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July 24, 2009

Russian president supports religion in schools, military

by Sophia Kishkovsky
Ecumenical News International

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has given the green light to efforts by Russia’s religious leaders to introduce religion to schools and to offer chaplains to the military, saying this will strengthen Russia morally and spiritually.

“Their implementation will help strengthen the moral and spiritual foundations of our society, as well as strengthen the unity of our multiethnic and multi-religious country,” he said at a July 21 meeting with religious leaders at official country residence in Barvikha, near Moscow.
 
Medvedev was responding to an appeal by leaders of Russia’s Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Orthodox communities, which are officially referred to as the country’s “traditional” religions.

There has been debate for several years about the teaching of a course called “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” in schools. Critics said it would impose Russian Orthodoxy on secular schoolchildren and that it is inappropriate for a country with several other religions.

Earlier in July, Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has the most adherents in the country, formed an editorial board to write a new textbook for the course.

Medvedev said religion classes would be tested in 18 regions across Russia, but stressed that they must take into account the country’s multi-religious character.

“Students and their parents will have to choose the subject of study,” said Medvedev, the official presidential Web site, reported. “Firstly it could be the fundamentals of Orthodox culture, the fundamentals of Muslim culture, the fundamentals of Judaism or Buddhism.”

Students could also choose a “general course on the history of our country’s traditional major faiths,” he said, or a course on the “secular basis of ethics.” All of the courses, he said, would be taught by secular teachers.

The Patriarch said the voluntary nature of the courses is essential to their success. “Experience shows that only the voluntary comprehension of such religious ideas can be useful to people,” Kirill said, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Rabbi Berl Lazar, one of the chief rabbis of Russia, said at the meeting: “There is mutual respect among the traditional religions. The main thing now is to use this understanding to the full extent, so that children in school will know that Russia is a multiethnic country, and that each ethnic group has its own traditions.”

President Medvedev said the program could extend to the entire country by 2012 and the pilot project is to begin in early 2010.

Russian religious leaders have said the course could help Russian youth find their way in the post-Soviet ideological vacuum. Military chaplains are also seen as a way of addressing the problems of morale in Russia’s armed forces. The defense ministry said after the meeting between Medvedev and the religious leaders that the introduction of chaplains would begin in 2009 at several of Russia’s foreign military bases.

Medvedev has held several meetings with various religious leaders in the past week. On July 15 he became the first Russian head of state to visit Moscow’s main mosque, at which he praised the country’s Muslim leaders for their role in fighting extremism.