has the fear of the creased religious tension in russia. sparked a public debate over their so-called performance in moscow's main cathedral in the middle east temperatures rise into angry mobs rioting and this is how muslims. is appointed. and who may stand behind all discuss it with one of the best and most respected place in the show and author of a bestseller every day saints and. back in the early eighty's young screenwriter. read his job to become a priest he too company. almost three decades later published a book about people find which became a bestseller in an accessible and unobtrusive manner he tells the orthodox church is not so complicated and it's grandiosity is not as frightening as people from the

streets may think the book every day seems has already gained the attention of an international audience. the tikkun is expected to present the english version of his book and the library of congress in washington d.c. . hello and welcome to the show first of all you have recently joined the presidential council for culture or. should i congratulate you on that thank you you're the only priest there so my question is why would they need a priest in the callus illinois do you need this job. actually extending my tour in the council because i was a member in the previous council as well you know the thing is i am the executive secretary. council for culture it's an influential body both clergymen and dozens of prominent people representing their. culture. so i guess the reason they

included me in the presidential council was because they needed to have every preventative from the patriarch's council. i don't quite get it i would think that the council for culture should occupy itself with eternal things and you're talking like a bureaucrat they need a representative it sounds very bureaucratic like they want to have representatives from various groups one from women one from college students and so one. well in a sense the presidential council for culture is indeed a credit body. so they do need representatives from various segments of russian culture. they need to act composes act is right is. the do you need someone to represent such a crucial part of russian culture as religion. but i suppose that you as a man of religion should pursue some goals so would do you say to my second

question what do you need this for are you going to use this as an opportunity to fight for or against something. new fighting is a very boring thing to do and it is something we don't engage in unless we're talking about struggling with a serves. as from a mission in the presidential council for culture i do have certain goals. for instance we have all kinds of strategies in our country there is an economic strategy a defense strategy there is a strategy for education but there is no strategy for culture and moral development and this causes lots of problems there are no priorities and i'm not talking about an ideology as article thirteen of the constitution says they can be no state ideology. but i just think they differently should be. said with regard to

culture. because otherwise it is easy to lose your identity. a long time we have been discussing what kind of a national idea russia should have. i believe our national idea lies in a culture. mean a talker see orthodoxy and nationalism. even the. culture as well as in our history and that there is where we should get the sense of direction. society. therefore i think a mission is exactly to identify. who this is in the public. so you think your job and the job of the council is to offer us some ideas this is not an ideology just some ideas to bring some sense of purpose into the government's cultural policies and to get national priorities right. that is

correct. you went to the film academy where you majored in scriptwriting apparently you had no intention of being a priest what brought you to the church how did it all happen. this is a private but i will tell you you have a very unusual story. well in fact we did me seem unusual to you. it is very common for my generation of clergymen those who are aged between forty five and fifty five like myself their families who are not part of the church you know parents were actually atheists. we were in the young communist league. yes we were indeed in the young communist league we were an entirely lost generation. some of our grandparents were religious but their appearance were almost entirely ethier so i was in exactly the same situation as the rest of my

peers i never thought i would be a priest one day. when i went to college i was an atheist member of the young communist league. and then it just dawned on me one day that all the people i respected everybody i wanted to follow in my life were actually religious people but. tolstoy pushkin newton. and shakespeare and many many others. even copernicus so yes copernicus was a priest just so you know but that's a different story. to toast i was excommunicated from the church. yes he was some say that he was not really excommunicated. i don't know anything about english would be like me arguing with you about articles in english all right

that's the way he was excommunicated but the point is he was a believe as was copernicus and the people had no respect for party bosses in the office of the communist ideology were absolutely. and the girl who was in charge of ideological instruction at school i remember her name was marina and says for all the questions she was an atheist to. me that simply must be true. to be wrong here it is essentially pushkin. newton in shakespeare this is this girl marina. is consequences of intially i found the answer to my question store and today. there is a traditional reunion. for priests who used to be students of the moscow state university and there is about a hundred priests of my age coming for those meetings. your book every day saints was received really well by russian readers and now it's been translated and

published in english. countries and what kind of people would you like to reach out to with picking wish edition. no idea so it wasn't your idea when you put it simply suggested translating this book into english and accepted the offer with gratitude but you know that it was you know that's what the russian edition sold one point one million copies in the first year. where printing ten thousand copies for the united states. so you know the stuff that. i believe there are many orthodox christians in the united states russian orthodox believe is alone are about strong probably have another million in canada plus we have greece by the way the book has also been translated into greek the first two rounds have been sold out in the know they're printing the third one in six months in greece so

we'll see but in any case and you happy that james billington it seems academic has offered to organise a presentation of the english edition of my book at the library of congress until my fifth place but just a reminder that your watching spotlight the program will be back in time after we take a break so stay with us don't. wealthy british style stock. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy.

for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports on a. secret laboratory was able to build most sophisticated robots which fortunately dorna found anything mission to teach we. should care about humans. this is why you should care only.

the french invasion of russia has started again after two hundred years up at the. church the emperor of the polian has arrived from overseas to lead the army i have to really take my time to prepare myself to get it right i know. the

bloody battle near moscow is going to start over. james brown will reveal the victor the soldiers are back to do it all again. but you know version twenty. r.t. . welcome back to spotlight i am al gore novel and just a reminder that my guest on the show today is. one of the most

respected priests of the russian orthodox church and author of the bestselling every day saint and. let's talk about politics now no t.v. show can ignore it these days some there is this high profile case of the band pussy riot their performance in christ the savior cathedral and the trial that followed where they were sentenced to two years in jail which many people think that it was the church that sort of tough sentence for them wasn't the official position of the russian orthodox church on this and what is your personal view. that able to see that the church which purposefully sought a tough sentence for the girls this is total nonsense stuff. because there was indeed an argument among russian lewis as to whether the act of the goes was a criminal offense or in the main city of offense. no if you excuse my speculation if i were a judge myself i would have regarded it as an administrative offense. and i would

have combined it with only a piece offenses. and i would have handed them down a fine oh about three hundred roubles. you if you were authorized by the church yes that's and if. you ask the court to release them to the church to correct them in some other way. rather than by sending them to prison. no i wouldn't. work. you mean some people can't change. that's not the point that if i were authorized i would give them a three hundred fine and let them walk that would have caused an explosion but people would have said how come you give them a fine for such a terrible deed in the u.k. . to flag over monuments to british soldiers sentenced to six months in prison no

one in the u.k. question the sentence. in the russian city of a group of young people was arrested for painting swastikas on a scene and go they were sentenced to six years in prison and there was no outcry either of let's go back a little as a priest do you thing there are people including these women who can be convinced to change their ways. no that is not true what's the time looking at them. they would repent. calling upon them to express if not removed then it least sadness at what they had done. but in return they saying now that if they had the opportunity they would do the same thing again and again and again this is long since you believe in god you should think they are of the devil and they will change their ways one day but the devil will come on you can say that then what are they just fools i believe that was largely due to foolishness but one

day they will know better. and i think the worst part of this whole story is that one day these girls will grow up with their world in fact girls and they are in their late twenties now nevertheless i believe they have been handed down harsh sentence but anyway one day they will grow up and they will go and they will reveal when they have done it and their children and grandchildren will nonetheless be profoundly shocked by what their grandmothers did the issue of religion seems to be just as sensitive in the modern world as it used to be in the middle ages spotlights the media has more. this religious complex in the north of moscow has a synagogue and also the structure and a mosque over recall story each other according to the plan a buddhist temple is also to be built here this complex is an attempt by moscow

businessman to show that people of different religions can co-exist peacefully however considering the ever repeating really trivial waited scandal's this point of view would seem to be too idealistic while there's no more includes ition and no one can be burned at the stake for pronouncing anti-religious fuz reason certain issues in aa is still dangerous the end of the twentieth century saw christians around the world riot against martin scorsese's one nine hundred eighty eight movie the last intention of christ a year later it was lose one's turn to be furious condemn and so monreal satanic verses. ayatollah khomeini went as far as issuing a fatwa against the right. the twenty first century is in a way different the world of islam has been raging over the innocence of muslims a u.s. made film mocking the prophet muhammad the film on the cube to thousands writing

across the middle east north africa and asia attacking embassies and killing people the death toll is already around forty as if that was not enough a french cartoon issued on the nineteenth of september they did fuel to the fire meanwhile the also dick's christian world is also touring over the punk band you soon riot were sentenced for two years in jail. after that performance in one of the major russian orthodox cathedral zz politicians public figures and the general public in russia were divided some calling the act a blasphemy others fight for freedom of speech the story went beyond russia with world stars showing their support for the band the ultimate expression of support for the sentence was this a question of who is sites vandals took down crosses and left graffiti on the walls of churches whatever the scale of polemic and given violence in any of the situations one outcome is guaranteed the skyrocketing popularity of those who

provoked the religion related debate. to what the religious wars crusades are history now but today we see these religious riots sometimes even involving bloodshed in response to what i see in significant provocations. scorsese and so forth and why such a harsh reaction. i would distinguish between protests in the christian world and the protests in the muslim world as a process in the christian world and the most people have demonstrated against and blasphemous examination. something like that perhaps. but responding to. the should actually exhibit my protesting against them and that's exactly what happens unfortunately. what can you do about it people.

