Is Boris Yeltsin the only significant person in Russia who appreciates Western Civilization's concept of religious freedom? He alone, it seems, just saved this precious thing in Russia. By power of veto!
There was overwhelming sentiment in both houses of parliament to make the Russian Orthodox Church the official one in that vast and troubled country. What an unholy alliance! Communists and religious bigots!
In a way the leaders were trying ,no doubt, to protect their old culture. Our idea of separation of Church and State is as fundamental as the idea of "CHECKS AND BALANCES" in government. It was a colossal mistake for the old communist regime to even preach a definite philosophy- dialect materialism to the masses.
People everywhere hunger for deeper meaning and purpose in their uninspired, humdrum lives. But it is not any government's job to supply it! No government in the world can tell us how to be happy, or even good.
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April 2007: An Orthodox priest stands next
to the coffin of former Russian President
Boris Yeltsin in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral
in Moscow.
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Only FOOLS will seek ultimate meaning in some political order. Our form of democracy is the best way to protect human dignity. That is all we can ask of it. And that is enough! We can leave all the rest to the world's great religions or to the solitary human heart.
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Ron