Teaching Comparative

Fusion of church and state

Well, integration of church and state was the case of Tsarist Russia. Will it be in the future of the Russian Federation? Is this another case of the struggle between Mother Russia and modernization?

This report from the New York Times seems to indicate that the Russian Orthodox Church is gaining some traction in its efforts to get church-sponsored courses into public schools. (The once-a-week classes remind me of the weekly afternoons in the late 1950s, when my public school classmates and I were allowed to walk to neighborhood churches for religious classes.)

However, a report from Forum 18, in Oslo, Norway, seems to suggest that the inclusion of religious teaching in Russian public schools is not a done deal. (Forum 18, by the way, is an organization "for promoting the implementation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...")

Welcome or Not, Orthodoxy Is Back in Russia’s Public Schools

"One of the most discordant debates in Russian society is playing out in public schools like those in this city not far from Moscow...

"Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return of religion to public life, localities in Russia are increasingly decreeing that to receive a proper public school education, children should be steeped in the ways of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its traditions, liturgy and historic figures...

"The lessons are typically introduced at the urging of church leaders... [and reflect] the nation’s continuing struggle to define what it means to be Russian in the post-Communist era... Yet the drive by a revitalized church to weave its tenets into the education system has prompted a backlash, and not only from the remains of the Communist Party.

"Opponents assert that the Russian Orthodox leadership is weakening the constitutional separation of church and state by proselytizing in public schools. They say Russia is a multiethnic, pluralistic nation and risks alienating its large Muslim minority if Russian Orthodoxy takes on the trappings of a state religion.

"The church calls those accusations unfounded, maintaining that the courses are cultural, not religious...

"Local officials carry out education policy under Moscow’s oversight, with some latitude. Some regions require the courses in Russian Orthodoxy, while others allow parents to remove their children from them, though they rarely, if ever, do. Other areas have not adopted them.

"Mr. Putin, though usually not reluctant to overrule local authorities, has skirted the issue...

"Polls show that roughly half to two-thirds of Russians consider themselves Russian Orthodox... But Russia remains deeply secular, and most Russians say they never attend church.

"About 10 to 15 percent of Russians are Muslim... With emigration and assimilation, the Jewish population has dwindled to a few hundred thousand..."

---

Putin sounds final bell for Orthodox culture classes?

"The Russian Orthodox Church's ambitious attempt to make inroads into the state education system appeared to flounder this month when President Vladimir Putin publicly rebuffed the Foundations of Orthodox Culture course...

"Putin made his remarks in response to fears that the subject could be jettisoned under current reforms to the educational system: 'Our Constitution says that the Church is separate from the state. You know how I feel, including towards the Russian Orthodox Church. But if anyone thinks that we should proceed differently, that would require a change to the Constitution. I do not believe that is what we should be doing now.'

"The president was speaking during a 13 September visit to Belgorod, the region that has gone furthest in embracing the Foundations of Orthodox Culture. For the past academic year the course has been compulsory for all its pupils...

"Putin's comments also come shortly after Russia's parliament began consideration of educational reforms Church supporters say are designed to sideline the Foundations of Orthodox Culture course...

"[T]he Education Ministry's Social Committee [has recommended] a single culturological World Religions course taught using a textbook compiled by the Russian Academy of Sciences..."

---

Labels: concepts, political culture, Russia

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:25 AM