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There definitely were periods of times when religion was illegal, my great grandfather was placed in the gulag for it, but yes after WWII it became legal again and people went to church, but religious people were discriminated against and laughed at and had less job and educational opportunities.
Define "religious people" pls.
The attitude of Russians towards religion ( during the later period of Soviet times at least) was not much different from their Western European counterparts. That means belief in God was a personal matter, but on Easter for example ( one of the major traditional religious celebrations) the churches were full and no one was persecuted. ( That is if we are talking about Russian Orthodox Church, not some foreign denominations.) And of course, Orthodox priests had to cooperate with the KGB - that was given, because Soviet gov. didn't want any anti-Soviet ideas to be bred under the guise of Christian religion ( same goes to Islam and Judaism, but the latter was a somewhat different story.) The latest revival of religion ( Orthodoxy in particular) has been done with encouragement of post-Soviet government ( as in "we back you, you back us,") as it used to be for centuries in pre-revolutionary Russia. Of course this in turn brought not all-that-desirable revival of Islam at the same time, but what do you do.
There definitely were periods of times when religion was illegal, my great grandfather was placed in the gulag for it, but yes after WWII it became legal again and people went to church, but religious people were discriminated against and laughed at and had less job and educational opportunities.
I suspect that religious people are regarded as weird and are joked about in many European countries today.
I suspect that religious people are regarded as weird and are joked about in many European countries today.
During the last 2000 years....
There were always popular prejudices against people that went to mass daily. They were always mocked even when many times they were very powerful. There were many despective words for them, "meapilas", "atacandiles", etc.
The priest was always a suspect of being the father any newborn of a very "devout" woman, and there was "the son of the priest", or "the woman of the priest" in every town.
But it was rather popular humour that dates back to the middle ages, except during the civil war here when priests and "devouts" were killed, but that was 80 years ago.
Now, it's just folklore...people that go to church everyday and are very devout have the reputation of being awful people, very cruel human beings.
Sources like that are a desperate attempt of far-righters from western Europe to portray the East as "backwards and religious". Bulgaria for example was recently ranked according to a map someone posted here as one of the least religious places in europe surpassed only by Sweden, France and the Czech Republic. Yet Bulgaria was less religious than Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Netherlands etc.
Also, it wasn't illegal to be religious in "comic times" like the poster above said. It had been just looked down-upon. Stalin particularly hated religion but his rule was only till the mid 50s.
Sure western and northern European countries like France, the Netherlands, England and Sweden are becoming Godless.. But in eastern and Central European countries like Hungary and Russia, people are building new churches! After the collapse of the Soviet Union, people feel more comfortable to go back to faith... What do you think?
Yes, and oddly enough this upswing is highly nationalistic and opposed to human rights most of us take for granted, Hungary and Russia being the two worst examples. Ever hear of Vladimir Putin, communist turned christian?
I respect and applaud the movement of Christianity in Europe and even the Middle East, but what really
concerns me is that "organized religion" has had an impact in PARTIALLY indoctrinating people seeking a direct relationship with Jesus Christ into religions historically drenched in non biblical doctrines that are contrived, manufactured and authored by men "thinking too much". It is scary and some have mediators icons, men with so-called epiphanies where THEY are the origins of faith substituting Yeshua!! The well intended faiths running around corrupting scripture to naive potential saints in the name of Christianity and their perverted doctrines. It's troubling ,but if they believe in the son of man God may judge their heart and toss out the blasphemies, interpretation errors and pagan ceremonies found in some.
Scripture was corrupt from the beginning. How silly.
I don't view it as a great thing, simply because this is often tied with the rise of far right groups and nationalism. Religion is being exploited in the same way it is in several Islamic countries. The truth is that things should be as a famous politician like Cavour said:"Free religion in free state", there should be no mentions to any religion in the constitution of any country.
What's happening in Croatia and Hungary is clearly a sign of how things are going backwards
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