The text discusses a significant change in the views and value system of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and the strange “deification” of the weapon of mass destruction when done by a Christian figure.
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The section is titled “Atomic Orthodoxy: the patriarch ‘deifies’ the nuclear bomb and urges not to fear ‘apocalyptic scenarios’,” authored by Kirilas Ivanovas. Under this name, 386 publications have been posted on the MK website, but the author’s profile lacks both a photo and other information about him, notes the “Agentstvo” portal.
The article states that “none of Patriarch Kirill’s predecessors spoke about the weapon, even our own, homeland’s, yet still a weapon of mass destruction, so exaltedly and passionately.” It further notes that “if we evaluate the patriarch’s speech as a statement by a politician and state official, it would be impossible to criticize it,” but “if we examine the words of the Church leader from a theological perspective, the logic of the presented concept somewhat falters.”
“If we were to rely on this concept, then we would have to acknowledge that the Lord showed even greater grace and mercy to the Americans, who created the atomic bomb four years earlier than the USSR. And if not for some participants of the ‘Manhattan Project,’ such as Klaus Fuchs, for example, the delay could have been even greater. Much greater… The American atomic bomb developers were largely, or one could even say – to a huge extent, also the creators of the Soviet bomb. The history of the latter did not begin in Sarov, but in distant Los Alamos. There, where no one had heard anything about Seraphim of Sarov.”
“Oppenheimer felt not the slightest fatherly love for his creation”
The section emphasizes that “the father of the bomb [scientific director of the ‘Manhattan Project’ Robert Oppenheimer] felt not the slightest fatherly love for his creation.”
As the publication states, the Russian Orthodox Church also viewed “our Russian atomic bomb” “without much sympathy” until a certain time.
“In February 1986, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a letter ‘On War and Peace in the Nuclear Age,’ which very clearly set out the Church’s stance on this type of armament and its possible use,” writes the author of the text.
The letter, among other things, spoke about the flawed logic of nuclear deterrence and the necessity to “liberate the world forever from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.”
“It is puzzling that the patriarch urges believers not to fear nuclear war”
However, as the author of the publication writes, “over the past decades, the Church’s position has changed significantly.”
“At least the position of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church has changed. This is manifested not only in the fact that the Soviet atomic bomb is proclaimed a miracle of God, revealed to the country and the world through the prayers of Seraphim of Sarov… Even more surprising and puzzling is that the patriarch urges believers not to fear nuclear war,” the section states.
“Perhaps this is already about a completely different system of views and values, very far from the Soviet model of the ‘rotten pacifism’ characteristic of the Russian Orthodox Church. About atomic orthodoxy,” writes the author of the publication.
This newspaper does not criticize the authorities
“Moskovskij Komsomolets” is one of the largest circulation Russian newspapers, which rarely criticizes the authorities, reminds the “Agentstvo” portal.
Patriarch Kirill delivered the sermon mentioning the creation of the nuclear weapon on August 1 after the liturgy at the Holy Trinity women’s monastery in the Nizhny Novgorod region. In the sermon, he stated that the creation of the atomic bomb by Soviet scientists “occurred, among other things, thanks to the prayers of our holy and God-bearing father Seraphim of Sarov.”
“Thus, through the toil of scientists, engineers, and workers who worked here, God’s grace and mercy were revealed to our country,” said the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
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