RUSSIAN AND HELP FOR NEW INFANTS

What benefits do families with kids receive in Russia? Lifestyle Oct 20 2023 sankai/Getty Images Apart from federal monetary payments, many regions have their own presents for having a new Russian citizen. The most unusual ones are on the Yamal Peninsula: there, you get an entire ‘chum’ tent home. Russia has quite a large amount of support programs for families that have newborn children. Regardless of the place of birth, Russians receive federal benefits, as well as each region providing its own additional bonuses. Maternity capital & federal benefits

The main federal payment is the maternity capital, which you can spend on purchasing an apartment, building a house or your child’s education. In 2023, it amounts to 586,946 rubles (approx. $6,000) for the first child and 775,628 rubles (approx. $7,970) for the second child, if the mother didn’t receive maternity capital for the first child; if she did, the second payment is 188,681 rubles (approx. $1,940). Aside from that, there’s also a one-time payment of 22,909 rubles (approx. $235) in 2023. However, you must apply for it within six months of the child’s birth. From the moment the child is born until they reach the age of 18 months, their mother (or father) is eligible to receive a monthly child care allowance – 40% of the average income, but no more than 33,281 rubles (approx. $340). There are additional payments for both low income families and families with multiple children. But, the sum will be different depending on the region. Gift packages In approximately 30 regions of Russia, young parents receive packages with necessary baby items when they have a child. Moscow became the first among such regions, with others following soon after. The packages are different everywhere, but, usually, all the items provided have neutral colors that would fit a baby of either gender. In Moscow and Moscow Region, the packages are large boxes with clothes, diapers, thermometers, bed sheets, bathing sets, etc. You can opt not to take the package and receive a 20,000 ruble payment instead (approx. $205). However, some Moscow parents have noted that the package contents cost approximately the same (if bought separately in a store) and the items provided are of good quality. A gift box in Yamal. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Governor's Press Service Young parents from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug receive a large package with the symbol of the region – a polar bear – on it. Inside, apart from diapers, bottles and bed sheets, you can find winter overalls, warm winter hats and a thick blanket. And everything is decorated with similar cute bears that you wish you were born in Yamal! You can also opt out and choose a certificate for purchasing baby items with a value of 32,000 rubles (approx. $330). There’s also something called ‘chum capital’ on the Yamal Peninsula, where the families of indigenous people of the North live (the Nenets, the Khanty and the Selkups). This is how the 'chum capital' looks like. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Governor's Press Service Nomad families that have three children or more receive a chum assembly kit. It includes a stove, poles, floor boards, hides, tarp and sleds. The total value is equal to roughly 500,000 rubles (approx. $5,140) and it’s given only once. The Tver Region package, apart from clothing and hygiene products, has many useful little things: a bottle heater, scissors, combs, a bottle cleaning brush and pacifiers. Government of the Tver Region In Samara Region, such packages are given only for the first child; and in Tatarstan and Yakutia – only to low income families. In some regions of Russia, when the mother is released from the maternity hospital, the families are given certificates instead of packages, which they can spend on baby items. For example, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, you are given a gift card with a little mammoth depicted on it, worth 20,000 rubles (approx. $205). Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug In St. Petersburg, regional payments are sent to a ‘Detskaya’ (‘Child’) card, with which you can pay for purchases both in specialized stores and at hypermarkets that have children’s sections. In 2023, the payment amounts range from 39,000 rubles (approx. $400) to 65,000 rubles (approx. $670), depending on the amount of children. Bonuses for being young & for twins If you live in Perm Territory and you had twins (or more than two kids at once), then, apart from a gift package, regional authorities will give you 122,000 rubles (approx. $1,250) per child. In Volgograd, women who have given birth to their first child before the age of 24, apart from federal payments, receive 50,000 rubles (approx. $514) from the region. The same sum is due for all women, regardless of age, who have had their second child and the first is still younger than three years. If the family has had a third child and they’re older than three years, the family is eligible for a ‘parental capital’ worth 70,000 rubles (approx. $720). A plot of land for a third child Families with a lot of kids (three or more) in Russia can even receive a plot of land in the region where they live. But, the conditions of receiving one always differ. For example, in Moscow Region, only a family that doesn’t own a plot of land yet can receive one. In Rostov Region, only low income families can receive a plot of land. In Krasnoyarsk Territory, families receive it in queued order, however, the plots are not given in the city of Krasnoyarsk itself, but further out. In some regions, instead of a plot, a money certificate is offered.

