CLERGY
WILL BE SENT
FOR RETRAINING
Is
criticism of
amendments to law on religious organizations fair?
Nezavisimaia
Gazeta,
20 September 2020
On 22
September, the
State Duma will consider on first reading amendments to the law
"On
freedom of conscience and religious association," submitted by
the
government. The document has received contradictory reviews
already in the
stage of discussion. Some in the State Duma consider that the
new rules will
permit shielding citizens from extremism and improve the
effectiveness of
monitoring religious life. But there also is criticism. There
are many comments
on the requirement for persons who receive religious education
abroad to
undergo recertification in domestic educational institutions.
The rule applies
not only to teachers, but also to those who "conduct religious
activity." That is, for ministry in churches, mosques, datsans,
and
synagogues, a Russian certificate is required.
Andrei
Klishas turned
his attention to the problems that this rule creates: "It should
be noted
that a number of religions and religious denominations existing
in Russia,
including ones belonging to traditional religions, do not have
religious
educational organizations." The senator pointed to Kalmykia,
where there are
no Buddhist educational institutions. The vice-chairman of the
Ecclesiastical
Board of Muslims of the R.F., Damir Mukhutdinov, cited the
example of the
Bolgar Islamic Academy, which was conceived as the largest
religious
educational center of Islam in Russia, but still has not
attained that level
that would allow it to compete with foreign Islamic higher
educational
institutions. In Bolgar (Tatarstan), invited specialists teach
and Mukhutdinov
thinks it absurd that venerable foreign lecturers will sit at
their desks next
to their own students.
A
similar opinion was
expressed by representatives of almost all religious
denominations, except for
the Moscow patriarchate. Perhaps only in the RPTs and partially
among Catholics
are there in the country educational institutions that train
clergy for
ministry at a sufficient level. When the law is adopted, many
communities will
find themselves facing the prospect of losing their leaders.
Practically all of
them received education abroad that establishes their status.
Many of them were
involved in the founding of seminaries, madrassas, a Buddhist
university (the
only one in the country) and yeshivas that are functioning in
the country.
However,
one can also
understand the government's not wishing for religions in Russia
to exist as "appendages"
of foreign centers. The contents and form of study in foreign
religious schools
sometimes is so different from Russian notions about education
that it is
impossible to permit the recognition of these practices in the
R.F. Besides
concern about the importing of extremism, officials justify
their initiatives
as the attempt to ensure a full-scale spiritual life within
Russia. Sometimes
this is simply impossible because there are too few devotees of
one confession
or another. But in other cases, the state has the right to ask
religious
organizations why, in circumstances of various privileges in
three decades the
communities have still not been able to ensure the necessary
level of religious
schools and to train new generations of "well established"
ministers
of God. Some of these organizations and foundations have been
given a lot of
material assistance by the state. How much can the current
deficiencies be
justified as consequences of the persecutions in the U.S.S.R.?
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