respond to them especially when the. recent events. something about it which. is indignation only natural. we have to realize that although they live in the twenty first century those people respond to things. with the traditions of a much earlier period. because they have a younger religion i wouldn't say they're. six hundred years younger than christianity that is not the point. i think. they're so brave that they can ignore any response from the muslim world. purpose. i think they were deliberately provoking the muslim world even if they could whatever those people are doing in denmark or they are. if we compare this with the response

in the christian world first of all christians generally don't have such a strong reaction and second people jesus said about turning the other cheek. should forgive. those words about turning the other cheek literally or you think so many other things in religion you shouldn't take those words at face value because we know that sometimes priests take up arms and go into battle with soldiers they would carry across if. there was some priests who take up arms and i don't want to argue with you. for christ's words i'm. tuning the other cheek. only applies to a situation where an attack is aimed against you personally in this case you should not repeat evil with evil but if i see someone taking a weaker person i definitely have to come to their rescue even if i'm

a priest and even if i have to use force in this sense. one of the ways to overcome evil should be by force. correct me if i'm wrong but i think in our religion it is impossible to offend god that is right so i guess you can't offend prophet muhammad either but you can be offended he is above all that then why do they defend him. they are standing up for him because their feelings are hurt there is very simple. advocates of liberalism intolerance both in the west and in russia just don't realize that they're hurting other people's feelings. either that were they doing it on purpose. to cause other people pain or else they're terrorists in a spiritual sense in a moral sense so they're ghouls and no different from those are real terrorists you

know there's been a lot of talk recently about attacks on the russian orthodox church church heroics and people close to the church say there is a whole campaign unleashed against it and let's listen to what the patriot had to say about this recently. but the day is the poem i cannot help thinking that it is a certain exploratory attack to see how deep people's faith and commitment to orthodoxy in russia is. indeed many have long buried the ability of our people at least most of the people to show so far going to zation to protect certain values and to defend their stance. i will not cite offensive statements made in reference to our people by some persons who claim to be a creative class. but it is a scornful view from above. today i think all those who are going through these

provocations have seen for themselves that what they have before them is not a faceless mass of a more force maturity or. people who are capable of defending what they hold sacred thing. what is this campaign against the russian orthodox church and is it a real old and do you think there is such a complaint yeah. absolutely i absolutely agree with the patriarch when he suggests that there are certain forces at work. that are trying to persuade the people of. a great nation it is but that they should remain silent and passive when they're being humiliated and turned into a bunch of idiots when their national values i being trampled upon. we are essentially being told we will trample on your values well drag them to do it. but

you should not resist you should take it as the way things are and you should tolerate this and do nothing about it. just that i do agree that there are some forces at work they want to leave. with all these bodies so to speak without this protective mechanisms. therefore i completely agree with the patriarch that when he says that we need to find the strength to resist these harmful influences that we are faced with today as a nation and society. when there's just. if there really pose a threat to the faith they pose a threat to their faith into the mindset of the people and to the whole nation. to the whole nation and its ability to organize this is what's really happening and not just in russia it's happening all over the world when i visited england in

scotland i was amazed to see people dressed up in traditional costumes and played their traditional music history and yet the new ball is not merely to preserve your traditions and i need to just traditional dresses and so on. is to preserve something much more important because your identity your values what it was special about thank you thank you very much for being with us today and just a reminder that right yesterday was archimandrite to the author of the bestseller every day saints and other stories and that's it for the all from all of us here if you want to add your sales pod light or have some of the money to think they should do to be the stunt to dockyard at ati t.v. dot and let's keep the show interactive will be back with more personal comments on what's going on in and outside of russia until then r.t. and take.

courageous and creative. elegant and full and most public speaking. that's. up to a few european bodybuilders against millions of which immigrants.

which may not seem so serious now. but this could be a real threat. to more. european extremists.

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