Homosexuality — Worse than Murder

Homosexuality is Worse than Murder What makes homosexuality so destructive to society? How is it worse than fornication, worse than theft, even worse than murder? Why are the Scriptures and the Saints so vehemently opposed to this particular sin? MORE:Explaining Orthodoxy Family Values Originally appeared at: Global Orthodox Even though good Christians understand that homosexuality is a sin, many of them don't realize just how serious it is. They know it is wrong, and they wouldn't want to do it themselves, but they put it in a similar category as cheating on your taxes, reading dirty novels, or getting drunk at home. They say things like, "It's none of my business", "That's his personal choice", or "Some of my friends are like that, and they are perfectly nice people . . ." They may figure the proper response is just to keep quiet, ignore it, and "try not to judge". But this is not how they treat rape. This is not how they treat murder. If they thought their nextdoor neighbor had kidnapped a child and was guilty of both rape and murder, they would not say, "It's none of my business" or "That's his personal choice." They would be horrified that such a heinous crime had been committed, and they would want to see the criminal brought to justice. Some sins are worse than others. Every sin may be equally forgivable, but not every sin is equally destructive. Stealing a dollar from your employer is bad, but kidnapping a child is worse. Vandalizing a car is bad, but killing a family of five is worse. And according to St. John Chrysostom, abortionists and homosexuals belong in a class unto themselves, even worse than murder. There are a couple ways in which murder and homosexual activity are equally sinful. In both cases: God commands us not to do it. Those who rebel against God in this way will also justify rebellion against God in many other areas of morality. There are many more examples where homosexuality is uniquely sinful and destructive, in ways that murder is not: When God destroys entire cities and civilizations because of the proliferation of this sin, it is not only the homosexuals that get drowned or incinerated. Everyone else gets destroyed too. Consider these Three Ancient Cultures God Destroyed Because of Homosexual Activity, and also Three More Cities God Destroyed for Sinning Like Sodom. The homosexual lifestyle (especially sodomy) damages the human body, and frequently leads to deadly diseases, such as AIDS. Pedophilia is much more prevalent among homosexuals, than among normal people. The more promotion and proliferation that we have of homosexuality, the more widespread problems than we have with the sexual abuse of children. Homosexuals are not satisfied with tolerance. They demand everyone else to glorify them, and ultimately to participate with them. Homosexual behavior leads to acceptance of the transgender delusion, which leads people to sexually mutilate themselves and also to mutilate their children. Homosexuals are intentionally sterile and such unions cannot produce children. Such a lifestyle is fundamentally self-centered. Since homosexual "unions" cannot produce offspring, they recruit from the children of normal children. Thus the movement as a whole is parasitic. Homosexuality (and specifically "gay marriage") is a Christological heresy and ecclesiological heresy. God created marriage as a picture of Christ and the Church. But two lustful men in a bed, unable to produce any offspring, bear no resemblance whatsoever to the relationship between Christ and the Church. Thus the entire "legalized marriage" is an ongoing lie, constantly telling a lie about who Christ is and what His relationship to the Church is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created Adam and Eve, and presided over the first wedding. God created man and woman to live together as husband and wife, creating multigenerational families who would love God and each other. Society itself rests upon the foundation of marriage and the family. If America destroys the family, and you destroy the very foundation of society. When men and women turn their backs on one another, burning in their desire for same-sex activity, imagining that marriage is a sterile playground where adults can indulge their lusts, they take one of God's most precious gifts to mankind, and they throw it back at Him, spitting on His whole vision of how things should function. (By the way, this helps explain why many Saints compared the use of contraception with homosexual activity. Marriage is intended to be fruitful, bringing many children into the world, not merely using marriage as an outlet for the satisfaction of sexual desires.) Murder — Less Destructive than Homosexuality We see the widespread destruction of society that is caused by all these corrosive aspects of homosexual behavior. Meanwhile, murder does not cause the same widespread effects: God might pring often brings individual murderers to justice, but when He destroys entire cities or civilizations, He doesn't normally suggest that murder is the reason for it. Murderers do not propagate disease. Murderers do not tend to become pedophiles. (Pedophiles, however, often do become murderers.) Murderers don't push the rest of society to praise murder or to participate in murder. Murderers do not generally promote transgenderism or the mutilation of children. Murderers are usually not sterile, and can have children. Murderers rarely recruit others to become murderers. (Inner city gangs exhibit one of the rare exceptions to this.) Murder is an attack on God, because man was created in God's image. But murder is not a Christological heresy, teaching falsehood about who Christ is. (The statements above are in reference to the murder of adults and youth, not including murder of the unborn. Of course, abortion is a specific type of murder, but St. John Chrysostom sets it apart and also calls it "worse than murder". In regard to societal consequences, abortion shares more in common