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![]() Russia fends off foreign gods
![]() Russia's Orthodoxy are wary of foreign 'invaders' bringing new religious practices
This story is part of Correspondent, 'Our Faith', shown on Saturday June 3rd on BBC2 at 18:50 (BST)
Russia has undergone massive social, economic and political upheavals in the last fifteen years. The Orthodox Russian Church, so long repressed under Communism, is now experiencing freedom to practice.
Consequently, when Correspondent visited a church in central Moscow on Easter night, the congregation was small. The same is true across Russia: only a tiny proportion of Russians are worshipping.
Free market in religion
Changes in society have meant that the Orthodox Church is now competing against other 'imported' religions for its loyal 'customers'. The church
While the American missionaries have the money to target every household with their own brand of evangelical worship, the Russians prefer subtler methods, such as building a bigger Cathedral on the site of a much loved park. Until challenged by lawyers, the Governor, Ivan Shabanov, tired to fund it through the public purse.
The church is unwilling to break the ties with the State and go it alone. As a result, Lenin, Stalin, Tsars, and Saints are now all branded as good Russians by the church's bureaucrats.
New missionaries encounter opposition
Correspondent investigates this new religious market place and hears claims of slander and dirty tricks against Russia's new denominations. Jehovah's Witnesses and American Pentecostals are being targeted by the Russian Orthodox Church and The State, who see new beliefs as a threat to the fragile nature of contemporary Russian society. To the Orthodox they are soul snatchers, creating a fifth column on holy Russian soil.
The Jehovah's Witnesses have met the fiercest resistance. They are accused of spearheading an American conspiracy against Russia, or splitting families, and kidnapping children! Attempts are being made to ban them for promoting religious hatred, a process which only spurs them on - martyrdom having its own reward.
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