Russia Calls America and the West Godless

Americans are godless? Nonsense!

Yeah, it's come to this.

From The Washington Times:

At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.” 

More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West. 

Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”  

[...]   

Mr. Putin’s views of the West were echoed this month by Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow, the leader of the Orthodox Church, who accused Western countries of engaging in the “spiritual disarmament” of their people.
In particular, Patriarch Kirill criticized laws in several European countries that prevent believers from displaying religious symbols, including crosses on necklaces, at work.  

“The general political direction of the [Western political] elite bears, without doubt, an anti-Christian and anti-religious character,” the patriarch said in comments aired on state-controlled television. 

“We have been through an epoch of atheism, and we know what it is to live without God,” Patriarch Kirill said. “We want to shout to the whole world, ‘Stop!’” 

Other figures within the Orthodox Church have gone further in criticizing the West. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a church spokesman, suggested that the modern-day West is no better for a Christian believer than the Soviet Union. 

Soviet authorities executed some 200,000 clergy and believers from 1917 to 1937, according to a 1995 presidential committee report. Thousands of churches were destroyed, and those that survived were turned into warehouses, garages or museums of atheism. 

“The separation of the secular and the religious is a fatal mistake by the West,” the Rev. Chaplin said. “It is a monstrous phenomenon that has occurred only in Western civilization and will kill the West, both politically and morally.”

I wish I could disagree with them about more of what they say, but...

I certainly don't agree with their idea that Russia holds the keys to spiritual enlightenment in the future. Plus, the free exercise clause in the Constitution, from which the concept of separation of church and state was derived, is meant to stop the state from controlling religious beliefs. Clearly, when the state runs the church (as is happening more and more in Russia), then the church becomes merely a figurehead to support the state. I firmly believe that the government derives moral authority from the people, and that people are not made more moral by government.

However, as the American Left has become increasingly Marxist (or socialist, or "progressive," or advocating for "social justice," or whatever water-down label you wish to assign), it is inevitable that attacks on religious belief and religious traditions increase. Marxism demands that only it's "truth" can exist and that all other beliefs must be wiped away. American and Western Lefties are gleefully doing utmost to do just that.

As with most of the Russian proclamations recently, this idea contains a kernel of truth that's then twisted into elevating Russia and denigrating its foes. Russia's been doing this for quite some time, of course. The problem now is that Russia's getting much better at it.