with homosexuality than other forms of murder. Abortion often causes disease, sterility, and various health problems. Abortion supporters recruit others to promote and perform abortions, and they mutilate children. Abortion is popular among pedophiles, to stop children from being born of these illicit unions. Abortion supporters also blaspheme both Christ and His Church — When Christ told the Church, "This is my body", he was referring to the Eucharist, which is for healing and forgiveness. But when abortion supporters scream, "This is my body", they do it for the purpose of murdering the innocent.) Murders are very, very bad. But in general, they are not nearly as destructive to society as homosexual sin is. Homosexuality According to Scripture and the Saints This helps explain why according to the Saints, and also according to Holy Scripture, homosexual sin is worthy of capital punishment, or worse. The Old Testament (Leviticus 20:13), and the New Testament (Romans 1:32) both indicate that people practicing this sin are worthy of death. And this commandment was observed by the greatest Christian rulers. For example, in the life of the holy emperor St. Justinian, who was considered to be an exemplary ruler, we read the following: “Having discovered a number of homosexuals, conducting an investigation and identifying them, St. Justinian had some of them castrated with spears. And for others, he ordered that sharp sticks be shoved into their shameful orifices, forcing them to walk in a public procession through the agora. There were also many officials and senators, as well as many bishops, who had their property confiscated, and who were driven along the agora until they died a miserable death. The remaining people began to fear, and thus they became chaste." — St. Symeon Metaphrastes Logothete, Chronicle, Justinian, 9 Religious writer, St. Maximus the Greek, wrote that Christians are obliged not only to disdain this “godless filth” but also to “anathematize” those who do it and to "burn them with fire". In America mental illness was the label for homosecuals until 1977. These decrees do not contradict the Christian commandments of love and forgiveness. If we were to believe that homosexuals do not need to be punished, then it would also be necessary to advocate the abolition of punishments for other sins, such as murder, theft, etc. From the point of view of secular humanism, there is an essential difference between sodomy and murder: The murderer sins against another person, while sodomy does not formally go against someone's will, since he is engaged in sodomy by mutual consent. However, from a Christian point of view, his sin is even worse, since it defiles the image of God by which he was created. That is why St. John Chrysostom said: "I affirm that these [homosexuals] are even worse than murderers: since to die even is better than to live under such insolency. For the murderer separates the soul from the body, but this man ruins the soul along with the body." — St. John Chrysostom, 4th homily on the book of Romans Harsh words? For some of the Church's greatest Saints there are no words too harsh for this particular sin against God. In the Orthodox Church, St. John Chrysostom one of the best known and most well respected names. He lived more than 1600 years ago, during the 4th century after the birth of Christ. He preached hundreds of phenominal messages, many of which we still have with us today. Though his name was simply "John", his teaching was so highly esteemed that people started calling him "Chrysostom", which is Greek for "Golden Mouth". He preached in favor of many virtues, and he preached in opposition to many vices. To my knowledge, there are only two sins which St. John Chrysostom ever called "worse than murder" — These are abortion and homosexual activity. In his 4th sermon on the book of Romans, St. John says that life as a homosexual is worse than death. While a murderer only destroys a body, releasing the soul, a homosexual destroys both body and soul. He says that homosexual sex is far worse than fornication. Those who practice it lose their very manhood, and make themselves into animals more disgraceful than dogs. Here is a longer excerpt directly from this sermon by St. John: I affirm that these [homosexuals] are even worse than murderers: since to die even is better than to live under such insolency. For the murderer separates the soul from the body, but this man ruins the soul along with the body. And name what sin you will, none will you mention equal to this lawlessness. And if they that suffer such things perceived them, they would accept ten thousand deaths so they might not suffer this evil. For there is not, there surely is not, a more grievous evil than this insolent dealing. For if when discoursing about fornication Paul said, that Every sin which a man does is without the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What shall we say of this madness, which is so much worse than fornication as cannot even be expressed? For I should not only say that you have become a woman, but that you have lost your manhood, and hast neither changed into that nature nor kept that which you had, but you have been a traitor to both of them at once, and deserving both of men and women to be driven out and stoned, as having wronged either sex. And that you may learn what the real force of this is, if any one were to come and assure you that he would make you a dog instead of being a man, would you not flee from him as a plague? But, lo! You have not made yourself a dog out of a man, but an animal more disgraceful than this. When a person repents, God can forgive any sin. And when God forgives, we must forgive. We cannot hold a person's past against him. But when a person does not repent, and demands the "right" to live such a blatantly godless lifestyle, a Christian society has no legitimate reason to tolerate it. The unrepentant wicked must be driven out, lest society itself be infected and ultimately destroyed.

