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Celebrating Diversity.

Here is an interesting article.  A Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church argues against the secular faith attempts to impose its beliefs on everyone.  His point is that instead of imposing one belief system on everybody [ which the communist tried in the Soviet Union and failed miserably with the cost of millions of human lives and the destruction of the environment ] human relations should take a different path of mutual respect and dialog between the different belief systems.

Russian Orthodox Church opposed the secular monopoly
Posted on Thu Jun 11 2009

 

Moscow, June 10, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate believes that the secular humanistic society model should not be imposed on the world as the only correct and forward-looking.

"In my view, the secular project has been exhausted. It gives people no vigor, it fails to inspire them in emergency, and it is unable to teach them self-denial and self-control," head of the Synodal Church and Society Department Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at a Moscow conference dedicated to relationships between religion and the state.

According to him, demographic data, psychological tests and sociological research "convincingly show that secular ideology deprives the society of many benefits inherent to a society with a strong religious motivation."

"Today, there are many examples when a society with a strong religious motivation proves to be no less, and even much more efficient than a society based on its secular identity," Father Vsevolod said.

"In fact, today we can see that the pursuit of "civil religion" and "universal human values", and the priority of material life over the end purpose of existence proved to be a failure for many people, in particular, in the West."
Father Vsevolod stated that "the existence of groups with different attitudes which put the main emphasis on their worldview, different models of society, family, and local communities based on different attitudes is a real fact."

He thinks that this trend in society development should be given a special focus and "it would be reckless for both politicians and intellectuals to ignore this phenomenon."

Fr. Vsevolod believes that today we need "to proceed from attempting to unify the humanity", impose a single model of state and society and the relations of the state, society and religion as the only correct, we need to proceed from all the above to the situation where different models of society, family and local communities "are considered equal".

"Both in Russia and in the world, there are communities which live under the Islam law which they consider the supreme law. Orthodox believers treat the religious law as supreme which they cannot deny even under death threat. This is evidenced by the lives of Russia's New Martyrs and Confessors and the history of the early Christian years. This kind of law is also supreme for the followers of Judaism," Fr. Vsevolod said.

At the same time, "only a minor part of the world's population treats as the most important the priorities of material life and worldly comfort which form the basis of humanist ideology."

"The secular humanistic model of social structure is just one model, one system of law, and its followers can no longer explain why it should become universal," the priest said. According to him, the current economic crisis has raised serious doubts about the last argument of secularism adepts, i.e., its eternal economic efficiency.

In closing, Fr. Vsevolod said that none of the social models, neither Orthodox, nor Islamic, should become a ground for dialogues.

"Today's ground for dialog is the willingness of different models representatives to discuss future without any precedent conditions and claiming progressiveness," the priest said.

 

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posted by Wayfarer on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 11:03 AM
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posted by Wayfarer on Jun 12, 2009 at 11:40 AM

From the science of Cultural Anthropology we get the concept of Ethnocentrism which is the belief that anyone culture or society is superior to the other.  This ties in with this blog ,because many people who value  freedom + live and let live, often see nothing wrong with imposing their values on other cultures.  For example should every nation of the world be forced to have a western style democracy?  This type of thinking doesn't work for cultures like traditional Chinese that values social harmony over individualism.  Should Islamic or Buddhist nations be forced to adapt secular beliefs.  Communist China has been internationally condemned for doing so to the Tibetan people and their muslim minorities.  The point is maybe we should be more open to accepting other people of the world and their cultures that are different than the secular western culture many of us was raised with. 

posted by Wayfarer on Jun 12, 2009 at 01:47 PM

Thanks my comment was a attempt to bring home what the implications of the article are to the audience of this site.  I infer from my knowledge of the concerns of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholics that his grace the Bishop was addressing the attempts of the European Union to impose secular humanist values on all the countries and cultures making up the Union.  That is a little far off for the average reader.  On the other hand the average reader might support or not support US military intervention in the Middle East ,but from comments from either side a number of them look down at the native cultures there, as being backward and barbaric.  I think this point of view is mistaken.  So on the whole I think we should all be open to learning about new cultures and perspectives to broaden our own horizons and free us to think out of the box we were socialized into.  

posted by catpaw on Jun 13, 2009 at 09:48 AM

The good bishop fails to acknowledge that, however slowly, we are a shrinking world that is assimilating. All but a minute few want the same things: TV sets, wash machines, health clinics, schools...stuff that make life a little more managable. Somehow, the possibility of material things brings on the need for basic freedoms like access to music and literature, birth control, the freedom to hold hands with your girlfriend, without an insecure and frightened cleric calling it "lust," and a work of satan. But then, church hierarchy got into a frenzy when a few dared to say the earth is not the center of the universe. In the end, school children are taught the earth is the third rock from the sun and church did not disappear nor did basic morals that govern every society's day to day conduct.

Secular thought is not the enemy. Imposing a single secular lifestyle or any other philosophy is a tool of dictatorship that is counter to what the bishop calls "equality."   

posted by Wayfarer on Jun 13, 2009 at 01:36 PM

Secular thought is not the enemy. Imposing a single secular lifestyle or any other philosophy is a tool of dictatorship that is counter to what the bishop calls "equality."  

On the other hand faiths beside secular humanism are not the enemy either.  Including those you label as camel land;0

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