I was baptized at the age of 5. Secretly. Those. the sacrament was performed in secret. In the sense that one fine day my grandmother, without telling anyone where we were going, took me to church and I was baptized. Under someone else's name. Because my mother was a member of the party and, as my grandmother explained to me, it could be very harmful to her at work …
After another 5 years, the 91st year came and all those who had recently bypassed it by the 10th road rushed into the church. I clearly remember how all our former Ukrainian Politburo headed by Kravchuk, solemnly holding burning candles at the belly level and awkwardly baptizing on the occasion of either Christmas or Easter, desperately disguised a yawn as an attempt to say a prayer.
It was then that it became fashionable to go to church. Icons were considered the coolest gift. No one read the Bible, but everyone abruptly became "believers." Especially zealously some "believed" if the lenses of television cameras were aimed at them. But, despite the desperate window dressing, many remained atheists. Millions of small human tragedies and one big tragedy of a once large country that happened in the 90s is a clear confirmation of this …
It's a paradox, but now, when there is no need - neither to hide your faith in God, nor to show it off - in certain circles it is considered a monstrous archaic. Putin is in church for Christmas, the consecration of strategically important objects, the Patriarch's statements, the comments of the priests, the construction of new churches, attempts to give the basics of Orthodoxy in schools - all this immediately becomes an object of criticism and a reason for ridicule. A believer is immediately recorded as either obscurantist or mentally retarded. The word "scrapa" has become a household word. Spirituality is considered a suspicious flaw. An attempt to defend one's right to faith is perceived as an encroachment on someone's freedom. The proposal to mention God in the basic law is considered a dictate.
Why? Because someone really wants the topic of faith to go deep into the shadows. Better underground. To make temple attendance shameful. They were afraid to mention God, fearing criticism and ridicule. For priests to be ostracized. To make the churches empty and quiet.
To believe only in Elon Musk, the American dollar and "the beautiful Russia of the future." In which sermons will be read referring not to Scripture, but to posts on the Facebook of the US State Department. In which there will be only two commandments: pay and repent.
Yulia Vityazeva