THERE ARE ACTUALLY CHRISTIANS IN THE AREAS NEAR ...

As we spoke to our contacts in Gaza Sunday afternoon (10/15/2023), we could hear the squealing of rockets and the percussive impacts of bombs going off all around them, every few seconds. The bombardment started in the middle of the night, at 10:00 PM local time in Gaza, while innocent civilians were sleeping. It has not let up at all. We can hear the sounds of children crying, as adults, who are terrified themselves, try to give them comfort. Our first contact, who wishes to remain anonymous as he fears for his safety, had to quickly end the call to seek a safer shelter, though, he tells us, there is no such thing as a safe shelter in Gaza tonight. No one there is sure if a bomb will land on them within their shelter. The bombing is relentless and is focused on residential areas, stores, and health facilities. Whether this is intentional or not, no one is certain, but the bombardment is ongoing and extreme. Our anonymous contact reports that “the [Israeli Defense Forces] are indiscriminately dropping bombs.” His Eminence, Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, who is in Gaza, told the Order on Sunday during a phone call that “[the IDF] are bombing the streets to weaken the foundations of housing developments so that the buildings will collapse.” People in desperate need of food and water are afraid to go out in search of what limited provisions still exist in Gaza for fear of bombs and collapsing buildings. Nowhere is safe, not even their homes and churches amidst what His Eminence calls “absolute, widespread devastation.” Many of those seeking refuge within Gaza have turned to St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church in the heart of the war zone in Gaza. St. Porphyrios is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world and the third-oldest church, built in the 3rd Century by St. Porphyrios of Gaza. The church is currently providing shelter, food, and activities for 500 people. Archbishop Alexios says that around 95% are Orthodox Christians – just over 40% of the Christian population of Gaza. The other 5% are comprised of other citizens of Gaza. His Eminence has opened the doors of the church to anyone in need of shelter in Gaza. He will not turn anyone away, as, he says, “We are all Children of Lord, and the church is a refuge for anyone in need.”

The church has a generator, but they are quickly running out of fuel to keep it running. They are running out of everything: Food, water, medical supplies, and fuel. People are sleeping on chairs, pews, and the ground because there are no mattresses available. The local mattress store and factory were destroyed by bombs. Children need toys. Many of the elderly have medical conditions and need treatment and medication. Yet, they are blockaded into the city that is being destroyed around them. Food, water, electricity, medicine, fuel, and even money are not being allowed in. His Eminence does not know how long their limited provisions will last. “It could be ten days. It could be more. It could be much less, depending on how many more people come.” At least 10% of the Christian population of Gaza have lost their homes so far. We have no reports on the roughly 60% of the community that is not currently seeking shelter at St. Porphyrios. We may not know the extent of the loss of life and property until this war ends. As we cannot get supplies or money to our suffering brothers and sisters yet, Archbishop Alexios tells us that the real need will be after the war, the worst he has ever seen in his quarter-century in Gaza, as his flock will need help rebuilding their homes. “This is our homeland,” he tells us. “We will not abandon it. Our fate is with Christ, and we accept whatever outcome He allows, whether we live or die.” St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza. Photo: alarabiya.net St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza. Photo: alarabiya.net Translating for the Order and His Eminence, a Palestinian clergyman said to Archbishop Alexios, “You are like Christ in the wilderness, with your people coming to you for sustenance, literally dividing the loaves to feed your people.” His Eminence replied, “I am not Christ. I am not a miracle worker. It is Christ who sustains us!” This is the hope that they have, and it is all they have. There are no NGOs, nonprofits, or even government officials left in Gaza, except the Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George the Great Martyr, who was finally able to connect with His Eminence just Sunday. None of the NGOs that were there were concerned with the Christians of Gaza. No news media has addressed the plight of the Christians of Gaza. His Eminence was feeling “alone and abandoned” by everyone but Christ. He told the Order that we are “the Light of Christ in Gaza.” In a very real way, we are all they have. His Eminence told the Order, “We are suffering. We need help, and there is no one coming to help us.” The Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George is with them and is preparing to help them. We are the voice for the voiceless, as they are cut off from the world by the war and the blockades. The Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George was established primarily to give aid to Christians in the Holy Land and the Greater Middle East. At no time has this been a more pressing and urgent mission. As of October 14, we have established a monetary campaign to allow us to give as much aid to these suffering servants of God as we can. Our preliminary goal, which we hope to meet by the end of November, is $1Millon. This is just a preliminary goal. It will barely make a dent in what these families need. We are urging all of our members to contribute, and we are asking the public to help as well. We would like to reach out to every Orthodox parish in the United