously. When I have been to Riga, Latvia, in recent time, the Orthodox Church was full (Riga hosts a large Russian speaking community, making up almost the half of the population) in contrast to the empty Lutheran Church.
A local I spoke to, told me that the Latvians would focus rather to some kind of “naturalistic” pagan mindset as Christianity was rather imposed than tought by the Germans (then involved in the Baltic countries) in the late Middle Age. In contrast the Russians would re-embrace their believe after the collapse of communism.
Maybe the Russians will master their “long way to go” (in your words) in a short time with greater speed as expected.
July 16th, 2010 | 1:53 pm
France is doing a bit better, to be sure, but the latest estimates I have for total fertility in the others are scary: Germany 1.32, Italy 1.38, Spain 1.43. For Europe as a whole, the number (from the UN Population Division) is 1.5.
July 16th, 2010 | 3:05 pm
Sad, but true. Somehow strange, that it does not play a really great role in the European media. Sometimes there is an alarmistic article or the social benefits for families are raised, but nothings really compared the efforts to rescue Greece or the banks.
Your essays on “Spengler” were the first framework I read to explain the malaise of the European demography, Mr. Goldman.
Professor Gunnar Heinsohn (is in the English and German Wiki) also presented a convinient theory about the demography of West, Russia and the muslim countries and their consequences to past and future policy in “Söhne und Weltmacht” (don’t know the English name). He did not read Rosenzweig I guess and therefor rather focused on traditions and the influence of altering working and living habits in the West in Industrial Revolution(s).
July 16th, 2010 | 3:14 pm
In cross-sectional regression, the single most powerful explanatory variable for fertility is literacy. Illiterate women have many children and literate women have fewer. The question of why we go from 8 children per female to fewer than 3 is easy to answer statistically. The question of why in some cases we go to 2 or slightly more, or to less than 1.5, is less tractable, but the degree of religious belief , hard as it is to measure cross-sectionally, nonetheless has strong statistical significance even when literacy is included.
July 16th, 2010 | 3:49 pm
Does it not stand to reason that if the faith of the Russians is the One True Apostolic Church of Christ founded by Christ on the day of Pentecost, they are obliged to protect her by not allowing heretical sects in their midst?
July 16th, 2010 | 4:51 pm
Heinsohn concludes that the possibilities and requirements of the world of labor and employment since the begin of the Industrial Revolution make the best paid men look for women which can support and work themselves and don’t want to spend to much time and money on children. This pattern would be copied by the middle class after some time.
This would of course not apply on the gap between Europe and USA as America.
Mr Paizis,
I think this question has been already posed by Pope Leo IX thousand years ago and the Orthodox Christians have decided different since then.
July 17th, 2010 | 12:11 am
Windhorst
Orthodox churches may be full in many places, and the arrival of Our Lady of Kazan in Kazan was well-attended. Nevertheless, no one is sure just how many sincere Christians there are in Russia, as opposed to those who show up merely for the smells and bells.
July 17th, 2010 | 8:03 pm
Dmitri Paizis,
1. Does it not stand to reason that if Diana of the Ephesians is truly great, then the people of that city are obliged to protect her dignity by not allowing heretical sects in their midst? What would you say to the reactionary French Catholic Bossuet who said “I have the right to persecute you because I am right and you are wrong?”
2. How do you know if the Russian Orthodox Church truly is the 1TC if you have never had a chance to hear the arguments for other religions?
3. Didn’t Jesus say something about leaving the wheat and the tares to grow alongside each other til Judgment Day… Admittedly this is only recorded in a Gospel, not in Khomiatov or some unwritten [T]radition, and it’s only Jesus not an actual Marian Apparition, but surely it should carry some weight among the Orthodox?
July 18th, 2010 | 11:12 pm
Windhorst said: “it is interesting that Pope Bendedict has disclaimed wearing the title “Occidentis Patriarca” (latin for engl. “Patriarch of the West or Patriarch of Rome and All the West”). I would consider it as a major step towards the Orthodox Churches.”
I am not sure how RCs can take this as a gesture to the Orthodox. This is the only one of the pope’s lofty titles that had a chance of being accepted by the Orthodox, who see the historical Church of Rome as a patriarchate. By ditching the title, it is like the Pope is saying, “No, I’m not a patriarch, limited geographically, like you. I am more.”
July 19th, 2010 | 6:16 am
Er, Khomiakov (or maybe Khomkyakov).
July 19th, 2010 | 10:38 am
Sorry, but this article is the biggest bunch of baloney and propaganda I’ve read in a long time. It is typical of western, and especially American, ignorance of both Orthodoxy and its place in Russian history and folkways.
Get over thinking the whole world just can’t wait to embrace western ‘values’ and democracy! That’s pure neo-con brainwashing. Not everyone defines success and a healthy society as having a Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and porn shop on every corner. Not everyone calls that, or American politcs and policy, freedom.
The article is way off the mark on a number of points… and anyone who thinks the Russian Orthodox Church is ever-so-eager to unite with Rome understands nothing of Orthodoxy or history…
July 19th, 2010 | 2:07 pm
Spengler’s love for Russia is sick … and amazing for a guy who did’t forget (yet) the Persians for burning Athens 480 B.C. The most Christian Russians roasted Jews merely 100 years ago…How about that, David?
July 19th, 2010 | 2:39 pm
Just shows to go you — there are some topics that once mentioned get you in trouble with everyone.
A colleague just sent me this post from the “Voices from Russia” blog:
ttp://02varvara.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/“first-things”-continues-its-long-march-into-mediocrity-and-irrelevancy/
which uses my post as a horrible example of First Things’ deterioration after the death of Fr. Neuhaus. And I thought that I was pretty fair to Putin over the years.
