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HOW MUCH CHURCH'S SILENCE COSTS
Hayk Aramyan
Lragir.am News
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments23254.html
11:34:34 - 07/09/2011
During Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan's tenure, the coalescence of
the Armenian Church and the government has deepened. The Church got a
lot of privileges, both material and legislative. For example, lands
are allocated to the church, buildings are donated to the church,
the church is freed from taxes. In fact, the church has no financial
obligations. Currently, the draft law on religious organizations is
under consideration, which has been sent to the Venice Commission
several times and got negative comments.
Experts note that despite negative assessments, nevertheless, the prime
minister is trying to use different tricks to keep the privileges of
the Armenian Apostolic Church in this draft law but those in Venice
are experienced experts.
The question occurs why the prime minister who upholds modern thinking
and in general the supreme government display a medieval approach to
this issue. The PM knows very well that the countries and societies
achieved religious and technological development as soon as they
regulated the relations between the state and the church, ensuring
secularization. And on the contrary, in the countries where religion
is dominant it is usually meaningless to dwell on development and
modernization.
Why does the Prime Minister choose the second path? It is difficult
to believe he has such infinite love towards the church. If he does,
he must express this love otherwise, isolating himself from secular
concerns. If he loves the Armenian Apostolic Church so much, he
is supposed to understand that by involving it in state affairs he
clearly defames the church. The part of the society which is active,
educated and builders of future of Armenia, according to Sargsyan,
is not excited about the coalescence of the church and the state,
especially considering that the church leadership does not differ
much from the oligarchy which the PM is allegedly fighting.
But the PM's duty is secular concerns which he is unable to cope with.
On the other hand, having studied history of the Armenian Church, he
decided to use it. The key concern of this history is that the Armenian
Church has regularly made deals with the conquerors of Armenia, such
as Arabs, Mongols, and Iran. The deals meant recognition of foreign
conquerors in return for power. In this sense, the golden age of the
Armenian Church is the period of Mongol invasions when the Armenian
Apostolic Church which had had no followers before confirmed its
"historically specific" role in the life of the Armenian nation.
It is not accidental that Jesus is depicted with a Mongol's face and
clothes in the reliefs on many Churches of that era.
And now, the government, in the context of its failures, has recalled
the "specific" role of the Church. The Church must silence the
religious, moral and physical destructions in the country, getting a
generous compensation from the government. Can you imagine Catholicos
Garegin II dwelling on the hard social situation, violence, etc. The
authorities understand the consequences very well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Hayk Aramyan
Lragir.am News
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments23254.html
11:34:34 - 07/09/2011
During Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan's tenure, the coalescence of
the Armenian Church and the government has deepened. The Church got a
lot of privileges, both material and legislative. For example, lands
are allocated to the church, buildings are donated to the church,
the church is freed from taxes. In fact, the church has no financial
obligations. Currently, the draft law on religious organizations is
under consideration, which has been sent to the Venice Commission
several times and got negative comments.
Experts note that despite negative assessments, nevertheless, the prime
minister is trying to use different tricks to keep the privileges of
the Armenian Apostolic Church in this draft law but those in Venice
are experienced experts.
The question occurs why the prime minister who upholds modern thinking
and in general the supreme government display a medieval approach to
this issue. The PM knows very well that the countries and societies
achieved religious and technological development as soon as they
regulated the relations between the state and the church, ensuring
secularization. And on the contrary, in the countries where religion
is dominant it is usually meaningless to dwell on development and
modernization.
Why does the Prime Minister choose the second path? It is difficult
to believe he has such infinite love towards the church. If he does,
he must express this love otherwise, isolating himself from secular
concerns. If he loves the Armenian Apostolic Church so much, he
is supposed to understand that by involving it in state affairs he
clearly defames the church. The part of the society which is active,
educated and builders of future of Armenia, according to Sargsyan,
is not excited about the coalescence of the church and the state,
especially considering that the church leadership does not differ
much from the oligarchy which the PM is allegedly fighting.
But the PM's duty is secular concerns which he is unable to cope with.
On the other hand, having studied history of the Armenian Church, he
decided to use it. The key concern of this history is that the Armenian
Church has regularly made deals with the conquerors of Armenia, such
as Arabs, Mongols, and Iran. The deals meant recognition of foreign
conquerors in return for power. In this sense, the golden age of the
Armenian Church is the period of Mongol invasions when the Armenian
Apostolic Church which had had no followers before confirmed its
"historically specific" role in the life of the Armenian nation.
It is not accidental that Jesus is depicted with a Mongol's face and
clothes in the reliefs on many Churches of that era.
And now, the government, in the context of its failures, has recalled
the "specific" role of the Church. The Church must silence the
religious, moral and physical destructions in the country, getting a
generous compensation from the government. Can you imagine Catholicos
Garegin II dwelling on the hard social situation, violence, etc. The
authorities understand the consequences very well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress