Russian-Orthodox Metropolitan Describes European Secularism
How can Christians oppose such tendencies? What does the power of Christianity lie in? It is determined by the faith of Christians, their ability to live up the Gospel’s law, to bring the light of Divine Truth to people. Having lost the ability to be the salt of the earth, Christians become unable to oppose various ideologies asserting their own rules of common human life.”
“More and more often in the European Union countries we see discrimination against citizens who express active Christian position. Moreover, even the wearing of Christian symbols, such as baptismal crosses, can be seen by some employers as a violation of ‘corporate culture’. There are voices speaking of the need to ban public Christmas celebrations under the far-fetched pretext that it may insult people of other religions. Similar struggle against the presence of religious symbols in schools have been waged for several years in the European Court of Human Rights under the case of ‘Lautsi vs. Italy’ – a vivid example of an attempt of a single person, under the pretext of the infringement of her rights, to impose her own will on millions of people. ‘The religious neutrality of society’ built by proponents of European secularism has turned in practice into a ‘value cleansing’ of this society. How can Christians oppose such tendencies? What does the power of Christianity lie in? It is determined by the faith of Christians, their ability to live up the Gospel’s law, to bring the light of Divine Truth to people. Having lost the ability to be the salt of the earth, Christians become unable to oppose various ideologies asserting their own rules of common human life.” Excerpt from Metropolitan Hilarion’s address ‘European Civilization – From the Edict of Milan to Christianophobia’ at the international reflection-action conference on ‘Spiritual Feat of Sts Constantine and Helen – the Beginning and Triumph of Christendom in Human History’, on October 2nd 2012, at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Source: http://www.mospat.ru/en/2012/10/02/news71824/ Further documents of the conference: http://www.mospat.ru/en/category/documents/ Further speeches of the conference: http://www.mospat.ru/en/category/news/decr-chairman/speeches/