Fertile conflict

Church of the Archangel Michael, Sorochinsk, April 2011. At top right: Vitaly Adamenko.

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Church of the Archangel Michael

"The churches in the West reflect Western culture," said the priest at the Church of the Archangel Michael in Sorochinsk, Russia, speaking to us visitors. (I'm paraphrasing from memory.) "Look at the architecture—all straight lines and sharp angles." It's a culture of hard and fast judgment, he continued. "In contrast, look at our church. Round and organic—the culture of mercy."

It was a beautiful theory, and it reminded me of a Russian immigrant in the USA whom we know, who had once been a Baptist in Russia but had gone over to the Russian Orthodox Church. She explained to us that the Baptists of her youth were always in each other's business, gossiping and judging, but the Orthodox feasted and drank and enjoyed life.

Of course, being from the West and therefore predisposed to make sharp judgments, I couldn't help remembering our immigrant friend and the Sorochinsk priest the following year, when the Pussy Riot women were sentenced to prison. At that very moment, when mercy would have had a huge evangelistic impact, the church hierarchy chose to withhold it.

(And whatever you do, don't hunt Pokémon in church!)

A few minutes later in the conversation at Archangel Michael's church, we were talking about the church's struggle to attract young people. Only a small proportion of the city's adults are encouraging their young people to take an interest in spiritual values. What can the church do to engage with those who need her message of love and mercy? Later, I reflected that we had drifted into a theme where a hard distinction between East and West, between mercy and judgment, seemed unnecessary. We were talking about a problem common to much of the world.

Fr. Anatoly, Sukhorechka, Russia.

Sukhorechka.

I wish I were able to go back and talk to that priest in Sorochinsk, and indeed the equally approachable and thoughtful priest we met in nearby Sukhorechka that same month. Much less likely would be a chance to talk to the most reverend hierarchs at the top of their system, to ask them whether they agree that Eastern spirituality is a superior expression of Gospel mercy and grace. Where, then, might that superior Eastern mercy be right now for the Ukrainians they were claiming to liberate? 

Back in October 2007 in Elektrostal, I was teaching an American Studies class, and I suggested trying to analyze history by looking at a specific conflict: the conflict between idealists and cynics (or, more gently, idealists and pragmatists). In one season, history seems to be driven by the passions of people who want something better. In the next season, the sensible people take over, the ones who will do what it takes to pay the bills, or to preserve their privileges. I asked the students to consider colonialism, the U.S. Revolution, the war against America's First Nations; the struggle for a constitution and bill of rights; slavery and the Civil War; the Gilded Age and the Progressives; Hoover's faith in business and Roosevelt's faith in government; and so on. 

Without pushing it too far, I also invited them to look at their own history and trace the ebbs and flows of idealism. There is no simple correlation between idealism and mercy, say, or pragmatism and cruelty. Idealists can be bloodthirsty, and pragmatists can show great kindness. Socialism in theory is the very essence of justice, of an ideal balance of individual and community interests; in practice, systems claiming that label have butchered millions.

In the current dramatic polarization of U.S. society, I'm so tempted to line up idealists like me with all those who are resisting "christian" nationalism and the coronation of the former president, and who uphold the values of kindness and interdependence. It doesn't help matters that some of our self-declared opponents describe us in vicious terms as seeking to take away their guns and Bibles as we force everyone into socialist reeducation camps where the only curriculum is critical race theory. Even though this correlation of "progressive = angelic" and "pro-Trump = amoral and cynical" may be emotionally satisfying to me, it offers no way out.

What if we could reframe the conversation the way we spontaneously did in Sorochinsk? Sure, the priest assumed that Eastern Orthodox Christianity was superior to the Western variety we visitors represented, but as soon as we got down to actual community problems, the conversation took off. The challenge I'd like to give those who represent one or another form of MAGA is this: how do you propose to bless our community and nation? Whom does that blessing include, whom do you propose to leave out? And it would be entirely fair if they turned around and asked me the same question. Even if our answers clash at first, it would be a conflict worth having.

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Before our Quaker yearly meeting split over the issue of same-sex relationships, we had a ready-made arena for the idealists (as I dare label those of us who walked the plank) and the hard-liners to challenge each other—or, in other words, to keep each other honest. I love our new idealistic yearly meeting, but I also miss that challenge.

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Related:

• April Fool
• Cynicism and truth (be sure to read comments)
• Grace and mercy at the Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir

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How recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions portend a "HUGE" legal rewrite on religion in public life.

The legal threats facing Ilya Yashin, one of Russia's few remaining prominent opposition politicians.

Recommended: Broken Ties, a documentary by Andrei Loshak on the divisive impact of the war in Ukraine on Russian families.

The voice of another idealist, Frida Berrigan, on what she still loves about her embattled nation.... (Libraries get a special tribute from her.)

A YouTube video by Scott Manley explains why, in his view, the James Watt Space Telescope's first images are so promising.

Part Eight of Becky Ankeny's series, "Jesus and His Bible": "Why do you call me good?"

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Junior Wells pays tribute to Junior Parker: "Mystery Train."