States at a minimum, and welcome assistance from other churches, businesses, and organizations as well. The Grand Knight, Konstantine Pandolfi, head of the Order of Saint George, had the following message on Monday: No time has been so great or important than now to stand shoulder to shoulder in support of our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza. If you are truly a member of the Order of Saint George the Great Martyr please donate. Let your monetary donation speak to our cause and to what we stand for as an Orthodox Christian Order of knighthood. We are a “lifeline to the Christians in Gaza.” Even if you are not a member of the Order, please consider giving a monetary donation to support the oldest Christian community in the word, for these are our people! The Orthodox Christians in Gaza and throughout the Holy Land are keeping the light of Christ alive even until today in these darkest of times. His Eminence asks that we all keep the suffering Christians of Gaza in our prayers, “that the Lord is with us, has mercy on us, and gets us faithfully through this. Then, when this is over, we will all pray together, either here in St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church or in the eternal liturgy

Russian Author's Chilling Warning to the West (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

"The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness.... the tide of secularism that, from the late Middle Ages onward, has progressively inundated the West. This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without." This article from our archives was first published on RI in September 2022 Chris Banescu(The Voice Crying in the Wilderness) Sep 4, 2022 | 3000 words 10,008 Comments MORE:Culture People Trends History Originally appeared at: The Voice Crying in the Wilderness As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America, my adopted country, is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation. Under the decades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called “liberal” and “progressive” elites, God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions, to be replaced with all manner of delusion, perversion, corruption, violence, decadence, and insanity. It is no coincidence that as Marxist ideologies and secularist principles engulf the culture and pervert mainstream thinking, individual freedoms and liberties are rapidly disappearing. As a consequence, Americans feel increasingly more powerless and subjugated by some of the most radical and hypocritical, least democratic, and characterless individuals our society has ever produced. Those of us who have experienced and witnesses first-hand the atrocities and terror of communism understand fully why such evil takes root, how it grows and deceives, and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash on the innocent and the faithful. Godlessness is always the first step towards tyranny and oppression! Nobel laureate, Orthodox Christian author, and Russian dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag” address, given when he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May of 1983, explained how the Russian revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality an a long process of secularization which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs. He rightly concluded: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” The text of his Templeton Address is provided below. The parallels with the current crisis and moral decay in American society are striking and frightening. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear! * * * “Men Have Forgotten God” – The Templeton Address by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened. What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God. The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The first of these was World War I, and much of our present predicament can be traced back to it. It was a war (the memory of which seems to be fading) when Europe, bursting with health and abundance, fell into a rage of self-mutilation which could not but sap its strength for a century or more, and perhaps forever. The only possible explanation for this war is a mental eclipse among the leaders of Europe due to their lost awareness of a Supreme Power above them. Only a godless embitterment could have moved ostensibly Christian states to employ poison gas, a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity. The same kind of defect, the flaw of a consciousness lacking all divine dimension, was manifested after World War II when the West yielded to the satanic temptation of the “nuclear umbrella.” It was equivalent to saying: Let’s cast off worries, let’s free the younger generation from their duties and obligations, let’s make no effort to defend ourselves, to say nothing of defending others-let’s stop our ears to the groans emanating from the East, and let us live instead in the pursuit of happiness. If danger should threaten us, we shall be protected by the nuclear bomb; if not, then let the world burn in Hell for all we care. The pitifully helpless state to which the contemporary West has sunk is in large measure due to this fatal error: the belief that the defense of peace depends not on stout hearts and steadfast men, but solely on the nuclear bomb… Today’ s world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: “This is the Apocalypse!” Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it. Dostoevsky warned that “great events could come upon us and catch us intellectually unprepared.” This is precisely what has happened. And he predicted that “the world will be saved only after it has been possessed by the demon of evil.” Whether it really will be saved we shall have to wait and see: this will depend on our conscience, on our spiritual lucidity, on our individual and combined efforts in the face of catastrophic circumstances. But it has already come to pass that the demon of evil, like a whirlwind, triumphantly circles all five continents of the earth… By the time of the Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened. In its past, Russia did know a time when the social ideal was not fame, or riches, or material success, but a pious way of life. Russia was then steeped in an Orthodox Christianity which remained true to the Church of the first centuries. The Orthodoxy of that time knew how to safeguard its people under the yoke of a foreign occupation that lasted more than two centuries, while at the same time fending off iniquitous blows from the swords of Western crusaders. During those centuries the Orthodox faith in our country became part of the very pattern of thought and the personality of our people, the forms of daily life, the work calendar, the priorities in every undertaking, the organization of the week and of the year. Faith was the shaping and unifying force of the nation. But in the 17th century Russian Orthodoxy was gravely weakened by an internal schism. In the 18th, the country was shaken by Peter’s forcibly imposed transformations, which favored the economy, the state, and the military at the expense of the religious spirit and national life. And along with this lopsided Petrine enlightenment, Russia felt the first whiff of secularism; its subtle poisons permeated the educated classes in the course of the 19th century and opened the path to Marxism. By the time of the Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened. It was Dostoevsky, once again, who drew from the French Revolution and its seeming hatred of the Church the lesson that “revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.” That is absolutely true. But the world had never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized, and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot. The 1920’s in the USSR witnessed an uninterrupted procession of victims and martyrs amongst the Orthodox clergy. Two metropolitans were shot, one of whom, Veniamin of Petrograd, had been elected by the popular vote of his diocese. Patriarch Tikhon himself passed through the hands of the Cheka-GPU and then died under suspicious circumstances. Scores of archbishops and bishops perished. Tens of thousands of priests, monks, and nuns, pressured by the Chekists to renounce the Word of God, were tortured, shot in cellars, sent to camps, exiled to the desolate tundra of the far North, or turned out into the streets in their old age without food or shelter. All these Christian martyrs went unswervingly to their deaths for the faith; instances of apostasy were few and far between. For tens of millions of laymen access to the Church was blocked, and they were forbidden to bring up their children in the Faith: religious parents were wrenched from their children and thrown into prison, while the children were turned from the faith by threats and lies… For a short period of time, when he needed to gather strength for the struggle against Hitler, Stalin cynically adopted a friendly posture toward the Church. This deceptive game, continued in later years by Brezhnev with the help of showcase publications and other window dressing, has unfortunately tended to be taken at its face value in the West. Yet the tenacity with which hatred of religion is rooted in Communism may be judged by the example of their most liberal leader, Krushchev: for though he undertook a number of significant steps to extend freedom, Krushchev simultaneously rekindled the frenzied Leninist obsession with destroying religion. But there is something they did not expect: that in a land where churches have been leveled, where a triumphant atheism has rampaged uncontrolled for two-thirds of a century, where the clergy is utterly humiliated and deprived of all independence, where what remains of the Church as an institution is tolerated only for the sake of propaganda directed at the West, where even today people are sent to the labor camps for their faith, and where, within the camps themselves, those who gather to pray at Easter are clapped in punishment cells–they could not suppose that beneath this Communist steamroller the Christian tradition would survive in Russia. It is true that millions of our countrymen have been corrupted and spiritually devastated by an officially imposed atheism, yet there remain many millions of believers: it is only external pressures that keep them from speaking out, but, as is always the case in times of persecution and suffering, the awareness of God in my country has attained great acuteness and profundity. It is here that we see the dawn of hope: for no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity. The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness. It too has witnessed racking schisms, bloody religious wars, and rancor, to say nothing of the tide of secularism that, from the late Middle Ages onward, has progressively inundated the West. This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without. Imperceptibly, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “pursuit of happiness, “a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use, they have been replaced by political or class considerations of short lived value. It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system. Yet it is not considered shameful to make dally concessions to an integral evil. Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism. If a blasphemous film about Jesus is shown throughout the United States, reputedly one of the most religious countries in the world, or a major newspaper publishes a shameless caricature of the Virgin Mary, what further evidence of godlessness does one need? When external rights are completely unrestricted, why should one make an inner effort to restrain oneself from ignoble acts? Or why should one refrain from burning hatred, whatever its basis–race, class, or ideology? Such hatred is in fact corroding many hearts today. Atheist teachers in the West are bringing up a younger generation in a spirit of hatred of their own society. Amid all the vituperation we forget that the defects of capitalism represent the basic flaws of human nature, allowed unlimited freedom together with the various human rights; we forget that under Communism (and Communism is breathing down the neck of all moderate forms of socialism, which are unstable) the identical flaws run riot in any person with the least degree of authority; while everyone else under that system does indeed attain “equality”–the equality of destitute slaves. This eager fanning of the flames of hatred is becoming the mark of today’s free world. Indeed, the broader the personal freedoms are, the higher the level of prosperity or even of abundance–the more vehement, paradoxically, does this blind hatred become. The contemporary developed West thus demonstrates by its own example that human salvation can be found neither in the profusion of material goods nor in merely making money. This deliberately nurtured hatred then spreads to all that is alive, to life itself, to the world with its colors, sounds, and shapes, to the human body. The embittered art of the twentieth century is perishing as a result of this ugly hate, for art is fruitless without love. In the East art has collapsed because it has been knocked down and trampled upon, but in the West the fall has been voluntary, a decline into a contrived and pretentious quest where the artist, instead of attempting to reveal the divine plan, tries to put himself in the place of God. Here again we witness the single outcome of a worldwide process, with East and West yielding the same results, and once again for the same reason: Men have forgotten God. With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the heart’s preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset · by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods, and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily. All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today’s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain. The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task. We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society. This is especially true of a free and highly developed society, for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves, of our own free will. We ourselves, in our daily unthinking selfishness, are pulling tight that noose… Our life consists not in the pursuit of material success but in the quest for worthy spiritual growth. Our entire earthly existence is but a transitional stage in the movement toward something higher, and we must not stumble and fall, nor must we linger fruitlessly on one rung of the ladder. Material laws alone do not explain our life or give it direction. The laws of physics and physiology will never reveal the indisputable manner in which the Creator constantly, day in and day out, participates in the life of each of us, unfailingly granting us the energy of existence; when this assistance leaves us, we die. And in the life of our entire planet, the Divine Spirit surely moves with no less force: this we must grasp in our dark and terrible hour. To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God, which we have so rashly and self-confidently spurned. Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our bands be directed to setting them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing. Our five continents are caught in a whirlwind. But it is during trials such as these that the highest gifts of the human spirit are manifested. If we perish and lose this world, the fault will be ours alone. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”.

The Bible instructs Christians to share the Good News

The Bible instructs Christians to share the Good News with everyone. The Great Commission isn't a choice – it's a command. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16) As Americans, our religious liberty safeguards our duty to tell others about Jesus. Yet right now, we represent clients whose religious liberty is in jeopardy. A senior citizen complex banned its residents from meeting for a weekly Bible study. One of the residents reached out to us for help. A public school suspended a boy for sharing his faith with his classmates. The boy's family contacted us for legal help. Both cases involve the unconstitutional targeting of Christians. Please pray for our lawyers as they fight for these believers' religious liberty. Also, pray for our clients. May they never lose their zeal for sharing their faith. To see more ways to pray for the ACLJ, please download our prayer guide. Thank you so much for praying for the success of our mission. It's already making a huge difference. The Great Commission isn't a choice – it's a command. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16) As Americans, our religious liberty safeguards our duty to tell others about Jesus. Yet right now, we represent clients whose religious liberty is in jeopardy. A senior citizen complex banned its residents from meeting for a weekly Bible study. One of the residents reached out to us for help. A public school suspended a boy for sharing his faith with his classmates. The boy's family contacted us for legal help. Both cases involve the unconstitutional targeting of Christians. Please pray for our lawyers as they fight for these believers' religious liberty. Also, pray for our clients. May they never lose their zeal for sharing their faith. To see more ways to pray for the ACLJ, please download our prayer guide. Thank you so much for praying for the success of our mission. It's already making a huge difference.