Bogdan,
I don’t “love” Russia, but I surely respect the Russians. They have a remarkable capacity to absorb pain and keep coming. Unlike the simpering Western Europeans, they don’t seem reconciled to early entombment. Their leadership is fighting to return to Christianity, albeit a form of Christianity with which Westerners nurtured in Church-State separation can only be uncomfortable. How do you propose to deal with the Russians?
Lazarus, I never suggested that the Orthodox are eager to unite with Rome, or that the Russians yearn for Western-style democracy. Quite the contrary: Russia appears to be returning to status quo ante 1917. Benedict (reportedly) sees the Orthodox Church as an ally–that does not imply the end of the Schism.
Joe, Rabbi Lazar did not “support” the blasphemous exhibit; he said that it should not be a criminal matter. That is quite different. I happen to agree with him. Where do you draw the line? Is Bulgakov blasphemous? Or Dostoyevsky?
My argument is that the West should want Russia to flourish rather than to fail, and that somehow we must engage Russia on her own terms, rather than terms we would prefer.
July 20th, 2010 | 5:40 am
David, I guess you are right. Maybe the survival of Russia is good for Europe, but their total vanishing into oblivion would be a lot better… (It’ s a Romanian writing, and the wild Russian hordes invaded Romania 10 times during the last 300 years…)… The West should have a back-up plan for this variant: but would there be enough Germans / Poles / Scandinavians available to fill the vacuum left by the Russians? At least as far away as to the Ural Mountains?
July 20th, 2010 | 7:39 am
Since you provided a link to a pro-Russian website, why didn’t you quote from it, i.e.:
The government turned a blind eye as Uniates and schismatics took over churches, beat up clergy, and stole the Church’s movable and fixed property. The Orthodox in the Ukraine stood tall against this outrage. Where was George Weigel? Where were his protests? Where was his outrage at the Uniates beating a true modern Confessor of the Faith, Fr Mikhail Shuvar? Fr Mikhail died recently because of the after-effects of his injuries… Patriarch Kirill noted his passing.
George Weigel is silent on some topics. There is no mention of St Maksim Sandovich, the Protomartyr of Lemkovshchyna, murdered by the Hapsburgs. There is nothing on Tallerhof… nothing on the UPA murders of clergy faithful to the canonical Church… nothing of Slipy’s blessing of SS troops… or of the murder of Fr Gavriil Kostelnik, the Confessor of Church Unity in the Western Ukraine. There is nothing said of St Aleksei Kabalyuk or of Fr Dmitri Sidor and his repression by “Ukrainian” authorities for his advocacy of Carpatho-Russian statehood. He says nothing about the Carpatho-Russian Russophiles… one of the major streams in the American emigration (perhaps, I should send him to Harrisburg PA… I know people there who would set him straight). Most of all, there is no mention of the ties of Galician nationalists with the Nazis… of their complicity in Nazi enormities.
In short, I don’t need to refute every point individually. However, you MUST read this stuff and heed it. No, you needn’t believe it… it’s utter BS from stem to stern… but it is what neocons believe (it’s why they are enemies of the Church) and it’s what a segment of Catholics believe. We must be aware of this… we must be aware of these lies so we can refute them. Note well that the only MP clergyman he named other than His Holiness was Hilarion Alfeyev, who is, perhaps, the most unrepresentative of the lot (English-speakers are invariably taken in by his excellent English language skills). There is no mention at all of Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan, the First Hierarch of the UAOC (MP)… the most important Orthodox clergyman in the Ukraine. So, is it surprising that Weigel reveals a total ignorance of the Orthodox pleroma? I’d love to see Deacon Andrei or Fr Vsevolod get their teeth into him! How long do you think Weigel would last in a Texas Strap Match with Fr Dmitri Sidor? Betcha that Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol would take Weigel down, three falls out of three. How about Metropolitan Amfilohije in Kosovo? He’d have Weigel for breakfast, burp, and ask for the main course. Let’s have a tag team of Professors Narochnitskaya and Osipov go after Weigel… wanna take bets on how long he’d last?
As for Mr Weigel’s aspersions on Vladimir Vladimirovich… VVP came to faith when his wife lay injured from a serious car wreck. It’s how many people come to faith. The Fathers on the Mountain think highly of VVP… so do I… so do most other Orthodox Christians. Mr Weigel… whom are you putting in opposition to this great Orthodox gentleman? George Bush? Sarah Palin? No sale, dude… why should I buy a counterfeit when there’s the real thing? I remember Mr Putin comforting the Ossetian refugees driven out of their homes by the Georgian aggressors (whom you love, Mr Weigel), when he said, “After suffering thousands of deaths and enduring a major humanitarian disaster in their homeland, it shall be impossible to convince South Ossetians to be part of the Georgian state. This is a heinous crime against the Ossetian people. I suspect that it is now obvious to the entire world that Georgian plans to join NATO boil down to a design to enlist outside support for bloody adventures of the kind seen in South Ossetia, not a desire to join an alliance for international security. Russia shall always have enormous respect for the fraternal Georgian people, in spite of the criminal policy of the present government”, and, ““It’s total genocide, this is nothing but madness. Civilised people do not behave like this”. (end quote)
The above makes sense to me… your “Freudian slip” is showing, Mr Goldman.
July 20th, 2010 | 10:41 am
[...] For something on Russian Oryhodoxy, see Davis Goldman’s “First Thoughts” post Russia, Europe’s Most Christian Country?, which is still getting comments. Comments [...]
July 20th, 2010 | 11:21 am
How amazing. The image of tag team wrestling Archbishops will remain with me for some time.
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